Amanita Muscaria

Pot, less calories than beer.

The "munchies" aside, pot smokers are actually less likely than non-tokers to be obese, according to a study by a French researcher.

The examination of data from two separate studies of more than 50,000 U.S. adults found that 14% to 17% of people who smoked pot at least three days per week were obese, compared with 22% to 25% among non-cannibis users.

The research team headed by Yann Le Strat, a psychiatrist at the Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, France, appears in the Sept. 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"Initially, we thought we made a mistake," says Le Strat, according to Reuters. He says he and co-author Bernard Le Foll checked the results several times to make sure they were correct.

"This is only a preliminary result," he says. "It doesn't mean that marijuana does actually help you lose weight, but perhaps there is a component that does."

The researchers did not examine whether diet and exercise habits were different between the two groups but did find that cigarette usage had no influence on the obesity findings, Reuters reports.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/09/study-pot-smokers-less-obese-than-non-users/1

300 Acre Pot Farm Burned in Mexico

The plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities at a ranch in northern Chihuahua state in 1984.


The pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte said the screening, which is often used by regular farmers to protect crops from too much sun or heat, made it difficult to detect from the air what was growing underneath.

It was only when soldiers on the ground reached the isolated area Tuesday that they found thousands of pot plants as high as 2.5 meters tall. The average height of the plants was about 1.5 meters. Duarte said they were not yet ready for harvest.

"We estimate that in this area, approximately 60 people were working. When they saw the military personnel, they fled," Duarte told reporters. A few were later reportedly detained at a nearby roadblock, but Duarte said no arrests were made at the scene.

He said traffickers could have harvested about 120 tons of marijuana from the plantation, worth about about $160 million.

Video of the plantation showed a sophisticated system of piped-in irrigation to support the plants, which Duarte said was fed by two wells. The plantation also included some wooden outbuildings, presumably for use by people caring for the plants.

Troops will destroy the fields by burning them, Duarte said.

The site is the near the coastal town of San Quintin. Journalists were en route there Thursday under army escort.

While it's unknown how much of Mexican drug cartels' income comes from marijuana, recent discoveries suggest it remains a large-scale trade.

Blue Lotus, a guest review.

Blue Lotus (Source unknown)

6:30 am I began by dumping the bag of dried flowers out on a plain piece of paper.
I rolled up three , one gram cigarettes out of the dried flowers.

6:34 am I am taking note of how I feel before I smoke the first blue lotus cigarette. I feel fine , not hungry ( empty stomach ) In a pretty good mood , feeling very full of rest and ready to start this day.

6:36 Smoking first blue lotus cigarette. Taste funky, but I've tasted worse. I'm beginning to feel a slight feeling of relaxation coming across my whole body , very mild but defiantly noticeable.

6:41 First cigarette is finished. I feel great! Mild euphoria, plesant sense of well being, a different type of body high never before experienced. This is a very mild natural drug as far as I'm concerned. Effects are very noticeable while extremely mild, not intense like Kratom, or salvia.

6:45 I've decided to save the other two for another time because I feel just fine off this one.

Salvia Divinorum; A funny post from Unhappy Hipsters

http://unhappyhipsters.com/post/2534937080/after-watching-the-miley-cyrus-bong-scandal-on

My wife sent me this one and I laughed.

Betel nuts. The most widely used stimulant in the world.

Shown here as they might be typically seen in China, are the Areca catechu nut and Betel leaves with a lime paste.  The nut is dipped in the lime and wrpped in the leaf before being chewed and held in the mouth.  Fresh is always better than dried, and they can be frozen to preserve them. 

San Pedro Cactus Video

Click here to puchase a San Pedro cactus cutting like the one shown in the video

My favorite song about Ayahuasca and DMT

Thus Far (Alternate) by reggiewatts

Thanks Reggie! I'm a big fan and if you play Honolulu, I have a couch and some cookies for you.

Alex Jones Freaks out about DMT, Elves and the Global Elite

Had to share this one, if you haven't had your lulz for the day, you should watch it.

Hawaiian Ethnobotanicals

An excellent reference for any exploration of Hawaiian ethnobotanicals is the Bishop Museum Database.  Being in Hawaii, I am constantly learning about the local flora and the history of their use.

I think you'll agree, check it out.

Hawaiian Ethnobotanical Database

Ron Paul and Barney Frank introduce legalization bill.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce “bi-partisan legislation tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference,” according to a press release from the Marijuana Policy Project that just hit my inbox. More from that email:

Other co-sponsors include Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). The legislation would limit the federal government’s role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal. The legislation is the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition.
Rep. Frank’s legislation would end state/federal conflicts over marijuana policy, reprioritize federal resources, and provide more room for states to do what is best for their own citizens.

“It’s definitely going to get a serious debate, probably more in the media than on the floor of the House,” Fox told said. “But I think it needs to be debated on the floor.”

What does MPP see as obstacles?

“Someone in the prohibitionist camp could hold it up as long as they wanted, but the slew of opinion pieces that came out last week calling for the end of the failed drug war will give this momentum,” Fox said.

Product Review: Kratom S-Ense

With so many kratom products and bands on the market, it can be hard to deceipher the bulls**t from the worthwhile products. I have to decided to post a comprehensive review of each kratom product I encounter, to hopefully help anybody else avoid bad experiences and steer them to worthwhile kratom adventures.

The first product I'm documenting is one of those "Kratom extract" liquid shot varitiies. The particular brand is called "Kratom-S-Ense" distributed by Other World LLC. It seems to be pretty popular, found at almost every headshop in my area.

Contents: 1 oz per container: Spring Water, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Organic Cane Sugar, "Kratom Leaf Extracts '(broad spectrum)'", Ethyl Alcohol, Agave Nectar, Absorbic Acid. I'm not sure exactly what they mean by "broad spectrum", but I digress.

Consistiency - Dark brown, viscious, with grainy particles floating in the bottom. Be sure to shake well and rinse with water to get everything from bottle before preparing shot.

The taste is as you would expect - extremely earthy and bitter. Mix with kool-aid or the like.

So here's the report.
I ingest at 11:30 AM on a relatively empty stomach.
At +0:20, I feel very subtle stimulation - no euphoria or anything else noteworthy. This would be good for light social interaction. Not intoxicating by any means.
+0:45, Light stimulation turns to lethargy. I find myself laying on the floor with my dogs, playing tug of war. Definite sense of well-being and mood-lift is noticed - again, nothing too pronounced - very subtle.
+1:00 it is time for a nap.

Overall, even doubling the dose renders less than desirable results. The effects are there, just so subtle that you're unlikely to notice them without potentiation. I'd give it a 3/10. If you come across some of this in your local headshop, consider another option.

ComprasPeru.com Review; 'Don't waste your time'.

I have shopped with comprasperu.com a few times now.  I want to share with my readers a few recent experiences.

There have been 2 big problems with each of my last 2 orders.  The first problem was they sent me the wrong product.  This wouldn't have been so bad, had they admitted their mistake and corrected it, but they didn't, and now I am stuck with an unidentified bag of crap I didn't want.

The second problem was I placed a $300 order and 2 months later they still haven't shipped it.  They claim to have a delay obtaining their CITES document, but I have repeatedly asked for a refund, and repeatedly been refused.

I do NOT reccommend you do any business with comprasperu.com or Andina Real.
They failed on every level lately.

Theobromine and Live Cacao trees

http://uncommonbotanicals.com/store/Chocolate-tree

Here is a great source of Theobroma cacao seedlings.

Get them while they last.

Elfen embodiments of syntactical intent.

"I am old, older than thought in your species, which is itself fifty times older than your history. Though I have been on earth for ages I am from the stars. My home is no one planet, for many worlds scattered through the shining disc of the galaxy have conditions which allow my spores an opportunity for life. The mushroom which you see is the part of my body given to sex thrills and sun bathing, my true body is a fine network of fibers growing through the soil. These networks may cover acres and may have far more connections that the number in a human brain. My mycelial network is nearly immortal, only the sudden toxification of a planet or the explosion of its parent star can wipe me out. By means impossible to explain because of certain misconceptions in your model of reality all my mycelial networks in the galaxy are in hyperlight communication across space and time. The mycelial body is as fragile as a spider's web but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral star swarm. Space, you see, is a vast ocean to those hardy life forms that have the ability to reproduce from spores, for spores are covered with the hardest organic substance known. Across the aeons of time and space drift many spore-forming life-forms in suspended animation for millions of years until contact is made with a suitable environment. Few such species are minded, only myself and my recently evolved near relatives have achieved the hyper-communication mode and memory capacity that makes us leading members in the community of galactic intelligence. How the hypercommunication mode operates is a secret which will not be lightly given to man. But the means should be obvious: it is the occurrence of psilocybin and psilocin in the biosynthetic pathways of my living body that opens for me and my symbiots the vision screens to many worlds. You as an individual and man as a species are on the brink of the formation of a symbiotic relationship with my genetic material that will eventually carry humanity and earth into the galactic mainstream of the higher civilizations.

Since it is not easy for you to recognize other varieties of intelligence around you, your most advanced theories of politics and society have advanced only as far as the notion of collectivism. But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into a single social organism there lie richer and even more baroque evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is one of these. Symbiosis is a relation of mutual dependence and positive benefits for both of the species involved. Symbiotic relationships between myself and civilized forms of higher animals have been established many times and in many places throughout the long ages of my development. These relationships have been mutually useful; within my memory is the knowledge of hyperlight drive ships and how to build them. I will trade this knowledge for a free ticket to new worlds around suns younger and more stable than your own. To secure an eternal existence down the long river of cosmic time I again and again offer this agreement to higher beings and thereby have spread throughout the galaxy over the long millennia. A mycelial network has no organs to move the world, no hands; but higher animals with manipulative abilities can become partners with the star knowledge within me and if they act in good faith, return both themselves and their humble mushroom teacher to the million worlds all citizens of our starswarm are heir to."

From Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide
by O.T. Oss & O.N. Oeric

How to Perforate Blotter Paper (like LSD)? Answer:

From time to time I research a question and don't find an answer.  These make the best blog posts, today's question involves "How to make the perforations on blotter art?"

The answer it seems is being quietly hidden by those cashing in on the "blotter art" phenom, and after many Google searches and a few exasperated quits and restarts, I think I have stumbled upon enough clues to point the interested reader in the right direction.

The answer is they use a perforation board as seen above.  These are outfitted either on a manual perforation press, or otherwise fashioned to perforate the paper.  Individual steel perforation rules, or the cutting piece, can be purchased from suppliers either in precut lengths or by the coil.

And that is how the professional blotter art perforation is done today.  The same way it has been done for decades.  See below for a picture of an older perforation machine.

And here is a picture of the state-of-the-art model:

For our next article:  What paper do I use for blotter art?

Ayahuasca Ceremony in Iquitos, Peru

The following account was written this week by a close friend of mine who is living in Iquitos.  He recently left our armed services and is doing some healing in Peru.

I was out in the jungle for a good portion of the last week.  Before leaving Iquitos I had my first two ayahuasca experiences, but it wasn´t until I was out in the jungle that I saw what ayahuasca can really do.  I had no idea.  The real shamans down here have their discipline down to a science.  I´m not speaking friviously here either.  They know their shit, and they go in deeper than I previously realized was possible.

The paradigm is one of plant spirits.  As part of the process of becoming a maestro, the shaman diets various medicinal and psychoactive plants of the jungle.  They eat very light simple meals, and they consume concoctions made from the particular plant that they are dieting.  To top all of this off, they drink ayahuasca throughout the weeks that they are dieting a particular plant.  The diet changes the ayahuasca experience, and this is one of the ways that they communicate with and learn about the spirit of the plant they are dieting.

Ayahuasca itself is called by some "Madre Ayahuasca" and is a spirit that they communicate with during the ayahuasca experience.  This might sound like a bunch of primitive mumbo jumbo, but after experiencing this in depth communication with the vine myself, I know that there is much more to this than most people brought up in western culture would even dare to believe.  It´s truly amazing.  Things that I have been struggling with for most of my life were laid bare and explained to me from the perspective of ayahuasca.  She even explained to me how she knows the things she knows, and where she derives her healing powers from.

Purging is an important part of healing in the ayahuasca experience.  I vomited one time in the six ceremonies that I have attended so far, and when I purged something came out of me that I didn´t even know was in me, but recognized that I had been holding onto inside of myself for many years.  The purging was, of course, a physical event, but it was also a very deep psychological cleansing.  How this is possible defies many of the beliefs of western culture, but the ayahuasca made clear to me how she works.  What came out of me, in my mind and vision as I was purging, was something like worms and nasty rotteness of an evil black bird.  The bird was vomiting through me, but it was also coming out of me in pieces as I vomited.  Then I saw it in the bucket and knew that it was gone.  I have felt different ever since in a very satisfying way.

This purging took place at the beginning of a ceremony in which I drank some particularly strong ayahuasca, and after I vomited my vision opened up as if I had just dropped ten or twenty hits of acid.  It´s a bit difficult to convey just how hard I was tripping.  I did not realize this was possible, especially for the small amount of brew that I had drank... which was about a shotglass worth ayahuasca.

The maloca was dark, but my vision opened up to a landscape.  A Shipibo woman was sitting next to me, and another Shipibo woman was sitting on the porch of a house in front of me.  There was a yard around the house and the jungle stretched off into the distance.  I was shown how beautiful the jungle is, but how terribly dangerous it is as well, and the message was clearly conveyed that I must never go into the jungle without a guide.  Mother nature would gladly consume me if I was so foolish as to simply step into the mouth of her gaping jaws.

One of the shamans of the ceremony was with me, and he showed me that I did not have to sit in my body in the maloca, but that I could stand up and walk with him.  I stood up and went with him, and he showed me various parts of the jungle that he sometimes liked to go to.  We went to a house where a family was staying.  They seemed happy that I had come to visit them.  They showed me many things about the jungle.

During the ayahuasca ceremonies, there were common themes, visions, and messages that carried on throughout all of them.  The first ceremony I attended I simply felt sick.  During the second ceremony I had visions pertaining to an image which entered into my mind of an egg and a golden crown.  The egg was the egg of the unborn god of eternity.  The crown was the brilliantly jeweled golden crown of the Sun-King.  The egg rested upon the crown.  The third ceremony also pertained to this image.  The fourth ceremony was the one where I purged and my vision really started to open up.  The visions of the fourth, fifth and sixth ceremonies I can best describe to you by summarizing the overall content of the three ceremonies in total.

Something strange happened from time to time during the course of those last three ceremonies.  I would hear the loud chirping, buzzing, screaching sounds of the jungle around me, and then they would fade away only to be released by the sounds of emergency sirens.  I recognized the sirens and what they meant clearly.  These sirens were the sirens of the Japan tsunami, and I would see the waves coming in and tearing the world apart.  I saw ghosts of families washed away to sea come into the maloca and stand before me.  This was not the only suffering I saw.

I saw the suffering of the world, but it was not me who was witnessing it.  This made the experiences a bit overwhelming at times because they were taking place in the first person, not as Shawn Paulson, but as many people going through the most horrendous of trials and ordeals.  There were children kidnapped and sold into the sex trade.  There was torture of a depravity that will never be justified.  There was sickness, disease, death, epidemics, molestations, rapes, murders, corruption, and behavior that is in every way wrong and criminal.  I saw through the eyes of the perpetrators, and I saw through the eyes of those going through such harsh ordeals.  I saw the strength and resolution to go on. I saw the giving in and the suicides.  I saw through the eyes of the sick and injured who had no choice but to help those around them because they were the only ones who could help.  I saw through the eyes of those who had lost their ways into the scariest and most horrible situations but kept going on only out of the faint hope that they would see their loved ones again.  I also saw the devastation of families whose loved ones had been murdured, through the sorrow of those who could not understand how anyone could do such a thing.

On and on it went, J-, and these people were not simply strangers, but also people I knew.  I finally understood what my father went through as he held my grandmothers hand on her death bed.  I finally understood how my sister felt as her baby daughter kept vomiting and vomiting and had to go to the hospital.  I finally understood the Japan tsunami and the strength and resolve of the survivors, as well as their connection to the ghosts of the dead, their families and loved ones, who share this message with those who will listen.

Family is very important, and it is important that we have the strength and resolve to carry on in even the most dire and depraved of situations... and there is more to the message.

I saw human history, and it appeared not as a series of haphazard events but as a series well timed and orchestrated events preparing us for what is to come, and you can see that something is coming.  Think technological singularity.  Think Terence McKennas Timewave Zero and 2012.  I was shown that, though most priests and most people do not realize this, even the major religions of our world have been preparing us for this event by encouraging a belief in God... because this is what´s coming, and this is the only thing that can save us.  There are no accidents.  Even the Japan earthquake happened at exactly the right time and place.  Everything is in tune, and intelligence goes far beyond what most people would ever dare to believe.

The darkness and seemingly evil of my visions, though weighty and challenging, were very revealing.  It is like the wildness of the jungle.  Humanity is not free from this wildness, and our judgements of good and evil upon our own nature are superficial.  All of the atrocities of our planet as well as all the goodness and light serve a greater purpose, which is the preparation of our species for our cosmic awakening.  We would never know strength if we never had to be strong.  We would never know resolve if we had never been in situations where we had to make real decisions. 

This is all very important, and these are things that we need to have down to survive not only as a species, but as a world of sentient beings as well.  We are being groomed and prepared for integration into the spiritual family of our universe, and we can´t step into this unknowing or with our eyes shut.  Billions of years of extra-terrestrial space lies before us, and it is even more dangerous and wild than the most dangerous and wild places on our planet.  We need to be prepared.  Like the Japan tsunami, our world may soon seem as if it is coming to an end.  It is important that we follow the example of the tsunami survivors and have the strength, coordination, and resolve to carry on.

Anyway, that said, ayahuasca is A LOT more potent than I ever thought it would be when brewed properly... and when taken in the right environment, and with the right maestro, you can be taken to places you´ve never before even dreamed of.

Thats a ton (5 tons) of Khat.

Eighteen people in four states, including 10 from northern Virginia, have been arrested for allegedly operating an international trafficking ring that distributed nearly 10,000 pounds of the illegal African drug known as khat, authorities announced Thursday.

Prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Alexandria charged Yonis Muhudin Ishak of Arlington as the conspiracy's ringleader. He allegedly paid a network of couriers $1,000 each for trips to London to fetch fresh batches of khat, a leaf that gives users a high when chewed.

The drug is popular in East Africa. Of the 18 arrested, all were natives of Somalia or Yemen.

John Torres, a special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations in Washington, estimated the khat's street value at $5 million. The trafficking ring had been in operation since at least 2005, according to court records.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP6ca7d9cd69bd441885bc68202e3ee43c.html

Your news is biased.

Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK, illustrated how the public's perception of drugs' risks is distorted by selective reporting. They published a 10-year review of drug deaths in Scotland which showed that the chances of newspapers reporting a death from an overdose of paracetamol (acetaminophen) was 1 in 250, a death from amphetamine was 1 in 3 and that every death from ecstasy was reported.

Hudson, WI man, 19, arrested for driving under influence of "Bath Salts"

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/Bath-Salt-DUI-Arrest-in-Hudson-Wis.-may-19-2011

The Alkaloids of Peyote

http://isomerdesign.com/PiHKAL/peyote.php?domain=tk

This excellent link lists the alkoloids in peyote and also the structures and additional notes.  Very informative.  Did you know there are pellotine and peyotine as seperate alkaloids?  Check it out.

Ayahuasca Ceremony Documentary

http://theavalonfiles.com/stream/metamorphosis/index.html

A great movie about Ayahuasca.  

Edible Trichocereus Pachanoi Video

Stumbled across this video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyzTmWq8dtU&NR=1&feature=fvwp

It's all very innocuous except that she's refferring to this cactus as edible.  Somebody is in for a surprise.

Orchids that Contain Mescaline and Similar Alkaloids

Oncidium Cebolleta is known as a peyote replacement among the Tarahumara. Found to contain phenanthrene derivatives of unknown pharmacology.  Further research needs to be done, but I have not encountered anything as of yet.  If anyone is willing to test specimens for their alakaloidal make up please contact me.

The Tarahumara are a native people that inhabit the rugged and remote area of mountains and canyons in Mexico known as the Barrancas del Cobre or Copper Canyon.  Not much is known about their history or their religion, though they follow the Rarámuri philosophy.  In the Rarámuri philosophy, respect for others is of prime importance. They give greater value to persons than to objects, and business matters take second place to respect for human beings.  I find this is true in my life as well.

I hope to find more about these people and their sacred use of entheogens as soon as possible.  Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Wired Magazine is growing mushrooms?

Yes. Yes they are. Complete with "tasting the colors" references.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/01/st_dangerous_mushrooms/

Smoking Cactus

Seriously?

China Kangtai Cactus Biotech Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CKGT), a vertically integrated grower, developer, manufacturer and marketer of a variety of cactus-based products in China, announced today that the company has successfully completed the trial production of cactus-based cigarettes and plans to launch two products in the forth quarter in 2009: (i) low nicotine and (ii) zero nicotine cigarettes. The new patented cactus cigarettes, under the registered trademark "Shengcao" brand, are expected to increase sales by approximately $220,000 in the fourth quarter.

The low nicotine cigarette is made from cactus, honeysuckle, ginkgo biloba leaves and a small amount of tobacco leaves. This cactus-derived cigarette lowers tar and nicotine content by 70%.

The zero nicotine cigarette is made without any tobacco leaves. It offers taste and enjoyment equivalent to regular cigarettes, but eliminates nicotine. It also greatly reduces harm related to secondhand smoke.

China Kangtai CEO Jinjiang Wang said, "The cactus cigarette market shows huge potential for growth in China. China has about 390 million smokers, accounting for 30% of global smokers. Our revolutionary product can not only capture a significant portion of smokers, but also promote consumer consumption in our other health products such as nutraceuticals, nutritious food, health and energy drinks, beer, wine and liquor. We expect the launch of our cactus health-preserving cigarettes also will improve the brand name and reputation of our company."

China Kangtai was awarded patents for these two cactus cigarettes from China's State Intellectual Property Office in 2008. The patent numbers are 2006100102091 and 2006100102087.

Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Seeds, an excerpt from Psychozoic Press

Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Seeds
Originally this member of the Convolvulacea family came from India, but now it is common to much of the area of Southeast Asia, and is domesticated in the Hawaiian Islands. Sometimes referred to as the peyote of Asia, it is often consumed by the lower classes of people in those areas as a recreational high. So far, I have encountered no reports of historical use of the Argyreia nervosa seeds in spiritual or religious ceremonies, though the Church of the Tree of Life (San Francisco) has declared them a sacramental substance.
Normally the dried seedpods are used as decorative floral arrangements; they are quite attractive and remain well-preserved without care. The small brown pods of less-than-an-inch in diameter usually contain four large fuzz-coated seeds, though some of the pods are occasionally empty, or contain only two or three seeds. A related type of woodrose, Merremia tuberosa (also called A. tuberosa), is very similar, though the concentration of psychoactive principles is somewhat lower.
The white layer of fuzz is a survival mechanism evolved by the plant to aid in water retention during germination. Several years ago, it was thought that this layer of fuzz contained strychnine-like alkaloids, but recent investigations have shown it to be no more toxic then the rest of the seed. Whether the coating is removed or not will make no difference in the psychedelic effect of them.
Eating the seeds should be done on an empty stomach and is usually followed by a period of nausea and loss of appetite. The nausea associated with ingestion of the seeds is of such intensity that they are not generally favored as a hallucinogen. Some claim to reduce the nausea by taking travel sickness pills such as dramamine, but I can’t vouch for their effectiveness. Vomiting is common, but not inevitable. Even if vomiting does occur, it will not lessen the psychedelic effect, since by that time the psychoactive principles (lysergic acid amide and its isomer) have already been absorbed into the bloodstream.* If vomiting is induced, it will make the remainder of the trip much more pleasant.
It would be appropriate to interject a comment on the aspect of nausea here, for Argyreia nervosa is one of the more intense plants in this respect. Although nausea may seem undesirable, we should realize that it is an effective inhibitor against misuse. Those who eat the seeds to have “something to get loaded on” are not likely to want to repeat the experience. No one is going to use these seeds chronically for their psychedelic effect unless they are serious about desiring a meaningful higher vision, in which case the nausea will not seem nearly as objectionable as it would otherwise.
The seeds are fairly large, weighing about 1/10 gram each. Doses of four to ten seeds are common; on a weight-to-weight basis, this makes them about ten times more potent than morning glory seeds and the most potent of the
commonly used natural psychedelics.
*This is in contrast to morning glory seeds.
If vomiting is induced within two hours after ingestion of MG seeds, the trip will be aborted.

The effect is somewhat similar to LSD but without so much intricate detail. It is more similar to LSD than are morning glory seeds, which also contain lysergic acid amide and iso-lysergic acid amide. Wave-form translation of material reality may be achieved with doses of fourteen seeds or so, but the resolution, the clarity of such visions, is less than with LSD. Tripping in the darkness or with eyes closed makes the effect more apparent. The slight difference in the effect of those two kinds of seeds is probably due to differences in the ratio of concentration of the active principles.
The seeds must be chewed or ground before eating as they are quite hard and will not be absorbed into the system if they are simply swallowed. One may wish to soften the ground seeds by first soaking them in water for ten minutes, then eating them with a little honey. If the taste is too unpleasant, they can be taken in gelatin capsules.
I once had some seeds which were over two years old; these required a larger dose to achieve the same effect. Seventeen of the seeds produced an effect about the same as ten seeds when
they were first fresh. Thus, there’s an estimated potency reduction of about 1/3 per year.
People with liver ailments should avoid the use of lysergic acid compounds, as some researchers have found that such substances are acted upon by liver enzymes before they can be excreted from the body. Also, they should not be taken during pregnancy. With regard to any special medical situations, it is always wise to consult your doctor before taking any drug. Large doses can be rather unpleasant and should be avoided, though I know of no case of anyone dying from the use of these seeds.
One should also be aware that it is unlawful to possess lysergic acid or the associated compounds. Possession of the seeds is legal, but grinding them and storing them in capsules would make them illegal.
The plant is rather difficult to grow, requiring loose, rich soil in a warm, shady location.* It is a perennial vine and produces flowers and seedpods in the summer. The flowers are small orange trumpets, modeled after the morning glory. The “petals” surrounding the dried seedpods are not true petals, but a calyx. I have not had much success getting a plant to flower here in Oregon, though it should do well in the sun belt of the southern states. •

Mescaline is safer than coffee.

From the files of Wired Magazine I culled ths particular gem from 2005. 

"While the findings don't directly indicate anything about the safety of psychedelic drugs like LSD and mushrooms, they do suggest that at least one hallucinogen is OK to use for months or even years.
"We really weren't able to find any (mental) deficits," said Dr. John Halpern, associate director of substance abuse research at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and co-author of the study, released today in the Nov. 4 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. Hallucinogenic drugs have long fascinated researchers, who are now studying whether they hold the potential to treat mental illnesses like depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. "

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/11/69477

I had a Medical Professional a while back tell me LSD was safer than coffee, but maybe they meant mescaline instead.

Welcoming community contributions

I'd like to invite anyone who is willing to submit a book or product review.  If you are the retailer of the product you may submit to me directly for review. 

At this time I am also accepting guest posts for this blog.  It's a great way to get a backlink to your own blog, and it helps me fill in some much need quality content. Win-Win for everyone including my readers.

You can contact me at:   myers06   at  gmail   dot   com.   

Native American Ethnobotany by Daniel Moerman

Ever since I was a little boy I have been fascinated with how our ancestors used plants for food as well as medicine. It wasn't until a few years ago that I started seeking out and purchasing books on edible and medicinal plants. I subscribed to different publications whose main focus was this subject. Any article in magazines on this subject immediately grabbed my attention. Then with the wonderful internet becoming available to anyone with a computer, my search for information took an exciting turn.
One website for information linked to another site, and then to another and so on. But through time and my amateur research I discovered my interest started centering more and more on how Native Americans used plants for different purposes not only edible and medicinal but for dyes for ornamentation, for baskets and cooking vessels, for seasoning, etc. But I was so overwhelmed with information that didn't focus on this specific area until I came across the website of Dan Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany database; I found nirvana. I blundered around and through the website for months but with his kind help and patience with my questions I began to use his database in a more productive way. But then I discovered he had recently published a book called Native American Ethnobotany!! (...)  This is one of the items I would run back to save if my house ever burned down! It is worth every penny and is priceless in its information.

Ethnobotanical knowledge is associated with indices of child health in the Bolivian Amazon

Culture is a critical determinant of human behavior and health, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge regarding the use of available plant resources has historically been an essential function of culture. Local ethnobotanical knowledge is important for health and nutrition, particularly in rural low-resource settings, but cultural and economic transitions associated with globalization threaten such knowledge. This prospective study investigates the association between parental ethnobotanical knowledge and child health among the Tsimane', a horticulturalist and foraging society in Amazonian Bolivia. Anthropometric data and capillary blood samples were collected from 330 Tsimane' 2- to 10-year-olds, and mothers and fathers were interviewed to assess ethnobotanical knowledge and skills. Comprehensive measures of parental schooling, acculturation, and economic activities were also collected. Dependent variables included three measures of child health: (i) C-reactive protein, assayed in whole-blood spots as an indicator of immunostimulation; (ii) skinfold thickness, to estimate subcutaneous fat stores necessary to fuel growth and immune function; and (iii) height-for-age, to assess growth stunting. Each child health measure was associated with maternal ethnobotanical knowledge, independent of a wide range of potentially confounding variables. Each standard deviation of maternal ethnobotanical knowledge increased the likelihood of good child health by a factor of >1.5. Like many populations around the world, the Tsimane' are increasingly facing the challenges and opportunities of globalization. These results underscore the importance of local cultural factors to child health and document a potential cost if ethnobotanical knowledge is lost.

Excerpt from abstract. http://www.pnas.org/content/104/15/6134.abstract

I agree with the supposition of the author although I feel it requires more study to be sure.  What about Paternal ethnobotanical knowlegdge?  How does that relate.  If a similar correlation could be observed wouldn't that stregthen the underlying hypothesis?

Plants of the Gods, Shultes and Hoffman, a brief review.

A friend of mine here in Hawaii, recently lent me this excellent text.  Plants of the Gods, by Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hoffman is a comprehensive reference work on psychoactive plants. Although it could have been organized better, I absolutely loved the plethora of full color plant photos.

It provides a definition of plant hallucinogens and information on phytochemical research on sacred plants, geography of usage and botanical range, the chemical structures of these substances and the use of hallucinogens in medicine.  Highly worth a peek.

Banisteriopsis Caapi, Finding live plants

Trying to find live Banisteriopsis caapi plants can be a daunting task.  Although a google search would seem to indicate that there are many places to choose from, the reality is most shops are sold out.

Whether this is some trick to increase traffic to ethno vendor sites or a seasonal issue, I can't say.

What I can say is I got darn sick of clicking through to various ethnobotanical shops to find it listed "out-of-stock".

Well the search is over and 3 different strains are available from this guy.

Trouts Notes on San Pedro & Related Species

This book pertains to San Pedro cacti (Trichocereus species in Latin taxonomy), which contain mescaline, the powerful hallucinogen also found in peyote. Conveniently, the full title of this book Trout's Notes on San Pedro and Related Species - A Guide to Their Visual Recognition With Notes on Their Botany,



Chemistry and History gives a precise indication of it's content. The blurb on the back cover says, "More than you need to know" and this is certainly true unless the reader wants all of the very exhaustive info contained in this book that splits hairs about species, subspecies, strains, varieties, botanical identification, classification and naming of Trichocereus (San Pedro) cacti and so on. This reviewer would imagine that most readers, even those particularly interested in Trichocereus species would find almost all of this book to have much more information than is necessary.

Also, only the most technically apt readers will appreciate (or even begin to understand) the info provided on the chemical extraction and analysis of "tricho" cacti. However, more info is better than not enough and this book is certainly a great contribution to the body of ethnopharmacology as no one else seems to be providing even a fraction of the detailed info contained in this book and the authors are to be highly commended for all their research and the compiling and organizing of their info in this book.

CCLE

http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/index.html#"

Hello World.

Why hello world? Just to put something there.