L-dreamer,
Thanks for the link to Flattery's book; I haven't read it! You ask a ton of great questions that may be helpful for other folks who are interested!
I suppose the first to address would be the definition of "enthogengic healing," which could be seen as a "grey-area" (poorly defined) term. - below is adapted from Wikipedia:
The term entheogen was coined in 1979 by a group of ethnobotanists and scholars of mythology (Carl A. P. Ruck, Jeremy Bigwood, Danny Staples, Richard Evans Schultes, Jonathan Ott and R. Gordon Wasson). The term is derived from two words of Ancient Greek, ἔνθεος (éntheos) and γενέσθαι (genésthai). The adjective entheos translates to English as "full of the god, inspired, possessed", and is the root of the English word "enthusiasm". The
Greeks used it as a term of praise for poets and other artists. Genesthai means "to come into being". Thus, an entheogen is a drug that causes one to become inspired or to experience feelings of inspiration, often in a religious or "spiritual" manner.
The meanings of the term entheogen were formally defined by Ruck et al.:
In a strict sense, only those vision-producing drugs that can be shown to have figured in shamanic or religious rites would be designated entheogens, but in a looser sense, the term could also be applied to other drugs, both natural and artificial, that induce alterations of consciousness similar to those documented for ritual ingestion of traditional entheogens.
— Ruck et al, 1979, Journal of Psychedelic Drugs[8]
In 2004, David E. Nichols wrote the following about nomenclature:[9]
Many different names have been proposed over the years for this drug class. The famous German toxicologist Louis Lewin used the name phantastica earlier in this century, and as we shall see later, such a descriptor is not so farfetched. The most popular names—hallucinogen, psychotomimetic, and psychedelic ("mind manifesting"
—have often been used interchangeably. Hallucinogen is now, however, the most common designation in the scientific literature, although it is an inaccurate descriptor of the actual effects of these drugs. In the lay press, the term psychedelic is still the most popular and has held sway for nearly four decades. Most recently, there has been a movement in nonscientific circles to recognize the ability of these substances to
provoke mystical experiences and evoke feelings of spiritual significance. Thus, the term entheogen, derived from the Greek word entheos, which means "god within", was introduced by Ruck et al. and has seen increasing use. This term suggests that these substances reveal or allow a connection to the "divine within". Although it seems unlikely that this name will ever be accepted in formal scientific circles, its use has dramatically increased in the popular media and on internet sites. Indeed, in much of the counterculture that uses these substances, entheogen has replaced psychedelic as the name of choice and we may expect to see this trend continue.
So for the purpose of this, I'm looking for experiences that promote psychological and/or spiritual wellbeing. This could include some of what you mentioned, such as decreased neuroses, decreased stress/fight-or-flight response, changes in depression/anxiety/other mental health symptoms, feeling inspired, increases in creativity, positive mood, sense of deeper connection to self, others, the world/universe.
Essentially, anything you see as healing or a positive addition to your life.Are you interested in the acute effects of the tea? Effects days after? If there are psychedelic effects of harmine and harmaline from P. harmala (with the implication that caapi drinks that have presumably high tetrahydroharmine don't apply here)? Are you interested if there are visual effects besides tracers, "fever dreams"?I'm pretty much (personally) interested in all the effects, however, for this purpose, I'd say to focus on ones that have a positive carryover outside of the experience (for example, I have used my dreamlike PH experiences to inspire art and to help me concertize my life path. If something like tracers, heightened visual acuity, etc. provide inspiration or help you find the beauty in our reality, please include those. While caapi is pharmacologically similar, there are, at the least 5 other chapters currently slated for Aya and co.
Have you used P. harmala in any way or other forms of harmalas? ... What is your experience with P. harmala?Oh yeah!! Teas, many varieties of extracts, full spectrum and isolated, smoked, incense, aya analouges, "psilohuasca," macrodoses and microdoses ...
I have been actively involved with self-experimentation (and later research) with PH since 2014. I cut my teeth with info from the Nexus, then a small study for my PhD program before slowly getting this out:
Doty, M. (2020). Psychedelic properties of Peganum harmala: Marcodose and microdose reports. Integral Transpersonal Journal, 14, 99-115.
(attached to this post)
Is the future book written by someone involved with academia? Has the person written other books before? There are about 28 academics contributing. Michael Winkelman may be the most well known. His focus is on shamanism, anthropology, and neurotheology. You can find more about him here:
Research Gate: Michael WinkelmanAre you interested in the role of harmalas in the Persian culture?
While my role is to focus more on contemporary use, I sure am!
Speaking of, indigenous co-authors are encouraged, so if anyone reading this has cultural ties to the use of PH and are interested, let me know.
Ajay Sharma (
Research Gate: Ajay Sharma) will be covering traditional uses in India.
I hope that helps provide some clarification!