For Fact's Sake: One man's poison...another man's passion?

For Fact's Sake: One man’s poison… another man’s passion?

By Murray Stewart

Purple haze all in my brain… acting funny, but I don’t know why… Excuse me while I kiss the sky. - Jimi Hendrix

Well, Jimi wasn’t the only musician who may have experienced the effects of assorted ‘mind-benders’ during their lifetimes. From presidents and empresses to hunter-gatherers and pole-dancers, people from all walks of life have been influenced by various forms of mind alteration over thousands of years.

The ancient Greek for ‘herbs’ was pharmakon, usually with a prefix or suffix indicating which healed and which killed. We can only wonder what the Oracle of Delphi was inhaling because it obviously worked but, sadly, the ingredients have never been revealed. Perhaps Ozzy Osbourne knows.

Happy plants, deadly berries and laughing weeds are how the ancient world referred to various herbs, roots and pips. Some, taken in the right dosage, would relieve pain or give you an upper, while others could create a serious downer – like six feet down.

Opium was a big hit for two reasons. Firstly, you were unlikely to croak because you’d usually pass out before overdosing – unlike its deadly derivative, heroin. Secondly, as a hallucinogenic, your Ground Control to Major Tom could transport you anywhere – through a purple haze perhaps, to play with Lucy in the Sky with Diapers, or maybe even see God.

Other plants were more deadly, more of a poison than an uplifter – like henbane, hemlock, mandrake and belladonna. They were easy to overdose on, so a swift meeting with the Good Lord was usually guaranteed.

Click on the newspaper below to read more (see page 6).