Ayahuasca

Franz Xaver Veigl on Ayahuasca in Maynas

Franz Xaver Veigl, a German Jesuit who worked in the mission province of Maynas in the upper Amazon until the Jesuits were expelled in 1768, describes healers and visionary drinks there. He writes that people who drank "hayac huasca" saw "absolutely enormous visions" and seemed to travel far away, and, like other missionaries of his time, he treats this as dealings with the devil. English translation of Latin passages from his account of Maynas.

Psychotropic Properties of the Harmala Alkaloids

A Chilean psychiatrist's report on harmala alkaloids, ayahuasca-related beta-carbolines, and comparative human experiments with harmaline and mescaline at the University of Chile.

El contexto cultural de un alucinógeno aborigen

Banisteriopsis caapi

A Colombian Amazon ethnographic study placing Tukano use of Banisteriopsis caapi, or yajé, within a wider cultural system of mythology, ritual, symbolism, perception, and social knowledge.

Cueva del Chileno

A high-Andean ritual bundle with direct chemical evidence for multiple psychoactive plants

A rock shelter in southwestern Bolivia where archaeologists found direct chemical evidence for ancient use of coca, harmine-bearing plants, DMT-bearing plants, and possibly psilocin.

Ayahuasca in Villavicencio's Geografía de la República del Ecuador

An 1858 Ecuadorian account of ayahuasca visions and divination

Manuel Villavicencio's 1858 geography gives an early Spanish account of ayahuasca among Indigenous groups of eastern Ecuador, including divination, warfare, illness diagnosis, visionary effects, and a first-person report of his own experience.

Caapi and Niopo in “On Some Remarkable Narcotics of the Amazon Valley and Orinoco”

Richard Spruce on ayahuasca, yopo/paricá, and Amazonian medicine-men

Richard Spruce's nineteenth-century account of caapi, aya-huasca, niopo, and paricá, based on field observations in the Uaupés, Orinoco, Rio Negro, Napo, and Pastasa regions. The excerpt records plant identifications, preparation methods, visual effects, ceremonial uses, and the role of payes in curing and divination.

Contribution to the Study of the Toxic Drinks of the Northwest Amazon

French physician P. Reinburg's account of his ayahuasca ingestion among the Záparo in May 1913, published in the Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Rather than visions, he experienced a severe toxic reaction with pulse loss, vomiting, and spasms, recorded in clinical detail.

Study on the Active Principle of Yagé

A 1923 doctoral thesis reporting Fischer Cárdenas's isolation of the yagé alkaloid that Rafael Zerda Bayón had named telepathine (telepatina) decades earlier without isolating it. Seven case reports detail effects on human subjects, including the author's self-experiment, describing vivid dreams, visual hallucinations, and euphoria at low doses, followed by a systematic summary of physiological action.

Blood Revenge, War, and Victory Feasts among the Jibaro Indians

Anthropologist Rafael Karsten's account of a Jívaro victory feast describes the natéma ceremony, in which the vision-inducing drink made from Banisteria caapi and tobacco is prepared ritually and drunk communally. The passage covers preparation, the emetic effect, and beliefs that the visions foretell prosperity.

Documents Toward a Study of Yagé

Rouhier's two-part dossier for Bulletin des Sciences Pharmacologiques: a translation of Barriga Villalba's 1923 paper on alkaloid yagéine, followed by Rouhier's ethnographic and pharmacological notes. Rouhier catalogues dose-dependent effects and includes chemical analysis of a Jívaro preparation.

On Banisterine, an Intoxicating Substance from Banisteria Caapi

Berlin pharmacologist Louis Lewin announces his isolation of banisterine from Banisteria caapi and its identity to harmine. He describes animal experiments and preliminary human trials showing that banisterine relieved the muscular rigidity of encephalitis lethargica (post-influenza sleeping sickness).

Gonzales v. O Centro

Chief Justice Roberts holds the federal government failed to show a compelling interest justifying its ban on the Uniao do Vegetal church's sacramental use of hoasca (ayahuasca tea with DMT) under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Court rejects the UN Convention argument and upholds the peyote precedent for religious exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act.

Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey

A federal court ruling applying Gonzales v. O Centro to the Santo Daime church in Oregon, granting the right to import and drink ayahuasca under RFRA. Judge Panner's findings describe the religion's origins, ritual, physiological effects, and the government's health and diversion evidence.