History of Psychedelics
8:43 minutes
Psychedelic medicine is far from being a recent discovery.
Psychedelics have been used throughout history, all over the world. These medicines may come from fungi, mold, plants, toad secretions, or they may be made in a laboratory. No matter their source, throughout history, humans have discovered ways to experience non-ordinary states of consciousness, and sought their help for healing of the mind, body, and spirit.
You may have noticed that I use the word medicine when talking about psychedelics, not drugs. The history that we will review here is important for many reasons, but especially in that it shows that for thousands of years these substances were viewed only as medicine. It wasn’t until the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 that these medicines were classified as drugs. Language is important, and the labeling of psychedelics as drugs has caused many people to fear them or classify them as “bad”.
We’ll go roughly in chronological order as we review the eight most common psychedelic medicines: peyote, san pedro, psilocybin, ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, LSD, MDMA, and Ketamine.
Peyote/Mescaline
Peyote comes from a small cactus, and contains the psychoactive substance mescaline. It’s use among the Aztecs and in pre-Aztec spiritual and healing rituals dates back at least 5,500 years. Indigenous use of peyote migrated north, and combined with Christianity to become an important aspect of the Native American Church in the late 1800s, and they continue to work with this medicine today.
San Pedro/Mescaline
San Pedro is another psychoactive mescaline-containing cactus, and it’s historical use began at least 3,000 years ago around modern-day Peru. Sometimes called the “medicine of the Andes” due to its proximity to the Andes mountains, it was also called on for spiritual purposes and in healing ceremonies.
Psilocybin
Psilocybin is the psychoactive ingredient in many different strains of “magic mushrooms” and has a deep history in the Americas. Indigenous use in Latin America for spiritual and healing purposes has occurred for millennia. Evidence points to Mayan use of these mushrooms dating back to 2,500 years ago. There are also cave paintings from Algeria dated 9,000 years old that some believe show evidence of the use of mushrooms in ceremony. In the 1950s, a Life Magazine article chronicled two caucasian, North American’s psilocybin experience with an Indigenous Mexican healer, Maria Sabina. This article drastically increased awareness of psilocybin in the United States.
5-MeO-DMT
This form of DMT can come from several different plants in Latin America, and also from the venomous secretions of the Sonoran Desert toad. When coming from the toad venom, this form of DMT is also called Bufo. The use of toad venom from archaeological evidence in Mesoamerican culture dates back at least 3,000 years. This form of DMT was also synthesized in a laboratory in Japan in the 1930s, and the synthetic version is also used today.
Ayahuasca
Indigenous Latin Americans have been making the DMT containing brew ayahuasca for 1,000 - 2,000 years, from archaeological evidence. It is made from combining two plants, a DMT containing vine and leaves of a plant that inhibits the absorption of the DMT, known as an MAO-inhibitor. The name ayahuasca means “vine of the soul” or “vine of the dead” because it provides access to normally invisible and immaterial worlds. Ayahuasca has also been utilized for healing of the body, mind, and spirit.
LSD/LSA
LSD (lysergic acid diethyhlamide), or “acid”, does not occur in nature, but was discovered in 1938 in Switzerland by a chemist who was investigating byproducts of ergot. Ergot, and other fungi that grow on domesticated grains and grasses, produce LSD-like compounds, like LSA (lysergic acid amide). The use of LSA goes back thousands of years and was used in both ancient Greece and in the Americas. The Aztecs utilized the seeds of an LSA containing vine. The Greek Elusinian Mysteries is a ritual dating back to 2,500 years where participants drank an ergot-containing drink called kykeon.
MDMA
MDMA is also often labeled an empathogen due to its effects of increasing connection and empathy, and it is less traditionally psychedelic in nature. While there can be overlap with the drug “molly” or “ecstasy” those often contain additional compounds or no pure MDMA at all. It was discovered by a German pharmaceutical company in 1910 as an agent to stop abnormal bleeding. It sat on the shelf and was rediscovered in the 1970s by another chemist, who after discovering its effects began employing it in individual and group therapy.
Ketamine
Ketamine is not a traditional psychedelic, but was developed as an anesthetic and has similar effects of classical psychedelics at certain dosages. It was made in the 1960s as an alternative to PCP or “angel dust” and is still used as an anesthetic today. Its use in psychiatry began in the year 2000, when Yale researchers discovered the rapid antidepressant effects at certain dosing.
Now let’s briefly discuss how and when these medicines became classified as drugs.
In the late 1960s, Nixon declared a “war on drugs” , and the Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970. Before then, LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline were not controlled substances or ever considered “drugs”. There was certainly some misuse happening at this time due to lack of awareness on how to work with these medicines properly. Those who have thoughtfully worked with these medicines and received their deep healing properties, believe that this was a harmful overreaction.
MDMA was initially used therapeutically and not considered an illegal drug until 1985, after people began using it within rave culture. The danger of MDMA in these contexts is primarily due to how often people combine it with other drugs, like alcohol and cocaine, while also becoming dehydrated dancing in crowded, hot places.
Many of these substances, especially psilocybin and MDMA, are being studied for therapeutic and healing purposes today, which as you can see by the history of psychedelics we just reviewed, has traditionally been their main purpose. We’ll go over the current research next.
