Shamanic Use of Tobacco

[camdemonium]

So i'm excited that this is my first post not in the nursery, whooo!! Anyways, i'm currently reading The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby, quite an interesting read in case any Nexians are interested. In the book he talks about how Amazonian shamans used tobacco as a hallucinogen, and i was wondering if anyone has any first-hand experience with this ritualistic use of tobacco. He also states that the variety of tobacco used in the amazon is Nicotiana rustica as opposed to the traditional cigarette tobacco Nicotiana tobacum. The nicotine content is apparently 18x as high as in virginian-style tobacco, and this massive amount of nicotine can induce hallucinations of spirits known as the Maninkari to the Ashaninca people of the Amazon.

 

[mapp]

I've tried the water extract snuff with n. rustica but didn't really feel anything, maybe I'll try another time. But I've been using a small amount of the leaves for awhile now smoking (in combination of other herbs) for its weird short buzz - I can kind of see with that how it can go further into a shamanic kind of hallucinatory use with larger amounts but not sure how pleasant it sounds, maybe it's a nicotine overdose or there's a middle ground to go for that effect.
I'm not sure but I'm curious too of other posters experience with rustica mainly or nicotine extracts in small or larger amounts.

I also found this bit from an interview with j. Ott from 2001 interesting on nicotine:

I have been long interested in Nicotine and normally I don´t use Tobacco; rather I take nicotine by itself, sometimes intranasally as a spray. So I am trying to solve some questions regarding Tobacco. In fact there is not enough nicotine in normal commercial cigarette to do much of anything. Nicotine by itself is like cocaine not an "addicting" substance by any rational definition of the word. There is no withdrawal syndrome and absolutely nothing happens when you use a lot then abruptly stop. Commercial cigarettes have maybe one milligram of Nicotine each and one might absorb half of it over ten minutes. I normally take ten milligrams in a single dose, and that is roughly equivalent to a whole packet of cigarettes.

 

[Shayku]

Hmm, I don't know about that quote. The nicotine content is listed here in Canada, and though I don't have a pack around, I believe it's somewhere around 3mg, and they are weaker than Malboro and Camels. Furthermore, I've been on the patch for over a year, so I've kicked the tobacco but I'm still on the nicotine, and I can confirm that things do happen when I don't have it. My mind becomes foggy and I become irritable, unless the context is absolutely stress-free and I do constant physical activity. The craving for nicotine is in fact very physical and has a very long duration, unlike the craving for cocaine, which pretty much looses all its physical aspects once you've managed to fall asleep.

My two cents.

 

[lyserge]

Yes tobacco is very powerful in its own right. It is said to be "spirit food", and is used by curanderos to feed their "guardian spirits" and "magic darts" (interestingly, Coca leaf and paste can be used in the same way). This makes sense given that tobacco is known to depress the appetite - in this way it takes the place of food, but eventually, of course, you'll have to eat real food. You may find the book "Singing to the Plants", by Stephen Beyer, very useful. He talks a lot about shamanic uses of mapacho/tobacco.

 

[camdemonium]

Thanks for the recommendation lysergify i will definitely check out that book!