Authors: Tahir Shah
Through my research, I have found myself wondering whether the Spanish chroniclers, or their assistants, might have tried
ayahuasca
. I think it’s more likely that a general devolution and mis-translation took place, occurring over centuries. Their research-gathering process must have led to gross inaccuracies, especially with the endless rewritten drafts and so forth. Perhaps an informant had told the chroniclers’ assistants that there existed people who could actually fly, just as I was told by the shaman Alberto that Ramon could fly through the air. The chroniclers, like me, may well have not believed the claim. To the informant there could have been little or no difference between true and allegorical flight. After all, historically, flight meant different things to different people.
Ayahuasca
is one of the best known hallucinogenic compounds used by shamans in the New World. It is, without doubt, one of the strongest and easiest ways to embark on a spiritual journey. Plotkin (1993) has made note of the ‘giant leap’ between chewing an individual leaf, and mixing it with one or more leaves to alter the specific effect. The scope for a shaman to manipulate the range of visions, by altering the combination of admixtures, is another reason for its popularity. Visions depend on the chemicals present in the
ayahuasca
. Common admixtures include
chacruna [Psychotiia viridis)}
Lantana flowers
[Lantana camara), bobinsana
, and tobacco.
Some people experience bright colours and frequently gain a strong sensation of flight or lévitation. Many of the hallucinogenic sensations incorporate a sense of the mind being detached from the body. Some see wild creatures, or sense themselves transforming into a particular animal. Others see places or people they are acquainted with at a great distance; others see their own death, or are taken back in time. Some users have mentioned seeing places or people which they have not encountered before, but which do exist. After viewing a place, or ‘meeting a person in their vision’, they encounter it for real soon after. We must, of course, remain sceptical with regard to such assertions.
Manuel Villvicencio (1858), the Ecuadorian geographer, was the first ‘outsider’ to study
ayahuasca
and to publish a report on it. He speaks of the ability to give the sensation of flight, of having been ‘lifted into the air’, saying, ‘I’ve experienced dizziness, then an aerial journey in which I recall perceiving the most gorgeous views, great cities, lofty towers, beautiful parks, and other extremely attractive objects.’ Harner (1973) writes of the Conibo-Shipo Indians of Peru’s Ucayali River, who take
ayahuasca
before turning into a bird and flying away with the intention of killing a victim. Before committing the murder they return to human form. Harner himself wrote of meeting ‘bird-headed’ people when under the influence of
ayahuasca
.
The Chilean psychologist Claudio Nar an jo conducted exhaustive trials with
ayahuasca
. The speed of the flight in his studies seems important. A third of the patients reported the sensation of flight and soaring. One man said he had the sensation of growing wings; and instead of fear, he sensed the freedom which goes with flight. He was no longer ‘imprisoned to the ground’.
The English botanist Richard Spruce was, like Villvicencio, one of the first scholars to study and identify
Banisteriopsis caapi
. His important two volume work,
Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and the Andes
(edited by Alfred Russel Wallace and not published until 1908), includes Spruce’s initial report on
ayahuasca
, written for Geographical Magazine in 1853. He explained how a cold infusion was made, saying, ‘the taste is bitter and disagreeable’. He also remarked that just two minutes or less after taking the brew the ‘effects begin to be apparent. The Indian turns deadly pale, trembles in every limb, and horror is in his aspect’. This speed seems implausible. Perhaps Spruce had been witnessing
ayahuasca
mixed with
datura
or another strong admixture, which may have brought on such fast effects.
Spruce goes on to explain how he guzzled down half a dose of
caapi
, when the chief eagerly sent over a large calabash of
caxiri
(madiocca beer, similar to
masato)
of which he took a copious draught: ‘as I knew the mode of its preparation, it was gulped down with secret loathing.’ Then immediately after this ‘a cigar two feet long and as thick as a wrist’ was given to him, a confirmed non-smoker. Spruce never completed the
ayahuasca
ceremony though, because he had only taken half a dose. He says that, in May 1857, he reached the ‘great forest of Canelos, at the foot of the volcano Coptopaxi’, where he saw
caapi
again.
Spruce admitted that ‘I regret being unable to tell what is the peculiar narcotic principle that produces such extraordinary effects. Opium and hemp are its most obvious analogues, but
caapi
would seem to operate on the nervous system far more rapidly and violently than either.’
Ayahuasca
is true to the ancient systems of shamanic healing, in that one preparation can treat virtually every ailment. In many cases, the
ayahuasquero
will take the
ayahuasca
himself, when searching in the other world for a solution to the patient’s problem. Illness is not seen merely as the result of a medical disease, but it is the result of a curse or some supernatural affliction.
Dobkin de Rios (1972) shows surprise that traditional societies use
ayahuasca
or other hallucinogens for a wide range of situations (eg for healing, religious practices, black and white magic, pleasure and initiation). In my view, there are no boundaries between magic, illness and other parts of community life: all these areas are one and the same in a primitive society.
Some anthropologists have noted the limiting of
ayahuasca
rites to the male members of society. One report states: ‘ego [ie
ayahuasca]
is the only mind enhancing concoction that has been absolutely taboo on occasion for women. When a trumpet signalled the start of the puberty rites for the Yurupari, female members of the tribe fled into the jungle to avoid a death penalty for their seeing the ceremony or even the drink. In other regions it was thought that if a woman set eyes on prepared
caapi
, it would be rendered ‘ineffective’. My own experiences are quite the opposite of this. Women know all about the preparation and partake freely. The prohibition may have surrounded male puberty rites rather than the brew.
The use of
ayahuasca
in cities and urban areas across Latin America is increasing rapidly. A number of religious sects have incorporated the hallucinogen into their systems of belief. Many of these were established initially in Brazil. The most recognised is currently the Santo Daime faith; others are the Barquinia and Hoasca religions. As with Santo Daime, other
ayahuasca
faiths have developed a myth which explains how they came to understand the hallucinogenic brew.
In using
ayahuasca
, the shaman will tend to say that the vine’s spirit draws their attention to its medicinal and healing uses. I have been told that the trees whispered, telling the
curandero
how to prepare the drink.
Ayahuasqueros
believe that it’s not the plant which actually heals, but the spirit of the plant. Through his songs, known as
icaros
, the shaman invokes the spirit of the vine, requesting that it heal or provide a solution.
Although
Banisteriopsis caapi
is a plant of the New World, it has been likened to Syrian rue
[Peganum harmala)
, which grows throughout western Asia. Known for millennia for its powers, its seeds also contain harmaline. There is evidence that DMT-rich plant admixtures were added to the Syrian rue brews, in antiquity, to bring on the hallucinogenic effects.
Rudgley (1998) notes that Syrian rue’s seeds, which produce a rich red dye, may have been used to dye carpets in Persia. He wonders whether the geometric designs of the carpets might have been inspired by the hallucinogenic content of Syrian rue (harmine and harmaline). He also points to the legends of ‘flying carpets’, questioning whether the link can be taken further. Textile designs have undoubtedly been inspired in various cultures by hallucinogens. The ecstatic representations of shamans and Birdmen in the Paracas and Nazcan textiles are one example of this. Andrew Sherratt (1995) has also queried whether the patterns of central Asian carpets and the idea of flying carpets might have derived from hallucinatory visions.
There is nothing new about hallucinogenic preparations.
Ayahuasca
is one of many which has been employed for millennia. Devereux (1997) talks of the discovery of a cave in northern Iraq, in 1975, containing a Neanderthal skeleton. Along with the 60,000 year old remains were ‘clusters of pollen from 8 kinds of flowering plants’. At first they were thought to be funeral offerings, but later it was realised that they - eg ephedra - were known nerve stimulants and had been used in herbal curing in the region millennia before. Both Hofmann and Schultes have discussed the role of hallucinogens in the ancient Old World, from a cultural point of view. Despite this, the number of known Old World hallucinogens is limited when compared to those in the New World.
Schultes (1992) says that there are about 150 species of plant hallucinogens. 130 of them are located in the New World, especially in its tropical region. Some experts contend that they have played a key role in the development of New World religious beliefs.
Like the Incas, the Aztecs made use of numerous hallucinogenic plants. Not all provided visions. For example, the shrub Sinicuichi
[Heimia salicifolia)
gives intense auditory hallucinations. Sounds are distorted or seem far away. The plant has also been credited with supernatural powers. The Sinicuichi bird appeared on the Aztec statue depicting Xochipilli, the Prince of flowers.
The Aztecs were also known to use a certain ‘round pellet’ to achieve states of ecstasy. They called it
Ololiuhqui
, and attributed to it divine status. It was addressed with songs and the seeds were put on altars, and made into drinks. Hallucinations and delirium followed. The Spanish tried to prohibit the use of the plant, and largely succeeded in doing so. Schultes identified the seeds as Morning Glory (the species
Rivea corymbosa)
. They have been found to contain a form of LSD.
Psychedelic mushrooms were also used by the Aztecs.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
records that the Spanish priest-historian Bernardino de Sahagun wrote of his disapproval of the cultic use of mushrooms in Mexico in the 16th century. There were reports of widespread use of hallucinogenic mushrooms during the coronation of the Aztec Emperor Montezuma in 1502.
Psychoactive snuff was thought to be the first native American hallucinogen discovered by the Spanish. Snuff has been found in 1200 year old mummy bundles in the New World. Virola snuff is made from the inner bark of various species of the
virola
tree, in the western Amazon. Its snuff contains trypamines, and is similar to nutmeg. The bark is stripped off the tree trunk in the early morning. (The resin exuded from the inner surface of the bark can be used as an arrow poison.) The exudate is a resin which darkens when exposed to the air, becoming reddish-brown. The bark is cut into slivers and is boiled for an hour or more, creating a paste. Some tribes ingest the
virola
orally, but most take it as snuff.
The fly agaric mushroom
[Amanita muscaria)
, with its bright red cap, is another strong hallucinogen. It has been used by the nomads of Siberia for millennia, and leads to potent hallucinogens, as well as increasing strength and endurance. It may be the basis of the mysterious beverage
Soma
, drunk in antiquity in south Asia. Others think it may be the secret of the
Hoama
elixir of the Zoroastrians. Fly agaric is thought by some scientists to be the answer to the petroglyphs on the north-east coast of Siberia, found in the 1960s. They show humans and ‘human-mushroom’ figures with mushrooms growing out of their heads. Lapps in Scandinavia’s Arctic Circle have traditionally used hallucinogenic mushrooms as well.
One remarkable quality is that the active ingredient in fly agaric passes through the bladder into the urine. Plotkin (1993) says that in 4000 BC the Aryans in southern Iran developed a ritualist fraternity based on the hallucinogen. They believed, as some Siberian peoples still do, that it would transport their souls into another realm. Two thousand years on, when the Aryans’ descendants invaded northern India, they took the mushrooms with them. Once again the mushroom cult came to prominence and burgeoned in India. Various ancient Hindu texts, such as the Rigveda, give mention to the hallucinogenic properties of fly agaric.
For as long as they have been known, the West’s establishment has persecuted the use of mind altering flora. Witches in Europe were using various solanaceous plant-hallucinogens like
datura
in the 16th and 17th centuries. Just as the Spanish Conquistadors persecuted the Incas and native peoples for their plant hallucinogen uses, the European Christians (Spaniards included) persecuted the medieval witches in Europe and in North America, because these people had visions which (a) couldn’t be explained and (b) were at odds with Christian dogma.
We tend to overlook the extraordinary knowledge and experience that ancient society relied on. Much of this must have been deduced through experiences with hallucinogenic flora. Their encounters, which are so distinctly out of the ordinary, are absorbed into their lore and myth, often with the catalyst - the psychotropic substance -being lost in the process. Hallucinatory substances may well have contributed to the epic and fantastic tales extant in religious and cultural texts.
Ethnobotanists have suggested that the reason jungle plants have had to develop such an astonishing array of defences from fauna, is that they exist in highly threatening environments. Predators come in all forms: fungi, mammals, insects and viral diseases. Thousands of years of evolution has provided plants with extraordinary characteristics, none more so than the hallucinatory flora.