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South American shamanic traditions: Hallucinogenic [105].
Shamanic Traditions
Originating in Eurasia in around 4000BCE, Shamanic traditions soon spread widely to areas such as the Americas, the Pacific and India [105].
Shamanism is often characterised by the use of hallucinogenic plants as part of ritual, a means of accessing "other worlds", or simply as a social activity [105].
Typically, hallucinogenic plants would allow a shaman to contact spirits, both good and bad, in order to question, communicate or negotiate [105].
Sometimes spirits would even be asked to help diagnose an affliction or advise on suitable remedies [105].
Ecstatic about Hydrastis
[N.B.: This blog and related comments were originally posted on the site 'Herbal Matters']
This morning I awoke to a BBC Radio 4 debate about the proposed reclassification of the recreational drug ecstasy. It suddenly occurred to me that I actually had no idea what ecstasy was or where it came from. After a bit of research my suspicion that a plant must be involved in some way was confirmed. Here, briefly, is what I found out: