shamanism FAQ

Psychedelic (Greek root): psyche - mind or soul; delic - to make visible

Dope and Divinity
bemushröömed

Salvia divinorum is a plant that's mainly found in Mexico. It is an intense psychedelic that takes your consciousness to other places, like inanimate objects. It is very interesting.

Mushrooms play a huge part in the history of our world. We have been using them for countless thousands of years for food and for their psychedelic purposes.

The mushroom shown to the right is the Amanita muscaria, a very popular fungus you see everywhere, especially the Christmas and New Year holidays. The relationship between the Amanita muscaria and Christmas alone is close and not very well known.

DMT, or N,N-dimethyltryptamine, is the most powerful psychedelic known to man. It occurs naturally in our brain. The brain gets flooded with DMT at birth and at death. This is one reason why it is considered the spirit molecule.

Besides our brain, DMT occurs in many plants and animals as well. It can be extracted from various plants. One thing a shaman makes is Ayahuasca. It is a brew that has DMT and gives the imbiber a more mellow, but much longer experience, unlike pure smoked DMT, which is extremely intense but only lasts ten to fifteen minutes.

Cannabis is one of the most widely used plants in the world. It was also one of the first plants used and cultivated by humans. It is extremely versatile and can grow almost anywhere in the world. People have been using it for thousands of years for its medicinal and consciousness-altering properties.

Cannabis, along with hemp, has innumerable uses. My page that discusses cannabis can be found here. The page is under the Hidden Agendas section of my site, but it belongs here as well.

Datura is a dangerous plant. Its flowers are beautiful and its smell is intoxicating but it will put you in a state of delirium for days if you ingest too much. If you eat way too much it can be fatal.

Witches have been known to use this plant in their brews. They use this plant along with others such as belladonna, mandrake, henbane, and hemlock. They would use it for the same reason the shamans and priests/priestesses do, which is to enter a psychedelic state and find answers among other things. The image of the broomstick and cauldron probably came from stirring their brew with the broomstick in their cauldron. The image of flying around on the broomstick probably comes from the hallucinogenic state they would enter and they thought they were flying.

September 27, 2004
I almost couldn't believe it when I read this. They're talking about making prescription drugs out of psilocybin and MDMA! Also that people with obsessive-compulsive disorder can benefit from psilocybin. I knew there was a reason I like it. :)
Long Trip for Psychedelic Drugs