El Yage – a plant called the Mysteriosa – a climbing plant up to 3 meters long that grows abundantly in the jungles of the Amazon River. It likely contains a psychedelic drug that acts as if it transports a person to another point in time and space. After taking it, a person can see things they've never seen before and experience places they've never been.
Interest in yage has so far been limited to two, or at best three, categories of people: the first are sorcerers who used yage as a means of maintaining power over their tribesmen; the second group consists of botanical scientists, chemists, and pharmacologists; the third group is probably composed of military intelligence specialists, since it is known that at least the USSR showed considerable interest in yage—a suspicious interest, considering the distance separating the Amazon basin from the Soviet Union.
The first information about yage that was not intended exclusively for specialists appeared in the Spanish-language publication of the Pan American Union, "Americas," in its December 1962 issue. In this magazine, Alfredo Granguillhome from Mexico presented an article: "El Yage, a Planta Misteriosa."
Those familiar with this material know perfectly well that yage truly deserves its name—"mystery plant." The so-called sacred mushroom is known for its ability to unlock the most mysterious areas of the mind. Perhaps yage is a related plant, or perhaps it belongs to another group of plants whose mysterious alkaloids have the power to expand human experience. It's possible that it allows access to even deeper areas of the subconscious, allowing the mind to enter realms of freedom from the constraints of space and time, if such a thing is even possible.
It is not without significance that one of the alkaloids obtained from this plant is called "telepatine" and that Spanish-speaking scientists changed the name of the plant to "telepatina".
This astonishing plant and its relatives, including the so-called creeper of the dead, are used in the rituals of at least 35 tribes living in the upper Amazon and Orinoco basins. These tribes also include the headhunters of the Jivaros; the remaining tribes are known mostly only to anthropologists—these are jungle-dwelling savages whose secrets, even after centuries of frequent contact with the inhabitants of Brazil and other Latin American countries, remain as unknown in South America as they are in the United States.
It is known that most of these tribes use yaga and related plants to prepare the main ritual drink, to which some add one set of ingredients, others another - obtaining, depending on the effect they want, a poisonous, medicinal or narcotic drink.
The main drink is a decoction prepared by simmering pieces of Banisteriopsis caapi stems and crushed bark in a large clay pot for an entire day. Water is added occasionally to replace any that has evaporated.
The result is a syrupy, brown or red infusion. It is believed to be an antimalarial and preventative measure against infections. It is also recommended as a treatment for beriberi.
Yage leaves and young shoots are added to induce "telepathic" abilities. Granguillhome claims that these give the drink a strange bluish or greenish tint of almost fluorescent intensity.
After drinking the intoxicating beverages, strange things happen. Granguillhome writes: "The effect of yage on the Indians seems to be completely different from that on the white people. The Indians describe in detail scenes and events they have never experienced or witnessed before.
One of the researchers who came to this area, a completely primitive savage - please forgive the term - who had never left his village or his region, described a military parade or parade in the smallest detail, mentioning not only the magnificent uniforms and the komas (an animal unknown in this part of the Amazon basin), but also the medals on the officers' uniforms.
Botanist researcher Richard Spruce was the first European to describe this plant, along with a list of its uses, in 1851. He discovered its use among the Tukanoan Indians living along the Uaupes River. They used this rosima for fortune telling and divination, which they achieved by experiencing "terrifyingly realistic, colorful visual hallucinations."
If yagé only caused hallucinations of the kind that hashish does, it would be just another dangerous drug, best left alone. But visions produced by hashish don't "telepathically" convey what happened elsewhere.
Granguillhome writes: "Seven years ago, Colonel Custadio Morales, a military commander from Calcedo near Riohacha in Colombia, out of curiosity took 11 drops of yagé given to him by Dr. Creda Bayon... (this probably refers to an extract of the drug)...The next day, the terrified colonel told the doctor that he had had a dream that his father, who lived in Bogotá, had died and that one of his sisters was seriously ill. When the mail arrived shortly afterwards, the colonel received in the letter information that had already appeared to him in a vision."
One source states that when using a variant of the yage drink, intoxicated individuals remain unconscious for three days before regaining consciousness, but this may be due to the drink being mixed with other substances - such as tobacco or the tropical tree Datura - used by some tribes to diversify the effects.
In 1958, Villavicencio reported that related plants known as yagé were used in the Ecuadorian Amazon for "witchcraft, black magic, fortune telling, and divination." This early reference, along with others of a similar nature, indicates that one of these plants contains a substance that somehow compels the mind to dwell on matters of the future.
It is humbling to know that "savages" possess knowledge not yet discovered by educated scientists and researchers, but we should remember that sorcerers and healers understood and used psychology and psychiatry before civilized man discovered them.
Yage seems to vastly expand the capabilities, sensitivity, and experience of the human mind. Perhaps it also offers the opportunity to open doors still firmly closed to theologians and psychic researchers.
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