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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacques Chitte who wrote (35179)	4/18/1999 4:55:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Lather, I actually spent quite a bit of time reading essays on the web before I wrote that post about hallucinogens, especially one by my old professor of alternative psychology, Dr. Charles Tart. However, it was Saturday night and I didn't bookmark them, so I cannot actually discuss this in a totally academic way this afternoon. here is something from an Amazon.com book review about hallucinogens and religion, however--"and in any case the brisk global tour of long-exploited psychoactive plants leaves no doubt of the intimate relation between these drugs and most human cultures--the notable exception being our own. From early Eurasia (the familiar red-capped fly agaric mushroom and the legendary soma) to Africa (ibogaine and khat). . ." Certainly Eurasia and Africa are in close proximity to Jerusalem. amazon.com I also would argue that exact geographic proximity was irrelevant. The Silk Route was an efficient import route for products of all seasons, and hot items like drugs must have been even more desirable than spices. I saw a fascinating archaeological program on television analyzing the startling information that the Egyptian mummies have been analyzed and have significant quantities of cocaine in their bodies, for example. We know from the Bay of Jars off the coast of South America--a bay liberally littered with jars from an ancient Roman shipwreck--that there was considerable trade between continents, and this program about the mummies used this to expand on the idea that it was entirely reasonable that the Egyptians used South American cocaine. So I don't believe it is an airtight argument to argue that strong hallucinogens didn't grow in Palestine. I guess I would also maintain that very potent marijuana, and especially hashish, are mild hallucinogens, but not from recent experience, of course!