The Contemporary Uses of Hallucinogenic Plants and Mushrooms: A Qualitative Exploratory Study Carried Out in France

Abstract

This qualitative research implemented in France between 2004 and 2007 is based on 30 in-depth interviews carried out with individuals who consumed hallucinogenic plants or mushrooms at least six times during the year preceding the interview. The interviews were recorded, retranscribed, and an analysis of their content applied for the textual data. The study focuses on drug users and the meanings they attach to their drug use. These meanings involve three different representations of the drugs: “enchanting plants,” “disorientation plants,” and “visionary plants.”

Keywords:

• hallucinogenic mushrooms
• hallucinogenic plants
• qualitative study
• contemporary practices
• representations of substances
• meanings associated with use
• poly-drug use

Notes

¹ The journal's style utilizes the category substance abuse as a diagnostic category. Substances are used or misused; living organisms are and can be abused. Editor's note.

² Rabla: French slang for heroin.

³ During a datura-taking session, Ludovic saved a friend from jumping out of a fifth floor window. The friend was not suicidal, but simply wished to take a “shortcut,” having completely forgotten about gravity.

⁴ The pastis and ricard mentioned just after the quote from Clothilde are aniseed-flavored drinks.

⁵ Psilos: French slang referring to European hallucinogenic mushrooms.

⁶ A bong is a water pipe with a wide bowl and a wide mouthpiece. The content is referred to as the “douille” in French (which roughly equates to the payload).

⁷ Salvia extract generally comprises salvia leaves which have been marinated in pure salvinorin. It is sold in vials.

⁸ Although the dosages of Hawaiian Baby Woodrow are assessed at approximately five seeds (and up to 15 seeds among the persons interviewed), the doses of Morning Glory (Ipomoea) are between 150 and 200 seeds in order to get a similar effect.

⁹ Sonia is the only person among those interviewed to refer to the mushrooms which she consumed by their scientific name. Psilocybe cubensis (Earle) Singer grow in Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Bolivia, the United States (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas), Belize, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and in Puerto Rico, as well as in the French overseas départements (Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique).

¹⁰ The plants and mushrooms belong to two different kingdoms, these being the plant and fungus kingdoms respectively. The expressions “enchanting plants,” “disorientation plants,” and “visionary plants” are used to refer to the representations of enchanting plants and enchanting mushrooms, the representations of disorientation plants and mushrooms, and to visionary plants and mushrooms. To avoid the text becoming excessively heavy, in this paragraph these expressions will be accompanied by speech marks to show that they also refer to the use of mushrooms.

¹¹ A dance associated with punk music, in which dancers deliberately push and shove one another.

¹² Documents compiled during the 1960s confirm the use of “Jilgré” in the Brittany region of north-western France (Prado, 2004). Jilgré is a cider in which datura seeds have been steeped. This is a “secret” practice, existing in the countryside and among agricultural workers (these being relatively old and speaking only the Breton dialect), and very much a male social custom. The “marked bottle” (the bottle marked with a cross which contained the datura) makes it possible to serve a final glass to some of the participants, and makes getting home more difficult by preventing the user from taking the road back to his house. Additionally, no visual hallucinations were ever reported during the survey (which led the author to conceptualize the notion of “disorientation plants”). Furthermore, the effects of the datura consumed by these Breton peasants was also characterized by the conception of a curved space, further reinforcing the feeling of disorientation experienced by the user.

¹³ “Beetle Juice” is a famous film by Tim Burton in which ghosts battle against the “evil humans.” You only need to say his name three times (Beetle Juice) to be whisked away to his world. The human heroes die a few minutes after the film begins (these are the good ghosts), and then the fun begins. The aim is to laugh about death, to laugh at death, and to live on even when you have died. Tim Burton has made something of an art form out of conveying this sort of concept—and we should note that this idea crops up in relation to salvia experiments. In a quote mentioned above, Axel states, “I thought I was dead I had the impression of being in a coffin, (…) I couldn't stop laughing.”

¹⁴ The “allies” is the term used by Castaneda to refer to “invisible entities” (see Castaneda, 1985). As Castaneda saw it, there are three allies with whom it is possible to communicate in order to gain knowledge: Mescalito, accessed using peyotl, Humito (the “little smoke”), who can be found in psilocybe mushrooms, and finally the herb of the devil, who can be accessed via Datura inoxia.

¹⁵ Narby's book, Cosmic serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge, develops this theme in detail. The plants are believed to have the capacity to reveal all scientific knowledge (“The Knowledge”), which is available in a “book” written on DNA strings and which the plants can reveal.

¹⁶ None of the users interviewed had used iboga for pseudo-therapeutic purposes. Etienne, who was the only one to have consumed it, did so during a festive event simply to “try it.”

¹⁷ The violent effects of ayahuasca lead to comparisons being drawn with datura in terms of the risks encountered. However, no deaths related to an overdose of ayahuasca have so far been recorded, which is unfortunately not the case with datura. However, although the use of ayahuasca increases in certain drug user groups, and particularly in cases of “unsupervised” drug consumption sessions, at the very least ayahuasca is likely to bring about the same kinds of accidents as those witnessed with datura (for example, jumping out of a window, crossing the road without looking first, etc.).

¹⁸ For example, the research into ethnomycology initially reported by Wasson (1957) concerning traditional societies in Eurasia reveal that taking Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) resulted in peaceful and benevolent behavior among the Siberian Koriak population. However, it may well have been this same Amanita, and therefore the same alkaloids, which are said to have been associated with the phenomenon of berserk fury among the Vikings, which gave the warrior access to murderous and suicidal levels of aggression (Levi-Strauss, 1973). Levi-Strauss moreover stressed that the differences in behavior between the Koriak and the Vikings following the consumption of these mushrooms led Wasson to question the opinions of several Scandinavian scientists who considered that it was Amanita muscaria which was taken by both populations. Levi-Strauss tended to subscribe to the view that the same substance was involved in both cases, but that the differing social and cultural references of these two groups could reasonably explain the major differences in the effects experienced.

¹⁹ “We are no longer treating people with herbs, but are instead practicing ‘phytotherapy.’ We no longer cure a person with a ‘laying-on of hands’ but by prescribing a ‘magnetic treatment.’ It is no longer a question of good or evil spirits but rather of ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ vibrations. The witch doctor becomes a dowser, the seer a parapsychologist, and the bonesetter a chiropractor” (Laplantine, 1994).

²⁰ As highlighted in Bücheler's article, the influence of regular salvia use on driving abilities or the use of professional equipment has not been explored. The interaction between salvia, alcohol, or other psychoactive substances has not been explored. Salvia tolerance is still currently debated, bearing in mind that this is the only hallucinogen known in the world which attaches itself to the brain's opioid receptors, responsible for the phenomenon of craving experienced with heroin or morphine use.