Hey,

I have, after some correspondence with Acolyte, started the work on a rather large book concerning the history of ethnobotanical use. The book will focus on historical use of entheogens in a spiritual/religious manner, but also touch the use of some of the most important medicinal plants. The idea is to prove beyond any doubt that in every human culture, in every part of the world, medicinal and visionary plants has had a rather large impact.

My thought is to structure the book after our different continents, and then again after the different nations and/or cultures. When a plant is mentioned for the first time, I will include a short explanation of its constituents and their pharmacology. At the end of the book, I will include both a dictionary, a section with a short explanation of every mentioned plant and in what culture their use is recorded.

The idea is to write a full-length book that will be sold in both eBook format and in physical format, where every penny goes directly to our cause. A summary of this history book will also be included in the book The Nexus Experience. I, or anyone else contributing, will not earn anything on this, except taking an important step towards the legalization of entheogenic use. If you ask me, that is the best pay-check one can get!

This project will need:
- Information on historical use of any plant, in any culture, that is generally unknown. (Please note: Historical evidence that already is known to the community, will not be needed).
- Help with obtaining some books and publications, see the wiki page.
- Exceptionally skilled English writers to proofread every word.
- People to check every reference, and if needed provide new and better ones.
- General comments from the community on language, form and the presented information.

Please post here if you want to contribute to this project, and also please post if you have any interesting information on the history of ethnobotanical use! Any comments, thoughts or proposals are also welcomed.



Edit: A short wiki page is up here.

Hey EG

I would love to help you with this part of the project.
I would be glad if you could give me some task on researching a specific kind of entheogen which i can then look up, so as to share the information with you. Because you mentioned that we don't need to look up information that is already known to the community.
Just let me know and i'll get to work.

Peace
Elpo

I would happy to contribute once I get my uni dissertation in, and would be very happy to proof reading anything.

Great, thank you! It will take some time before any proofreading is necessary, in the meantime - I wish you all the best of luck with your dissertation!

Thank you my brother, this is wonderful! My first thought, from the top of my head, is to research any historical use of entheogenic animals. A great list of psychoactive animals can be found here. Please note that there is unlikely to be enough information of this to be found on the internet, remember that not only Google is our friend - so are libraries! Also remember to write down any references for any information you might find.

There will be lots of other research to do later. I need to first write down what I have knowledge about (which is not a few things) and expand this with information from the internet, then I will get a good view on what needs to be done. Thank you for your contributions!

Lol I should have proof read that previous sentence! Apologies, knackered and uni stressed

The book is now taking form, at least in my head and partly on paper (I got over 5000 words written). This goes way faster than I had expected!

Something I need is research on the Sami shamans. They are extremely careful not to let their knowledge out, as they have been oppressed for their religious views throughout modern history. Therefore this one will not be easy, but I am confident there are some knowledge hidden in written works.

Use of Amanita muscaria among a Finnish tribe is documented, but there it stops. It is likely that the use of this mushroom are (or at least have been) extensive, taken into account that reindeers (which they base their culture on) eat the mushroom, not to mention the similarities between Sami and Siberian shamans. It is also likely that other entheogenic plants have been used, seeing how important shamanism was considered in their culture.

I need some books! If anyone has any of these books and publications available (I can't find them in local libraries), please let me know. I would be extremely grateful if you could donate any of these books, or just lend them to me. As I will not charge a penny for this extensive work, I feel it is wrong to use my own money to buy them. Please note that I will pay for the postal fees to get the books back to you, if you do want them back.

Please read this list carefully, and let me know if you have any of these books, digital files of them, or excerpts from them. It would be extremely helpful!

Richard Rudgley - The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances
Christian Rätsch - The Sacred Plants of our Ancestors ISBN 0-9720292-1-4
Tim Pilcher - Spliffs 3: The Last Word in Cannabis Culture? ISBN 1843403102, ISBN 9781843403104
Charles E. Dibble et al. (translation) - Florentine Codex: Book 11 - Earthly Things.
Takahashi Patrick Kenji - Simple Solutions for Humanity, Book 2 ISBN 1434368424
Peter C. Rogers - Ultimate Truth, Book 1 ISBN 1438979681
P. T. Furst - Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens
T. B. Roberts - Chemical Input—Religious Output: Entheogens
T. B. Roberts (editor) - Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion
Albert Hofmann - "Teonanácatl and Ololiuqui, two ancient magic drugs of Mexico", UNODC Bulletin on Narcotics Issue 1
Richard Evans Schultes - "The Plant Kingdom and the Hallucinogens", UNODC Bulletin on Narcotics Issue 4

Good evening Evening Glory!


This may sound silly, but perhaps tie some modern culture to your ethnobotanical structures? It might provide a very practical bridgehead to some readers.


Ayahuasca, Shamanism, and Avatar The Movie articles:

http://www.survivalinter...al.org/news/5466%20wrote
http://www.theglobeandma...ret-muse/article1449949/
http://techgnosis.com/ch...om-2010-01-06-2204-0.txt






Hrm, Do you have friends currently in university? Can you rent these books through "inter-library loans?" That could be a huge resource!!!

I've been looking stuff up on the net, but haven't found much yet concerning the animal psychoactives.
I should be able to go to the library somewhere this week.

Peace

useful info

These are some lines in a book cncerninc some animals used as psychoactives, could be useful...

More will come


I think this book might be very useful... Probably not all of it though

Hey guys, I'd love to research/write about the history of psilocybin mushrooms and peyote/mescaline. I would also love to write about ayahuasca if no one is already, I have written several papers on ayahuasca from a research/ethnography side and one paper on peyote from both a cultural and legal perspective dealing with RFRA and the like for some university classes. Unfortunately, that laptop got stolen so I have neither my writings no sources, but I'll gladly put in the research/writing for those three plants if the areas need to be covered.

EDIT:
Morning Glory, I'm working on getting some of those books you mentioned...might be able to get a digital copy of schultes in the next day or two.

here is one very interesting article on the use of ayahuasca as means to fight drug addiction in the western world.

Maybe a good source for another part of the book.

aya


Peace

Hello people, sorry for the delay in answers here! I am still working on the book, however I do have lots of other things to do at the same time.


Yeah, this is not a bad idea! I would love to include the modern use, but then only what can be identified as spiritual use. I would also like to tie the club scene to the traditions of shamanic drumming and dancing.

My thought on structure of the book is that I start with the earliest known use of botanicals, and work my way up to today. Including, bot not limited to, the Flower Burial in Iraq, the Olmec, European witches garden, Chinese shamans, Christianity, the Maya, the Aztec, etc. In about that order. Do you guys think it is a good structure to start with the first recorded, and work up until today? I am all ears to any suggestions!


Thank you mate, I will add it to the list of what I should read!


Lovely! Ayahuasca is in fact the subject I feel I need the most help with. Peyote is also very interesting, although I feel I have enough knowledge when it comes to Psilocybin mushrooms. Today's use is pretty much covered, although I would need some information on what exact botanicals the different tribes use. What is most interesting, at least for now, is the historical use. We should really dig into the cultures of meso- and south-america, some place there lies the answer to when and how the use of Ayahuasca, Peyote and many alike started.


Evening Glory! That would be lovely!! Digital copies is the easiest to work with, so this is very interesting.

Hello I am skilled writer. And am a devoted student of grammar. I can always help with projects like these, and I would love to proof something like this!

I am really sorry, but I have to put this project on hold until further. I have too much to do in my "real" life. It is a tough decision to make, but I really do not have any choice. I will continue the work on a large book about the history of ethnobotanical use, but it will take a long time to be finished.

Someone else should probably write the chapter for the CEL eBook. Again, I am truly sorry!

It seems to me like trying to prove that entheogens played important roles in virtually all societies is a tall order - there's a lot of cultures that we simply don't have any data about them using entheogens. Like most of Africa... or China (sure they had cannabis, but it was applied industrially and medically more than as a psychoactive, and it would be very difficult to argue that it influenced their culture)... or even pretty much all of Europe. So I've been brainstorming an alternate way to orient the history section:

Doing it in a roughly chronological fashion seems best. This would begin with a review of the archaeological evidence. Cave paintings and the like are the oldest (mushroom cave paintings from 11,000 years ago, peyote and mescal bean art from 10,000 years ago, Datura paintings (9000 BC to 3000 BC). We start getting actual archaeological artifacts like pipes containing tryptamine residues circa 2100 BC, and snuffing paraphernalia not long after that. Then we get to our first few historical records - the Vedic hymns date to about 1000 BC, as we get to the couple centuries before the modern era we get references to cannabis and some solanaceous plants from the Greeks, Chinese, and Romans (and the Chinese first discover tea... should that be included?). It wouldn't be a bad idea to mention the Kykeon at this point, and possibly Haoma as the Avestan texts date to this era... though haoma seems to have lost its entheogenic context among the Zoroasterians by then. Then after the dark age sets in, we're back to purely archaeological records in the New World (the data obtained from "witches" through torture in Europe hardly seem to constitute credible data, so I'd be inclined to leave this out).

So basically that whole first section would comprise evidence that seems to be roughly contemporaneous with the initial use of the plants in question.

Then, starting roughly at the close of the 15th century AD, we start getting all the literature on re-discoveries... that is, when contemporary Europeans began encountering ancient spiritual practices that appear to have been in place for a substantial length of time before westerners encountered and recorded the practices. From this point on we don't need to rely on archaeological data, the written records are substantial enough. As the Spanish and others began exploring the New World they documented the use of numerous entheogens. Columbus and his crew were the first to encounter Anadenanthera, tobacco, coca, and cacao (just off the top of my head). The Spanish missionaries in particular provide us with a wealth of data in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 18th century we start getting reports of the fly agaric cults of Siberia on one hand, and in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, pioneering ethnobotanists like Richard Spruce delve deeper into the Amazon and provide us with data on some of the more diverse practices there that weren't recorded earlier, like the use of ayahuasca, virola snuffs, etc. This rediscovery continues into the 20th century (salvia, brunfelsia, ...)

So that's basically how I'd put it together:
Part I - Records roughly contemporaneous with initial use (archaeological, early literature)
Part II - The era of re-discovery (records which allege use extending into the past)


Plants and Fungi that I know can fit in the first section:
Mushrooms - New World (Guatamalan mushroom stones) and old world (cave paintings)
Tobacco (pipes)
Anadenanthera (pipes and snuff paraphernalia)
Kava (genetic evidence)
Cacao (pottery)
Peyote (stone painting)
Mescal beans (stone painting)
Datura (stone painting)
Ilex guayusa (as a snuff, with snuffing instruments)
San pedro (stone painting)
Cannabis (archaeological remains, written documentation)
Coca (archaeological remains)
Some Old World solanceous species (written documentation)
Kykeon
Harmel (if we wanted to include it)
Tea and Coffee (if we wanted to include them)


Plants and fungi that I know can fit in the second section:
teonanacatl (psilocybian mushrooms)
Anadenanthera seeds
Fly agarics
Ololiuhqui, badoh negro, other bindweeds
Ayahuasca, DMT admixtures
Datura/Brugmansia
Tobacco (north, south, and central americas)
Kava
Peyotl
Trichocereus cacti
Salvia divinorum
others?

I admit I have essentially no knowledge of Iboga, or of Australian any aborigine entheogens that may be out there
Betel could probably be worked into the first section if we wanted it to, but I don't know that it tends to carry entheogenic connotations (though it does feature prominently in the social history of India and, to a lesser extent, southeast Asia)



How's that sound for a rough outline?

For the first section, a few good launching points are:
http://www.shroomery.org...c-Mushrooms-in-the-World
Furst, P. 1974 http://www.botanicus.org/item/31753003540934 (starts on page 1)

I've talked to Acolyte, and I think I'll be stepping up to take the lead on this project unless someone else would like to.

As far as I'm concerned, actually writing this section will be the easy part, I think we can put off worrying about that for later. If people can help me in fact-finding and collecting references, the actual chapter will practically write itself.


That said, here's how people can help with the research:
1.) When you find a good source, first write down the info necessary for a bibliography entry. Author's name, year published, title, source (publisher and city it was published in for books; journal name, volume, and page numbers for periodicals)
2.) Take very brief notes on the information that's relevant to the history section here.

Example:
Schultes, Richard Evans. 1972. Ilex guayusa from 500 A.D. to the present. Göteborgs Etnografiska Museum Etnologiska Studier 32: 115-138.
- Tihuanacoid shaman's grave in highland Bolivia dated to circa 500 AD found to contain clysters, snuffing paraphernalia, and a snuff made from Ilex guayusa.



If the source is alluding to evidence that they read in a different source, make sure it's reliable! Unfortunately a lot of people are lax about fact-checking... so unless it's a really reputable source, don't believe them unless they have a citation for the data. And if they have citations, note those down next to the relevant info (at least author, year, and source, not everyone provides titles in their citations). For example, since I originally found that Ilex snuff info in a different article by Peter Furst, I could also have written it:

Furst, Peter T. Archaeological Evidence for Snuffing in Prehispanic Mexico. Botanical Museum Leaflets Harvard University 24(1): 1-28.
- Tihuanacoid shaman's grave in highland Bolivia dated to circa 500 AD found to contain clysters, snuffing paraphernalia, and a snuff made from Ilex guayusa (Schultes, Richard Evans. 1972. Ilex guayusa from 500 A.D. to the present. Göteborgs Etnografiska Museum Etnologiska Studier 32: 115-138.)


I know that may sound tedious, but it's really the only way to make this a quality piece of work. But once we find good sources that have the info we need on all the drugs that we want to include, this thing is going to be a piece of cake to write, and it will be both very high quality and very useful... for things like this, a monograph is only as useful as its bibliography is thorough.





The topics I could really use help on (both in terms of archaeological data and western re-disovery) are:
Tobacco
Solanaceous plants (Datura both in the New World and in India; Mandrake/henbane/belladonna in Europe)
Trichocereus cacti
South American snuffs (besides Anadenanthera, I've got that one covered)
Others? Obscure entheogens, African entheogens, Aboriginal entheogens, etc.


If you're interested in researching any of these, let me know.


Topics that collaborators are working on:
Ayahuasca (SnozzleBerry)
Peyotl (Elpo)

Topics I've got covered:
Fly agarics
Psilocybian mushrooms
Cacao
Tea (if we want to include it... it does seem to have played a formative role in many Eastern branches of philosophy and spiritual practice... coffee, I think we can leave out because, while it was adopted religiously by islam, and inspired controversy among religions when it entered Europe, it does not appear to have really been adopted in the spiritually relevant way that tea was)
Cannabis
Ololiuqui and other bindweeds
Anadenanthera seeds
Salvia divinorum
Kava
The Kykeon of Eleusis
Soma
Harmel
Iboga

Entropymancer,

We should also coordinate efforts to get the PDF of these articles into the Cottonwood database. That way, we can link directly to the article when referencing (so the person on the other end won't need an academic login or $ to read the full thing).

Thoughts?

--
K

I've never heard of the cottonwood database, but if it's on the up-and-up legally, that sounds like a good idea.

It is. It's covered under section 108 of the US Copyright Law.

§ 108 · Limitations on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives41 (a) Except as otherwise provided in this title and notwithstanding the provi-sions of section 106, it is not an infringement of copyright for a library or archives, or any of its employees acting within the scope of their employment, to reproduce no more than one copy or phonorecord of a work, except as provided in subsec-tions (b) and (c), or to distribute such copy or phonorecord, under the conditions specified by this section, if— (1) the reproduction or distribution is made without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage; (2) the collections of the library or archives are (i) open to the public, or (ii) available not only to researchers affiliated with the library or archives or with the institution of which it is a part, but also to other persons doing research in a specialized field; and (3) the reproduction or distribution of the work includes a notice of copy-right that appears on the copy or phonorecord that is reproduced under the provisions of this section, or includes a legend stating that the work may be protected by copyright if no such notice can be found on the copy or phono-record that is reproduced under the provisions of this section. (b) The rights of reproduction and distribution under this section apply to three copies or phonorecords of an unpublished work duplicated solely for pur-poses of preservation and security or for deposit for research use in another li-brary or archives of the type described by clause (2) of subsection.....................

Cottonwood Library

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K