We at LSS have sometimes suggested one or two pretty strong cocktail recipes down the years. But nothing in the league of ayahuasca, which we came across in an article by Ian Sample in The Guardian.[1] If you thought a Pimms in the summerhouse was a big experience, get this:
The brew is so potent that practitioners report not only powerful hallucinations, but near-death experiences, contact with higher-dimensional beings, and life-transforming voyages through alternative realities. Often before throwing up, or having trouble at the other end.
Puts a Friday night cocktail habit into its proper perspective doesn’t it? And you can usually come back from a cocktail with little more than a slight hangover. But we strongly, strongly doubt that this ayahuasca (the active component is apparently something called dimethyltryptamine) leaves your brain unscarred and unaffected. Don’t try this at home.
So why are we running with this, beyond a little self-justification? Because we think LSS readers are a sophisticated lot, and like to follow all the vagaries and byways of the human mind. Especially in the discursive ambience of a Friday night. We’ve always been interested in that broad area of learning where belief, neuroscience and pharmacology overlap. Sophisticates will recall Aldous Huxley‘s The Doors of Perception [2] as a ground-breaking essay in this field. And we were actually counselled to study Alexander Shulgin‘s PiKHAL by some scientists with whom we were working on some projects at one time. We believe that a good understanding of neurotransmission and neural architecture will one day resolve the terrible affliction of mental illness. And welcome any honest attempt at genuine learning and understanding.
Have a good Friday night. And stick to the cocktails.
[2] Huxley A The Doors of Perception 1954 see also Heaven and Hell 1956
[3] PiKHAL:A Chemical Love Story 1991
#drugs #neurotransmitters #mental illness #cocktails
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