text:
Pharmer, I went to the link, even requested the catalogue, but I do not see a search function, and no Morning Glory, or Heavenly Blue listed in the catalogue. I just received today 75 Heavenly blue seeds from the only vendor on Amazo- that had 5 star ratings that I could find. That will be a next summer project though.
tregar and clumsy like this
I may even just grow Pearly Gates next spring, as the 1975 study found double the amount of alkaloids in them compared to heavenly blue. The seeds are more expensive.
Lest we not forget that Norman also had remarkable seed extracts using wine:
Norman here said on 16 September 2019:
Years ago I stumbled across a simple method for dosing HBWR.
Grind the seeds and cover them with white wine, let sit in the fridge for a day or so, shaking occasionally, decant, filter and drink.
No nausea no aches no vasoconstriction.
I am now off alcohol completely so I'm thinking of an alternative method short of a full on extraction.
I'm convinced that something in the wine besides water and alcohol is what makes the trip so clean. I've tried twelve percent water alcohol mixes in the past and still had the nasty side effects and at the same time the trip is not as strong.
I'm thinking acetaldehyde and or tartaric acid may be involved or at least a good place to start.
Any thought on what chemically may be going on?
100 seeds of Pearly Gates coming as well now. I have high hopes for this thread resulting in some beautiful summer nights.
Claviceps purpurea vs claviceps paspali:
The problem with Ergonovine (another name for ergometrine/ergobasin):
Have read all of the "The Immortality Key, the Secret History of the Religion with no Name" this past weekend, and highly recommend it.
There are two main water soluble alkaloids in the poisonous claviceps purpurea ergot: ergonovine and lysergic acid amide (LSA). These can be separated from the non-water soluble alkaloids which are poisonous.
The author cites Wasson's request for Albert Hofmann to track down and analyze the ergot of wheat and barley, "both of which would have been plentiful on the Rarian plain so explicitly showcased in the Hymn to Demeter". These cereal grains commonly become infected with claviceps purpurea ergot, and only rarely infected with claviceps paspali. I am thankful that he states "the search for the kykeon goes on", noting that ergonvine is only one of many alkaloids found in ergot.
Hofmann's letter to Gordon Wasson on page 205 (one of the colored pics) contain's Hofmann's trip report (which he recovered from the Wasson collection) with several milligrams of ergonovine which is another name for ergometrine or ergobasin, all names for the same water soluble alkaloid.
Note that this alkaloid is only found in very small amounts in morning glory and claviceps paspali, but is one of the main water soluble alkaloids in the poisonous claviceps purpurea. At the bottom of the page, Carl Ruck's experiment with the compound was noted as resulting instead with "mixed results" as opposed to Hoffman's findings.
My concerns with ergonovine stem from the follow-up experiments with it performed below by several experimenters...it resulted in heavy somatic symptoms (moderate vasoconstriction and cramping) while the psychedelic quality was mild, and contained none of the euphoria common with LSD, mushrooms, cactus, Ayahuasca, morning glory, and quite possibly the Greek claviceps paspali infected paspalum grass.
The claviceps paspali infected paspalum distichum grass, which as found in the 1961 paper by Stevens and Hall, contains same rich alkaloid profile as the Mexican morning glory (high levels of LSH or lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide along with a handful of other simulating LSD like alkaloids) which as show in this thread all work together (teamwork) to hit the same brain receptorome profile that LSD hits, and beyond. Note LSD only hits 1 of the adrenal receptors, while LSH hits 6 of the adrenal receptors, see brand new 2020 LSH receptorome data on post #7.
C. paspali submerged cultures have ergine, isoergine and lysergic acid N-1-hydroxyethylamide or LSH (Arcamone et al., 1960) while sclerotia from Australia contain up to 0.005% alkaloids composed of ergine and ergonovine along with chanoclavine and two unidentified ergoline alkaloids (Groger et al., 1961). Elymoclavine (Kobel et al., 1964) and agroclavine (Brar et al., 1968) have also been recorded.
We also know now that LSA is a schedule 3 sedative and is a breakdown (decomposition) product of LSH over time, or when LSH is heated, or when LSH is extracted into plain (neutral) water. LSH only survives intact in acidic environments, like those of acidified water or wine for example.
3 experimenter's effects when ingesting pure ergonovine, another name for ergometrine (found in HBWR), June 1979 Journal of Psychedelic Drugs:
In the January-June 1979 issue of the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Jeremy Bigwood, Jonathan Ott, Catherine Thompson and Patricia Neely report on their attempt to replicate Hofmann's finding in three experiments with ergonovine maleate, each time in one pastoral setting. They were following up Wasson and Ruck, who tried the same amount as Hofmann but "did not experience distinct entheogenic effects."
With Thompson acting as a guide, three of them took 3mg. of ergonovine maleate, which appeared as a slightly phosphorescent bluish solution in water. Fifteen minutes later they felt like lying down and looking at the sky; then there were "very mild visual alterations, characterized by perception of an 'alive' quality in inanimate objects." Most of this effect passed within an hour; walking along the beach, they experienced mild leg cramps. Bigwood saw eidetic imagery before going to bed, and the three "slept easily...awakening refreshed in the morning."
The three experimenters were "convinced that ergonovine was psychoactive, but only J.B. was persuaded the drug was entheogenic." They decided to try it again two weeks later in an increased dosage of 5 mg., but Neely took only 3.75mg. "Again, we experienced lassitude and leg cramps, more pronounced than in the earlier experiment." The psychic effects were more intense than previously, particularly eidetic imagery. "Now it was clear to all of us that ergonovine was entheogenic...The entheogenic effects, however, were very mild, while the somatic effects were quite strong. We had none of the euphoria characteristic of LSD and Psilocybin experiences."
To determine if higher consciousness alteration was possible, they tried larger oral doses of ergonovine maleate a week later. This time, Neely took a dose of 7.5mg and the others took 10mg:
"One of us (J.O.) described "flashes in periphery, ringing in ears, inner restlessness" 40 minutes after ingestion, and later noted "mild hallucinosis, cramps in legs and felt the cramping in the legs as painful and debilitating. The psychic effects did not increase with the same magnitude as the somatic effects...For what seemed like hours, we lay on our backs atop a small pumphouse, watching fluffy cumulus clouds pass silently above us. The effects were still quite intense six hours after ingestion. One of us experienced abundant eidetic imagery, rapidly-changing, colorful geometric patterns, undulating, never still. We all had a slight hangover the following morning."
Albert Hofmann even stated that Claviceps Paspali ergot which infects paspalum grass commonly all around the Mediterranean basin contains the same rich alkaloid profile as the Mexican morning glory long ago, and could have likely been a source of the Kykeon.
Albert Hofmann (page 10) of "The Road to Eleusis" by Wasson, Hofmann & Ruck: "Chapter 2, a challenging question and my answer":hxxps://maps.org/images/pdf/books/eleusis.pdf
There is a further finding that may prove to be of utmost importance in considering Wasson's question. The main constituents of the Mexican morning glory seeds are (a) lysergic acid amide (=ergine), and (b) lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide (LSH), and these are also the main alkaloids in ergot growing on the wild grass Paspalum distichum L. This grass grows commonly all around the Mediterranean basin and is often infected with Claviceps paspali. F. Arcamone et al.3 were the first to discover these alkaloids in ergot of P. distichum, in 1960.
Professor Carl Ruck even states on page 131 of his book "Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess, Secrets of Eleusis" that claviceps paspali was found in the 1961 study I cite at bottom to contain not only LSA, but LSH.
Note (1) Researchers showed in 1961 that Claviceps paspali produces high amounts of LSH in culture: "Production of a new lysergic acid derivative (LSH or Lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide) by a strain of Claviceps paspali, Stevens & Hall". One of the studies I read indicated they picked the infected ergot from paspalum distichum grass in the vicinity of Rome.
Note (2) 2016 Polish morning glory study found 3x higher amounts of LSH in MG seeds direct from grower/producer vs retail, hxxps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830885/ LSA is a decomposition product of LSH over time.
seeds direct from growers: 1.71 LSH to 5.08 penniclavine ratio
seeds off retail racks: 0.54 LSH to 4.75 penniclavine ratio
It is possible fresh black seeds from vine could likely be near 5.00 LSH to 5.00 penniclavine ratio, vacuum pack and freeze the freshly picked seeds to maintain their high LSH potency indefinitely.
Myc likes this
#25 pharmer
pharmer
download the catalogue as a pdf file
it's searchable
tregar and Coopdog like this
Has the Mystery of the Eleusinian Mysteries been solved?
Ivan Valencic
Yearbook for Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness,
Issue 3, 1994, pp325-336. ©VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1995.
In ancient Greece near Eleusis, about 20 kilometers north-west from Athens, a special event was celebrated every September. According to the tradition the goddess Demeter was said to have been reunited here with her daughter Kore, who was also known as Persephone, after she had been kidnapped by the god of the underworld Pluto.
The festival of the mysteries took place twice a year, in spring and in autumn, but the former was not so great and important as the latter. The mysteries, whose origins date to the prehellenic era, became particularly popular when Eleusis came under sovereignty of Athens. In the 5th century B.C. the telesterion—the great hall of mysteries was built there. In this building the most important part of the ritual is supposed to have occurred: the ingestion of the kykeon, the mysterious sacrament that caused in participants intensive psychic changes, which cleared their souls, and made them accept death not so much as harm as a blessing, as one of the ancient diarists reported. In the late Roman period the mysteries no longer took place every year, and the cult was finally destroyed in 395 A.D. or the year after it when the troops of Alaric demolished the temple at Eleusis.
The organization of the September' s ritual, which lasted nine days, was supervised by two families who passed the performance of their duties from generation to generation. They were forbidden to reveal the essence of the mysteries, the slightest revelation was threatened by death penalty. The secret of the mysteries had been extremely well guarded, so that with the rise of Christianity the sure knowledge about the essence of the mysteries and especially of the nature of the Eleusinian sacrament has been lost forever.
Anyone who spoke Greek could be initiated, even slaves and women (GOLDHILL, 1993), which leads to the conclusion that the ingestion of the kykeon must not have had a detrimental effect on possible pregnancies. Initiates were promised a special life in the underworld after death, and during the Roman era the festival became a cosmopolitan event. Great processions went from Athens to Eleusis with songs and other ritual celebrations on the only road built in ancient Greece before the arrival of the Romans. The dramatic enactment of the myth of Demeter and Kore was the most famous and widely celebrated cult in the ancient Greek world.
The central mystery of the Eleusinian mysteries pertains to the nature of the kykeon—the mixture drunk by initiates at the autumnal Eleusinian festival. It was no doubts of palpable nature, so that something was drunk in the telesterion in reality and not only in effigy as some historians supposed. This is well supported by the infamous scandalous event that took place in 415 B.C. when the powerful political and military leader of Athens Alkibiades stole the kykeon at Eleusis and entertained by it himself and his friends. Another conclusion can be inferred from this incident: the ingestion of the kykeon must have been a pleasant and therefore sought-after experience. This was confirmed by many writers of antiquity who participated at the mysteries, and to my knowledge there are no reports on bad trips in the ancient texts that have been preserved.
On the contrary, many wrote about the joyful, revealing, truly psychedelic or entheogenic experience (ta hiera—the holy was the only term that initiates were supposed to say when describing their mysterious experience).
The ingredients of the kykeon were revealed in the seventh century B.C. in the so called Homeric Hymn to Demeter (it was written by an anonymous poet and not by Homer) as follows; water, barley and blechon or glechon—a fragrant Mediterranean mint, probably Mentha pulegium or Mentha aquatica (RÄTSCH, 1992). This is the only known reference to the composition of the kykeon and it seems somehow incompatible with the secret tightly guarded by the two hierophantic families who were in charge of making it and dispensing at Eleusis. After all, if the recipe for the kykeon had been as simple as that mentioned in the Homeric Hymn, many in ancient Greece would have been mixing their own kykeon, which was, of course, not the case.
As to who first surmised that the kykeon had had psychedelic activity, I have come across three references. According to different sources it was in 1956 or 1962 or 1964 that the hypothesis was proposed that the kykeon might have contained a psychedelic substance. ALBERT HOFMANN (1983) cites KARL KERÉNYI'S work (1962) as the first having made the statement that the kykeon was a mixture containing a hallucinogenic drug. JONATHAN OTT in Pharmacotheon (1993) says that this idea was first suggested by R. GORDON WASSON in 1956, while TERENCE McKENNA in Food of the Gods (1992) gives this credit to ROBERT GRAVES in 1964. Be that as it may, both, WASSON and GRAVES believed that the intoxicating beverage most probably contained mushrooms. WASSON thought that the secret of the mysteries would be found in indoles, while GRAVES gave more credence to the fly agaric hypothesis, although he conceded that also a psilocybian mushroom (Panaeolus papilionaceus) may have been added to the kykeon. (A collection of GRAVES' work, published in London in 1962, sets the origin of this text in 1960.) What catches one's attention is that mushrooms are quite unlike any of the ingredients of the kykeon, according to the Homeric Hymn.
Let us for a moment digress to a similar mystery to that of Eleusis: the nature of the famous Vedic medicine soma and its Iranian variety haoma. In Rig Veda and Atharva Veda there are many references to the appearance as well as the action of soma, and based on them numerous hypotheses were proposed about its botanical identity. Researchers suggested that soma was fly agaric, Syrian rue, ephedra, mandrake or other tropane derivatives containing plants, hemp, psilocybian mushrooms (e.g. Stropharia cubensis) and a couple of other plants, each differing from one another more than perceptibly in its shape and the psychoactive effects it induces.
Today the mystery of soma lies unresolved as so many of the passages in the Vedas that refer to soma are too vague and much more unreliable in their meaning than presumed by WASSON and other scholars who attempted its solving. Is there any possibility that this is the case also for the Eleusinian mysteries, that the reference in the Homeric Hymn of the kykeon is not only unreliable but even deceptive in order to hide the true nature of the sacred libation? For this and other reasons that will be mentioned, some researchers, in recent years most notably T. McKENNA, believe that the mystery of the Eleusinian mysteries has not been satisfactorily solved.
Researchers who attempted to solve the Eleusinian mystery according to the Hymn to Demeter directed their attention to barley since few if any mints are psychoactive. Barley has been known to have been infested like other grains by rust-ergot fungus (Claviceps purpurea and Claviceps paspali) since ancient times Many written testimonies exist about that. Ergot does have established psychedelic effects, it is after all the source of Iysergic acid, the precursor of many psychedelic substances, among them LSD. It seemed only natural that the parasitic fungus growing on barley rendered to the Eleusinian sacrament its psychedelic power.
The theory that the kykeon derived its psychoactive effects from ergot was proposed at the Second International Conference on Hallucinogenic Mushrooms near Port Townsend, WA on October 28th, 1977, by R. GORDON WASSON, ALBERT HOFMANN and CARL A. P. RUCK. Next year appeared the famous book The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries by the same authors. In it, at first, Wasson gives an account of his experience with Mexican psilocybian mushrooms and explains why he thinks that the drinking of the Eleusinian potion involved a similar experience.
The second part, written by A. HOFMANN, offers an explanation of how in ancient Greece a psychedelic potion could have been prepared from the ergot fungus. HOFMANN explains that ergoline alkaloids more or less fall into two categories: non-water soluble peptide alkaloids, which exert more toxic effects, and water soluble Iysergic acid derivatives with psychedelic effects more pronounced. Of the latter that appear in nature the most important are ergine (D-lysergic acid amide) the psychoactive principle of many species of Convolvulaceae, and ergonovine (D-lysergic acid-L-2-propanolamide).
HOFMANN reports that he ingested 2.0 mg of ergonovine maleate, which is about six times the normal dose used in medicine for ceasing postpartum haemorrhaging He experienced some psychedelic activity that lasted more than five hours, although WASSON and RUCK, who later also took ergonovine maleate at the same dose, did not experience any distinct psychedelic effects. HOFMANN stated that the ancient Greeks, or at least some of them, could have made a safe psychedelic beverage with an aqueous infusion of ergot thereby separating the water soluble alkaloids from more dangerous peptide ones.
But when GORDON WASSON asked HOFMANN the question: Whether early man in Greece could have hit on a method to isolate a hallucinogen from ergot...", his answer to this challenging question considered two possibilities: one was the above-mentioned aqueous extract from ergot of barley with ergonovine as a possible psychoactive agent, and the other was what one could call the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis. Claviceps paspali, which only very seldom infest barley, is often found on the Mediterranean wild grass Paspalum distichum, which must surely have grown also near Eleusis.
ALBERT HOFMANN writes in his contribution to The Road to Eleusis that this finding may prove to be of the utmost importance in considering WASSON'S question: the main alkaloids isolated from ergot of Paspalum are the same as those found in the ancient Mexican sacred drug ololiuqui, i.e. ergine and Iysergic acid hydroxyethylamide. In his opinion the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis is much more probable than the barley-ergot hypothesis, as it is well established that these alkaloids have psychedelic activity. In the psychedelic usage of seeds of Convolvulaceae he sees the convincing proof that the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis is tenable (HOFMANN, 1994).
In the third part C.A.P. RUCK with the assistance of DANNY STAPLES renders detailed explanation of the Hymn to Demeter and cites the information from related Greek texts that pertain to Demeter's Eleusinian cult. In this and two following writings RUCK (1981; 1983) expounds some historical evidence that ergot was the key ingredient in Demeter's potion, from the fact that Demeter was often called Ersybe—ergot to the purple colour of her robes, which was supposed to reflect the dark purplish-brown hue of Claviceps. It would seem that the kykeon containing ergot of Paspalum is not the kykeon according to the Homeric Hymn any more. But in HOFMANN'S opinion barley was not believed to be the psychedelic principle, but a nutrient extract and mint as a stomachicum. The admixture of mint fits well into the ergot hypothesis of the kykeon, because it is well known that ergot preparations produce light nausea which can be counteracted by mint (HOFMANN, 1994). There is no doubt that principle ergoline alkaloids of C. paspali produce a genuine psychedelic reaction.
The WASSON/HOFMANN/RUCK theory, albeit bold, seems to be well argued. But, as the burden of proof is on those who assert, we must ask along with T. McKENNA if it has been subjected to the acid test (McKENNA, 1992): that means actually brewing the superior psychedelically working kykeon from ergot infested plants. After HOFMANN'S and his co-authors' self-experiments, there seem to be only three more published accounts of similar trials. All were with pure substances: ergonovine maleate (BIGWOOD ET AL., 1979) and methylergonovine (OTT & NEELY, 1980), but none were with an aqueous solution of ergot. In a recent letter JONATHAN OTT (1994) informed me that to his knowledge no one has yet shown by psychonautic assay that the WASSON/HOFMANN/RUCK kykeon (a filtered aqueous infusion of ergot of barley, as he says) definitely yields a psychedelic experience.
The results with the mentioned ingestion of ergonovine and methyl-ergonovine, respectively, were not exactly impressive and, in other words, not at all confirmative of the ergot of barley hypothesis considering they were purported to assess it. JEREMY BIGWOOD, JONATHAN OTT, CATHERINE THOMPSON and PATRICIA NEELY in August 1978 repeated Hofmann's experiment with higher doses: from 3.0 to 10.0 mg of ergonovine maleate (BIGWOOD ET AL., 1979). The intoxication at 3.0 mg produced very mild visual alterations, lassitude and mild leg cramps. The effects tapered off in seven hours. At 5.0 mg, lassitude and cramps were more pronounced. The psychic effects were also more intense, particularly eidetic phenomena, but they were still mild, while the somatic effects were quite strong. Only at 10.0 mg were visual effects comparable to a threshold dose of LSD or psilocybin, but the physical effects (cramping) were already painful and debilitating. The experimenters were also in a kind of dreamy state, as the natural psychoactive ergoline alkaloids, apart from LSD, show a pronounced narcotic component.
The researchers concluded that, although psychedelic effects of ergonovine were similar to those of a minimal dose of LSD, its somatic effects so much overshadowed the psychic ones that they had no wish to ingest it at psychedelic doses any more. Two years later J. OTT and P. NEELY (1980) attempted a similar experiment with methylergonovine (D-lysergic acid-(+)-2-butanolamide) at 2.0 mg each. Somatic effects included vertigo, salivation, mild cramping, yawning, and psychic effects mostly excited imagination and visualization from auditory cues. The trip was reminiscent of LSD but much milder and more superficial. As with ergonovine, a semi-narcotic state was experienced during it. Uncomfortable somatic effects, again this time, were overshadowing bland psychic changes, which were a far cry from what the Homeric Hymn tells about the initiation experience at Eleusis: "Blissful is he among men on Earth who has beheld that", or what PINDAR and CICERO and others reported.
The latest published experiment with the ingestion of an ergoline alkaloid is by MICHAEL RIPINSKY-NAXON, who in his book The Nature of Shamanism (1993) mentions that he and his co-workers ingested 6.0 mg of ergonovine without giving many details about the setting. They had unimpressive psychic changes, mostly low perceptual alterations, accompanied with leg cramps.
As I have already mentioned, there are no reports on experiments with water soaked ergot rust, which is completely understandable keeping in mind the historical evidence about the ingestion of ergot infested grain. Ergotism killed thousands of people, and very unpleasant experiences can be logically expected by those who set out to prove the ergot of barley hypothesis. Reservations about this part of WASSON/HOFMANN/RUCK theory are best summarized by T. McKENNA (1992): how could an ergotized beverage have been taken for so many centuries without unpleasant side effects, becoming a part of the legend? As it was clearly shown, even water soluble alkaloids exert painful somatic effects. How is it that no ancient writer who wrote about the Eleusinian initiation mentioned the similarities between it and ergot poisoning? They were all deeply impressed by the experience in a positive way, and reports exist only on truly psychedelic and even transcendental experiences. There are no reports on bad trips accompanied with somatic tormentation and pain that always result from ergot ingestion.
Despite the fact that certain ergoline alkaloid containing fungi are used in psychedelic preparations in some parts of the world (OTT, 1993), it is clear that they are used only as additives to another component that has the central psychedelic role in a preparation, and that they tend to produce a much more deliriant entheogenic experience, especially when used alone.
Is there any possibility that the kykeon might have contained other ingredients besides those mentioned in the Hymn to Demeter that alleviated the unpleasant effects of ergoline alkaloids? Some researchers (RÄTSCH, 1992; RIPINSKY-NAXON, 1993) suppose that opium was an additive to the kykeon. Demeter as well as Persephone were associated with poppy and many iconographic motifs of the two goddesses with poppy pods have been found. It is well known that more or less all depressants (e.g. neuroleptics, barbiturates, benzodiazepines) suppress an LSD induced psychedelic reaction, and among some LSD consumers the easiest way to abort the trip is by smoking some heroin.
I asked some researchers about the possible interaction of ergoline and opium alkaloids. J. OTT (1994) is skeptical of presumed anti-LSD activity of heroin and other opiates, whereas A. HOFMANN (1994) and ALEXANDER SHULGIN (1994) believe that opiates must have, like other downers, a diminishing effect on a lysergic acid derivative induced trip. Since no controlled human studies seem to exist about that interaction, there is only some animal work to refer to (experiments cited by SANKAR, 1975). It showed a clear antagonism between LSD and morphine in mice, rabbits and dogs, but Shulgin says that he would look at SANKAR'S review with some care. As we know that the psychedelic reaction is almost impossible to observe in experimental animals, the definitive solution of this problem cannot be expected until human trials are conducted in accordance with relevant statistical criteria. Yet, I think, it is plausible to conjecture that a possible opium addition to an ergotized preparation could only diminish its psychedelic strength and not enhance it.
And so, is there a reasonable probability that ergot of barley or some of its alkaloids played the central psychedelic role in the kykeon? In the opinion of some researchers, including me, it is not very likely. Only by the ingestion of the kykeon, mixed according to the first part of the WASSON/HOFMANN/RUCK theory m a sufficient dose to produce a genuine psychedelic experience without some dire consequences, can this hypothesis be irrevocably proved or disproved. It is unfortunate for research but, I believe, by all means fortunate for researchers, that no one has attempted to do so. In one of his letters, JONATHAN OTT (1994) informed me that he intended to test the ergot (of barley) hypothesis one day soon. I think that we all should eagerly, but of course not too eagerly, expect the results of his ergot-self-experimentation.
The Paspalum-ergot hypothesis is much less publicized and sometimes even omitted in many a work that deals with the Eleusinian mysteries as well as in letters I have exchanged with some of their authors recently. In practically all writings after The Road to Eleusis about this topic I have come across the emphasis on and sometimes even the preoccupation with ergot of barley (C. purpurea) as the central ingredient of the kykeon and ergonovine as its most important psychedelic alkaloid (cf. just the most recent work: RÄTSCH, 1992; OTT, 1993; ripinsky-naxon, 1993). This is no doubts the consequence of literally sticking to the words of the Hymn to Demeter, which I firmly believe do not contain the truth, or at least not the whole truth about the composition of the kykeon.
As to the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis, I must say at first that I have not come across any reference about the ingestion of C. paspali by man, either accidentally or on purpose. It is only known that a neurological disorder, Dalligrass poisoning also called "paspalum staggers", occurs when cattle graze Paspalum dilatatum infected with the fungus Claviceps paspali (COLE & AL., 1977; SPRINGER & CLARDY, 1980; GALLAGHER, LEUTWILER & AL., 1980). Clinical signs of paspalum staggers are tremors, which are exaggerated by enforced movement, hyperexcitability and ataxia. Mortalities from the disease are generally caused by accident or inability of affected animals to obtain water. Affected animals generally recover from the disease if removed from the toxic pasture.
At least five tremorgenic substances were isolated from Claviceps paspali, three of them were named as paspaline, paspalicine and paspalinine. With the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis there are two possibilities:
1) The paspali metabolites, which are soluble in most organic solvents (COLE ET AL., 1977), are not water soluble, or at least not in a sufficient grade to have been extracted in the kykeon. If these alkaloids accumulate mostly intracellurarly in oleosomes as do ergopeptides in Claviceps purpurea, then it is reasonable to conclude that they were not in the kykeon in toxic quantities.
2) If the paspali metabolites are water soluble and accumulate mostly extracellularly like simple Iysergic acid derivatives and clavines, it would mean that the kykeon must have been tremorgenic at least. There is, of course, some possibility that the paspali alkaloids produce toxic symptoms only in cattle and mice, but this is to my opinion extremely low possibility.
I would not consider the conclusion made by HOFMANN by analogy with Mexican preparations of seeds of Convolvulaceae as a convincing proof, which, I think, can come only through the ingestion of the ergot of Paspalum infusion. Until either barley-ergot or Paspalum-ergot part of the WASSON/HOFMANN/RUCK theory, or for that matter any theory or hypothesis that tries to explain a phenomenon and can be experimentally proved, is rendered proven in this way, it is equally legitimate though not equally plausible, to hold any explanation as convincing (CASTI, 1990). To my knowledge there has been not a single attempt to ingest water soaked ergot with other putative ingredients that would simulate the kykeon in a controlled environment. What can be found aplenty in some writings are explanations of ways, more or less very complicated, of how ergot could be ingested safely. It is this discrepancy between theoretical discourse and the lack of experimental evidence that my criticism is aimed at in the first place. No wonder then that due to the lack of hard data some recent work on the Eleusinian mysteries denies any psychoactivity of the kykeon (FOLEY, 1994), or does not mention the kykeon at all (GOLDHILL 1993).
In both hypotheses of the WASSON/HOFMANN/RUCK Eleusinian theory we have a verifiable scientific hypothesis, but which seems that it cannot be verified at no costs and dangers for experimental human subjects. It would be difficult to comply with all moral as well as methodological requirements that are required by a scientific experiment with human subjects (cf. SHERIDAN, 1976; CRAIG & METZE, 1979; SHULGIN & SHULGIN, 1993), which means among other things that one self-experiment (although better than none) cannot have general scientific validity. In what direction should the future research proceed in elucidating more thoroughly the action of the discussed possible ingredients of the kykeon, among them primarily ergot of Paspalum? In the first place sound models of its working in animals must be obtained (I hope no member of animal rights groups is reading this). If the animal research indicates that the toxicity of the Paspalum-ergot infusion can be tolerated in estimated psychedelic dosage in man, then I see for a very curious researcher only to proceed with self-experimentation as described in SHULGIN'S Pihkal (1991): to start with obviously insufficient doses, and gradually making the dosage larger until either the toxic or psychedelic effects render it sufficient.
But if future research shows that ergot could hardly be the mystical ingredient of the Eleusinian mysterious mixture, some other psychoactive plants must be supposed to substitute it. I agree with ROBERT GRAVES and TERENCE McKENNA that there exists also reasonable possibility that psilocybian mushrooms might have helped to produce the astonishment and ecstasy in ancient initiates, who ascribed to the Eleusinian mysteries a veritable transcendental quality. Of course, there may exist other interactions among psychoactive plants that we are not aware of today, but the information about them was no secret to a priest clan in ancient Greece. Will we know one day once and for all what was the essence of the sacred drink at Eleusis? Maybe, if there is a sealed vessel, buried deep under the ruins of the telesterion near today's Elefsina, waiting still to be unearthed.
I am indebted to Albert Hofmann, Jonathan Ott, Christian Rätsch and Alexander Shulgin for their help and critical comments.
Bigwood, J., Ott, J., Thompson, C. & Neely, P.
1979 Entheogenic effects of ergonovine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 11 (1-2) Jan-Jun 1979 (1 47-1 49)
Casti, J.L.
1990 Paradigms Lost: Tackling the unanswered mysteries of modern science. Avon Books, New York
Cole, J.R. & al.
1977 Paspalum staggers: Isolation and identification of tremorgenic metabolites from sclerotia of Claviceps paspali. J. Agric Food Chem., Vol.25, No. 5, (1197-1201)
Craig, J.R. & Metze, L.P.
1979 Methods of Psychological Research. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia
Foley, H.P. (Ed.)
1994 The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, commentary, and interpretive essays. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Gallagher, R.T., Leutwiler, A. & al.
1980 Paspalinine, a tremorgenic metabolite from Claviceps paspali, Stevens et Hall. Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, Pergamon Press Ltd. (235-238)
Goldhill, S.: Greece; in: Willis, R. (Ed.)
1993 World Mythology. Simon & Schuster, London
Graves, R.
1992 The Greek Myths (Combined edition). Penguin Books, London
Hofmann, A.
1983 LSD-My Problem Child: Reflections on sacred drugs, mysticism, and science. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles
1994 personal communication
Kerenyi, K.
1962 De Mysterien von Eleusis. Rhein-Verlag, Zurich
McKenna, T.
1992 Food of the Gods: The search for the original tree of knowledge. Rider, London
Ott, J.
1993 Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic drugs, their plant sources and history. Natural Products Co Kennewick, WA
Ott, J. & Neely, P.
1980 Entheogenic (hallucinogenic) effects of methylergonovine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 12(2) Apr-Jun 1980 (165-166)
Rätsch, Ch.
1992 The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants. Prism-Unity, Bridport, Dorset
Ripinsky-Naxon, M. 1993 The Nature of Shamanism: Substance and function of a religious metaphor. State University of New York Press, Albany
Ruck, C.A.P.
1981 Mushrooms and philosophers. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 4, (179-205)
1983 The offerings from the Hyperboreans. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 8,1983 (177-207)
Sankar, D.V.S.
1975 LSD-A Total Study. PJD Publications, Westbury, NY
Sheridan, Ch.L.
1976 Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology (2nd ed.). Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Shulgin, A.
Shulgin, A.T. & Shulgin, A.
1991 Pihkal: A chemical love story. Transform Press, Berkeley
1993 Barriers to Research; in: Rätsch, Ch. & Baker, J.R. (Eds.): Jahrbuch für Ethnomedizin und Bewusstseinsforschung 2. Verlag fur Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin
Springer, J.P. & Clardy, J.
1980 Paspaline and paspalicine, two indole-mevalonate metabolites from Claviceps paspali. Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, Pergamon Press Ltd. (231-234)
Valendid, Ivan
1993 Mistery elevzinskih misterijev. Razgledi 18(1001), 30f
Wasson, R.G., Hofmann, A. & Ruck, C.A.P.
1978 The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the secret of the mysteries. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York
First modern recorded trip report with claviceps paspali infected paspalum distichum grass from reddit ergot group:
u/Gu1l7y5p4rk
C. Paspalum (dilatatum/distichum) Trip Report
I microdose lsa/h from heavenly blue morning glory. Have been for years. I've been interested in the fungi, to an extreme extent. Needless to say I was turned onto another source of this fungi.
Easily accessible as it were to be, paspalum was being mowed everyday. I've spent a few months offhandedly skimming information about this plant. Past few days ergot has been showing, in all it's flourescencent orange glory. So I picked some.
250ml Ice cold distilled water 6 stems with seed heads Protected from light and heat I Added materials into cold water and froze it for 4hrs. Then let it sit at a room temp of 68-72f for an additional 12hrs. Agitated 6 times during the process. Strained through double coffee filter. Consumed a few hours later. Water was clear, no taste.
I drank approximately a quarter of the bottle and started my timer. Within 30 minutes an all too familiar lysergic trip had started to come and go in waves. About 2hrs in and I had half opaque tracers, slight time dilation, and an akwardness about my motor functions. I could meditate in near dark and outlines would drift off a little, or overlap.
It was at this point that I had decided that based off the lucidness, but also lack of complexity of the visuals that I had stumbled upon traditional lsa or a similiar fashioned derivitave.
At 3hr40mins in the initial trip, I drank about twice my original dose. Ate applesauce before and after. I shouldn't have doubled the dose as I had things to do today but luckily I was able to cancel out in high fashion.
Needless to say that since the re-dose, this is one of the most clean and consistent trips I've had in recent memory. At one point I was standing on my back porch(wood) and it and the concrete slab beneath it melted together. House siding sliding up in a stepping fashion, then wiggling and bulging. Full and deeply colorful tracers off my hands.
I've had no noticeable vasoconstriction. It's now 11hrs37mins since original dose. Things are still very pretty. Hanging around the plateau it seems. I think the second dose extended the plateau.
10/10 Would Recommend.
editors note: would only recommend next time extracting with cold acidified water brew (acidified to around ph=4 using lemon juice, crushed vitamin C, or a tiny dash of DL tartaric acid (my preference, use $7 ebay PH meter to adjust, do not go below ph=4 when using DL tartaric acid), this way the high levels of LSH (lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide) in the fresh claviceps paspali and fresh morning glory will not decompose to LSA.
The labile LSH decomposes to LSA in neutral (plain water), when heated, or in alkaline water, but it is quite stable indefinitely in cold acidic environments (such as acidified water, wine (already at ph=4), etc. LSH is very similar to LAE-32 in TIHKAL, where human experiments were done, very active starting at 1.5mg, remarked to be "LSD-like". Animal tests all point to LSH being an active psychedelic and it is indeed the closest thing to LSD found in nature, far closer than d-ergine (LSA). Owsley claims Hoffman himself told him that LAOH is very LSD-like. I totally agree.
Traditionally (e.g. as reported from Wasson) they only soaked the mushed morning glory seeds briefly in water, then strained and immediately drank. However, as noted Page 515 "Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants" Christian Ratsch: "The fresh or dried morning glory seeds normally are added to alcoholic drinks (sugarcane liquor; c. alcohol), tepache (maize beer, chicha), and balche' (Schultes 1941, 37)."
Even Hermes and Nogal (both extracted 400 to 500 seeds into cold acidic water using a squirt of lemon juice) both reported EXTREMELY VISUAL MG trip reports:
(1) Hermes (the Lycaeum) "Saw strong 4D lattice-like open eye visuals and warping and melting of furniture with only 400 seeds. There are around 32 to 36 seeds to a gram. I see amazing three and seemingly four-dimensional shapes morphing and bifurcating. Often I get religious and esoteric themed visuals, like fractal cherub wings and winged eyes like those in some of Alex Grey's work. Eyes are all over everything. I see pyramids and sphinxes and Gigeresque biomechanical forms. I see amazing geometric lattice structures. I watch mathematical space-filling algorithms doing their thing, all of this with nothing more than 500 seeds.
I grind the seeds in coffee grinder to a fairly fine consistency, but not to the point of being powder. The hulls should remain somewhat course, while the lighter colored inner stuff is pretty much powder. I then put this stuff into one or several empty tea bags. Don't overfill one. If the bags are small, use several. Next, put the bag(s) into a full glass of cold distilled water (w/squirt of lemon juice to acidify water beforehand) and use a spoon to press on them and make sure they are well-saturated with water. Let sit for 10 minutes in a cool dark place.
Remove bags after squeezing most of the water from them into the glass. You can suck on the bags if you want to get more stuff. I don't generally do this. Discard bags. Drink water."
(2) Nogal (the Nook) "Yes I know of someone who tried the CWE method with the Heavenly Blue variety, except with the substitution of a coffee grinder in place of a stone metate (I think that's what is called but I could be wrong), and a squirt of lemon in the water, with around 400-500 seeds. Closed and open eyed visuals were extremely breath taking. Some of the most prominent visions were of Aztec/Mayan glyphic patterns, a menacing and demonic technicolor nymph made of light who tried to seduce the viewer, and this bizare trail of energy spheres which each contained a different stylized animal form (again definately of Aztec/Mayan origin).
(3) Erowid report: "400 older dried seeds is similar to a little less than one hit LSD. 400 fresh off vine is like about 2 or three hits."
(4) Myself: 500ml cold spring water acidified to Ph=4 with tiny dash of DL tartaric acid extract on 400 fresh off the vine dark hard seeds grown all spring & summer & early fall in mixture of 3/4 miracle grow to 1/4 cow manure compost, all from garden store, with couple handful of perlite mixed in for drainage. Fertilized only once per month with 1 tablespoon miracle grow crystals added to 1 gallon of water = fed only once per month. Watered nearly daily during hot summer months, but only every few days during cooler spring and fall. Plants got 5 hours morning sun and several hours of afternoon sun until about 2 pm, they received shade from 2pm onwards, during hottest part of day. If leaves wilt due to hot direct sun, no big deal, they recover and return to normal perkiness next morning.
"Saw geometric patterns on the surface of everything, with closed eyes, colored vectors spun 360 degrees while traveling from left to right across visual plane. Sounds were not only amplified & music heavenly but audio hallucinations were produced, heavy euphoria component & very strong appreciation for beauty. Remember watching Scarlett Johansson interview on a small television and melting into the seat from her beauty amidst all the breath taking geometrics. Tripped hard as hell."
Note: Extraction now using cold sherry wine only as described in post #1 and post #13.
Edited by tregar, 29 November 2020 - 07:50 PM.
Coopdog, ElPirana and Auhron like this
#27 Norman
I'm going to go ahead and be that guy that asks why kykeon is such a (kind of literal) holy grail of entheogens.
I imagine it was just wine with a bunch of random psychedelic substances infused into it to get people fucked up and coming back for more.
With offerings to the temple of course.
It was such a mystery because the makers didn't want the people to make it themselves. Those who tried were likely punished.
Hmmm - sounds familiar.
To me the beauty of entheogens is that they make those ecstatic states of consciousness accessible to all without a priest or shaman playing middleman and making good coin in the process.
tregar, coorsmikey, YoshiTrainer and 1 other like this
What part? The part where groups keep the secret from others and share it with apprentices to carry on the traditions that keep it secret. Not to mention teach how to handle and distribute responsibly. Or the masses that try to suppress the idea of people thinking on there own that make it a crime?
I was that guy thinking how familiar is sounded.
tregar, Coopdog and YoshiTrainer like this
Basic religion 101. Place a man (and a pay-wall) between man and his perceived relationship with "god".
Entheogens show us how we are never separated from "god" - in fact, we are just as much a part of "god" as everything else which exists. Religion seeks to further blind us from this fact and convince us that we are somehow on the outside looking in.
tregar, Coopdog, ElPirana and 3 others like this
I can't find the quote but Terence McKenna once said something to the effect of how things would change if "god were suddenly one toke away" for everyone when asked about culture's hostility towards psychedelics.
tregar, Myc, Coopdog and 1 other like this
I got pissed off at my parents one day (probably 16ish) and took a long walk in the woods where I ran into the parish priest smoking dope.
The dude was ancient, ancient, ancient, probably 30
After a short talk about keeping this encounter between the two of us he said, "If you want to talk to God, this is the telephone"
No, he did not have another agenda :)
tregar, Myc, coorsmikey and 3 others like this
Myc said on bottom of page 1 "Thanks for linking that JRE podcast. I had seen some of it but had never sat for the whole discussion." Glad you liked it, I read the transcript of the 3 hour interview here: https://www.happyscr...-graham-hancock #1543 - Brian Muraresku & Graham Hancock, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1,085 views, 30 Sep 2020. I read it instead of watching it.
It's too bad Brian Muraresku does not mention claviceps paspali whatsoever in his book, he instead perpetuates the long regurgitated "claviceps purpurea" theory (water soak of the poisonous claviceps purpurea) to extract the ergonovine and LSA. But as shown by nearly a dozen experimenters in Ivan Valencic's paper in post #26 above, ergonovine is only mildly psychedelic, overshadowed by moderate vasoconstriction and cramping, strong side effects at the same time threshold psychedelic activity begins. The side effects were so bad, that none of the experimenters (having tried 2mg to 10mg ergonovine) tried it a second time. Ergonovine even causes "spontaneous abortion" in pregnant women, and we know from the writings that even women attended the ceremonies and drank the sacred brew, so it must not have been claviceps purpurea water extracted ergonovine/LSA.
From Ivan Valencic's paper above (post #26):
The central mystery of the Eleusinian mysteries pertains to the nature of the kykeon—the mixture drunk by initiates at the autumnal Eleusinian festival. It was no doubts of palpable nature, so that something was drunk in the telesterion in reality and not only in effigy as some historians supposed.
This is well supported by the infamous scandalous event that took place in 415 B.C. when the powerful political and military leader of Athens Alkibiades stole the kykeon at Eleusis and entertained by it himself and his friends. Another conclusion can be inferred from this incident: the ingestion of the kykeon must have been a pleasant and therefore sought-after experience. This was confirmed by many writers of antiquity who participated at the mysteries, and to my knowledge there are no reports on bad trips in the ancient texts that have been preserved.
The ingredients of the kykeon were revealed in the seventh century B.C. in the so called Homeric Hymn to Demeter (it was written by an anonymous poet and not by Homer) as follows; water, barley and blechon or glechon—a fragrant Mediterranean mint, probably Mentha pulegium or Mentha aquatica (RÄTSCH, 1992).
This is the only known reference to the composition of the kykeon and it seems somehow incompatible with the secret tightly guarded by the two hierophantic families who were in charge of making it and dispensing at Eleusis. After all, if the recipe for the kykeon had been as simple as that mentioned in the Homeric Hymn, many in ancient Greece would have been mixing their own kykeon, which was, of course, not the case.
There is no doubt in my mind that Claviceps Paspali ergot, which commonly infects the paspalum distichum grass which grows all around the Mediterranean region, in the vicinity of Rome, and even adjacent to Eleusis in the famous Rarian plain was also most likely the same ergot that LSD chemist Todd Skinner used below to make his Ergot Wine. Claviceps paspali seldom infects barely, but when it does, the honeydew can be transferred to even more barley, so it can flourish in large amounts on barley if one really wanted to spread it (the Priest for example).
Claviceps Paspali is sometimes allegedly cultured by underground LSD chemist to produce 1g of LSA per gallon of medium, see here: LSA bioreactor superthread (C. Paspali) - Botanicals - Mycotopia
Remember the above old thread here, with director of sound and a host of other user names you rarely see around here any more? Remember, claviceps paspali was found in 1960's papers to produce not only large amounts of natural LSH (lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide) but also a handful of other stimulating LSD like clavine alkaloids, similar to the Mexican morning glory. This handful of alkaloids, as shown on post #7 work together (teamwork) to hit most of the same receptors LSD hits and beyond (LSD only hits 1 adrenal receptor, while LSH hits 6 total adrenal receptors). LSH, mescaline, DMT, Ayahuasca, mushrooms, all strongly hit many of the adrenal receptors, and the semi-synthetic LSD has moderate activity at only 1 of the adrenal receptors, explaining perhaps why LSD is "less aesthetic" than the natural entheogens. The adrenal receptors are implicated in the perception of beauty.
Krystle Cole from the book "Lysergic":
"Isn't Ergot what Socrates used to take at Eleusis? I thought it was kind of cool to be taking something that the founders of our democracy used to take, but that our current democracy has made illegal." remarked Krystle.
LSD chemist Todd Skinner had made 6 jugs of ergot wine using a purported alcohol wash of ergot, and stored them for many years:
Krystle Cole's "ergot wine" experience from the book "Lysergic", reported that she saw "constantly rotating holographic Sanskrit or Arabic & Zodiac symbols, floating in a circle around Todd's head", sounds to me like she also accidentally took too many sips of the potent wine, and experienced too strong a dose, as her heart began to beat very fast, and Todd gave her valium to subdue the overpowering trip:
Chapter 17 THE BLOOD OF CHRIST from the book "Lysergic":
Todd knelt down, holding an ornately decorated gold chalice. A magnificent piece to behold, exquisite. It pulsated with energy, spirituality. "Sherom Teleqot Masecot," he began his prayers in ancient Chaldean, and then moved on to a higher prayer. "Ebatone Neahmeh Nohhoaayow..." the language of the gods. Reverent peacefulness engulfed him as the words came forth. He turned to face me and drank several large gulps. Then bowed his head in silence as he passed me the chalice.
"What is it?" I was totally caught by surprise; we had not planned on tripping for awhile. Things had been far too crazy lately.
"It's ancient wine. Just try a sip."
"I don't know..." I didn't want to have a repeat of my DMT experience. My mind wasn't as prepared as it should be prior to a journey. Also, I had never seen him this spiritual before a trip. He never prayed or used a chalice any other time. Usually he would non-ceremonially weigh out the doses on his lab scale, and then simply pass them out. No ceremony, no prayers. Why the sudden change?
"Just try a small sip. It is time for you to be initiated into the order, you're ready. But I would kneel and say a prayer first if I was you. This one must be taken very seriously." His head bowed slightly but he still kept eye contact.
I was curious so I knelt down, even though my instincts were telling me not to. What order? The brotherhood maybe? And what was in the chalice? It couldn't really be ancient wine, could it? I examined the liquid; it looked and smelled just like red wine. Why not? I cautiously drank a small sip. It was thinner than normal wine and had a woody taste. The most interesting part was the way it tingled as it went down. A warming sensation filled my throat and stomach. "Okay I drank some, now what is it?"
"It's Ergot wine." He smiled slyly, knowing he had gotten one over on me.
"ERGOT WINE! Oh my God!" I was in shock. "Ergot can kill people. I wouldn't have taken it if I would have known what it was. It's St. Anthony's fire! It can make you lose body parts if you touch it! Oh, my God!" My head was spinning. How could he have not warned me?
"I knew you would react like this, that's why I just told you to drink it. You get so afraid sometimes. There is no need to be; you are safe." A slight giggle escaped from his lungs.
"Are you sure it's safe? Where did you get it?" My heart was racing.
"I made it when I was younger. I did an alcohol wash of the ergot fungus with the wine. Then I corked the bottles up and stored them. The ergot fungus will feed on the sugars in the wine, giving it the woody taste. I let them age for about ten years. It is best to wait a little longer, but I felt it was an appropriate time to open one anyway. Every year it ages, it will become a little less potent and easier to control the dose."
"How do you know what a safe dose is?" I was skeptical.
"Ergot is a fungus and a precursor for LSD. Ergot is interesting because we really don't know what happens to the alkaloid concentration over time. It moves around, changes. So the dose is guesswork."
"Isn't Ergot what Socrates used to take at Eleusis?" I thought it was kind of cool to be taking something that the founders of our democracy used to take, but that our current democracy has made illegal.
"Yes, except for he did a water infusion of the ergot, instead of alcohol."
"I can feel it already." I took a deep breathe but couldn't ease my anxiety. "My chest feels tight and my heart is racing." My heart had never beaten that fast. "My hands feel like they're going numb. Are you sure I am going to be okay?" As I lay back onto the floor, to relax my chest became tighter, heavy. I started coughing and gasping for air. Time passed, I don't know how much.
"Here take a Valium. You will be alright, just breath sweety." He handed me the pill. Then picked up the chalice again and kneeled down beside me. He took several large gulps. After it was empty, he turned it upside down to show me that there was*n't any left. "See it's safe. You only drank a sip! Look how much I took!"
"But you can handle a lot more than me; you are three times my size!" I weighed about 110 pounds and stood about 5'8".
Todd on the other hand was a giant at 6'5", weighing somewhere around 275 pounds.
"Come on, let's go lay down on the bed where it is more comfortable." He reached down and grabbed my hand, helping me up off the floor.
The visuals were really starting to kick in now. They were thick and heavy like my breathe. Dark colors, red, purple, and blue. They overtook me; I could no long see my hand when I held it up in front of my face. A different world existed inside of me. A liquid oceanic playground for the mind. Would I come back from this space? Spiraling thoughts that made no sense. Fear of the unknown. Would I be okay?
My chest still felt heavy but I sat upright which seemed to make it a little better. My heart started to throb slightly. Every few breathes, I felt a sharp twinge along with the throb. Was the ergot causing the chest pain or was I? Was I having an anxiety attack? How could I tell the difference between a real pain and one that I manifested with my mind?
Instinctually, I started to chant my calming mantra, "Telelelelah-luu Letetwah," over and over again. I rocked with the words. "Telelelelah-luu Letetwah." I held my hands up, palms facing each other in prayer. The L's rolled off my tongue and took on new depth. They sounded like the echo of a thou*sand birds flapping their wings in the air. The mantra held me and kept me safe, like when a mother holds a child. I was going home to safe territory.
I began to sing songs from my soul, rooted deep within the divine. The songs carried me away with them, teaching me about the universe. At one point I saw the double-helixes of DNA swirling out of my mouth along with the words. Language gave birth to being. That's how I interpreted it anyway. Time was dilating. How long had I been floating on the breath of the universe:
Todd came into the room as I was floating back. "Oh, don't stop sweety. It's beautiful."
I was unsure about singing in front of him, so I backed off a bit. I chanted for a while, trying not to make a fool out of myself. I had to sound like a crazed lunatic, singing gibberish! Every now and then I would look over at him trying to gauge his reaction. He was sitting up, facing me, and getting very into it. His reaction was similar to Half-pints reaction. They were actually enjoying it! When I would stop he would look up disappointed, and think 'start again or 'keep going'. This went on for a while as time slowed.
I started to see holographic symbols, floating in a circle around Todd's head. I had never seen symbols before in a trip. They were translucent almost like glass. Empty space had taken on a form. They constantly rotated, allowing me to see all of their sides. A few of them looked like symbols from the zodiac. Others looked like Sanskrit, or Arabic. Some I have nothing to compare them to. Where did they come from? What did they mean?
Events started to become circular. "I feel like am singing, seeing, and going to the same places over and over again."
"Oh, you're stuck in the loop! It will just keep going, and eventually you'll come out of it." He lay back and closed his eyes.
Around and around I went, time was a circle.
Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again.
Finally I popped out the other side. It felt like eons had passed. I lay down beside Todd, cuddling up close to him. He and I were one, one body, one mind. We no longer needed to speak; linguistic devices were a hindrance to us now. We knew each others thoughts as we thought them. We could feel the depth of each other's love. It is an incredible gift from the universe to feel existence with no boundaries or doubts. One soul, at home once again.
We felt as if we knew everything, all the knowledge of the universe was at our fingertips. We were at the top of the cosmos, the simultaneous beginning and end, the eternal godhead. We could see in all directions at once.
My future and past were connected to my dreams. I started having unusual dreams around the age of eight. These dreams would reveal a sequence of events in my future. They were easy to distinguish from normal dreams because they had a different texture. More real. However, I never could tell when in the future they would occur. It could be in one month or two years. Whenever the event sequence did happen though, it felt like a deshavoo. I could see now that this phenomenon was me remembering who I am. Me remembering who and what we all are, divine co-creators.
Then the loop happened again. Around and around and around I went. Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again. Over and over and over again.
Again I came out the other side. This little voice in the back of my head, kept saying "your heart isn't beating right." It was strange. I felt as if my heart would sort of stop and I would roll out, far out into the ocean of the divine. Then I would feel/hear a loud bang and it would start beating again, really fast this time. I would in turn surf back in on the same wave that took me out. This whole sensation happened several times. I rolled in and out with the waves of universal consciousness.
It turns out that Todd actually was beating on my chest. But he didn't tell me about it until I came down. I guess my heart really was stopping, or at least slowing down! I think this is the closest I have ever been to death. There was safety in death, total security. Death is nothing more than a shift of cosmic life energy. Fear filled me and then I would let go, sort of release myself to it. My new/old form, God, overtook me. Love and happiness held me tight. It is almost like a caterpillar hatching out of its cocoon and turning into a butterfly.
"Here sweety, chew this up. It's another Valium. Your heart is beating way to fast. You need to calm down. Try to take deep breathes."
"Okay." I couldn't really talk; I was too high. I tried to breath, deep and slow. It seemed to help a little. I was afraid of overdosing. "It feels like my heart is stopping."
"You're okay, just breath. And drink some of this juice to keep your blood sugar up." He handed me a glass and watched to make sure I didn't drop it.
I drank some of the juice and cuddled up next to him again. How long had we been tripping for? I felt like I was ancient, floating on the cosmic time/space folds. Time and space are illusions, only here for our amusement. At the base of all being we are all one evolving consciousness. And we are all incarnations of that same self-reflecting divinity.
Out of all my journeys, ergot was my most difficult. Conversely, it was my most productive and therefore my best. I had had experiences before that seemed like near death. This time I really felt like I died. When Todd was pounding on my chest, it really felt like my heart was stopping. Despite the fear that it aroused in me, it brought me a sense of calmness. I know what death feels like! It isn't bad at all!
The chalice and prayers peeked my curiousity. Why had he done it this time and no others? What was the meaning of it all? He was so careful with his words, his humble demeanor, and even how he held the chalice as he drank. I had seen communion in church before and knew symbolically this is what he had meant by it all.
I am still really excited to experiment with this "new" information.
For years, I have been a major fan of mescaline. During my experiments with various cultivars I found it was a better experience to combine varieties into a single brew - pachanoi, peruvianus, and bridgesii. Each cultivar contains a unique alkaloid profile and when combined in the right proportion (suited to the voyager's tastes) the experience is better than anything I have ever tried.
The research above leads me to speculate that cacti must have a great number of these compounds present - varying in concentration from cultivar to cultivar. An admixture brew makes for a much more smooth and enjoyable voyage.
In the 90's I used to have ....... a lot of LSD ....... all the time. I liked to buy it by the sheet. That being said, I came to prefer some of the more relaxing experiences I had with mushrooms or cacti in later years. I'm really anxious to explore the synergy between the extracted beverage and some fine LSD.
Now if I could just get hold of that brewer friend who was raising the morning glories on the patio. He had at least six 20-gallon containers with plants thriving in each one.
Edited by Myc, 04 December 2020 - 11:35 AM.
tregar, Coopdog and ElPirana like this
page 71 of the pdf'd catalogue
Will be testing the waters soon. Does anyone know the weight for a voyage? I don't wanna count a whole bunch of seeds, but if I must then I will. Also, would Cabernet Sauvignon be an alright substitute for sherry wine?
Tregar, that was one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I am very much looking forward to trying this. I wish I had a source for a few lbs of seeds lol. I have 100 White and 75 Blue, and I intend to grow these things for the rest of my natural life. I am so very much looking forward to this. I will be visiting page 71 presently. Thank you so much for sharing this sacred information. In an odd way it seems that all my time spent on this site was in some way supporting this. It has such an odd energy to it, and I am interested indeed. This has the ring of destiny or fate to it somehow. I am most appreciative for this info. I remember chewing on blue morning glory seeds when I was just a kid. Not sure why I did, but somehow this all resonates with my soul. Those crunchy black seeds were taken into me by the time I was maybe 7 or so. Like that story said, it feels like coming home in the strangest way. No idea why I feel that way. I used to pick the flowers and lick the sweet nectar from the bottom of them by the dozens. I still remember the sweet flavor of them. I have always loved morning glories, and I think this house that I own, is the first one I ever lived in that does not have them already growing. Yep I would say I am interested...
tregar, Myc and ElPirana like this
Good luck with your test...let us know how it turns out!
Thanks for comment ItBeBasidia, I've attached a table showing levels of acetaldehyde levels in wine, any wine should work just wine, LSD chemist Todd Skinner used red wine to extract his ergot in story above. Cabernet Sauvignon should work just fine, it's one of the most popular wines I've read. There are 32 to 36 seeds per gram, just as Hermes notes in his trip report in post #26. I learned the art of extracting the seeds from Hermes long time ago at the now defunct Lycaeum forum, he was my mentor. I chatted with him via messenger for many months. You can still find archives of the Lycaeum on-line.
Tregar, that was one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I am very much looking forward to trying this.
Thanks coopdog, I look forward to hearing your reports in the future. Yes, I agree the story from Krystle Cole's ergot wine report is one of a kind, and one of the only reports we have in modern times.
ElPirana said:
Great advice ElPirana!
Please support Brian Muraresku by reading his amazing book, he has done outstanding research in this field. Just as he states on page 204, the search for the original Kykeon continues, and asserts that there are many alkaloids in ergot.
Assuming the book is "The Immortality Key" as it is the only one that popped up. I just ordered a hard copy, so if you are referring to a different book please say so as I am very interested and will indeed get it.
Yes, that's the book Coopdog. I have the hardbound too. In conclusion:
I also grow morning glory on a fence that receives morning sun and a few hours of afternoon sun, Coorsmikey grows them on a fence as well if you look back at end of morning glory grow thread.
If you look closely, you can see the eyelet screws (*almart hundreds of them in hardware section for cheap) spaced 7" apart horizontally, and clear fishing string strung between the eyelet screws, so that the morning glory can grow on the fence easily. You can also see the remnants of the dried seeds pods that produced the black hard seeds I picked. Next year I'm growing pearly gates on this fence as the 1975 study found double the alkaloids of heavenly blue. The fence works great as the vine fills the entire fence with attractive flowers from bottom to top. At the bottom, I simply dug into the earth and created a mix of 3/4 miracle grow to 1/4 cow manure compost along with some earth added back in along with a handful or so of perlite for drainage.
The application of NPK fertilizer (miracle grow) + composted cattle manure increased crop yield by 48.9% compared to NPK fertilizer alone ---> from 2017 Frontiers in Microbiology, 05 Sept 2017 "Composted Cattle Manure Increases Microbial Activity and Soil Fertility." Some users report that their plants grew three times in size once they added miracle grow soil to their existing potting soil.
For highest lysergic acid amide content in the seeds, it is recommended to add 1 tablespoon miracle grow powder to one gallon watering can with spout and feed only once per month during growing season. Fresh picked off the vine seeds are best. Vaccum pack and freeze freshly picked seeds or seeds bought direct from grower to preserve their high LSH potency indefinitely, as LSH decomposes over time to LSA naturally if not temp controlled. LSH also decomposes in neutral (plain water), when heated or in alkaline water. Therefore extract into acidified water or wine (already at ph=4). There can be up to a 16 fold variation in the psychoactive potency of seeds, as the species has a range between .005% and .079% total indole alkaloids. Use good soil with fertilizing once a month for highest psychoactive potency.
The ancient civilization of Greece centered around the religious ceremonies conducted annually in the Eleusinian temple in Athens. According to Aristotle, the mystery at Eleusis was something experienced rather than something learned. There were two rituals performed at Eleusis, the first was the "Lesser Mystery," in which the participants were given a libation of wine containing ergot, and the "Greater Mystery," during which the initiates were given wine containing ergot, and experienced a collective vision of the Mother Goddess Persephone.
ALBERT HOFMANN writes in his contribution to The Road to Eleusis that this finding may prove to be of the utmost importance in considering WASSON'S question: the main alkaloids isolated from claviceps paspali ergot of Paspalum distichum grass (seldom growing on barley) are the same as those found in the ancient Mexican sacred drug ololiuqui, i.e. ergine and Lysergic acid Hydroxyethylamide (LSH). In his opinion the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis is much more probable than the barley-ergot hypothesis, as it is well established that these alkaloids have psychedelic activity. In the psychedelic usage of seeds of Convolvulaceae he sees the convincing proof that the Paspalum-ergot hypothesis is tenable (HOFMANN, 1994).
Several papers published in the 1960's (see post #24) show claviceps paspali ergot produces not only large amounts of the stimulating LSH but also a handful of other stimulating LSD like alkaloids just like the Mexican morning glory: penniclavine, agroclavine, elymoclavine, chanoclavine. As shown in post #7, these alkaloids all work together using teamwork to hit most of the same receptors LSD hits, along with 5 new ones (5 more adrenal receptors) that LSD does not even target:
Thomas S. Ray, Psychedelics and the Human Receptorome (2010):
hxxp://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009019
Breadth of Receptor Binding, 4.00=max (off the charts), 0.00=min, X.XX=receptor is hit but we don't have strength data.
LSD: 5ht1a = 3.73, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 2.88, mescaline = 3.61, 5-meo-DMT: = 4.00 (make up >80% of brain 5-ht)
LSD: 5ht1b = 4.00, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 2.19, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 2.41
LSD: 5ht1d = 3.70, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 3.91, psilocin = 3.40, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 3.48
LSD: 5ht1e = 2.62, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 3.28, psilocin = 3.03, mescaline = 3.16, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.72
LSD: 5ht2a = 3.54, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 2.58, psilocin = 2.14, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.98
LSD: 5ht2b = 3.11, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 3.91, psilocin = 4.00, mescaline = 3.97, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.69 (sensual & entactogenic)
LSD: 5ht2c = 3.11, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 3.42, psilocin = 2.52, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.55
LSD: 5ht5a = 3.64, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 3.16, psilocin = 2.83, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.84
LSD: -5ht6 = 3.75, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 3.35, psilocin = 2.82, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 2.73
LSD: -5ht7 = 3.77, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 4.00, psilocin = 2.82, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 3.69 (novelty, newness)
LSD: ---D1 = 2.34, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 3.51, psilocin = 3.37, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 2.38
LSD: -A-2A = 2.93, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 2.75, psilocin = 1.36, mescaline = 2.92, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.00 (aesthetic/beauty adrenal a2a)
LSD: -A-2B = 0.00, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 3.53, psilocin = 1.57, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.86 (aesthetic/beauty adrenal a2b)
LSD: -A-2C = 0.00, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 3.53, psilocin = 1.03, mescaline = 4.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 1.57 (aesthetic/beauty adrenal a2c)
LSD: -A-2D = 0.00, LSH: = 0.00, penniclavine = X.XX, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 0.00, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.00 (aesthetic/beauty adrenal a2d)
LSD: -A-1A = 0.00, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 0.00, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.00 (aesthetic/beauty adrenal a1a)
LSD: -A-1D = 0.00, LSH: = X.XX, penniclavine = 0.00, DMT: = 0.00, psilocin = 0.00, mescaline = 0.00, 5-meo-DMT: = 0.00 (aesthetic/beauty adrenal a1d)
Description of the importance of inhibiting 80% of the 5-ht1a serotonin receptors when agonized vs the rest of the 5-ht receptors described above (agonized or hit) which make up 20% of brain 5-ht:
As we go thru day to day life, the 5-ht1a brain serotonin filters (gates, or day to day survival filters as I like to call them) which make up over 80% of brain 5-ht are in place so that we will not be overwhelmed by the perception of the way things would appear to an un-filtered mind, or "Mind at Large" as Aldous Huxley describes it in "Doors of Perception" as "infinite or eternal". He also referred to the visions as coming from "the other world" in his book "Moksha". I prefer to think of it in similar terms as well "the spirit world" or "the other world". Huxley referred to normal day to day mind state as the "reducing valve" due to it's filtering.
5-ht1a agonization by entheogens (in orange above) is inhibitory and theoretically cause this day-to-day survival filter (normal problem solving state) system to be lifted, and the infinite mind to manifest in combination with oral dmt from traditional psychotria for example with the traditional caapi providing the 5-ht1a inhibition, just as bufotenine in snuff's provide the 5-ht1a inhibition combined with the dmt in the snuff's, resulting in a 3 hour experience ie both examples of Teamwork on how these entheogens are used traditionally in the Amazon. This 5-ht1a inhibition combined with agonization of the rest of the 5-ht receptors allows a deep meditative visionary state to be reached via help from plants.
Thomas S. Ray's study shows a value of 3.57 at SERT for Ibogaine (4.00 is max). Ibogaine has been shown to inhibit serotonin transporter (SERT) noncompetitively, in contrast to all other known inhibitors, which are competitive with substrate. Ibogaine inhibits both serotonin and dopamine reuptake transporters, it is an SDRI or serotonin & dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Tetrahydroharmine (THH) is the 2nd highest ingredient in caapi and is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, it is an SRI found in caapi. In other words, both are strong serotonin reuptake inhibitors which inhibit over 80% of brain 5-ht at 5-ht1a.
Dr. Nichols (LSD scientist): "LSD has very strong potency in blocking the action of serotonin. The morpholide lysergamide cousin had only about 1/10th the potency in blocking serotonin. Of the 5 diferent dialkylamides we studied LSD was the most potent and specific serotonin antagonist."
Dr. Nichols "5-ht1a makes up >80% of brain 5-ht...5-ht1a agonism blocks serotonin."
Serotonin blocking is a main effect of all the natural oral entheogens like the semi-synthetic LSD, mescaline, Ayahuasca, mushrooms, 5-meo-dmt & bufotenine (found in snuffs). See 2011 receptorome chart above. Ibogaine inhibits both serotonin and dopamine reuptake transporters (it is an SDRI or serotonin & dopamine reuptake inhibitor).
An example of the importance of adding the serotonin reuptake inhibition properties of 5-meo-dmt for example to dmt (which totally lacks 5-ht1 reuptake properites on it's own) is shown below. This is the same way the snuff's are used in the amazon, as they naturally combine dmt with additives which cause the reuptake of 5-ht like bufotenin for example, this results in a 3 hour experience from the snuff's.
Oroc's experiment of combining 5-meo-dmt with DMT sounds imho very much like a short beautiful transcendental Ayahuasca experience, from his book "Tryptamine Palace":
DMT + tiny amounts of 5-meo-dmt, perhaps similar theoretically to Amazonian snuffs which have a makeup of 7.4% bufotenin (potent 5-ht1a agonist), 0.04% 5-MeO-DMT (potent 5-ht1a agonist) & 0.16% DMT (zero potency as 5-ht1a agonist):
James Oroc "Tryptamine Palace":
As an experiment (and in a foreign land) I smoked the last of the Bufo alvarius venom (the story of whose collection is described within the pages of Tryptamine Palace) with some 'regular' DMT (extracted from Jurema Preta.). In the vast majority of my early nigerine (DMT) experiences, I encountered visual fields of 'dots' that would come together to form images, much like the pointillism style of painting developed by Georges Seurat or the Australian Aboriginal song-line paintings.
With the addition of the 5-MeO-DMT containing toad-venom to the DMT however, the visual characteristic was completely different and totally unique to my experiences so far. On this occasion there was a complete lack of 'dots' or 'points' of any kind, the fine lines of the constantly changing imagery were like those painted with a single-hair brush on Tibetan thangkas and due to the overwhelming artistry of what I was seeing, I could only think of the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in comparison.
Sistene Chapel: This was without a doubt the most 'visionary' experience I have ever been fortunate enough to encounter and I lay there with my eyes shut watching the most fantastic parade of the Collective Unconsciousness imaginable, wishing that it would never end, and as I sit here now I can not even describe one tiny corner of it, since every image in the multitude of imagery was in such constant motion that they defied all but a glimpse. And then moments later, like a tent collapsing when its ropes are cut, the vision is gone. Leaving only a struggle of words to explain it, since nothing before or after has come close to this experiences visual majesty.
This experience leads to the interesting question of selectively combining DMT and 5-MeO-DMT for a more visionary and somewhat less overwhelmingly transcendental experience. (Or for the other way around). This combining of the two endogenous entheogens is being tested in changa blends (reportedly at a 90% DMT to 10% 5-MeO-DMT ratio), while many Pharmahuasca urban-shamans are also adding 5-MeO-DMT to their ayahuasca-analogues to transform and deepen that experience. It seems likely to me that the combining of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT in various ratios and manners will only become more popular as the exponentially increasing number of psychonauts search for new psychological terrain to explore.
clumsy and Auhron like this


Applications are invited for a Ph.D student position on cognitive neuroscience research on touch. We touch familiar objects from cups to companion animals. What neural system allows us to feel and know these objects by touch? Why and how do we feel good or bad by contact with others and companion animals? How blind individuals become excel at reading Braille? Unlike vision which has been intensively investigated, many interesting questions remain to be addressed in the field of touch.
The student will work on an interdisciplinary project that examines the function of touch (and its relationship with other senses) under the supervision of Prof. Ryo Kitada, Nanyang Technological University (please see http://touchlab.strikingly.com/). Relevant fields include experimental and cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, mechanical engineering and computational modelling. The keyword of the project can include Touch, Audition, Language, Material perception, Emotion, Blindness and Social cognition. The primary methodologies include behavioral and neuroimaging experiments on humans. The student will focus on one or two topics of the research dependent on their interests. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the research, this student will have opportunities to learn a wide range of research skills and knowledge, which would enhance their future career prospects.
The successful candidate will need to demonstrate existing excellence in methodological skills required for the project, such as setting up experiments (programming, making device with engineers if necessary), statistical analyses, neuroimaging, and/or computational modelling. The candidate should also have a demonstrable interest in the topic and strong written and oral communication skills.
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore is ranked 11th globally and placed 1st amongst the world's best young universities. It now houses new neuroimaging facilities (MRI and MEG), making it an ideal place for conducting cognitive neuroscience studies. The successful candidate will join a thriving research environment with young faculty members and benefit from excellent support and resources from the School of Social Sciences.
For PhD admission, a Master's degree or good Bachelor Honours degree is required. Admission to Graduate by Research programme depends on the quality of the application as a whole, including the applicant's academic record, relevant experience, and research proposal. Applicants will be interviewed by the subject graduate studies coordinator(s) for a holistic assessment of the applicants' suitability for graduate studies. Note that subject areas may have subject-specific requirements.
For applicants whose mother tongue is not English, a good IELTS or TOEFL is needed. For applicants whose mother tongue is not English, a good IELTS or TOEFL is needed. The IELTS/TOEFL score must have been attained within 2 years prior to the date of application.Those who hold a degree from universities (must be at least 3 years of study) where English is the medium of instruction are exempted from the IELTS/TOEFL requirement.
Applicants who graduated from foreign universities must have a GRE test score. The GRE score must have been attained within 2 years prior to the date of application. Applicants who have a foreign Bachelor's degree and a local Master's degree must have at least 4.0/5.0 CGPA for their Master's degree to be considered for exemption from GRE.
Your application should include a research proposal with up to 2 pages. It is expected that you understand the field that you plan to research and that you can identify a relevant and original research question. A research proposal can also provide an insight into the student's ability to identify and develop an interesting research question.
Note that the student intake can be more flexible in this position. Please contact PI if necessary.
The research project is funded by the university and scholarships are available. Please ask the PI for details.


text:
The table and the screen: a curious resistance
I've seen it frequently enough both in myself and in people I'm talking to—notably my students and my classicist colleagues—that it no longer surprises me. People who haven't spent time studying games seem to have a fundamental resistance to the nearly self-evident idea that video-gaming, or, as I've taken to calling it, digital practomime, is fundamentally the same thing as tabletop-gaming. Or, as Pete Border (whom I don't know except through this one post) put it in a post on the GLS Educators' Ning, "If a game isn't fun with everybody in a room playing it on a table, adding a computer won't help it."
It was a major breakthrough for me, which only occurred over the course of several months, to realize the absolute truth of the notion that ludic practomime (i.e., game-playing) doesn't really change in the essential elements of its construction of meaning as it goes from the Monopoly board, or paper-and-dice RPG's, or Live-Action Role-Playing, or even live-action sports, to those things' digital versions in what we usually call video games.
Just as that other kind of practomime, storytelling, is recognizably the same thing between book and computer screen, and even between oral composition and textual book, and even between book and film, the more obtrusively interactive kind of practomime that we call games is the same thing between table (and dice, and books, and board, and field) and screen. Which is not to say that books and movies themselves are the same--rather that storytelling as an act is consistent between them.
There are obviously things you can play easily on the screen that would be very difficult, if not impossible, to play on the table. If someone were able to drop objects of certain stereotypical shapes from a height down to you, and you were able to rotate those objects as they fell so that they fit together as efficiently as possible, it would be Tetris, and be recognizably the same as Tetris on the computer screen. But of course, as even the famous video of Live Action Tetris makes clear, Tetris is a game that's not possible in the physical world. Nor is it practical to get your friends to wear mushroom- and turtle-suits so that you can try to jump on them, a la Super Mario Bros., although it would—obviously, I think—be fun if it were possible.
And there's no question but that the integration of the verbal with the visual and the manual, and even the visceral, that comes in video games, along with the opening up of possibilities like jumping on Goombas and Koopas, has a role in our seduction into thinking that it is video games that are revolutionizing the way we think about art and education and even culture itself. But I don't think that the sheer impact of that integration, or those possibilities, can fully account for the resistance we find to seeing games (or practomime) as a single art form between table and screen.
So what does account for this difficulty, and why does it matter?
To a classicist trying to develop a field that I'm thinking of these days as "applied classics," the table-to-screen shift looks rather like the oral-to-written shift that leaves legible marks on the remarkable culture of 5th Century BCE Athens, in the works of the tragedians (Aechylus, Sophocles, Euripides), the historians (Herodotus, Thucydides), and the first philosopher, Plato. I could go straight back to Plato's cave, and then add a soupcon of the Phaedrus, to say that Plato was trying among so many other things to get people to pay attention to the bad things (and the good) about the changeover, but I'm sure you're sick of me on the cave by now.
Instead, let me point to Thucydides' hope that his work, by taking full advantage of the technology of writing, would become a possession forever, a ktema es aei, as opposed to what he saw all around him, contest-pieces for immediate hearing—that is, for oral delivery and auditory reception. Thucydides was clearly including Homer and Herodotus among those whose work would not survive, or at any rate would not be useful for future generations. Similarly, my students seem to think of their gaming as occurring in a world apart from the world of tables and classrooms.
(The ktema es aei passage has a very great deal to tell us about practomime, and I plan to come back to it soon, because the "contest-piece" side of the equation is also the practomime side of the equation, as opposed to cultural material like textbooks and [traditional] courses. Deconstructing that opposition has, I think, a lot of potential for understanding the power of practomime in culture.)
But Thucydides' resistance to seeing the traction that oral composition has over our relation to the past is also closely analogous to our characteristic failure to see that a Dungeons and Dragons module and DragonAge: Origins are fundamentally the same thing. Playing pretend on a tabletop in the "real world" is in crucial ways the same as playing pretend in a digital medium. Thucydides is seduced by the textual as we are seduced by the digital. (Plato, notably, is not seduced this way, and his ability to break through the resistance to seeing the continuity of oral and written—and thus also the actual discontinuities—is perhaps what permits him to formulate the cave.)
It's important to fight against this seduction, I think, for at least two reasons, one of them metaphysical and the other eminently practical.
Metaphysical first: if we fail to grasp that digital practomime (i.e. the video game) is a continuation of tabletop practomime, we lose an opportunity to see the practomimetic construction of "reality"—or, to put it in my usual terms, we fail to learn the lesson of the cave, and instead simply become more deeply implicated in the unnecessary fetters that Plato so vividly put on his prisoners' limbs.
To fail in this way is analogous to failing to see that the Matrix trilogy is about all of culture, not just about digital culture, and to failing to understand that Facebook is an extension of "real-world" social relations, not a new way to relate to other people. As a teacher of the Humanities, I see an urgent need for my students' cultural competency and for my own career-survival, to persuade the world of the truth that the "real" world is as virtual as the online world, and always has been. Such an understanding would make clear for example that terms like "the digital humanities" misunderstand both our opportunities and our challenges.
Practical next: if we fail to see that we can do practomime with nothing more than our imaginations and our voices, and can build the technology up from there, and that e.g. Googlewave is easily a more powerful technology for practomime than any currently functional 3D digital world, we lose an extraordinary opportunity for doing culture, whether we call our practices—that is, the culture we do—art, or education, or even entertainment.
I would really like to see more teachers, yes, playing around with the possibilities both online and off-, both digital and physical, both table and screen, of the huge strides people like Jim Gee and Kurt Squire have made in studying what video games tell us about learning. I would really like to see more developers understanding the implications in this area of the explosion of social games, which seek to obscure the connection between the table and the screen even as they trade on it (how else to characterize the constant updates about Farmville and Bejewelled, that use your friends as marketing materials?). Also, though, I would really like to play more practomimes that take me back and forth from physical to digital. Like Wii Fit. But with gods and monsters.
Labels: cave, digital humanities, game education, Herodotus, homer, Plato, practomime, RPG, Thucydides
Life in Rome: examples of excellent practomime
Updates on my practomimetic pedagogy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ocean acidification is occurring concurrently with other physical and chemical changes in the ocean as a result of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, with serious implications for marine species and concomitant risks to marine industries dependent on those species. I present the results of a meta-analysis of the responses of marine ecosystems and species to climate change and ocean acidification across ocean regions, from the boreal and polar systems to oligotrophic tropical seas.
I present a global map of species responses to climate change and ocean acidification. The volume and type of evidence of species responses to climate change is variable across ocean regions and taxonomic groups, with much evidence from high latitude northern hemisphere oceans. In contrast, observations of changing calcification were predominantly from tropical oceans, reflecting the dominance of coral studies. At a species level, impacts on the abundance and distribution (including depth shifts) of marine species are widely reported (41%), while less evidence exists for phenology change (14%) and few observations of demography (3%) and changing calcification (2%), presumably reflecting the very recent emergence of ocean acidification as a concern and in the development of technologies for long-term monitoring of ocean acidification.


We are all unique individuals with unique talents and preferences.
We all have the ability to learn, but we each have a personal learning style, and our own natural strengths and weaknesses.
By the time they start school, each child has learnt to walk, talk, play and create in their own style and in their own time.
When a child learns to walk, it is a process of trial and error, bumps and bruises, frustrations and experimentation.
But they persevere – because they want to explore their world and be like everyone else.
They are wired to learn, but they are also warmly and proudly encouraged by the adults on the sidelines. Everyone expects that, before they learn to walk, there will be many failed attempts. But each time, with encouragement from the sidelines, they will readjust their efforts with the insight gained from their earlier mistakes.
They will take on more challenges on two feet, trusting their ability to develop stronger skills and to overcome new obstacles.
But then … things can start to change for some children!
Difficulties in learning may not just be related to ability. Yes it is true that genetically we are all different. We have some natural gifts and the potential to develop others. In some areas, that potential is harder to embrace, and we will not be excellent at everything, no matter how hard we try. But all human beings have the potential to grow and learn, providing the conditions are right.
Learning requires persistence and optimism, yet many students have lost or not yet developed these strengths.
Learning requires motivation and organization, but many students are overwhelmed by the scope and quantity of the demands on them. They lose focus and confidence, unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Learning requires insight which comes from taking risks and being curious. However, many students have stopped asking questions and trying new things due to negative experiences in the past.
Learning requires self-belief, yet many students quickly learn to measure their success by the grade they receive and not the effort and progress they made. Failure to achieve an A grade, no matter how much progress was made, can quickly translate into a sense of failure as a person.
Everyone has the ability to learn, but each person starts at a different point with different learning styles and at their own pace. In the classroom some individuals may struggle to keep up with the pace and level of their peers, and can benefit from individually tailored approaches.
To learn how to ride a bicycle takes courage, optimism and eagerness to learn. It starts with a struggle, a little nervousness, trial and error, wobbling, falling sometimes, feedback from others, approximations, encouragement, going at your own pace, starting on a clear, smooth surface, wobbling some more, straightening up, relaxing a little, venturing further, getting confident, speeding up, feeling in control… and they're off!
Learning to solve a Maths problem, to speak in Italian or to write a history essay is no different. Students need to remember that before they are successful, they will not know what they are doing. And to struggle with not knowing is not only okay, it is vital in the learning process.
But they also need the right conditions – time and space, encouragement for effort, a safe place to experiment and take risks, patient guidance and feedback, and an environment that breeds optimism and is free of judgement.
There are many amazing teachers doing amazing things in classrooms, creating great conditions for learning. However, some students need extra individual support to account for their unique learning style and pace, to address earlier gaps in their learning, or to rebuild optimism and self-belief that has been lost through past negative experiences.
If you believe your child could benefit from some individual mentoring then please feel free to contact me.