[Turtle]

pamela, on 14 January 2012 - 06:37 PM, said:

hmmmn this ole thread eh

at last, huh? i'm with ya.

pamela said:

While not wholly convinced at this latter date about the god gene so to speak, I have acquired more information on TLE through my own personal experiences. With that said, I should be curious about what has been ingested along the way to trigger these spiritual responses as well as which target groups and what time frame in which all this new testing has been done. For example, one can simply abuse dextromethorphan and have hallucinations such as out of body experiences and visions of god and also hear voices. Depending on how long the abuse has occurred, these types of things will continue to happen long after the drug abuse has stopped. It will also trigger TLE. Now you have to wonder say hundreds of years ago, what may have been ingested that could have caused a similar spiritual experience and possibly a chemical reaction neurologically or a heightened response in a neurochemical . Any thoughts?

i think the "god spot" and "god gene" are passe concepts/terms these days, as put forward in that last article i quoted & linked to. the inclination to religious/spiritual belief while more complex than put forward early is nonetheless a bona fide "condition" if i may use that word.

as to what substances and means the ancients had at hand beyond an individual's physiological makeup, there is the psilocybin mushroom(s) in both the old & new world -article @ wiki-, peyote cactus in north america, the ergot fungus of grain crops throughout the world, & nutmeg (believe it or not) just to name a few. more plants at Department of Plant Biology, University of Maryland-LECTURE 31 - PSYCHOACTIVE PLANTS or just google psychoactive plants and pick your poison.

as to other means i saw a piece on pbs i think (can't find a link last time i looked; good luck) about a megolithic structure at malta constructed such that a drummer sitting at the entrance to a chamber could produce a helmholtz-resonance of 7.5 hertz, the reasonance of the earth of all things and also in the theta range of brain frequencies associated with, according to this source,

Quote

Deep meditation. Deep inward thought. This is associated with life-like imagination. High state of mental concentration. A magical mind. Internal pictures / visualisation. Intuition, inner guidance. Access to unconscious material. Dreaming.

source not the best medical source but google is your friend.

there is also the old standby blow to the head or severe fevers as evidenced in the medical literature. (see the earlier article(s) in this thread on the gal who helped get the seventh day adventists going)

there's more than one way to skin a cat fo shizzle.

[pamela]

you're so funny turtle
I was thinking more along the lines of lets say early man eating seeds. The seeds contain a cannabinoid. That in return reacts with the neurochemical endocannabinoid or maybe its mimicked and then has an effect on the neurotransmitter release. I dunno, something like that makes sense to me; a reaction rather than something inherent.Not specifically a cannabinoid, but maybe if i dig deeper i can figure it out. But anyhow, you see where i am going with this i hope.

[Turtle]

pamela, on 14 January 2012 - 08:01 PM, said:

you're so funny turtle
I was thinking more along the lines of lets say early man eating seeds. The seeds contain a cannabinoid. That in return reacts with the neurochemical endocannabinoid or maybe its mimicked and then has an effect on the neurotransmitter release. I dunno, something like that makes sense to me; a reaction rather than something inherent.Not specifically a cannabinoid, but maybe if i dig deeper i can figure it out. But anyhow, you see where i am going with this i hope.

glad my humour worked. sorry i wasn't more specific on seeds. here's more on seed specifics in regard to ergot that i mentioned. in this case the active chemicals are alkaloid(s). full article contains some history of medicinal use as well as links to other sources.

full article: >>Ergot @ wiki
select quotes: >>

wicked peasant said:

Ergot or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps.[1] The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea. This fungus grows on rye and related plants, and produces alkaloids that can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals who consume grains contaminated with its fruiting structure (called ergot sclerotium).[2][3]
...
The ergot sclerotium contains high concentrations (up to 2% of dry mass) of the alkaloid ergotamine, a complex molecule consisting of a tripeptide-derived cyclol-lactam ring connected via amide linkage to a lysergic acid (ergoline) moiety, and other alkaloids of the ergoline group that are biosynthesized by the fungus.[7] Ergot alkaloids have a wide range of biological activities including effects on circulation and neurotransmission.[8]
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The neurotropic activities of the ergot alkaloids may also cause hallucinations and attendant irrational behaviour, convulsions, and even death.[7][8]
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American author John Grigsby contends that the presence of ergot in the stomachs of some of the so called 'bog-bodies' (Iron Age human remains from peat bogs N E Europe such as Tollund Man) is indicative of use of ergot in ritual drinks in a prehistoric fertility cult akin to the Eleusinian Mysteries cult of ancient Greece. In his book Beowulf and Grendel, he argues that the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is based on a memory of the quelling of this fertility cult by followers of Odin. He writes that Beowulf, which he translates as barley-wolf, suggests a connection to ergot which in German was known as the 'tooth of the wolf'.[22]
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