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Censing The God: Psychoactive Substances In Ancient Egypt
by Michael Carmichael
summarized by Andrew Collins

Michael ran through a series of slides, almost exclusively from Egypt's controversial Amarna period. This began with the pharaoh Akhenaten around 1378 BC and included the 12-year reign of the boy king Tutankhamun. Tiles, friezes and jewellery from this era frequently portrayed not just the psychoactive mandrake plant, but also the blue water lily. Drugs such as mandrake would have been burnt on incense holders and the fumes absorbed through the nasal passage... Michael showed slides of beautiful alabaster vases found in the tomb of Tutankhamun fashioned to resemble both the stem and flower of the blue water lily. These, Michael suggested, were used by the king to consume extracts of the plant. Friezes showed the pharaoh surrounded by the blue water lily and also the mandrake plant. This has led Michael to conclude that the image of the pharaoh as a militaristic leader, smiting his enemies, diverts us from the real fact that Egyptian kings considered the use of drugs, such as the blue water lily and the mandrake, important in communication with the gods... the consumption of drugs in Egyptian society extended far beyond the Amarna period and was important to the culture throughout its 3,000-year history. Furthermore, that it might well have had shamanistic roots which predated dynastic history, a theory I put forward in my book GODS OF EDEN He also touched upon the subject of nicotine and cocaine being found in Egyptian mummies during the 1990s by German toxicologist Svetlana Balabanova. Although he admits that the presence of cocaine, the active ingredient of the coca plant, cannot suitably be explained, there are a number of plants which were known to the Egyptians that contain tiny amounts of nicotine.

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