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Hallucinogenic Honey Documentary

Cwest

Cwest

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
233
This is a really neat documentary I thought you guys might like.
I've heard of accidental rhodendron poisonings in ancient times in the Mediterranean area from honey before but this is a neat glimpse at a culture who seek out and enjoy this hallucinogenic and narcotic honey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_b2i_FvYPw&index=53&list=WL

Would you guys try the honey after seeing this?
 
Thanks for that! Was very interesting to watch while I enjoyed a few bags from the vape.

I don't think I'd be interested in tasting the red honey though. Effects seemed similar to drinking too much alcohol plus the convulsions.
 
Cwest said:
This is a really neat documentary I thought you guys might like.
I've heard of accidental rhodendron poisonings in ancient times in the Mediterranean area from honey before but this is a neat glimpse at a culture who seek out and enjoy this hallucinogenic and narcotic honey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_b2i_FvYPw&index=53&list=WL

Would you guys try the honey after seeing this?
Click to expand...
Can you please write more about the Rhododendron poisonings in ancient times in the Mediterranean area from honey? Did people infuse the Rhododendron flowers into the honey or something thinking it was a safe plant to ingest? In which ancient Mediterranean countries did this happen in?
 
read about psychoactive honey that bees gather from datura flowers somewhere but can't find it anymore
 
ill just quote my blog post

"Honeys can definitely be psychoactive at times, depending on the choice of flower pollinated by the bees. I've heard tales (not sure as to the validity) of bee shamanism in the UK, and there is an island off Wales with beehives and an unusual density of Solanaceous plants such as henbane, nightshade and Datura. At certain times of year, when the proportion of flowers in bloom is just right, the bees can produce a powerful visionary honey (or so the theory goes)."


Even if this is hypothetical in nature, the theory behind it is absolutely sound. In Spring this year I did some research on Mexican honey in Texas with a few London based biologists. These are highly social wasps, but like bees, have independently evolved the ability to make and store honey, to fall back on during hard times. In certain times, and in certain places, this honey can be intoxicating/toxic, again due to the wasps pollinating Solanaceous plants such as Datura. Despite warnings of biologist colleagues I did consume some wasp honey on a few occasions (strong, rich, smoky flavour) and alas I was not poisoned. But yeah I think this is an interesting and largely unexplored frontier. Raw, unheated, unprocessed honey is a great food, and I think this is the best form of it to obtain in the hope of experiencing any psychoactive effect; it's certainly the healthiest."

Check erowid for a good article - https://www.erowid.org/animals/bee/

Theres also this paper

Abstract


Herein a brief review, with 49 references, of the history and phytochemistry of toxic honeys, in which bees have sequestered plant secondary compounds naturally occurring in plant nectars (floral and extrafloral). It is hypothesized that such toxic honeys could have served as pointers to psychoactive and other medicinal plants for human beings exploring novel ecosystems, causing such plants to stand out, even against a background of extreme biodiversity. After reviewing various ethnomedicinal uses of toxic honeys, the author suggests that pre-Columbian Yucatecan Mayans intentionally produced a psychoactive honey from the shamanic inebriant Turbina corymbosa as a visionary substrate for manufacture of their ritual metheglin, balché.


Ott, J. (1998) The Delphic bee: Bees and toxic honeys as pointers to psychoactive and other medicinal plants. Economic Botany, 52, (3), 260-266.

http://rbedrosian.com/Ethnob/Ethnob_1998_Ott_Honey.pdf
 
Haha, great watch, thanks for posting!

Hopefully we won't see any Nepalese Honey Retreat advertisements in the near future, hahaha!
 
Is most psychoactive honey not simply fermented alcoholic honey? Most of the "hallucinogenic honey" stories I heard about just seemed to actually be people getting drunk on some of nature's mead. :p

I'm going to check out this documentary now though and see what they have to say. I could see there being psychedelic honey if the bees frequented the right plants ;)
 
I wonder if ergot could be cultivated on something bees like...
 
Jesusgreen said:
Is most psychoactive honey not simply fermented alcoholic honey? Most of the "hallucinogenic honey" stories I heard about just seemed to actually be people getting drunk on some of nature's mead. :p
Click to expand...

ergot alkaloids, tropane alkaloids, terpenoids and cannabinoids are among the chemicals that are stored in honey from the plants bees visit

I wonder if ergot could be cultivated on something bees like...
Click to expand...

no need, just harvest from a hive near plants in the Convolvulaceae family, then you will get plenty of ergoloids
 
just harvest from a hive near plants in the Convolvulaceae family, then you will get plenty of ergoloids
Click to expand...

there's lots of Convolvulaceae that don't produce significant amounts of ergoloids (water spinach, common bindweed) and moreover I don't think the ones that do produce LSA etc excrete a lot of ergoloid in their pollen/nectar.

I have heard of orchids that make oxycodone though. Apparently it gets the bees fucked up, yo, and then they start looking for the xanax bar flowers. </joke>
 
sekio said:
I don't think the ones that do produce LSA etc excrete a lot of ergoloid in their pollen/nectar.
Click to expand...

the Azteks made a psychedelic mead called xtabentun with hives cultivated near ololiuhqui.

it contained a variety or lysergamides and ergoloides
 
Hey guys,
if the honey is hallucinogenic because of the alkaloids in the rhododendron pollen, would it be possible to bypass the bees and just eat the flowers straight from the plant? Would this work? Or does the bee/honey add some chemicals in the mix that are imperative to not get grayanotoxin poisoning?

And if this would be possible, any ideas on dosage?
 
Rhododendrons are quite toxic, it's not safe to attempt to do this.
 
Apart from the rhodondendrons, couldn't one generally just soak the flowers like making elderflower champagne? I guess it's hard to say and you might accidentally be doing a CWE on the flower tissue itself rather than just collecting the pollen.

Even if you could collect pollen yourself it is probably so incredibly low yield that you just couldn't compete with the labor of a hive. Plus with the above sidenote combined, if you'd try to process a huge amount of flowers (sounds sustainable dunnit?) even if you only accidentally extract a tiny amount of unwanted plant material from the flowers (which could make you feel sick or even be seriously toxic), that would probably happen quicker than you would be extracting pollen...

Let's just assume that this would all be ridiculous ideas and that you would not be getting compounds that would be superior to the abundance of psychedelics we currently know.
Still though I feel like I am getting pretty scammed with the honey I normally buy.

Mostly unrelated:

You can make mead (honey wine) not with yeast making your alcohol but oyster mushroom mycelium! 8o Would like to try that sometimes! Although definitely not with mead but another brew.
If you could do that with psilocybin mycelium, whoa :D
And of course, honey is also sometimes used to preserve dried shrooms in.
 
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