Ogunbodede, O., McCombs, D., Trout, K., Daley, P., & Terry, M. (2010). New Mescaline Concentrations from 14 Taxa/Cultivars of Echinopsis spp. (Cactaceae) (“San Pedro”) and Their Relevance to Shamanic Practice. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 131 (2), 356-362. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2010.07.021.
This article by Olabode Ogunbodedea, Douglas McCombs, Keeper Trout, Paul Daley and Martin Terry on New Mescaline Concentrations From 14 Taxa/Cultivars of Echinopsis spp. (Cactaceae) (“San Pedro”) and their Relevance to Shamanic Practice is based on a research on how Echinopsis species and cultivars contain alkaloids of mescaline and their significance to shamanic practice.
These alkaloids were noted to have a percentage of dry weight of 0.053% to about 4.7%. The article points out that it is probable that shamanic practices included high containing mescaline plants in their rituals. To back this up, it particularly singles out the E. pachanoi plant from Peru.
During the undertaking of research for this article, “the columnar cacti of the genus Echinopsis used by shamans in traditional drugs for therapeutic purposes was analyzed as its vegetative clone quality from plants found in South America and also due to its usage by shamanists. Mescaline content in each of the cacti was measured from the cortical stem chlorenchyma by Soxhlet extraction with methanol”.
This tests and procedures were consistent and comparable concentrations could be gotten which helped in grading the different selected species of Echinopsis under observation. The conclusion was that all contained mescaline. The article concludes that plants with high mescaline content are most probably connected to shamanic practices.
Adams, C. (2010). Psychedelic and Holistic Thinking: A Tool for Science. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 10 (1), 33-35.
This article seeks to remove the perception on psychedelic drugs observed in the United Kingdom and United States, as being the most harmful and needing no medical study. This category of drugs is widely classified wrongly and persons using them are often stereotyped and termed as delusional and disorganized people.
Adams in this article tries to show that despite the label on psychedelic drugs and the fact that mescaline is among the most harmful of drugs, neglecting of the alkaloids in mescaline should not be ignored as they are a vital answer to the understanding of mescaline. The article claims that mescaline has a key role in the activation mechanisms of the brain in terms of creativity.
This is due to its capability of assisting the dissolution of cognitive boundaries thus enabling albeit temporarily an individual to escape reality even if its just for a moment. It further goes on to highlight that other psychedelic drugs are stereotyped the same way persons using them are.
Diaz, J. L. (2010). Sacred Plants and Visionary Consciousness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 9 (2), 159-170.
This article is based on an extensive research on ethno-pharmacological into the preparations for rituals by shamans in their divinations and prophecies. The article revaluates this and puts forward an argument that these preparations contained very different psychoactive compounds and that the single classification of them in one group as hallucinogens is entirely wrong.
This paper revisits this debate and puts forward a needed re-evaluation of taxonomy in the context of conscious research. The paper proposes several classification groups of psychodysleptic plants.
The classifications are as follows:
- “hallucinogens consisting of psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline cacti, dimethyltryptamine snuffs, and synthetic ergoline lysergic acid diethylamide- this are able to induce change of perception in an individual, intensification of cognitive enhancement.
- Trance-inducers which include the ergoline Convolvulaceae and the South American Banisteriopsis- result in an individual being quiet, causes abstraction and lethargy, there is mild sensorial cognitive changes, and salient visual imagery changes used in trance rituals and specific divination practices”.
- Cognodysleptics which include plants that contain terpene and marijuana (tetrahydrocannabinol) this plants cause alterations in imagination, thought, and affective functions.
- “Deliriants tropane consisting of Solanaceae, wild tobacco, and Amanita muscaria (muscimol) which creates a feeling of hallucination characterized by dim and clouded realization, trance, bewilderment, incomprehension, awareness distortion, recall difficulty, nervousness, tetchiness, excitement, and misbehavior in an individual. It is widely used in sorcery, purification, and exorcism rituals”.
Diaz highlights that for shamanistic rituals to be effective, the main psychological effect of a drug such as light headedness, boosted metaphors, and an intensification feeling had to be felt. This is backed up by referring to Louis Lewin’s (a leading German psycho-pharmacologist) 1924 categorization of psycho-active medicines, such as Phantastica.
Mldner, T. van Veen, C. & Duncan, P. (1993). SLADER: Hypermedia Presentation on Drugs and Alcohol Use. Student Life Alcohol and Drug Education Resource.
This resource journal is an interactive, online periodical that uses hypermedia to give more information about drugs and drug abuse. It mainly targets young adults with the use of online technology making it easier for students to be at ease and is confidential to users who would prefer providing information on their problems to the computer rather than talking to a human being.
In this publication Mldner, van Veen and Duncan exhaustively discusses drugs: it gives the description of what a drug is; how the drugs interact with the human body; usefulness of drugs as medicine; drug abuse; the reasons people have for taking drugs and other significant matters on drugs and their uses. The definition of drugs in this publication is, any substance that is able to alter the normal functions of the body or mind.
There is a huge leaning towards providing information within the publication on psychoactive drugs, which alters the way an individual perceives, thinks, feels and acts, by changing the normal functions of various processes in the body and mind.
Csordas, T. J., Storck, M. J., & Strauss, M. (2008). Diagnosis and Distress in Navajo Healing. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 196 (8), 585-596. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181812c68.
This article by Thomas J. Csordas, Doctor of Philosophy, Michael Storck, Doctor of Medicine, and Milton J. Strauss, doctor of Philosophy on Diagnosis and Distress in Navajo Healing examines the characteristical tendencies of Navajo healings, diagnosis and distresses.
The research lays bare the interrelationship between the basic Navajo cultural conceptions and basic scientific approach to disorders.
Carstairs, S. D., & Cantrell, F. L. (2010). Peyote and Mescaline Exposures: a 12-Year Review of a Statewide Poison Center Database. Clinical Toxicology, 48 (4), 350-353. doi:10.3109/15563650903586745.
This article by Shaun Carstairs and Lee Cantrell is wholly dedicated to finding out effects of mescaline in an individual. The article gives a background of peyote which is a cactus that contains mescaline a hallucinogen. It points out that this cactus has been in use for a long time by Native Americans and that there are cases of illegal use today but they are widespread.
The paper seeks to discover the effects and characteristics of patients who have been exposed to mescaline. To gain this insight the paper is based on a research/review done by Shaun Carstairs and Lee Cantrell on the California Poison Control System database for the years 1997–2008 touching on all single-substance human exposure cases recorded.
To do this, a search word- ‘peyote’ and ‘mescaline’ was used and resulted to about thirty one single-substance exposures to the two substances. Out of this, 97% was intentional exposure. The article further adds that thirty exposures were as a result of oral infusion, five of the patients in the database were exposed to it while being managed at home while the rest were at a health center.
Agitation, mydriasis, hallucinations, and tachycardia were among the common effects noticed in all patients. The conclusion in the article is that mescaline use is closely connected to clinical effects that necessitate treatment in a considerable number of patients found exposed to mescaline and that the effects were often mild.
Palenicek, T., Balikova, M., Bubenikova-Valesova, V, & Horacek J. (2007). “Mescaline Effects on Rat Behavior and Its Time Profile in Serum and Brain Tissue after a Single Subcutaneous Dose.” Psychopharmacology, 196 (1), 51-62. doi: 10.1007/s00213-007-0926-5.
Palenicek, Balikova, Bubenikova-Valesova and Horacek start the article by pointing out that mescaline is a nonselective serotonin receptor agonist. This substance induces variable behavioral tendencies in rats though no concrete information about the pharmacokinetics of mescaline in rats and the relation it has to the behavioral tendencies and changes witnessed.
This article analyzes and tries to shed light on the connection of behavioral changes in rats and the pharmacokinetics of mescaline. The article asserts that mescaline has a delayed onset of the main behavioral changes in rats.
Kovacic, P., and Somanathan, R. (2009). Unifying Mechanism for Mescaline in the Central Nervous System. Oxid Med Cell Longev, 2 (4), 181-190.
This article discusses the proposal of a unifying mechanism for abused drugs. It seeks to reveal mechanisms that mescaline effects on the brain and resulting to behavioral changes in people.
The article puts forward that the mind is influenced by alkaloids present within the mescaline and the nervous electrical impulses are the most manipulated. These results to both visual and audio hallucination among people exposed to this substance and persons exposed tend to suffer from variable distortions that involve their sensory perceptions time, color, space, and shapes.
Bruhn, J., El-Seedi, H., Stephanson, N., Beck, O., & Shulgin A. (2008). Ecstasy Analogues Found in Cacti. J Psychoactive Drugs, 40 (2), 219-222.
The article, Ecstasy Analogues Found in Cacti, by Jan Bruhn, Hesham El-Seedi, Nikolai Stephanson, Olof Beck, and Alexander Shulgin seeks to divulge that mescaline is not a hallucinogen alkaloid of peyote. The authors investigate and reveal new alkaloids within peyote, such as lophophine, homopiperonylamine and lobivine.
This article thus proposes that an investigation into these new alkaloids will help considerably in the understanding of alkaloid hallucinations effect mechanisms in peyote.
A worthy notable conclusion by this article is that the substance lophophine could be utilized as a valuable biomaker in cases where there is naturally-derived mescaline from cactus extracts.
Freye, E. (2010). Peyote, a Mescaline-Containing Cactus. Pharmacology and Abuse of Cocaine, Amphetamines, Ecstasy and Related Designer Drugs, 3, 227-228. doi: 10.1007/978-90-481-2448-0_38.
In this article Enno Freye a biomed expert, explores the impact mescaline has on human behavior in persons exposed to it. In the article Peyote, a Mescaline-Containing Cactus Freye does not refute that mescaline is a natural psychedelic alkaloid and that alkaloids have different effects on humans than LSDs. The article claims that hallucinogens experienced as a result of mescaline are linked to sounds and the perception of color within an individual.
Kahn, A. & Fawcett, J. (2008). The encyclopedia of mental health. Dulles, VA: InfoBase Publishing.
The authors have been able to come up with a quality resource book in a convenient size. It has an adequate extensive coverage of mental health diseases, legible cross references, and the language used is fine and easily understandable. This is a revised third edition and updated in all areas that covers general mental health topics.
Due to an estimate by the National Institute of Mental Health of about 50 million Americans currently suffering from some type of mental disorder, there is need for comprehensive and updated reference materials on the subject of mental health.
A report by the National Center for Health Statistics indicates mental health disorders led close to 40 million doctor visits and 2 million emergency room visits in 2002. This necessitated a revision of the Encyclopedia of Mental Health, and this third edition is as a result of that.
The author has made every effort to sort out through the assortment of medical language so as to be able to provide the user with insightful definitions to theories, symptoms, syndromes, treatments and much more in an easy to grasp language. It presents more than 2,000 new entries. It is definitely the perfect resource material for an insight into mental disorders.
Conclusion
The manuscripts mentioned above all talk about mescaline peyote and cover wide areas of the drug; from its uses in shamanic practices, its effects on rat behavior and its use in Navajo healings among other areas. The authors of these articles have tried as well as they can to back up their conjectures by researches carried out to obtain tangible evidence to bring mescaline peyote to light.