HISTORICAL USE OF PLANT MEDICINES

                                 The Ancestral Roots of Psychedelic Medicine

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           The Roots of Plant Medicine

For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples across the Americas have turned to sacred plants and fungi—ayahuasca, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and San Pedro—as teachers and healers. These medicines were used in ceremony to restore balance, seek vision, and reconnect the individual with community, spirit, and nature.

Guided by curanderos, shamans, and traditional healers, these rituals were not merely treatments but journeys of remembrance—pathways to wholeness carried through song, prayer, and ancient lineage.

After centuries of suppression, this ancestral wisdom is being rediscovered and honored once again. Modern science now confirms what Indigenous healers have always known: that these sacred plants, when used with respect, safety, and intention, can open the heart, heal trauma, and renew the human spirit.

The modern psychedelic renaissance stands firmly on these ancient roots—where healing is sacred, and every journey is a return to the wisdom of the Earth.

 

        The Western Discovery of Psychedelics

    Timeline

• 1496: Friar Ramón Pané documented Taíno use of cohoba/yopo (DMT).

• 1560–1575: Spanish friars described Aztec rituals using peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and ololiuqui seeds.

• 1850s–1860s: European explorers observed ayahuasca in Brazil and iboga in Central Africa.

• 1897: Arthur Heffter isolated and tested mescaline.

• 1943: Albert Hofmann discovered LSD by accident.

• 1955: R. Gordon Wasson attended a psilocybin mushroom ceremony with María Sabina in Oaxaca, inspiring worldwide interest.

• 1960s: LSD fueled the counterculture through underground chemists like Owsley Stanley.

• 1970: The U.S. Controlled Substances Act outlawed most psychedelics, halting research.

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Impact

From early documentation of Indigenous practices to 20th-century experimentation, psychedelics moved from sacred ceremony into science and culture.
Though prohibition ended decades of study, a new psychedelic renaissance has emerged.

Since the 1990s, researchers like Rick Strassman, Roland Griffiths, and Robin Carhart-Harris have led modern studies proving psychedelics’ potential for healing depression, addiction, PTSD, and anxiety.

Today, institutions such as Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London are pioneering a renewed scientific understanding of plant medicine and consciousness.