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Delphi Oracles

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skinwalker

skinwalker

Rising Star
I was wondering if anyone has any clues what the Delphi Oracles used to induce traces in order to provide divine wisdon from Apollo to the masses? I thought i read somwhere that a smoke was released from the ground which caused these accurate predictions. I believe they also chewed somesort of leaves but they are shown tohave no trance inducing properties.
 
...light hydrocarbon gases from bituminous limestone. De Boer and colleagues found ethane, methane, and ethylene in spring water near the Oracle. The euphoric effects of ethylene, which had been used as anesthesia in the last century, jibe very well with Plutarch's description of the gas the Pythia inhaled. Henry Spiller, a medical doctor who recently joined the research group, provided details on the narcotic effects of ethylene that completed the team's theory.
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This is a quote from The Ancients Were Right - Delphi Was A Gas!

I've been to Delphi once, and if you ever get a chance to visit it is a remarkable place (both the excavation site and the town). Lot of wild cats though, so you'll have to get used to the smell of cat piss.
 
Let's also not forget that the fumes were toxic and that the young girls would die around the age of 12 (can't find a source on this at the moment, going off of memory from the tour guides and historians there).
 
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