Bronze Age humans, 3,000 years ago, got high on hallucinogenic plant alkaloids so powerful and dangerous that even psychedelic users of today avoid them, according to a new study. The humans may have had out-of-body experiences or thought they were growing fur or feathers as a result of consuming the anticholinergic substances atropine or scopolamine.
Symptoms would have started more mildly with dilated pupils, dry skin and a racing heart. As the trip set in, the user would have experienced full-on delirium, or the inability to differentiate between hallucinations and reality.
Researchers found the chemicals, along with the stimulant ephedrine, inside strands of hair buried deep in a cave on the Spanish island of Menorca, not far from an earlier burial site. One or more persons had buried the hair in a special wooden box decorated with concentric circles, which may have signified “inner vision” related to drug-induced states of ...
