It’s no secret that a large portion of society still believes in the taboos around psychedelic substance use. However, in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, many different psychoactive substances were already on the menu. Entheogenic drugs were not used for entertainment but rather for various religious and medicinal practices, given the communal lack of access to modern medicine. As it turns out, several of those substances are still consumed today for similar healing purposes in indigenous communities.
What Are Entheogens?
Entheogens are hallucinogenic substances that originate from plants or fungi. Entheogens have been used by mesoamerican civilization and other indigenous tribes for thousands of years. Entheogens were incorporated in rituals and other ceremonies for spiritual and healing purposes. Those substances are consumed with the intent to produce an altered state of consciousness.
In recent years more studies have been conducted, and they have shown some promising results for the world of medicine. Entheogenic fungi and plants have the potential to heal various mental health conditions. Entheogens such as LSD, peyote, ayahuasca and ibogaine can be used in therapeutic interventions. PTSD, OCD, anxiety, depression and addiction can all be treated with these hallucinogenic substances.
Entheogens can bring comfort and greatly ease chronic pain that people experience in some cases due to terminal illnesses. They can also stimulate different emotional, cognitive and relational, and spiritual growth effects in a person that can be useful for healing. Some examples of the most common entheogens include mescaline-containing cacti, psilocybin from magic mushrooms and LSD.
Who Were Mesoamericans?
Mesoamerican cultures is an umbrella term that encompasses any indigenous civilizations that have comparable cultural characteristics. These civilizations developed in specific geographic regions that include the modern-day countries of southern and central Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Some of the most well-known groups that inhabited Mesoamerica are the Aztec, Maya, Toltec, Zapotec and Olmec peoples, preceding the Spanish conquest and exploration in the 16th century. They at least all spoke 125 different languages. The cultural traits that they shared were how they dressed, their food, religious beliefs and their 260-day ritual calendar was used to predict the future.
Mesoamerican men wore loincloths and a cloak if they needed it. The women made the clothes, and their attire consisted of a skirt and blouse outfit or a dress that was sleeveless and loose. They ate simple foods, Aztecs and Mayans ate beans and squash, but the primary food was corn. It was prepared in different ways such as cakes, atole and pancakes that were basically tortillas.
Mesoamericans also all had a very similar architectural style, most of their pyramids coordinate with cosmological and astronomical features. Many of their structures reflected their knowledge of astronomy and display iconography of gods, animals and great kings.
Mesoamerican Rituals and Various Psychedelic Uses
All of these pre-Columbian civilizations used hallucinogenic substances as a part of their divine interventions. Mushroom sculptures made from stone in Southeastern Mexico and Guatemala were discovered and date back 2,200 years ago. The statues are a testament to the profound importance of psychedelics to Mesoamerican cultures. The sculptures were buried in a Maya tomb beside other artifacts used for grinding corn. These tools are believed to have been used to prepare a ritual mushroom drink. The consumption of psychedelic mushrooms was a part of the religious practices that were held in Mesoamerica.
There were many different indigenous civilizations in Mesoamerica that rose and fell over time. They had many advances in engineering, mathematics, and architecture. Mesoamericans made significant discoveries about the world around us and continue to inspire people in areas such as science, astronomy and mental health.
Ingesting and experimenting with psychedelics dates back to at least 3,500 years ago. There is a lot of ethnohistorical evidence that shows that Mesoamerican civilizations used hallucinogenic substances in order to understand the world around them. They implemented them in religious and therapeutic practices. The Mayan civilization was known for consuming psychoactive mushrooms, cacti and plants that gave them mind-altering effects.
Mayans drank balche, which was a mixture of the extracts of the Lonchocharpus plant with honey. They would use this drink to create for themselves an altered state of consciousness. Once they were intoxicated, they would speak to the spirits to convey information about things that concerned them, such as illnesses, bad weather, wars, poor harvests and changes in fortune. Their goal was to enter an altered state of consciousness as a way to be closer to the gods and nature, as well as to enhance their own spiritual development.
Mesoamericans had their hierarchy of priests. They were essential to their communities because they served as intermediaries for people between the physical and spiritual world. They had a lot of knowledge and were believed to travel back and forth between the two realms through the use of psychedelics. Priests would consume various hallucinogenic substances to undertake their journey. The journey was a transition of the priest’s spirit leaving his body and traveling to the other celestial worlds to gain new information and understanding from deities.
Mind-altering plants were significant in these societies as they were thought to be connected to different Gods. When the priests ingested these plants, the Gods would speak through them by changing the voice of the priest. In some cases, the substances were used to ease the pain that people inflicted on their own bodies through self-sacrifices.
More on Indigenous Civilizations and Hallucinogens
In Mexico and Central America, these indigenous civilizations used sacred psychedelic mushrooms because it would help them see good or bad visions and prophecies. Hallucinogenic substances also had other uses, the Toloache plant was known as the devil’s herb and was very common in Mesoamerican cultures. It was used to treat people that would experience pain and heal wounds. This plant was also used during rituals and for prisoners during human sacrifices because of its psychoactive properties.
Several ceremonies were performed in caves because Mesoamericans connected more with the underworld when they consumed hallucinogens underground. Additionally, the setting for the ceremony was prepared by extending the duration of the music, dancing and fasting as that was believed to help them communicate better with the spirits.
What Psychedelics Did Mesoamericans Use?
Mayan pottery depicts scenes of various enemas. Undoubtedly, this art represents the ritual enemas that were used for purification and healing ceremonies. Mayans would also use enemas to administer hallucinogenic substances into the body through the rectum. It was a preferred method to reach a more intense experience and more rapidly. These journeys were portrayed through images and symbols.
The Aztecs, Zapotec, Olmec and Maya used the hallucinogenic cactus plant peyote to heal wounds and treat snake bites. Peyote also contains mescaline which was used for its psychoactive effects. Mesoamericans used the seeds of the ololiuqui because some of the species of those seeds contain LSD alkaloids. They also consumed at least 54 different magic mushroom species. In Mexico, almost all of those varieties of mushrooms still exist.
A peculiar substance used in Mesoamerica came from toads in the Bufo genus, their salivary glands create bufotoxins. Aside from being a toxic substance toad skins have hallucinogenic effects. To make their alcoholic beverages more powerful, the Maya added dried toad skins and tobacco to their drinks.
Additionally, Pre-Columbian Maya glyphs and images show that Naab, or water lily, was one of their sacred flowers. Water lilies were frequently seen on their murals, alters, and painted on ceramics. The plant’s roots and bulbs were known to give hallucinogenic effects if eaten or smoked. Naab was linked to death in Maya iconography, and it also represented the afterlife and underworld Gods.
Numerous psychedelic substances that come from plants and mushrooms are still used in Mesoamerica by local healers. They continue to utilize them in rituals and rites of passage. The discovery of their hallucinogenic and healing possibilities has been an immense contribution to psychedelic science.
As more clinical studies are carried out, medical professionals and scientists are now starting to understand the effects of these entheogens on the brain and their capacity to treat anxiety, PTSD and depression. Do you think that there should be more funding for the scientific research of psychedelics? Can modern society learn from mesoamerican cultures and adopt their holistic practices?
