Drugs Used in Rituals

Certain plants have long been known to humans as having psychoactive effects—they produce changes in a person's thoughts, sensations, and behavior. Drugs made from such plants played important roles in many societies before the modern age. People viewed these substances as sources of the sacred and spiritual realms. These plants were generally used in community rituals meant to improve health and to strengthen responsible behavior by members of the community. They were not used as drugs of abuse. Plants such as the psilocybin mushrooms, iboga, ayahuasca, datura, betel, and kava served four basic purposes: (1) to help a person achieve an experience of the sacred; (2) to help people adjust to changes in their culture; (3) to help people feel uninhibited and at ease in social situations; and (4) to treat sickness and in some cases to treat people who abused other drugs.

Mushrooms

In many societies around the world, participants in community rituals use psychoactive plants to have visions as part of a healing process. For example, mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a hallucinogen , have been used. As Richard Schultes and Albert Hofmann explain in Plants of the Gods (2002), they produce such dramatic effects that people have described them as "foods of the gods" and "voices of the gods." In many prehistoric cult practices, hallucinogenic mushrooms served to strengthen the community's connection to nature and as a way to contact powerful spiritual forces. People who ate these mushrooms often felt intensely aware of the interconnectedness of humans, nature, and the supernatural. They felt that mushrooms increased their own personal power, leading them toward self-transformation. People also ate mushrooms to heal physical diseases and mental illness.

A word used by Michael Winkelman, "psychointegration," characterizes the common effects of substances called hallucinogens and psychedelics . Psychointegration is a state in which the human brain produces brain waves in the emotional (limbic) system and frontal cortex that results in a feeling of unity. Psychointegrators were central to many shamanic practices, which were healing practices of hunting- and-gathering societies around the world. Shamanistic healers often used hallucinogenic and psychedelic mushrooms to enter into altered states of consciousness and to enable them to contact spirits as part of a healing process. Community elders also used plant drugs in rituals that celebrated the entry of younger members into adult circles.

Ibogaine

The root of the iboga plant (Tabernanthe iboga) is a stimulant and hallucinogen. Depending on the dose, the user's diet, and the user's level of activity, a person who consumes iboga will experience different effects. These effects can be dreamy visions, stupor , and unconsciousness. Or, iboga can act as a powerful stimulant. People have taken iboga to feel less tired and as an aid for hunting. Healers and sorcerers have used iboga to achieve knowledge of the divine. In Africa, the Bwiti secret societies of Gabon and Congo consumed iboga in all-night village ceremonies that included vigorous dancing. The Bwiti cult used iboga to contact and affirm their relationship with their ancestors. By experiencing this sense of the individual's relationship to group spirit, they hoped to strengthen the bonds of their society and promote the well-being of all who belonged to it.

As Juan Sanchez-Ramos and Deborah Mash found, iboga is also used as treatment for addiction to amphetamines, opiates such as heroin, and cocaine. Iboga's effectiveness in psychotherapy is related to its ability to help patients think clearly, to reflect on their lives and experiences, and to recover "lost" memories.

Peyote

In the United States, the Native American Church (NAC) uses peyote (Lophophora williamsii) in its "Peyote Religion." This religion combines native and Christian elements. Native groups of northern Mexico (for example, the Huichol and the Tarahumara) also have a long history of peyote use. Peyote contains mescaline, a substance that has both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects. The NAC typically uses low doses of peyote that do not produce dramatic visual effects. The federal government considers peyote a legitimate religious sacrament for the NAC, and so controlled substances regulations do not apply to it. However, some states have punished people for peyote use.

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NAC members consume peyote in an all-night meeting in which all members of the community, young and old, may participate. The NAC seeks to guide its members toward physical and spiritual well- being, to release people from feelings of guilt, and to feel a sense of purpose. The NAC sometimes recommends peyote as a treatment for drug addiction (particularly alcoholism). Peyote use brings hope to Native American communities. It encourages a moral code of devotion to family and obligation to the community and promotes feelings of spirituality and unity. One researcher, Chris Heggenhougen, suggests that for young Native Americans who feel alienated from the larger American culture, peyote rituals can encourage a positive identity with their own culture.

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is a combination of two plants, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis. South American tribes used ayahuasca for various purposes: contacting spirits of the dead, achieving clairvoyance, making diagnoses, making prophecies, and healing. In the early twenty-first century, groups in the rural Amazonian basin take ayahuasca in collective adult rituals to strengthen group cohesion and identity. They also use ayahuasca to help cope with rapid cultural changes in their region. Ayahuasca traditions have also spread to urban areas, where many people use the drug to cope with anxiety and stress. Several Christian churches in Brazil consider ayahuasca a sacrament. In the United States, these churches are involved in legal battles over freedom of religion involving use of the drug for religious purposes. The scholars Jaques Mabit, Rosa Giove, and Joaquin Vega reviewed ayahuasca's use in ritual treatments for rehabilitation of cocaine addicts in the Peruvian Amazon. These treatments integrate ayahuasca into traditional rituals and physical, psychological, and spiritual activities that address personal and emotional relations.

Jimsonweed

Jimsonweed is the common name of datura, a plant in the nightshade family that is often added to ayahuasca. The common name was coined because of the drug's effects on British soldiers at Jamestown. Datura is not a true hallucinogen but produces visionary experiences. Europeans were familiar with datura, as were residents of the American Southwest and Mexico. Today, the recreational drug use of datura in the United States causes deaths every year.

Datura has been used to treat physical illness, as part of rituals marking the transition to adulthood, and in various ceremonies such as those to bring rain or to promote healing. Native Americans used datura to produce unusual dreams that would enable the person to learn songs, dances, and rituals from animal or other spirits. Groups who used datura in initiation rituals believed that the young participant needed to separate himself from childhood memories in order to take on adult roles. Datura produced altered states of consciousness that could last from two to three weeks, in which time all childhood memories were erased.

Group male rituals using datura often involved a death-and-rebirth experience. In the altered state of consciousness produced by datura, the person is open to suggestion and readily accepts what is told to him. He or she loses touch with reality and becomes unable to think clearly or rationally. While the young participant is in this state, elders of the tribe instruct him in the ways, morals, and myths of their tribe. In Africa, the Shangana-Tsonga of Mozambique used datura in fertility initiations for girls to produce visions of the fertility god. Because of datura's effects on reasoning and the sense of reality, the girls' experiences while on the drug could be manipulated, or managed, by the tribe members.

Kava and Betel

The most common traditional drugs in the Pacific Islands were kava and betel. Kava is a sedative beverage made from the root of Pipermethysticum that produces a dreamlike state similar to that produced by mild hallucinogens. Betel is a stimulant made from Piper betel and Areca catechu and other ingredients. The cultures of the Pacific Islanders carefully controlled the use of these drugs. As a result, neither were drugs of abuse.

Typically, people consumed kava and betel in elaborate communal ceremonies. Individuals, including children, also consumed betel for many of the same reasons that people drink coffee. Betel stimulates social activity and work, enhances enjoyment and feelings of general well-being, and encourages peaceful and friendly social relations. In heavy doses taken after a period of abstinence from betel, betel can cause psychotic reactions.

Kava was often restricted to adult males, even exclusively high- status males. Kava was produced by women but consumed in special male-only ceremonial grounds that excluded women. These nightly ceremonies played a central role not only in community life but also in political and social dealings between communities. Hostile visitors were forced to consume large amounts of kava. Known for its ability to produce peaceful euphoria (an intense feeling of well-being), kava reduced the aggressive actions of these visitors.

Conclusion

Drugs made from plants played important roles in religious ritual, community togetherness, and healing among pre-modern societies. Some modern drug problems may have roots in the loss of these community rituals.