With a wide diversity of medicinal herbs, numerous Mexican towns use herbal wisdom as part of their nutritional and healing repertoire. Somehow, these Mexican medicinal plants have accompanied both ancestral peoples and our current culture, as part of the daily diet and mental, physical or spiritual palliatives.
Each of them promotes both the biodiversity of the region as the knowledge of those generations laden with shamans, mysticism and connection with nature. Although those that enjoy the greatest popularity are those known as «power», those that have always been characterized by their imposing alteration in visual perception and manifested in intensely colored geometric figures, petroglyphs, Huichol tables, among others.
In other words, these plants, from the family of psychodysleptic drugs, are distinguished in four subfamilies: hallucinogens, cognodysleptics, trance inducers, and delirogens. In order to continue promoting Mexican millennial knowledge about herbal medicine, we share an explanation of each of the types of endemic psychotropics in Mexico:
– trance inducers. Despite being used since Mesoamerican prehistory, this type of plant hardly produces hallucinations. Instead they generate a charged sensation of lethargy and languor, increasing perception to the point of causing irritation. Some report «a stimulation of the imagination that is used, in a divinatory way, in ritual contexts.» A Mexican trance-inducer is the hoja de la pastora or pipiltzintzintli –salvia divinorum–; also, marijuana –Cannabis sativa–.
– Cognodysleptics. Like trance inducers, they stimulate the imagination but do not produce hallucinations. Its effects are mainly reflected in the alteration of memory mechanisms; that is, although short-term memory can be «lost» in the Unconscious, all sensations and fantasy are revived. The daily use of these plants is oneiromancy, divination during sleep. A Mexican cognodysleptic is the Manto de la Virgen o ololiuhqui –Turbina corymbosa–.
– Delirogenic. With potent effects that decrease consciousness, excessive consumption of these plants causes a delirium with disorientation and intense hallucinations that can confuse internal reality with external reality. They are known to be of «dark and secret tradition», used mainly in sorcery rites and to deal damage to enemies. A Mexican delirogen is the toloache or tolohuaxihuitl –datura stramonium–.
– Hallucinogen. As their name suggests, these plants produce hallucinations. The quintessence of hallucinogens is the mescaline from peyote or the psilocybin from mushrooms, in addition to the fact that both plants are considered sacred par excellence.
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