entheogenic-gnosis
Rising Star
From "the hasheesh eater" by Fitz Hugh Ludlow:
I looked toward the shelves in the direction of which he pointed, and saw, added since my last visit, a row of comely pasteboard cylinders inclosing vials of the various extracts prepared by Tilden & Co. Arranged in order according to their size, they confronted me, as pretty a little rank of medicinal sharp-shooters as could gratify the eye of an amateur. I approached the shelves, that I might take them in review.
A rapid glance showed most of them to be old acquaintances." Conium, taraxacum, rhubarb -- ha! what is this? Cannabis Indica?" "That," answered the doctor, looking with a parental fondness upon his new treasure, "is a preparation of the East Indian hemp, a powerful agent in cases of lock- jaw." On the strength of this introduction, I took down the little archer, and, removing his outer verdant coat, began the further prosecution of his acquaintance. To pull out a broad and shallow cork was the work of an instant, and it revealed to me an olive-brown extract, of the consistency of pitch, and a decided aromatic odor. Drawing out a small portion upon the point of my penknife, I was just going to put it to my tongue, when "Hold on!" cried the doctor; "do you want to kill yourself? That stuff is deadly poison." "Indeed!" I replied; "no, I can not say that I have any settled determination of that kind;" and with that I replaced the cork, and restored the extract, with all its appurtenances, to the shelf.
The remainder of my morning's visit in the sanctum was spent in consulting the Dispensatory under the title "Cannabis Indica." The sum of my discoveries there may be found, with much additional information, in that invaluable popular work, Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life. This being universally accessible, I will allude no further to the result of that morning's researches than to mention the three following conclusions to which I came.
First, the doctor was both right and wrong; right, inasmuch as a sufficiently large dose of the drug, if it could be retained in the stomach, would produce death, like any other narcotic, and the ultimate effect of its habitual use had always proved highly injurious to mind and body; wrong, since moderate doses of it were never immediately deadly, and many millions of people daily employed it as an indulgence similarly to opium. Second, it was the hasheesh referred to by Eastern travelers, and the subject of a most graphic chapter from the pen of Bayard Taylor, which months before had moved me powerfully to curiosity and admiration. Third, I would add it to the list of my former experiments.
In pursuance of this last determination, I waited till my friend was out of sight, that I might not terrify him by that which he considered a suicidal venture, and then quietly uncapping my little archer a second time, removed from his store of offensive armor a pill sufficient to balance the ten grain weight of the sanctorial scales. This, upon the authority of Pereira and the Dispensatory, I swallowed without a tremor as to the danger of the result.
Making all due allowance for the fact that I had not taken my hasheesh bolus fasting, I ought to experience its effects with the next four hours. That time elapsed without bringing the shadow of a phenomenon. It was plain that my dose had been insufficient.
For the sake of observing the most conservative prudence, I suffered several days to go by without a repetition of the experiment, and then, keeping the matter equally secret, I administered to myself a pill of fifteen grains. This second was equally ineffectual with the first.
Gradually, by five grains at a time, I increased the dose to thirty grains, which I took one evening half an hour after tea. I had now almost come to the conclusion that I was absolutely unsusceptible of the hasheesh influence. Without any expectation that this last experiment would be more successful than the former ones, and indeed with no realization of the manner in which the drug affected those who did make the experiment successfully, I went to pass the evening at the house of an intimate friend. In music and conversation the time passed pleasantly. The clock struck ten, reminding me that three hours had elapsed since the dose was taken, and as yet not an unusual symptom had appeared. I was provoked to think that this trial was as fruitless as its predecessors.
Ha! what means this sudden thrill? A shock, as of some unimagined vital force, shoots without warning through my entire frame, leaping to my fingers' ends, piercing my brain, startling me till I almost spring from my chair.
I could not doubt it. I was in the power of the hasheesh influence. My first emotion was one of uncontrollable terror -- a sense of getting something which I had not bargained for. That moment I would have given all I had or hoped to have to be as I was three hours before
-From "The Hasheesh Eater" by Fitz Hugh Ludlow
------
Terence mckenna reading "the hasheesh eater" by fitz hugh ludlow
-----
1 Gram = 15.4323584 Grains
1 Grain = 0.06479891 Gram (or 64.79891 milligrams)
Grain is a unit of mass and based upon the average mass of a single seed of a cereal, wheat, barley, etc. 1 pound equals to 7000 grains. It is also used to measure the hardness of water and the mass of gunpowder. The abbreviation is "gr".
------
Ludlow's first attempt: 10 grains which equals: 647.9891 milligrams
After "several days" Ludlow made his second attempt: at 15 grains which equals 971.98365 milligrams (nearly 1 gram)
Third attempt: (though he fails to mention how much time had elapsed between his 2nd and 3rd attempts) gradually he increases to 30 grains which equals 1943.9673 milligrams (nearly two grams)
Then he proceeds to describe an experience equal in intensity to psilocybin or LSD, an honest report of genuine psychedelia produced by hashish.
(He also reports behavior which would not become well known until the 1960s, he describes behavior which every marijuana user should be familiar with, but which in 1857 must have been quite novel indeed, part of why I've always loved this story so much is because of the relateability of his report, I can relate to almost every aspect of his account, which is not only extremely accurate, as well as linguistically rich, it is an entertaining and colorful read, I often must be reading in a place where I can laugh aloud from time to time, a great cannabis experience report, the 1857 date makes it all the more novel and enjoyable.
------
Does anybody know what method of preparation was used to produce the "hashish jelly" which Ludlow consumed?
I would very much like to consume an equal amount of the same preparation in an attempt to recreate effects similar to Mr. Ludlow's report. (Though due to tolerance from daily use I may need to double the dose, and even then it may not generate these effects...when I was young I had experiences on cannabis of an intensity which has never been reproduced since, so cannabis may only effect an individual in this way during their first stages of use, and over time using it, the cannabis loses its ability to effect an individual in such way...
Then again, Mr. Ludlow ate about 700mgs, then a few days later ate about 1 gram, then later ate about two grams, very high doses assuming the "hasish jelly" was of a high THC percentage.
-eg
I looked toward the shelves in the direction of which he pointed, and saw, added since my last visit, a row of comely pasteboard cylinders inclosing vials of the various extracts prepared by Tilden & Co. Arranged in order according to their size, they confronted me, as pretty a little rank of medicinal sharp-shooters as could gratify the eye of an amateur. I approached the shelves, that I might take them in review.
A rapid glance showed most of them to be old acquaintances." Conium, taraxacum, rhubarb -- ha! what is this? Cannabis Indica?" "That," answered the doctor, looking with a parental fondness upon his new treasure, "is a preparation of the East Indian hemp, a powerful agent in cases of lock- jaw." On the strength of this introduction, I took down the little archer, and, removing his outer verdant coat, began the further prosecution of his acquaintance. To pull out a broad and shallow cork was the work of an instant, and it revealed to me an olive-brown extract, of the consistency of pitch, and a decided aromatic odor. Drawing out a small portion upon the point of my penknife, I was just going to put it to my tongue, when "Hold on!" cried the doctor; "do you want to kill yourself? That stuff is deadly poison." "Indeed!" I replied; "no, I can not say that I have any settled determination of that kind;" and with that I replaced the cork, and restored the extract, with all its appurtenances, to the shelf.
The remainder of my morning's visit in the sanctum was spent in consulting the Dispensatory under the title "Cannabis Indica." The sum of my discoveries there may be found, with much additional information, in that invaluable popular work, Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life. This being universally accessible, I will allude no further to the result of that morning's researches than to mention the three following conclusions to which I came.
First, the doctor was both right and wrong; right, inasmuch as a sufficiently large dose of the drug, if it could be retained in the stomach, would produce death, like any other narcotic, and the ultimate effect of its habitual use had always proved highly injurious to mind and body; wrong, since moderate doses of it were never immediately deadly, and many millions of people daily employed it as an indulgence similarly to opium. Second, it was the hasheesh referred to by Eastern travelers, and the subject of a most graphic chapter from the pen of Bayard Taylor, which months before had moved me powerfully to curiosity and admiration. Third, I would add it to the list of my former experiments.
In pursuance of this last determination, I waited till my friend was out of sight, that I might not terrify him by that which he considered a suicidal venture, and then quietly uncapping my little archer a second time, removed from his store of offensive armor a pill sufficient to balance the ten grain weight of the sanctorial scales. This, upon the authority of Pereira and the Dispensatory, I swallowed without a tremor as to the danger of the result.
Making all due allowance for the fact that I had not taken my hasheesh bolus fasting, I ought to experience its effects with the next four hours. That time elapsed without bringing the shadow of a phenomenon. It was plain that my dose had been insufficient.
For the sake of observing the most conservative prudence, I suffered several days to go by without a repetition of the experiment, and then, keeping the matter equally secret, I administered to myself a pill of fifteen grains. This second was equally ineffectual with the first.
Gradually, by five grains at a time, I increased the dose to thirty grains, which I took one evening half an hour after tea. I had now almost come to the conclusion that I was absolutely unsusceptible of the hasheesh influence. Without any expectation that this last experiment would be more successful than the former ones, and indeed with no realization of the manner in which the drug affected those who did make the experiment successfully, I went to pass the evening at the house of an intimate friend. In music and conversation the time passed pleasantly. The clock struck ten, reminding me that three hours had elapsed since the dose was taken, and as yet not an unusual symptom had appeared. I was provoked to think that this trial was as fruitless as its predecessors.
Ha! what means this sudden thrill? A shock, as of some unimagined vital force, shoots without warning through my entire frame, leaping to my fingers' ends, piercing my brain, startling me till I almost spring from my chair.
I could not doubt it. I was in the power of the hasheesh influence. My first emotion was one of uncontrollable terror -- a sense of getting something which I had not bargained for. That moment I would have given all I had or hoped to have to be as I was three hours before
-From "The Hasheesh Eater" by Fitz Hugh Ludlow
------
Terence mckenna reading "the hasheesh eater" by fitz hugh ludlow
-----
1 Gram = 15.4323584 Grains
1 Grain = 0.06479891 Gram (or 64.79891 milligrams)
Grain is a unit of mass and based upon the average mass of a single seed of a cereal, wheat, barley, etc. 1 pound equals to 7000 grains. It is also used to measure the hardness of water and the mass of gunpowder. The abbreviation is "gr".
------
Ludlow's first attempt: 10 grains which equals: 647.9891 milligrams
After "several days" Ludlow made his second attempt: at 15 grains which equals 971.98365 milligrams (nearly 1 gram)
Third attempt: (though he fails to mention how much time had elapsed between his 2nd and 3rd attempts) gradually he increases to 30 grains which equals 1943.9673 milligrams (nearly two grams)
Then he proceeds to describe an experience equal in intensity to psilocybin or LSD, an honest report of genuine psychedelia produced by hashish.
(He also reports behavior which would not become well known until the 1960s, he describes behavior which every marijuana user should be familiar with, but which in 1857 must have been quite novel indeed, part of why I've always loved this story so much is because of the relateability of his report, I can relate to almost every aspect of his account, which is not only extremely accurate, as well as linguistically rich, it is an entertaining and colorful read, I often must be reading in a place where I can laugh aloud from time to time, a great cannabis experience report, the 1857 date makes it all the more novel and enjoyable.
------
Does anybody know what method of preparation was used to produce the "hashish jelly" which Ludlow consumed?
I would very much like to consume an equal amount of the same preparation in an attempt to recreate effects similar to Mr. Ludlow's report. (Though due to tolerance from daily use I may need to double the dose, and even then it may not generate these effects...when I was young I had experiences on cannabis of an intensity which has never been reproduced since, so cannabis may only effect an individual in this way during their first stages of use, and over time using it, the cannabis loses its ability to effect an individual in such way...
Then again, Mr. Ludlow ate about 700mgs, then a few days later ate about 1 gram, then later ate about two grams, very high doses assuming the "hasish jelly" was of a high THC percentage.
-eg
