islamabad - Native Californians gathered in a cave — underneath a painting of a hallucinogenic plant — to get high some five centuries ago, a study has concluded.
Researchers from the UK and the US found that a spiral artform daubed on a wall of a cave south of Bakersfield resembled the intoxicating flower known as ‘sacred datura’. Furthermore, they found remains of the flower’s fibres that had been chewed up and embedded into the ceiling of the cave.
The finding challenges a long-debated theory — the ‘altered states of consciousness’ model — that the makers of rock art may have in a trance state while painting. Instead of being an attempt to capture in painting the visual phenomena observed while under the plant’s influence, the art represented the flower itself, the team said. This image of the plant may thus have served to convey knowledge about the plant in preparation for communal hallucinogenic experiences.