SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY
ANNETTE SNEEVLIET ¦
PSILOCYBE CAERULESCENS
FUNGI ¦
HALLUCINOGENS
94
give hints that point to the animal, mineral, or plant realms.
In this case, it is not so clear. What we see are a lot of hand
gestures, something that usually means that we are dealing
with a plant or animal rather than a mineral. The words that are
accompanied by hand gestures most clearly speak the language
of the remedy. The words that she accompanied with hand
gestures were:
THE PATIENT’S CHOICE OF WORDS:
•
Fine lines
•
Disoriented by destruction of brain tissue
•
Humans are an endless source of energy
•
Transformation
•
Disorientation
•
Facilitating transformation for others
•
Exchange of energy
•
Body is being eaten up
•
Chaos and disintegration
•
Everything falls apart
•
An unorganized anarchy in the body
These words give us the direction that we need to further
explore the case.
AS:
Tell me more about disorientation, transformation, body
being eaten up, chaos, everything falls apart.
P:
“All my muscles disappear; they dissolve as though they are
being eaten up. As though a millions little bugs are chewing on
them (HG). It is a sort of self-destruction (HG). The connection
is eaten up (HG). Disintegration, everything falls apart (HG).
I associate this with dying. Things lose their connection. There
is chaos and destruction. Being digested (HG). Bacteria and
hormones that break things down (HG). Mucus-forming, like
hydrochloric acid that dissolves tissues.”
ANALYSIS
Let’s see how she uses images:
“As though there are a million little bugs gnawing at me.”
“Like hydrochloric acid that dissolves tissues.”
This is the level of delusion, the language of images. The sensa-
tion, the language of the remedy itself, is underneath these
images. It is in the experience of the millions of little bugs and
the experience of hydrochloric acid.
AS:
What is the experience of the bugs biting and the experience
of hydrochloric acid?
P:
“The nerve connections are disconnected (HG). The con-
nections are dissolved (HG). I am reduced to a bag of bones
(HG). A heap of material that is being broken down. I am
mortal. There are trails of slime that dissolve everything
(HG). Holes come in the tissues of the body, in the organs, in
the brains (HG). It shrinks (HG), it dries up (HG), everything
becomes dry (HG). It is like a small beast with a slimy neck
that slides forward (image). Everything that comes in con-
tact with that slime dissolves and falls apart (HG). A primal
energy that destroys everything (HG). The slime becomes a
TEONANACATL – FLESH OF THE GODS
Historical sources confirm that psychedelic fungi
from the genus Psilocybe were ingested ritually
in religious ceremonies long before the arrival of
the Spanish in Mexico. The oldest carved “mush-
room stones” in Central America have been dated
by archaeologists to 1000 years before Christ.
Christian missionaries damned the ceremonial
use of fungi and forced it underground. Ethnolo-
gists only became interested in the continued
existence of the fungi cult in the middle of the
twentieth century. With the help of the Mexican
shaman Maria Sabrina, the American scholar
R. Gordon Wasson not only took part in a ritual
with psychedelic fungi but also had some of
them botanically and chemically examined. Albert
Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, isolated two
substances – which he called psilocin and psilocybin
– as the hallucinogenic active ingredients of the
Psilocybe species. In a subsequent test of these
synthesized substances, the healer Marina Sabrina
was unable to detect any difference in their
effects compared to the psychedelic fungi that
she normally uses.
The divulging of these century-old secrets by
Maria Sabrina was regarded by many of her fellow
shamans as a betrayal of sacred customs. And
indeed the “fungi tourism” to Mexico in the 1970s
triggered by these developments helped to bring
about the downfall of the shaman tradition
there. A similar fate also affected Peyotl, the cactus
Anhalonium lewini, which has a comparable
hallucinogenic effect. “Magic mushrooms” are
currently widely found in the drug scene. In Europe,
these include native fungi such as the liberty cap
(Psilocybe semilanceata). There is some evidence
that it was ingested in a ritual manner by Alpine
nomads.
Bibliography: Richard Evans Schultes, ChristianRätsch,
Albert Hofmann: “
Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred,
Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers
”, Healing
Arts Press, 2001
copyright ¦ Photo Psilocybe semilanceata /
Shutterstock / Eddie R Rodriquez
