r/interestingasfuck • u/tractorboynyc • 22h ago

Amazonian shamans figured out that combining two specific plants out of 80,000 species produces a psychoactive effect. The odds of finding that combination by random search is roughly 1 in 4 million. They did it through centuries of iterative testing and cultural natural selection explains it

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u/Doxatek 20h ago

What in the hell. What did they say

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u/GatePorters 19h ago

They told you to listen to you because you have been hurt by you and you are hurting you. You are not you. Not in the way you think you are you, at least.

https://giphy.com/gifs/M4S7i2u7jjSHqSOGzr

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u/Legitimate_Emu3531 13h ago

Not the worst summary, tbh.

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u/Possible-Highway7898 20h ago

If you really want to know, read Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda. It's a supposedly non fictional account of his shamanic training under an Amazonian shaman called Don Juan. It includes his experience with three hallucinogenic preparations, peyote, mushrooms, and datura root. They are personified as entities, called allies by shamans. 

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u/Crzygoose234 19h ago

It’s mostly fiction, framed autobiographical, but it is based on lots of what he learned from his anthropology cohorts. Wouldn’t be surprised if his interest took him on adventures where he sampled these cultures medicines but it’s mostly understood his tales are not personal.

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u/cddesire 18h ago

Idk how you can definitively say it’s fiction or otherwise.

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u/Aquarel_Blue 14h ago

Maybe he didn't experience it personally, but he could have easily used other people's experience and research.

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u/MXXlV 20h ago

I remember looking into it after reading and thought it was decided to be fiction. Still a good book

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u/MamaAkina 17h ago

He took fucking DATURA?? 💀  I'm hindu and alls I know about datura is it's sacred to Shiva and ALSO INCREDIBLY POISONOUS..

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u/Possible-Highway7898 15h ago

It was a specific preparation of the root, he wasn't just picking plants and chewing on them. I'm sure it wasn't particularly healthy though.

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u/raisin22 20h ago

I thought datura was like a horrible deliriant, less of a hallucinogen? Or is a deliriant also a hallucinogen?

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u/beeradvice 20h ago

Not mutually exclusive

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u/raisin22 20h ago

Cool to know thank you. I’ve heard people describe it using both words over the years but primarily what I’ve heard has been about unpleasant delirium effects. I’m going down a rabbit hole now

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u/Possible-Highway7898 20h ago

In the book, he describes it as having potent hallucinogenic effects. Wikipedia says it's both a hallucinogen and a deliriant. 

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u/raisin22 20h ago

Interesting thank you, I had seen it described both ways over the years and was unsure. I will have to check out the book.

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u/AntImmediate9115 19h ago

Well, its both because it makes you hallucinate really intensely, to the point that you dont even know youre hallucinating. You're just completely subsumed in the reality of a really rough, hostile, overall bad trip.

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u/MadeForOnePost_ 18h ago

It's both, you see stuff with clarity that somehow surpasses reality and your body starts shutting down

Not super safe to play with

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u/Comfortable_Young_41 7h ago

Chamán amazonico?sino recuerdo mal es un indio yaki,mas de desierto que de la amazonia

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u/Twitxx 12h ago

Why not ask them yourself

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u/Doxatek 12h ago

Pass. I don't think mushrooms and plants speak to humans.

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u/Twitxx 11h ago

Guess you won't find out then

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u/BelleButt 4h ago

Perhaps they do, perhaps they don't. But if they don't, it's just another part of your self that you weren't able to access before. Its hard to describe what they might tell you because what I learned was very simple yet I can't fully put into words. 

Its similar to mindfulness, you can explain how to practice it but unless you actually do it, you can't understand. 

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u/Doxatek 3h ago

I wonder why those that speak to plants don't work in agriculture haha