THE CANNABIS PAPERS

The Sacramental Use Of Cannabis Sativa

It happened one day in 1987 in Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park. Scientific researchers found an isolated female chimpanzee who was terribly sick. They observed she barely had enough energy even to defecate, but somehow dragged herself over to a Vernonia amygdaline bush. This foul tasting plant is definitely not on the regular menu for chimps. However, the sick female tore off some of its tender shoots and chewed them just long enough to get the juice, while spitting out the fibrous leftovers.

Much to the amazement of the scientific observers, by the next afternoon this same chimpanzee, who was so sick the day before behaved as if reborn. Her energy was completely restored. Her appetite had returned, and she now socialized with the other chimps.

The scientists had observed for the first time, a wild animal's health actually improved after eating a plant with known medical properties. It was noted that the native people of the area use the same plant to fight parasites and gastrointestinal disorders.

Anthropologist Richard Wrangham of Harvard University observed on many occasions that a large number of chimps walked as long as 20 minutes in search of Aspilia, a member of the sunflower family. The animals would then gulp down the leaves of this plant whole, even to the point of vomiting. It was later discovered that Aspilia is high in a red oil called thiarubrine-A which kills parasites, fungi and viruses. However more recently, biochemists, inspired by the chimps repeated use of the plant, began to test the properties of thiarubrine more seriously in the lab. They found to their surprise that thiarubrine-A killed cancer cells in solid tumors, such as those of the lungs and breast.

Maybe some of the mystery as to how early humans discovered medicinal plants is hereby revealed. For on further observation scientists have found that chimpanzees use at least 15 different species of medicinal plants, which supply the animals with a full range of potions and salves for a number of various ailments.

Scientists have also discovered however that it's not just chimpanzees that take advantage of Nature's pharmacopeia, but there are many other animal species that do as well. In fact there are so many different kinds of animals that use plants as medicine, a specialized branch of zoology has developed just to study this phenomena called "zoopharmacognosty".(1)

Within this specialized branch of study some very interesting discoveries have been made. One of these is the fact that animals use psychoactive plants to deliberately alter their consciousness. Ronald Siegel, a psychopharmacologist at UCLA's School of Medicine has spent most of his career studying drugs and their impact on animals. In 1979 he discovered a shard from an ancient ceramic bowl in the Peruvian Andes. A painting on the piece, shows two llamas eating from a branch of coca leaves. Two Indians are pointing to the llamas while they themselves conspicuously reach for the leaves with open mouths.

With further investigation, Siegel discovered that this illustration was not an isolated case by any means. One legend dating back to the year 900, describes an Abyssinian herder who found that his animals became energized after eating the bright red fruit of a tree that was later named coffee. Another story has a shepherd in Yemen watching his goats run wild after chewing on certain leaves, discovering the amphetamine-like stimulant known as qat. In tropical Asia, legends describe birds that became strangely quiet after visiting rauwolfia trees. As a result an Indian psychiatrist isolated the tranquilizer reserpine, which then revolutionized the treatment of the mentally ill.

A number of other such examples are recorded in all parts of the world. In the mountains of Sikkim, weary horses eagerly consume bitter tea leaves for added energy. Pack donkeys in Mexico when particularly tired, deliberately grazed on wild tobacco for the same rejuvenating effect. During the recent war in Cambodia, it was observed that free-ranging water buffalo and antelope increased their normal browsing of opium poppies to overcome the stress of their hostile environment. While in Africa, elephants feasting on the fermented fruit of doum and marula trees, which contained an alcohol solution as high as 7 percent, were seen to display the same range of reactions shown by humans. Some elephants became boisterous and aggressive, trumpeting and attacking nearby animals, including researchers. Some became increasingly passive and lethargic. Still, others appeared amorous. In the emerald forests of Colombia, jaguars gnaw the nauseating psychedelic bark of yaje, a habit the local people believe sends the cats on flights to other worlds. Wild boars dig for the hallucinogenic roots of iboga, a West African shrub that send the animals into a wild frenzy. On the Asian tundra of the North, reindeer eat the beautifully red capped Amanita muscaria, a psychoactive mushroom also used by Siberian shamans to aid in their spiritual journeys.(2)

It seems that from these few examples and many more, not only do animals definitely use plants in a number of different ways, but we're also beginning to gain an insight into the special bonds that were formed between our early ancestors and the animals that lived around them. For the animals were seen as teachers, messengers of the spirit realms, bringers of medicine and food not only for the body, but for the soul as well. For this reason some species of animals were held in special reverence as totem animals or allies. And each tribe or clan actually named itself after the animal with which it had a psychic bond.

Within the context of this relationship between the social group and the totem animal, there evolved certain rituals that strengthened or maintained the psychic bond between them. This could very well be the root of what we call religion.(3) Through the special act of ritual, human beings moved out from the everyday world into the secret realm where the doors of communication opened between themselves and the totem animal or plant.

One thing that research has proven in the last 30 years beyond any reasonable doubt, is that psychoactive substances have certainly played a large part in the religious rituals of many past cultures.

The oldest civilization that we are currently aware of is Sumer. The ancient Sumerians were the first to produce the written word and the Sexagesimal system of mathematics that we still use today in calculations of time and space. They were also the first to meticulously record astronomical observations, and the first to build pyramids - called zigguarats. This technology was later exported to Egypt where it was further developed.

For these reasons and many others, the Sumerians are regarded as the originators of what we now understand as civilization. So it was with shocking surprise that a distinguished scientist and an expert in the Sumerian language John Allegro, discovered that these highly civilized people regarded psychoactive mushrooms in a religious context.(4)

What shocked academic scholars even more however, was that about this time, the esteemed ethnobotonast R. Gordon Wasson of Harvard University, discovered the same thing regarding the Indo-Europeans of India. He found extensive references to Amanita muscaria in their oldest and most sacred scripture, the Rig-Veda. The psychoactive mushroom was referred to in the Vedas as a god named Soma. Over one hundred hymns are found in the Rig-Veda devoted to Soma.(5)

It is also interesting to note, that in the oldest Religion still practiced today, Zoroastrianism, it's been discovered that it too was once influenced to a large extent by the sacred Amanita.

"The use of an intoxicating drink, which is called soma by the people of India and haoma by the Iranians, is one of the earliest and most persistent elements in the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples. The importance assigned to the drink by both of those ancient peoples clearly show that its use must have originated in a common source in prehistoric times." (6)

Moving a little closer to our own cultural roots, we come to the ancient Greeks, from whom we derived our concepts of democracy, the scientific method and literature. Extensive research into the early Greek culture reveals that at the core of their religious and spiritual beliefs, stands one institution with which no other can compare - the temple of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis. Eleusis was regarded as a powerful religious center for nearly one thousand years. No educated Greek could conceive of himself as part of the cultural elite without being initiated into the great Mysteries at Eleusis. An unbreakable silence has prevailed however, as to what these sacred rituals were, as each initiate was sworn to absolute secrecy. Only recently have scholars started to compare notes. And what is beginning to be revealed after these many centuries of silence, is that the ancient Greeks participated in an elaborate ritual that centered around the use of psychoactive substances. There is strong evidence now to suggest that one of those substances may have been ergot, containing levels of lysergic acid - a precursor to LSD.(7)

Another extremely important cultural element that was later introduced into the early Greek society was the wild and sensual god, Dionysus.(8) While most likely it's true the followers of Dionysus did introduce wine to the Greeks, and for this reason today he is known as the god of the vine. However, there is also good reason to believe that it wasn't just wine that was regarded as his sacrament. In many cases the wine may have only served as a convenient vehicle for more powerful psychoactive ingredients.(9) The wine then mixed with other mind-altering herbs was reverentially regarded as the life-blood of the god. And by participating in his sacrament one became filled with the power and ecstasy of god. It's precisely in this context that we come by our word "enthusiasm". The Greek Entheos (En-in + Theos-god) means to be possessed or inspired by a god.

When the worshippers of Dionysus took part in his ritual of "Holy Communion", they participated in a literal transformation of consciousness whereby each felt that he or she was in direct communication with a power greater than themselves. This direct and personal experience was extremely hard to compete with, causing later religious movements to use every means available, including propaganda and violence, to purge Dionysus and his followers from the culture.

Here in the Americas people have also used various psychoactive elements sacramentally. Probably the best known psychedelic plant revered among native Americans is Lophophora williamsii, the peyote cactus. It's known today in the Huichol tribe as Tatei Hikuri, our Great Grandmother Peyote.

Use of this cactus as a sacrament is widespread among many societies including the Huichal, Tarahumara, Cora, Kiowa and Commanche. Peyote rituals have been traditionally associated with rites of passage such as births and naming rituals for children, funerals and healing ceremonies.(10) The Native American Church however, uses peyote as a sacramental element in the same religious context as the Catholic Church uses the bread and wine in their sacrament of Communion.

The active ingredient in Lophophora is a chemical compound we've come to know as mescaline. Mescaline is also contained in the San Pedro cactus, which is also used as a sacrament among indigenous peoples of South America.

Another group of psychoactive elements used by people in the Americas was known to the Aztecs as Teonanacatl "the divine flesh". In this case, the flesh of the divine was a specific group of psychedelic mushrooms belonging to the genera Psilocybe, Stropharia and Panaeolus. Their active ingredients are now recognized as psilocybin and psilocine.

This particular group of mushrooms have had religious associations for a very long time. There are many statues surviving from the ancient Central and South American civilizations that indicate these mushrooms were revered as a totem or a divinity of great power. The ritual purpose of the sacred mushroom was to facilitate travel between the worlds, to communicate with the deities or ancestors, and to be used in healing the sick.

(go to this link The Cannabis Papers for part II thru VI)