Plants in nature are varied. There is a class of magical plants that can hallucinate people and bring them into heavenly illusions. In fact, they are the most terrible poisons, which can paralyze people's nerves, slow response, and long-term use will make people dependent on them until their physiological functions are completely destroyed. The official name for this type of plant is "hallucinogenic plant".
Strange hallucinogenic plants
At the beginning of the 15th century, a small magical oval-shaped fruit was extremely popular among African slaves in the colonies, and each of them carried it with them.
nutmeg
The reason why it is magical is because it has an extremely miraculous function: when you are in pain, as long as you eat one, in an instant, you will become in a trance, and there will be a bright and beautiful illusion in front of you, and even a heavenly scene, to some extent, it can make people temporarily forget the tragic misfortune.
Is this the legendary "Happy Pill", or the "Prozac" that many people seek, or the "escape" that Wei Jin literati longed for?
In fact, these are only superficial phenomena that people see, and of course they are also an exaggeration of slaves in dire straits. In fact, this oval-shaped fruit is a hallucinogenic plant known as the "god of death", a nutmeg.
nutmeg
There are many plants in the world that can make people hallucinate, such as nutmeg. In the central and northern parts of the Mexican plateau grows a peculiar class of South American cacti, their spines are fluffy and grayish-white. Chewing the buds of this cactus in the mouth will cause all kinds of illusions in people's minds: sometimes they are red and colorful flowers, and sometimes they turn into colorful butterflies. People become confused, unconsciously detached from the real situation and surrounded by these scenes. In the Mexican highlands, this plant is called "piot" and it is a sacred sacrifice used by the indigenous people. The tribal leader would lead the tribal members around to find this strange cactus during the annual sacrifice season, and the area where it grew luxuriantly was named "Holy Land".
Numerous "peutes" would be retrieved from the "holy place" on the day of sacrifice and offered in front of the idol; It is then distributed by the chiefs to men, women, and children. The climax of the sacrifice is reached after people have eaten this thing: people are immersed in the illusion that the "piot" immortalizes the human body, as if completely immersed in "dialogue with God", and can be intoxicated for days.
Wild mushrooms are the most feared of hallucinogenic plants because they tend to be brightly colored and beautiful, like the devil with an angelic face. And there are many types of wild mushrooms, and the illusions they create are also very different.
For example, a poisonous mushroom called umbrella that grows in Indian settlements in Cuba and Mexico can make people feel as if they are completely detached from their surroundings, as if they are beyond time and space, and the world in front of them suddenly does not exist, only everything in the fantasy world is real and believable. People in this environment sometimes babble, sometimes singing and dancing.
Light-covered umbrellas
There is also a mushroom called the jackal poison umbrella. It places people in a whirlwinding fantasy realm, surrounded by green mist or a sea of fire.
Jackal Poison Umbrella
There is also a mushroom that changes color, the scientific name is brown yellow porcini. It is usually brownish-yellow and turns blue immediately after injury. The illusion it creates is even more meaningful: there will be many small people less than a foot in the fantasy world, dressed in red and green, sometimes swarming, sometimes floating away. This phenomenon is medically known as "visual micropsychia".
Boletus brown
India has a mushroom called Poison Fly Umbrella, and although its cap is very showy, it contains a hallucinogenic ingredient called "poison fly base". A quarter of an hour after this poisonous alkali enters the human body, it makes people enter a state of hallucinations, trembling all over, and often making some hilarious antics.
Poison fly umbrella
It is ironic that everything in the eyes of people in the hallucinatory state is put large, and this magnified world makes people feel small, produce frightened and fearful psychology, and even be provoked to madness, until they are extremely tired and fall asleep.
What's even more interesting is that someone fed this mushroom to a cat, and the cat was afraid to catch it because of the huge body of the mouse. This has led to the extremely figurative name for this symptom in medicine: visual hallucinations.
There is also a Cuban psilocybin mushroom, which can be made into a magic potion because it causes the pupils of the person who takes it, the heart beats slowly, and the body trembles and sweats. After entering the fantasy realm, some people behaved extremely happily and sang and danced wildly; Some people show depression and irritability, crying and laughing; More extreme ones may even commit homicide or suicide without self-control.
Cuban psilocybha
Why hallucinogenic plants can hallucinate people
The puzzling hallucinogenic effects of these plants arouse intense curiosity. What do these very different plants have in common? How do they control the human brain?
Brain nerves
Current medical research suggests that the hallucinogenic nature of these plants is likely due to a special chemical such as alkaloids present in these plants.
For example, the nutmeg mentioned above. Its hallucinogenic secret is the active ingredients such as myrist ether and elemi found in its fruit. These chemical components can paralyze the nerves and brains of humans and animals and interfere with the central nervous system; Mild disturbances of the brain and nervous system cause humans and animals to misorient time and space, resulting in the comprehensive illusion of various organs.
nutmeg
In everything, there are advantages and disadvantages, and the key is to "seek advantages and avoid disadvantages". Although nutmeg fruit has chronic toxic effects, modern medicine has developed it as an anesthetic depending on the way in which it works in the human body. The African slaves who lived in extreme hardship needed precisely the narcotic of the spirit, and a small amount of nutmeg met their needs, temporarily forgetting the painful reality and entering the illusory world.
Medical scientists have also found that eating a small amount of this poisonous fruit not only does not kill people, but also relaxes and excites people's spirits, increases sensitivity to beauty, and enhances creativity.
After the death of the painter Vincent van Gogh, it was discovered that a mild liquor called "absinthe" was Van Gogh. An indispensable drink in high life, the main ingredients of this wine are plants such as nutmeg, fennel and hysograss. Therefore, many people speculate that it is the hallucinogenic effect of nutmeg that attracted a generation of art masters and gave it unusual inspiration; And perhaps it was also the chronic poisoning effect of nutmeg that killed the great painter!
nutmeg
In addition, "Piute", which is revered as a sacred product by the indigenous people of the Mexican highlands, contains a substance called mescalin, which has a strong hallucinogenic effect, can reduce brain function, make people lose the sense of time and produce color illusions, giving people a feeling of excitement.
Now we know that it is the alkaloids present in plants, such as nutmeg and mescalin, that contribute to the miraculous hallucinogenic effects. So how do these alkaloids act on the human body?
After long-term exploration and research, scientists have found that the alkaloids contained in hallucinogenic plants are not ordinary alkaloids, and their chemical structure is very similar to some chemicals present in the human brain, such as norepinephrine, dopamine, etc. It is this similarity that contributes to the possibility of hallucinogenesis.
Molecular structure of alkaloids
The role of chemicals present in the human brain is not simple, they are the mediator of the central nervous system of the human brain, they are messengers, responsible for faithfully transmitting various commands of the brain to the nervous system; Moreover, they undertake the important mission of regulating the functional activities of the nervous system and coordinating the function of the nervous system.
Let's take one of the serotonins as an example. It is a chemical related to memory, pain, sleep, etc., and the body's secretion of serotonin can cause euphoria. If you win a race, the nerve endings in your brain naturally release 5-hydroxy glue; These serotonins are then like a piece of brain information, captured by surrounding nerve cells and combined with these cells, which drives the whole brain to feel excited.
Molecular structure of serotonin
The alkaloids in hallucinogenic plants are extremely similar to these chemical components, and after they enter the human brain, they are like wolves in sheep's clothing, acting as a "fake messenger", participating in and affecting the transmission and metabolic activities of nerves, disrupting the normal operation of the brain, and making people have strange hallucinations.
The reason why different hallucinogenic plants make people hallucinate so much is precisely because of the difference in the alkaloids they contain.