donfoolio
Established member
A little reflection on illicit plants and their coevolution with humanity
Maybe one year ago I decided to start a nursery for plants of ethnobotanical interest in the mountains of the Massif centrale in France- primarily plants used in shamanism and witchcraft.
It is about fifteen years that I had been interested in growing plants of this particular interest, and what is since then the most interesting part in the process of seeking for rare and forbidden plants, is the high quality and connection of passionate enthusiasts around the globe, bringing these rare botanical specimens to every greater levels of complexity.
For instance, when William Burroughs seeked out to find the mythical caapi-plant in the 60’s (see his correspondence with Allen Ginsberg “The Yage Letters”), he was on a pioneer path into realms of sorcery and magic unknown to the western mind until then: or at least forgotten.
Even in the nineties, plants like Baanisteriopsis caapi were hardly available for those searching for rare and exclusive plants of the poison path.
Today all this has changed. Internet and international traveling may play their role in this new development, but the spirit of research has always been there. Everytime you bring up people with passion in ethnobotanical ṕlants, one moment or another, they will exchange addresses to share plants and seeds.
And there we are today - an unbelievable amount of plants, mushrooms and other “stuff” is available for those, looking to find them rather for collection purposes or… for consumption.
The progress in this Craft never stopped and today, we are on a level where the average psychonaut knows
-how to extract DMT from several sources like Mimosa hostillis, Acacia confusa and Phalaris species
-upgrade the Mescaline-content of several species of cacti from the Trichocereus-complex
-how to cultivate psilocybine mushrooms indoors and outdoors with more or less sophisticated techniques
-how to prepare a batch of ayahuasca with plant material bought on the internet
-how to germinate complicated plants like Mandragora, Banisteriopsis and others in perfect conditions
-
and so forth and so on
For me, the point is, that we are in a time, where underground psychedelic research, independent from state or university programs, got into something quite serious about the use of plants of shamanism and witchcraft. I mean we are living in an incredible time with no need for nostalgia about the good old days.
Today the question is only how to take a real relationship with those plants while on the other side microdosing became legion in the offices of silicon valley, multinational pharmaceutical businesses took over the production of cannabis and something similar to the renaissance of the 16th and 17th century is happening now in the “psychedelic” renaissance, where the white male doctors from the universities take over popular knowledge about plants and synthetic compounds, anceraged in a vivid culture of wisdom and seeking for truth for decennies, to put them outside their original context and use them for profit, higher efficiency and less health problems that came directly from the living in a capitalist society.
For me, the answer to all of this can only come directly from the plants. It is not of so much importance which plant you will use, as long as it fits you and your availability in terms of culture, climate and understanding.
If you get interesting lessons from smoking Salvia divinonrum let's say, go for it!
The path of plants is always open for a ride, there was never a sign “private property” on it, you only have to walk on it and move around if you feel like to.
They have always been there and humanity was always looking around to find some botanical alchemists to turn his dreams into gold.
So, what are the good plants to use and what are the bad ones?
There were a lot of polemics about ayahuasca tourism, toad smoking and things like that, and in the nineties our grail was to find the perfect analog of ayahuasca from plants growing easily in the northern hemisphere.
But since then, we learned that even a tropical shrub like Psychotria viridis can be held in the average apartment with little care to collect more than you will need for your proper ayahuasca sessions of a whole year.
That you can collect wild mushrooms like Amanita muscaria or Psilocybe semilanceata in a wide range of places. You can grow even Iboga or Coca in your home, even if this demands some kind of advanced horticultural technique
- the point is that these doors have been opened and they will never close themselves after. You can forbid a plant or a molecule and say that it is an illicit drug now, but you cannot forbid the sharing of seeds and spores and knowledge and as long as there are people out there with some interest in these plants, they cannot become part of the control of the state.
It is technically impossible. It is a surrealistic dimension to forbid a plant. You can forbid its traffic, some forms of transformation and so on, but you cannot forbid the plant in itself. It will always survive in solicited gardens and the memories of the elders.
So, today, in this climate a little bizarre of pharmaceutical research and the second advent of psychedelics, I can only insist you to go the plant path. Figure out for yourself and don’t trust the lobbies!
Maybe one year ago I decided to start a nursery for plants of ethnobotanical interest in the mountains of the Massif centrale in France- primarily plants used in shamanism and witchcraft.
It is about fifteen years that I had been interested in growing plants of this particular interest, and what is since then the most interesting part in the process of seeking for rare and forbidden plants, is the high quality and connection of passionate enthusiasts around the globe, bringing these rare botanical specimens to every greater levels of complexity.
For instance, when William Burroughs seeked out to find the mythical caapi-plant in the 60’s (see his correspondence with Allen Ginsberg “The Yage Letters”), he was on a pioneer path into realms of sorcery and magic unknown to the western mind until then: or at least forgotten.
Even in the nineties, plants like Baanisteriopsis caapi were hardly available for those searching for rare and exclusive plants of the poison path.
Today all this has changed. Internet and international traveling may play their role in this new development, but the spirit of research has always been there. Everytime you bring up people with passion in ethnobotanical ṕlants, one moment or another, they will exchange addresses to share plants and seeds.
And there we are today - an unbelievable amount of plants, mushrooms and other “stuff” is available for those, looking to find them rather for collection purposes or… for consumption.
The progress in this Craft never stopped and today, we are on a level where the average psychonaut knows
-how to extract DMT from several sources like Mimosa hostillis, Acacia confusa and Phalaris species
-upgrade the Mescaline-content of several species of cacti from the Trichocereus-complex
-how to cultivate psilocybine mushrooms indoors and outdoors with more or less sophisticated techniques
-how to prepare a batch of ayahuasca with plant material bought on the internet
-how to germinate complicated plants like Mandragora, Banisteriopsis and others in perfect conditions
-
and so forth and so on
For me, the point is, that we are in a time, where underground psychedelic research, independent from state or university programs, got into something quite serious about the use of plants of shamanism and witchcraft. I mean we are living in an incredible time with no need for nostalgia about the good old days.
Today the question is only how to take a real relationship with those plants while on the other side microdosing became legion in the offices of silicon valley, multinational pharmaceutical businesses took over the production of cannabis and something similar to the renaissance of the 16th and 17th century is happening now in the “psychedelic” renaissance, where the white male doctors from the universities take over popular knowledge about plants and synthetic compounds, anceraged in a vivid culture of wisdom and seeking for truth for decennies, to put them outside their original context and use them for profit, higher efficiency and less health problems that came directly from the living in a capitalist society.
For me, the answer to all of this can only come directly from the plants. It is not of so much importance which plant you will use, as long as it fits you and your availability in terms of culture, climate and understanding.
If you get interesting lessons from smoking Salvia divinonrum let's say, go for it!
The path of plants is always open for a ride, there was never a sign “private property” on it, you only have to walk on it and move around if you feel like to.
They have always been there and humanity was always looking around to find some botanical alchemists to turn his dreams into gold.
So, what are the good plants to use and what are the bad ones?
There were a lot of polemics about ayahuasca tourism, toad smoking and things like that, and in the nineties our grail was to find the perfect analog of ayahuasca from plants growing easily in the northern hemisphere.
But since then, we learned that even a tropical shrub like Psychotria viridis can be held in the average apartment with little care to collect more than you will need for your proper ayahuasca sessions of a whole year.
That you can collect wild mushrooms like Amanita muscaria or Psilocybe semilanceata in a wide range of places. You can grow even Iboga or Coca in your home, even if this demands some kind of advanced horticultural technique
- the point is that these doors have been opened and they will never close themselves after. You can forbid a plant or a molecule and say that it is an illicit drug now, but you cannot forbid the sharing of seeds and spores and knowledge and as long as there are people out there with some interest in these plants, they cannot become part of the control of the state.
It is technically impossible. It is a surrealistic dimension to forbid a plant. You can forbid its traffic, some forms of transformation and so on, but you cannot forbid the plant in itself. It will always survive in solicited gardens and the memories of the elders.
So, today, in this climate a little bizarre of pharmaceutical research and the second advent of psychedelics, I can only insist you to go the plant path. Figure out for yourself and don’t trust the lobbies!