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From Opium to Saffron, the Ancients Knew a Thing or Two About Drugs
- dr_dshiv 2y agoI love this topic. I helped with a book chapter about psychedelics in human cultural history. We discuss the 118 mushroom-shaped carvings on Stonehenge (more likely to be amanita muscaria than psilocybin mushrooms). Another story we explore is the chemical evidence for cannabis use by ancient Judaism. The holy anointing oil given to Moses in exodus may have contained cannabis! https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363178879_The_Enigma_of_Mind_A_Theory_of_Evolution_and_Conscious_Experience/link/636a64ee2f4bca7fd040ca70/download?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIn19 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363178879_The_Enigm...
- throwup238 2y ago> The holy anointing oil given to Moses in exodus may have contained cannabis! Human history makes a lot more coherent sense if the people in power were high or tripping balls all the time.
- dyauspitr 2y agoSurprisingly the main groups that didn’t trip balls for most of what we know are the sub Saharan Africans, the native aboriginal Australians and Native Americans for the most part except in the south. There must be something about sedentary civilization that makes tripping balls necessary.
- NewJazz 2y agoBoredom lol? Deep knowledge of plants and fungi?
- woleium 2y agoLess boredom, more the time to sit and study in a place where compounding variables are more constrained.
- GuB-42 2y agoAlso, maybe the availability of drugs. If there are no safe substances available in the area and limited trade options, then people won't trip balls, or they will trip balls and die, which is not very encouraging.
- wisty 2y agoPituri is a native Australian tobacco relative (the only widely used old world tobacco) and was a hallucination in high doses.
- defrost 2y agoSeasonal psilocybin mushroom usage in the south west corner of Australia predates european settlement. To this day, it persists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5YiszoAvOk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5YiszoAvOk
- Perenti 2y agoSome Banjulung people also respect shrooms traditionally. There as psilocybin mushrooms through most of the non-arid parts of Australia.
- dr_dshiv 2y agoGreat documentary on 80s magic mushroom users in Australia. Worth a watch. Nothing on indigenous use, though…
- defrost 2y agoIt's purely contemporary, well, Acceptable in the 80s ... anything else yu'd have touch grass with the pelopolees
- Perenti 2y agoIndigenous Australians really really like drugs. There are rules about how often you can trip, and with whom, but there are magic shrooms over much of Oz, as well as plants with opioid-like effects, such as pituri.
- throwup238 2y agoIboga and datura in Subsaharan Africa, too.
- canadianfella 2y ago[dead]
- campers 2y agoThis is a great read https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331622659_Getting_high_with_the_most_high_Entheogens_in_the_Old_Testament https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331622659_Getting_h... > This article collects evidence from psychopharmacology, scripture, and archeology to explore several preparations for consumption described in the Old Testament: Manna, Showbread, the Holy Ointment, and the Tabernacle Incense. The Ointment and the Incense are herbal preparations used by the priestly caste to facilitate a direct experience of the Israelite God. A wide variety of psychoactive components are found in these preparations, including GABA-receptor agonists and modulators, opioid receptor agonists, and other agents. They are normally broken down by the body’s enzymes, and therefore orally inactive, but the Holy Ointment also contains inhibitors specific to the enzymes in question. The preparations indicate that the ancient Israelites had a profound understanding of synergism, and the way they are consumed and the taboos around them are highly suggestive of their use as psychoactive agents.
- ithkuil 2y agoGood read is The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51174256-the-immortality-key https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51174256-the-immortality... Good interview with the author: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/346-the-best-kept-secret-in-history https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/346...