Anyone who is interested in psychoactive substances from the psychedelic group knows (guesses or wants to find out!) that cacti of such species as San Pedro, Peyotl (Pejotl), or Yazgora Williams, and Trichocereus bridgesii are united by one substance - mescaline. It is responsible for the psychedelic properties of these plants, and its consumption has a very long tradition, especially in Mexico. What is mescaline? What is its history? What was it once, and what is it today?
Table of Contents:
Mescaline from a biochemical point of view
Alkaloids we call basic organic compounds of plant origin (less often synthetic), which contain a nitrogen atom (or atoms) and exhibit a very wide range of physiological effects: they can stimulate, intoxicate and sometimes poison. These substances are produced by poppy, bean or solanaceous plants, but also by cactus plants[1]. It is in some species of the latter that the formation of mescaline.
Mescaline, or 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, is found in many species of cacti (San Pedro[2], Peyotl or Pejotl, Trichocereus peruvianus, Echinopsis lageniformis) psychedelic protoalkaloid (in addition to alkaloids proper and pseudo-alkaloids), which structurally resembles 2-phenylethylamine, a substance produced in the human brain that plays the role of a neurotransmitter, among other things. For this reason mescaline is placed in a series of substances called Phenylethylamines. They have a psychoactive effect on the human body, stimulating it (physiological stimulation, mental stimulation, psycho-social stimulation also called empathogenic) or putting it into altered states of consciousness (psychedelic action).
Thus it is mescaline a substance that stimulates the body relatively strongly and causes very deep perceptual changes, inducing mystical and spiritual experiences (especially in large doses).
For the first time in history mescaline was identified by German scientist, pharmacologist Karl Wilhelm Heffter. He proved that it is the main active substance found in the Jazgrze Williams, a cactus called peyotlem (or peyote: both forms of nomenclature are correct). After 1890, Heffter turned his attention to the study of alkaloids derived from the peyote. Among other things, he tested their effects on his own body. Almost a century later, he was referred to by a lover of peyote, Ernst Jünger, a philosopher and World War I soldier, as the first psychonaut. Jünger, who was also familiar with cacti San Pedro or Jazgrzę Williams, described it as such in his diaries on experiences caused by psychoactive substances, published in 1970 (Approximations. Drugs and intoxication), among others mescaline[3].
Mescaline was first synthesized in 1918 by Ernst Späth, an Austrian chemist[.4].
Mescaline - action
Mescaline, the main psychoactive ingredient in cacti such as peyote and San Pedro, affects serotonin receptors in the brain, which affects senses and perception. Users experience pronounced visual hallucinations, which can include altered perceptions of colors, shapes and a deeper sense of connection to nature and the surrounding reality. The effects of mescaline can also be emotional - introducing feelings of spiritual insight, introspection and euphoria. However, mescaline's effects are not uniform and can depend on the user's dose, mood and environment. Like other psychoactive substances, mescaline requires caution and a conscious approach, especially in the context of adequate mental and physical preparation.
San Pedro, Williams' Jazgrza, Trichocereus - on the history of psychedelic cacti
Naturally occurring in cacti San Pedro or Pejotlu psychedelic, which is mescaline, has been used for at least 6,000 thousand years by prehistoric tribes living in what is now Texas. Later mescaline was also recognized by the Aztecs and by other tribes of the Americas, as well as by contemporaries[5]. They can include W.B. Yeats, Aldous Huxley, Carlos Castaneda, as well as Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz or many other unknown by name hippies and psychonauts of the 21st century.
Traces of use mescalines can be found in the Andes, where a very fast-growing cactus San Pedro (Echinopsis pachanoi) provided the people of modern-day Ecuador and Peru with mystical visions. The previously mentioned Pejotl, a cactus that grows in modern Mexico and the southwestern states of the United States. The very name of this cactus, peyote/peyote, comes from the Nahuatl language. In this language, the word peyote/peyote means something that shimmers, shimmers, shines[6]. Another name, of course, is Williams's weevil, also known as Williams plume. Also interesting is the origin of the cactus' name San Pedro. San Pedro is in Spanish Saint Peter, of course. European explorers, surely after coming into contact with this cactus (after eating it), experienced visions previously known to the indigenous population of the Andes. However, the Conquistadors saw visions associated with Christian themes, and the sky was their central motif. So they named the cactus San Pedro In honor of St. Peter, guardian of the gate to heaven[7].
Numerous archaeological evidences lead us to believe that both of the aforementioned cacti, peyotl/pejotl and cactus San Pedro, have been used for millennia. Europeans, as mentioned earlier, became familiar with the species of these cacti (and the very mescaline) upon arrival in the New World. It is worth noting that the use of peyote by the indigenous peoples of North America became very popular when they were forced to live on reservations. Mescaline i peyote are unfortunately banned, and not only in the US, in Poland as well. They cannot be possessed, processed or sold, and there are sanctions for violating the ban, such as imprisonment.
As for the United States - the use of mescalines, which is included in Williams' Jazgrzy, cactus San Pedro or any other cactus mescaline, is also forbidden when indigenous tribes perform certain rituals using the peyotl. Thus, in the legislation of many countries, one can find signs of not only the so-called "war on drugs" but attempts to oppress local cultures, mainly in the Americas[8].
Stories of mescaline cactus use: the Williams and San Pedro weevil vs. the minds of Europeans
Despite the fact that Williams's weevil and cactus San Pedro were known to Europeans as early as the 16th century, it was not until the 20th century that more documented experience with the use of mescalines.
Many daredevils stressed the not inconsiderable importance of the physical endurance needed to endure the initial phase of the action mescalines. Consumption peyote This is because it is associated with not very pleasant gastrointestinal discomfort. Although long hours of nausea are rare, but a moderate degree of nausea lasting an hour is not unusual. When the unpleasant stage, the so-called "body load," passes, the stage of perceptual sensations, visualizations, stimulation, euphoric and mystical states (in large doses) begins. Visualizations and hallucinations are caused by the following. mescaline Binds to serotonin receptors in the brain, activating them[9]. This stage of the substance's action was customarily called the transference stage. Transference meant, among other things, extremely strong hallucinations in which deities, beings from beyond the earthly dimension or real characters appeared - the "themes" of the visions depended, in a strict sense, on one's inner beliefs, views and beliefs (or lack of belief). This transference, therefore, can be described as a state of mystical experience, far beyond human comprehension or ability to describe, also because, taking a large dose of mescalines, one was losing the ego. The so-called death of the ego simply meant abolishing the perception of reality from an individual perspective, merging with the visions and feelings experienced, merging with the universe, perceiving everything from all perspectives simultaneously.
But back to history - in 1887, a Texas physician, John Raleigh Briggs, described in a medical journal his experience of eating a small amount of peyote. Williams' Jazgrz taken orally by the doctor caused him to experience an accelerated heartbeat (stimulation) and have difficulty breathing. One pharmaceutical company, Parke-Davis of the city of Detroit, Michigan, became interested in the description of the experiment. This was because the pharmaceutical company was looking for a stimulant different from cocaine, which caused rapid addiction and wreaked havoc on the bodies of people addicted to it. Parke-Davis tied the peyote i mescaline high hopes in the fight against respiratory diseases, so in 1893 it began offering respiratory-stimulating medicines, also known as heart tonics[10]. So it is safe to say that mescaline entered the era of scientific experimentation at the turn of the 20th century.
Mescaline - a history of scientific research in the United States and Europe
Pharmaceutical conglomerate Parke-Davis has ushered in an era of scientific research into the mescaline. Pejotl, cactus San Pedro, trichocereus peruvianus, trichocereus bridgesii - the names of these species have begun to penetrate the consciousness not only of researchers and scientists, but also of non-medical people.
Very important was the ethics of the research and the safety of the people on whom the action was tested mescalines. The 19th century was a century of tremendous development of medicine and in many ways was one of the most remarkable centuries of its history. For many scientists tested various substances on themselves, not only mescaline, but also the previously mentioned cocaine and even heroin!
The year 1895 brought two reports that speak of instability and unpredictability mescalines, which may have cast a negative light on the substance itself. One of the researchers was an unnamed chemist at George Washington University who chewed the peyote, to make note of the symptoms that appeared in his body and perception after being taken orally mescalines. There must have been mention of nausea and visualizations, of course, but this chemist also experienced very strong stimulation and insomnia, which lasted eighteen hours, according to his notes. The second daredevil was a twenty-four-year-old volunteer on whom two researchers tested the mescaline. Unfortunately, this attempt ended not very pleasantly, as the volunteer experienced severe delusions and paranoia.
The year 1913 is the year of research on mescaline conducted in New York by pharmacologists Alwyn Knauer and William Maloney. They conducted a study on a group of twenty-three people, looking for links between substances that affect serotonin receptors and schizophrenia. The trial ended with a negative conclusion: the researchers observed the volunteers' reactions and concluded that they behaved quite differently from schizophrenic patients[.11].
Not surprisingly, the links have not been found. After all, schizophrenia is the most severe of mental illnesses, which is relatively rarely characterized by delusions of a visual nature. By far the more common positive symptom of schizophrenia is auditory hallucinations. Schizophrenic patients are, moreover, doomed to think in an "abnormal", absolutely literal way. They often remain completely immobile, because the disease is so severe that it also impairs motor functions. Action mescalines is, on the other hand, quite different. The substrate of schizophrenia is seen in the abnormal functioning of the dopaminergic system, less often the serotonergic system, and it is the serotonin receptors that are most strongly affected by mescaline.[12]
Such deep knowledge of schizophrenia could not have been possessed by Knauer and Maloney, but they too, with the tools available in their time, could easily recognize a person with schizophrenia and distinguish him from a person who had been given mescaline. Later studies showed that a schizophrenic who was given a mescaline, he could easily distinguish between hallucinations caused by the disease and those caused by the substance present in the peyote/peyote or other mescaline cacti[.13].
Work on mescaline gained momentum the moment it was synthesized. It was synthesized by the previously mentioned Ernst Späth, a chemist working at the University of Vienna. A short while later, the German pharmaceutical company Merck introduced a synthetic mescaline to pharmacy shelves. It is worth noting that many researchers over the years have attempted to answer the question of the source of schizophrenia, using a mescaline, but none of the attempts yielded clear results, most ending in failure.
At a time when American scientists were studying the mescaline, their colleagues in Europe kept pace with them. Many psychiatrists, psychologists, pharmacologists and chemists used the mescaline for various experiments and research related to the sphere of human mental functioning. Mescaline also broke through into the consciousness of not only scholars, but also artists, writers, painters, and psychedelic-seeking users of psychoactive substances. Researchers reported mescaline people who create works of art to study its impact on the creative processes in their minds. Mescaline Thus, it stimulated philosophers, essayists, theatremakers, actors and very strongly left its mark on the surrealist trend in the art of the time (including Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, who wanted to create a theater of pure form and extremely original paintings, which every Pole knows, or at least associates, wondering what distinguishes them from others - hint: among other things, the influence of the mescalines!).
Julian Trevelyan, a British surrealist painter, consumed the eponymous substance very often, finding its effects on his mind extremely stimulating and inspiring for creative activity. There were also cases of experiences commonly referred to as "bad trips" (in English, the phrase means a "bad trip," a psychedelic experience belonging to the unpleasant ones - many users, however, dispute the validity of the term, since according to some, a "bad trip" can simply push hidden traumas and fears to the surface of a person's consciousness, helping him or her, though not without difficulty, to cope with them). French writer and thinker Jean-Paul Sartre took one such "bad trip." Aldous Huxley, on the other hand, treated mescaline as a substance that not only helped expand the consciousness of the person receiving it, but better understood the nature of the human mind in general. His famous book, "The Doors of Perception," published in 1954, was a landmark and later cult work when the so-called counterculture (the beatnik generation in the 1950s and the hippies in the 1960s and early 1970s) was beginning to emerge in the US and around the world[.14].
Mention should also be made of the religious leaders who used the mescalines. One of the best known was Frederick Smith, who in 1914 became the head of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, today known as the Community of Christ. Smith used peyote during the liturgy for a specific purpose: he wanted to induce mystical sensations and religious ecstasy among church members, cement their faith, expand their consciousness, and use the mescalines as proof of the existence of an extraterrestrial, afterlife and supernatural world. Smith himself experienced this ecstasy when he participated in ceremonies conducted by members of one of the tribes living in the New World[.15].
Mescaline was also used, unfortunately, for pseudo-scientific experiments, for example, within the Third Reich. The Nazis, including Kurt Plötner, forced prisoners in concentration and labor camps to take mescalines. The goal was clear: to discover a substance that could help extract confessions from prisoners of war during interrogations. Mescaline Thus, it was to act as a mythical truth serum. Similar experiments for a similar purpose, although not on prisoners of war or prisoners, were conducted by the Americans. The studies were abandoned due to unreliable results, but they involved none other than Kurt Plötner himself. They were code-named MKUltra, and their goal was to discover a way to control the human mind. In the 1950s, a certain phase of history comes to an end mescalines. It is replaced in research by another agent invented by accident by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman - LSD[.16].
Psychedelic therapy vs mescaline
Today, in the era of the psychedelic turn in psychotherapy, which can be observed all over the world, mescaline is seen as a potential drug. Substances such as MDMA, psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine are being rediscovered not as substances for recreational use, but as drugs that can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug addiction (for example, to opioids or benzodiazepines and other highly physically and psychologically addictive substances, also stimulants: cocaine, amphetamines).
Admittedly, there is no such extensive research on the mescalineas over other psychedelic substances, nevertheless researchers, psychiatrists and therapists are finding therapeutic potential in it, mainly in the treatment of alcoholism. Williams' Jazgrz is still used today by members of various tribes for medicinal purposes, to combat alcoholism precisely and other ailments[.17].
Mescaline and counterculture/pop culture
The beatnik movement and the hippie movement derived from it was undoubtedly an unprecedented phenomenon in human history. Here were the children of conservative parents rebelling against them, seeking their own way, sympathizing with leftist movements, not only in the space of moral life, but also politically or socially.
At the core of both movements, but more so in the hippie movement, was the ingestion of various psychoactive substances, including mescaline contained in cacti San Pedro and in Williams' Jazgrzy. The goal was laudable: to make substances such as marijuana and psychedelics no longer demonized in society. It should be remembered that, unfortunately, the hippie movement achieved the opposite of its intended results, as the late 1960s and early 1970s also marked the beginning of the anti-drug era. Substances such as LSD become outlawed, and heavier sentences were given for possession of so-called soft drugs (marijuana).
Nevertheless, the counterculture has familiarized society with psychoactive substances and, in a sense, has made the groundwork for future legislation, as we know it, for example, in countries such as modern-day Holland or Portugal, where users of psychoactive substances and addicts are no longer treated as criminals. The emphasis is on minimizing the harm caused by the consumption of certain substances (heroin, amphetamines, mephedrone), substitution programs or therapies for addicts, as well as the development of psychotherapy, in which substances such as MDMA or psilocybin are used.
One of the most famous counterculture singers mescalines was Carlos Castaneda, who paved the way for the mescaline, but also other psychedelics, into the public consciousness. He was a case of a thinker and writer who took visions induced by ingestion literally Williams' Jazgrzy[18].
Pop culture references
Mescaline and mescaline cacti (San Pedro, peyote) appear very often in works of popular culture. We can find references to it in popular literature, film and television series, but the references are so numerous that we will limit ourselves to one extremely prominent example.
One of the more interesting use cases peyote in the series can be observed in one episode of the American masterpiece produced by HBO, The Soprano Family. The main character, a gangster, father of two children, husband and ruthless mob boss, goes to the desert to experience a deep spiritual experience. With his companion, they ingest dried peyote. The aforementioned vomiting and nausea appear here as well, but later Tony has the opportunity to make sense of his life in a completely different way. He shares his insights, interestingly enough, with his therapist, psychiatrist and psychologist Dr. Jennifer Melfi. She is delighted with his experience and notes that it affects Tony positively: he becomes less aggressive, arrogant and self-centered, he is willing to make concessions, his level of empathy increases. At least for a while.
The above description is an example of the positive effects of psychedelics. These are not idle fancies of the series' creators, because such an effect can be observed in many people: "death of the ego", which we experience during a psychedelic trip, can have a salutary effect on us. However, it is worthwhile to have a sober guide beside us, whether in the form of a psychotherapist or a trusted friend, so that the spiritual experience is fixed in us in a positive way.Number