Ahmad Risk wrote:
>
> On Sun, 11 Oct 1998 09:59:13 +0100, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> >or like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Maybe needs a special cake to get
> >throught the small ones into the glorious garden beyond [was Lewis Carroll
> >foreseeing LSD?]
>
> My guess is that he actually had 'mescaline' experiences, perhaps magic mushrooms?
>
> Certainly the native American indians experienced mescaline like
> activity long before LSD. Phil?
>
Quite true. The Southwestern tribes have utilized mescaline for all the
recorded and oral history available to us.
The mushroom connection isn't here, however. Mescaline is an alkaloid
derived from the peyote cactus, a rather commonplace appearing flowering
cactus in the desert Southwest which looks ever so much like a dried cow
patty (bovine detritus) with a daisy stuck in the center (an appearance
which may have led Northern non-cognoscenti to some interesting attempts
at a transcendental experience...)
Although the 18th and 19th cent. British botanists were quite
far-ranging in their scope, and I would imagine peyote was known amongst
those at Kew Gardens, Carroll seems to have been more familiar with a
local hallucinogenic mushroom. Referring to the original illustrations
for "Alice" by Tenniel, the *Amanita muscaria* or "fly agaric" is the
predominent mushroom illustrated - and an old European hallucinogen. I
think muscarine - not mescaline - is Alice's (or Carroll's) alkaloid of
choice.
I think you also have some of the psilocybes over there, one of which
(known here as the *liberty cap*) is also called the "Magic Mushroom" -
and is less hazardous to use than the amanita.
I understand that mescaline does give an interesting distortion of time,
space, color and musical tonality - to the extent of 'hearing' colors
and 'seeing' sounds.
I, of course, never inhaled.
Phil
4 Bailey Hill Road
Natick, MA, 01760, USA
[log in to unmask]
(508) 650-9097 - voice
(508) 650-9152 - fax
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|