There are nearly a hundred different types of hallucinogenic substances around the world, and many have been in use for centuries. A drug called ebene, for example, is used by the Yanomamo Indians, who live near the border between Brazil and Venezuela. They make a green pasty mixture from a powder derived from a tree that grows sparsely throughout the region. The initial experience is painful, but eventually be comes pleasurable, and may bring the person face to face with the spirit world. Within a few minutes, one has difficulty focusing and begins to see spots and blips of light.
Knees get rubbery.
Soon spirits can be seen dancing out of the sky and from the mountain tops, rhythmically prancing down their trails to enter the chest of their human beckoner, who by now is singing to lure them into his body where he can control them send them to harm enemies or help cure sick kinsmen. LSD raises levels of emotionality that can produce profound changes in perception, usually vivid visual hallucinations. Now we know that serotonin levels increase because LSD acts on serotonin receptor sites, much like a neurotransmitter. The changes in mood that take place with LSD are usually exaggerations of one's present mood. From the start this has been viewed as one of the dangers of the drug.