true hallucinations.htm - Shroomery

true hallucinations.htm
In which a flashback to Tantric excesses in the head nests of hippie Asia illuminates strange mushroom experiences at La Chorrera.
Two YEARS BEFORE, during the spring and summer of 1969, I had lived in Nepal and studied the Tibetan language. The wave of interest in
Buddhist studies was just beginning, so those of us in Nepal with Tibetan interests were a tightly knit group. My purpose in studying Tibetan
was different from that of most Westerners involved with the language in Nepal. They were nearly all interested in some aspect of Mahayana
Buddhist thought, while I was interested in a religious tradition that antedated the seventh century and the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet.
This indigenous pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet was a kind of shamanism closely related to the motifs and cosmology of the classical
shamanism of Siberia. Tibetan folk shamanism, called Bon, continues to be practiced today in the mountainous area of Nepal that borders
Tibet. Its practitioners are generally despised by the Buddhist community, being thought of as heretics and as generally low types.
My interest in Bon and its practitioners, the Bon-po, arose out of a passion for Tibetan painting. It is common in such painting that the most
fantastic, extravagant, and ferocious images are drawn from the pre-Buddhist substratum of folk imagery. The terrifying, multi-armed, and
multi-headed guardians of the Buddhist teaching, called Dharmapalas, with their auras of flame and light, are autochthonous Bon deities
whose allegiance to the late-arriving Buddhist religion is maintained only by powerful spells and rituals that bind and secure the loyalty of
these forceful demons.
It seemed to me that the shamanic tradition that spawned such outlandish and fantastic images must at some time have had the knowledge of a
hallucinogenic plant. Shamanic ecstasy in Siberia was known to be attained through the use of the mushroom Amanita muscaria, and Gordon
Wasson has made a good case for the use of the same mushroom in Vedic India. Since Tibet is situated roughly between these two areas, it did
not seem impossible that, before the coming of Buddhism, hallucinogens were part of the indigenous shamanic tradition.
Amanita muscaria was only one of several candidates that might have served as a hallucinogen in ancient Tibet. Pegamum harmala of the
Zygophallaceae family is another suspect. It, like Banisteriopsis caapi, contains the hallucinogenic beta-carboline alkaloid harmaline in
considerable quantities and is probably hallucinogenic by itself. Certainly in combination with a DMT-containing plant, of which the flora of
India boasts several, it should yield a strong hallucinogen whose composition would not differ chemically from the ayahuasca brews of the
Amazon.*
My interest in Tibetan painting and hallucinogenic shamanism led me to Nepal. I had learned there were refugee camps in Nepal and near
Simla in India whose populations were nearly entirely outcast Bon-po, unwelcome in the camps where Buddhist refugees were housed. I
wanted to learn from the Bon-po whatever knowledge they still retained of hallucinogens they might once have known and used. I wished, in
my naivete, to prove my hypothesis
[* The giant river reed, Arundo donax for example, occurs in India and its roots contain DMT. See S. Ghosal, S. K. Dutta, A. K. Sanyal, and
Bhattacharya, "Arundo donex L. (Graminae), Phytochemical and Pharmacological Evaluation," in the Journal of Medical Chemistry, vol. 12
(1969), p. 480.]
about the influence of plant hallucinogens on Tibetan painting and then write a monograph about it.
As soon as I arrived in Asia, the enormity of the task and the effort that this project would require were seen more nearly in their correct
proportions. My proposed plan was actually an outline for a life of scholarly research! Naturally, I found that nothing could be done at all until
I was familiar with the Tibetan language, so I put aside all my research ideas and resolved to dedicate myself to learning as much Tibetan as I
could in the few months that circumstances gave me in Nepal.
I moved out of Kathmandu, away from the pleasures of the hashish dens and the social swirl of the international community of travelers,
smugglers, and adventurers that has made the town its own. I moved to Boudanath, a small village of great antiquity a few miles east of
Kathmandu and recently flooded with Tibetans from Lhasa—people who spoke the Lhasa dialect that is understood throughout the
Himalayas. The people of the village were Buddhist and I made my arrangements to study with the monks there without mentioning my
interest in the Bon-po. I sought lodging and came to terms with Den Ba-do, the local miller and a Newari, one of the main ethnic groups of
Nepal. He agreed to rent me a room on the third floor of his prosperous adobe house, which fronted the muddy main street of Boudanath. I
struck a bargain with a local girl who agreed to bring me fresh water each day, and I settled comfortably in. I whitewashed the adobe walls of
my room, commissioned a huge mosquito net in the market in Kathmandu, and arranged my books and small Tibetan writing bench inside.
Finally at ease, I set about cultivating my image as a young traveler and scholar.
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