Other - Don Juan and Datura Roots

[TheBlackPope]

I read this book on Don Juan the indian shaman and he talked about using the roots of datura (becasue he said flowers and seeds were reserved for satan).

The book made it look like a different drug then the leaves. The white man who took the datura said it was legit. He wasn't complaining about delerium instead of normal halucenations, and he said it was very spiritual and he got something out of it.

Does anyone know of anything?

[JDreaming]

I know the flowers, seeds and roots all contain the same substances: Atropine, scopolomine and hyoscyamine. I know from experience reports that the roots produce much the same kinds of experiences as the flowers and seeds do. I've heard that smoking datura produces a shorter lasting, somewhat more controllable experience compared to eating it. But I think I will just never touch the stuff, regardless of which part of the plant or which ROA...

[zapatista]

Casteneda's books are works of fiction and not a good source of information about entheogens or ethnobotany.

Z

[TheBlackPope]

Why do you think that?

[radiometer]

Because it is a well-known fact. Castaneda was a con artist. Sorry to burst your bubble. Google terms like "castaneda + fraud" or "castaneda + hoax."

He was a plagiarist also. Castaneda attributes quotations to don Juan which were lifted from authors ranging from Wittgenstein to C.S. Lewis, as well as from papers in obscure anthropology journals.

Here's a link to a pretty thorough run-down:

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2.../12/castaneda/

I think I'm going to post that story as a new thread so that it will be documented here.

[TheBlackPope]

Ok so he might have lied about somethings, but does that debunk the experiences he had completley?

[radiometer]

How is one supposed to discern the fiction from the truth? One cannot even be sure that Don Juan ever existed outside the mind of Carlos Castaneda.

I think one can discuss spiritual use of datura by shamans, which is (I assume) well documented, without resort to the fictional work of a con man.

[TheBlackPope]

Alright.

[radiometer]

I should mention that I am in no way discouraging your interest in this topic, nor your appreciation for Castaneda's books. I enjoy reading them as well. But the only really interesting contribution he made was to the world of ideas, not of science.