Indians of North America -- Religion; Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies; Peyotism
These colours may assume all kinds of fantastic shapes; they
are never still, but constantly in motion, sometimes in a
circular or to-and-fro manner, but more generally there
is a kind of pulsation somewhat similar to that in the
cinematograph.[13]
Both native visions and white observations testify abundantly to the
phenomena of synaesthesis, or the perception of the data of one sense in
terms of another. Rouhier figures a painting made by an experimenter in
which the sound of a bell is seen as a surréaliste aggregate of flowing,
pulsating lines; and a subject of Havelock Ellis had a “curious sensation
of tasting colors.” Crichtly mentions a color-taste synaesthesia
also.[14] All these phenomena are physiological constants, as indicated
by comparison of native visions with white experimenters’ observations.
After visual hallucinations far the commonest are auditory ones. The
writer, with a number of other observers, has noted the preternatural
resonance, hollowness, discreteness and far-away quality of one’s own
voice; if vocal disfunction were involved one would expect a raising of
pitch here, hence it is probably auditory. On this point Dixon bears
critical evidence:[15]
The whole effect of the sound of the piano was most curious
and delightful, the whole air being filled with music, each
note of which seemed to arrange itself around a medley of
other notes which appeared to me to be surrounded by a halo of
colour pulsating to the music. Nasal hyperaesthesia was also
present, though less evident than either the visual or auditory
phenomena.
The more strictly physiological effects may be summed up as follows:[16]
_Skin_: no local irritation on injection of pan-peyotl; one
observer reports partial skin anaesthesia, but this does not
affect cutaneous reflex-excitability, which is much increased.
_Respiration_: moderate amounts in Rana esculens produce no
effect, but in toxic doses respiration becomes quicker and
shallower, death ultimately occurring from paralysis of the
respiratory center. In man respiration is ordinarily not
affected, but some observers report shallower and more rapid
breathing with “occasional long-drawn and deep sighs, and a
painful feeling of suffocation.” Still another observer states
that “respiration slows immediately after injection but is not
influenced in a durable manner.”[17]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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