The Witches' Brew (Narcotics Documentary) | Real Stories

[Music] [Music] of all the special plants which give rise to visions and hallucinations there is one whose very name strikes fear henbane also known as The Devil's weave it has long been linked to demons black magic and witchcraft the next step in my quest to uncover the secrets of the sacred plants was to be the notorious henbane like the others I had investigated it has been used by ancient cultures to open the gateway to a mystical world but it can be a dark world of vivid nightmares and delirium as a member of the nightshade family which includes Mandrake and belladonna this plant is also a deadly poison in my research into European prehistory at Oxford I had come to wonder whether the effects of taking henbane might be behind the belief in magical powers of flight to answer this question I once again assembled a team of specialists over the next few days we will conduct a series of unique experiments our safety precautions would be critical to volunteers under close medical supervision were to take a dose of henbane and we were to observe the results seeing flashes on the side of my eyes most like there's lightning on the horizon I seem to be losing my memory and concentration so I can't really focus so clearly during my speech in baptism could we shed light on the mind-altering effects of this plant might it explain tales of witches who go out into the night on broomsticks and possess supernatural powers might we be able to answer a question key to our understanding of European culture did which is use henbane on the evening of the first day my guests gathered we were about to watch a group of modern-day witches perform a ceremony designed to induce trance it has been claimed that medieval witchcraft was in fact a version of such ancient pagan ceremonies in which psychoactive plants may have played a central role the group had been brought along by one of my guests Paul Deborah an author of several works on the cultural importance of hallucinogenic plants he has studied extensively their possible links to witchcraft Paul asked us to watch the ceremony closely [Music] also present was my next guest historian dr. Diane Perkis a lecturer at the University of Reading an author of the witch in history she is an expert on how our cultural beliefs about witches have been created bring to us your illuminator aflame and protect us from all harm my final guest was dr. Liz Williamson from London University's School of Pharmacy she's an expert on the medical use of drugs derived from plants and so would be ideally placed to test whether the physical and mental effects of henbane could link with witchcraft the group based their ceremony on the kinds of rituals that may once have taken place widely across Europe and which involve both men and women although little is known about these ceremonies clues to their content can be found in 7th century Irish texts [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] Paul d'oeuvre I thought that these recreated pagan rites suggested evidence for the use of mind-altering plants so really what we've been seeing here is a whole symphony of transcending techniques we've seen the use of incense and almost certainly many periods of time the incense would have been psychoactive we could well have been henbane we saw the broomstick used to sweep away the spirits sweep the whole thing clear and as one school of thought to suggest that the handle of a broom was used by witches to apply an ointment containing henbane another nightshade herbs to the virginal tissues for example quick absorption through the skin we would be able to witness the actual effects of hanbei in the following day but on the first night I began by outlining the mystery of the plants links with the supernatural witches who fly on broomsticks own Black Caps and engage in devil worship and satanic orgies these images are deeply entrenched in European folklore and are still popular in films books and on television but it's difficult to get at the truth behind these images accounts of witches who claim to possess supernatural powers come from church trials of the later Middle Ages for descriptions of flying changing into animals and dancing with the devil come from confessions often extracted under torture during these witch hunts however it's been suggested that behind this satanic imagery they were indeed why is women's skilled with herbs and potions and even that they were practitioners of an ancient pagan religion it's also been suggested that the real source of their powers was their use of hallucinogenic plants like henbane which created experiences such as flying and meeting spirit powers this would explain the strong association between henbane and other plants of the nightshade family with witchcraft in sources such as Shakespeare's plays so the question is could it be that the familiar images of witchcraft might be explained by the experience of taking henbane or are they on the other hand simply an invention of the church made up to demonize non-christian beliefs soon we were to meet the volunteers who were to take henbane in the experiment but first I asked my guests for their initial response well I think on balance probably henbane was used by witches and the people that preceded the witches the the night travellers of Northern Europe it's a long tradition goes well back well before the witches that we are discussing so we pick up things like the early Norse tradition of the Merc rider the rider in the dark the person who would take magical potions and fly out at night riding out into the murk of the dark so it's pretty well established is a sort of thing to go on but our historian Diane argued that henbane couldn't be involved for there were no wise women skilled in herbal potions in fact the witches of popular imagination never existed which was I think for ordinary old women who were disliked by their neighbors often because they were poor and make their neighbours for food or money the witches that we imagine didn't even exist at the time of persecution and if we look at this lovely early silent film this is our fantasy of witches Dyan argued that the widespread image of a flying witch seen for example in the 20s classic witchcraft through the ages was entirely created by medieval superstition a tissue of nonsense from beginning to end so what did our expert on plant-based drugs think about henbane and witchcraft well henbane has a long and honorable history as a medicinal plant and we do know a lot about it we know as it contains alkaloids we know the effects of these alkaloids and in fact in high doses they will cause hallucinations delirium loss of coordination and amnesia afterwards so these are consistent with the myths of people feeling that they're flying obviously not real flying so there's nothing there that suggests that they didn't use henbane I can't quite understand theirs why people should have poisoned themselves I'm gonna have hallucinations well there's there's two sharp answers to that people everywhere have always done so they seek visions and they do the most ridiculous things they can fast themselves they can flagellate themselves they can sit in dark places for years on end and they'll take all sorts of poisons and substances that helps them get into a visionary world and in the sociological context if you'll either medieval which we have people living pretty rough hard lives so this was the way of going to the movers if you like it was an escape from that harshness into the magical of the world into the visionary world people everywhere have done it and they still try to do it yes but what they try to do it with broomsticks Paul refer to the surprising suggestion that broomsticks were used to apply hallucinogenic ointments to the genitals did lists think it possible to absorb hen bones chemicals in this way of course most of it mints there is penetration through the skin and in fact nowadays we use this transdermal delivery system quite commonly for hormone replacement therapy patches nicotine patches and in fact that one of the tropane alkaloids highest seen which is known as scopolamine in the states is used as a travel sickness drug and can be applied to the skin as a pouch where it will gradually soak through the skin and have a long-term effect I entirely accept that psychotropic substances can be absorbed through one month I entirely accept that you could use a broomstick to apply them to the the vaginal membrane the fact that you could do so does not at all mean that people did do so and I think much more plausibly that the image of the flying which had much more to do with medieval Catholicism and Protestantism zai Diaz about what Devil's did Devils are understood as people at the air for in angels Devils that naturally understood as having the power of flight and so of course they grabbed that path to their subordinates so this is why it's so common in the the pictures of the period hmm this image of a flight rather than reflecting any of the practices absolutely I think it must be the case of those sort of images that we have while obviously not literally true and obviously romanticized but must bear something to do with the tropane alkaloids that create this impression of the spirit leaving the body of going flying out-of-body experience and so on that we know that these substances like heme Bane can produce there are some evidence to support Paul's view from a 16th century physician to the Pope who records that anointment obtained from two people accused of witchcraft actually did induce a trance state but Diane thought that confessions of flying experience is obtained by the Inquisition were generally made up if an Inquisitor says to you what would you sell yourself for you're going to search your mind and think so might saw myself or if you're compelled to give the answer yes because he's holding a red-hot poker and and if you do so such your mind you're going to come up with things that are important to your culture you're going to come up a poker focuses the mind that's right exactly and in that sense I agree that there may be a folkloric basis for some elements in confession but I think that's entirely different to arguing that confession is an account of an experience used by a drug as the argument continued Paul maintained that the church hid the evidence of henbane use since this was part of the pagan beliefs it wanted to stamp out the church deliberately repressed reference to the use of henbane another psychoactive herbs because that took away the influence of the devil to some extent it was in their interest to Satan eyes this practice as much as possible for their own purposes to argue that henbane was involved but we're so repressed by the church that nobody could talk about it I think is inherently a very weak position but in Hubble's but it wasn't talked about on the whole by witches themselves there's no time because one of the most commonly used drugs and they are used as ointments because they're so poisonous it was now time to meet the volunteers who were to take this potentially lethal plant we were fortunate to be joined by one of the very few people who have experimented with henbane in this century Paul Russo he became interested in it after trying other plants in the nightshade family which grow in his native South Africa I have to try and invent and some of the other plants in the same family the number of times I find it very toxic and dangerous plant but also very interesting some of the more memorable experiences I've had involved lycanthropia which was the sensation of turning to an animal aerial perspectives and a sensation of flying through the air seen things from above bizarre distortions in time with time slows down or speeds up and in also very vivid daydreams how does they they have sensation of becoming an animal walk what's they took me by surprise it wasn't something I was really expecting basically I just suddenly found myself having a sensation that my hand had turned into a poor my fingernails had grown long they were becoming claws I had very distinct jaws sensations my jaw was very big very heavy had big teeth I felt like I wanted to grind and repair things and also found that I wanted to go down on all fours and be quite low to the ground how about the flying how does that it's actually quite pleasant compared to the turning to animal experience its analogous I supposed to be in a hot air balloon and just sort of drifting over a landscape looking down it's very smooth flat you don't knock jerky you don't move fast or slow it's just very nice comfortable drift our second volunteer was Australian Jim Boyd because the plant in its natural state is always poisonous we have explained our safety precautions to him in detail we'd also warned him of the physical side effects to expect so Jim you've now met all the people around this table and I think what we're all wanting to ask you is really what's your motivation for trying something that's unpleasant and indeed potentially poisonous well I'm a news journalist and recently I did a story on a voodoo priest coming across to England to perform black magic rituals which involved people entering into states of possession that really sparked my interest and that combined with the spirit of scientific adventure and doing this sort of thing in a controlled experiment a combination which M I thought I'd volunteer for all that remained was for me to ask my guests what tests they would be doing while the volunteers were under the influence of henbane first of all we're going to have a look at blood flow to see if there's any indication that it may increase genital blood flow which would explain its use in erotic ceremonies and so forth we'll have a look at pupil dilation in the eye to see if this could have a basis for the supposedly improved night vision and we'll have a look at balance to see if disturbance of balance could account for feelings of flying I want to talk to them beforehand about what their idea of witchcraft is what they think witches are what they know about only one witchcraft my bet would be that their experiences will reflect what they know and Paul how am i new I want to hear their subjective accounts just what has happened to them and in particular I will be interested in the flight of the question of flight because my contention is that while you're right the natural appearance that occurs in hallucination will be culturally affected the actual basic sensation of spirit flight is cross-cultural it'll care to anybody anywhere in the world or any period of time who take these kind of substances and of course in overdosage henbane is extremely toxic it can lead to difficulties in urinating flushing delirium convulsions and even coma and death [Music] in some accounts of henbane overdose people have entered a death trance or coma lasting for days during which the hallucinations take them into another world that seems completely real so what would happen when the volunteers took henbane [Music] [Music] we had gathered to try and answer a question which had puzzled me for many years what are the hallucinogenic effects of henbane and could they be the explanation behind witches alleged magical powers of flying meeting with spirits and changing into animals the volunteers who would be taking henbane underwent a series of initial tests later we would be looking out for signs of the active substances taking effect such as increase in heart rate temperature and blood flow enlargement of the pupil dryness of the mouth followed by heavy sedation the increased sensitivity to light caused by dilation of the pupil is because of a chemical in henbane called atropine to investigate her theory that this could explain the witches night vision liz was using a pupil ometer which stores images of the eye meanwhile Diane was finding out what Paul and Jim knew about witchcraft mad women flying around on broomsticks in communion with the devil for Liz's next test we had obtained a laser imager which scans the skin and produces a color-coded picture with white and red for areas of higher blood flow through to green and blue for areas of lower blood flow increased body heat and blood flow to the skin is known sometimes to cause erotic dreams we think that possibly changes in blood flow may account for some of the stories that were here about witches which are particularly erotic fantasies and the fact that they may dance naked and so forth this would be caused by an increase in temperature and possibly heart rate Liz's tests on coordination involved a machine which senses how the body is correcting its movements in order to balance at this point Jim's readout was normal a random pattern of movement in all directions Paul if if I say the word which to you what kind of image springs to mind unfortunately because I saw The Wizard of Oz when I was a very impressionable young age of this horrible woman with the big nose and warts on in those and the pointy black cats and things like that Diane's interview revealed that Paul had read widely about witchcraft and was aware of historical reports of which his trances I'm sure the witches weren't really flying I'm sure they were pretty convinced that they were just lying on the ground and we had all observers who were they and make notes and actually said to the witch you you didn't really fly you've just been lying here for the last two days so hopefully they had some sort of knowledge sets it was a mental journey by mid-afternoon our volunteers were ready to consume the henbane for safety they were to take an initial dose followed later by a second one if all was well the henbane had been prepared in a brew the dosage had been scientifically calculated and was deliberately low if taken in the wrong quantities henbane is a lethal poison a doctor who specializes in cases of poisoning would be on hand throughout for Paul this was a tense moment a previous experience with datura a plant which contains the same chemicals as henbane had landed him in hospital we had told Jim which symptoms should be reported immediately to the doctor the measuring not one standard dose so we got a good idea of contents enough to get you flowing through the a yeah it smells quite nice smells like honey yeah it's very tasty is this it yep no way no no way changing then we waited [Music] half an hour later came the first signs of physical changes I can't feel something like my head tightening up now should start affecting you about that my head feels as if it's being my brain feels it a little bit tighter than what it should yeah I guess one size too big there's a lot haze first razor was thought to noticing the differences do you notice that as well yes sort of push it it feels like the pressure new heads almost changing yeah yeah I think that's the first time that was fun to affect you something you starting to take over I'm becoming more I suppose aware of my general surroundings okay I feel like I'm slurring my speech and quite dizzy yeah I'm very flushed I can feel my my skin is very a really I seem to be losing my memory and concentration so I can't really focus so clearly on and things which is not really Pleasant the initial phase of raise temperature and mental confusion had begun depending on dose henbane experiences can last between four and thirty six hours an hour later the effects became more acute Jim reported a bizarre change in his coordination and are you steady or is it okay I'm not a hundred percent the biggest thing about it is I'm leaning forward I'm not I'm not I'm not all over the place I've got I'm on the balls of my feet all the time do all this if I'm I can't I can't help being Pacey I felt I feel dizzy probably back to him I suppose I better lift off reports suggested that increasing sedation the transcending property of henbane would follow although still early on in the experiment Paul began to show signs of drowsiness I mean many of the pharmacological effects the dryness of the mouth quite sleepy and relaxed a little bit drowsy and so on margin is sharper my eyes are quite sensitive to the light and so on overall quite loud by now three hours had elapsed so discussion began about consuming the second dose but as Liz was redoing her blood flow test she made a whirring discovery about Jim's heart rate right well he pulse has gone up to 110 which is fairly high especially for somebody lying down and it's considerably higher than it was when we started out the henbane effects were increasing the plant was making Jim feel relaxed and sedated but at the same time it was raising his heart rate too high for comfort we were told by our specialist doctor but on no account should the second dose of henbane be consumed however Jim was cleared to carry on with the tests into the effects of the plant while having a look at your blood flow scan it's tremendously different to the previous one there's been quite a dramatic increase in blood flow we've got white areas we didn't have before particularly around the lips and the nose your cheeks and chin are all showing quite a substantial increase and we've got red areas in places we didn't have before so really all in all there is quite a substantial difference how do you feel now you're lying down in here since I've been lying down here I've been with my eyes closed I've been in seeing flashes on the side of my eyes almost like there's lightning on the horizon and I'm saying to feel quite sleepy as well I dream is it Pleasant or unpleasant or its pleasant yeah its pleasant lying down and and the lights on either side my eyes are yeah they're quite nice it's quite enjoyable with your eyes closed the only bad thing is is my mouth is just so awfully dry it feels like an ashtray are you warmer as you temperature warmer yes it is actually yeah well you do lose the ability to sweat which just had tend to increase the temperature somewhat okay Jim and Paul were increasingly confused and drowsy soon they would need to rest so we rapidly investigated Jim's strange sensation of falling I don't feel as if I'm falling onto the back of my heels like I usually do and I'm standing on the ground I'm tipping forward well almost if I'm on the slope of the hill I'm just trying to I'm trying to compensate before you took her hand Bain he had a fairly random pattern here sort of movement in all directions generally rather than just in one direction and now this is the after one and look it's really quite different instead of it being fairly random motion we've got movement mainly forward and then obviously you're trying to compensate and move him back again so we've got a more forward and backward motion here than this random here so that's really quite a significant difference and it bears out what you thought five hours in Liz just managed to finish her last tests before the volunteers became too sedated to carry on she found that even at the low dose we had used there was a marked change in pupil size so at much higher doses henbane could potentially increase night vision the volunteers could now rest and undergo the strongest stage of the experience they would enter a strange twilight zone neither sleeping nor awake and it's during this phase of hen Bane's effects that hallucinations are said to occur at this crucial point in the experiment we would have no access to their thoughts would they see visions would they experience spirit flight it was with a sense of anticipation that Paul and Diane roused our volunteers at first they were disorientated and had difficulty in describing their experiences clearly so getting like pulses pulses it was just a pure light show there was um there wasn't even there was no emotion even attached to it it's just a black and white light show visuals are again you've never landscapes and 17 mushroom shaped plants all began to describe experiences of aerial flight and seeing landscapes from above there have been lots of different ones but that was memorable game it was something I have seen often before in other experiences with this plant so it's interesting to see that that is still there energy I could to get this sensation in from above down onto things and they're often that they're organic things plants trees hills and things like that so I was wrong [Music] eager to find out more Paul and Diane took the volunteers outside for some fresh air now alert they were able to describe more clearly what had happened well when I was lying down I had a very vivid dream like state the difference between a dream was that I thought I was in control and I'd be lying on the bed and I thought in my mind run through the events of the day or be able to see them very clearly and be able to look at notepads look at people's faces go through dialogues at their head and so on and once I'd gone through most of the things that concern me of the day well it's stuck in my mind the most not only did Paul Russo describe vivid pictures he also elaborated on his flying experience I was then able to just sort of let my body drift off and relax a bit more into it in that later phase I really felt like I was floating over landscapes I could again have this aerial perspective out looking down onto things but at the same time very vivid very realistic three-dimensional imagery but I was distant distance from it I wasn't really involved with it I was just as if I was watching a motion picture like having a vivid dream but without being asleep and you still aware that you were conscious and that you got right here and your body is very relaxed and it's just literally almost asleep like you were physically asleep of mentally awake that's right and very accurate like I'd be able to zoom in on your pads and things like that it was it was quite useful very good very interesting not bad for a low dose yeah quite useful after a final physical examination the volunteers went back to sleep reports of spirit flight are often the result of near-death doses but even at the low dose we had used there had been marked physiological and mental effects so what more would the volunteers have to tell us the next day and was it really true that witches would have risked their lives to see Ken Bane's powerful vision on the morning of the third day our volunteers joined us for breakfast they seemed to be fully recovered from the effects of the henbane well you two thank you very much for all you've done I'm sorry to have subjected you to all these rather bizarre things that we have done how are you feeling afterwards I feel very rested after my sleep I had dreams wow this morning when I woke up my pupils were still very dilated more so than yesterday even so that took me by surprise and a very very deep and peaceful sleep some sensation looking from above down onto things in the library we viewed clips of the previous day's experiment might the vivid scenes and aerial views that Paul had experienced relate to accounts of witchcraft clearly they hadn't been ordinary dreams the difference between that's and a dream state is I feel much more in control when I was on there in Bane I didn't feel like I was on a roller coaster the images were just happening around me I really felt like as I thought about something that became more real quite vivid and I could actually watch it so there was it slightly different to dream Ennis it's like being awake while you dreaming and do you see new things when you look for new things and as you as you as it were interrogate your experience you become aware of different aspects of it yes I think it's that's exactly how it works and sometimes you see things that you're expecting to see that you might be thinking about but the other time you also give it taken by surprise really often things that you don't expect to see and you suddenly see them and I think that's really the real reward of experience like this is to see the unexpected something new and different yes Paul this is an interesting sort of half waking State yes it's typical of trance States and visions and also what you said about the novelty of some of the scenery you see or the images do you see they don't seem to come from your own memory seem to have a autonomous quality quite different really to normal dreams and your memories and reflections and so on so lose what's behind this sort of half waking half dreaming state well these plants are well known for inducing this kind of Twilight sleep and in fact it was used as an Bane was used as an aid to childbirth when it's usually a good idea to not know what's going on and that the chemicals that the alkalis involved and known and do interrupt nervous transmission so it's quite likely it's quite a reasonable thing to find yeah I was dreaming but we wondered how Jim had coped with this unusual state where the body sleeps but the mind is highly active had it been disturbing no wasn't unpleasant it was it was something different that I hadn't experienced before was it was it was a blurred boundary and was almost like it was a surface that I hadn't really got my footing on so looking in the video and I looked quite confused but I think it was because I didn't quite know how to harness that state that I was in it at that time but no it wasn't it wasn't scary so what conclusions did my guests draw from our experiment in addition to the enhanced night vision and the increased blood flow which might account for erotic tales in witchcraft Liz felt that she had found some physical basis for flying experiences instead of having an amplitude of variation in the pressure of people trying to hold their balance after something we had a slightly different movement in the subject was moving forwards and backwards rather than just randomly swaying about and I was surprised at that but of course he did say that he felt as if he was leaning forward as if he was about to take off so yes a little yes some corroboration I would say mm-hmm not surprisingly Paul felt this supported his argument for the link between henbane and historical accounts of witches the volunteers only took small doses but we saw clear hints there of visions that had the vividness of video clips there were exotic seems there was a sense of aerial flight of aerial perspectives on some of the scenery that was observed so there were hints with these small doses of the sort of subjective effects that we pick up in the literature and in the reports down the centuries but nonetheless I don't Diane however wasn't convinced what Paul's just said is very interesting and it's very interesting summary he spoke about exotic landscapes and he spoke about aerial flight and those do go very well with a certain notion of European witchcraft trouble is it was only Paul who experienced those things and I think that strongly suggests that Paul is influenced and interpreting the drug by his very extensive knowledge of European witchcraft tradition and shamanism I think he's seeing what he expects to see Germany far less about it is not seeing so much so I think we can't conclude from this that this drug it's the basis of European which comes well at the heart of these experiences are certain as Twilight consciousness is sort of between sleep and waking there is a sensation of flight there's no doubt that these substances do produce that no question at all whoever takes them wherever they take them they got culturally colored by whatever they the society believed in which they're taken but you just can't get away from that the plants do produce these effects you see there's no doubt that this is what people experience wherever they take them and whenever they take them but Jim didn't experience anything like that that I think is probably due to the dose rate isn't it Liz well obviously we had to be extremely careful with the dose and what we really gave the subjects was a sort of therapeutic dose not the kind of toxic dose that we would expect to result in in these wilder hallucinations and delirium and so forth which we naturally didn't really want them to you know we would have to extrapolate to get to that point another reason Diane wasn't convinced the experiment had proved a link between witches and henbane was her belief that hallucinogenic experiences are a recent phenomenon unknown in Western Europe until the discovery of the new world an increased trade hallucinogenic substances don't hit Western Europe as ritual or recreational drugs until the 18th century and encounters with cultures such as the Americas cultures cultures of the Middle East and so forth hallucinogenic substances attract hostility in Western culture and one of the reasons that they attract hostility is because they're associated with other cultures cultures other than our own on the other hand nobody minds if you get drunk because alcohol has been part of the Western European scene for thousands of years everything you're saying is true for the last 500 years I'm not so sure it's true for earlier history and certainly prehistory in the West and by its very nature there's not a written documentation of this I would argue that far from the moment of the witchcraft persecutions being the decline of a hallucinogenic culture it actually ushers in the error of a hallucinogenic culture hallucinogens in Western European society are not extensively used until the late 18th century their product of the Enlightenment of urbanization a better transport and better trade from my point of view it is inconceivable that these plants we use for countless generations for medicinal purposes without their visionary properties being equally well-known the argument moved into the present day where my guests agreed that modern society is largely hostile to hallucinogenic experiences but was this because they were new to our culture or because we had lost their sacred context in the ritual use of hallucinogen plant hallucinogens in the past Lena if you like in a sacramental context it was a cohesive factor in the societies we certainly can see that in anthropological terms so whereas we look at drugs today in an official capacity as something that is damaging eating away at our culture that is a cancer within our society we can look up save simpler tribal peoples who use these same sort of substances but it actually strengthens their moral codes it strengthens the social cohesiveness and and we must be looking at that sort of fundamental difference my feeling would be that one of the reasons that drugs are divisive in modern society is because drugs are relatively speaking in comers to our society they've been as you yourself said imported along the new trade routes it's as a result of that importation of drugs into a culture that doesn't in fact have a context yeah that I'd agree with that but you say this is the point where when we're talking about witchcraft and pre witchcraft eras they the rural traditions of early Europe for example they weren't flying in cocaine there were no jumbo jets so they would use their native plants and they would have a context for those Diane later put forward the idea that societies choose their substances according to economic and cultural needs and that this determines attitudes towards drugs isn't it all through the way the culture needs or doesn't need the substance sugar was imported into England from the West Indies and people were able to lace that tea with it and thus stagger off to do a 12-hour day in the Manchester cotton mills so it was a drug that Western society could accept because it furthered Western societies economic interests tobacco coffee tea they're all useful stimulants and relaxants that make us work more efficiently tripping for 10 hours on LSD annoys employers I'm just wondering whether it's when I say there's not a context I mean there is no space in our society for the kind of experiences that you're describing so it is weird we're talking about and it's why I refer to this period of the witch persecutions as the end of an era what I think we're seeing with the witch persecutions was a sort of almost drawing a line in the sand if you like gives the decline of a rural based order and the traditions and the skills and the knowledge that went with that it had been an intriguing experiment the question of when Western Europeans first discovered hallucinogens would continue to fascinate for it was a fundamental importance to our own culture I began to prepare for my next and final investigation into a culture far distant from our own and a mysterious flower that could perhaps rewrite history the blue lily of ancient Egypt [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

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Keywords: Real Stories, Real Stories Full Documentary, Real Stories Documentary, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2018 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, Amazing Stories, Amazing Documentaries, Extraordinary people, 2018, 2018 documentaries, cannabis (drug), science documentary, science documentary national geographic, social experiment, experiment documentary, drugs experiment, cultural documentary, hallucination

Id: sM84rkfZK-U

Length: 47min 51sec (2871 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 14 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/GoddamnRedditShit]

Hmm, the man was commenting on the witches potentially using the broomsticks to apply ointment and psychoactives to the vagina....that sounds like catholic church propaganda to me.