Posted on 12/12/2004 6:31:17 PM PST by Coleus
They do not take kindly to thrill seeking white people.
Dave's not here.
Needs more Wild Turkey...
It's called Ayahuasca and it's in these days. No. I haven't taken it. I just read Sting's autobiography and starts off with him and his wife in Brazil taking Ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca.com is a library and community collectively researching the botany, ethnography, mythology, arts, music, therapeutic mechanisms, and phenomenology of the Amazonian Spirit Vine.
Ayahuasca (aya-soul/dead, wasca-vine/rope) or Yage (ya-hey) are native Amazonian names for the jungle vine Banisteriopsis Caapi, and the medicinal tea prepared from it.
The Banisteriopsis vine is a Malpighiaceous jungle liana found in the tropical regions of Peru, Bolivia, Panama, Brazil, the Orinoco of Venezuela and the Pacific Coast of Colombia/Ecuador. The vine constitutes the common base ingredient of the Ayahuasca tea which is used widely used throughout indigenous Amazonia to enable access to the visionary or mythological world that provides revelation, healing, and ontological security (Dobkin De rios 1972, Grof 1994, Andritsky 1984).
To learn more about Ayahuasca, read the 'Spirit Vine' FAQ, visit the forums, and browse the various sections of the site via the menubar to the left.
I know of a teacher who taught her students to get high by mixing mullin weed and sugar then smoking it!
It really is used for religious purposes and there really is a history going way back. >>>
It doesn't make it right.
Coleus, what makes it wrong?
BTW, did you pick your screen name knowing it was a hallucinogenic plant?
Is it? I never smoked it.
I think any drug use which alters the mind is wrong.
Well, I can respect your opinion.
There are many religions, including Christianity, that use mind-altering substances as part of their sacrament, though, and I see these South Americans as doing just that.
I just can't understand why someone needs to be "high" in order to pray for God. Most of us do fine without anything. Some actually fast before going to church.
Alcohol alters the mind, so do antidepressents.
I never tried hosaca and don't need to. These people, if I understand correctly, feel that God gave them the plants and God helps them communicate with Him through using the plants. If I had grown up in that culture, I probably would accept it as I now accept transmogrification and Communion wine.
These guys are not party animals; their use of the stuff is in a limited, specific, narrow way that I don't think crosses the line into "getting high" or "abuse". They use it as a sacrament and an adjunct to understanding trancendant issues. I can't see making them change their established religious practices to stay out of jail and keep their property (or be forced to leave the USA, because God showed them a particular way to worship).
We probably won't see eye to eye on this, Coleus, but that's OK, it's a big world (and thank God for Free Republic, where we can discuss stuff like this).
Must be what Dr. Dean was in to during the campaign.
You should bother to inform yourself about this one a bit more.
My limited grasp of Spanish and Portuguese makes that name lool likd "Center of the Beneficent Spirit (something) of grass". Sounds like it's a group of pot-heads.
Very interesting article, thank you for digging it out.
It does not say that hosaca induces schizophrenia, though; it does say that they find DMT in the urine of people who drink DMT beverages, and that they find it in schizophrenic urine also. You'd expect to find DMT in the urine of a hosaca drinker, he drank DMT. They are researching a theory that schizophrenia is caused by the brain demethylating an existing brain chemical into DMT, hence their interest in hosaca and ayahuasca. They looked for other chemicals in the hosaca drinker's urine, and either looked or planned to look for the same stuff in the schizophrenic's urine. It was surprising to see a reduction in serotonin levels, I would have expected an increase in serotonin when ingesting beta carbolines and substituted tryptamines.
The article mentions the transient nature of the experience- "rapid onset and brief duration", whereas schizophrenia as mentioned is persistent.
The psycomimetetic theory of hallucinogens like DMT has been dropped from most research, mostly because the hallucinogens' effect does not mimic psychosis, nor does the intoxicated state resemble schizophrenia. This research was performed before 1968, mostly; it is illegal to research it in the USA, which is probably why the work was performed in Argentina.
www.maps.org is a good source for current research.
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