Medwave
January 21, 2016
Beatriz Rodríguez-salgado, Jorge Gómez-arnau Ramírez, Daniel Sánchez-mateos et al.
There is growing interest in plants with psychoactive effects among consumers with different levels of experience. This has generated a need for updated knowledge among medical professionals and other health workers. These plants, which may be used in shamanic healing ceremonies or rituals or just for traditional purposes, have emerged in the Western world as new psychoactive drugs; largely...
Frontiers in Pharmacology
2016
Andrew R. Gallimore, Rick J. Strassman
51 citations
The state of consciousness induced by N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is one of the most extraordinary of any naturally-occurring psychedelic substance. Users consistently report the complete replacement of normal subjective experience with a novel "alternate universe," often densely populated with a variety of strange objects and other highly complex visual content, including what appear to be...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
October 20, 2015
Emmanuelle A. D. Schindler, Christopher Gottschalk, Marsha J. Weil et al.
104 citations
Cluster headache is one of the most debilitating pain syndromes. A significant number of patients are refractory to conventional therapies. The Clusterbusters.org medication use survey sought to characterize the effects of both conventional and alternative medications used in cluster headache. Participants were recruited from cluster headache websites and headache clinics. The final analysis...
Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
August 1, 2015
Patricia E J Wiltshire, David L Hawksworth, Kevin J Edwards
18 citations
Light microscopical examination of plant and fungal remains in the post mortem gut may be capable of demonstrating the ingestion of unexpected natural psychotropic materials. This is demonstrated here in a case in which a 'shaman' was accused of causing the death of a young man. The deceased had participated in a ceremony which involved the drinking of ayahuasca in order to induce a...
The British Journal of Psychiatry
2015
Ben Sessa, Matthew W. Johnson
58 citations
Summary After a 40-year hiatus there is now a revisiting of psychedelic drug therapy throughout psychiatry, with studies examining the drugs psilocybin, ketamine, ibogaine and ayahuasca in the treatment of drug dependence. Limitations to these therapies are both clinical and legal, but the possibility of improving outcomes for patients with substance dependency imposes an obligation to research...
Ponto Urbe
December 30, 2014
Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Edilene Coffaci de Lima
6 citations
Desde a metade da última década, em grandes cidades do Brasil, começou a se difundir o uso da secreção da perereca Phyllomedusa bicolor. Um pouco mais tarde, partir da segunda década deste século, tornou-se possível alcançar informações sobre tal difusão em cidades europeias e norte-americanas. Tradicionalmente usada como revigorante e estimulante para caça por grupos indígenas do sudoeste...
June 27, 2014
Alfonso Matas
2 citations
A syncretic religion born in the 1930s in the Amazonian jungle, Santo Daime today is an international flag-bearer in the evolving New Religion Movement (NRM) landscape. Shamanic power, nature veneration, universal love and the quest for a transcendental divine experience thanks to the psychoactive indigenous plant medicine ayahuasca define the Santo Daime allure for a new middle class...
Oxford University Press eBooks
June 18, 2014
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen
6 citations
Abstract This chapter looks at ritual spaces of ayahuasca shamanism in western Brazil, organized by indigenous people to be shared purposefully with other indigenous and non-indigenous participants. This usually occurs in the evenings of political and cultural meetings, training courses, and cultural festivals. They allow identifying people with whom to cooperate, exchange substances, and share...
Oxford University Press eBooks
June 18, 2014
Glenn H. Shepard
11 citations
Abstract The ayahuasca brew (Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis) was introduced very recently among the Matsigenka and Yora (Nahua) indigenous people of southern Peru. The Matsigenka used Banisteriopsis liana previously, however they did not learn to add the potent Psychotria admixture in preparing the brew until the 1950s. Introduction of ayahuasca to the Yora (Nahua) was even more...
NeuroQuantology
June 2, 2014
H. Umit Sayin
7 citations
Psychoactive plants have been consumed by many cultures, cults and groups during religious rituals and ceremonies for centuries and they have been influential on the eruption of the many images, secret and religious symbols, esoteric geometrical shapes, archetypes, religious figures, philosophy of religions since the dawn of Homo sapiens. Some of the psychoactive plants used for religious...