Angel's Trumpet

A plant which grows wild across several states in America is dangerous to ingest, yet kids are eating it up because the flowers and seeds produce hallucinations. Angel's Trumpet grows wild in California, as well as Rhode Island (clear across the country on the East Coast) and many places in-between. The flower resembles an upside-down trumpet and displays in many colors, but make no mistake: Angel's Trumpet is poisonous. It is related to Jimson Weed, another poisonous plant which is said to produce hallucinations.

Ingesting Angel's Trumpet does produce hallucinations - "at toxic levels," according to one expert - and, according to users, a sense of calm and even slight euphoria, but it also sends people to the hospital! Authorities say the practice is becoming more widespread and warn those with Angel's Trumpet to cut the plant, or at least deflower it to a height most people cannot easily reach.

Pharmacologist, David Nicholls of Purdue University warns, "Drugs like LSD or marijuana will never kill you. But angel's trumpet can."

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Ancient Magic: Circe

Circe (Oliver Wetter)

Circe is one of the oldest and most powerful of wizards. She was also one of the many evil sorceresses who bedeviled the era's heroes at every turn -- and Circe was particularly vicious. She was a feared sorceress known for her skill with herbs, drugs, and potions, and had a fondness for transforming her victims into animals whom she, in some versions of the legend, then ate.

Circe lived alone on the island Aeaea, which was overpopulated by swine, wolves, and bears -- many of which once were sailors Circe had lured to her island with her singing. In one particularly evil display of power, Circe set upon a beautiful, young nymph named Scylla. Circe desired Scylla's shepherd lover, so she snuck down to the river where the nymph bathed each morning and poisoned the waters there with an emerald-green potion poured from a large, crystal bowl.

When Scylla entered the river, the waters churled! Emerald-green tendrils emerged and pulled her under, where she was transformed into a horrible sea-creature which became the bane of sailors throughout the area. Scylla continued to reign on her wooded isle, later turning many of Odysseus' crew into pigs, but the tale does not mention the coveted shepherd's fate.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Don't Mix Herbs with Meds

While skeptics are busy getting retarded to prove herbal supplements have no effect, doctors and researchers are warning patients not to mix herbal supplements with their regular medications, especially heart meds. Apparently, such seemingly innocuous herbs as garlic, St. John's Wort, and ginger can have devastating effects on patients who mix them with their regular statins, blood thinners, and blood pressure medications.

Doctors note even grapefruit juice can be harmful. This is true in the case of many medications, though the truncated literature pharmacists provide with said medications do not always indicate this. I was asked to abstain from my daily multi-vitamin for one week prior to my surgery, as well as two weeks afterward and would not have known this had the nurse not informed me -- it was not written anywhere in the literature I received! This paper discusses many of the dangerous combinations and their possible interactions.

Authorities strongly suggest discussing all of your dietary habits with your doctor, including any and all supplements you take, regularly or otherwise.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Our Drunken Ancestors

A US team under the leadership of the Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, Patrick McGovern, used organic compounds and cutting-edge science to determine that liquid recovered from a vase some 5000 years old contained alcohol.  The container was excavated from Egyptian tombs dating back to around 3150BC.  They are the earliest jars, or amphora, discovered so far containing liquid.

Professor McGovern said the findings prove that our ancestors were using trial and error to develop medicinal concoctions, and that alcohol was a key ingredient in their treatments.  Other ingredients in the liquid are known medicinal components, including herbs and tree barks.  McGovern notes that alcoholic brews would have been particularly well-suited for dissolving these ingredients.

The professor is now collaborating with a team at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center in testing the oldest alcoholic beverage in existence -- liquid found in China which dates back to around 7000BC.  He is hoping to recreate some of the compounds.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Vodka With a Bite!

A Texan rancher has been arrested for selling vodka spiked with rattlesnake!

"Bayou Bob" Popplewell has run Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch for over 20 years. He raises and sells rattlesnakes and turtles and has never had a problem. But his latest business endeavor, consisting of a rattlesnake bottled in the cheapest vodka available -- which he refers to as "an ancient Asian elixir" -- has landed him in court.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission found 429 bottles of "snake vodka," and one bottle of "snake tequila." Selling at nearly $25.00/bottle, that's nearly $10k worth of booze! Unfortunately, Bayou Bob forgot to get his liquor license. He contends the drinks, which he says are super-sweet and comparable to cough syrup, are actually a medicinal mixture which many Asians regard as "almost a spiritual thing." And an Asian studies lecturer agrees.

Apparently, the "real" version of snake liquor involves only the snake's bladder, and is thought to improve eyesight and sexual performance -- "the ancient version of Viagra," according to the lecturer.

But the Texas ABC says, "He knows what he's doing." Bayou Bob faces up to one year in jail and a hefty fine. 

Being in Texas, however, if Bayou Bob is found to be functionally retarded, he will be executed.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

The Ancient Art of Alchemy

Most balk at Alchemy, though they know nothing about it.  The truth is that Alchemy and its practitioners -- the Alchemists, Witches, and Wizards of their day -- were the very forefathers of modern-day scientists, doctors, pharmacists, and more.  They were persecuted mercilessly by the emerging medical practitioners, mostly under the auspices of the Catholic Church.

While Alchemy was, at its basest, the search for transmuting lead into gold, this was only the most physical aspect of the art (and the ultimate prize); Alchemists claimed that its study brought forth interior changes -- psychical changes within the Alchemist himself which transformed the "lead" of his everyday life into spiritual "gold."

One of the most famous, and most recent, alchemists was none other than Israel Regardie himself, author of the now infamous Golden Dawn (whose publication got him thrown out of the circle and scorned by his peers and one-time colleagues), though he admitted he never actually completed any great Transmutation through the practice.

One of the most authoritative documents claiming to have succeeded in Alchemy is almost certainly a fraud:

Attributed to one Nicholas Flamel, it first appeared in 1612.  A very rich man who had made public his interest in Alchemy (1130-1417), Flamel was a scrivener, a preparer of legal documents, and the date of his supposed Alchemical breakthrough given in this autobiography was Monday, January 17^th, 1382.   But the 17^th of January, 1382 was not a Monday --- an easy mistake for anyone else, but an unlikely one for a scrivener.

We'll delve much further into the Art of Alchemy as the weeks go on.

© C Harris Lynn, 2007