Interesting tie back to common HN discussions on the Wikipedia page for ayahyasca[1]:
Someone successfully patented the plant at the core of ayahyasca (B. Caapi) in 1986. That's right, UPTO granted a trademark on a plant.
The Hacker Who Drank Ayahuasca
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Re: The Hacker Who Drank Ayahuasca
#82For anybody else interested in learning more about DMT, the active ingredient in Ayahuasca, I'd recommend the excellent documentary "The Spirit Molecule": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340425/
Re: The Hacker Who Drank Ayahuasca
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
"We modern smart men have figured a way to have trippy experiences without puking and going into an uncomfortable jungle with this funny superstitious shamans, we are the best!" As if doing a hit of DMT was nearly the same thing as a proper Ayahuasca ceremony done with a shaman coming from a 10.000 years lineage. Sigh.
Yeah, lets listen to superstitious people! Why appeal to the age of an authority? If there's anything measurably beneficial about Ayahuasca I'm certain it can be extracted into a precisely dosed pharmaceutical.
> Yeah, lets listen to superstitious people!
If you like, you can think of it as a kind of placebo effect. Which, you may be able to imagine, can get really strong under the influence of psychedelics.
Disclaimer: I've never used Ayahuasca, but I did organise a few shroom trips, where I paid a lot of attention to the "set & setting". Compared to other times, it makes a lot of difference.
Re: The Hacker Who Drank Ayahuasca
#84This article was rambling devoid of much substance. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the state of mind the product puts you in.
That's largely because the experiences are ineffable and simply can't be accurately related. It would be like trying to describe the color "red" to a blind person. At best you can try to make an analogy to something with which they are familiar. But they will never be able to imagine it in the way that they would consciously see it.
> ineffable
Reminds me of Shpongle's album Tales of the inexpressible--for me, I feel like they managed to capture the experience in music with an accuracy that verges on brilliance. Especially the text "people laugh, and cry at the same time, they get horny and holy at the same time, have you seen it?" hits right home to me (the crying bit reminds me of a particular strain of shrooms that just makes your eyes and nose very leaky at some point during the start of the trip, about the same time you also tend to giggle a lot--though I'm not sure if that's what Shpongle are referring to intentionally).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBQRkl7_K4M (btw just want to note that TwistedUK has all the tracks published on their own channel as well, but this link's the whole album)
But if you've never experienced a trip, I doubt this album will help you much in that regard :) But it's also absolutely beautiful music on its own.
Before my first trip I read loads of trip reports and stories, didn't tell me much about the real thing. But afterwards, I agree those stories were about as accurate as one can get with words. It's nothing paranormal, but it is really inexpressible :)