Comments on: Ancient Andean Hallucinogens

By: Alvaro Saurus

Alvaro Saurus — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:58:40 +0000

I have heard that in native communities, for instance the shipibo conibos of Pucallpa, gave traditionally a very small amount of ayahuasca to very small children, in order that they get costumed to the ayahuasca flavor. We could also infer that shipibos want that the spirit of the plant protect or be part of their children

By: QUANTUMLIFE

QUANTUMLIFE — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:46:00 +0000

Pleasure's mine. I have just returned from a year in Peru to discover that knee jerk responses in relation to plant spirit based curanderismo are seemingly stronger than ever in Australia...and this in a time where common sense seems to dictate that we do everything we can to forge harmonious relationships with the worlds around us.

Balanced and informed discussions such as yours hearten me..

Heat wave here!

By: Steve Beyer

Steve Beyer — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:19:00 +0000

Thank you for your very kind words. You have just warmed my heart on a bitterly cold day. :-) I am really happy that you are getting something useful out of the blog.

By: QUANTUMLIFE

QUANTUMLIFE — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Not specifically related to this post, Steve, but I am heartened to see regular posts again on Singing to the Plants.

Your blog is a mature and scholarly discussion of the subject of curanderismo, and I much appreciate it.

By: Steve Beyer

Steve Beyer — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:06:00 +0000

That is a very interesting idea. GC/MS is usually pretty accurate, and I would guess that it would not misidentify harman or norharman as harmine. At the same time, I do not know what metabolic processes might be involved. Also, although there is no question that tobacco can be hallucinogenic in sufficient doses, as I discuss here, I do not know what evidence there is that the Tiwanakuans used tobacco, or used it for that purpose. I would be grateful for any further information on this point.

And thank you, as always, for your wonderful blog Legitimos Guerreritos.

By: jeronimo m.m.

jeronimo m.m. — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:38:00 +0000

This discussion sprang on the enteógenos group some time ago and someone pointed that (from wikipedia) “The harmine-containing plants listed include tobacco, two species of passion flower/passion fruit, and numerous others.”

I have no idea what the harmine content in tobacco is, but it does seem more likely that the harmine in the hair could come from tobacco?

“Tobacco contains the harmala alkaloids harman and norharman, and the closely related harmine and harmaline are known hallucinogens. The levels of harman and horharman in cigarette smoke are between forty and 100 times greater than in tobacco leaf, showing that the burning of the plant generates this dramatic increase.”
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/tobacco/

or
http://www.jstor.org/pss/648207

definitely an interesting thread to investigate…