Psychedelic bodily fluids? by Bill Walters

During my researches I keep stumbling across references and allusions to a rather tantalising idea - that someone who has attained a high level of spiritual accomplishment undergoes a permanent biochemical change in their body which results in their bodily fluids - saliva, sweat, blood and semen - becoming, well, entheogenic/empathogenic, for want of a better word.

Consider the following passages:

"I know a saint in India who exudes a sweetness sweeter than the finest hive. His name is Poonja. His fragrance - how difficult it is to describe it, something that only the cliche of milk and honey might approach - hangs in the air of his little room and is breathed down in gulps by the stream of people who come to see him. The presence of Poonja floats like a feather on the warm Indian air. In his view, there is nothing to reach. He simply lives in the delight of being and this is his message which he emits like a flower..." Roger Housden, Soul and Sensuality

"Baraka (a Sufi word for spiritual power) is essentially a transmissible virtue, one of the most effective methods being for a saint to spit in the mouth of anyone he wishes to benefit....." C.G.Seligman, Races of Africa

This idea comes very close to the notion of tsentsak, described in Michael Harner's essay on Jivaro shamanism called The Sound of Rushing Water. He writes, "To give the novice some tsentsak, the practising shaman regurgitates what appears to be - to those who have taken natema (a powerful hallucinogenic brew) - a brilliant substance in which the spirit helpers are contained. He cuts off part of it with a machete and gives it to the novice to swallow...."

Then there are the enigmatic words of Jesus in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, who says to Thomas, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out.....He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am....."

And one has only to dip into John Allegro's book The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth to realise that semen and menstrual blood (from fully-enlightened Gnostics?) was consumed with relish by devotees during the early Christian "love feasts".

The following evocative fragment from Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach) 24:19-22 written about 190BC, underlines this notion:

"Approach me, you who desire me,
and take your fill of my fruits,
for memories of me are sweeter than honey,
inheriting me is sweeter than the honeycomb.
They who eat me will hunger for more,
they who drink me will thirst for more...."

Considering how closely related many hallucinogens are to chemicals within the human brain (DMT being just one of them) is it too much of a stretch of the imagination that a person who has undergone a major spiritual transformation might not start pumping out a powerful entheogenic/empathogenic compounds from his or her body?

Who knows, perhaps the real significance of the earliest shamans is that the tribal members came and literally drank their juices in order to achieve a state of consciousness in which all were fused for a few hours into one, single living, loving organism.

So here's a slightly messianic idea for all you aspiring shamans. Maybe the ultimate point of taking hallucinogens is to strive to awaken the dormant organ within (pineal gland?) which will, when activated, pump out a pheromonal psychedelic which will intoxicate everybody around you whether they like it or not.

If this really is an attainable goal, it will be interesting to see how the FDA copes with the problem. Instead of being in possession of a banned substance, one IS the banned substance!

Additional references to this meme. -dimitri

"The devadasis of Hindu temples, prostitute-priestesses dispensed the grace of the Goddess in ancient Middle-Eastern temples. They were often known as Charites or Graces, since they dealt in the unique combination of beauty and kindness called charis (Latin caritas) that was later translated "charity." Actually it was like Hindu karuna, a combination of mother-love, tenderness, comfort, mystical enlightenment, and sex. Hesiod said the sensual magic of the sacred whores or Horae "mellowed the behavior of men." Ishtar, the Great Whore of Babylon, announced, "A prostitute compassionate am I." Mary Magdalene said of her sisters in the profession, "Not only are we compassionate of ourselves, but we are compassionate of all the race of mankind." Ancient harlots often commanded high social status and were revered for their learning. As embodiments of the Queen of Heaven, in Palestine called Qadeshet, the Great Whore, the harlots were honored like queens at centers of learning. Temple prostitutes were revered as healers of the sick. Their very secretions were supposed to have medical virtue. A Sufi proverb still suggests this opinion: "There is healing in a woman’s vagina." Even their spittle could perform cures." from The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets