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Peyote Won't Rot Your Brain

By Randy Dotinga

02:00 AM Nov. 04, 2005 PT

In the first study of its kind, researchers have found that peyote -- for now, the only legal hallucinogenic drug in the United States -- doesn't rob regular users of brain power over time.

While the findings don't directly indicate anything about the safety of psychedelic drugs like LSD and mushrooms, they do suggest that at least one hallucinogen is OK to use for months or even years.

"We really weren't able to find any (mental) deficits," said Dr. John Halpern, associate director of substance abuse research at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and co-author of the study, released today in the Nov. 4 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. Hallucinogenic drugs have long fascinated researchers, who are now studying whether they hold the potential to treat mental illnesses like depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

But little is known about the long-term effects of hallucinogenic use. Part of the problem is that many users -- such as LSD aficionados -- take a variety of other drugs, so it's hard to tease out the specific effects of psychedelic drugs. (continues...)

Taken from: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,128 ... _tophead_6


"Only the alcoholics showed signs of brain problems. On the psychological front, Native American peyote users were actually in better shape emotionally than those who didn't use the drug.

Why? For one thing, the church provides plenty of emotional support to members, said Dennis J. McKenna, senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality & Healing. For another, Native American users are careful about how they use peyote. "The context of the use is a really important thing," McKenna said. "Most people using mushrooms or LSD in a recreational way don't really have a context for this type of use,"

Hmm...

I've always wondered what was in a peace pipe..........

lol...not Peyote, dummy!

peyote is a cousin to mankind, in many Native American traditions. I like peyote, and despite everyone else I know, it doesn't make me sick. Most people can not stomach it. The disorientation is more than manageable for me, though the taste is not near as pleasant.

*disclaimer: In my pursuits of intiatiation, I have experiences of chemo-gnosticism. This simply means I have imbibed certain substancves that are or have been used in sacred contexts, in order to better understand the context of the variety of religious experience. Of course, when I wild out and split a fifth of mescaline infused tequila with my cousin (which I did in Feb), there is no pretense that it is anything but the two of us gettin shit-faced for the first time since we been legal together. What you do is your business, and your choice.

By the way, this is far for the only legal hallucinagen or psychotropic substance legal or unregulated in America. I can make an abc's of this.

Ayahuasca is one of the best, having this name which means "Vine of Death," among the South American Yanomamo. They believe it is the umbilical cord to the soul from Pachmama, The Earth Mother. Machu Pichu was an Ayahuasca Temple where people would go, imbibe the Ayhuasca tea, and sip drago (fermented chewed sugar cane extract). While I was studying the Aztec calendar I was having great difficulty. I was given to a Mayan ritualist for a week of tutelage, meditated upon the obsidian butterfly (Itzli - The sacrificial obsidian dagger), I took ayhuasca, and was visited by Xipe Totec ( a Aztec "god" whose skin is flayed from his body, the god of the Rain and the Spring; symbolizing the Human sacrifice *i.e. making of oneself a sacred instrument* as a willing action for the betterment of all mankind). I won't lie, it was horrid, scared me beyond the imaginings of most people, and left me visibly shaken for two weeks, like when you see an angel. But I worked through that part of the fear I had of life, which few people ever do.

It was them I understood implicitly both the mayan calendar and the preocupation of the Mexicans with the Crucifixion.

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