life and travel, hunting and agriculture; they affect relations among individuals, villages, and tribes. Medical and religious uses of hallucinogenic plants are particularly important in primitive societies. Aboriginal people attribute sickness and health to the working of spirit forces. Consequently, any medicine that can transport man to the spirit world is considered by many aborigines to be better than one with purely physical effects.Psychic powers have also been attributed to hallucinogens and have become an integral part of primitive religions. All over the world hallucinogenic plants are used as mediators between man and his gods. Other uses of hallucinogens vary from one primitive culture to another. Many hallucinogenic plants are basic to the initiation rituals of adolescents. The Algonquin Indians gave an intoxicating medicine, wysoccan, to their young men for a period of 20 days. During this time they lost all memory, starting manhood and forgetting they had been boys. In South America, many tribes take ayahuasca to foresee the future, settle disputes, decipher enemy plans, cast or remove spells, or insure the fidelity of their women. Sensations of death and separation of body and soul are sometimes experienced during a dreamlike trance.The hallucinogenic properties of Datura, a hallucinogenic plant, have been thoroughly exploited in the New World. In Mexico and in the Southwest, Datura is used for prophecy and ritualistic curing. Modern Mexican Indians value certain mushrooms as sacraments and use morning glories and the peyote cactus to predict the future, diagnose and cure disease, and appease good or evil spirits. The Mixtecs of Mexico eat puffballs to hear voices from heaven to answer their questions.Our modern society has recently taken up the use, sometimes illegally, of hallucinogens on a grand scale. Many people believe they can achieve “mystic” or “religious” experience by al...
