An entheogen is a recently coined word to describe a plant that is used by a group of people for sacred or spiritual purposes. The word was created by ethnobotanical scholars – the study of plants in human culture – to distinguish the sacred or religious use of psychedelic plants from the recreational use of psychedelic plants.
The term entheogen arose from researchers understanding that cultures for thousands of years across the globe have used certain psychoactive plants for religious, spiritual, or self-improvement purposes, rather than using them for fun. Connotations of recreational psychedelic drug use such as being delusional, delirious, hallucinating, or intoxicated, do not accurately describe the ways in which many cultures experience the effects of the plants, nor the intentions that they have in taking them. Indeed, many cultures have used and continue to use psychedelic substances as a means of communicating with spirits, purging negative energy, or having transcendental or revelatory experiences.
Evidence for historical use of entheogens in religious or spiritual practice date back thousands of years and evidence abounds that psychedelic plants have played a role in religions across the world, not being isolated to a specific continent or group of people. In North and South America, entheogens such as mescaline from cacti, psilocybin in psychoactive mushrooms, and ayahuasca from South American plants have been used by both native and immigrant cultures. The ancient holy Indian vedic texts refer to cannabis as a sacred plant given to humans by the gods. Cannabis preparations are still used in Hindu religious ceremonies to this day and cannabis is an important part of the modern Rastafari religion in Jamaica and much of the Caribbean. Modern Buddhist thought also includes some opinion that psychedelics have a place in complimenting Buddhism’s teachings.
In today’s world of regulation and prohibition of certain plants deemed dangerous for consumption by many governments, entheogens are still used in certain circumstances. This is mostly possible by arguing that the historical use of entheogens in religious practice should exempt them from prohibition on the grounds of freedom of religion. Modern-day religions such as Santo Daime and União do Vegetal in Brazil are legally allowed to consume ayahuasca responsibly as a part of their religious practices. The Native American Church, the foundation of which dates back to the 1890s in what would later become the American state of Oklahoma, uses peyote as a part of its sacraments.
