

### GOD MOLECULES

### THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF GOD

Dr. Rajkumar Chetty MD FRCPath

Copyright © 2015 Dr. Rajkumar Chetty MD FRCPath

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### ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Rajkumar is a medically qualified doctor who pursued higher medical education in the United Kingdom. He has specialized in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Medicine and is currently working as the Head of Laboratory Services in a hospital. He is a British national though by birth he hails from India.

Dr. Rajkumar is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of the Faculty of the Pharmaceutical Medicine, The Royal College of Physicians, UK.

Dr. Rajkumar has more than 25 years of professional experience in hospital practice, teaching, and research gained in India, UK, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

He has a deep-rooted interest in scientific philosophy and revels in thinking, writing and talking about profound worldly phenomena and their scientific basis.

### OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

THE UNIVERSE AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM: WHAT CAN MODERN SCIENCE AND EASTERN PHILOSOPHY TELL US ABOUT ORDER, CREATION, GOD AND RELIGION?

www.smashwords.com/books/view/314227

THE MYTH OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: AMAZING WONDERS OF BIOLOGICAL COMMUNICATION

www.smashwords.com/books/view/439856

THE MYTH OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE: NATURE'S INCREDIBLE WAYS OF PROBLEM-SOLVING

www.smashwords.com/books/view/424466

CONTENTS

Theme In A Nutshell

1. Medicines, Psychedelic Substances And Mushrooms

2. Why Does Man, And Even Animals, Like To Use Psychoactive Substances?

3. Entheogens - Molecules That Can Induce Spiritual Experiences

4. Social And Therapeutic Advantages Of Mind-Altering Substances

5. Anandamide - The Bliss Molecule

6. The Role Of Dopamine In The Pleasure Of Religion

7. The Molecular Basis Of Human Society

8. Brain's Own Opium

9. 'Penicillin' For The Soul

10. Did The Psychoactive Soma Spark The Origins Of Religions?

11. Are Genuine Spiritual Experiences Really Unique And Exclusive?

12. Brain Electrical Activity And Trance-Like States

13. Ultimate Caretakers \- Bounties From Versatile Plants And Mushrooms

# THEME IN A NUTSHELL

The rich tapestry of molecular interactions in our body seem to be capable of running life programs as if they are chemical software and the author raises a valid question in this book - are there molecules that can mediate spiritual behaviour too?

Why should plants and mushrooms abound with psychedelic substances that are capable of altering our minds? The fact that they do not have even a nervous system, let alone a brain, makes this phenomenon difficult to justify from an ontological point. Many of them cause psychological effects consistent with spiritualistic experiences. This is a very curious phenomenon and is the central theme of this book.

This book argues that religiosity could be a biochemical event. Psilocybin and a lot of other similar psychoactive compounds are able to produce spiritual, religious, mystical, visionary, revelatory experiences possibly acting through the same brain molecular and neural machinery connected with real spiritual experiences. Then what is the role of the God himself in this experience?

Historically, entheogens have been used by diverse civilizations as tools to supplement various practices for healing and transcendence, including meditation. Some known examples used historically include _ambrosia_ in Greece, _soma_ in Vedic India, _Peyote_ in Native America, and cannabis.

The author puts forward the hypothesis that the world's first spiritual text, the Vedas, were conceived by a human race called the Aryans while under the influence of mind-altering substance called _Soma._ The Indo-Iranian race that flourished in the Oxus valley also conceived the Avesta religious scripture and the Zoroastrian religion and a psychoactive drink called Haoma played a major role in it.

Spiritual behaviour is addictive. The author suggests that dopamine could be at the centre of religious pleasure. It may make people seek the 'pleasure of God' time and again. It has been noted that dopamine seems to be the final common mediator of all of the varied mind-altering substances made by plants and fungi. In essence dopamine could be the major projector of Godliness.

Our own brain makes molecules similar to opium and marijuana. The brain receptors do not distinguish brain's own opium and that made by the plants! Anandamide, which means 'the bliss molecule', is produced by our own brain and it acts like Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of Marijuana, and binds the same brain receptor that binds marijuana.

Oxytocin is a hormone made by our brain that may have played a vital role in for formation of bigger human social groups such as cities and states because it enabled human emotions that matter in social interactions. Oxytocin may be the molecular basis of human societies!! Evolutionary selfishness is overridden by social considerations like group cooperation, tolerance, trust, and a sense of moral and order. These are truly the recipes for a peaceful, orderly society and are exactly the virtues preached by all religions.

If some molecules, exogenously or endogenously made, can re-create exactly the same behavioural bundle that is consistent with religiously indoctrinated values then the question needs to be asked - what is the difference between real religion and an entheogenic experience? Really, there does not seem to be any.

Did social evolution of good virtues, as mandated by religions, co-evolve with plant evolution that led to the origin of behavior-modifying molecules? Intriguingly, there seems to be a lot of molecular evolutionary convergence wherein biochemical pathways in our brain leading to synthesis of the God molecules come from same parent molecules and from the same anatomic structures!

Many of the plant-derived hallucinogenic substances have been found to have the potential to treat a number of psychological imbalances suggesting that plants are meant to play a bigger role in our mental health over and above their role as providers of food and medicines.

# 1. MEDICINES, PSYCHEDELIC SUBSTANCES AND MUSHROOMS

Mushrooms are fascinating life systems. They are actually a type of fungus. It is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of the fungus. It grows on ground soil or on its food source.

They are very versatile in their biosynthetic capabilities. They make a lot of compounds that have medicinal value to us. What is the purpose of this is a different question altogether. If a fungus made an antibacterial substance it is easy to explain it as a self - defence mechanism. In fact, the first antibiotic that was ever discovered - Penicillin - is made by a fungus. Alexander Fleming noted that where this mould had grown the bacteria on his agar plates were inhibited from growing. This, he presumed, must have been due to something that the fungus had produced that killed the bacteria. He was right and there started a medical revolution. It transformed the way we treated infections. The survival rate of patients suffering from infections had been abysmally low until that point in history.

Later, long after the penicillin was introduced in medical practice, research showed that the penicillin-producing fungus actually made this compound as a defence tool to kill off competing microbes in its ecological niche. This is just an evolutionary battle after all. We should consider this none of our business but it so happened that the same bacteria that compete with the fungus for nutrients also had this habit of trying to inhabit (infect) human body too. What we did was simple. We 'stole' the fungal 'intellectual property' and used the same fungal product 'Penicillin' to kill the bacteria that have invaded our body. This is the basis of antibiotic use in medical practice. It is chemical warfare.

Fungi also make valuable medicinal substances other than antibiotics. The immunosuppressants (drugs that suppress the immune system) like cyclosporine, and mycophenolic acid are made by the fungi. Doctors use these types of drugs to lower the intensity of immune reactions in situations like organ transplants. When a new organ is transplanted to a patient the chances are that the recipient will mount an immune response to reject the donated organ. This is because the donated organ is viewed by the body as a foreign body. By using drugs that depress the ability to mount immune responses the doctors are able to reduce or prevent these organ rejections. Such drugs are also useful in a number of medical conditions where the patients suffer due to over-activation of inflammatory processes. An inflammation is like a battle. Body cells are the warriors. Technically it is the lymphocyte and the neutrophil (types of white blood cells) that mediate the inflammatory response but during the actual process of inflammation there is a lot of 'cross-fire' that causes damage to non-immune, 'civilian' body cells. The damage that results can be significant resulting in scars and dysfunction of organs. It is amazing that the fungi make chemical molecules that can interfere with our human inflammatory process. I am not sure for what!

The fungi also make chemical molecules that can interfere with synthesis of cholesterol in our body! Excuse me, why should the fungi be concerned about our body cholesterol levels?

Cholesterol-lowering drugs, commonly grouped under 'statins', are big-time money spinners for pharmaceutical companies. These kinds of drugs make billions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies. Lovastatin, Simvastatin and Pravastatin are cholesterol-lowering drugs derived from the fungi. Statins are now big-time money-earners for pharmaceutical companies. Doctors prescribe a statin drug for any patient who has a risk of coronary artery disease and there are plenty of them in the world. The biochemical precision with which these fungal products hit their targets is truly amazing. For instance, lovastatin inhibits the critical enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis called HMG-CoA reductase. By doing so the fungal product disrupts the assembly line for cholesterol biosynthesis. If you imagine for example any factory assembly line, for example a car factory, what would happen if the assembly of the first few parts is disrupted. There is no way the car can be made. The same applies to cholesterol synthesis too. The question is how come the fungi precisely target the biochemical process and more importantly, what is its objective?

There are many other fungal molecules that can hit other targets in a similar biochemical way. Inhibitors of the enzymes Dipeptidyl Peptidase, alpha-glucosidase and alpha amylase are all found in the fungi. They have effects on the glucose metabolism of man! Again pardon me for asking - why would the lowly fungus be interested in your and my glucose metabolism? The reality is, as usual, pharmaceutical companies have pounced on these fungal molecules with a view to commercially exploiting them. These fungal molecules can lower blood sugar levels by virtue of their enzyme inhibitory action and therefore are useful in treatment of diabetes. Ancient Egyptians considered mushrooms as food for royalty! In ancient Japan the fungal species _Grifolia fondosa_ was worth its weight in gold! Biochemically one of the products of this type of fungus has an inhibitory effect on alpha-glucosidase enzyme and therefore has medicinal value in treatment of diabetes.

Many fungal agents have been found to have anticancer properties too _! Agaricus hisporicus_ extracts have activity against several cancer cell lines. I am not entirely clear what would be the evolutionary reasons behind the fungal molecules that arrest cell divisions in man! _Auricularia auricula_ extracts have sugar-lowering, clot-busting, cholesterol-lowering and anti-cancer properties! Why would the fungi make all these molecules? _Lentimula edodes,_ a type of mushroom, produces molecules called Lentinan, eritadenine etc. Lentinan is approved for use as an adjuvant in stomach cancer treatment in Japan. Clinical studies have shown that Lentinan improves survival rate in patients with stomach cancer who have non-resectable or recurrent tumours. Polysaccharide K, isolated from _Trametes versicolor_ , is another fungi-derived gastric cancer adjuvant licensed for use in China and Japan. Medicinal use of this type of fungal species was known since the Ming Dynasty times in China.

Presumably, as in the case of other interesting biochemical molecules in fungal armoury, there may be a benefit for the fungus itself. Otherwise why would they do it? Or, this is part of a grand scheme of things in nature where there has to be a provider and a user. This is like the plants providing us food and medicines about which I will elaborate in later chapters.

_Ganoderma lucidum_ , also known in China as ' _linghzi'_ has a long history of promoting health and longevity in China, Japan and other Asian countries. They have been in use for well over 2000 years! In China it is regarded as the 'herb of spiritual potency'. Images of this fungus have been associated with Taoism in China.

The most intriguing aspect of fungal biochemistry is that they make a lot of substances that seem to have a psychoactive effect on humans (and some other animals). For God's sake why would the fungi do that? I beg your pardon, are they doing it for the sake of God? You will see what I mean.

The fact that they do not have even a nervous system, let alone a brain, makes this phenomenon difficult to justify from an ontological point. In nature nothing is a waste. No life form indulges in a structure or a function unless it directly or indirectly aids its survival. What could possibly be the 'purpose' of a psychedelic substance in the life of a lowly fungus?

Robert Gordon Wasson, an independent researcher and an economist, was the first to bring the knowledge of existence of psychoactive mushrooms to a wide audience for the first time. He published an article titled 'Seeking the magic mushroom' in the Life magazine in May 1957. This article was written after his expedition to Mexico where he participated in a religious ritual conducted by a native population called the Mazatecs. Like many other native populations religious rituals are something exclusive to the local members of the tribe and it is very unusual for an outsider to take part in them. A lady in this Mazatec group allowed Wasson to take part in their ritual which consisted, apart from other things, consumption of a drink based on a mushroom concoction. Though this practice must have continued for hundreds of years it was never known to the modern, western world. Publication of an article about it in a prominent magazine sparked immense interest among certain western groups such as Beatniks and the hippies who were prone to intake of mind-altering substances. They wanted to partake of the magic mushroom that can take them high. They besieged the Mazatec community to the extent the Mexican police got wind of it and was quick to interrogate the lady who allowed Wasson to join the ritual and led to this public drama. The Mazatec community did not like their custom exposed to the western world and ostracised the concerned lady who was responsible for it. They burned down her house. They were angry that their long custom was at the risk of being terminated by the enforcement officials.

The interesting thing about the hallucinogenic mushrooms used in Mexico is that it was not addictive. These mushrooms are freely available during the rainy season and the community is happy to indulge in them. After the rainy season is over then the lack of availability does not bother the Mazatecs. They carry on with their lives as usual.

Wasson teamed up with a pharmacologist called Albert Hoffman and were the first westerners to collect specimens from the Mazatec hallucinogen _Salvia divinorum._ Wasson helped in the collection of various species of the fungi _Strophoriaceae_ and genus _Psilocybe_. Hoffmann was able to determine that the active ingredient in them was Psilocybin and Psilocin. Psilocybin has been studied a lot by him and other researchers over the years. We probably know more about Psilocybin than any other psychoactive substance.

Wasson further contributed to ethnomycology by way of his study of the ancient Vedic intoxicant called _Soma_. He was the first to propose that the _Soma_ was entheogenic. He argued that the content of this Vedic hallucinogen was the fly agaric mushroom ( _Amanita muscaria_ ). He published a book in 1967 titled 'Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality'. He then turned his attention to another psychoactive substance called ' _Kykeon'_ used by the Greeks. This substance was a component of the fungus Ergot ( _Clavicepps_ Spp). This _Kykeon_ played a big role in the initiation ceremony of the ancient Greek cult of Demeter and Persephone (Eleusinian mysteries).

Natives of New Guinea have an ancient tradition of using mushrooms for divine reasons. Primitive tribes living in Siberia still have shamanistic rituals involving intake of hallucinogenic substances derived from mushrooms.

Growing _Papaver somniferum_ in America is legal unless it is done in the knowledge and plan to produce opium out of it and sell.

Mushrooms seem to be making a wide variety of substances that are not readily understood why they are making them. That list includes cholesterol-lowering agents, glucose-controlling medicinal substances, immunosuppressive agents, anti-cancer agents and finally psychoactive agents. It looks like the mushrooms are meant to be some sort of a provider to us. Just like plants giving us food and medicinal substances in general the mushrooms also are playing similar roles. In the grand scheme of things some body or something has to take care of supplies.

The curiosity is that many of these psychoactive agents have been used by man in cultural settings associated with divinity. They are known to be in use for millennia. Man has resorted to their use for assisting him in the spiritual process. That is why I remarked in the last paragraph that mushrooms are making the psychoactive agents for the sake of God. This book is all about such molecules that seem to help us find God. I want to group them under the category called 'God molecules'. Let us see what are they and how many of them are out of there.

# 2. WHY DOES MAN, AND EVEN ANIMALS, LIKE TO USE PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES?

It has been postulated that the urge to alter one's consciousness is as primary as the drive to satiate thirst, hunger or sexual desire. Supporters of this belief contend that the history of drug use and even children's desire for spinning, swinging, or sliding indicate that the drive to alter one's state of mind is universal.

Activities like meditation, fasting, exercise, amusement park rides, horror movies, extreme sports, sensory or sleep deprivation, music, spicy foods, adventures all have the power to change our mental states. That is why people develop a liking to them. Not everyone will be able to or interested in all these activities but we end up choosing at least a few to keep us mentally brisk. Psychoactive substances from plants and mushrooms may provide some sort of mind-altering experiences that are in principle similar to the variety of activities listed above. What we are probably looking for is to keep our minds active and at the same time avoid monotony.

Amazonian tribes take specific drugs to help enhance endurance, eyesight and strength while going hunting.

Some plants uncork inhibitions, quicken sex drive, reduce or increase aggression, relive stress and help stay awake. In a way these drugs may be considered to be mental tools easily achieved biochemically. Many cultures allow use of such substances as part of rituals to control their use. By calling these rituals sacred they managed to rein in the subjects from overdoing it I suppose.

Psychoactive substances from plants generally have the property of reducing pain. This may be also the primary motive of the users from the ancient times but psycho-stimulation comes as a bonus.

Use of psychedelic substances is not limited to humans. A number of animals consume different psychoactive plants, berries and even fermented fruit, becoming intoxicated, such as cats after consuming catnip. Catnip is also known as Catmint. They are a class of flowering plants coming under the genus _Nepata._ The nepetalactone contained in some _Nepeta_ species binds to the olfactory receptors of cats, typically resulting in temporary euphoria and sexual ecstasy. Nepatolactone mimics the pheromones produced by the cats during courtship. Cat's brain receptors for the pheromones also bind nepetalactone!

Ronald Siegel is an American Psychopharmacologist based at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has focused on effects of drugs on human behaviour and his subjects were called 'psychonauts'! He has studied the effects of ketamine, LSD, marijuana, mescaline, psilocybin and Tetrahydrocannabinol on human volunteers. Dr. Siegel has also studied animal intoxication. He says that animals experiment with toxins and if they are intoxicating then they will return to the source repeatedly, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Cattle develop a taste for locoweed that can prove fatal. Locoweed is a plant that grows in North America and it produces a phytotoxin called Swainsonine. Ingestion of large amounts of this substance is harmful to the cattle, sheep, and horses.

Bighorn sheep will grind their teeth to be able to scrape hallucinogenic lichen off the ledge rock.

It is believed that animals may actually inadvertently guide man to the use of some psychoactive plant drugs. Abyssinian (Ethiopian kingdom) herders in the 10th century AD observed that animals would become particularly frisky after nibbling a shrub's bright red berries. Goats therefore are credited with discovery of coffee beans!

Cannabis seeds are the favorite seeds of many birds including pigeons! They get spaced out after consumption of these seeds and this may have tipped off the ancient Chinese, Aryans and the Scythians to the plant's special properties!

Peruvian legend has it that the Puma discovered Quinine. Indians had noticed that the sick cats were often restored to health after eating the bark of Cinchona tree! This must have led the Peruvian Indians to suspect the tree must have some medicinal properties.

Tukano Indians in the Amazon noticed that Jaguars, not ordinarily Herbivorous, would eat the bark of the Yaje wine tree and hallucinate. The Indians followed this lead and exploited the tree's potential.

This kind of learning probably was not limited to Quinine alone. Throughout the history man must have made such 'discoveries' quite often. The fact that a number of medicinal agents are derived from plants, which is traditional wisdom, is enough reason for Pharmaceutical companies to conduct a systematic study of plants the world over. Newer medicines have come about from this approach and these companies do not limit their search to plants only. They do the same with soil samples as well in the hope that there are a few other fungi or bacteria that have some medical magic in their store!

Traditional legends of sacred plants often contain references to animals that introduced humankind to their use. Animals and psychoactive plants appear to have co-evolved, possibly explaining why these chemicals and their receptors exist within the nervous system. The classical example is the opioid receptor in the human brain that binds opium and related molecules made by plants! These opioid receptors in the brain actually are expected to respond to endogenously made opium-like substances called endorphins and enkephalins apart from binding the plant-derived opium.

Some plant-derived substances, when ingested by man, cause psychological effects consistent with spiritualistic experiences. This is a very curious phenomenon and is the central theme of this book. There are quite a few of them out there in nature and man seems to have found them useful for whatever purpose. The experiences induced by such molecules are indistinguishable from a conventional religious experience. This is a very curious and intriguing observation to say the least. A number of such molecules occur in plants naturally which deepens the plot. Why should nature abound with such psychedelic substances? What purpose do they serve?

Aldous Huxley wrote a controversial book in 1954 called 'Doors of perception'. He self-administered mescaline to himself and described the effects of this drug on his body. He noted the similarities of his experience under the influence of mescaline to experiences described by mystics and visionaries from different religious cultures.

In 1963 a doctoral student by the name Walter Pahnke did a small study exploring the effects of Psilocybin on 20 student volunteers. The subjects were all from a local Christian theological seminary. The study was conducted in a small chapel in Boston. This study came to be known as the 'Good Friday Experiment'. The conclusions derived from the study were astonishing. The Psilocybin experienced phenomena were indistinguishable from certain types of mystical experiences normally associated with religion and spirituality.

People from different cultures have used them deliberately over millennia. Whether they were used for purely a sense of well-being or intentionally used to produce religious experiences is debatable.

In most cases the use of these substances by man has been associated with Shamanistic or ritualistic occasions. They were consumed largely during such group rituals only. History is replete with accounts of such rituals across cultures that involved use of such psychedelic substances.

Both religious and shamanistic practices rely on symbolism to convey meanings and complex cultural beliefs. The rituals were used to diminish the anguish towards the unknown and /or what overwhelms the individual. By enhancing participant's concentration (on the ritual), much like what is achieved in meditation and prayer, the individual feels relaxed and less anxious. The creation of a mystical experience, by means of shamanistic tools like drum-beating, psychoactive substances etc. probably helped to deepen the involvement of the victim.

Shamanistic practices are thought to have originated as early as the Paleolithic and certainly as early as the Neolithic period. From anthropological point of view Shamanism developed to help the early man a magical solution to more food by way of hunting or gathering. Several traditional belief systems have ecological considerations and the shaman had the role of a resource-protector. Drawings in rocks and caves of half-animals indicate that shamanism started in Paleolithic era. In Israel, a 12,000 year old shamanistic burial site has been found and it is thought that this belonged to Natufian culture.

Shamanism is declining in some parts of the world due to modern religious influences. It had a strong basis in Europe before the rise of Monotheism. In some regions in Northern Eurasia, including Russian provinces Mari-El and Udmurtia, it is still practiced as a traditional, organised religion. Shamanism played an important role in Turko-Mongol mythology. The modern day folk dances of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus have been said to have originated from ancient shamanistic ceremonies and early religious and incantational worship. Mongolian shamanism has the longest recorded history in the world. Even present-day Mongol culture has a place for shamanism. The ancient Chinese people, the Hmongs, with a 5000-year history, continue to practice and maintain shamanism. Animal sacrifice, much like what is seen in religious ceremonies, has been part of shamanistic practice amongst the Hmongs for the past 5000 years. In Japan, shamanism is part of the native religion Shinto. Today Shinto is being adopted with Buddhism. Siberia is inhabited by many different ethnic groups who observe shamanistic practices even in modern times. Whether this has a relation to the less dense population and isolated groups seen in this part of the world is to be considered. This may have necessitated only direct relations between community members and the shamans because of the close-knit, less populated communities. In heavily populated, expansive societies large, structured religions have replaced shamanistic practices where the relation between God and the subjects need not be mediated by an intermediary such as shamans simply because it is not possible for a single shaman to help too many people spread far and wide.

Psychoactive substances were frequently used by shamans to take them and their subjects into a trance. This mystical experience convinces them that they are on a journey into the spiritual world. Just what are these substances? Why should they produce effects comparable to our spiritual thoughts? What is the purpose of these molecules in nature?

Apart from plant products even fasting, meditation, and hypnotic trances can achieve same results of religious ecstasy.

Karl Marx called religions as the 'opiate' of the people. Religions promote practices that are psychologically ingrained in the practitioners. It is not incorrect to say that religions provide a sense of relief, a sense of obedience, a sense of social order and presumably peace. The practitioners of religions, irrespective of the chosen religion, experience a psychological boost when they pray to God. Worship is said to lighten the burden because the responsibility is passed onto God and the subject feels relieved. This religious psychological effect is addictive just as most psychoactive substances are.

# 3. ENTHEOGENS - MOLECULES THAT CAN INDUCE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES

Yew tree seems to have played a role in religion at least in Europe. The Yew trees are often found in churchyards in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Spain. In France, the oldest Yew trees are almost all located in the churchyards of Normandy. In Asturian (Spain) tradition, on All Saints day, a branch of the Yew tree is brought to the tombs of those who have died recently. Yew trees are often found near chapels, churches and cemeteries since ancient times as a symbol of transcendence of death. Yew trees are found in village squares where people assembled to run village affairs.

It has been suggested that Yew trees were planted at religious sites as their long life was suggestive of eternity. The sacred tree at the temple of Uppsala is a Yew tree. In traditional Germanic religion also we find the Yew tree sacred though previously it was considered to be the Yggtrasil tree. The conifers never lose their green and this may be seen as a source of longevity. Other way of looking at is that being toxic it is a sign of death itself. But, this argument holds less water considering the fact we do not find toxic trees always near religious sites. However, the poisonous foliage could have acted as a disincentive for farmers from letting their animals wander into burial grounds. An interesting observation, a very curious and important one for this book, is the fact that people often used to gather under the Yew tree as even up to 40 people can easily congregate under these big trees. The Yew tree releases gaseous toxins on hot days and they are capable of causing hallucinations!!

Is there any link between the Yew tree chemicals and the religious enlightenment while under the influence of these hallucinogenic chemicals? If that is true the Yew tree chemical is an entheogen - a chemical that can generate theological thoughts.

The Norse God, Odin, is believed to have had a revelation (the wisdom of the runes) hanging from the Yggdrasil tree (now thought to be the Yew tree) for nine days. On the ninth night the mysteries of the runes were revealed to him according to the story. He learned chants that enabled him to heal emotional and bodily wounds, to bind his enemies and render their weapons worthless, to free himself from constraints, to put out fires, to expose and banish practitioners of malevolent magic, to protect his friends in battle, to wake the dead, to win and keep a lover, and to perform many other feats like these.

An 'entheogen' is a psychoactive substance used for religious or spiritual effects. Naturally occurring entheogens such as Psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine have been used by older cultures and may be a tradition, which predates all modern religions, as a sort of a proto-religious rite. Spiritual effects of psychedelic compounds have been demonstrated scientifically. The Marsh Chapel experiment and The Harvard Psilocybin project studied the effect of psilocybin in double-blind trials in volunteer graduate students. They claimed to have had profound religious experiences subsequent to the ingestion of psilocybin. Studies conducted at the John Hopkins University in 2006 yielded similar results. Prohibition of psychedelic drugs has stifled research in this area.

Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant and mushroom sources and were used as tools to supplement various practices for healing and transcendence, including meditation. Some known examples used historically include _ambrosia_ in Greece, _soma_ in Vedic India, _Peyote_ in Native America, and cannabis. The literal meaning of the word 'entheogen' is 'that which causes God to be within an individual'. The Greek word 'entheos' is the root word for 'enthusiasm' in English. It translates as 'full of God, inspired, possessed' and an 'entheogen' is any substance that can cause feelings of inspiration in a religious or spiritual manner.

Man has known the use of mind-altering substances for a long time. Neanderthal burial sites in Iraq from 50,000 BCE have shown remains of the herbal stimulant _ephedra_. Paleolithic cave art across Europe and Africa suggests that artists had experience of hallucinogens. There is evidence that even by 10,000 BCE man had cultivated psychoactive plants like mandrake, tobacco, coffee, and cannabis. The first evidence for the use of entheogens may be the cave painting of a mushroom man found in Algeria, dating back to 8000 BCE. Archaeological sites in Asia have shown evidence for the use of Betel seeds around 6000 BCE. Opium poppy seed pods have been found at a burial site near Granada, Spain, even as early as 4200 BCE. By 4000 BCE Egyptians and Sumerians had learnt to make wine and beer. There is evidence of wine consumption in Eastern Mediterranean by 3500 BCE. Cannabis was cultivated in China and Asia by 3000 BCE and there is evidence of Cannabis smoking in Eastern Europe around this time. Greek writing refers to the Eleusian mysteries, a 2000-year-old tradition, which is an autumn festival celebrated with a hallucinogenic brew called _kykeon_. This is believed to have been obtained from ergot or mushrooms from about 1500 BCE. Central Americans even erected a temple for the 'Mushroom God' by 1000 BCE, presumably relating to the hallucinogenic magic mushrooms.

The nature of ' _soma'_ consumed by Indo-Iranians, referred to in Vedas, is still under dispute but there is a suggestion that it is derived from mushrooms possibly _Amanita muscaria_ variety. Fly agaric ( _Amanita muscaria)_ was also used by Siberian shamans for its entheogenic effects. Early Indo-Iranians and the subsequent Vedic and greater Persian cultures used _Soma_ as a ritual drink. In Rig Veda the _Soma_ is referred to very frequently. It is called the 'God for Gods' meaning it is personified as a God. The drink, the plant from which it is derived both have the same name and it is also personified as a divinity, the three forming a religious or mythological unity. Drinking Soma is said to produce immortality and consumption of Soma by human beings is well attested in Vedic rituals. There are numerous references in Rig Veda associating _Soma_ with visionary seeing of light. Amanita was considered divine food. There is also a theory that the active ingredient of soma was ephedrine, an alkaloid with stimulant properties. The term 'Ambrosia' is used in Greek Mythology in a way that is remarkably similar to the Soma of the Hindus.

Various researchers have studied the true composition of the _Soma_ and have come up with differing accounts. The active component of Soma has been thought to be Ephedrine but it is argued that this compound is only a mind stimulant but does not produce consciousness-altering effects of an entheogen. Chemically, ephedrine is similar to amphetamine. _Psilocybe cubensis_ , a hallucinogenic mushroom, has also been proposed as a possible candidate for Soma. This mushroom grows on cow dung in certain climates in India and therefore may have been available to the Indo-Iranians of the Vedic civilisation as they had learnt to domesticate cows. The reason for the search for the alternative candidates for the true nature of Soma was the lack of psychedelic effect with _Amanita muscaria_ alone. Ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, in his book 'Food of the Gods', argues that _Amanita muscaria_ could not have inspired the worship and praise of _Soma_ on its own. With time Soma had become unavailable and Vedic people seem to have sought alternatives. Vedic texts provide an extensive list of plants that can be used as substitutes.

A team consisting of Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi studied ceramic vessels and mortars found at Zoroastrian temple site in Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex in Turkmenistan and found residues and seed impressions left behind during the preparation of _Soma (Haoma)_. The residues that were found contained Ephedra, Poppy seeds and Cannabis. A monumental temple has been unearthed near the central palace of Gonur-depe (a Bronze Age site in Turkmenistan) where rituals were believed to be conducted involving a sacred drink called the Haoma in Avesta sacred texts. This is presumably the same as the Soma in Indus Rig Veda. Togoluk-21 was the first shrine excavated in the old delta of the Murghab River where these rituals involving the sacred potions were used. This shrine is dated to around mid-second millennium BC. The similarity of the ceramic vessels excavated in both the locations is strikingly similar. Discovery of two shrines in Gonur dating back to the 3rd-2nd millennium BC clearly attest to the fact that the rituals related to the Soma/Haoma cult were quite popular among the indigenous tribes among which the religion of Zoroastrianism emerged. Though the validity of the Haoma-induced origins of Zoroastrianism is debated it is worth pointing out that an International Scientific Conference 'Margiana - a new centre of world civilization' was conducted in the Turkmenistan cities of Ashgabat and Mary (former name Merv, Margiana) in the autumn of 2006 to discuss the archaeological evidence collected in this region so far and the relation to the religious practices of these people and the putative Indo-European unity of the race.

Cannabis has been used for centuries by _sadhus_ in India. Cannabis is well known in India as Bhang. The ritual drink _Bhang Ki Thandai_ used in India is made with Cannabis and Poppy seeds. Cannabis has also been used as a religious sacrament by ancient Jews, early Christians and Muslims of the _sufi_ order.

How do we explain occurrence in nature of plant-derived chemicals that cause the so-called spiritualistic experiences? Could such agents act like the drugs of abuse? Is this detachment from reality the goal of spiritualism/religion? Why?

Use of narcotics is a worrisome aspect of humanity. Surprisingly, man has been using them for many centuries in order to evade anxiety and stress. The mighty Aztec empire, which sprawled across Central America, developed a religion centred on certain 'divine plants'. The most important were known as _Teonancatl, Ololiuqui and Peyotl._

_Teonanacatl_ , or 'divine flesh' was earlier identified with a mushroom called _Psilocybe_ , which contains the hallucinogen, Psilocybin. _Peyotl_ was identified with another hallucinogenic plant, a lophophora cactus, containing mescaline as an active principle. _Ololiuqu_ i, currently called _Turbina Corymbosa_ , has shown the presence of LSD derivatives. A related species, _Ipomea Violacea_ , also used by the Zapotecs, contains 5-fold higher concentration of LSD derivatives. This plant can be seen growing wild on Aztec ruins in Mexico.

Use of these plants turned out to be quite common among Indian groups in Central America even today. Their use has survived centuries of pressure from the Catholic Church and the civil authorities.

It would be unfair to the Aztec civilization if one tends to think they were the only people who were addicted to the narcotics. Evidence for the use of opium has been found for Minoan, Ptolemaic, Assyrian and Hellanic civilizations. Poppy seeds, which are the seeds of _Papaverum Somniferum_ from which opium is obtained, have been found in Neolithic sites. The world's oldest surviving list of medical preparations on a Sumerian clay tablet from 2100 B.C appears to describe the poppy!

Though very widespread, the societal use of entheogens is not universal. There seems to be a difference in the use of these agents by different societies over time. Dramatically larger numbers of hallucinogenic plants are used in the new world compared to the old world cultures. The variation may be attributed to cultural factors since many entheogens are present but not considered religious in the old world. Another interesting observation has been made on the use of entheogens in highly complex societies. Complex societies do not typically institutionalise hallucinogenic plant use. There seems to be a reduction in the use of such plants with increasing political and social complexity. In other words, it is claimed by some workers that there is a negative correlation between the levels of political integration and societal use of hallucinogens. There is a repression of the practice of use of entheogens in state societies because they constitute a potential threat to the religious and political authority. These agents could potentially pose a threat to the centralised, hierarchical, politico-religious control seen in complex societies. Whereas these entheogens may have found wider use in small community settings where they enhance group cohesion.

# 4. SOCIAL AND THERAPEUTIC ADVANTAGES OF MIND-ALTERING SUBSTANCES

Life is stressful. Probably, it was not so stressful when man was living in small bands of ten people or so. As the size of human groups became bigger the need for managing social co-operation, conflict resolution, and communication increased the pressures man had to face. It is my belief that animals, including man, evolved biological and social mechanisms to combat anxiety that increased over time.

The key point I want to bring up for discussion is why substances like Opium or related molecules play a role on social bonding and cohesion. Anxiety has a biological function of anticipating a threatening situation and protecting us from danger. In people with tendencies to mental illness, the anxiety is by itself strong enough to incapacitate them. Normal people have a complex and resourceful anxiety-busting abilities rooted in their psychological make-up. As we develop psychologically, our personality acquires various psychological techniques by which it attempts to defend itself, establish compromises between conflicting impulses and allay inner tensions due to resentments, frustrations and hostilities. These mediating and integrating activities operate automatically and these internal mechanisms are unconsciously selected. Our ability to respond to sensory precepts within the norms prescribed by the society is the essence of good living. We succeed most of the times to evade undue anxiety and keep it within rational limits.

Man frequently seeks the help of substances that can help reduce his anxiety and stress. This is apart from his mental mechanisms, which has evolved over time. Compulsive eating of chocolates is associated with depressive traits in an individual and appears to be a form of self-medication. Young women suffering from hysteroid dysphoria are found to be addicted to chocolates to overcome repeated episodes of depressed mood in response to a feeling of neglect.

It is common to see all the people eating chocolates all the time. I am sure not all of them are hysterical. Then why are people 'chocoholics'? It is common knowledge that man has been consuming chocolates for over 500 years though not in the present form. Hedonic properties of the chocolate were known to the Aztecs as far back as 14th century. Christopher Columbus noticed the Aztecs drinking a preparation called 'chocolatl' made from cocoa beans. Columbus introduced the drink to Europe in 1502, where it achieved popularity after the Spanish learnt to sweeten it. By 1705, there were 2000 chocolate houses in London alone. Currently, the Swiss are the leading chocolate consumers in the world. Consumption of chocolates is also high in the U.S, especially among the females in the age group 7-14 years.

It is still not known what chemical present in the chocolate is making us eat it again and again. Is it the high sugar and fat combination? Is it the histamine, tryptophan, caffeine, theobromine or octopamine? We do not know the answer yet. Caffeine is a strong candidate because it is a mood enhancer, an euphoric substance. That is why we all drink coffee to the extent we do. There is evidence that coffee also contains a substance similar to the narcotics. Does that mean we are all 'drug addicts', unknowingly?

The psychoactive properties of opium and related compounds include reduction of anxiety, aggression, depression and feelings of inadequacy. They have a medical application as well. They are used for reduction of pain. Opium is bound by the brain cells through specific receptors. It is surprising that a plant-derived compound like opium should have receptors in the brain. Why should our brain evolve receptors for opium?

This line of thinking led to the search for other compounds made by our body that may bind to the receptors to which plant-derived opium binds. This led to the discovery of some opium-like compounds our own body makes. It was found that these opium-like substances made by our own body have the same biological effects like the natural opium. In other words, man has evolved biological mechanisms within his own body to combat stress and anxiety. He is well supported in his effort by plants that make opium and related compounds. When plants can give you food, why not some stress-relief as well? We all know that a number of medicines are derived from plants. It is really intriguing to find plants taking care of us so well. What is the idea?

It is possible that just as animals seek naturally occurring medicinal plants such as antibiotics or emetics we humans seek medications that will calm our minds. When overcrowded elephants are known to seek fermented fruits and consume them for their alcoholic content. Water buffalos have been seen to graze on opium poppies to the point of addiction. Goats have been reported to consume stimulants like coffee beans and herbal amphetamine _Khat_. Many researchers feel that intoxication is also programmed into human nature.

What is the purpose of using psychoactive substances in the first place? Why has man resorted to this practice for a long time? In fact, the use of mind-altering substances is a big problem even in the modern society today. We seek pleasure, stimulation, and escape from pain. Pleasure is related to activities associated with survival value like eating and sex. Naturally occurring opioids in our brain mediate this pleasure sense. By seeking externally available plant-derived opium man is trying to overdo it. Psychedelics are thought to have a medicinal effect in humans. Drastically altered mental states induced by hallucinogens, cannabis and NMDA allow us to escape from reality and explore other dimensions of our consciousness. There is evidence in the medical literature that hallucinogens are effective against mental illness, including anxiety, stress disorders, and even against addictive disorders like alcoholism and heroin addiction. There are ongoing studies on the use of psilocybin for treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. NMDA is being studied for management of post-traumatic disorder.

Alcohol sensitizes the NMDA receptors in the brain making us more responsive to the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Boosting of brain activity is most pronounced in areas associated with thinking, memory and pleasure. Interestingly, at higher doses of alcohol the effect is reverse. It desensitizes the same receptors and activates the inhibitory GABA neurotransmitter. Amphetamine-type stimulants block dopamine transporters, which leads to higher than normal levels of the pleasure chemical dopamine in the brain. Caffeine also raised dopamine levels as well as stimulating the release of adrenaline. It also blocks the receptors for adenosine neurotransmitter and prevents onset of sleep. Cannabis latches onto specific receptors in the brain that are known to be involved in reward, appetite regulation and pain perception. The precise mechanism of action of cannabis is not fully known. Cocaine blocks re-uptake of dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline and therefore increases the levels of these neurotransmitters in the brain. The feeling of self-confidence, exhilaration seen with cocaine is the reason why people take it. Interestingly, the class of drugs called SSRI's (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) used to treat depression act more or less similarly.

Dissociatives are a class of hallucinogenic drugs that produce feelings of depersonalisation and detachment. Ketamine is the most commonly used in this class. Dextromethorphan hydrobromide and Phencyclidine are related to ketamine. Ketamine is in fact used an anaesthetic agent in medical practice and also used as a tranquiliser for horses. A recent survey shows that Ketamine (also known as Special K or Raver's Smack) has overtaken Cocaine and Ecstasy in the list of recreational drugs used in Britain. A typical effect of ketamine is the out-of-body experiences often reported by religious monks and referred to as 'astral projection'. It is also claimed by religious people that this ability can be learnt by years of practice and Tibetans monks are known to be doing this. In a way, the out-of-body experience is considered as separation of the soul from the body and is said to produce feelings of intense self-examination and a feeling of oneness with God. People also have long-lasting effects afterwards about one's place in the bigger scheme of the world. Near-death experiences often are said to produce such as experiences and have often been interpreted to mean the departure of the soul from the body on its final journey. Even intense sensory deprivation, and the other extreme of sensory overload, can produce out-of-body experiences. Michael Persinger, a Canadian Neurologist, has shown that magnetic stimulation of the brain using the 'God helmet' (a device designed like a helmet consisting of electrical coils wound around it) can also elicit such experiences. When a low current is passed through these wires a magnetic field is generated that influences the brain. The participants who underwent this magnetic stimulation through the specially designed helmet seem to experience some sort of spiritual experience.

Ketamine and other related drugs can induce them chemically by inhibiting the NMDA receptor, the mediator of the effect of the glutamate neurotransmitter. This has the effect of severely depressing the activity of certain parts of the brain probably to the extent of interfering with sensory capture. The person feels so far removed from his own body may be because his ability to 'feel' his body through the normal senses is blocked.

The recreational drug ecstasy produces feelings of energy, euphoria, empathy, openness and a desire for physical contact. These kinds of feelings are probably the right ones you want to have when you are in a crowded party. That is why partygoers prefer this. Ecstasy produces its effect by raising the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. Psychedelic compounds like LSD, Dimethyltryptamine and psilocybin are can also produce feelings of detachment, altered time sense, and altered sense of self. They also produce visual hallucinations like shimmering colours, and everyday objects can look surreal and fascinating. LSD is known to mediate its effects at least partly through serotonin receptors.

Opiates are naturally occurring substances like morphine or its derivatives like heroin. These substances can bind opioid receptors in the brain and induce the same effect as our endogenously produced endorphins and enkephalins. Endorphins and enkephalins are our body's naturally occurring substances that get released in highly stressful situations where pain would be disadvantageous. Heroin, the most commonly used opiate, can induce euphoria, dreamy drowsiness and a general sense of wellbeing.

Tobacco a mild stimulant and produces alertness, energy and an improved memory. Nicotine stimulates the brain receptors and increases dopamine and adrenal levels.

Marijuana refers to the dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds from the hemp plant _Cannabis sativa_ , which contains the psychoactive (mind-altering) chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as other related compounds. This plant material can also be concentrated in a resin called hashish or a sticky black liquid called _hash oil_. Marijuana is the most common illicit drug used in the United States.

Many hallucinogens have chemical structures similar to those of natural neurotransmitters (e.g., acetylcholine-, serotonin-, or catecholamine-like). While the exact mechanisms by which hallucinogens exert their effects remain unclear, research suggests that these drugs work, at least partially, by temporarily interfering with neurotransmitter action or by binding to their receptor sites.

LSD, peyote, psilocybin, and PCP are drugs that cause hallucinations, which are profound distortions in a person's perception of reality. Under the influence of hallucinogens, people see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but are not. Some hallucinogens also produce rapid, intense emotional swings. LSD, peyote, and psilocybin cause their effects by initially disrupting the interaction of nerve cells and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Distributed throughout the brain and spinal cord, the serotonin system is involved in the control of behavioral, perceptual, and regulatory systems, including mood, hunger, body temperature, sexual behavior, muscle control, and sensory perception. On the other hand, PCP acts mainly through a type of glutamate receptor in the brain that is important for the perception of pain, responses to the environment, and learning and memory.

Besides THC, the marijuana plant contains over 100 other cannabinoids. THC acts on specific molecular targets on brain cells, called cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are ordinarily activated by chemicals similar to THC that naturally occur in the body (such as anandamide) and are part of a neural communication network called the endocannabinoid system. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors is found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement. Marijuana over-activates the endocannabinoid system, causing the "high" and other effects that their users experience.

Research funded by the NIH is actively investigating the possible therapeutic uses of THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids to treat autoimmune diseases, cancer, inflammation, pain, seizures, substance use disorders, and other psychiatric disorders.

# 5. ANANDAMIDE - THE BLISS MOLECULE

The word 'Ananda' means 'bliss' in Sanskrit. Anandamide refers to a molecule made in the human brain as well as in other animal brains. The name obviously suggests the link between the brain molecule and the feeling of bliss. Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found this natural molecule from the human brain. This discovery was made in the early 1990s. The naturally made brain molecule acts like Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of Marijuana. THC binds a receptor in the human brain cell membranes. Why would the brain make a receptor specifically for binding a molecule made by a plant? This was the reason researchers suspected there must be an endogenously made brain molecule for which the neuronal receptor evolved. This is the same as the case of plant-derived opium for which natural brain receptors exist. Any molecule binding to Opium-binding receptors are referred to as 'Opioid' molecules (Opium-like). The same way the Anandamide molecule binds to the Tetrahydrocannabinol-binding brain receptor and so Anandamide gets referred to as endocannabinoid molecule. In simple terms Anandamide is a cannabis-like substance made by the brain. What is the purpose is the question to be answered.

Anandamide is made by animals too. In fact it was first identified in the pig's brain. Presence of this molecule in other animals also raises an important question - what does it do to other animals? Do they also get the bliss? Dr. Gary Weesner from the US department of Agriculture noticed that when treated with Anandamide the pigs tend to have a lower body temperature, slower respiration and even less movement. This could mean the pigs are experiencing a calm state of mind. Whether they really feel the bliss we do not know that yet.

Anandamide is a short-lived molecule. It does not seem to produce the dramatic high that is seen with a surge of endorphins, dopamine or THC. But, it may be exerting its effect through Opiate or Glutamate (GABA) receptors similar to THC. The effect is an increase in Dopamine and Serotonin levels. Dopamine and Serotonin brain molecules play a very prominent role in the psychological well-being of man and it can be presumed that Anandamide acts on the brain the same way as plant-derived psychedelic substances used by man for mind -alteration.

Cannabinoid receptors are mainly of two types - CB1 and CB2. They are distributed in a number of body cell types suggesting a variety of roles for the Anandamide. One of the known effects of Anandamide, similar to other endocannabinoids and THC, is short-term memory loss. Researchers from the Neuroscientist Institute in San Diego have shown that short term memory registration in animal brain tissue is prevented by endocannabinoids. One could interpret this to mean that forgetfulness triggered by Anandamide may help us forget unpleasant things, including pain. This may help us from being overwhelmed with recorded memories of unpleasant memories all the time. Is that bliss? It is interesting that cannabinoid receptors are found in the uterus too suggesting that the pain of child birth may be masked by them and women do not remember the pain afterwards.

Compounds similar to Anandamide have been found in dark chocolate too. This may point to the craving for chocolate which people have.

Yoga seems to boost the brain levels of Anandamide. This may explain how Yogis manage to stay calm and blissful. This also may explain how spiritual practices like Yoga bring about effects that are sought after. The bliss of Yoga may be indirectly through the Anandamide that gets released during this activity.

Anandamide has a number of biological effects mediated by the respective receptors found in diverse tissues. It relieves pain, reduces inflammation, promotes growth of new blood vessels, relieves anxiety, inhibits cancer, promotes growth of new brain cells, promotes euphoria, etc. US researchers have considered THC (and Anandamide) for treatment of brain injury during stroke mainly because of the effects on growth of blood vessels and nerve cells. I suspect in old age Anandamide may help in re-vitalizing the ageing brain by means of growth of new blood vessels and neurons.

Anandamide plays an important role in the regulation of appetite and the pleasure of eating food, a blissful experience by itself for most of us.

It also has important role in the pleasure and reward system of the brain. The euphoria of the pleasure and reward may be largely due to Anandamide! The dizzy feeling of reward is surely bliss.

Pfizer company tried to exploit the biological role of Anandamide and endocannabinoid receptors but with little success. Some drugs affecting the endocannabinoid receptors are under evaluation for obesity treatment targeting the appetite. Whether it is even possible to delineate the bliss function of Anandamide and related molecules and produce pharmacologically viable medicines for bliss is not sure. Perhaps, man will have to seek naturally occurring alternative available from plants in the form of marijuana! Or, rely on their own supply of marijuana-like Anandamide for supplementation. From a larger perspective that is what makes sense. Nature has evolved external and internal mechanisms to deal with the psychological status of the mind. Whatever it takes to make us feel great is welcome.

We sure need the bliss.

# 6. THE ROLE OF DOPAMINE IN THE PLEASURE OF RELIGION

There are so many psychedelic agents at the disposal of man (and animals). They are all derived from either fungi or plants. People seem to prefer one over the other. This may be due to availability or choice. Whole cultures over the millennia have shown this preference too. Religious traditions of diverse cultures rely on use of one such psychoactive compound to the exclusion of others.

Looking at it outwardly, it looks like these psychoactive agents are much different. They may be different in their chemical structure but despite their apparent differences they all seem to act in similar ways. They will increase or decrease one or more neural signaling molecules called neurotransmitters. Any agent acting on the brain has to do it through the agency of a brain signaling molecule. Brain signaling molecules are like the 'language of the brains'. Our brain does not recognize any molecular languages other than that of the brain neurotransmitters. If you want to speak to the brain you need to know the language of any one or more of the neurotransmitters.

If you have noticed the recreational drugs and mind stimulants all of them act through some select pathways in the brain. All of them invariably affect one or more of the following brain chemicals: glutamate, serotonin, and noradrenaline. Very interestingly, these neurotransmitters further pass on the signals further down through another molecule which is the pleasure molecule dopamine. In other words, the diverse psychoactive agents stimulate one or more of the brain chemical pathways (glutamate, serotonin, and noradrenaline) which in turn converge on one final common pathway - that of dopamine. Dopamine therefore seems to be the final common mediator of all of the varied mind-altering substances made by plants and fungi. The pleasure brought on by psychedelic plant substances seem to depend on dopamine action. It is intriguing that the entheogenic properties of mind-altering substances need dopamine for the final effect. In essence dopamine could be the real projector of Godliness in the brains of the people who use psychoactive substances.

Use of psychoactive substances is something craved by the users. They are not always addictive though. Dependency develops only in certain types of psychoactive substances. If people like to take the drugs then there is positive reinforcement of this pleasurable behavior. The brain recognizes this behavior as pleasurable and motivates the persons to do it more and more. The reward response of our brain is mediated by the parts of the brain called nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area. They are also called the 'pleasure centers' of the brain. Along the median forebrain bundle a number of structures like nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area, septum, the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex and certain parts of the thalamus are all interconnected with the hypothalamus. The nucleus accumbens seems like the final common pathway in this reward circuit. It may be the final common pathway of all reward and reinforcement responses in human brain. Dopamine receptors abound here. This means dopamine is mediating the final reward response.

Cocaine and amphetamine act on the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, which are the central links in the reward circuit in the brain. Dopaminergic neurons in these parts of the brain are the preferred targets for these drugs. Opiates also act on the same dopamine-neurons in the reward centers in the brain. In addition they also act on brain structures modulated by brain's own opium called the endorphins. These structures include the amygdala, the locus coeruleus, the arcuate nucleus, and the periacqueductal grey matter which also influence dopamine levels indirectly. Alcohol also affects the basic structures of the reward circuit and also those parts of the brain that use Gamma Amino Butyric Acid (GABA) as the mediating neurotransmitter. Alcohol increases dopamine levels in the reward centers of the brain selectively. This action is indirect through the GABA system. Alcohol's direct effect is on GABA and endorphin systems which extend into the reward pathway which then release dopamine.

Cannabis also targets the reward circuit on the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens which means their action is also going to be mediated through Dopamine. Nicotine stimulates parts of the reward circuit but also others.

Dopamine is hypothesized to be associated with novelty and an animal's motivation to approach the gratifying object. Pleasure-seeking has an incentive value and the actual experience of liking it. Dopamine is more responsible for the incentive of the novelty and it keeps us going for it. The amount of dopamine released before a behavior is proportional to the potential of providing pleasure. If the behavior proves to be pleasant then next time more dopamine will be released. If the behavior is unpleasant then the dopamine levels will be lower the next time (negative reinforcement). Dopamine is responsible for the craving for the pleasures but not responsible for them. The Orbitofrontal area in the prefrontal cortex is largely involved in the 'valuation' of the pleasurable stimuli.

There are five types of dopamine receptors in the brain. They are dotted all around in those parts of the brain that are dubbed 'the pleasure circuit'. Their job is to mediate the effects of dopamine. Usually in the biochemical world presence of multiple types of cell-surface, decoding receptors for neurotransmitters and hormones is not at all unusual. It is in fact more likely to be the rule than an exception. Why should a hormone or neurotransmitter have multiple types of receptors for mediation of action? Isn't it enough if there is one standard type of receptor? The advantage seems to be that having unique type of receptor sub-type in multiple target cells allows the cells to decode the 'message' differentially. Not all cell types need to 'interpret' a molecular message the same way. The difference in receptor sub-types allows multiple ways of reading the script. The biological response is likely to differ also. This actually enriches the repertoire of responses. In the case of dopamine all five receptor sub-types seem to be equally involved in pleasure seeking behavior. D3 receptor type is more involved with dependency. D1 receptor type is targeted by Cocaine for its euphoric action.

A reward response is one where the brain mediates a pleasant reaction to an action as if it is rewarding the person for doing it. This is like an incentive. Such behaviors are generally repeated again and again. There is reinforcement of those behaviors over time. This may include normal reward responses like the pleasure of eating good food (which all of us love to do), listening to good music, enjoying sex etc. Strangely, this also includes the reward of psychedelic experiences offered by substances of abuse. In other words, people tend to repeatedly go after them simply for the pleasure and the brain seems to reward those actions. Drugs actually make you feel good and this is due to dopamine. Whatever drugs one takes the cascade of actions initiated in the brain ultimately joins the dopamine pathway. It is like driving towards a destination. There are usually multiple different roads that can take you to the desired location. These collateral roads feed in to the main road that finally leads to the destination. Though you may have taken any one of the collateral roads, depending on the place you start from, ultimately you may have to start driving down fewer and fewer road options until you reach the only final road that takes you to the destination. If that destination is one of great importance, such as a hot holiday spot or a pub or a great food joint, then you are likely to be goaded into taking those roads again and again. This is reinforcement for you. Dopamine is at the center of your behavior here. Drugs of psychoactive nature are like those desired destinations. The desire is the pleasure derived from the act of consuming those drugs. The real reinforcing, rewarding action is mediated by Dopamine. Without dopamine you will not be driven to taking those psychedelic agents. Not would you be driving all the way to a restaurant or a holiday spot or a pub or for that matter any place of pleasurable interest.

Spiritual behavior is addictive. People start craving for it. Most people would feel the withdrawal effects of not being able to pray or visit a place of worship. They feel happy to just pray. Religious activities have the property of pleasure attached to it. Practitioners of all major forms of religion would vouch for the calming effect spiritualism offers. I am tempted to say that dopamine could be at the center of religious pleasure too. It may make people seek the 'pleasure of God' time and again. Forgive me for putting Spiritual pleasure on the same scale as that of food and other pleasures. Most of would have noticed that we all feel good when we do something good for the society. This could be some charity work, or direct involvement in personal help to someone you know. When we do something right (or perceived to be right) we feel euphoric. Especially when we have to fight to establish the right over wrong (perceived wrong) we feel elated. Dopamine pathways would be positively reinforcing those kinds off actions because of the pleasure of social contribution. It is the other way around when we do something not considered to be right by the public. Usually those 'wrong' things tend to be disruptive to the society and those things are abhorred. Those actions are capable of causing personal anguish to the individual concerned and will be negatively reinforced. This is to prevent the individual from doing it again.

Normally such discussions about convergent biochemical pathways and hedonic behaviors may not attract much attention or debate. This is because there is nothing special about them. Our human metabolism is full of such convergence. Our lives are full of hedonic pleasures. But, here we are talking about some truly profound human phenomenon called Spirituality. I am talking of the pleasure of spirituality as if it is like the pleasure of eating. If it is true that psychedelic agents (derived from external sources) are 'entheogenic' (i.e. producing an experience not unlike spirituality) and people like to take it for this effect then we have to conclude that there is a great similarity here between this behavior and other hedonic pursuits. Biochemically, the final effector seems to the Dopamine molecule. This is because, as I said a little while earlier, the neural actions of the psychoactive agents seem to proceed towards a common outcome. That common outcome seems to be mediated by Dopamine. That makes Dopamine special. It is special because it 'creates' God. Or, it is responsible for the sensation or perception of God. Pardon me for viewing the perception of God as if it were a sensory modality. But, I am unable to avoid this because externally derived agents from plant and mushrooms seem to be able to elicit the perception of God and induce an experience akin to spiritualism and how can I ignore this? Am I wrong in calling Dopamine the 'God molecule"?

Our modern medicine relies on modulation of these brain chemicals to treat our mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and stress. The drugs used by psychiatrists for treating a variety of mental conditions produce biochemical effects comparable to these mind-altering drugs. Some of the drugs do have the unwanted property of development of dependence. People become addicted to them. But, if you look at religious people they are also 'addicted' to prayer and going to church/temple. For most of them life is incomplete without prayer. I guess the intensely religious people get the same 'kick' in their brains like the people who use mind-altering drugs and that is why they feel so happy, peaceful and elated.

Anxiety is said to be associated with some sort of maladjustment to the society. People become anxious about their ability to perform well at work, to impress others in their group or simply get worried in the presence of large crowds. Interestingly, anxiety may be having a biochemical basis. Experiments have shown that anxious people have far fewer endocannabinoid receptors in their brains or release less of the naturally occurring endocannabinoids, substances made by our own brain similar to cannabis. Endocannabinoids are fatty molecules produced by our brain that affect mood and memory and pain, acting through the same brain receptors where cannabis acts. As I said earlier, this is much like the opioid receptors in our brain mediating the effects of opium. Our brain produces opium-like substances like endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins and endomorphins. Opioids in general produce euphoria apart from pain relief, both vital for handling the hard and tough world out there. What the naturally occurring alkaloids like the morphine, codeine and thebaine, or their synthetic derivatives, provide can be mimicked by our own brain-derived substances. This only means that we have had the advantage of multiple sources for pain and stress-relief.

At some point in human evolution man learnt to use externally available mind-altering agents such as opiates whereas his internal brain was also evolving molecular mechanisms to provide the same relief. The endocannabinoids were found in our brain following the finding that cannabis acts on our brain through specific receptors called cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2. This led to the finding that there are also brain-made substances like anantamide and 2-arachinodoylglycerol (2-AG) binding to the same CB receptors. They were called endocannabinoids. The similarities between endogenous opioids and cannabinoids are striking.

The CB1 receptor seems to be present in all vertebrate species, suggesting that systems employing brain's own marijuana have been in existence for over 500 million years! There must have been minor and subtle changes in these receptors over the millions of years fine-tuning the effects. They must have helped evolving animals to cope with biological functions like fear, appetite, pain etc. It is likely that these receptors in lower organisms play different roles. This is not unlike the case of the other brain neurotransmitters as well. You could find all neurotransmitters like dopamine, noradrenaline, glutamate etc. in vertebrates and even lower organisms. They occur in organisms that do not even have a nervous system suggesting that these molecules had some basic communicational function in those organisms much different from what happens inside us. Similarly, functional roles may differ between organisms with regards to endocannabinoids and opioids as well.

The pleasure molecule, dopamine, seems to be at the heart of the biochemical effects of many of the recreational drugs if not all of them. It turns out that dopamine can cause the release of endocannabinoids (Anandamide) in the brain showing how even dopamine mediates the pleasurable effect. Even other neurotransmitters like glutamate and acetylcholine produce a similar endocannabinoid-releasing effect. So, endocannabinoids, similar to opioids, could be the proximate cause of pleasure and euphoria. Naturally, researchers are interested in finding drugs that can augment the pleasure effects of these compounds more. One such strategy is to find ways of preventing degradation of endocannabinoids effectively prolonging the duration of their action. This might help people with anxiety as it is known that they have less of the CB receptors in their brain or make less of endocannabinoids.

Patrick McNamara, Head of the Evolutionary Neurobehaviour Laboratory at Boston University's School of Medicine, studied patients with Parkinson's disease and found that these patients had lower levels of religiosity than healthy individuals! There was a surprising correlation between disease severity and the degree of religiosity! Parkinson's disease is caused by a defect in a localised part of the brain that controls the body movement. This defect leads to a lower level of the brain chemical called Dopamine. The medical treatment for this condition is administration of dopamine in the form of a tablet. Dr. McNamara is now studying the Parkinson's patients who are on treatment with Dopamine, and those who are not, with a view to see if the religiosity level can alter as a result of Dopamine supplementation. What this study tells us is that a simple chemical in the brain can account for the religious feelings of man!! That molecule is Dopamine - the very molecule that is activated in the case of many mind-altering psychedelics!?

Dopamine is special. As a neurotransmitter and brain chemical it is one of the many but the actions ultimately mediated by it is truly astounding. From a synthetic point of view how is Dopamine made in the body?

Dopamine belongs to a family of molecules called catecholamines (which includes your adrenaline as well). It is made in the gland called adrenal medulla, situated on top of your each kidney. Actually adrenaline, Noradrenaline and dopamine are molecules synthesized in the adrenal medulla in the same assembly line. The precursor for all the three is the same amino acid called Phenylalanine. You get three vital molecules from one source! That is total package service for dealing with anxiety, stress and fear. Adrenaline and Noradrenaline play vital roles in the arousal response and the fight response. They rapidly activate the system towards an alert state in cases of emergency. They prepare the body to handle the emergencies. The other product that comes out of this assembly line is Dopamine about which we have already discussed a lot. What an amazing gland this adrenal medulla is? It prepares three indispensable molecules by three or four steps of enzymatic reactions starting from a common precursor called Phenylalanine. A simple amino acid turning into blockbuster molecules! How amazing it is that the same source can be used for multiple behaviours as vital as pleasure and emergency responses! This is striking.

From an ontological point of view the role of biochemical tinkering of phenylalanine to make very essential molecules means one thing. Motivational behaviours are as important as emergency handling behaviours. To assure adequate supply of both of them nature has preferred to package them together in the same 'manufacturing' process. Adrenaline and Dopamine are like 'brothers' because they are both formed from the same mother molecule, the phenylalanine amino acid.

Amino acids we consume in our diet are vital for making important molecules. What I want to talk about next in chemical mediators of human behaviour is the role of diet. Diet is the source of all our nutrients. We need all kinds of nutrients to help us make important structures like bone, muscle, blood etc. constituting our body. That includes the brain as well. The molecules that make our organs and those that are needed for energy generation fall under a few types. They could be carbohydrates (sugars), fats, amino acids (as building blocks for proteins and neurotransmitters), minerals, and vitamins. The ones that I am interested in now are the amino acids. There are about 20 naturally occurring amino acids that we can access through our diet. Some of the amino acids can also be made by our own body, using raw materials again coming from the diet. Those amino acids that can make ourselves are said to be the non-essential amino acids in the sense that we need not depend on our diet to provide them. The word 'non-essential' does not in any way mean that their biological roles are not important. Those amino acids that we cannot synthesise ourselves are called 'essential' amino acids, meaning that our diet is the only source of these amino acids. Amino acids like Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, and Tryptophan are essential amino acids. Glutamate and Glycine are non-essential amino acids. There are other amino acids of course that are essential and non-essential. But, I am going to restrict myself to these four because they are the raw materials for some of the most vital brain neurotransmitters. Phenylalanine and Tyrosine are needed for making adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine. Tryptophan is needed for making 5-hydroxytryptamine, also known as serotonin. Glutamate is needed for making GABA and of course for use as Glutamate itself in the brain. I already alluded to the effects of these neurotransmitters in human behaviour and how important they are to mediate the core human social behaviours.

Glutamate and GABA are very important neurotransmitters. GABA and Glycine are crucial inhibitory neurotransmitters that will keep our brain activity in check to avoid uncontrollable, rollercoaster neuronal activity. It is no wonder the humans evolved the biosynthetic capacity for making these amino acids early on. There must have been a parallel evolution of brain receptors for these neurotransmitters as well. No doubt we do find positive selection of the genes concerned with these neurotransmitters and their receptors in the human lineage.

The fact that we cannot make the amino acids like Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, and Tryptophan by ourselves means that we are still dependant on the diet. That means that extremely crucial, behaviour-mediating neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, GABA, adrenaline and noradrenaline can only be made by our brains if the precursor amino acids come in adequate quantities in our diet. If they are missing, or reduced in our diet, we can't make them. What impact will this have on human behaviour at the individual level and at the societal level?

The impact of this at the individual level is easy to understand. All you need is to look at people who have deficiency of the enzymes needed for metabolism of Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, and Tryptophan. Phenylketonuria is a genetic condition where the affected individual cannot use phenylalanine due to an inherited enzyme deficiency. The result is the lack of formation of the vital neurotransmitters we mentioned a while ago. These children develop severe mental retardation in very quick time. That is why most developed countries operate a neonatal screening service for very early detection of the condition. Timely diagnosis is crucial to prevent irreversible mental retardation. Other amino acid disorders where the individual have deficiency of metabolic enzymes (like Tyrosinemia) also lead to mental retardation.

The question is: will people have the same degree of mental impairment if your diet was deficient in essential amino acids like phenylalanine (without any genetic enzyme deficiency)? Probably, the degree of mental impairment will not be so severe. The reason is that, in the cases of genetic enzyme deficiency, the harmful effects of unusual by-products of incomplete metabolism are known to be very toxic too. In the case of simple dietary deficiency you are not going to see the toxic products building up. However, there is every chance that severe nutritional lack of these essential amino acids can indeed affect the neurotransmitter levels and affect cognitive functions and behaviour. If there is not enough Phenylalanine coming in the diet how are we supposed to make adrenaline, Dopamine etc.?

What I am trying to show here is not the effect of dietary deficiency for an individual only. Of course we see malnourished children the world over and they suffer from ill-effects of lack of these essential molecules. These effects affect the concerned mal-nourished person. Can it also affect the society as a whole? This is the interesting part of the discussion. If Dopamine is lacking due to the dietary inadequacy the individual is unable to use it for critically important higher cognitive functions. As I said earlier, Dopamine pathway seems to be important for facial expressions and consequent cognitive function. That is why Dopamine-deficient Parkinson's disease patient is unable to show any facial emotions, a key element in human communication. This is basically due to motor inability because Dopamine is the main neurotransmitter in the basal ganglia, the part of the brain involved in control of motor activity in our body. What would be the impact of absence of facial expressions (stone face) in social interactions? Obviously, the people would be unable to read the emotions of the affected people and if it happens to large bunches of people simultaneously then many people will suffer from inability to read emotions of other people. The end result would be a total failure to show reciprocal exchange of emotions between people. This will impact on the society as a whole and not just the individuals concerned. Famine, which affects large segments of the population, is capable of leading to this kind of group effect. Hunger and malnutrition for an individual has the same effect as famine at the societal scale. In fact, both are same. Famine is hunger on a mass scale. That is all.

It is not just expression of facial emotions. If you look at the behavioural manifestations of Dopamine it is at the heart of Godliness. People experience a sense of union with the surrounding, a sense of purpose, a sense of oneness, and a peaceful sense of integration of oneself with the whole. These higher emotions are consistent with the spiritual beliefs and hence the importance ascribed to them. If someone lacked Dopamine in their system then they are unlikely to exhibit the above emotions which could have a detrimental effect on the social bonding of individuals. This is because they would not feel the sense of unity and oneness with their surroundings. They would be less caring. They will be unable to show compassion because of expressionless face. Moreover, lack of dopamine would have affected the motivational behaviours so much that people living in the affected society would struggle to lead meaningful lives.

Human diet depended on the success of hunting for a very long time. Most likely, humans had to face unpredictability in the availability of food until he learnt to do agriculture as well as domesticate animals. Seasonal changes, unexpected climatic changes, over hunting, competition, expansion in group size etc. may have been the reasons why man could have lived on sub-optimal diet for certain period of time in his life at the individual personal level. Famine and gross climate changes may have affected the diet of the society as a whole. I argue that the human behaviour would have been affected by these nutritional deficiencies directly as a result of the lack of important neurotransmitters. That may have lead to aggression and conflict in the groups. There would have been less tolerance and trust within the group. May be humans had to face this problem on and off for long periods in human history. With agriculture and domestication of animals we humans, for the first time, had plentiful supplies of vital nutrients and may have had the advantage of making these 'social' neurotransmitters in plenty and may have played a huge role in the evolution of cities and states.

The claim may sound far-fetched but there is a sound biochemical basis to this argument. I can quote a simple experiment conducted by a group of Scottish researchers (SCAN, 2007, 2, 264 - 273) whose aim was to demonstrate the differential effects of tryptophan depletion (and therefore serotonin) on facial emotional processing. The hypothesis is that associative learning and empathic functions serving emotional judgement would be engaged by observations of facial expressions in others and would depend on serotonin function. Young participants between 18-30 years age group were divided into two groups - those who received tryptophan and those who did not - and they were asked to assess facial images. They also carried out brain imaging during these tasks. The study concluded that serotonin depletion affected the emotional perception with marked consequences for empathic reactivity and emotional learning.

The above study supports my argument that even dietary lack of crucial amino acids could result in similar emotional and cognitive problems for short term periods or even long term. It is possible that human nutrition was sub-optimal in the earliest times and may have improved following agricultural practice started. This may have led to some advantageous changes in human behaviour that enabled formation of societies of a bigger scale. To my knowledge no one has so far put forward this view that human dietary content may have had an impact on formation of complex societies. Of course we all know that availability of enough food for all is crucial in big societies. What I mean here is not that. My argument is that provision of important amino acids in diet like Phenylalanine, Tyrosine and Tryptophan determine the formation of those critical neurotransmitters like Dopamine, Glutamate, and Serotonin etc. which help humans to interact with fellow humans effectively. Indirectly, the food-derived biochemicals make human behaviour favourable to social bonding and empathy, underpinning social growth.

Dopamine seems special. This is because it is directly able to mediate spiritual emotions in human brain. It is one of the God molecules, probably a very important one.

# 7. THE MOLECULAR BASIS OF HUMAN SOCIETY

The formation and sustenance of large human societies is relatively a new, recent phenomenon. One could say it is about 5000-6000 years old. When compared to geological history this is next to nothing. Even when compared to evolutionary history of man this is too small a period to even consider.

Prior to this the human group size was very small, limited to perhaps 10-20 closely related people. For hundreds of thousands of years proto-humans and animals have lived in such small groups. There was no need or incentive for complex cooperation or cognition or communication.

When man learnt how to cultivate plants for a steady supply of food the limitations on group sizes simply vanished. Food was no more a limiting factor. But, availability of food alone was not enough to sustain large groups. You needed to communicate with large numbers of strangers, recognize their emotions and react accordingly, identify members of their own group from intruders and other group members, show willingness to trust strangers, be willing to cooperate, be ready to form strong social bonds with members of own family as well as members of own group and so on. How do you do that? Did man have these abilities? The answer is no. Naïve people may think we humans were born with the silver spoon of social skills. They may have always believed that humans were uniquely gifted in societal living right from the word go. This is hardly true.

It may sound easy and simple when you look at the needs of a society. It may appear as if it can be taken for granted. You might think what is the big deal? What is so difficult about it? We have always done it. Haven't we? But, you are wrong.

Pro-sociality is not easy and it has never been easy. Even today mankind is struggling to preserve an orderly society. Look at the war-torn regions in the world. Look at terrorism. Look at regular occurrences of inexplicable and unprovoked shootings in the US. Look at hatred and induced suffering. Look at senseless greed. Look at regular geo-political divisions or union of nations. What do they mean? We are still not good at societal living. We are still in the infancy stage and we are still learning. 5000-6000 years of social experience for mankind is probably like being a one-year old or even worse. Proto-humans split from Chimpanzees 7 million years ago and suddenly within the last 6000 years we want to master the art of social living! This is like wanting to run when you cannot even stand.

Man's ability to be a good socialite depended on neuroanatomical and neurochemical evolution that prepared his brain for the cognitive challenges. Today most of us wouldn't struggle to appreciate a gesture of gratitude, recognise grief and pain in fellow members, interpret the facial emotions and body language in others. But, these are skills learnt by man over the last few thousands of years aided by advances in his brain anatomy and chemistry. Primitive man did not know how to do them. Neural circuits had to be created in his brain that programmed his brain to perform these kinds of emotive tasks. It is like writing a program in computer parlance. Neuroanatomical evolution enabled creation of dedicated brain centres that took care of speech, emotions etc. as new applications that were not possible before. If you look at your own computers, laptops, cell phones there are new applications that enable you to do things which you could hardly imagine not long ago. The digital technology is ever growing but please do not forget that it has been only growing in the last 20 years or so. This is a ridiculously small duration compared to the advent of industrial revolution that started 150-200 years ago.

What I want to talk about in this chapter is how brain chemistry evolved in parallel that helped man to deal with the social challenges mentioned above. This is in addition to the advances in neural 'applications'. Both the hardware and software had to co-evolve in the brain to make it possible for man to think and act socially. A number of 'biological technologies' had to arrive.

All vertebrate brains have an almond-sized structure called the hypothalamus. The brain itself is only about a kilogram in weight and when compared to the average size and weight of an average person this brain size perhaps is tiny in comparison. Within this 'tiny' structure called the brain the hypothalamus is a tinier component of it. It is no more than the size of an almond! But, in terms of importance, hypothalamus is next to none. It is virtually the seat of governance of the human body. It regulates vital functions such as appetite, thirst, sleep, circadian rhythms, boy temperature, emotions, blood pressure, heart rate and through an intermediary called the pituitary gland, virtually all hormonal functions within the body. The pituitary is even tinier than the hypothalamus - it is only the size of a pea!

Hypothalamus and Pituitary glands are not unique to man. They are present in vertebrates and invertebrates indicating the evolutionary antiquity. The unique nature of the Hypothalamus is that it secretes hormones for controlling vital functions and it is also wired to other limbic brain structures in a circuit that has been termed as the 'Papez Circuit'. The neural connection of the hypothalamus to limbic lobe and its major connections in the forebrain is the basis of emotional experiences and what it is to be human. The Papez circuit begins and ends in the Hypothalamus signifying how fundamental this structure is in determining our humanness. The average size of the circuit length is 35 cm which indicates a fair distance for the size of the brain. But, it is amazing how a 35-cm loop makes us cry, weep, afraid, euphoric and proud. It is truly incredible all the wonderful human emotional expressions and the endless varieties of love and affection and the myriads of writings on emotions are all down to this tiny electrical connectivity between hypothalamus and the limbic lobe. The Papez circuit is also linked to memory centres and external sensory input centres in the brain like visual, smell and hearing. That is the reason why emotional behaviour is strongly linked to visual and smell sensations. The bedrock of human society is the emotion. Hypothalamic circuits and the neuro-secretory hormones make it all possible.

Hormone-secreting brain centres, such as the ones in hypothalamus, have deep evolutionary origins dating back to the times even before the split of vertebrates and invertebrates. Two of the vital hormones are Oxytocin and Vasopressin, both very similar in structure but have vast differences in what they control.

I am not so much interested now to discuss every known function of the hypothalamus. I am going to limit my focus to only its role in human emotions and stress-busting. I am sure most of us would agree that busting stress is as important as any other vital bodily functions like feeding, temperature control and blood pressure control which are all controlled by the hypothalamus. Stress is the result of external interactions we all make in our daily living. Inner body functions carry on almost like automatons with very little intervention required from you. But, stress is not like that. We face the external challenges on a daily basis and we have to deal with them. Fear, pain, grief etc. are capable of incapacitating an individual. The stress of living in big groups is not something that can be taken lightly.

What I want to show here is, apart from the neural circuitry that involves the hypothalamus as part of the limbic system in execution of emotional functions, there are some molecular agents that get secreted from the hypothalamus that could assist us in societal living. They are the hormonal molecules called Oxytocin and Vasopressin.

Oxytocin is a hormone produced by the Hypothalamus. Biochemically, it is a small protein consisting of just 9 amino acids. The sequence of arrangement of constituent amino acids in the Oxytocin molecule is like this: Cysteine - Tyrosine - Isoleucine - Glutamine - Asparagine - Cysteine - Proline \- leucine - Glycine. There are tens of proteins in the body which have a much larger number of amino acids in their structure and in comparison Oxytocin structure is very simple and short. But, in terms of its function, it is one hell of a molecule! The functions mediated by this small protein hormone are too good to be true.

The hypothalamus also secretes another vital hormone called Vasopressin. It is very similar to Oxytocin. It also has the same number of nine amino acids. Phenyl alanine replaces Isoleucine, and arginine replaces leucine in the Vasopressin as compared to Oxytocin structure. But, the difference in functions mediated by Oxytocin and Vasopressin is huge.

The most well-known action of Oxytocin is to make the uterus to contract. As can be expected Oxytocin is released at the start of labour. Artificial Oxytocin is used as a medicine to induce labour in women who do not progress to spontaneous labour. Oxytocin is also useful to assist lactation as it helps contract the milk glands in the breast. There are some other actions of Oxytocin that are not well known. Physiology textbooks do not mention anything about the behavioural effects of Oxytocin.

The same way Vasopressin's well-known action is conservation of water in the body. It is vital for maintaining adequate amount of water within the body. Balance of water content in the body is as vital as any. Imbalance in Vasopressin function can create equivalent of water scarcity or floods within the body geography. Both are bad situations and Vasopressin needs to be produced in right amounts at the right time for avoiding these extremes. You may wonder why a primitive brain structure has a water-controlling function. Do not forget we all came from the oceans! Earliest life forms were sea-dwelling and it would have been a fundamental need for the earliest life form to keep the water from flooding the interiors! Again, as I said before, I am not interested in the water conserving function of Vasopressin. I am interested in the less well-known action of Vasopressin in social adaptation.

Oxytocin has also been referred to as the 'love hormone' because its release also occurs during sex. Its release peaks at orgasm. It is thought that this is the reason for the loving bond that develops between partners during and after sex. Oxytocin is also said to be the essence of affection itself, including the bond between parents and children and also between friends. Even though oxytocin was discovered in 1909 as a molecule that acts on uterus we did not know until the 1970s that it also has actions in the brain as a neurotransmitter. Oxytocin receptors are found in the limbic system, which is a group of structures in the brain that deal with emotions.

Oxytocin has tremendous effect on human behaviour, especially the behaviours that shape social behaviour. This social-mediating function of Oxytocin is not even mentioned in medical text books. It is sad. In the recent times psychologists have been excited about this less-known function of Oxytocin.

Oxytocin may have played a vital role in formation of bigger human social groups such as cities and states because it enabled human emotions that matter in social interactions. Oxytocin may be the molecular basis of human societies!! It is like chemical software for Godliness! Because in my opinion all behaviours aimed at an orderly, compassionate, caring society is Godliness and anything that helps this is truly important. Oxytocin is one such factor that needs to be given due credit for.

It sounds like a huge claim when you pin down a simple chemical molecule like Oxytocin with such profound responsibilities. You are told to believe that all glorious human attributes like compassion, trust, love etc. are down to biochemical circuits linking Oxytocin to the brain. How tall can that claim be? Is it even possible? At least I am convinced and I will leave it to the readers to decide for them.

Animal experiments have shown the important role oxytocin plays in social bonding. Sue Carter at the University of Maryland found that two closely related species of vole - the prairie voles and montane voles differ in their reproductive behaviour. Prairie voles form long-lasting bonds to raise the young whereas the male montane voles do not contribute to parenting. The key was the oxytocin receptor in the brain. Prairie voles had far more oxytocin receptors in their brains compared to montane voles. Interestingly, if these receptors in the brain were blocked even prairie voles do not form bonds. This finding made Carter to conclude that oxytocin makes bonding pleasurable and separation stressful (Psychoneuroendocrinology, vol.23, p779). If oxytocin is blocked in rats and mice the effect is the same. They stop nurturing the young and also lose their ability to recognise the faces of their familial members. Giving opioids and oxytocin to young animals helps relieve their distress when separated from their mothers.

Interestingly, oxytocin also appears to work through the brain's reward system. Drugs that block the action of the reward/pleasure mediators like dopamine and opioids also block the action of oxytocin suggesting that these molecules share some common pathways. Iain McGregor, of the University of Sydney, reported (Neuroscience, vol 146, p509) that the club drug ecstasy raised the levels of oxytocin! This suggests that the profound sense of joyful sense of empathy people feel after consuming ecstasy could actually be due at least partly to the oxytocin release!

On the whole, oxytocin has been found to be the link between pleasure and social interactions. It could be the ' _glue of the society_ '. It is important for romantic and other social interactions including parenting. Michael Kosfeld and colleagues at the University of Zurich did a very interesting experiment in human volunteers by giving them oxytocin. The behaviour that was studied was trust. Incredibly, those who received oxytocin were more ready to trust others than those who received just the placebo (Nature, vol 435, 2005, p673 - 676). They were more ready to share money with even strangers and were more generous. We know little about the neurobiology of trust in humans and this study is a way forward. Trust underpins love, trade, friendship and leadership and without trust we could pretty much take away the very fabric of our society. It is amazing that a chemical molecule can mediate this extremely important human behaviour. Could Oxytocin have been the key player behind formation of human societies? For millennia, man may have depended on it when he made the transition from the hunter-gatherer to massive societies!

There is growing interest now in the potential use of Oxytocin in treatment of mental illnesses. The objective is to help cure problems some individuals face in making effective social contacts. People with autism, personality disorders, depression, social phobia, psychosis etc. can benefit. These mental illnesses are characterised by problems in sociability or empathy.

Autism is certainly one condition where people have difficulty in understanding the minds of others and also have aversion to human contact. These sorts of difficulties would have been the norm when humans expanded their group sizes. With increasing numbers of people in the group, especially those unrelated to each other, one would expect scenarios where people felt threatened and afraid of others. It was necessary for people to overcome these mental barriers and come closer to each other. They needed to build bonds and trust each other. They also needed to reduce aggression towards others and also be able to understand the feelings of others and be empathic.

Markus Heinrichs of the University of Zurich did a brain imaging experiment in humans to see what happens when you give them oxytocin. His experiments showed that oxytocin damps down brain activity in a region called amygdala, a part of the brain that produces emotional responses like fear. By doing so, oxytocin could be producing less fear in situations that are scary. Subjects given oxytocin showed less response to pictures of frightened and angry faces.

A meta-analysis of a number of studies showed that administration of oxytocin to subjects elevated in-group trust. This was reported in the Psychoneuroendocrinology journal in 2012.

Oxytocin release has been shown to occur in response to several types of stress situations meaning that it could play a role in dampening the stress.

The word 'social capital' has been used recently which denotes the resources that individuals can access through their social connections to others. A community with a high social capital means one in which members frequently exchange favours to one another. These reciprocal exchanges hinge on high levels of interpersonal trust. Co-ordinated, collective action of a society would depend on the frequent exchange of favours between one another. This reciprocity would hinge heavily on trust on the other person. A favour done by a person to another member is a small investment. There is a risk to this 'investment' that it will not yield any dividends if the receiver does not return the favour in another way. Where there is a good return of investment people are willing to take more and more risk to 'invest' more in their society. Studies have repeatedly shown a reasonably strong, positive correlation between Oxytocin levels and the level of social trust. This is tremendously interesting. A blood-borne, neutrally derived chemical is able to mediate the highest form of emotions that is most human i.e. social awareness.

Oxytocin's closest cousin, Vasopressin, also has remnant actions on the social sense of man. Though its primary role seems to have diversified to water balance it is still capable of influencing social feelings of man. It is possible the precursor gene for Oxytocin and Vasopressin was the same and got duplicated into two - the two gene products having some functional differences and similarities. It is comparable to a number of other technologies that you see in the world. For example, your cell phone technology split from the land line technology but both exist today. The cell phone has evolved additional capabilities like computing. Computing and Internet capabilities are like newer additions to the old phone technology that has transformed what we can do with the phones. Similarly, the social effects of Oxytocin and Vasopressin have revolutionized the way mankind will live. These newer biochemical capabilities seem to help mankind cope with the new challenges of societal living. They seem to equip man with the necessary skills to deal with stress, empathy, trust, bonding etc. If being good to your fellow human is a religious virtue the molecular basis of this 'Godliness' is Oxytocin and perhaps Vasopressin! By being responsible for the social consciousness of man they have helped in building the huge societies that history has seen. They are indeed the molecular basis of the societies!!

There are also other neurochemicals that play contributory roles in stress-busting and fear-busting. For example, Cortisol is a hormone made by the adrenal glands in response to regulatory hormones secreted by the hypothalamus and pituitary. Higher signals coming from the Hypothalamus in the form of Corticotrophin-releasing hormone (secreted by a unique group of neuro-secretory cells in hypothalamus) is routed through another level of control in the pituitary. The pituitary gland secretes another hormone called adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) in response to Corticotrophin-releasing hormone from the hypothalamus. The final product called the cortisol is essential for us to fight or flight! Our ability to deal with daily stress is down to Cortisol. Cortisol is our biochemical stress-buster that prepares you on a daily basis. It gets secreted daily in the early hours of the morning and dampens out late evenings. It helps in tackling with stress response. The level of stress faced by us in the modern societies is huge and is probably increasing. Cortisol is a biochemically advanced 'technology' that we seem to have evolved to fight stress.

The interesting thing is that ACTH secreted by the pituitary gland is actually made in a kind of precursor form that consists of multiple components that need to be detached from each other before functionally mature hormones are liberated. ACTH is secreted in the form of pre-pro-opiomelanocortin in the pituitary. This pre-pro-opiomelanocortin is cleaved within the pituitary cells to release not only ACTH (the signal for cortisol) but also other critically important molecules like endorphins and enkephalins!! What does this mean? You are getting not only Cortisol that helps you bust stress but also mind-soothing, rewarding, euphoric molecules like endorphins and enkephalins! All of them come from the same source that seems to have biochemically evolved like a package solution!

To give you an example I want you to look at how things would work in your town when it comes to supplies. You need to buy groceries, fill up petrol for your car, buy some food, draw some money from the bank, drop your letter in the post box, watch a film, cut your hair, have a coffee and the list goes on and on. If you were to drive to different places of the town for doing each of these tasks you probably need a whole day if not more. But, your supermarkets have made it all easy for you. They give you a package solution to all your needs. You can do all the tasks under one roof making your life easy and saves a lot of your time too. More than anything it makes sense.

Sometimes when you need specialized services or items there will usually be a part of the town where you could get them all. Usually in such specialized regions there will be a string of shops selling similar products and the buyer ends up finding what he wants. It could be IT products, upholstery, furniture, building materials etc. This is how things evolve. Whether it is biology or sociology the concept of 'one-stop shopping' is all about minimizing the steps needed to achieve a common goal. In the case of our society there are a set of fundamental skills that were needed at the start and we continue to need them still. Why would things be different in your body dynamics? If you needed a stress-free life, calm and quiet, peaceful, and euphoric then your hypothalamus is your 'one-stop super-market'!

Brain chemicals like opioids, dopamine, oxytocin etc. must have helped also to evolve social skills to tackle these problems. These are the same chemicals that also mediate the spiritual sensations too!! In my view the spiritual sensations can be broken down to feelings and responses that make group-living a pleasure and nothing to be feared. The so-called spiritualism is all about sociology. That is why I said I expect to find some positive selection in brain genes for molecules like dopamine, serotonin etc. Now, with the discussion on Oxytocin it is obvious that this also may be another gene under positive human selection.

All the above biochemical molecules discussed above typically mediate their effects by binding to the respective cell-surface receptors on the target cells. The receptors are also protein molecules coded by unique genes. Efficient and correct decoding of responses will depend on the integrity of the receptors. If the receptor genes had undergone variations due to mutations or polymorphisms then the biochemical output will tend to vary between subjects. Oxytocin receptor gene variation is likely to determine individual differences in the level of societal behaviour of people. The same applies to Vasopressin receptors or Opioid receptors in the brain. It is not difficult to see how this could explain why some people are less social than others or even frankly anti-social. People could be ending up less able to bust stress, less able to trust others, less able to feel the euphoria of rewards etc. That would mean they go backwards in time when we humans originally did not have these mechanisms fully evolved.

I would love to see if there are any correlations that can be found between religiosity of people and the diversity in the above receptors!! What I mean is some receptor variances (like Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Dopamine, Opioid receptors) could account for the differences in religiosity shown by people. We may believe that being religious is a virtue. It is viewed highly by the society no doubt. But, in my opinion, being religious is about playing the rules of the social game properly. Be truthful, be empathic, be helpful, be trust-worthy, be kind etc. are the basic teachings of religions and it does not take more than a second to see these glorified virtues are really about sociology. If cell-surface receptors in the brain that bind Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Dopamine, or Opioids are altered due to mutations then the degree of alteration would determine how much the concerned person will be affected in mediation of the social responses. The behavioural deviance could be small or big depending on the degree of genetic change in the receptor genes.

In medical laboratory diagnostics every test parameter is expected to fall within an acceptable range. If you take glucose level in your blood it should be within 4-6 mmols/litre. If it falls below or above this range then there will be consequences which are associated with a disease. The same applies for cholesterol levels, salt levels, blood pressure levels and so on. The concept of normality is the acceptable range within which these parameters can fluctuate without exceeding the limits. As long as these limits are not exceeded then there is no disease. What I am arguing here is the same principle can be applied for behavioural parameters also. We keep judging everyone around us all the time. All of us are doing the same about others. That is why we always follow the social etiquette all the time. We all learn the accepted standard of behaviour to be followed at home and at work and adopt them in real life. There will be some variance in certain behaviours in the sense there will be some people always whose behaviour almost falls on the line. It would be difficult to judge if it is acceptable or not. It is easy to identify behaviours when the line is crossed but in some situations it is difficult to clearly demarcate bad behaviour when it is almost on the border-line. But, we never judge a person by just one deed unless that deed happens to be one of those really bad ones like killing or thieving. Other social behaviours allow a lot of flexibility to the individuals and you are ready to accept some stretches. For the social observers the reference range for each of these social skills is subjective but by and large not difficult to gauge. What I am thinking is that some sets of behaviours amounting to 'religiosity' may be deviant in some individuals simply because of genetic differences in their neuronal receptors for the 'God molecules' and such individuals behave in what is perceived to be a non-religious way. This is no different from the association between genetic or neuro-anatomic pathologies identified in some individuals who end up highly violent, sexually obsessed or crime-prone. Such neural or genetic pathologies make the subjects prone to abnormal behaviours. In many countries even today proof of psychiatric inadequacy is enough to change the court verdicts. There have been arguments also whether highly violent people should also be viewed differently if the neurological or genetic basis of their pathology is proven. I am thinking here how we can look at people who do not believe in God. I am wondering if some minority of people who do not believe in religiosity can be excused as well because their brain molecular machinery is altered and it is not their fault.

# 8. BRAIN'S OWN OPIUM

Opium is derived from the unripe seed capsules of the opium poppy, _Papaver somniferum_. It is one molecule that has been used by man since pre-history. It was used in the Middle East as early as 4000 BC. Greeks and Romans had used it for analgesic and euphoric properties. Hippocrates and Galen used opium to treat a broad range of conditions, including asthma, coughing, headache, and melancholy. In the first textbook of pharmacology, _De Materia Medica_ , the Roman physician Dioscorides describes Opium poppy.

Thomas Syndenham noted that "among the remedies which it has pleased almighty god to give man to relieve his suffering, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium."

In 1804 the active ingredient of opium was isolated by Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner; this chemical was named morphine, after Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep.

Today morphine remains the most widely used pain killer in contemporary medicine, despite an array of adverse side effects (respiratory depression, constipation, drowsiness, tolerance, and dependence). Heroin was synthesized in late 1800s by modification of morphine and was used as a cough suppressant and for asthma.

Opium was used for pain relief initially and its euphoric properties led to its abuse. Only in the 20th century the addictive potential of Opium was widely recognized and national restrictions started taking place. Opiate addiction is a public health issue now across the world.

Plant-derived opium is able to act on human and other animal brains. This is a curiosity and this curiosity led researchers to investigate the phenomenon further. Where does opium bind in the animal brains? The existence of opioid binding sites in the brain was established in 1973, and these were later referred as to mu, delta, and kappa opioid receptors. Why would the animal brain evolve receptors specifically for a molecule made by plants? There was something missing in the story. Scientists started turning the story around and asked - is there any molecule made by the brain, from within, for which the opioid receptors exist? Is the binding of the plant opium not the primary reason why the opioid receptors exist?

It eventually turned out to be the case. In 1975, two pentapeptides, Met- and Leu-enkephalin, were characterized as the first endogenous ligands for these receptors. Many peptides followed, forming the opioid peptide family. Enkephalins, dynorphins, and ß-endorphin are produced by cleavage of large protein precursors known as preproenkephalin, preprodynorphin, and proopiomelanocortin, respectively. Any molecules that bind to the same receptor for Opium were termed 'opioid' molecules. These opioid molecules are able to act on a number of locations within the central and peripheral nervous system. Opioid receptors are dotted all around the nervous system. The functional effects of opioids are varied and interesting. It just does not stop with pain relief or euphoria. The opioid system also regulates numerous physiological functions, including responses to stress, respiration, gastrointestinal transit, as well as endocrine and immune functions.

The most interesting properties of Opioids are the modulation of mood and sense of well-being. How does this happen?

In the wild, animals spend most of their time engaged in behaviors necessary for their survival and that of their genes, such as foraging for food and water, avoiding predators, looking for sexual partners, or caring for pups. Emotions have evolved that encourage animals to engage in behaviors with a beneficial outcome and avoid behaviors that could reduce their chance of survival. Positive emotions, such as pleasure, hedonism, or reward, when associated with the ability to learn from experience, can act to increase the probability of the occurrence of a particular behavior, a phenomenon called positive reinforcement.

Central Opioid system has been shown to be responsible for hedonic evaluation of food intake, sexual reinforcement, and other social behaviors such as pair bonding, mother-infant attachment, and social play. Opioids are involved in the rewarding of motivational/learning aspects of reinforcement that finally ensures survival behaviors. Mu-Opioid receptors appear to mediate both natural and artificial rewards, and are essential to mediate the rewarding properties of opiates, non-opioid drugs of abuse, and various natural stimuli such as food, mate etc.

The point to be noted is that opium may be a banned substance in our society. But, nothing can take the opioid molecules, made by the brain, away from us. You get all the psychological benefits of opium without having to break the law. It is available to you within your brain. How curious can this be?

The biological purpose and outcome of endogenously made 'Opium' in our brains is the same as the plant opium. Nature has helped us both ways. It has co-evolved plants and its beneficial products while at the same time the brain neurochemistry has also converged on the same.

# 9. 'PENICILLIN' FOR THE SOUL

_Neurons to Nirvana_ is a documentary film directed by Oliver Hockenhull and produced by the Mangu TV to explore the psychedelic substances as medicines. **F** ive powerful psychedelic substances ( _LSD_ , _Psilocybin_ , _MDMA_ , _Ayahuasca_ and _Cannabis_ ) and their now established medicinal potential are explored this documentray. Through interviews with researchers, writers, psychologists, and psychopharmacologists the history and future of scientific research in to medicinal uses of these drugs is analysed. This documentary argues that these drugs have to be de-stigmatized and exploited for their medical uses.

MDMA is an illegal drug that acts as both a stimulant and psychedelic, producing an energizing effect, as well as distortions in time and perception and enhanced enjoyment from tactile experiences. Commonly MDMA is known as ecstasy. MDMA was developed in Germany in the early 1900s as a parent compound to be used to synthesize other pharmaceuticals. During the 1970s, in the United States, some psychiatrists began using MDMA as a psychotherapeutic tool, despite the fact that the drug had never undergone formal clinical trials nor received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in humans. In fact, it was only in late 2000 that the FDA approved the first small clinical trial for MDMA that will determine if the drug can be used safely with 2 sessions of ongoing psychotherapy under carefully monitored conditions to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Nevertheless, the drug gained a small following among psychiatrists in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with some even calling it "penicillin for the soul" because it was perceived to enhance communication in patient sessions and reportedly allowed users to achieve insights about their problems. It was also during this time that MDMA first started becoming available on the street. In 1985, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) banned the drug, placing it on its list of Schedule I drugs, corresponding to those substances with no proven therapeutic value.

_MDMA_ apparently has no hallucinogenic effect and it is empathogenic. It is called the 'love drug' because it makes one feel loved and also want to love others back. Underground therapists have used MDMA for treating couples with marital problems.

MDMA in high doses has been shown in animals to be toxic to the nerve cells in the brain containing serotonin neurotransmitter. This effect is apparently long-lasting. At regular doses it releases noradrenaline, raising the heart beat and blood pressure.

Although the federal government considers marijuana a Schedule I substance (having no medicinal uses and high risk for abuse), two states have legalized marijuana for adult recreational use, and 21 states have passed laws allowing its use as a treatment for certain medical conditions.

The recent interest in development of potential medicines from psychedelic substances is highlighted by the news that mainstream researchers in academia are taking up clinical studies. Professor David Nutt, a British Psychiatrist and Neuropsychopharmacologist, working at Imperial College London, has been funded by the Medical Research Council UK to research Psilocybin's effect on depression.

In February 2012 Robin Carhart- Harris, from Imperial College London, along with David Nutt, published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the effects of Psilocybin on healthy human volunteers. Neural imaging was done using the techniques Arterial Spin-labeling and floursecent Magnetic Resonance Imaging that capture the blood flow to discrete areas of the brain during a functional activity. This study showed that Psilocybin decreased the blood flow in high-level association areas such as Posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and median prefrontal cortex and important connector hubs such as Thalamus, anterior cingulate cortex and median prefrontal cortex. The authors of this study found that there was a clear temporal association between the subjective effects felt by the patient due to Psilocybin and the changes in blood flow to these brain regions. Decrease in blood flow was picked up in the higher order visual areas as well.

Posterior cingulate cortex is one of the most active parts of the brain. Its metabolic rate is 20% higher than most other brain regions. Function of the PCC is a mystery. Its size is large and has a rich vasculature and is in a buffered location. It is clear that this region has some additional protection from damage meaning it is playing an important role. It is also associated with the Default-mode network (DMN) of the brain. This Default-mode network of the brain is a network of brain regions that are active when the brain is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest. DMN is known to be activated during self-referencing and other high-level functions linked to the self-construct. DMN regions are also known to have the highest connections making them important 'hubs'. During goal-oriented activity DMN is deactivated. It has been speculated that PCC has a role in consciousness and high-end constructs like 'ego' and 'self' because of its high vascularity and links to the DMN. Psilocybin reduces the blood flow into the PCC by more than 20% which means the cognitive integration needed for experiencing the world and the self is reduced. This finding may be consistent with Aldous Huxley's reducing valve metaphor used to propose that the mind/brain works to constrain the experience of the world.

Previous studies by other researchers have shown that activity in and connectivity with the median prefrontal cortex is elevated in depressed people and is normalized after treatment. It is interesting that the clinical study by Prof. Nutt and Robin Carhart- Harris has shown reduction in the activity of the median prefrontal cortex. This could mean that Psilocybin will help to relieve depression.

It was found that people suffering from depression have very high activity, as shown by increased flow of blood, in the medial prefrontal cortex. This region of the brain is now known to be a connecting hub that unites many different parts of the brain involved in cognition. In a crude sense this hub could be filtering the sense perceptions such that people can have a balanced view of the world and its people. When you overdo this, such as what happens in depressed people, one tends to get an unbalanced view of the whole thing and perhaps leading to depression. While how exactly this happens may not be fully known what this particular study showed is that Psilocybin reduces blood supply to the medial prefrontal cortex. This resulted in a better sense of well-being in the subjects.

Depression has been characterized as an 'over-stable state' in which cognition is inflexibly negative. This kind of pessimistic trait, which is the basis of depression, has been shown to be due to deficient stimulation of serotonin receptor (5-HT2A subtype) particularly in the medial prefrontal cortex area of the brain. Brooding, the habit in which people tend to go over and over again thinking and repenting about some failures or misfortunes, is a terrible thing that holds back the depressed people from moving forward in their lives. Studies have shown that in such subjects the medial prefrontal cortex is overactive. Psilocybin, like certain other psychedelics, are serotonin receptor stimulators and by doing so deactivate the medial prefrontal cortex and certain other cortical regions such as posterior cingulate cortex. This leads to a sense of well-being and openness even several months after the Psilocybin treatment. One study reported that cancer patients treated with Psilocybin showed lower depression scores even 6 months after the treatment.

One of the other medical benefits of Psilocybin has been relief from cluster headaches. Cluster headaches are known to occur in certain people and this can be debilitating. During these cluster headaches there is increased blood flow in the thalamic region of the brain. Professor Nutt's study showed decrease in blood flow to the thalamus after the Psilocybin treatment which could explain the relief from cluster headaches in some subjects.

In the recent years psychedelics are increasingly looked at as psychotherapeutic agents. Obsessive compulsive disorders and Post-traumatic stress disorders apart from anxiety and depression are some of the psychological conditions thought to be amenable to psychedelics. Currently the two main cannabinoids of interest therapeutically are THC and cannabidiol (CBD), found in varying ratios in the marijuana plant. THC stimulates appetite and reduces nausea (and there are already approved THC-based medications for these purposes), but it may also decrease pain, inflammation, and spasticity. CBD is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that may also be useful in reducing pain and inflammation, controlling epileptic seizures, and possibly even treating psychosis and addictions. However, given the therapeutic interest in cannabidiol (CBD) to treat certain conditions such as childhood epilepsy, strains with a higher than normal CBD:THC ratio have been specially bred and sold for medicinal purposes; these may be less desirable to recreational users because of their weaker psychoactive effects.

Prof. Nutt published another paper in May 2014 on the enhanced repertoire of brain dynamical states during the psychedelic experience. This study was done in collaboration with Goethe University (Germany) researchers and supported by CONICET in Argentina and a German Foundation. He administered Psilocybin to 15 healthy volunteers and used functional magnetic resonance imagery to study the effect of this drug on the brain.

Brain has been described as a system residing between order and disorder. It is a self-organizing system. It is dynamic. The brain can enter into a whole range of dynamical states giving it the cognitive and behavioral flexibility. This flexibility and diversity may determine human consciousness. Under the resting state the brain exists in a default mode network. This reflects a network of connected neurons that keep buzzing with electrical activity. This neuronal activity in the basal state may not be leading to any action but perhaps contributes to the consciousness and awareness of one's self. If you look at it we may be sitting idle doing nothing. But inside your mind is flooded with thoughts, memories, plans etc. and never for even a single second we are able to keep our minds still. Every one of us is alike in this respect. Keeping our mind still is impossible.

The question to answer now is what happens when we administer Psilocybin or other psychedelics? Does it displace the brain's default mode network connectivity? Does it tip the brain towards a more entropic, super-critical sate that is at a state of extreme disorder than normal wakefulness? Does it release the constraints within the brain dynamics allowing it to experience hyper-associative cognition? Possibly, by introducing more disorder the psychedelics enhance the repertoire of dynamical states such that there is a distorted sensory perception (hallucinations) and also alter one's sense of time, space and self.

By decreasing the blood flow to certain 'hubs' in the brain the psychedelics may be releasing the filtering constraints previously placed by the actions of these hubs. The result is a fuller, more vivid, freer consciousness that is able to hyper-associate. Clinical studies have shown that under the influence of the psychedelic recollection of past events is extremely vivid, almost like re-living them.

Prejudice and fear may have prevented important scientific works on psychedelics. In the 1950s and 1960s basic science and applied research were taking place with Psychedelics and there were preliminary evidence pointing to their potential medical value towards addiction therapy and certain other forms of psychotherapy. In the 1960s LSD was hailed as a revolutionary new therapy in Psychiatry. A number of studies were undertaken with this drug but were all stopped abruptly due to laws passed to curb widespread recreational use of the drug. By then tens of thousands of patients had been studied but poor experimental designs made the conclusions almost worthless.

However, based on some anecdotal evidence and a study conducted by a Chicago internist by the name Eric Kast one indication for the use of psychedelics, particularly LSD, was that it elevated the mood and reduced the need for painkillers in gravely ill patients even after 2 weeks after intake of the drugs. The patients were able to show little regard to the gravity of their illness and situation meaning that they were psychologically more able to handle adversity than before. Kast's research led to a series of studies at The Maryland Psychiatric Research Centre on cancer patients and it was observed that LSD improved mood and quality of life in 60-70% of the patients. Interestingly, the response to treatment correlated with the extent to which the patients experienced a mystical or transcendental state! If a patient had more profound mystical experience then he or she was more likely to show the medical improvement. It can be surmised that this psychological improvement related to reduced fear of death, reduced anxiety and reduction in pain. This is more likely to be due to the effect of Psilocybin.

But, criminalization of psychedelics in the 1960s effectively stopped such research. But, historically, entire civilizations have used psychedelic substances in a ceremonial way to free oneself of the boundaries of everyday perception and thought process in a search for universal truths and enlightenment. But, these subjective experiences have lacked scientific rigor and therefore considered more meta-physical in nature.

Rick Strassman at the University of New Mexico conducted a study in the mid-1990s on the effects of a psychedelic agent called DMT.

The field was re-opened in 2006 by a clinical study conducted at John Hopkins University, US. Griffiths and colleagues at the Department of Psychiatry at John Hopkins University conducted clinical studies on the effects of Psilocybin under controlled conditions. The study design was much better than what happened in the 1960s. The subjects were not theology students as in the 'Good Friday Experiments' study in the 1960s. They were ordinary people. 36 volunteers were studied. A follow up was done after 14 months to see the long-term effects of the drug. What this study showed was that psilocybin induced experiences similar to spiritual experiences and there was significant increase in psychological parameters like internal unity, external unity, sacredness, transcendence of space and time, and deep positive mood. Surprisingly, the subjects described that these improvement in the psychological well-being lasted at 2 months and 14-months follow up meaning that these Psilocybin-induced effects were long-lasting too. The rating of the psychological changes was done using standardized scoring system based on the input from the subjects themselves. This was interestingly confirmed by independent ratings from community observers such as family and friends. This, in other words, means that the reported effects were not purely subjective but was perceivable by external observers.

Psilocybin mediates its effect on brain cells through the Serotonin receptor subtype 2A/2C (5HT-2A/2C). How could a single administration of this compound lead to effects lasting many months? This is one peculiarity of the higher nervous system in mammals.

We all know that some profound experiences can lead to lasting effects on the psychology of the victims. Intense emotional experiences can leave a lasting mark on the psychological make-up of an individual. Personally many of us may still feel the intense pain or loss associated with some event that happened even many years ago! This may be a severe accident or trauma. Or, it can be death of some one very dear to us. Over time we hope to get over the memory of these intense events but some people, may be a minority, are unable to achieve that. They continue to brood over it. They continue to re-live the event by constantly thinking about it. Even those who manage to get over the event may notice that a recollection of the event long time after it happened can trigger a profound emotional response as if the event just happened now!

One of the neurophysiological explanations offered to explain the long drawn out, prolonged, emotional reactions to discrete life events is the reverberating neuronal circuits in the parts of the brain concerned with emotions. Limbic system in the brain comprises of certain anatomically defined structures. Limbic system of our brains largely mediates the emotional responses. What happens is that when a stimulus arrives at a neuronal group it is forwarded to one or more other neuronal groups inside the brain. This is basic neurophysiology. The communication between neuronal groups is the normal mechanism by which brain accomplishes a variety of functions. Talking about emotional stimuli there seems to be a difference between an ordinary event and an intense one. Intensity of the emotional event determines how much we are going to remember it. We hardly remember a lot of everyday occurrences that happened in our lives. But, we do not forget certain events or experiences for a life time. They could be exhilarating, intensely pleasant experiences or they could be deeply sad, traumatic, life-changing events. Both types of experiences, good or bad, will be remembered for ever if the intensity of the emotional stimuli is strong. The brain manages to achieve this by what is called reverberating neuronal circuits.

Hebbian circuit refers to a functional association between neuronal groups that are flexible and re-configurable. Neurons that get fired by stimuli can excite or inhibit other neurons as the case may be. Many neurons fire or shut down as a group in a synchronous manner. They can also enter into reversible functional assemblies with other neurons depending on the need. Usually the signals feed forward to a set of neurons until the final effect is brought about. This is the case with low-grade, less intense, everyday-kind of ordinary emotional stimuli. When the emotional stimulus is too strong the signals that get forwarded loops back to re-feed the same neuron again. This happens in the limbic cortex. This prevents the signal from dying down with time because the re-feeding of the stimulus keeps it alive and new as if it is a new signal. It has been postulated that this kind of reverberating neuronal circuitry is responsible for short term memory. By keeping the neuronal information alive and active, by continuous re-excitation of the original neuron by the recipient neuron, the signal is not lost. The same mechanism holds good for memorable experiences too, good or bad. We all say 'it was a memorable experience'. This is because it is easy to etch it memory by the neuronal reverberation. If the experience was not intense enough this reverberation dies out in time and people forget it altogether. But, this does not seem to happen if the intensity of the experience was too high. In such cases the neurons reverberate for a long time sometimes even for a lifetime! It can incapacitate certain people and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a classic example.

Not everybody who suffers a traumatic stress will develop the PTSD. Only a certain percentage of people seem to be prone to develop it. The PTSD achieved prominence amongst the lay media following the accounts of war veterans in the recent times. Not all war veterans developed the PTSD though. It is something like depression or anxiety. Not everybody around you are depressed or anxious. We may all feel depressed or anxious once in a while but there are a section of people who always feel depressed or anxious. Why is it so? There must be something in their brains that makes them prone to develop these psychological handicaps.

A number of genetic, epigenetic and neuroanatomic factors predisposing to PTSD have been identified and debated. We will not go into the depth of all of them. One such factor deserves a mention here. It is the Serotonin receptor 2A (gene 5-HT receptor sub-type 2A) polymorphism. If you recall this is the receptor that is modulated by Psilocybin treatment. Psilocybin stimulates this receptor and brings about a positive change in the mood of the individuals. This has been proven in clinical studies quoted above. PTSD is known to occur in those who have modified Serotonin receptor gene that is less active. This kind of gene modifications can happen as a result of inheritance (from the father and mother's genes) or as a result of random, spontaneous or induced gene mutations. Our human genes, not just the Serotonin gene, develop variations over time. The same gene may vary between individuals. This can be harmless. There may be some small to moderate change in the functional capacity of the gene in a positive or negative way. Only when the gene variation exceeds a critical limit the functional deficiency can lead to development of a disease. These are called the genetic diseases and there are a whole range of diseases that afflict man due to such gene mutations. On the other hand the natural variability in the genes is not always indicative of disease. It is perhaps like different slangs that evolve in the use of a language. The language English may be spoken all over the world but there are variations in the use of the language depending on which geographical region you care to look at. Even within UK or USA different states will have different slangs. Gene polymorphism is almost like this.

What I am trying to explain is that Serotonin receptor gene polymorphism is not unusual. Some people may have a version of the gene that makes Serotonin-induced receptor stimulation difficult. Such people are likely to get PTSD more often than others with the normal version of the gene. If Psilocybin can lead to Serotonin receptor activation there is a sound neurochemical basis why Psilocybin should help in the treatment of PTSD.

If Serotonin receptor functionality is associated with depression and if Psilocybin can overcome this then what we are looking at is a reason why people from different cultures over the millennia have sought the use of it.

The other molecular hypothesis explaining the origins of PTSD involves the other wonder molecule Dopamine. One of the variants of the Dopamine Receptor D2 gene has a strong association with PTSD. The exact variation, the D2A1 allele, has also a link with the behavioral tendency of people to drink heavily. Generally, heavy drinkers try to use alcohol as an escape strategy to overcome problems in their lives which they cannot manage to solve using normal adjustments in life. They simply lack the psychological machinery to be able to get over the hurdles in their lives. Alcohol is an easier way out not to solve the problems but to forget that they have a problem. It is like the Ostrich that buries its head under the sand imagining that it has protected its entire body from danger. It is like closing your eyes and imagining that there is nothing out there. Alcohol continues to be a major social malady all over the world. Over the entire human history man has shown a heavy dependence on alcohol. In the Western countries alcohol is considered as a social habit. It is acceptable for families to consume alcohol together and there is no problem with that. In Asian countries and the Islamic world alcohol is forbidden. One cannot imagine consumption of alcohol as a family in India or the Middle East. In spite of the social stigma alcohol is widely consumed in Asian countries and people resort to alcohol to celebrate some happiness and also use alcohol to drown their sorrow should something happen. They look for the easiest excuse to open a bottle of alcohol. I suppose alcohol has caught the imagination of man as some mechanism to lose their inhibitions and liberate their minds. Alcohol alters your mind and allows man to enter a plane of consciousness removed from the everyday worries and depression. It is surprising that those who do it excessively have some gene modifications especially the dopamine receptor gene.

Dopamine transporter is another molecule that is concerned with the action of Dopamine as a neurotransmitter. Dopamine secreted by the nerve cells in the brain act on the next neuron by staying in the cleft between these two neurons. This cleft is called the Synapse. The duration of action of the neurotransmitter at the synapse can be regulated by re-uptake of the released neurotransmitter back into the neuron from where it was originally secreted. This re-uptake is a universal mechanism that controls the duration of the neurotransmitter and, as a principle, applies to all neurotransmitters. Dopamine transporter is a molecule positioned at the synapse that is able to re-uptake (and effectively remove the dopamine) from the vicinity of the target neuron for the dopamine. If this transporter is overactive then the action of dopamine in terms of intensity and duration can be curbed. If you inhibit the dopamine transporter the dopamine can be allowed to act longer. Increased activity of the dopamine transporter has been associated with several disorders including depression. In other words, availability of less dopamine leads to depression meaning that dopamine is important for maintenance of good mood and appropriate psychological constitution. Some people who have a modified version of the dopamine transporter gene are more prone to stronger withdrawal symptoms from alcoholism meaning that they are more likely to be relying on alcohol to compensate for the lack of availability of enough dopamine to keep them happy. The same gene variation in the dopamine transporter has also been known to be found more in the adolescents who tend to like hanging around with antisocial peers. This means that the dopamine transporter mops up the dopamine soon enough and reduces the availability of dopamine and this lack of dopamine affects the prosocial behavior of the affected individual.

Interestingly, cocaine brings about its preferred feel good effects by blocking the dopamine transporter. Bu blocking the dopamine transporter the amount of dopamine is increased in the synaptic cleft. Amphetamine also is able to increase dopamine levels in the synaptic cleft but by actively 'releasing' more dopamine from the intracellular stores. Amphetamine is a dopamine releaser.

What the above discussions show is the important role for dopamine and serotonin in human psychology. I am interested in these molecules from a neuroethological point of view. Psychedelics, working through dopamine and serotonin, are able to soothe your soul. They have been helping mankind for millennia. Penicillin was a medical miracle, made by the lowly fungus which transformed the face of medicine. Can we say that the various psychedelics that also come from the fungus (like the penicillin) helped man to adapt to the psychosocial problems which should really qualify them as 'penicillins for the soul'?

# 10. DID THE PSYCHOACTIVE SOMA SPARK THE ORIGINS OF RELIGIONS?

In this chapter I am putting forward the hypothesis that the world's first spiritual text, the Vedas, were conceived by a human race called the Aryans while under the influence of mind-altering substance called _Soma._ _Soma_ is an entheogenic substance derived from the mushrooms.

In India there has been a long dispute about the race called 'Aryans'. Many believe that the Aryan influx into the Indus valley was a myth. There are others who accept this idea. Quite frankly, many Indians consider Aryan invasion theory as something that downgrades the Indus Valley civilisation because of the suggestion that someone came from outside the Indus valley and gave us the Vedas, probably the world's first compilation of religious thoughts in man.

My interest here is only to look at the evidence we have in terms of origin of Vedas, said to the oldest continuous religious document in the world. Though the Aryan influx theory is disputed there is no controversy about the source of the Vedas. The Vedas were conceived by the Aryans. Who they were is the question. Were they indigenous people who had been living in the Indus Valley? Or, they were people who migrated to this part of the world from somewhere else?

Migration of human races has been happening all through human history. There is no need to deny this. Even if the Aryans had come from some other part of the world and settled in the Indus valley what is the problem? To be honest, even assuming that Aryans had come from somewhere else there is a lot of evidence to suggest that they had interacted and lived with indigenous races in the Indus valley for quite some time. This means that there was possibly a growth of a culture and civilisation here that was an amalgamation of two or three human races that enriched human thinking. Vedas, the source of much of the Indian philosophies, were born here and that means something. For the human race to arrive at this point of formalising his conceptual relationships between him and God was a landmark event in human history.

Based on available evidence the Aryans are thought to have populated the Indus Valley around 2000 BC. I am interested in this because I need to find any possible answers to my question - what may have sparked the origin of organised religion in the Indus valley?

The identity of the Aryans is hotly disputed and there are theories to suggest that they were either Indo-Europeans, or Central Asians from Siberia. My argument that these people actually were responsible for spawning organised religion is sure to attract much criticism and debate. What I mean is that though there were sociological reasons (such as growing size of society) for order generation in the Indus valley we have to answer the question why religions did not originate in Egyptian or Sumerian civilisations that had perhaps an equally complex civilisation at that time. What was the additional ingredient needed for this? My belief is that Aryans, whoever they were, had that missing link.

They could have been Dravidians who had migrated from the south to escape a flood that occurred in 3100 BC.

Or, they could have been a branch of the nomadic steppe race that migrated from the huge swathes of Central Asia known to the ancient Greeks as Scythians. They had overthrown the Greco-Bactrian empire in the second century BC. Bactria is the old Greek name for northern Afghanistan and the northeast corner of Iran. Ama Dar'ya river, known in Greek history as the Oxus river, flows through the Bactria and the Margiana which is further north in what is today Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Victor Sarianidhi, the Russian Archaeologist, uncovered a flourishing civilization that existed here 4000 years ago which has now come to be called the Oxus civilization. This spread across 1000 square miles of Central Asian plains. A vast archipelago of settlements have been unearthed here dating back to the time period when civilizations flourished at other locations around major rivers like the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus and the Yellow rivers. The ancestors of this race were the Siberians. This race split into two, the Aryans who had colonized the Saraswati valley and the Indo-Iranians who occupied the Oxus valley. This theory is contested but there is a lot of reasons why this is an attractive hypothesis. The proto Indo-European race that came from Siberia brought with them the ur-religion based on the shamanistic practice of consuming magical herbs and plants as well as their urgaritic language which became the Vedic and Persian religious expression in the form of Veda and Avesta respectively. The language was to become the Indo-European language which includes Sanskrit and Persian, and the dialects of Greek, Finnish, German, Hindi and Urdu. There is a lot of affinity between Sanskrit and Latin. Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. The ancient relatives of Sanskrit are the Iranian languages Old Persian and Avestan, the Baltic languages and the Greek and Latin. The Indo-Iranian race that flourished in the Oxus valley conceived the Avesta religious scripture and the Zoroastrian religion and Haoma, the psychoactive drink, played a major role in it. The Indo-Aryans who settled in the Saraswati valley created the Vedas and the importance of Soma in this is over-emphasized in the Vedic hymns.

Whatever the true identity of the Aryans was the fact remains that they conceived the Vedic hymns. The Rig Veda was followed by 3 other Vedas over a period of 1000 years. Vedic Aryans may have inter-mixed with native people of the Indus Valley over a period lasting many centuries and possibly millennia. The emerging mixed culture benefited from the Aryan spiritual thinking and that of the native population. As cities and states were forming in a big way in this region there was a political structure already in place at the time of arrival of Aryans. There may have been a supplementary, or even primary, role for priests in the organisation of the state in the pre-Aryan era. The Aryan thinking may have ignited the religious growth in this area at this time. The provocative hypothesis I am proposing is that Aryans had a long tradition of consuming a psychoactive drink called _Soma_ and the spiritualistic inclination of Aryans may have been the effect of _Soma_ , thought to contain mind-altering substances like Ephedrine and questionably Cannabis and Poppy seeds.

In order to identify who these Aryans were, and what they did, we have to look at circumstantial evidences that are available for us. It is possible to glean a lot of information about life in pre-historic societies looking at the life style and culture as can be seen in archaeological remains.

Take the case of domestication of cattle. From what we see in terms of archaeological findings it is possible to deduce a lot about the migration of races and also the way their lifestyle and culture was shaped by the event of domestication. I am trying to use the evidence available to us from history about cattle domestication and I am attempting to trace the identity of the race (s) that populated the Indus Valley around 2000 BCE that brought with them both the cows and the horses. I am arguing that it could not have been possible for a single race to bring both. Cows and horses came from different races that settled in this part of the world.

It is difficult to pinpoint with accuracy the exact dates the domestication of cattle occurred in the past nor can we state with certainty as to where this started for the first time. The wild ancestors of modern cows, called _Aurochs_ , ranged over large areas of North Africa, Europe and Asia. They evolved into the domestic cattle, _Bos indicus_ and _Bos taurus_. They were domesticated at one or more geographical regions, most likely in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East, and perhaps in India and Pakistan, around 8000 - 6000 BCE and this practice may have spread far and wide. Analysis of unearthed pots among the archaeological remains in Northern Europe showed degraded fats from milk suggesting that Neolithic farmers in Northern Europe were milking cattle for human consumption around 4000 BCE. Interestingly, the milk-digesting enzyme Lactase is a relatively new gene in our digestive apparatus that became selected around the time man started using milk as food. This must have been around 5000 - 4000 BCE. This genetic evidence is a very good and reliable way of proving that the domestication of cattle and human consumption of animal milk had been established at least a millennium or two prior to this and the selection pressure led the way to the fixation of the lactase gene. In other words, the genetic evidence in the form of lactase gene allows us to theorize more confidently about cattle domestication.

As early as 8000 BCE there is evidence that cattle was domesticated in Mesopotamia. But, there is no continuity of evidence to categorically prove that this practice was widespread in this part of the world. However, milking of cows seems to have been an important part of the people of the Sumerian Civilization approximately 3000 BCE. There is a carving on stone in the temple of Ninhursag in the Sumerian city of Tell al-Ubaid dating back to the first half of the third millennium BCE. This carving depicts workers milking the cow, straining and making butter and the fact that this picture is found in a temple also suggests that there is a possible link to these practices and proto-religious thinking. By about 1700 BCE (if not earlier) the Ancient Hebrews had been using milk and there is evidence for this in earliest Hebrew Scriptures.

Cows played a central role in Ancient Egyptian life, both in their agriculture and spirituality. The cows were dedicated to _Isis_ , the Goddess of Agriculture. In fact, the cow was also considered a God by its own right and was called _Hathor,_ and this God was believed to guard the fertility of the land. There is a stone carving that shows the picture of milking the cow. It is no wonder the cattle were domesticated in Agriculture-dependant societies like the Near East and Northern Africa to start with. Apart from the milk the cattle also had another use. They offered their muscle power for riding their agricultural ploughs to prepare the land for cultivation. Also the bullock carts served a means of transporting their agricultural goods to places. So, the cattle domestication can be seen as a parallel evolution to that of agriculture itself. Wherever agriculture spread the cattle domestication also spread. One could see the migration and/or expansion of human societies taking the two powerful technologies together.

Whether there was cattle domestication in the Indus Valley or not at the same time as the Near Eastern or Northern African civilizations is still not clear. At least by 2000 BCE the domesticated cattle reached Northern India. There is a theory that it coincided with the arrival of the Aryans, the nomads. If the theory that Aryans came from Central Asia then we do not expect them to bring cattle with them because they did not have cattle there. Cows simply did not exist there in the cold, icy conditions in Siberia. So, where did the cow come from?

Cows play a highly important role in Hindu religion. They are considered sacred. Hindus do not eat beef. Cows were seen as a renewable source of food energy for the milk it provides. Cattle were considered a means of wealth and people apparently estimated their richness by the number of cattle they own. Giving cattle as gift was a custom in marriages in India in the past and it is still practiced in some rural parts of India. Indus Valley people are said to have domesticated buffalos. Buffalos were used for ploughing the field. The wooden plough was tied to the neck of the buffalo and the animal was made to walk up and down the field. The buffalos offered the enormous muscle power needed for this work. Tractors help modern farmers today but in the pre-historic past the buffalos were a renewable source for fulfilling this important agricultural need. In rural parts of the world in India and Africa even today we see this being practiced. Also carts pulled by the muscle power of buffalos must have helped in transportation of their agricultural goods. Considering that Indus valley people domesticated buffalos it can be reasonably expected that they also knew about the use of cows and bulls. The climate that prevailed in India and other geographical conditions allowed cattle to flourish and therefore there is reason to suspect that the cows were indigenously domesticated here and there was no need for an external race to bring it. Even if they did the Central Asians certainly did not bring it. The Central Asians may have brought to the Indus Valley the horse and the shamanistic tradition of using the psychoactive substances. The cows may have been indigenous to this part of the world. Or, the races that migrated from the Near East or Northern Africa may have brought them to the Indus Valley and it was certainly not the Aryans. Rig Veda has numerous references to battles where the Aryans seek the support of their God, _Indra_ , to fight their enemies who were the indigenous people (Dasyus) who lived in the Indus Valley prior to the arrival of the Aryans. More interestingly, the Aryans were repeatedly referring to their demand to win the cows from their enemies (Native Indus valley people). That means the Aryans did not have them.

The Aryans certainly seemed to have had the horses which gave them military might. They were able to subdue the native Indus valley people to become their slaves or drive them out of the Indus Valley. The Indus Valley civilization had grown to be a very advanced, settled, city-based culture much before the arrival of the Aryans as can be seen from the remains of the houses and streets here. In fact, the measurements of bricks used for construction, size of the streets, house planning were so much identical throughout the Harappan civilization and this may not have been possible unless the whole tons were built with a purpose and plan right from the beginning. Whichever race that moved or lived here had the technology and requirement to build planned cities. The Aryans, on the other hand, having come from very cold climates, were nomadic people. Their horses aided their nomadic life. They did not know how to live a settled life. For them, the towns that the Indus Valley people had built had no value. The invasion of Aryans was one primary reason why the Indus Valley civilization did not advance any further at least in the same geographical location. This is the answer for the historical enigma why the Indus Valley people, who had advanced city-planning abilities, including the world's first sewage planning, could not sustain their progress and there was a big discontinuity in their progress. However, it is thought that the Pre-Aryan, Indus Valley people migrated inwards into Central, Eastern and Western India and settled there. The progress of the race which had migrated to Eastern India continued their state-based civilization and, more importantly, made significant progress in spiritual growth. Much of Hindu mythology is based on kingdoms that flourished here. In that sense, Hinduism can be said to have had an uninterrupted growth since the Harappan times. It is also hypothesized that the indigenous Indus valley people were the ones who fled to Egypt and Sumeria to escape the invaders. As said earlier, cows were deified in Ancient Egypt and cows played a central role in Egyptian agriculture and spirituality by about 3000 BCE. Or, it could have been the other way around. People of the Indus Valley may have taken the cows with them to the Near East and Northern Africa when they fled from the mighty 'Horse-bound Aryans' or even earlier due to drying out of the Saraswati river much earlier.

There is also a school of thought which says that the ancient Dravidians who even pre-dated the Harappan civilization may be the ones who populated the Indus valley when the last ice age submerged the civilization they had built in the south. I refer to the lost civilization in Poombuhar in South India where remains of a civilization dating back to 11000 years has been found submerged in the sea. This civilization had advanced language and stone technology. When these Dravidians evacuated the Southern India to flee from rising seas they may have settled in the Indus valley and used their advanced knowledge to build purpose-built, planned cities there. This was obviously much before the Aryans came there. The point I am trying to make here is the role of the Aryans in the origin of Vedas and perhaps the Hindu religion. They sure brought not only the horse but also the shamanistic use of _Soma_ , the mind-altering drink. They sure did not bring the cows. The cows were indigenous to the Indus valley or they were brought here by another third race which probably came from the Middle East or Egypt. In this case one cannot discount the view that there was a lot of inter-mixing of races and ideas that made the region even more fertile for origin of new culture and philosophies.

The main reason for this long-drawn discussion about the cows, shamanistic use of mind-altering substances and the horse is the fact the Indus Valley may have been the geographical region where the indigenous people of the Indus Valley may have mixed with other incoming races, assuming that there were more than one, and the outcome was a synthesis of a new culture. The most important question is which is this race that may have populated the Indus Valley. My theory is that they could have been the Central Asians because they were horse-bound that fits with Vedic description of horse-bound people. Also the use of _Soma_ was a new cultural practice that was not indigenous to Indus Valley until the arrival of this race. The Central Asians fit the bill here as they are known to rely a lot on these mind-altering substances for their proto-religious, shamanistic rituals. The Indus Valley had an established city-state organization perhaps around 6000 - 5000 BCE, as can be seen from remains of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. The arrival of these so-called Aryans happened later and the conflict between these two races must have continued for quite some time until there was a settled life where there was inter-mixing of the cultural practices. In other words, the spark for the religious thinking and the origin of the organized religion came from the fusion of these racial inter-mingling and it is my belief that _Soma_ consumption was probably the most important of these influences. I am of the strong opinion the Vedas and other religious thoughts that originated in the Indus Valley can be traced to this.

It is well known that human societies have used psychoactive substances as part of shamanistic traditions and some of them are known to stimulate philosophical and spiritualistic thoughts. Even today use of psychoactive substances is a common practice amongst Sadhus in India _. Soma_ is referred to numerous times in the Rig Veda and is believed to have been consumed during rituals. If you look at accounts of 'spiritual' effects of mind-altering drugs by users of these drugs what you find is really illuminating. They seem to experience an enhanced self-awareness and a sense of contact with the 'transcendent other'. They seem to become more aware of their interconnectedness with the world on the whole. There seems to be a positive feeling of personal growth allowing the users to realise the wonders of life and live in peace with things in nature. Many of the respondents feel that their experiences had improved the way they relate to others in a positive way. The other interesting observation made by the users of such drugs is that they no longer feared death.

Though other societies had used psychoactive substances much before Aryans the difference here is that Aryans had formulated the Vedic hymns in an organised manner and followed up the initial Rig Veda with three more Vedas called _Yajur veda, Sama veda and Atharva veda_. The Vedas were largely songs of praise and rituals addressing the heavenly gods like air, water, fire, earth etc. Later Vedas also included descriptions of spells and mantras for various worldly problems. Vedas basically looked at the place of man in this universe and his relationships with the heavens. This kind of introspection into the self and the relation of self with the cosmic whole was extraordinary thinking at that time. For the first time there was a formal attempt to explore our place in the universe and what we should do to appease the Gods and ensure an orderly living. The proposition that failure to comply with God's plans was punishable helped to spread the message in a formal manner though man may have harboured such notions even before that. The sense of norm was introduced for the very first time in human history.

To what extent consumption of _Soma_ influenced the thinking of Aryans towards the spiritual dimension is not known. But, if you looked at other civilisations like Sumerian and Egyptian that had reached an advanced stage by 4000 BC there does not seem to be evidence for ritualistic consumption of any entheogens. The difference between these earliest civilisations and the Indus Valley civilisation is that the Aryans brought the _Soma_ and the rituals associated with its consumption with them. The identity of Aryans, whether they were Indo-Europeans or Central Asians or Dravidians who had moved here from Kumari Kandam, is under dispute. But, it can be safely assumed that this practice of consuming _Soma,_ and the important place it occupied in their lives, could only mean that the Aryans were different people from people of other ancient civilisations.

It is highly provocative to state that the so-called Aryans, who created the Vedas, had used _Soma_ as an entheogen. If that was the case this could mean the beginnings of spiritual and religious practices and rituals, as described in Vedas, were linked to the use of _Soma_. That means we may even have an answer for the origins of religions. The Vedic culture, thought to be the prototype of the world's first religion Hinduism, could have been triggered by use of psychoactive substances such as _Soma_. This is really a bold statement to make to say the least. How can we even suggest that man's spiritual journey began with mind-altering substances?

In Central Asia (Present day Russia, Siberia, Northern Iran, Tibet, Mongolia, Northern Pakistan, Afghanistan) religious rituals were used to ensure success in hunting and breeding while in other parts of the world they were primarily used for agricultural prosperity. Animals are considered important in the indigenous religion of people living in Central Asia. The history of Central Asia is defined by the area's climate and geography. Agriculture was difficult in this region due to the aridness of the region. Trade via sea route was impractical due to the distance from the sea. The consequence was that there was less chance for major population expansion and political structure in Central Asia. Thus, few major cities developed in the region; instead, the area was for millennia dominated by the nomadic horse peoples of the steppe. Nomadic people living in the steppe and the settled people in this region were in conflict for long periods in history. People in Central Asia learnt to depend on animals to support their nomadic travels and also for warfare. Horses were domesticated for the first time here and continued to play huge role in their nomadic migrations and also for establishing the Silk Road, the eminent trade route whereby silk was transported across large distances as part of trade. Horses and warriors were revered within many indigenous religions in this part of the world.

The harsh conditions and extreme temperatures, and the availability of horses for long distance travel, drove people of this region to pursue lands suitable for a settled life. Shamanism practiced here was a religion of nature revering sky, earth and water. The importance of animals in their life was again emphasized by the shamanistic practice of wearing animal skins and feathers and their attempt to transform into animals in their spiritual journeys. These people of Central Asia could be the 'mystical' Aryans who populated the Indus Valley. The evidence for this is the striking fact that these so-called Aryans held the horses in high esteem and the horses are known to be native to the Eurasian Steppe in Central Asia. The horses were domesticated around 3000 BCE in Central Asia and this was a critically important milestone in human society. It is said that it had such an impact on transport over long distances and transformed the outlook for humans living in this time period. They had to wait another 5000 years for the steam engine to make a comparable impact on their life!!

The other evidence pointing the identity of the Aryans towards the possibility that they could have been the Central Asians is the fact that these people practiced shamanistic rituals using psychoactive substances. They are by no means the only ones to do so but the time frames we associate with use of mind-altering substances in Central Asian Shamanism and the Aryan practice of consumption of _Soma_ , the ritual drink consisting of psychoactive substances, is contemporary.

It could also be argued that Aryans had inter-mixed with people who were living in the Indus Valley at the time of their arrival and, over a period of many centuries and possibly millennia, produced a novel spiritualistic approach to life by co-existing with people who lived in the Indus Valley prior to them. It is possible that pre-Aryan people who had inhabited the Indus Valley themselves had proto-religious inclinations and the arrival of Aryans with their Soma-centred spiritualism helped to ignite the religious flame in this region of the world. This was ground-breaking shift in the way humans were going to live from there onwards. What was the extent _Soma_ as an entheogen played a role in this paradigm shift will be difficult to ascertain. In fact, most would be shocked with this argument that an entheogen sparked off the religion in our society. My belief is that _Soma_ must have played at least some role here. Due to lack of any recorded history and the inability to decipher Indus script we are not able piece together the events that immediately preceded the origins of religion in Indus Valley.

My claim is that Shamanism, especially the type involving use of psychoactive substances, was part of the Aryan culture whoever these Aryans were. Shamanism actually refers to the ancient practice, but still prevalent in some parts of the world, whereby a person claiming to be a 'mediator' between the spirit world and the physical world seeks to solve worldly problems. The problem could be a disease affecting somebody, low agricultural productivity, hunting failures or anything that affects the community. He 'achieves' this by visiting other worlds to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human body caused by foreign elements. The shaman often attempts to do this by modifying the consciousness through the use of mind-altering substances. Shamanistic practices are believed to be about 350,000 years old which is quite difficult to believe. Shamanism was more prevalent when man was largely nomadic but seems to be dwindling with onset of more settled and civilised life. Fewest traces of Shamanism are found in cultures where civilisation has led to more centralised social structure and urban development. Whereas those cultures that are yet to develop a large society, especially one with centralised control, still have a place for Shamanism. Examples of such cultures include the _inuit_ (Eskimos), the _feuginos_ (Inhabitants of South America) and of course inhabitants of African, Asian Jungles, deserts and mountains.

Shamans could be argued to be precursors of priests. The priests function in more complex social groups, part of a more hierarchical, centralised religious structure. Lack of direct communication between citizens in cities makes mechanisms of indirect communication more favoured. Priests fulfil such a role by being a vehicle for transmission of abstract ideas and thoughts not addressed to a single person only. But, in nomadic tribes, due to lesser number of people, interpersonal relationships are more direct and there is also less hierarchy. Shamans function in such settings making direct contact with people who have problems and also by attempting to solve problems afflicting the small community as a whole. There was less formal regulation of individual morality in shamanistic practice unlike in religions. If religions were thought to be evolved form of Shamanism, and if priests were thought to be descendants of shamans, one could see that complex rituals were necessary in both forms of activity.

People living in the Indus Valley were far more advanced in terms of city-state political organisation, with a huge population covering a wide geography (by prehistoric standards). The 'Aryans', if we accept them to be Central Asians, probably came from a very cold, harsh climate where there was less population and people were largely nomadic with little political organisation. There must have been a 'marriage' of these two cultures, or rather a transformation of the individual cultural practices. Shamanism fitted the nomadic, sparsely populated Central Asians but was found to be wanting in a densely populated, politically organised indigenous Indus Valley society. The 'spark' of entheogen-induced spiritual/shamanistic practice of these Central Asians must have given way to more formal, organised religion. Temples and priests replaced shamans. This must have taken time, possibly hundreds of years if not more. Even when organized religious behaviour started in this region it must have taken a further many hundreds of years before it matured.

Historical evidence points to further migrations of the people of the Indus Valley inward towards Eastern India over many centuries. The Indus Valley people migrated further eastwards towards the Ganges River and the surrounding areas. This was a result of climatic changes in the Indus Valley like drying out of Saraswati River. The Ganges River is 2510 km long and its basin is one of the most fertile and densely populated regions in the world. Ganges covers an area of 400,000 square miles and flows through 29 cities with population 100,000 and 23 cities with population 50,000 to 100,000 and a further 48 towns. The people who migrated inwards towards the eastern part of India continued with the spiritualistic tradition started in the Indus Valley. They perfected the spiritualistic thinking and we saw the origin of religious texts like Upanishads that are supposed to be distilled thinking of all the Vedas. There were the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata born and they are supposed to be the sacred texts of Hinduism. Important Holy towns like Varanasi and Haridwar are on the banks of the River Ganges and it shows that religious growth occurred here in a tremendous way. The other important holy river called Yamuna is a major tributary of the river Ganges and was also centre to further religious growth. Doab region, where the Ganges and Yamuna flow, has been considered one of the most fertile areas in the subcontinent since ancient times. Some important historic towns have flourished here, including Kasi, Mathura and Ayodhya. The two latter towns were the backdrop for the Indian epic Ramayana and river Yamuna is also the seat of Lord Krishna who figures prominently in Mahabharata, the Hindu epic.

There were many kingdoms and states established in this region over a millennium and by about 6 century BC there were 16 major states in the northern third of the subcontinent, including 4 major ones called Kasi, Kosala, Magadha and Vriji. Magadha happened to be the kingdom where Siddhartha Gautama founded another big religion, Buddhism, around 600 BC. This only suggests that this region was a cauldron of spiritual thinking and growth for a long time, having spread from the Indus Valley 2-3 millennia before this (i.e. before origin of Buddhism around 600 BCE). One can reasonably assume that there was continuity in the process of religious growth that can be traced over a period of 2000 - 3000 years from the Indus Valley (Saraswathi) to the banks of Ganges and Yamuna.

During this growth of society, state-based political organization and rising population there were more sociological needs here than anywhere else in the world. The first of the need was the order needed to keep the society intact. The demand for social order peaked in this landmass. This necessitated the people in this region come up with sociological tools like organized religion. This is the answer to the question I asked in the beginning: why it took so long for the organised religion to arise? Or, putting the question in another way, why was there no organised religion for 100,000s of years but suddenly in the last 5000 - 6000 years?

If you look at the Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabaratha the main mythological characters are kings who are also having the status of Gods. There are priests who figure prominently in the stories. There are also characters who figure in these epics who are really Gods. Like the Greek mythology the Indian mythology also centres on real places and real kings who existed. The fact that the Indian epics were created in the ancient Eastern India, by people who had migrated from the Indus valley, had morals and values and God's word as the content means that these were really outcomes of religious growth that happened in this part of the world.

As I said before, man harboured proto-religious beliefs for very long periods in pre-history. Viewing nature as Gods was the beginning. As said many times earlier the answer is that order-generating social evolution had not become necessary until then and there was no political organisation yet available which could institutionalise religion. Again, as said earlier, it is not as if man turned religious overnight. This must have been preceded by thousands of years of anatomical evolution within human brain to provide the necessary cognitive and social skills to help him live peacefully in large groups. But, the final leap into the religious form as we know them happened in the Indus Valley around 5,000 to 6000 years ago mainly because the critical mass of humans living in a single human society had emerged then. The timing of origin of 'god modules' in the brain coincided with the social cognitive needs that resulted from expanding human population. What is this 'God Module?'

The neuro-anatomical evolution of the human brain prepared humans with a newly evolved faculty to enable maintenance of social interactions. It is not something that happened all of a sudden. Just as in the case of any biological trait it took many generations before the humans started propagating some advantageous brain changes. As you will see later there is evidence for some brain components that seem to mediate religious behaviour and have been dubbed as the 'God Module'. Appearance of the so called God modules happened over tens of thousands of years to reach a point where there may have been an accelerated evolutionary change in the brain in the last 7000-5000 years ago when human group size expansion placed a big challenge. This demand arose with increasing population size and may have culminated at the time of Indus valley settlements. What I am proposing here is that the population size in the Indus valley around 5000 years ago plus the availability of much improved language capability and of course the availability of political structures enabled the appearance of regulatory social mechanisms the most prominent of which is the divine-mediated control.

To be honest we have to admit that man is still finding this a challenge. It is not as if he has solved the task of living in big groups. We all know from the everyday experiences we all have at our work place or in our neighbourhood that we are still far from perfecting this art. Unfortunately, human population has increased so fast within the last five to six thousand years ago. From a total population of about 300,000 we are now 6 billion all within the last few thousand years. How can we cope? They say that human brain evolution may not have stopped yet. We are said to be undergoing more brain gene selection pressures that will prepare us for the task ahead. I will talk more about these genes and molecules a bit later.

# 11. ARE GENUINE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES REALLY UNIQUE AND EXCLUSIVE?

'Neuroethology' is the study of religious experience from a scientific perspective especially understanding the neurological mechanisms underlying the experiences. Mystical experiences have formed the core of most religious traditions all through human history. Psilocybin and similar compounds are able to produce spiritual, religious, mystical, visionary, revelatory experiences possibly acting through the same brain molecular and neural machinery connected with real spiritual experiences. This is where it gets very interesting. Are the real spiritual experiences achieved through traditional religious practices the same as drug-induced ones? This is a deeply philosophical, politically controversial topic.

It has to be pointed out here that religiously ecstatic experiences can also occur during sensory deprivation, meditation, fasting, controlled breathing, near death experiences and even during sleep deprivation. It is noteworthy that certain religious sects such as Hinduism, for example, requires the followers to do meditation, controlled breathing, fasting and even sensory deprivation by avoiding the pleasurable senses. Are we to conclude that these practices would have produced the so-called religiously ecstatic experiences many followers achieve by doing these activities? Then what is the role of the God himself in this experience?

Adding yet another dimension to this very interesting development is the suggestion that brain can also be tricked to facilitate the experience of a revelation when a man spends a certain amount of time at high altitudes! This may be due to a lower level of oxygen in the low altitudes, which could alter the brain function. It is an undisputable fact that many of the religious saints have declared revelation experiences sitting on top of mountains. What is interesting is that many non-religious mountaineers have reported similar experiences while on the mountains! Even today we know of spiritualists who live on top of mountains such as in Tibet. I am aware that these Tibetan monks are also allegedly capable of astral projection, i.e. out of body experience!

George Papatheodorou, an Emeritus Professor of Geology at Patras University, examined the narrow cave where the Delphi priestesses were believed to have delivered their messages. He found high levels of methane and carbon dioxide in the cave's air. The caves were apparently at a location, like many other caves, at a site where there was a geological fault that allowed subterranean gases to leak out. These gases cause a lowering of oxygen concentration that can induce a mild hypnotic state and possibly hallucinations! This raises an interesting question about the oracle of Delphi, one of the mystical phenomena of the ancient times!

Dean Hamer is a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, US, who is an expert in gene regulation. He believes that there should be a gene that is responsible for the religiosity. If there are a number of genes for controlling various bodily functions why shouldn't there be some for the mental faculties too? He was driven by the study conducted in 1980s by a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota. The Minnesota team studied 84 pairs of twins to see if there was genetic component to the 'intrinsic religiousness'. Hamer started his research in the 1990s. He studied about 1000 subjects focussing on genes associated with monamine neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. These monamine neurotransmitters, as I said earlier, regulate mood. Even psychiatric drugs like Prozac and Thorazine as well as psychedelic drugs like LSD, Psilocybin and mescaline all affect serotonin and dopamine levels. These were the drugs that produce the mystical visions. Hamer's research showed a possible variation in the gene for vesicular monamine transporter (VMAT) that corresponded to a higher score of spirituality in the subjects. The measures of spirituality included feelings of connectedness with nature, belief in extrasensory perception and absentmindedness and certain other traits. The slight variation in the VMAT gene, argued Hamer, could be responsible for the spirituality though some scientists thought it was an overstated claim. Hamer called it the 'spirituality gene' or 'the God gene'.

Rick Strassman is a psychiatrist at New Mexico School of Medicine. He is a Zen Buddhist. He has an interest in the effects of a molecule called the Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). He traces the spirituality of man to this single molecule and he calls it the 'Spirit molecule'. Strassman has written a successful book on this subject and the book has been followed by a documentary also. He postulates that endogenously generated DMT (produced within the brain) triggers mystical visions, psychotic hallucinogens, near-death experiences, and even perception of alien abduction experience! This is based on the studies he did on 60 volunteers who took DMT experimentally. These studies were carried out between 1990 and 1995 at the University of New Mexico. These experimental studies helped to re-start the psychedelic research that had stalled since the mid-1970s. Interestingly, the kind of studies conducted by Dr. Strassman were discontinued by the scientific community after this mid-1990s thereby preventing further progress in this important area.

What drove Dr. Strassman to conduct studies with DMT is the fact DMT is the active ingredient of Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic Tea ingested as a sacramental drink by the Amazonian Indians. In South America Ayahuasca is an integral part of some tribal societies. It is called by different names throughout different parts of the South America. In Quechua languages spoken in Andean states of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Columbia, the word 'aya' means 'corpse (dead body) and 'waska' means 'rope'. What this really means is not sure. The consumer of ayahuasca is largely immobilized (like tying with a rope perhaps) and your consciousness is altered in to a sleep-like dreamy state where your soul exists on a different plane. It is a blend of two plants - the ayahuasca vine ( _Banisteriopsis caapi_ ) and the shrub from the genus _Psychotria_. The leaves of the _Psychotria_ plants contain DMT. _Psychotria_ shrubs can be substituted by plants such as Justico pectoralis, Brubmansia or scared tobacco (also known as Mapacho (Nicotiana rustica). The potency of the brew varies radically based on the admixures and the final concentration of the psychoactive alkaloids. Even the cappi vine comes in different varieties and consequently different potencies. If you took the cappi vine alone you do not have any psychoactive effect. Similarly, if you took the DMT-containing shrubs alone again you do not see any hallucinogenic effect. Only the mixture of the two has the intended effect. Why is this so?

It appears that the primitive people living in this part of the world seemed to have hit upon the method of preventing the inactivation of the alkaloid in the DMT- containing shrubs by the simultaneous use of the Monamine oxidase inhibitor contained in the cappi vine! How on earth did these ancient people with no knowledge of the biochemistry and physiology manage to do this? The Amazonian people claim that they received the knowledge directly from the plants and the plant spirits though it is likely that these kinds of discoveries are more likely to have resulted from serendipity. The cappi vine contains at least three harmala alkaloids harmine. Harmaline and tetrahydroharmine. They all have the ability to inhibit the Monamine oxidase enzyme which would degrade the DMT as well as other monamines like serotonin and dopamine. In the context of the Ayahuasca brew the presence of these harmala alkaloids prevents the breakdown of the DMT and therefore allows the molecule to diffuse unharmed past the stomach lining into the blood stream which will eventually take it to the brain. The Monamine oxidase enzymes are also present in the nervous system. These inhibitors play the role of inhibiting the breakdown of several neurally active monamines. Tetrahydroharmine is also known to have a weak serotonin re-uptake inhibitor activity and it is not clear how much of this alkaloid gets absorbed along with DMT. If it did and managed to reach the brain (I am sure it does) it is likely to have an additional psychoactive effect by preventing the cessation of serotonin action in the neural space which would have a beneficial anti-depressant effect. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors are used in modern medicine exactly for this purpose and it is nice to know that they are available in nature in some plants. It is amazing the native people of primitive societies managed to fathom the bounties from nature.

The ayahuasca brew was scientifically first described in 1950s by Richard Schultes, a Harvard ethnobotanist. Though ayahuasca is largely used as a religious sacrament it is also used non-traditionally as a medicine. The psychedelic effects of ayahuasca include stimulation of the visual and auditory systems, psychological introspection leading to elation and illumination. Ayahuasca is a substance that reveals inner divinity and it has been argued that it is different from a regular hallucinogen or a psychedelic because the insights received are deep and meaningful. These insights are into the nature of life, illness and well-being, including the revelations about the very fabric of existence itself. The experiences are 'real' as opposed to inconsequential hallucinations. Drinking of this brew opens up a window to the other world, it seems. Our experience seems to be extended beyond ordinary consciousness. Because of the dissolution of the boundaries and the crumbling of the egos our 'other worldly' experiences may be misinterpreted.

The accounts of communion with God, interdependence and personal humility that we find in diverse school of spiritual texts are achievable with ayahuasca according to people who have had the experience of imbibing it. The ayahuasca journey can provide the practitioner a sense of awe, power and mystery and help achieve accelerated access to a cosmos if infinite realms. The immense sense of compassion, gratitude and peace leaves the ayahuasca user blissful and with a sense of oneness with the whole, not much different from the realization of the traditional spiritualists.

Use of ayahuasca is largely to help the users align themselves with the philosophies and cosmological ideas associated with shamanism practiced in the Peruvian Amazonia. In the late 20th century ayahuasca has been spreading to Europe, North America and elsewhere largely because of the publicity given to this by way of articles written in the press and also documentaries made on this brew. An ayahuasca church, affiliated with the Brazilian Santo Daime, was established in the Netherlands! Though the founders of this church in Netherlands were charged legally with distribution of a controlled substance the Amsterdam court could not prove that the use of ayahuasca posed any public threat. Since this ruling many other groups have started using ayahuasca. In modern Europe and North America analogues of ayahuasca are being prepared replacing the traditional plants with non-traditional ones like seeds of the Syrian rue vine (instead of the ayahuasca vine), DMT-rich _Mimosa hostilis_ in the place of _Psychotria._ In Brazil, a number of modern religious movements based on ayahuasca have emerged the most famous being the Santo Daime. They have members and churches now throughout the world. US and Europe also has seen new religious groups develop in relation to the increased ayahuasca use. Some westerners have teamed up with shamans in the Amazonian rainforest forming ayahuasca healing retreats offering to cure mental and physical illnesses and allow communication with the spirit world. The churches that have mushroomed in other parts of the world use either shamanistic practices or even attempt to integrate with Christianity.

As recently as 2008 the government of Peru has claimed that consumption of the 'teacher' or 'wisdom' constitutes the gateway to the spiritual world and the secrets it holds. That is why the ayahuasca ritual forms one of the basic pillars of the identity of the Amazonian people. Ethnobotanical Stewardship Council, a charity organization dedicated to the safe use of traditional plants, and whose flagship project is ayahuasca, says 'ayahuasca tourism' is already established in South America. Westerners interested in Shamanism have raised the profile of traditional medicines including ayahuasca. Tens of thousands of foreigners take ayahuasca annually. Most people seek ayahuasca with good intentions presumably to find a solution to their problems such as depression, addiction or post-traumatic stress disorder. It is worth mentioning that uncontrolled studies have shown some positive benefit in these conditions when ayahuasca is consumed.

The International Centre for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service says that an increasing number of people across the globe are exploring their personal development through the introspective nature of the hallucinogenic experiences. The ritualistic learning is becoming popular. Tourists can buy a cup of ayahuasca on the streets of Iquitos in the Peruvian rainforest. This city is the epicentre of the retreat centres that rely on ayahuasca. It is the 'wild west' of ayahuasca and people can consume ayahuasca as they like without the guidance of experiences shamans. The lack of guided intake of ayahuasca can lead to problems. In Columbia a guild of shamans exists to promote good practice though there is very little government oversight. Religious use of Ayahuasca was legalized in the mid-1980s in Brazil. Official inquiries conducted in Brazil concluded that ayahuasca is not a recreational drug but has spiritual uses. In US the religious use of ayahuasca tea is allowed for religious ceremonies pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. International Narcotics Control Board has affirmed that ayahuasca is not subject to drug control by international convention. However, in its 2010 report the board has recommended national controls at the local governmental level. Strangely, DMT is a schedule 1 drug under the convention of psychotropic substances but the plants containing it are not subject to international control! The same applies to some other psychotropic substances like mescaline and psilocin. The cultivation of plants from whom these substances are derived is not controlled by the Vienna Convention as they are not included in Schedule 1. Even preparations such as decoctions made from these plants are not under international control.

In 2008, a psychology professor called Benny Shannon at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem caused a stir by writing that a brew analogous to ayahuasca was heavily connected to early Judaism! He argued that this brew was responsible for some of the most significant events in Moses' life including the vision of the burning bush. Shannon wrote a book called 'Antipodes of the mind: charting the phenomenology of the Ayahuasca experience' published by the Oxford University Press in 2002. He describes the ayahuasca-induced effects based on personal experience and also from the literature. His controversial theory has been called the 'biblical entheogen hypothesis'! Moses is believed to have been under the influence of ayahuasca (or a substance analogous to ayahuasca) when he received the 'law'! In his paper, 'Biblical entheogens: a speculative hypothesis' he sees a lot of parallels in the account of the life of Moses as described in the Bible and the typical patterns of ayahuasca-induced experiences. The notable such experiences include the vision of the burning bush, transformation of rods belonging to Moses' brother Aaron and the Pharoah's sorcerers into serpents, perception of light as God, encountering the divine, altered perception of time, fear of impending death, entities whose faces are not visible, the theophany at Mount Sinai when Moses is given the Ten Commandments, and the shining face of Moses when he brings back the Ten Commandments. Such experiences are essentially symptomatic of ayahuasca, according to Shannon. He also points out the similarities between the traditional contexts of ayahuasca use and the three-day purification before the Ten Commandments were revealed. Above all, Benny Shannon goes as far as saying some of the personality traits possessed by Moses smacks of an ayahuasca user. Shannon admits that his hypothesis is admittedly speculative but the botanical and anthropological data, biblical descriptions as well as Jewish hermeneutics suggest a biblical entheogenic connection.

It is worth pointing out that Strassman's studies also showed that the volunteers who took DMT had both types of experiences - those that fit the spiritual world view and those that did not. Many of his subjects felt an inner bliss, timelessness, reconciliation of the opposites, a certainty that consciousness continues after death, and contact with a supremely powerful, wise, loving presence perhaps alluding to God. Some subjects felt moving through a tunnel towards a radiant light and a full near-death experience. 47% of the subjects, though, encountered visions of entities defying description (like elves, aliens, clowns etc.) and presumably many of these bizarre beings were not friendly.

DMT is known to be produced endogenously within our own brain, possibly from our pineal gland. Interestingly, pineal gland has rich access to the precursor of the DMT i.e. Tryptophan amino acid. The reason for this is that the pineal glands synthesize the melatonin hormone which entrains all our circadian rhythms. Melatonin is the biological time keeper and is chemically N-Acetyl 5- methoxytryptamine. Dimethyltryptamine is also synthesized from Tryptophan. That is why the pineal gland is able to access the tryptophan amino acid. Just like in the ayahuasca brew the MAO inhibitor activity is also present in the pineal gland to protect the newly synthesized DMT (as well as Melatonin). The question is what is the biological role of DMT?

Before we go further I want to add a note that serotonin (5-hydroxydopamine) is also analogous to DMT. Serotonin's role as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator is too well known. Its effect on mood and cognitive functions are well characterized. It is plausible that a structurally and biochemically similar molecule such as DMT has a similar effect on the brain and consciousness. There are some other psychedelic tryptamines such as bufotenin, 5- methoxytryptamine, psilocycin and psilocybin. These chemicals are all unsurprisingly present in the same sources - plants, fungi, and certain animal species. Bufotenin is 5-hydroxydimethyltryptamine. It is present in toad skin (!) as well as some plants, fungi and mammals. It is a constituent of the seeds of the plant _Anadenanthera colubrina_ and these seeds have been used as a psychedelic by indigenous cultures of the Caribbean, Central and South America. These people prepared a snuff using these seeds. Bufotenin has also been identified as a component in the latex of the takini tree ( _Brosimum acutifolium_ ) which has also been used as a psychedelic by South American Shamans. Bufotenine-containing toad venom has been used as a street drug and aphrodisiac ingested orally in the form of _ch'an su_ , and as a psychedelic, by smoking or orally ingesting _Bufo_ toad venom or dried _Bufo_ skins.

Haoma/Soma is another major example of religious, ceremonial use of entheogenic substance practiced across widely differing cultures. This practice may have persisted for over thousands of years. Rig Veda profusely praises an immortality elixir called Soma. A decoction prepared from mixing juices from various plants with other ingredients, one of which may have been Hemp, or a beverage prepared by extracting the juice from the _Amanita muscaria_ fungus was called Soma and was consumed during sacramental ceremonies by the Vedic Aryans in the Indus Valley.

I argued earlier that Aryans conceived the Vedas while under the influence of the Soma. The Zorastrians too may have had an entheogen-supported spiritual growth. The Hoama in their tradition is likely to be similar if not identical to the Soma of the Indus Valley civilization. Avesta, the ancient Zorastrian scripture, is likely to have had a creative origin that can be ascribed to Hoama. Hoama was regarded by Zorastrians as the son of the wise lord and creator who is believed to be incarnate in the sacred plant that was pounded to death in order to extract its life-juice for achieving immortality. One could say the Veda and Avesta constitute an Indo-Iranian religion. Unorganized spiritual thinking of man must have started probably tens of thousands of years prior to the origins of the organized religions. These prototype religions are sometimes referred to as 'ur-religions'. When the Aryans came from Siberia they probably brought their 'ur-religion' and an urgaritic language which became the Vedic and Persian religious expression and later the Indo-European language. This includes Sanskrit and Persian as well as Greek, German, Hindi and Urdu. There is a possibility that the people who composed the Vedas were the same people who later moved to now Iran and this hypothesis is based on the similarities in the language. The people who migrated to Iran from here continued with the tradition of entheogen-assisted spiritual growth by composing the Avesta that was to spawn the Zorastrian religion. Both of these most ancient religious scriptures centre on the cult of the magical substances that were hallucinogenic.

The Tibetan word for cannabis is 'Somarasa' or 'Somaraja'. It can be translated as the 'Soma Juice' or 'King of Soma'. The mysterious substance referred to in Buddhist texts as 'Amrita' literally means 'immortality elixir', may be a decoction containing a similar entheogen derived from a similar fungal source. Amrita is considered a drink of the Gods just as Soma was considered to be. In fact, Soma is actually given the status of God of the Gods in Rig Veda! In the plant medicine Sutra, Bodhisatva is recorded as waking up and finding herself surrounded by vines, branches, flowers, roots, sap and essence of the plant world. All these were believed to be supplicating for a teaching that would illumine their minds. The term Bodhisatva was used by the Buddha to refer to himself both in his previous lives and as a young man in his current life, prior to his enlightenment.

The sacrificial ritual was the centre-point of Vedic religion and the objective seemed to be winning of the favour of the Gods. The sacrifice involved the slaughter of dozens and sometimes hundreds of animals - cattle, sheep, goat and horses. The partaking of Soma happened during these slaughters. Divine sense of power and inspiration was produced by the Soma/Hoama and it was believed by the revellers that even Gods participated in the ritual eating and drinking. This perception was largely the hallucinogenic sensation produced by a variety of psychedelic agents that seemed to bring about a communion with God.

The use of substances from plants (this practice is called _ausadh_ i) to achieve _siddhi_ (a Sanskrit word that literally means 'perfection', 'accomplishment', 'attainment' or 'success) is rampant in ancient Hindu tantric tantric and later Vedic traditions. Patanjali, the complier of Yoga sutras (an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice) puts _ausadhi_ (use of ecstasy-inducing herbs) along with _Samadhi_ among the means of obtaining siddhis. This is taken to mean that substance-induced spiritual understanding and growth is valid in orthodox religious beliefs. This can be further expanded to mean that entheogen-induced altered states of consciousness and perceptions and the realization is compatible and supplementary to conventional methods of worship, meditation and Yoga.

_Samadhi_ refers to the highest level of concentrated mediation where the logical and analytical ability of the person becomes silent. It is the state of being aware of one's existence without thinking. It is a state of undifferentiated being or an altered state of consciousness that is characterized by bliss and joy. The realms of the body and intellect are transcended. The consciousness is said to be detached from the body. The connection between the body and the soul is suspended as long as the person in S _amadhi_ likes. The consciousness of the person becomes non-dualistic in that the consciousness of the subject becomes one with the experienced object. The mind is still while the person is conscious. In Buddhism it can also the state in which the mind is still but does not merge with the object of attention.

Considering ausadhi and Samadhi as the means to attain siddhi is a rather surprising acknowledgement of the equality of both paths.

More historical and current examples for the sacramental use of entheogenic substances include _Kykeon_ from the Greek Eleusinian mysteries, the wine of Dionysis Eleutherios, and _Pituri_ of the Australian Aboriginals. Native American _peyote_ and the Rastafarian _ganja (_ marijuana) and South American Ayahuasca are contemporary examples.. Use of potions for magical or religious purposes was relatively common in Greece as well as most of the ancient world.

Initiation ceremonies called Eleusinian mysteries were the most famous secret religious cult in ancient Greece. This is an agrarian cult that dates back to Mycenean period (1600 - 1000 BC). There was belief in a reward in the after-life for those initiated. Depiction of various aspects of the mysteries in the form of paintings reveals visions allegedly due to use of a psychedelic agent. Scholars have hypothesized that _Kykeon_ was the agent that was used to induce the revelatory mind states with profound spiritual and intellectual ramifications. There is a theory that the barley that was used in the ceremonies was infected with ergot, a fungal parasite, which contained the alkaloids lysergic acid amide which is a precursor of LSD. Terence McKenna proposed that a fungal variety of _Psilocybe_ may be the agent though other ethnomycologists have suggested _Amanita muscaria_. Opium produced from the poppy may also have been brought from Crete to Eleusis. Even DMT has been linked to _Kykeon_ and as I said before DMT is present in a number of wild plants in the Mediterranean including _Phalaris_ and _acacia._

Dionysus is the God of Grape harvest, wine making, fertility and ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. Mycenean Greeks worshipped this God 3000 years ago. Traces of Dinosysian-type cult has been found in Minoan Crete even earlier. The wine, music, ecstatic dance frees the followers of this cult from self-conscious fear and care and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who participate are possessed and empowered by the God himself.

The Australian aborigines used the shrub _Duboisia hopwoodi_ to make their ceremonial _Pituiri_ that helps them achieve the dream states. The active ingredient is Nicotine. Wild tobacco weed contains a drug that is four times more toxic than Nicotine and it is also used. The aborigines used this to inspire mirth, to increase stamina and courage before warfare and fire walks. _Pituiri_ can also induce trances that are psychic and mystical. It helps them to enter the religious dream states, an important spiritual part of aboriginal life. These dream like states are used by them to enhance their awareness of dreamy, quiet, vague, visionary, fantasy or trance-states without the need for churches or religious monuments for the worship. Dreamtime is considered by them as a unity of waking like and dream life.

As one can see examples abound all through pre-history where human civilizations have used a variety of psychomimetic agents as part of religious ceremonies. It is likely that legal regulations did not exist during those times to prevent the use of such agents. Over time, with the advent of politically governed state structures, the fear of undermining state authority led to curbs on the use of mind-altering agents. The earliest state organizations were theocracies that relied on the fear of God and the obedience of the subjects to the King and the priest who claimed to have the divine sanction to rule and punish. If people could attain spiritual experiences on their own with the help of plant-derived, mind-altering substances then the priest and the king do not have any hold on the subjects. The decline of psychedelic use in modern times is directly due to state control in the recent history largely due to attempts to avoid dangers such as habituation. My objective here is to explore the nature of the drug-induced spiritual experience and see if it is the same as the real religious experience.

Roger Walsh from the University of California at Irvine and the author of the book 'The Spirit of Shamanism' argues in his 2003 paper published in the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies that the drug-induced mystical experiences may be the same as spontaneous religious experiences at least in the case of some drugs and some individuals and on some occasions. One of the biggest arguments put forward by critics is that drug-induced experiences do not produce a lasting change in the spirituality of the person. This argument has been countered rather convincingly by some recent studies. Almost all of the subjects who participated in the Harvard Good Friday Chapel study using Psilocybin interviewed more than twenty years later reported their original experience had made a uniquely valuable contribution to their spiritual lives. This finding was published in 1991 by Doblin in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. In the same year Tart published another paper in the same journal discussing the influence of previous psychedelic experience on students of Tibetan Buddhism. He says that many of them were drawn to Buddhist retreats following their priming with psychedelic agents. Roland Griffith's study with Psilocybin has also confirmed that the volunteers who participated in the study continued to have lasting influence even after 14 months after the episode which is surprising that these long-lasting effects were after just a single session of Psilocybin administration.

There have been early trials of hallucinogens in the 1960s and 1970s where 50-80% subjects claimed lasting beneficial changes in personality, values, attitudes and behaviour. The subjective reports that were most frequent included greater appreciation of music, art and nature, greater tolerance towards others, increased creativity and imagination. A pooled analysis of experimental studies with Psilocybin was published by Studerus in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2011 that concluded that 40% of subjects claimed positive long-term changes in their perception of relationship with the nature.

The mystical experiences are defined by feelings of unity and inter-connectedness with nature, a sense of sacredness, feelings of peace and joy, a sense of transcending space and time and a sense of the nature of reality.

Griffiths study with Psilocybin analysed the mystical experiences using the Mysticism scale validated in several studies before. Items were answered on a 9-point scale. This team also used a validated scale to measure altered states of consciousness. The scales include assessment of 'oceanic boundlessness' (unity, bliss, transcendence), visionary re-structuralization (visual hallucinogens, illusions, synaesthesias) and subjective feelings like fear and anxiety. The study clearly showed that there was a statistically significant difference on the personality of the subjects (fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, ideas, values) depending on whether they had a mystical experience or not during the Psilocybin sessions. Those who reported mystical experience were showing more prominent changes in the personality that seemed to last for more than a year! The personality traits described above are clubbed together as openness in psychological jargon and this openness is a set of inter-connected traits covering aesthetic appreciation and sensitivity, fantasy and imagination, awareness of feelings in self and others and intellectual engagement. Openness correlates with better creativity and cognitive ability. Studies have previously shown that people show an increase in openness following treatment for depression. Griffiths' study showed that the increase in openness seen in Psilocybin-treated subjects was more than what was achieved with conventional anti-depressants. This could mean that Psilocybin could have beneficial medical effect in people with anxiety and mood disorders.

Researchers such as Miller and Paloutzian have reported in Psychology journals more than a decade ago that sudden and dramatic positive changes in attitudes, values and behaviours following spontaneous mystical or spiritual experiences. Griffiths' study has confirmed that similar long-lasting personality change can happen following a single hallucinogen treatment episode. Grob has previously reported that his study carried out in Brazil on Ayahuasca users had shown lower excitability, impulsivity and disorderliness in Ayahuasca users. They had higher levels of confidence, gregariousness and optimism compared with community members who did not use Ayahuasca.

Religious believers tend to resent the comparison of psychedelic/hallucinogenic intoxication as spiritual inspiration. But, history is replete with examples of religious use of intoxicants. How do we explain this? If the hallucinogens and intoxicants are not genuine ways of achieving spirituality why did cultures across the globe adopt the use of these agents as part of their rituals? Why do religious groups go to the extent of seeking constitutional protection? In 1993 US Congress passed a law allowing the sacramental use of peyote, a hallucinogen.

Altered state of consciousness can be achieved easily by the use of psychedelic agents. Religious mystics and philosophers are believed to achieve the same by mind control. Mind control can involve meditative techniques of various types. Historically, ancient cultures have used shamanistic practices of sacramental drinks to alter their conscious states. Moral and legal restrictions did not exist then. So, it was OK for these people to use the mind-altering substances to achieve a state of mind that liberates them from the restrictions of sense-mediated reality.

William James was an American Psychologist and Philosopher. He wrote probably the first article on psychedelics back in 1874 in a journal called The Atlantic Monthly. He described the effects of nitrous oxide intoxication. Nitrous oxide is a gas used for producing anaesthesia. He claimed that this gas produced an extraordinary state of mind that was revelatory. It allowed him to see religion by opening the doors of consciousness. His interest in nitrous oxide was prompted by a man called Benjamin Paul Blood who became obsessed with nitrous oxide in the 1830s. Nitrous oxide, also known as 'laughing gas' was discovered in 1772 by Joseph Priestley. Its distinctive psychoactive properties were noticed a quarter century later by Sir Humphrey Davy. It was being used for recreation purposes just as another gas called ether which had similar psychoactive properties. Benjamin Blood published an article in 1874 about his experiences with nitrous oxide and called it 'the anaesthetic revelation and the gist of philosophy'. He argued that metaphysical philosophers like Plato and Hegel hade all experienced something similar though not with the aid of nitrous oxide. His argument is that some metaphysical illumination can be drug-achieved. This illumination is not different from the type achieved by conventional philosophers he said. Blood distributed his writing to as many as he can and this helped in the formation of a tiny group of 'nitrous oxide philosophers'! They all reported metaphysical insights. Many of these nitrous oxide philosophers were associated with the British Society of Psychical Research which still exists today.

Mystical experiences are perhaps the most contemptuously disregarded form of human experience. It is frequently regarded as an 'imagination'. They do not have a sound scientific basis. They are supposed to be genuine when occurring under religious conditions. They get accepted when they happen as part of an indoctrinated belief system. Outside the confines of religious indoctrination these types of experiences are questioned for validity and purpose. People have proposed the term 'pluralist mysticism' referring to multiple ways of achieving non-indoctrinated mystical experiences. This may include experiences achieved with the aid of mind-altering substances. In fact, certain researchers such as Gordon Wasson, the acclaimed mushroom cult authority, who argued that religious impulse itself originated with psychoactive drugs found in nature. Man may have consumed them accidentally and experienced intense mind alteration and the beneficial aspects of these experiences probably made them institutionalize the use of these substances as a cultural thing.

The concluding remark I want to make is that some important molecules in the brain like Dopamine, endorphins, enkhephalins, anadamide and Oxytocin as well as other neurotransmitters mediate social cohesion, tolerance, trust and altruism. These are the faculties promoted by our religions. Isn't it good enough reason for us to call these molecules the 'God molecules'?

Ultimately, man needed ways and means to deal with the anxiety of having to deal with large social groups. He was assisted by evolutionary changes in the brain that helped deal with anxiety and stress through molecules like endorphins, enkephalins and cortisol, Man also found the use of other brain-soothing chemicals like opium and other entheogens. Religion and the concept of God was perhaps the ultimate anxiety-buster that served our societies over millennia now! God is seen as the saviour and that takes a lot of stress away. Some religions like Hinduism encourage followers to surrender themselves to God and accept the outcomes of life as they are. What better way can we deal with our lives than accepting that life's outcomes are beyond our control in majority of instances?

# 12. BRAIN ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY AND TRANCE-LIKE STATES

John Horgan, an American Science journalist, wrote a book in 2003 called 'Rational Mysticism' where he had explored the neurological mechanisms underlying the trance-like states experienced by humans under a variety of conditions. Dennis Wier is another American author who had written two books on the subject of Trance. He has apparently studied trances for over 35 years and runs a research organization devoted for the study of trances. In his first book in 1995 he defined trance as 'a state of mind being caused by cognitive loops where a cognitive object (thoughts, images, sounds, intentional actions) repeats long enough to result in various sets of disabled cognitive functions'. Wier thought that even sleeping and watching television are trances when the subject is dissociated from at least some cognitive functions like volition which are disabled. In 2007 he wrote another book on the same subject and included even ecstasy as an additional form of trance.

Broadly, a trance-like state is a psychological state looking like it is almost induced by a magical incantation where the consciousness is fragile and the voluntary action is missing. It may resemble a state of deep sleep or even unconsciousness. It is believed by some that during such states the person's physical body is utilized by disembodied spirits as a means of expression. The affected person may also feel like they have passed out of the body into another state of being in an ecstasy.

It is almost certain that during a trance there may be a certain type of filtering of sensory information reaching the individual. This may free the brain to function differently, perhaps more efficiently than before, and the person reaches a state of consciousness where he or she may enter a state bordering between wakeful consciousness and unconsciousness. The types of altered conscious states may vary largely influenced by the induction mechanisms and also cultural factors. Many cultural traditions employ trance as a religious and mystical ritual. The Oracle of Delphi is famous for trances in the ancient Greek world where priestesses would make predictions about the future. Greeks also used the technique of 'healing sleep' where the seeker is induced into a trance-like sleep that endeavored to promote healing and find solutions to problems. This practice was done in the Temple of Epidaurus, the temple for God of Medicine, Asclepios. I have visited this temple a few years ago and as a practicing doctor I found the whole place very interesting. The word 'epidural' is still used in modern medicine for referring to an anesthetic procedure. This temple is very well preserved and most parts of the temple are intact.

There is general consensus that anything repetitive will drive the brain to a trance-like state. It could be simple story-telling or music or chanting of mantras or repetitive beating of drums and the like. This is interesting. From a purely lighter angle it is worth mentioning that it is easier to fall asleep or enter a sleep-like state when attending a class in school or college! Telling stories to children before going to bed is another example. Myths, parables, fairy tales, folklore and different stories used by the mystics and saints in their discourses are literary tools to induce a trance-like mind in the listeners where they will be more susceptible to thought insertions.

March music played while soldiers are marching in unison is known to induce soldiers to go into a trance-like state. Monotonous drum beating at the pace of the marching soldier, and music instruments like fifes, flutes and bagpipes playing melodies all help. They presumably become kind of automated and liable to command which is the objective. The term 'battle trance' has been used for this mental state where the soldiers do not feel pain or fear and they acquire a collective identity and lose their individual identity.

The similarities between religious unity achieved by ritualistic practices and the 'battle trance' are interesting to say the least. Pre-Christian Norse and other Germanic peoples were known to use shamanistic practices to attain ecstatic battle-fury. These 'warrior-shamans' in the Viking age were either 'berserkers' or the 'ulfhednar' who both shared common shamanistic practices. The only difference is the choice of the animal (called the 'totem' animal) - bear or the wolf. The people will wear a ritual costume made from the hide of the totem animal. Then they will spend a period in the wilderness, living like the totem animal and learning its ways, obtaining their sustenance through hunting, gathering and raiding the nearby towns. Living like the wolves was the beginning of this initiation of the people into the military group and the bond with the savage world and within their group is assured not only for life beyond the limits of the civilized world but by the law of the jungle. This way the initiated members of the warrior group were meant to acquire the strength, fearlessness and fury of the animal. Warrior-shamans of the Germanic people as well as others may have used other techniques such as 'weapon dances', fasting, and exposure to extreme heat etc. to reach these kinds of ecstatic trance states promoting war fury. On the battlefield the berserker would join the fray naked, but for the animal hide, pelting, howling like wolves, and running amok with what appeared to be demonic courage. It was even stranger that they even would discard their shields in this predatory trance on the war field and would consider themselves psychologically impervious to pain! They are known to continue to fight even after losing their limbs or getting grievously injured! The mystical beast triumphs over the social persona of the petty man. The phrase in English 'going berserk' has roots in this strange behavior of the Germanic people. They were no ordinary soldiers in their battle frenzy and with all its grotesqueness and violence, were even a rarefied, poetic sort.

Induction of trance can be achieved through a variety of sensory stimulation, especially the repetitive and rhythmic type of stimulation. Kinesthetic stimuli such as dance, story-telling by movement, yoga, breathing, and sexual stimulation etc. can induce trances. I already mentioned the auditory stimulation such as chanting of mantra, drumming, music, story-telling and music. Visual stimuli such as yantra (mystical diagrams or amulets in Hindu traditions which conveys astrological or magical powers by constant seeing), artistic beauty, even cinematic or theatrical experience can achieve the same ecstatic experiences. Sensation of smell can be powerful in this respect. Various incenses and scented flowers are regularly used in prayers and rituals and these scents invariably condition the mind such that the mere sight and smell of incense and flowers can elicit a spiritual experience in the subjects. Intake of herbs, hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms etc. are also known to contribute to induction of mystical states since time immemorial and across widely differing cultures.

Surprisingly, sensory deprivation and mind-control techniques, meditation, hypnosis, even sleep deprivation, nitrogen narcosis (deep divers sometimes develop this toxicity whereby nitrogen levels in blood become dangerous) etc. can all bring about trances. In India, innumerable saints have spent years in penance on hilltops. They attempt total sensory shut down by focusing their minds. They try to see inward rather than outward. They try to open up the channels that can allow them to access the 'truths' in the inner recesses of their mind, something not accessible through conventional thinking. By creating an induced sensory deprivation, after long years of practice, they are perhaps able to enter into altered states of consciousness consistent with the above-described trances. They claim to 'see' the unknown and perhaps 'know' the unseen. This illumination is self-proclaimed and it is worth pointing out that psychedelic drugs can bring about similar experiences almost instantaneously and as I described earlier these experiences can be long-lasting too.

In India I have seen young women go into religiously ecstatic trances during rituals. I was living in a rural village in South India in my childhood days. This was in the 1960s and 1970s. Our village, like all other villages, had religious festivals which all the villagers took part in. The villagers usually go out in a procession carrying the deity, chanting the slogas and performing the usual poojas (worship method used in Hinduism). The women will be wearing yellow colored costumes because yellow is generally the auspicious color for sacred events. They will be carrying a pot of scented water (with turmeric) and will be wearing flowers. The men and women will be loudly and repetitively chanting the slogas and some of them will also be doing rhythmic dances. Almost invariably, every single time, there will be more than one or two women who will suddenly elapse into trance-like states when they will start speaking in third person as if they are just communicating thoughts from an external source. The villagers assumed that god or disembodied spirits had descended on these women in trances and was speaking out to the villagers through them. The villagers will look at these women in trances as gods themselves and will start asking the women for solutions to various problems and ask for prediction of personal and village affairs.

Maenads are female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek God of mystery, wine and intoxication, and the Roman God Bacchus. This is according to Greek mythology. The word 'maenads' means the 'raving ones'. They are known to be wild, insane women who were driven to ecstatic frenzy by the mysteries of Dionysus indulging in excessive violence, sex, self-intoxication and mutilation. In the Roman mythology these people were known as Bassarids because they worshipped the Roman God Bacchus. This Roman God has a penchant for wearing the fox skin.

The human brain is an electrochemical organ. Billions of inter-connected neurons discharge tiny quantities of electricity when activated. If you placed an electrode on the human scalp and measure the combined total output all neuronal activity it will be in the region of a few millionths of a volt!! Performing an act or a mental task requires many parts of the brain to fire electrically in unison. This can be captured as electrical waves by the electroencephalogram.

Rhythmic sound can entrain theta brainwave activity in the brain. Brain recordings have shown distinct types of electrical wave patterns alpha, beta, gamma and theta depending on the state of person. Resting state of the brain in the wakeful state, early sleep stage, and deep sleep stage with dreaming are different. The electrical wave pattern will change to a predominant pattern of one particular wave type though the other wave types also will co-exist though in much smaller amounts.

During intensely joyful and ecstatic states our brains show a preponderantly theta wave rhythm. For example when we stand on top of a mountain and look at the immense beauty of nature we are most likely to feel the oneness with the universe. The beauty stuns you and you feel that there must be some superpower that created it. This is an ecstatic state just as children playing games. Playing games gives the children the same amount of ecstasy as an adult would get from beautiful imagery, music, adrenaline-rushing sports, sex and the like. These states are almost like hypnotic trance states and the brain shows a theta wave pattern during such times.

Roger Bannister, the first man to break the four-minute barrier for running a mile, is said to have commented that he was no longer conscious of the body movement and that he discovered a new unity with nature. He is said to have found a new source of power and beauty that he did not know existed in him. Some athletes do practice almost ritualistic techniques while preparing for competitions and sports psychologists exploit this to help them attain an ecstasy-like state. Even dancers may experience moments of intense joy, almost trance-like. The same applies to other forms of kinesthetic stimulation such as yoga and asana, and mudra.

During the theta wave activity it is likely that we do not subject our thought process to the filtering mechanisms. Illogical and unrealistic thoughts may get selected and allowed to go through, something that does not happen under normal beta wave pattern. Fakirs in India, and in fact even regular people, perform what is called fire-walking. These people actually walk on burning coal without burning their skin! Fire-walking is a ritual performed in many parts of India and it is not uncommon at all for regular people in the village or town to join the fray and attempt this fire-walking. I have personally seen this ritual being performed in my village. Theta waves in the brain drive these types of super-normal behaviors in the sub-conscious state, acting outside the confines of the normal sensory perception, and are responsible for the inspiration, intuition and spiritual enlightenment.

In terms of frequency of the brain waves the fastest are the gamma waves (40 to 100 Hz) followed by the beta waves (12 to 40 Hz), alpha waves (8 to 12 Hz), theta waves (4 to 8 Hz) and finally the delta waves (0 to 4 Hz). Alpha waves bridge the gap between our consciousness and subconscious mind. It promotes deep relaxation and calms our mind. Alcohol, marijuana, relaxants and antidepressants increase alpha waves and it can be surmised that this may be the reason why mankind is so much after these stuff. Theta waves are concerned with deep and raw emotions. High theta wave activity may make the person prone to highly suggestible hypnotic states while at the same time being responsible for intuition and creativity. The beta waves are associated with most intense state of alertness and reasoning based on sensory input and therefore the perception is constrained to the limits of the senses. Delta waves, the slowest, are responsible for deep dreamless sleep and presumably the person goes into a state of consciousness where he or she goes out beyond the confines of the sensory system and therefore is able to feel oneness with the world and a sense of pure being. The distinction between self and non-self is set aside during delta wave activity perhaps.

We are yet to understand the nature of human consciousness fully. But, it is also worth mentioning that we have made significant progress in the last 10 or odd years. A variety of brain imaging techniques and electrical recording tools has provided a substantial amount of new knowledge on the possible mechanisms underlying our consciousness. Gone are the days when consciousness was solely under the domain of philosophy and conjecture.

For the purpose of this book I want to explore how the brain states are altered under different conditions especially when the subject is involved in a spiritual experience. How does this state differ from the other experiences?

On an average day most of us are busy sorting many things out in our personal and professional lives. We respond to various things and try to act logically, rationally and sequentially. The word 'sequential' refers not just to the chronological relation between cause and effect but the proportionality between the cause and effect also. An action is followed by a simple reaction. A lot of cognition based on external senses happens here. Really we can look at external stimuli that reach our brains as distractions that prevent the brain from settling down to a calm and relaxed state. These distractions show in the form of de-synchronous nature of the beta wave pattern that predominates during our day-to-day affairs. But, the beta waves represent the myriads of neuronal activity that happen in response to diverse stimuli coming from the external world that require us to respond in a predictable manner. If our brain does not arrange this sensory information in an orderly manner and respond to them in an acceptable manner we may appear to the outsiders to be confused and overwhelmed. Every one of us will acknowledge that we all face this kind of situation almost too often. We simply cannot figure out how to understand and react to information if the content of the information is too much or too diverse to fit in a nice picture. There is very little place for the inner self or the inner mind when the beta waves are seen. You just cannot listen to your inner mind (intuition) when the brain neurons are in the beta pattern. Typically, the beta wave pattern is faster in frequency (12 to 40 Hz) but lowest in amplitude and also characteristically more de-synchronous than other waves.

Let us say you have finished your work for the day and have reached home. We all want to unwind a little bit and relax. We may like to listen to some music, read a book, watch a movie, or take a short nap. The difference between what we do during working times and the relaxation time is that we usually tend to do concentrate on one thought or activity during the unwinding time. It could be music, a book or a film. Some people may even mediate to calm their minds. The meditator may focus on an object or cite mantras. The mind tends to go into a period of intense focus during such activities. The brain electrical activity changes to the alpha pattern wherein the wave frequency is shortened to about 8 to 12 Hz but the amplitude of the waves is higher. Alpha wave activity in the brain helps people to manage stress and also allows creative mental activity and problem-solving because the mind is less disturbed by too many stimuli and therefore the brain power is channeled towards one activity. Performers, artists, scientists and even sportspersons hover in the alpha mode to bring out their best. The brain is alert but not really actively processing information. The awareness can be detached when one is relaxed and it is possible for us to link to both conscious and unconscious minds. Intense focus can also remove the time perception to the extent we hardly realize the passing of time when we are grossly engrossed in something.

When someone is spiritually tuned what would happen? In the spiritual state of mind what we tend to do is focus our mind on the inner self than on the external world. We are more likely to find us sitting still and eyes closed such as what we do in a place of worship. We can shut out our three-dimensional world during this time. During deep meditation we tend to find the brain electrical activity switch to a theta pattern wherein we can see the frequency of brain activity waves slow down even further (4 to 7 Hz). The amplitude of the waves becomes even bigger though. When a person is meditating the theta waves predominate and if that person stops the meditation by opening his eyes for example then the influx of the external sensory stimuli shift the brain wave pattern to the beta or alpha types normally associated with conscious brain activity. It has been postulated that theta waves mediate profound inner peace, feelings of oneness, 'knowing', mystical truths, perception of better quality of life, emotional healing and a sense of purpose. Adaptive and complex behaviors such as learning and memory are also mediated by theta waves and that is probably why children up to 13 years of age normally have the theta activity even if not spiritually focused.

When a person is in coma he or she cannot think. They cannot communicate. They cannot sense the external world through the 5 senses. The brain electrical activity during this state is reflected by the delta waves which are the slowest of them all in terms of frequency (1 to 4 Hz) but greatest in amplitude. Our bodies are in an inactive mode. It is the deepest level of dreamless sleep. This can be compared to the hibernation mode some animals go into by slowing down their metabolic rate. The delta waves indicate a slowing down of the neuronal action almost to an inactive state. The term 'inactive' refers to conventional sense perception and thinking. The brain is perhaps in a perpetual drowsy state unable to focus. People suffering from attention deficit disorders have more of this delta wave pattern which means that their inability to focus and pay attention is due to the delta wave activity. It has been noted that some people can decrease the delta waves when they are intent on peak performance and practiced yogis can consciously achieve this mental state at will.

Gamma waves are faster than beta waves (40 to 100 Hz) and they occur in every part of the brain unlike the other waves. These waves have become important in neuroscience because of their possible role in the integrative thinking that is made possible. These waves reflect the association of multiple neuronal groups that need to act together to make integration of information possible. There is an increase in the phase synchrony of the oscillatory activity in the gamma frequency range at the time of conscious perception. Synchronization of the brain electrical activity in multiple parts of the brain to the gamma pattern seems required for construction of a 'reality' in the conscious plane. When we perceive an object, for example, the color, shape, movement and location of the object are processed in different parts of the visual cortex. These features of the object should be united together during this perception and this 'temporal binding' could be achieved by the gamma wave synchronization. The synchronous activity at about 40 Hz binds sensory inputs.

What is interesting is that gamma waves are also most abundant in attainment of higher order awareness. This conclusion is based on the studies conducted in Buddhist monks who had long experience in meditative techniques. They can voluntarily induce the high-frequency gamma wave oscillations and phase-synchrony during meditation. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has studied the neurological basis of meditation at his laboratory for functional brain imaging. Along with the help of Dalai Lama he studied eight of his most accomplished Buddhist practitioners. 10 student volunteers were used as control subjects. These Buddhist meditators had practiced their skills in Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa traditions for anywhere between 15 to 40 years while the students had none of this experience before. Both groups were asked to meditate, specifically on unconditional compassion. There was no need to focus on any specific object or image. In the Buddhist tradition the readiness to help living beings is at the core. So, for experienced practitioners of Buddhist meditation, the thought of helping others should be expected to produce a stronger response in their brains. The monks, as expected, showed greater activation of the unusually powerful gamma waves. The student volunteers showed only a slight increase in such gamma waves. The increased electrical activity was higher in the left prefrontal cortex which is known to be associated with happiness, positive thoughts and emotions. Davidson's study also showed another curious finding. The monks had considerably more gamma wave activity than the control group even before they started meditating. This could mean that whatever changes that happened in neurological substrates due to constant meditation had permanently changed the inner workings and circuitry of the brain. Recent developments in neuroscience have shown that the brain neurons show plasticity. This means that new skills and learning can alter the neuronal connections. This kind of brain re-modeling is actually part of the development and aging of the individual. Meditation and other spiritual practices can also leave lasting impression on human brains.

One of the curious findings in studies on human brain electrical activity is that the EEG (Electroencephalography) wave patterns keep changing from birth through childhood and finally advanced age. The changes in brain electrical wave patterns indicate an accommodation of various learned behaviors and maturation of the psyche. We all know that children do not have the same level of maturity and world view as compared to grown up adults and this is directly because their neural circuitry is still in development and in the course of time matures to that of the adult type. Delta brainwaves predominate in the infants (very low frequency waves from 2 to 4 Hz) and it was mentioned before that delta waves are associated with deep dreamless sleep and with being unconscious. Premature babies have even lower frequency delta waves (0.5 to 2 Hz). We could consider this as an undifferentiated consciousness or even as a dimension of the unconscious state. Theta waves (4 to 7 Hz) become abundant in ages 1 to 3. The delta waves decrease as theta activity increases. The children are in a sleep-like developmental stage. Theta is characterized by light sleep, rapid eye movement, dreams and hallucinations.

Children between 3 and 6 years of age have alpha waves as their main rhythm (8 to 12 Hz). Initially, children between 3 and 6 years of age show lower frequency alpha waves (7.5 to 9 Hz) and by about 10 years their frequency increases to about 10 to 10.5 Hz. After growing into an adult their alpha wave frequency reaches up to 12 Hz meaning that their contemplative powers are more.

Recent research in electrical activity patterns of the brain in subjects performing meditation points to the variation in the brain wave patterns depending on what type of meditation the subject is doing. If the person is doing Zen meditation he or she will be trying to open up the focus of attention whereby the attention is directed to everything simultaneously. The brain wave pattern in the Zen practitioner will be Alpha. If a subject is doing an out of body or astral forms of meditation theta brain waves are seen. During this form of meditation the subject experiences great spiritual insights and also experiences 'seeing' the guru or experiences places of beauty or peace. Shamanistic practice also elicits the theta waves in the brain. There is evidence that gamma wave frequencies appearing in different parts of the cortex synchronizing themselves during shamanistic or mystical experiences. Very experienced Yogis can go into a void or 'white light' states where it is timeless, formless. They can even go into a state of suspended animation by slowing down the breathing and heart rate! Delta brain waves predominate in such yogis during these episodes.

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, a U.S researcher in brain activity patterns during meditation, runs a Center for Neuroacoustic Research in California, US. He has found a new brain wave pattern which is even slower than the delta waves. That means a wave activity with a frequency of less than 0.5 cycle per second. The frequency can be sometimes as slow as one cycle per 10 seconds, per minute or even longer! These ultra-slow brain waves are seen in some patients who are experiencing extraordinary states of consciousness during very high states of meditation or ecstatic states or spiritual insights or out-of-body experiences or high level inspiration rates. Dr. Thompson calls them epsilon waves. Yogic states of suspended animation normally associated with delta waves actually continue into these epsilon waves. The extremely slow rate of brain wave activity could indicate that the brain is kept almost standstill. There is virtually no conscious perception or activity and what exists is only a pure form of awareness that is almost bordering on death! Cessation of life is not far from this state I guess!

The other finding from Dr. Thompson's lab is that during these extraordinary meditation states the brain electrical activity in the right and left hemispheres of the brain tend to synchronize. This synchronization happens especially when some profound insights happen. It could be a creative inspiration or a spiritual revelation.

Other extraordinary forms of consciousness have been reported by other researchers whereby the brain wave activity is on the other extreme - higher than the known beta and gamma wave frequencies (greater than 40 Hz). The wave frequencies higher than 40 Hz but below 100 Hz are termed hyper-gamma waves and waves higher in frequency than that (up to 200 Hz) are termed Lambda waves. The very interesting thing is that the states of consciousness associated with these hyper-gamma states are exactly identical to the ultra-delta (below 0.5 Hz) waves! What does this mean? Both very fast brain waves and the very slow brain waves seem to mediate the same extraordinary conscious states seen in creative problem-solving, highest meditative states, deepest levels of insight and self-awareness. It is likely that these two extreme wave patterns ride on each other, modulating one another.

Sound has been used by man to access deeper levels of consciousness. It has been used to expand awareness and to heal. Various forms of sound are used for this purpose. Even music is one such method which all of us regularly use. Chanting, toning, Chinese meditation gongs, Tibetan singing bowls and mantras are all indicative of such sound-based tools to alter our minds. Acoustic brain wave entrainment is a concept that was proposed in the 1970s by a researcher called Gerald Osler at Mount Sinai Hospital. This was elaborated in an article in the Scientific American magazine in the October 1973 issue. The title of the article is 'Auditory beats in the brain'. The theme of the article is that we can entrain the brain waves to occur at will through the use of binaural beats. These beats occurred when two separate tones were tuned slightly differently from one another. To be precise this is 18% different from each other. This is the range called the critical bandwidth. The speed of the beats is governed by the difference in the frequency of the two notes: a left channel tone of 100 cycles per second (Hz) and a right channel tone of 105 Hz would cause a 5 Hz pulse to arise as an interference Pattern. The brain would entrain and slow its function to this 5 Hz speed and therefore an altered state of consciousness would result. Listening to these two frequencies through headphones caused not only brainwave entrainment but a synchronicity of the right and left hemisphere electrical activity. This is because when two tones are tuned within 18% of one another (or within the critical bandwidth) the brain cannot distinguish between the two tones. It hears only one tone with a pulse within it. The speed of the pulse it hears is the difference between the two tones. The anatomical organization of the brain is such that the sound waves coming from the left ear (left auditory nerve) reaches the right side of the brain and vice versa. The visual information coming through the eyes (optic nerves) also happens similarly. The brain compares the information coming from the opposite sides in order to hear or see. This comparison activity requires synchronization of the right and left halves of the brain. The left and right synchronization does not happen often and when it happens usually there is a solution to a problem that pops into the mind. There could be an inspiration or a revelation. The idea of using binaural beats to be heard using headphones is that this brain synchronicity can be prolonged at will.

What is the evidence the use of modified sound will influence the brain waves? This is studied using brain wave mapping instruments such as electroencephalography. Changes in the brain waves as the subject is hearing these sounds can be observed and more importantly there are positive changes in the body as well which is measurable by blood tests and bio-feedback equipment.

Dr. Thompson has commercialized the above concept by selling audio CDs that have recorded sounds like instrument sounds, nature sounds like the sound of waves or forest and human sounds that have been precisely altered by tuning of the left/right channels of these sounds enough to cause an interference pattern of these two pulses to arise. If the speed of the pulse is calibrated to the brain electrical wave speed (beta, alpha, theta, delta) the brain waves will follow the speed of the pulses and brainwave entrainment will occur. Modulation of the amplitude, pitch and filters of the sounds can be achieved in the sound tracks that can cause brainwave entrainment but if you want hemisphere synchronicity we need the binaural beats.

Why should sound be that important for brain activity? Perhaps in our earliest stage of life as a fetus in our mother's womb the only sensation that we could have possibly felt is sound and vibration. We could not have smelt anything or tasted anything because our nose and mouth were filled with fluid. We could not have seen anything also because our eyes were closed. The sound and vibration sense was possible because sound waves travel five times more effectively through water when compared to air. The water swishing sounds in the womb is probably in our sub-conscious mind as a primordial sound. Even flow of blood might have been heard and so will be the voices of people. There are anecdotal reports that seem to suggest that the fetus may be able to hear voices and music and how much of it is remembered or recorded in the fetal brain is debatable and unknown. If you hear someone saying his or her baby has a liking for music, especially the type its mother or someone in the household has been playing while the baby was still in the womb, it is difficult to believe it. There are people who claim that the baby remembers the voices it heard while in the womb again we do not know how to corroborate this. But, 'primordial sounds' like water swishing is likely to be embedded in the subconscious mind. That is probably why we all generally like the sound of flowing water, rain or the waves. This sound soothes our brain.

The other noteworthy point is that various types of sound can be transformed into one another simply by speeding up or slowing down. If the recording of the human speech is speeded up 3-fold (by raising the pitch by three octaves) it almost sounds like the birds chirping. If you raise the speed by eight octaves these recordings sound just like crickets. If you slow down the speed by three octaves the human speech hears like dolphin sound and eight-fold lowering of the octaves makes the human voices sound like the ebb and flow of oceans. In short, the human voice can be made to sound like the sounds of nature! If you slow down bird sounds we can make it sound like dolphins sounds and the dolphin sounds can be made to sound like people speaking! It almost looks like there are some primordially recognizable sounds and images which the sub-conscious mind should be able to recognize.

In Hindu religious tradition the word 'Ohm' carries a special meaning and it is claimed that this sound and the vibrations it produces are actually very special. This sound is supposed to permeate the universe since the beginnings of the universe! The word 'ohm' is recited as part of prayers almost always. It is supposed to be pronounced correctly for the maximum benefits. Even religious mantras of the Hindu tradition need to be recited in the right ways to reap the good effects. One may wonder how does it matter and how can simple sound make any difference to the final effect. I am not a believer of this. Sound is not supposed to cause a miracle. It is not supposed to bring material benefits by invoking God. It is likely that the sound waves do entrain brain waves as described above such that the brain is induced to a state of relaxation, sleep or a trance. The emotional healing that results is the real benefit. The inspirational, revelational, hyper-associative, mystical experience is what we are after. Practitioners of auditory forms of meditation and even non-auditory ones benefit from the brain wave inducement and the consequent altered states of consciousness. Certain types of sound and music are known to have beneficial effects like relaxation, balance, healing and visualization. Listening to relaxing music has been shown to be capable of stress reduction.

In 1989 the Voyager spacecraft had returned recordings of 'sound' as it passed the outer planets of the solar system. The 'sound' was actually due to charged electromagnetic particles (ions) in the magnetic fields of the planets. The vibrations produced were within the hearing range of humans and that is what was recorded by Voyager. What does it really sound like? The recordings sound like dolphins, choirs of voices singing, crickets, ocean sounds, Tibetan bowls and some strange unidentifiable but familiar sounds. The fact that sound waves in outer planets are alike means that there are some primordial sounds which we can recognize and respond to at the deeper layers of our consciousness. Various levels of the subconscious mind can be presumably awakened by the primordial sounds.

One interesting theory regarding evolution of the human consciousness is that our evolving brain must have undergone progressive changes in its architecture over the years. This concept is discussed by Jean Gebser in the book 'The Ever Present Origin'. This book was published by the Ohio University Press in 1985. If a human brain can show dramatic alterations in neuronal circuitry (neuronal plasticity) within a life time depending on the ageing process (wisdom of old age), and also learning, why can't we expect species-level evolutionary changes in the brain over hundreds of thousands of years? The human consciousness 200,000 years ago was probably not the same as what we experience today. This is an intriguing thought. The ancient prototype man did not have the same level of richness in the consciousness as we have today. The consciousness itself was an outcome of the brain size and complexity and if both have evolved over the last 200,000 years then it is safe to assume that even the consciousness has evolved too. 'Mutation' of the consciousness from the early hominid to present day man will not stop. It is bound to evolve more. Jean Gebser proposes that there were four previous stages in the evolution of human consciousness - Archaic, Magical, Mystical and finally Mental. The Archaic type of undifferentiated consciousness that prevailed in the earliest stage was associated with the delta brain wave pattern. The magical structure that followed later was run by the theta brain waves. Alpha waves ruled the mystical consciousness structure and finally the mental architecture is run predominantly by the beta wave electrical activity. The new consciousness structure that is evolving is determined by the gamma waves which presumably will become the dominant frequency. Higher mental cognition, integration of other wave patterns and neuronal synchronization will be enabled by the gamma waves. It has been called the 'super mind'.

Man's ability to turn his focus inwards, rather than outwards, is new. His ability to relate to the whole universe is new as well. His ability to show compassion and empathy and think abstractly on worldly phenomena, including God, is totally new. All this became possible at certain point in human evolution only and was never present in the early man. With evolved consciousness he seeks ways of altering it further by means of entheogens, sound, and other meditative tools. The objective is perhaps the supreme understanding of the universe.

# 13. ULTIMATE CARETAKERS - BOUNTIES FROM VERSATILE PLANTS AND MUSHROOMS

Nature is a great provider - really the greatest we know.

Plants seem to have co-evolved with life forms. Adaptation and survival of majority of life forms seem to be linked to co-adaptation and evolution of plants. Versatility of plants is amazing to say the least. They are indeed 'biochemical factories' that can synthesize a number of molecules of value to other life forms. Their utilitarian value can never be overstated.

Though we do not realize it most of life processes are really biochemical reactions. Molecular interplays bring about the rich tapestry of life as we see on this beautiful planet. Each type of molecule seems to be capable of running some life programs as if they are chemical software. They work on majority of life systems indicating their compatibility and adaptability.

There are limitless varieties of plants that feed the living race. The plants are crucial in the food chain on the planet.

If you look at plants that are non-edible there are quite a few of them that are very dangerous and poisonous. Non-edible plants are a curiosity. Why would a plant be non-edible? This is against the unwritten convention if you were to agree that plants are primarily food providers. That is their core duty in the grand scheme of things. Plants are supposed to be providers. Aren't they? Perhaps yes. But, may be plants have other uses too.

Do we really need a life form to be useful every single time? 'Useful' is a relative term. 'Useful' for the consumer organism does not mean always 'useful' for the plant. There has to be some form of symbiosis here. The plants may have to come up with ways of rewarding the consumer even in a non-nutritious sense. It could be a medicine. It could be a psychoactive substance that we crave for. This way plants probably have made sure they will be sought after. They have made sure they will be assisted in their propagation by some sort of domestication by the user. Who is domesticating who is the philosophical question to be answered though.

The plants are not just 'cooks' who give us and other animals the food we want. They have a lot more in store for us and fellow beings. They give us medicines as well. A number of plant-derived substances are potent medicines that can heal us. Man has relied on plant medicines for ages and still continues to do so.

Man has used plants not only as a source of food but also for a number of other bounties. Man has known the medical benefits of certain plants for well over 60,000 years. Archaeological evidence from Paleolithic age confirms this fact. At a 60,000 year old Neanderthal burial site in Northern Iraq people have found pollen from 8 plant species, 7 of them known to have medicinal properties.

Sumerians had even created a written list of plants that could be used as medicines. This is as early 5000 years ago! Their clay tablets contain references to plants such as myrrh and opium!

Otzi the Iceman, whose body has been in the frozen state in the Otzal Alps after nearly 5000 years, seems to have possessed some medicinal herbs to indicate that man knew about uses of medicinal herbs as long as 5000 years ago.

Ayurvedic medicine was practiced in India for well over 4000 years ago. The Sushruta Samhita written in the 6th century BC describes 700 medicinal plants.

The Ancient Egyptians had recorded their medical knowledge in the form of Papyrus texts of which many have been found. They date back to nearly 5000 years and may have been derived from even earlier sources. These medical papyri describe the recipes and spells for a variety of diseases and symptoms. Generally, Egyptian medicine, just like other ancient forms of medicine, combined a mixture of herbal agents with magical spells and incantations to ward off the evil spirits that cause the diseases. The physician or healer was looked upon as someone empowered to rid the sufferer off his disease and suffering and was believed to have the blessing of God. Certain drugs were thought to be made by a deity and therefore considered Godly medications that cured all bodily melodies. A story goes that the God of the sun _Ra_ who in old age suffered from several diseases made drugs to cure all men.

Herbs played a big role in Egyptian Medicine. The Ebers papyrus mentions opium, cannabis, myrrh, fennel, senna, thyme, henna, juniper, aloe, linseed and castor oil. Most of these herbs were steeped in wine and then drunk as an oral medicine. Cloves of garlic have been found in Egyptian burial sites including the famous tomb of King Tutankhamen and also in the sacred underground temple of the bulls in Saqqara.

Garlic and Onions were considered by Egyptians to aid endurance. They consumed a lot of them in the past and they still do to this present day. In fact garlic is seen as a healing agent in much of the Mediterranean countries. Peeled, macerated and mashed garlic cloves are used as a mouth gargle to treat tooth ache and sore throat. Garlic macerated in olive oil is used an external liniment or even used internally for lung ailments.

Coriander was considered by Egyptians to stimulate digestive properties. It was frequently added fresh to spicy foods to moderate their irritating effects, a culinary practice followed to this day in many countries **.**

Cumin ( _Cumin cuminum_ ) is indigenous to Egypt. Cumin seeds are still used in Asian cuisines along with coriander. Cumin powder was used by Egyptians to relieve arthritic pains.

Leaves from many plants such as willow, sycamore, acacia, were used by Egyptians in poultices and the like. Tannic acid from acacia seeds was thought to cool the blood vessels and heal burns. Castor oil, figs and dates were used as laxatives. The Egyptian medicine had many treatments for parasitic diseases as these diseases have been highly prevalent in this region since the ancient times. They are a menace even today. The Egyptians drank an infusion of pomegranate root in water to treat tape worms. The alkaloids contained in these roots paralysed the worm's nervous system and this helped to expel them. Even the antihelminth medicine, such as Mebendazole, used in modern medicine today, acts by the same principle. Mebendazole is thought to work by selectively inhibiting the synthesis of microtubules in parasitic worms, and by destroying extant cytoplasmic microtubules in their intestinal cells, thereby blocking the uptake of glucose and other nutrients, resulting in the gradual immobilization and eventual death of the helminth.

Egyptians did not hesitate to 'import' plant medicines from neighboring countries. Mandrake was thought to be an aphrodisiac and was introduced from Canaan and grown locally since the New Kingdom. Cedar oil, used as an antiseptic, originated in the Levant. The Henna was brought from Persia and used for hair loss. Aloe came from East Africa and was used by the Egyptians for catarrh. Egyptians imported Frankincense from Punt. This plant contained Tetrahydrocannabinol and was used for pain relief, a practice that is still applicable in modern medicine.

Magic and faith played a big role in ancient medicine. Egyptian beliefs influenced the Greeks who sent their physicians to the Roman Empire. Through them the beliefs spread to the Arab world and also to Europe.

By the 9th century AD medical schools began to appear in the medieval Islamic world among Persians and Arabs. The Arabs venerated Greco-Roman culture and learning and translated tens of thousands of texts into Arabic. If you look at the modern times the Arabs have shown a similar affliction for anything American or British. Arab medical institutions today consider American clinical guidelines as the last word. They respect doctors trained in US or Britain. I suspect in the medieval times the Islamic world preferred Greco-Roman influences much like they prefer American or British in the modern times. The Arabs also brought plants from China and India through their travellers. Botanists and physicians from the medieval Arab world expanded the botanical knowledge built by the Greeks, Romans and the Egyptians until that time. Baghdad was an important centre for Arab Herbalism. Al-Andalus, called the Muslim Spain, covered today's Spain and Portugal and was the centre of Ethnobotany. _The Book of Simples_ and _Corpus of Simples_ and _The Canon of Medicine_ , authored by Herbal physicians who lived in this part of the world between 9th and 12th Century AD remained a source of reference until the early 19th century.

The earliest known Greek Herbals were those of Diocles Carystus, written in the third century BC and one by Krateus from the 1st century BC. There is a lot of overlap with the Egyptian medicinal herbs. In the first century AD a Greek Physician by the name Pedanius Dioscorides wrote a compendium commonly known by its Latin title De _Materia Medica_ listing about 600 plants. This compendium continued to the authoritative reference on Herbalism into the 17th Century! An equally important work for herbalists of the later centuries was the work of Theophrastus called the _Historia Plantarum_ which described the plants in a systematic way.

Medieval apothecary gardens focused on cultivating plants that healed, intoxicated and occasionally poisoned. Witches and sorcerers cultivated plants to cast spells on the victims. These plants obviously were the ones that contained psychoactive substances.

Plants have a dark side too. They also can make some molecules that are poisonous. In many cases the distinction between a medicine and a poison is only in the dose used. If you know the right dose to be used even poisons are really medicines. This is not the case always though. Some poisons are made with the intent to kill or subdue.

The prime idea of this book is to show that plants also make chemical substances that can act on our brains and make us experience altered states of consciousness. They can affect the way think and behave. This is a curious phenomenon. It is curious because of one simple reason. Plants do not have a brain on their own. Then why do they need substances that have neuro-dynamic effect? Why should they make molecules that will target your brain? If food can help in our physical well-being then these psychoactive substances were meant to be taking care of our mental well-being. Is it that simple?

In this book I have shown that nature produces psychoactive substances for whatever reason. Man and some animals seem to depend on them a lot. Is it good or bad? You eat the food the plants make, use the medicines they give, apply the fragrances you get from their beautiful flowers but when it comes to psychoactive substances suddenly the game rules change. Can we argue that anything derived from nature is good for us? Why on earth nature would make something that is not good?

Food is basically a chemical molecule. It could be a carbohydrate, a hydrocarbon, a protein/amino acid, a vitamin or a mineral. Most often these chemicals come naturally packaged in the form of edible fruits, leaves, and vegetables. They are delicious. When you go to a supermarket to buy some food you could buy these food molecules in their raw forms - as vegetables, fruits and meat. Or, they are available as ready-cooked meals too. You choose what you want. Ultimately, what matters are the chemical molecules that are contained in them. When you eat a food you do not really think that way. You are interested in the food for the taste of it. Eating is a delectable experience. Every one of us likes eating. All the variation in the nature's packaging is more like marketing. The plants advertise themselves to the users! Cooking adds to the whole thing by bringing some more pleasure to the tongue. But, to be honest, all that matters ultimately is what kind of chemical entity the food delivers to the life system that eats it. It is chemistry and nothing more. Whether you ate the fruit, a burger or a chocolate all that matters inside you is the arrival of life-sustaining chemical molecules. The elaborate natural or artificial packaging of these molecules matters only to your eyes and the tongue. The real need is the energy derived from the molecular fuel and the biochemical software!

There are many plants in nature that are toxic if eaten. The greatest of the providers, the plants, can also kill. It is ironical that the animals which eat these poisonous plants in the hope of replenishing their nutrients, which is a quite normal natural phenomenon, can end up dead. You may wonder why the plants do this. From an evolutionary point of view the plants may be seen to be protecting themselves from 'predators'. Plants cannot move. They cannot run away from their predators. So, the best way to defend would be to discourage animals from eating them by way of some toxic substances. Animals learn to avoid such plants. It is not always a chemical poison that plants rely on. They also have physical defences like spikes, thorns etc. that can puncture the skin and inflict pain.

Why would the plants want to deter animals from eating them if their primary purpose is provision of food? The answer probably lies in the fact that the plants need to ensure their own survival by protecting themselves from simply being eaten up without propagation of its species. The fruits and vegetables have the seeds which transit the intestinal system of the eater unaltered and therefore transmission of the seeds over a distance is achieved. The plants manage to colonize wider geographical areas not possible by simple pollination. The inability of plants to move is a weakness but the ploy of fruits and vegetables acting as an incentive overcomes this. But, there are other parts of the plants like leaves, bark, stem etc. that do not matter for species propagation need to be protected from being eaten up. Plants are inventive!

Some plant species like the wild parsnips cause the animals that eat it to 'burn in the sun'! This is because they produce a substance that will cause mutations in the chromosomes of the animals when exposed to UV light in the sunrays!

Some trees produce a sap that can prevent caterpillars from metamorphosing to butterflies!

Toxins in _Datura_ drive the plant's predators mad, stuffing their brains with hallucinogens enough to distract them!

Chemical defence is generally said to be predominantly to deter insects eating the plant defence. But, when accidentally or intentionally consumed, these chemicals are harmful to livestock and humans too.

Even the apple, the delicious fruit we all consume so commonly, has some small amount of amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside, in their seeds! The term 'cyanogenic' actually means 'cyanide-generating'. This chemical is only mildly poisonous and not dangerous to humans but if you consume enough seeds it could even be fatal. When we eat an apple almost always we do not eat the seeds, do we? There is nothing to be scared about eating apples and we have all been eating them all the time - of course without the seeds. May be the presence of poison is targeting the insect or other creatures who eat those seeds and hinder the plant regeneration. This way the apple plant manages to provide nutrition to animals at the same time protecting itself from extinction by inhibiting the animals from eating the seeds or manipulating the seeds by metabolism! Clever! The seeds are supposed to just pass through the intestine and exit!

Other types of food plants also seem to have a mix of the nutrients and some toxin contained in some parts of the plant and humans and possibly animals have learnt to avoid that part of the plant that contains these toxins. This is an evolutionary adaptation the plant and its predator have to find.

Cherry _(Prunus cerasus_ ) leaves and seeds also contain the same cyanogenic glycosides. Other _Prunus s_ pecies like peach, plum, almond and apricot also have these poisons too in their leaves and seeds. We do not eat the leaves of these plants and we are OK. We do eat their seeds either. Even Lima beans (butter beans) when raw contain these cyanogenic glycosides.

Nutmeg contains a substance called _myristicin_. _Myristicin_ is a naturally-occurring insecticide. But, it has a neurotoxic effect as well. At doses much higher than used for cooking it has psychoactive properties. The intoxicating effects of _myristicin_ can lead to a physical state between waking and dreaming. Memory can also be impaired due to this toxin. _Myristicin_ can also induce hallucinogenic effects, especially visual ones! Nutmeg effects can last for up to 24 hours, with lingering effects lasting up to 72 hours.

_Cerbera odollum_ (commonly known as the suicide tree) seeds have a potent toxin called ' _cerberin_ ' related to Digoxin. The poison affects the ion channels regulating the heart beat and therefore can bring the heart to a standstill ultimately culminating in death. A single seed can account for the fatal outcome in the unsuspecting victim! If one has the criminal intention of committing a murder without a trace your best choice would be the _cerberin_. Forensic toxicologists would struggle to detect this toxin in the dead body during autopsies. To aid the criminal this poison's taste can actually be masked using strong spices. In India, this culinary advantage is the main reason why this poison is both used in suicide and homicide settings. In a southern state called Kerala there is a high rate of suicide using _cerberin_. A team of toxicologists from France who studied the use of this poison by Keralites concluded that the odollum tree is the most used suicide plant in the world. A related species is _Cerbera tanghin_ whose seeds are known as the tanghin poison nut and have been used as an 'ordeal poison'.

Those who are interested in history may be aware of the fact that the great philosopher, Socrates, was killed by poisoning. The poison that took the life of Socrates is commonly known as hemlock or spotted parsley. It is produced by a plant called _Conium maculatum_. All parts of the plant contain an alkaloid coniine which can cause progressive paralysis of the central nervous system and can arrest the breathing. It is to be noted that only the Herbaceous _Conium_ species are toxic and not the _Tsugo_ species which also goes by the name Hemlock trees.

Plants can make a diverse range of chemical molecules. The versatility of plant biosynthetic capacity is truly amazing. The plant-derived chemicals are broadly of two types. The first category includes primary metabolites such as sugars and fats found in most plants. They are usually the food sources for the animal kingdom. The second category is called the secondary metabolites. This class of molecules include specific kinds of molecules serving a specific function. Only a smaller number of plants have the second class of molecules. Examples of these secondary metabolites include toxins, pheromones and pigments. More often than not it is a molecule belonging to the secondary metabolite class that have medicinal value or hallucinogenic potential. Typical examples of well-known medicines derived from plants include inulin derived from Dahlias, quinine from cinchona, morphine and codeine from poppy, digoxin from the foxglove.

We have unravelled at least 12,000 different chemical compounds made by plants and it is believed that this number represent only 10% of the actual. In other words, we only know about a tenth of the molecules made by plants and many of them are still unknown to us. It is possible that deforestation and other threats to nature may for ever conceal these yet-to-be-discovered chemicals.

Though the number of plant-made chemicals with interesting biological effects are too many one could perhaps fit them all under a handful of broad types. The most abundant of them is the class of chemicals called Alkaloids. In terms of chemical structure the alkaloids contain a nitrogen ring as the minimum. Not only the plants but also other life systems like bacteria, fungi and animals can synthesize alkaloids. Alkaloids are interesting kind of molecules. They can have curative effects on the human body and help cure diseases. Examples of such medically useful alkaloids include the anticancer agent vincristine, the anti-hypertensive agent reserpine, the antibacterial agent berberine, the anti-arrhythmic agent quinidine, anti-asthma agent ephedrine and the anti-malarial agent quinine. The alkaloids produced by plants have a purpose for their own life. But, they can act universally in the sense the plant alkaloids equally are effective on a diverse range of life systems. This is the curiosity. If plants can produce food molecules that are universally potent on all organisms then why cannot they produce other type of molecules too? What gets intriguing is when you look at some alkaloids like the psychedelic psilocybin, stimulants cocaine, nicotine and caffeine and the analgesic narcotic like morphine you start wondering what on earth is happening here. This is in fact the main crux of this book.

The other chemical classes of molecules made by plants include the polyphenols. As the name suggests these compounds have phenol rings, in fact several of them. Examples of the polyphenolic compounds include tannins that give tea its astringent taste, the anthocyanins that give the grapes their purple colour, the phytoestrogens from Soy. It looks like these polyphenolic compounds have little effect on the nervous system and therefore do not seem to have any psychedelic effects. Even medicinally there is less variety here.

Glycosides are the other class of plant-derived molecules. The word 'glycoside' means a sugar that is attached to another moiety that is not a sugar. This non-sugar moiety generally tends to be an organic molecule (i.e. a molecule with carbon atoms in it). Many such plant glycosides are used as medications. The classic example is the digitalis obtained from Foxglove. There are a number of plant glycosides coming under the type of cyanoglycosides. They are generally toxins. Even digitalis for that matter can be considered a toxin, particularly targeting the heart.

Terpenes are a class of organic compounds made by coniferous plants. They are the major components of resin and of turpentine produced from the resin. The name 'terpene' is actually derived from the word 'turpentine' apparently. Terpenes and Terpen-like molecules are the primary constituents of many types of plants and flowers. Essential oils are central to aromatherapy and therefore Terpenes assume medical significance. Perfumery business relies a lot on the terpenes. Rose and lavender owe their fragrance to the terpene molecules. Terpenes are a class of molecules also found in every living creature. Steroids are derived from a terpene structure. Steroids are molecules that have many carbon atoms in them arranged in ring structure. There are usually multiple rings of these carbon atoms and if you look at an atomic model of this molecule one can understand the complexity and beauty of this structure. In the animal kingdom there are many hormones that are steroids. These steroid hormones are so important in animal metabolism and that again underscores the highly important nature of these terpene molecules made by the plants. The early steps in the biosynthesis of steroids of both plants and animals are the same. Sterol is the biogenetic precursor of such important plant steroids as the sapogenins, glycosides and alkaloids.

Plants make these molecules for a purpose. When a compound made by a plant has a defence role, such as protection from insects, it is easy to understand it. When a plant has a compound that is purposely poisonous to ward off herbivorous animals from eating it we can understand that as well. When a plant makes food molecules we understand that too. In fact, we expect the plants to do it. When a plant makes a substance that has medicinal effect in humans the plot gets interesting. Why would plants do that? When a plant makes some compounds that have psychedelic action then the plot gets thicker and more intriguing. There is no easy way to explain this. When you realize that 90% of the plant-derived molecules are still not known, or will never be known, you are left dazzled. What else do these plants have in store? Pharmacologists around the world are combing the earth for the phytochemicals that could turn into blockbuster drugs. It is still believed that about two-thirds of the world's plant species (at least 35,000 plant species) have some medicinal value or other.

Ethnobotany is a term that refers to study of the traditional use of plants. This paves the way for future discovery of medicines. More than 120 plant-derived substances are used in modern medicine such as opium, aspirin, digitalis and quinine. Interestingly, the same substances have been used traditionally for the same medical indication!

The use of herbs to treat medical ailments has a long history and it is still widely practiced in less affluent countries who cannot afford the costly medicines made by the commercial companies. WHO has estimated that more than a third of people in Asian and African countries use some sort of herbal remedies. It is also noticed that people from the industrialized nations also resort to these natural remedies at least in some clinical conditions.

As I told earlier a number of plant-derived psychedelic substances are being proposed for treatment of psychological conditions in man. Mental health seems to be a gift from plants as much as physical health. I also pointed out that many psychoactive compounds obtained from nature have been used over the millennia by diverse cultures for spiritual healing and growth. They are used even today for this purpose. I even went to the extent of proposing that such a psychoactive ingredient from mushrooms and plants called Soma may have sparked the origin of religion itself!

It is even more interesting that while plants evolved chemical molecules for human mind control our own brains have co-evolved similar neuro-dynamic molecules like anandamide, endorphins, enkhepalins, oxytocin, vasopressin, dopamine, serotonin etc. The molecular evolution that occurred in plants seems to have converged nicely on the evolutionary process that happened in animal brains. That is why the cell-surface receptors that evolved in animal brains, including humans, for binding plant psychoactive substances also are capable of binding endogenous, self-made, mind-soothing, hallucinogenic substances. The ultimate purposes, if I may use the word, seems to be relief from anxiety, reducing fear, reducing pain, bliss, euphoria, motivation, trust and tolerance, and a sense of oneness. These are indeed the true virtues preached by religions as the word of God. If some molecules, exogenously or endogenously made, can re-create exactly the same behavioural bundle that is consistent with religiously indoctrinated values then the question needs to be asked - what is the difference? Is social evolution of good virtues (as mandated by religions) reproducible by co-evolved plant evolution that led to the origin of behaviour-modifying molecules?

Some of these plant-derived agents expand the consciousness and elevate it to another level where there is a focus on the world beyond and our place in this scheme. Evolutionary selfishness is overridden by social considerations like group cooperation, tolerance, trust, and a sense of moral and order. These are truly the recipes for a peaceful, orderly society. They made man understand his own place in the universe and also imbibe the thought that there is an external, omniscient force that guides us all and protects us all. This feeling is not only elicited during conventional religious protocols such as during prayers and meditations but also during the 'artificially' induced entheogenic spiritual experiences brought on by naturally occurring substances from mushrooms and plants. Can we say God is created here by means of molecular jugglery? Can we call them the God Molecules? Are we looking at the very biochemistry of God?

