'[1] Anecdotal records reveal that the Khoikhoi and San people have used Sceletium tortuosum since ancient times as an essential part of the indigenous culture and materia medica.
[6] In her book The Harmless People, based on fieldwork in the 1950s, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas observed that the women sat in a circle around a fire, singing the medicine songs in several parts with falsetto voices and clapping their hands in a sharp, staccato rhythm.
Men danced single-file around the fire taking very short, pounding steps in counterpoint to the rhythms of the singing and the clapping.
The movement was accompanied by the sharp, high clatter of rattles—made from dry cocoons strung together with sinew cords—that were tied to their legs.
San people began learning these songs and dances when they were children and work hard to develop these skills.
[9] Katz says the women's singing of these powerful n/um songs helps "awaken" the n/um and the healer's heart so they can begin to heal.
The healer undergoes a transformation, which comes after a painful transition into an enhanced state of consciousness, called !kia.
"[5] They can also suddenly fling their arms into the air and with a piercing shriek crash to the ground, as observed by Elizabeth Marshall.
When the first light of dawn shows on the horizon, they gather extra energy to will sing louder and dance faster.
[11] Sandy Gall, author of The Bushmen of Southern Africa, states that after a healing dance they "collapse in exhaustion" until the next day, when, fully recovered, they share their trance experiences with one another.
This is the force that takes over a group of people and causes jealousy, anger and quarrels and failures of gift giving.
[6] Also in this powerful state, healers often walk on fire, see the insides of peoples' bodies and scenes at great distances from their camp, or travel to God's home, as observed by Elizabeth Marshall.
As K"au fDau, a blind healer told Professor Katz:"God keeps my eyeballs in a little cloth bag.
And then when the women stop singing and separate out, he removes the eyeballs, puts them back in the cloth bag and takes them up to heaven."