2 weeks ago - Psychoactive substances may be illegal to obtain, while non-psychoactive substances are legal, generally. This sections lists entheogens; drugs that are consumed for their intoxicating effect in combination with spiritual practice.

The use of psychoactive/hallucinogenic ... of this preliminary, qualitative study, ceremonial drug use is defined as the use of psychoactive plants as a natural healing and treatment modality used in the context of community and ritual....

Although ritual plant use is now recognised both for its socio-cultural importance and for its contribution to nature conservation, its potential phar…

Psychoactive plants that induce a form of altered states of consciousness (hallucinogen-induced ASC (H-ASC)) have been widely used during the religiou…

Throughout history and across diverse cultures, humans have sought out and utilized various substances to alter perception and ordinary conscious experiences (1–3). Entheogens are a group of substances with known psychoactive effects that are used within spiritual and religious ritual contexts, ...

Biomedical and cultural ... medicinal plant tourism that threatens the viability of local community rituals, and disruptions of egalitarian traditional social systems perverted by economic inequalities are among the challenges faced. These challenges can be overcome only if they are dealt with from a perspective of reciprocity that extends beyond the GMH agenda’s narrow recognition of traditional medical systems involving psychoactive ...

3 weeks ago - Ayahuasca has been used in diverse South American cultures for spiritual, social, and medicinal purposes, often guided by shamans in ceremonial contexts involving specific dietary and ritual practices, with the Shipibo-Konibo people playing a significant historical and cultural role in its use.

January 1, 2005 - Psychoactive plants have played an important role in medicine, religion, ritual life, and recreation since ancient times. In shamanic religions, which appear to have dominated throughout much of human pre-history, trance induced by psychoactive plants and other techniques permits direct contact ...

Drugs Used in RitualsCertain plants have long been known to humans as having psychoactive effects—they produce changes in a person's thoughts, sensations, and behavior. Drugs made from such plants played important roles in many societies before the modern age.

Healing with medicinal plants is as old as mankind itself. The connection between man and his search for drugs in nature dates from the far past, of which there is ample evidence from various sources: written documents, preserved monuments, and even ...

May 24, 2024 - Background: Most Bantu ethnic groups ... divinatory purposes but to treat and manage mental and other illnesses. Unfortunately, the research on their results, risks, and benefits do not align....

Psychoactive plants contain chemicals that presumably evolved as allelochemicals but target certain neuronal receptors when consumed by humans, altering perception, emotion and cognition. These plants have been used since ancient times as medicines and ...

The purpose of this article is to study the 'sacred' plants, diverse from those exclusively medicinal but with an unquestionable ethnobotanical value because, added to their healing properties, they develop mystical experiences and altered states of...

El continente americano es rico en hongos y plantas psicoactivas, y numero-sas culturas precolombinas mesoamericanas las emplearon con fines mágicos, …

For millennia, healing and psychoactive plants have been part of the medicinal and ceremonial fabric of elaborate rituals and everyday religious practices throughout Mesoamerica. Despite the essential nature of these ritual practices to the societal framework of past cultures, a clear understanding ...

March 20, 2025 - Hasidim valued smoking both as ... for the practical goal of experiencing better concentration while under its influence. Nevertheless, since the health impacts of smoking have become understood by modern medicine, there has been a strong movement to discourage and prohibit smoking. Caffeine use is accepted in Judaism, and played a significant role in the spread of nighttime rituals such as Tikkun ...

September 11, 2024 - After more than 10,000 years of use, the ancient cultures and indigenous communities who use plant medicines may hold lessons for today's psychedelic Renaissance.