Entheogenics and the Maya
Psychoactive plants contain hallucinogenic particles that provoke an altered state of consciousness, which are known to have been used during spiritual rituals among cultures such as the Aztec, the Maya, and Inca.
Archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic data show that Mesoamerican cultures used psychedelic substances in therapeutic and religious rituals.
[4] Shamans in Mesoamerica served to diagnose the cause of illness by seeking wisdom through a transformational experience by consuming drugs to learn the crisis of the illness[2] One of the more unusual entheogens employed by the Maya was derived from the skin - and more especially the parotid glands - of the Cane toad, Rhinella marina (formerly known as Bufo marinus), a sacred figure throughout the history of Mesoamerican culture.
[2] The poison present in the skin of R. marina contains a number of Bufotoxins that can prove fatal, if the toxic secretion is prepared improperly or consumed in excess.
[citation needed] The main goals for the usage of these plants were for spiritual healing, spirit interaction, ancestral communication, enlightenment and wisdom gain, and religious ceremonies.
Tobacco was smoked, inhaled, chewed, and occasionally mixed with the leaves of Datura, (another genus in the family Solanaceae, but, unlike Nicotiana, one rich in deliriant tropane alkaloids), which enhanced the hallucinogenic effect of the activity.
The Maya used enemas, a procedure in which liquid or gas is injected into the rectum, to manage certain substances in order to intensify the effect of the drug.
The paintings on ceramic vessels from the Mayan late classic period show pots overflowing with foam from fermented drinks, depict individuals talking to one another as they receive enemas.
[2] Intoxication was associated with the practice of divination, a ritual meant to facilitate direct interaction with the spirits to foretell the future or understand events that would otherwise be unclear, including illness, a shift in fortune, and the results of war.
Archaeologists have discovered murals of figures drinking pulque in a group ceremony, and show individuals combining psychoactive substances with balaché, while smoking wild Mesoamerican tobacco when performing ritual enemas.
The seeds of Ipomoea corymbosa and I. violacea were consumed by the Maya and Aztec for their psychotropic effects on perception and the emotions i.e. to evoke an altered state of consciousness).
