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Original

THE SHAMAN AND THE RAVE PARTY: SOCIAL PHARMACOLOGY OF ECSTASY

, M.D.
Pages 923-939 | Published online: 03 Jul 2009

REFERENCES

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  • Before rave parties the hedonistic exploitation of the interaction between heat and drugs has been infrequent. One of the rare examples consists in the recreational chewing of khat (Catha ddulis). It is preferentially performed in non-ventilation and smoky places because the hot feeling is believed to anticipate the positive psychological effects of the drug.[[25]] This expectancy is pharmacologically correct since khat contains cathinone and cathine, two aphetamine-like compounds. There is experimental evidence that the effects of these compounds are enhanced in a hot environment
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  • Tobacco has also been ingested as a beverage. A complex mythology connected the origins of shamanic powers with the different routes of introduction of tobacco, see Levi-Strauss.[[30]]
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  • Since the pipe was found in a temple dedicated to a goddess of fertility, it has been argued that it was used to inhale opium.[[33]] Obviously the idea that opium was smoked to excite sexual desire should be rejected, but that opium poppy was a symbol of fertility is well documented.34-37
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  • A first example is the Iranian term for cannabis (bangha) which has been borrowed by Ugrian languages to indicate either mushroom (Amanita muscaria) or intoxication. On this ground Eliade suggests that “magico-religious value of intoxication for achieving ecstasy is of Iranian origin”.[[18]] Likewise, in Celtic and Slavic languages a common root is present in terms that indicate henbane and inspired person, or, as a pejorative, one of confused mind.[[39]]
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  • Particular interest has been focused on initiation rituals such as those carried on at Eleusis, where it has been suggested the intake either of a hallucinogenic mushroom or of rye contaminated by Claviceps purpurea, see La Barre.[[45]] The first possibility is not substantiated by any evidence. The second is supported by the circumstantial argument that cereals were attributed to Demeter, the goddess worshipped at Eleusis, and that ergotism is characterized, among other effects, by psychomotor excitation. Any direct evidence is lacking and, in addition, it is not clear how rye contaminated by Claviceps purpurea could be available at the right moment (that of the ritual) and in the right quantity (that needed to intoxicate a large number of people). If a drug was taken during the eleusinian mysteries, the most likely was opium.35-37, 46-51
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  • Eliade [[18]] contends that “Bacchic enthusiasm does not resemble shamanic ecstasy” and Dodds[[42]] outlines that during trance the spiritleaves shaman's body, whereas, by definition, enthusiasm consisted in theentering of the God into believer's body
  • In 186 B.C. the Consul Sp. Postumius ordered a bloody repression of dyonisiac rituals (Baccanalia), which were spreading all over the Roman territories and were considered a threat to the austerity of Roman customs and, more importantly, to the security of the state. This episode was described in Livy's Book XXXIX
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  • For some authors, in spite of contradictory philological and paleobotanical evidence, opium poppy is still the sumerian hul gil—the plant of joy, see, for instance, Brownstein.[[56]] It is easy to refer this attribution to the stereotype that any documented prehistoric, or historical non-medical use of psychotropic drugs is to experience their pleasant effects. This position is obviously untenable, mostly in the case of opium
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  • For instance, it is most likely that an active role was played by the Church in eradicating European witchcraft and the connected use of solanaceous plants. The application to the skin of ointments based on extracts from solanaceus plants was practiced by medieval and renaissance witches in order to fly to the Sabbah.[[64]] The exploitation of the hallucinogenic effects of atropine and scopolamine is clear
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