On typing this out, I’m suddenly concerned about this being offensive or blatantly false. I never applied critical thought to the story before, as I’m pretty sure I was told it as a relatively young, and more relevantly gullible, man.
Is it true that this mold played a role in the “witches ride broomsticks” stereotype?
It sounds like a few different things got mashed together there. Ergot is a hallucinogenic fungus that grows on rye, and is speculated to be the cause of some of the witch panics. It’s not the same fungus found in Roquefort, but it is what they use to make LSD.
Witches flying is hypothesized to be entheogen use, since a common side effect is feelings of floating, flying, or otherwise ‘being high’.
Ah, I looked it up and accepted “rye bread” without actually reading the name of the fungus, so you’re probably right about that part.
The broomstick myth that I’ve heard does indeed involve substance abuse to achieve an altered state of mind. The broomstick specific part was because apparently some women would put the substance on the end of a broomstick and apply it, shall we say, internally, thinking that this would achieve greater (or perhaps faster) effect. I don’t know whether entheogen was the material in question.
As initially mentioned, I make no claim that this is true, only that I read it a long time ago and never really questioned it.
edit: Forgot to thank you for the clearly knowledgeable response!
I don’t know whether entheogen was the material in question.
En-theo-gen, where ‘theo’ is the same as ‘theology’, roughly means ‘to commune with god’, so it’s any psychoactive substance used religiously. It covers everything from the wine in christian communion to a witch’s psychoactive sybian, haha.
Forgot to thank you for the clearly knowledgeable response!
The fungus you’re thinking of is likely ergot, because it shows up in pretty large volume in batches of rye.
In processing, it ends up as a dark purple/black dried up mass that assumes kinda a crescent shape. Mills will run a batch of rye through a color-sorter - a bunch of times consecutively - to reduce the amount of ergot in the batch before milling.
You can technically refine it into LSD, but if you screw up, you can kill people. (Morning Glories are the preferred method).
The number of 55-gallon drums of ergot I’ve disposed of, though… It’s difficult not to identify with Walter White and wonder… “what if?”
I mentioned in my other comment, but while I did say “this mold” in my initial inquiry, I was thinking more of the method of application than the particular substance.
Thanks for the answer, TIL! For what it’s worth, based on what I remember of the show, going the Walter White route is ill advised.
On typing this out, I’m suddenly concerned about this being offensive or blatantly false. I never applied critical thought to the story before, as I’m pretty sure I was told it as a relatively young, and more relevantly gullible, man.
Is it true that this mold played a role in the “witches ride broomsticks” stereotype?
edit: Removed redundant word.
It sounds like a few different things got mashed together there. Ergot is a hallucinogenic fungus that grows on rye, and is speculated to be the cause of some of the witch panics. It’s not the same fungus found in Roquefort, but it is what they use to make LSD.
Witches flying is hypothesized to be entheogen use, since a common side effect is feelings of floating, flying, or otherwise ‘being high’.
Ah, I looked it up and accepted “rye bread” without actually reading the name of the fungus, so you’re probably right about that part.
The broomstick myth that I’ve heard does indeed involve substance abuse to achieve an altered state of mind. The broomstick specific part was because apparently some women would put the substance on the end of a broomstick and apply it, shall we say, internally, thinking that this would achieve greater (or perhaps faster) effect. I don’t know whether entheogen was the material in question.
As initially mentioned, I make no claim that this is true, only that I read it a long time ago and never really questioned it.
edit: Forgot to thank you for the clearly knowledgeable response!
En-theo-gen, where ‘theo’ is the same as ‘theology’, roughly means ‘to commune with god’, so it’s any psychoactive substance used religiously. It covers everything from the wine in christian communion to a witch’s psychoactive sybian, haha.
Any time!
The fungus you’re thinking of is likely ergot, because it shows up in pretty large volume in batches of rye.
In processing, it ends up as a dark purple/black dried up mass that assumes kinda a crescent shape. Mills will run a batch of rye through a color-sorter - a bunch of times consecutively - to reduce the amount of ergot in the batch before milling.
You can technically refine it into LSD, but if you screw up, you can kill people. (Morning Glories are the preferred method).
The number of 55-gallon drums of ergot I’ve disposed of, though… It’s difficult not to identify with Walter White and wonder… “what if?”
I mentioned in my other comment, but while I did say “this mold” in my initial inquiry, I was thinking more of the method of application than the particular substance.
Thanks for the answer, TIL! For what it’s worth, based on what I remember of the show, going the Walter White route is ill advised.
Iirc the psychoactive compound in ergot/morning glories is LSA, which is similar, but different from LSD. LSD is a refined version of LSA.