Mescaline

Mescaline, one of the 4 alkaloids contained in the Mexican cactus Anhalonium Lewinii; is used under the name 'peyote' by Mexican Indians as an intoxicating substance, especially for inducing ecstatic states during religious festivals. The uniqueness of the intoxication caused by M., which in many of its features resembles the pictures unfolding in acute attacks of schizophrenia, attracted the attention of a number of psychiatrists who (mainly in Munich and Heidelberg clinics) experimentally studied its effect on the psyche and collected extensive material of self-observations regarding the experiences undergone under its influence. Although M. acts differently on different people depending on their individual predisposition, typical pictures and the course of poisoning by it can be established for most cases. In general, the effect of 0.15-0.2 g of M. begins to be felt after 1/3-3/4 hours of ingestion: first, a rapidly passing unpleasant feeling with chills, yawning, nausea, headache, slowed pulse and pupil constriction develops; then this state is replaced by mild excitement with elevated mood and weakening of motor inhibitions (excessive talkativeness, restlessness). The most interesting phenomenon of this period of poisoning, however, is the sharply increased sensitivity to light, especially colored, impressions, and actual perceptions first acquire brilliant coloring and bright outlines, and then are supplemented by various illusory and finally hallucinatory images. Many experience a true 'color intoxication,' in which kaleidoscopically changing diverse brightly colored visual impressions appear in the form of glowing dots, variegated lines, grid-like and carpet-like images or even entire pictures (series of halls, landscapes, buildings, people, fabulous creatures). No understandable connection is established between these images; they are extremely unstable and, continuously changing their outlines, as if flowing, constantly transform into one another. They do not depend on eye movements and cannot be eliminated by an effort of will or by directing attention to real objects. At the same time, extremely bizarre illusions appear in the area of bodily sensations, to an extreme degree distorting the perception of one's own body: parts of it seem changed, enlarged or diminished, individual limbs as if deadened. Sound impressions also change, becoming excessively sharp. Gradually, a disorder of perception of space and time begins to develop; the intoxicated person feels as if he has entered a completely unknown world to him, in which other dimensions prevail, and spatial forms appear distorted, while time becomes excessively elongated. At the same time, the sense of reality disappears; one's own emotions begin to seem alien and inexplicably strange, a feeling of complete liberation from the body and bodily sensations and merging with surrounding objects appears; finally, all this culminates in an indescribable objectless-ecstatic state. The extreme uniqueness of all these experiences is particularly emphasized by the remarkable preservation of clarity of consciousness, which gives the poisoned person the full opportunity to observe their own experiences, as if splitting into two separate personalities. All the more, however, they experience the complete impossibility of accurately describing them, since they stand beyond the means of expression available in our language. This unique artificial psychosis most often ends with sharp excitement with unbridled talkativeness, extreme restlessness and a tendency to lie and various absurd pranks. An important circumstance is that after the intoxication has passed, all the details experienced during it are retained in memory with full clarity.