Hallucinogens: Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, Mescal Buttons, and Dr. Hofmann’s Problem Child

Of roughly 400,000 plant species, only about 100 contain hallucinogenic chemicals. These substances bridge science and mysticism, as many users report drug-induced mystical experiences. The chapter provides history and pharmacology of hallucinogens, touching lightly on mysticism. The term "hallucinogen" is common but imperfect: Albert Hofmann noted that true hallucinations have the force of reality, yet LSD rarely produces that effect. Alternative terms include psychotomimetic (mimicking psychosis) and psychedelic, coined by Humphrey Osmond in 1957 to describe drugs like LSD that "enriches the mind and enlarges the vision."

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract There are about 400,000 species of plants in this world. Only a small fraction, perhaps 100 in number, contain hallucinogenic chemicals. Nearly a century ago, Lewis Lewin, professor of pharmacology at the University of Berlin, in speaking of drugs he called phantasticants, said “The passionate desire which … leads man to flee from the monotony of daily life … has made him discover strange substances (which) have been integral to human evolution both societal and cultural for thousands of years.” An unusual problem presents itself to me in writing about these drugs: They straddle the worlds of science and mysticism. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines mysticism as the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them. Science I am comfortable with; mysticism not so much. Yet in our exploration of the agents found in this chapter, we will encounter many persons speaking of drug-induced mystical experiences. I have attempted to get around my unease by first providing the history and the pharmacology of these agents and then touching only lightly on mysticism, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. What shall we call these chemicals? Hallucinogen, a substance that induces perception of objects with no reality, is the term most commonly encountered and the one that I have settled on for the title of this chapter. However, it comes with a caveat. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, our prototypic hallucinogen, has pointed out that a true hallucination has the force of reality, but the effects of LSD only rarely include this feature. Two additional terms that we will find useful are psychotomimetic and psychedelic. We have already considered the former, an ability to mimic psychosis, in our discussion of amphetamine-induced paranoid psychosis in chapter 4 and the effects of phencyclidine in chapter 6. A psychedelic was defined in 1957 by Humphrey Osmond, inventor of the word, as a drug like LSD “which enriches the mind and enlarges the vision.”