Friday, October 24, 2008

Stone Age man took entheogens, say scientists

It has long been suspected that humans have an ancient history of entheogen use, but there has been a lack of proof to support the theory.

Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare entheogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes. Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an archaeologist from North Carolina State University, made the breakthrough on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.

They found ceramic bowls, as well as tubes for inhaling fumes or powders, which appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried 400 miles to the islands.

Scientists believe that the entheogen being used was cohoba, made from the beans of a mimosa species.

Interesting how the tone of an article can change if you replace a few words, like say "drug" and "hallucinogen" with "entheogen" isn't it? (Read the link to see the difference.)
Take this article's title for instance: I'd title it "Entheogens help against depression" because they do (now go see what they picked as a title...). A few lines later about Meditation and Yoga (also - and this is an over-generalized explanation - right brain activating activities) the article says: "But for some people knowing that it works is never enough. They have to know why it works..."

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