Not all literary mentions of cocaine portrayed him in such a terrible light. In 1888, the British physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his now famous short story The Sign of Four, in which admiring detective Sherlock Holmes remarks on his use of cocaine: “I suppose his physical influence is bad. However, I find it so incomparably stimulating and clarifying the mind that its secondary action is a minor matter. ”

Koka followed a pattern already made with coffee, tea and chocolate, that is, she quickly attracted the attention of enterprising people. Chief among those who saw the commercial potential of coca was Frenchman M. Angelo Mariani. In 1888, the first bottle of “Vin Mariani” (ill. 23) was sold on the market, and a whole stream of wines, tonic and elixir based on or with the addition of coca soon appeared.

Mariani was the greatest demonstration of the virtues of coca that the world has ever known. He was imbued with information about coke, surrounding himself with artifacts of the Inca culture, spreading the garden of coca at home and filling the trading empire, which glorified his tonic wine. Thanks to his genius in advertising, he approached the closest living ever to “turn the world around.” Queen Victoria, Pope Leo XIII, Sarah Bernard, Thomas Edison and hundreds of other celebrities and medical representatives publicly testified the tonic properties of his products in a series of 12 volumes published by his company.

At the beginning of this century, racists in the United States, spreading all kinds of nonsense, stubbornly instilled fears that blacks of the South, mad with cocaine, could attack whites. In 1906, a law on clean food and drugs was introduced, which made cocaine and morphine illegal and created a platform for the legally sanctioned prohibition of synthetic compounds causing addiction, which were found in the opium poppy and coca plant. Unlike tobacco, tea and coffee, which were first brought to bayonets and then legalized, morphine, heroin and cocaine began their careers in modern society as legal substances, but, being recognized as contributing to addiction, were prohibited. Why these funds, and not others? Maybe they cause more serious addiction? Or does the use of a subcutaneous injection itself cause unpleasant feelings? MaybeIs there any difference in the social and psychological effects of these substances, which made them a scapegoat for the harm done to society by alcohol and tobacco? All these are difficult questions that are not easy to answer. Nevertheless, if we want to understand the completely different nature of the atmosphere of the pharmacological market and drug use in the 20th century, these are questions that we need to try to answer.

The answer may partly consist in the fact that by the beginning of the 20th century there had been almost a century of experience in the use of synthetic drugs that cause addiction and its consequences in social terms. The stupid glorification of each new pharmacological agent as some kind of universal panacea for all ills was demonstrated quite well. The fact that it was possible to deny or leave unrecorded documents in the XVIII and even the XIX century, is not so easy to hide in the twentieth century. Increasingly improved means of communication and transportation make it possible to quickly disseminate information about drugs, as well as drugs themselves.

These technologies contributed to the immaculately organized and skillfully managed large criminal syndicates. But the emergence of these syndicates and modern systems for the production and distribution of drugs required a certain amount of connivance on the part of governments. Addiction characteristic of hard drugs has given them a bad reputation. Governments that have been selling drugs for centuries with impunity have suddenly found themselves in a completely new atmosphere of ideas of sobriety and social reforms, and were forced to transfer this profitable industry from ordinary commerce to the status of illegal activities. Now, governments that previously received money from the sale of drugs will receive them through a system of bribes and through situations in which they will be paid to “look the other way”.

The involvement of governments in drug trafficking and their direct responsibility for this will decrease under the cover of fraudulent enterprises, replacing direct profits, while retail prices will rise astronomically. The new pricing structure has made the pie of cash from the sale of drugs large enough so that both parties — the government and the crime syndicates — could take advantage of it to the fullest extent.

Indeed, a modern solution to the problem of drug cartels would be to act as trustees of national governments in the supply of addictive drugs. Governments can no longer participate openly in the world drug trade and claim legitimacy. Only outcast governments act without a cover. Legitimate governments prefer their intelligence agencies to deal in secret deals with the bosses of the drug business, pretending at this time that the obvious machine of diplomacy is busy with the drug problem, which is always presented in such a way that any reasonable person can believe that it is completely undecidable. It is significant that the main zones of strong drug production are tribal settlement zones. Modern imperialists would like us to believe that, no matter how hard they try,they never managed to “crush” and control these zones, for example, in Pakistan or Burma, where opium is produced on a large scale. Therefore, faceless tribal leaders, constantly replacing each other, and, moreover, with completely impenetrable names, can be considered responsible for all this.

From 1914 to 1939, the distribution of drugs was mainly in the hands of the same gangsters who also ran other areas characteristic of the gangster subculture — prostitution, usury and various kinds of racketeering. The prohibition of alcohol in the United States created a surprisingly large market for hard drugs, and also made it possible to make easy profits from illegally produced and sold without taxation of alcohol.

Government drug market manipulation took place in other countries. During World War II, the Japanese invaders of Manchuria seemed to have used a page from a book of British colonial rule a century earlier and produced huge amounts of opium and heroin in China for distribution inside the country. This was done not with views on profits, like the British, but with the intention to generate so many cases of addiction that the Chinese people’s will to resist the occupation was broken. Later, in the 60s, the CIA uses the same technique to crush political divisions in the American ghettos for blacks with an avalanche of super-pure heroin under “porcelain-white.”

The seriousness of addiction to synthetic drugs such as heroin and cocaine could not long remain unknown to the heirs of the slave trade and the opium wars — international intelligence services and secret police organizations — and not attract their attention. These shadow services and organizations are distinguished by an insatiable need for money (the source of which cannot be traced) to finance armies, terrorist groups, coups d’état, and the opposition that are their mainstay in commerce. Involvement in the world drug trade and in fact domination over it is irrefutably proven for such organizations as the CIA, “Opus Dei” and the French secret service.

The relationship of the US government with the mafia and drugs can be traced, as is well known, until the beginning of World War II. Two sensational joint operations of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and the United States Naval Intelligence contributed to establishing contacts (through Luciano Lucky) with the Sicilian Mafia and (through Dai Li) with Tu Jue Shene, the drug gang selling drugs in Shanghai. Both ties have spread over the post-war period.

The involvement of legitimate institutions remains the same with some exceptions. In the late 1970s, the focus of emphasis on the focus of heroin on cocaine in American strong drug culture was to change. This shift was partly a logical consequence of the defeat of the Americans in the Vietnam War and the rejection of Southeast Asia. It soon intensified when the Reagan programs against drug terrorism and its support opened up new opportunities for covert operations.

Nevertheless, it is unlikely that this seriousness of addiction to cocaine or social pay for its epidemic could ever be foreseen. Perhaps no one ever wondered what the consequences were that the American public was hooked on cocaine. Perhaps the creation of even more effective and even more addictive crack cocaine, consumed through smoking, was unexpected. It is very likely that the crack phenomenon is an example of technology that has gone out of control of its creators. In the 1980s, cocaine acquired a form more dangerous than any of its previous victims and any of its detractors could have imagined.

This is a new and disturbing pattern of development of the “man-drug” relationship, a scheme that cannot be ignored. If today we are faced with a superactive, in the sense of addiction, form of cocaine, then where is the guarantee that tomorrow there will be no superactive form of heroin? In fact, such forms of heroin already exist. Fortunately, they are simply not as easy to produce as crack cocaine. In the narcotic underground, “ice” appeared, a form of methamphetamine that was strongly addicted through smoking. Others will appear in the future – more conducive to addiction, more destructive than all that are possible today. How, then, will the law and society respond to this phenomenon? It remains to hope that the answer will not be the hypocritical display of subjects prone to showing up as examples of misbehavior.

From a historical point of view, limiting the availability of addictive substances should be seen as a particularly perverted example of the Calvinistic thinking of the dominion system, in which a sinner should be punished in this world, turning it into an exploited, hapless consumer. And punishes him for addiction, robbing him, a criminal-governmental association, which produces these addictive substances. The image of this is worse than the image of a snake devouring itself – this is again the Dionysian image of a mother eating her children, the image of a house that has risen against itself.

In his fantastic story “The Man in the High Castle” Philip K. Dick presented a kind of alternative world in which the Japanese and the Third Reich won the Second World War. In Dick’s fantasy world, the Japanese occupation authorities legalize marijuana as one of their first steps to curb the people of California. But everything is no less strange in our world, which conventional wisdom simply calls “reality”. In “this world,” the winners also inject some kind of all-pervading, super-powerful drug-forming society. This drug was the first of a growing group of high-order technical drugs that transfer the consumer to some alternative reality, acting directly on his senses without introducing chemicals into the nervous system. It’s about television. No epidemic, no fashion addiction,no religious hysteria has ever spread faster and has not created so many supporters for itself in such a short period.

The closest analogy to the power of addiction to television and the transformation of values ​​that occurs in the life of a heavily addicted consumer is probably heroin. Heroin makes the image flat, as if “aligns” it; heroin is neither cold nor hot; the junkie addict looks out at the world, confident that whatever happens is all that irrelevant. The illusion of knowledge and control, which gives heroin, is similar to the unconscious assumption of the television consumer, as if what he sees, somewhere in the world is “real”. In fact, the visible is a cosmetically improved type of product. Television, although not a chemical invasion, nevertheless contributes to the same extent addiction and is physiologically just as harmful as any other drug.

Not differing from drugs or alcohol at all, tele-experience allows its participant to cross out the real world and enter a pleasant and passive state. Anxieties and worries with the help of preoccupation with a TV program, suddenly disappear somewhere, just like when you go on a “journey” caused by drugs or alcohol. And just as alcoholics are only vaguely aware of their addiction, they feel as if they control their state more than they actually do … the viewer likewise overestimates his control, his control of the situation while watching a TV show. Ultimately, it is this harmful influence of television on the life of a huge number of people that determines it as a factor of serious addiction. The habit of TV disrupts the sense of time. It makes other perceptions vague and strangely unreal,taking some more “significant reality” as reality. This habit weakens relationships, reducing and sometimes eliminating normal opportunities to talk and talk.

The most disturbing thing about all this is that the main essence of television is not a vision, but a fabricated stream of data that can be somehow processed to protect or impose certain cultural values. Thus, we are faced with an addictive one, an all-penetrating tool that delivers experiences, the messages of which are what those who produce this drug desire. What can provide more fertile ground for the promotion of fascism or totalitarianism? In the US, there are much more televisions than housewives, TV averages six hours a day, and the average person watches him for more than five hours, that is, almost a third of his waking time. Understanding all these facts perfectly, we do not seem to be able to somehow react to their significance. A serious study of the effects of television on health and culture is just beginning.However, not a single drug in history has isolated its consumers so quickly and so completely from contact with reality. And not a single drug in history has succeeded in restructuring in its image and likeness of the values ​​of the culture it has infected.

Television is by its nature a predominantly narcotic means of dominion culture. Control of content, its uniformity and repeatability inevitably make television an instrument of violence, brainwashing and manipulation of personality. / Jerry Mander. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (New York: Quill. 1978). p. 197 / Television induces a trance state in the viewer, which is a prerequisite for brainwashing. Like the nature of all narcotic drugs and technology, the nature of television cannot be changed; TV can be rebuilt or reformed no more than the technology of production of automatic weapons.

Television appeared just in time from the point of view of the elite rulers. Almost half a century of the epidemic of synthesized substances, which began in 1806, evoked a feeling of disgust from the sight of human degradation and spiritual cannibalism generated by the establishment of a drug market. Just as slavery, which became uncomfortable, was ultimately odious in the eyes of the institutions that created it, drug abuse finally caused a backlash against this particular form of pirate capitalism. Hard drugs outlawed. The underground markets, of course, flourished. But drugs as an established instrument of national policy were discredited. Opium wars will continue, there will be cases of forcing some governments and peoples to manufacture or purchase drugs,but these wars will be dirty and secret, they will be hidden.

While intelligence services arising in the wake of the Second World War turned to taking the deeply hidden position of the directing minds of international drug cartels, the minds of the public turned to television. Adjusting, adjusting and simplifying, television did its job and created the post-war American culture of Ken and Barbie. The children of Ken and Barbie briefly burst out of the drunken television in the mid-60s, thanks to the consumption of hallucinogens. “Phew!” The lords exclaimed and quickly made psychedelics illegal and stopped all research. A double dose – teletherapy plus cocaine – was assigned to the misguided hippies, and they quickly healed and turned into consumer-oriented yuppies. Only a few recalcitrants avoided this equalization of values. / Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shiain, Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD, and the Sixties Rebellion (new York: Grove Press. 1985). pp.27-35 / Almost everyone has learned to love the “Big Brother” (Father of the People). And about those few who have not learned, the culture of dominion still bangs around like a hen whenever manicly rakes the yard dust of its perplexity about “what happened in the sixties”.

Psychedelic plants and psychedelic experiences were first banned by European civilization, then abandoned and forgotten. The 4th century witnessed the prohibition of the mystery religions – the cults of Bacchus (Bacchus) and Diana, Attis and Cybele. The rich syncretism typical of the Hellenic world became a thing of the past. Christianity triumphed over the Gnostic sects — the Valentinians, Marzionites, and others — which were the last bastions of paganism. These repressive episodes in the development of Western thought firmly closed the doors of communication with the mind of Gaia. Hierarchically imposed religion, and subsequently hierarchically distributed scientific knowledge, replaced any direct perception of the natural mind.

The intoxicating means of the Christian culture of dominion, both vegetable and synthetic, were invariably stimulants or drugs (factory means, means to dull the feelings of anxiety and pain). In the 20th century, psychoactive drugs are used only for medical purposes and for the purpose of raising the tone. But even in the West, there is a thin thread of memories about the Archaic, hierophantic and ecstatic potential contained in some plants.

The persistence of witchcraft and rituals associated with psychoactive plants in Europe for many centuries suggests that the gnosis of entering parallel dimensions by changing the chemistry of the brain has never been completely lost. The plants of European vedovstvo – stinky dope, mandrake and belladonna – did not contain indole hallucinogens, but, nevertheless, were able to cause profound changes in the state of consciousness. The binding in the archaic feminine with the magical region of risk and power is clearly traced by the medieval church as a definite thread.

In the Middle Ages, the witch was still “ hagazussa”, a creature sitting on the hag – hedge, behind the gardens that separated the village from virgin wildlife. She was a creature living in both worlds. As we could say today, it was semi-demonic. Over time, however, it lost the features of this duality and more and more turned into the personification of what was excluded from the culture, only to return again in the said form.

The fact that these plants were the basis for entering into other dimensions was the result of a relatively small distribution in Europe of species containing hallucinogens.

Indo-plant vegetable hallucinogens and their cults are associated mainly with the tropics of the New World. The zone of subtropics and tropics of the New World is phenomenally rich in hallucinogenic plants. Similar ecosystems of the tropics of Southeast Asia and Indonesia cannot be compared in terms of the number of local species containing psychoactive indoles. Why are the tropics of the Old World, the tropics of Africa and Indonesia not so rich in hallucinogenic flora? Nobody can answer this question. But in the statistical sense, the New World seems to be the privileged home of more powerful psychoactive plants. Psilocybin tiny fungi of the Psilocybe species , although it is found, as is now known, among European species, but so far have not been able to convincingly prove that it had anything to do with European shamanism or European ethno-medicine. However, its shamanic use in Oaxaca (Mexico) is three thousand years old. Similarly, in the New World, there are still living cults based on the consumption of DMT (dimethyltryptamine), a beta-carboline group that includes the harmine, as well as an ergot-like complex contained in bindweeds.

The historical consequence of such a cluster of hallucinogens in the New World was rather late discovery of their existence by Western science. This may explain why psychedelics were not included in the list of Western psychiatric medications. Meanwhile, the impact of hashish and opium on the imagination of the romantics, dreams and dreams caused by them, became a model of the action of “psychic drugs” that have fascinated Bohemians since the end of the XVIII century. In fact, hallucinogens were initially considered in Western psychotherapy as substances capable of mimicking psychosis.

In the XIX century, naturalistic researchers began to return with more or less accurate ethnographic reports on the life of Aboriginal people. Botanists Richard Spruce and Alfred Russell Wallace set off on a journey to the Amazon in 1850. / Richard Spruce, Notes on a Botanist on the Rio Negro, AR Wallace, ed. (London: Macmillan. 1980) / In the upper reaches of the Rio Negro, Spruce watched a group of Indians make some unknown hallucinogen. He further noted that the main ingredient for this intoxicating drug was a vine — a woody vine that he called Banisteria caapi. A few years later, traveling around Western Ecuador, he saw the same plant used in the manufacture of a hallucinogen called Ayahuasca(ill. 25).

Ayahuaska continues to this day to remain part of the spiritual life of many tribes of the mountain tropical forests of South America. She also liked the settlers in the Amazon, who created their ethnobotanical medical system to use the psychedelic visions created by it for treatment purposes.

“Ayahuaska” is the word of the Quechua Indians, which roughly translates as “the wine of the dead” or “the wine of the soul”. This term refers not only to the prepared hallucinogenic drink, but also to one of the main ingredients – the wood vine. The tissues of this plant are rich in beta-carboline type alkaloids. The most important beta carboline.occurring in the vine, now called Banisteriopsis caapi, is a harmine. Garmin is indole, but it is not clearly psychedelic unless it is used in quantities approaching a dose that is considered toxic. However, significantly below this level, harmine is an effective short- acting monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor . Therefore, such a hallucinogen like DMT, which is usually inactive when taken by mouth, becomes highly psychoactive with this use in combination with harmin. The indigenous peoples of the Amazon brilliantly used these facts in their search for ways to access the magical dimensions that are key to shamanism. / Richard Evans Schultes. “The Beta-Carboline Hallucinogens of South America”, Journal of Psychoaciive Drugs 14. no. 3 (1982): 205-220 / Combining in ayahuysk plants containing DMT with plants containing MAO inhibitors, they have long used the pharmacological mechanism — the inhibition of MAO, unknown to Western science until the 50s of our century.

In the presence of harmon, DMT becomes a highly psychoactive compound that enters the bloodstream and eventually passes the blood-brain barrier and enters the brain. There, he very effectively competes with serotonin for a place in the liaison team. The state of slow release of DMT lasts from four to six hours and is the basis of the magical and shamanic vision of reality characteristic of ayakuaschero and their circle of initiates. The non-included, or so-called, objective style of anthropological description, is prone to insufficiently emphasizing the cultural-forming significance that these altered states had for the Amazon tribes. Experience the consumption of ayahuasca – organic DMT in combination withBanisteriopsis liana – has many characteristic features that do not resemble the experience of smoking DMT. Ayahuaska is softer and lasts much longer, the subject of its hallucinations is focused on the organic and natural world, which is noticeably different from the titanic, strange and extra-planetary motifs characteristic of the DMT outbreaks. Why there are so serious differences between compounds that seem to be very similar structurally, so far remains an unexplored problem. In fact, the entire relationship between specific visions and their conjunctions is not completely understood. In places of their consumption, ayahuasca is considered a multi-purpose healing elixir and is called in Spanish “la purga” – a laxative. Proven its effectiveness in combating intestinal parasites. Its effectiveness in combating malaria organisms is being investigated. And the long history of its successful use by shamans in folk psychiatry has been documented by Naraño, Dobkin de Rios, Luna and others .

The experience caused by Ayahua, consists of an extremely rich mosaic of visual hallucinations that are very susceptible to “actuation” and control of sound, especially voice. As a result, one of the legacies of cultures consuming ayahuasca is a variety of ikaros, the so-called magic songs. The effectiveness, sophistication and dedication of ayahuskaserodepends on the number of magical songs that he or she really remembers. In these healing sessions, both the patient and the healer take ayahuasca and sing magic songs. This common experience is mostly visual.

The effects of long-term consumption of hallucinogenic indoles on mental and physical health have not yet been fully studied. My own experience of living among the mestizos of the Amazon has convinced me that the long-term effect of ayahuasca consumption is an extraordinary state of health and integration. Ayahuschero use sound and suggestion in order to direct healing energy to different parts of the body and to unexplored aspects of an individual’s personal history, where some mental stress has accumulated. Often these methods are striking parallels with modern psychotherapy methods; and sometimes they seem to reflect an understanding of the possibilities and energies that have not yet been recognized by Western therapeutic theories.

The most interesting from the point of view of the argumentation of this book are the persistent rumors about the states of group intelligence or telepathy, which are among the tribes that are almost not attached to culture. Our skeptical and empirical past will make us reject such claims as untenable, but we need to think twice before doing so. The main lesson we could learn from a psychedelic experience is the extent to which the unchallenged cultural values ​​and limitations of the language made us unwitting captives of our own assumptions.For it is impossible that for no reason the use of hallucinogenic indoles, no matter where they are used, is always equated with magical self-healing and rebirth. A small number of serious mental illnesses among such populations are also well documented.

Not the British and the French, but the Americans created a whole literature about the spell and the whole fantasy of hashish. In doing this, they followed the example of English opiumists like Coleridge and De Quincey. Thus, the style of “enthusiasm and horror,” which made De Quincey’s name well-known, seriously influenced their work. Their descriptions of the actions of cannabis clearly show that they have left the impression of a kind of amazing metaphysical revelation. Today, eating hashish — with the exception of hemp-made homemade cookies made on the occasion of the holidays — is almost unknown as a method of consuming cannabis; For us, hemp is always something that they smoke. A different situation was in the XIX century, when, apparently, hashish was always used in the form of sweets imported from the Middle East. All visions and intoxication do not leave doubtsthat this method turns hashish into a powerful tool for studying the inner possibilities of fantasy and consciousness. The first test run into the immense space of hemp, which appeared in print, was the message of the American traveler Beyard Taylor in Atlantic Monthly for 1854.

The sensation of limitation — the conclusion of our senses within the limits of flesh and blood — disappeared immediately. The walls of my frame fell apart and collapsed; and, without thinking about the form in which I am clothed, even <having lost any idea of ​​form, I felt that I exist in all the vastness of space. […] The spirit (I would rather have said, demon) of hashish completely captured me. I was plunged into the flow of his illusions and helplessly carried them to him, wherever he took me. The thrill that ran through my nerves was revived and sharpened, accompanied by sensations that flooded my whole being with inexpressible delight. I was enveloped in a sea of ​​light, in which pure harmonious colors were born, born of it. Trying to describe my feelings in broken expressions to friends who looked at me incredulously and had not yet experienced the effects of a substance,I suddenly found myself at the foot of the great pyramid of Cheops. The layers of yellow limestone converging with a cone gleamed with gold on the sun, and the whole mass rose so high that it seemed to rest against the blue vault of the heavens for support. I wanted to climb it, and this desire alone immediately transferred me to its summit, ascending thousands of feet above the fields of wheat and palm groves of Egypt. I glanced down and, to my surprise, saw that it was built not from limestone, but from huge square layers of tiled tobacco! Not to put into words the overwhelming sensation of that boundless ridicule, which I then experienced. I crouched in a chair from wild laughter, which subsided only from the dissolution of this vision, like a blurring landscape, until out of the confusion of obscure images and their fragments did not arise another and even more amazing sight.The layers of yellow limestone converging with a cone gleamed with gold on the sun, and the whole mass rose so high that it seemed to rest against the blue vault of the heavens for support. I wanted to climb it, and this desire alone immediately transferred me to its summit, ascending thousands of feet above the fields of wheat and palm groves of Egypt. I glanced down and, to my surprise, saw that it was built not from limestone, but from huge square layers of tiled tobacco! Not to put into words the overwhelming sensation of that boundless ridicule, which I then experienced. I crouched in a chair from wild laughter, which subsided only from the dissolution of this vision, like a blurring landscape, until out of the confusion of obscure images and their fragments did not arise another and even more amazing sight.The layers of yellow limestone converging with a cone gleamed with gold on the sun, and the whole mass rose so high that it seemed to rest against the blue vault of the heavens for support. I wanted to climb it, and this desire alone immediately transferred me to its summit, ascending thousands of feet above the fields of wheat and palm groves of Egypt. I glanced down and, to my surprise, saw that it was built not from limestone, but from huge square layers of tiled tobacco! Not to put into words the overwhelming sensation of that boundless ridicule, which I then experienced. I crouched in a chair from wild laughter, which subsided only from the dissolution of this vision, like a blurring landscape, until out of the confusion of obscure images and their fragments did not arise another and even more amazing sight.

The more alive I recall the subsequent scene, the more carefully I try to restore its different features and separate the many threads of sensations that are woven into one luxurious network, the more I despair to convey its extraordinary magnificence. I was moving in the desert, and not on a rocking camel, but sitting in a boat of nacre, adorned with jewels of extraordinary beauty. The sand was made of golden grains, and the keel of my rook slid on them without the slightest rustle, without the slightest sound. The air glittered from the excess light, although the sun was not visible. I inhaled sweet aromas, sounds flowed close to me, which, perhaps, could be heard in Beethoven’s dreams, but were never recorded by him. The atmosphere itself was an atmosphere of light, aroma, music, and all this together and separately lifted above all that only sober feelings can convey.Before me – it seemed leagues for a thousand – a panorama of rainbows stretched, the colors of which glowed with gems. These were the vaults of living amethyst, sapphire, emerald, topaz and ruby. By the thousands and tens of thousands, they sailed past me, while my dazzling barge rushed through this magnificent gallery; and the panorama is unfolding and unfolding before me. I was surrounded by a wondrous world of bliss, which was perfect, because no sense was left unsatisfied. And, above all this, my mind was filled with a sense of unlimited triumph.and the panorama is unfolding and unfolding before me. I was surrounded by a wondrous world of bliss, which was perfect, because no sense was left unsatisfied. And, above all this, my mind was filled with a sense of unlimited triumph.and the panorama is unfolding and unfolding before me. I was surrounded by a wondrous world of bliss, which was perfect, because no sense was left unsatisfied. And, above all this, my mind was filled with a sense of unlimited triumph.

Such descriptions lead to a clear understanding of why this “artificial paradise” was so attractive to the imagination of romantics; they were made for each other. Indeed, romantics, with their interest in dramatic moods in nature and the cultivation of sensitivity, which their critics called “feminine,” bore all signs of the beginning of a revival of the style of partnership. Starting with the Beyard Taylor report, we find ourselves in the circle of modern works on psychoactive substances and modern experience in getting acquainted with intoxicating substances. Taylor is impressed with the beauty, strength and overall depth of the information, contained in the experience. His approach is not hedonistic, but striving for knowledge, and for him, as for us, the conditions caused by psychoactive substances lead to questions relating to human psychology.

The modern period of psychopharmacology interest in the use of hallucinogenic plants by aborigines is unusually short. Its beginning dates back to the end of the 19th century, when German pharmacologist Lewis Levin took his trip to the USA.

On his return to Berlin in 1887, Levin brought with him a certain amount of peyote-head cactus, which evokes visions from the Sonora Indians, which he received from Park Davis during his stay in Detroit. He set to work, extracting and identifying new compounds discovered by him, and testing them for himself. And a decade later, peyote attracted so much attention that in 1897 Philadelphia storyteller and physician Silas Weir Mitchell became the first gringo to describe drunkenness.

The picture that unfolded in this pair of magical watches was such that I find it useless to attempt to describe what I saw. It is impossible to find a language that would convey to others the beauty and splendor of it. Stars … thin, flowing colored threads … then a sharp rush of countless points of white light swept across the entire field of view, as if invisible millions of Milky Way scattered before the eyes of a sparkling river … zigzag lines of a very bright color … wonderful wondrous charm colors more lively tones – it all passed before me, before I could label anything. Then, for the first time, certain objects became associated with the appearance of different tones of color. A clear gray stone spear has grown to an enormous height and has become a slender, richly decorated Gothic tower of a very complex and clear pattern with a lot of easily dressed statues standing in the aisles or on stone pillars. As I saw, each protruding corner, cornice, and even the surface of the stones at their junctions were staggered or hung with clusters of something that seemed to me huge precious, but untreated stones, something like a mass of transparent fruit.