Many phantastica drugs have seretonin-like structures. Seretonin is a messager carrier in the brain. Seretonin build up in the brain, which occurs when we are awake, leads eventually to sleepiness. While asleep we hallucinate, that is, dream.
Michael Pollan in The Botany of Desire claims that cannabis satisfies a deep human desire for intoxication. Cannabis is a Phantastica drug producer with both healing and psychoactive uses.
Of what use are psychoactive compounds to plants? In sakau the kava lactones may be antifungal. In Cannabis the active compounds, cannabinols, may protect the plant against ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
A subtler use of psychoactive compounds might be to confuse predators: you can't go back to a plant that confused your mind and eat it again. Plants cannot run, so they use a wide variety of chemical defenses to survive.
2000 BC: used to treat illnesses in China
1500 BC used by Chinese Shamans 1090 AD. Al-Hasaniba al-Sabban and
the hashinin (assassins). Robbed caravans, plundered,
looted. Built great places where they drank cannabis drinks and lived
in bliss. Soldiers were fierce, determined, successful.
Of what use are phantastica compounds to humans? Pollan suggests that they are meme mutagins.
A gene is a physically inherited trait. A mutagen is a compound that can alter genes. Mutations in genes underlie the mechanisms for evolution.
Memes are units of memorable cultural information. Unlike genes they have no cultural basis. Memes are a culture's building blocks. Memes are retained or disappear according to how adaptive they prove to a culture.
Memes are passed on to us by our parents, family, friends, people around us: by our environment.
The raised eyebrow yes, the concept of a promised land, the sakau apology ceremony, sakau almost every night the way we pass items to high titles, the giving up in a race in which you are too far behind are all memes. Learned cultural behavior patterns.
Phantastica drugs may directly alter and mutate memes by altering our mental constructs and the connections in our mind. New ideas, philosophies, concepts, and religions may arise from mutation of memes. Other experiences can lead to hallucinations: 40 days and nights in desert can make one think one is high on the wall of the temple. From these visions can come powerful memes around love and the need to forgive.
Loss of cultural knowledge can be seen as meme loss.
Cannabis used within its traditional cultural context was not culturally destructive. It is still used in traditional healing in Nepal. Removed from its cultural habitat and turned into a recreational drug has been much more negative.
Just as recreational sakau may be altering and damaging the extended family structure. Some children are sakau orphans due to parental almost every night habits. Sakau used away from its traditional usage may be damaging to the transmission of cultural memes.
| Areca catechu | fruit |
| Piper betel | leaf |
| lime | mineral of biological origin |
| Areca catechu | Arecoline: alkaloid, inhibits GABA uptake |
| Areca catechu | Guvacoline: alkaloid, inhibits GABA uptake |
| Piper betel | aromatic phenol compound |
| lime | increases absorption by increasing salivation, may alter arecoline and guvacoline into more potent compounds |
Can work harder, longer, with increased clearness
- A part of all Hindu rituals, especially nuptial ceremonies prewedding among newer people of Nepal. Bride's parents give nuts to the groom's parents, Bride goes to groom's house after the wedding, gives nuts to everyone.
Nuts are used as wedding invitations in some places
Kava: Piper methystisum, sakau, yangona. Facilitates social interactions.
Tagakalagi alafi Pava world creator first man ripped limb to limb son Pava for violating Alafi resurrected by kava. Pava claps “Through transgression, death. Through kava, life” handclap: remember Pava.