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Michael Carmichael
http://www.michaelcarmichael.com
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Biography
Michael Carmichael is a historian and author. He received his B. A. degree from the University of North Carolina, and he has conducted post-graduate research in the history of science at many Universities and research institutions. He studied anthropology with Weston La Barre of Duke University, ethnobotany with R. Gordon Wasson of the Harvard Botanical Museum, and he studied psychoanalysis privately in Princeton. Working with La Barre and Wasson, he accepted their assignment to investigate the impact of psychoactive shamanism in the major occidental sources, and in 1985, he moved to Oxford in order to access major archives of unpublished manuscripts relevant to the origins of science. |
He read the alchemical manuscripts of Isaac Newton deposited in Cambridge; many alchemical manuscripts in the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nacionale; the Ashmolean and Digby collections of alchemical manuscripts deposited in the Bodleian Library, as well as many early alchemical manuscripts located in Milan, Florence and Venice. He has examined the archive of Howard Carter, the discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun, deposited at the Griffith Institute in Oxford. In 1998, he appeared on the Channel 4 television series, 'Sacred Weeds' which investigated the use of psychoactive substances in archaic shamanism and ancient Egypt. He lives and works in Oxford, where he is writing a history of the origin of science from shamanism.
The Lecture...
CENSING THE GOD: PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES IN ANCIENT EGYPT
The first lecture was given by Michael Carmichael, an expert in ethnobotany and in particular the use of mind-expanding drugs in shamanistic-based societies.
I chose Michael as a lecturer after watching the SACRED WEEDS TV documentary series to which he was a consultant and researcher. One episode focused on the prevalence of blue water lily imagery in Egyptian art and culture, and it was this he concentrated in his talk. Michael ran through a series of slides, almost exclusively from Egypt's controversial Amarna period. This began with the pharaoh Akhenaten around 1378 BC and included the 12-year reign of the boy king Tutankhamun. Tiles, friezes and jewellery from this era frequently portrayed not just the psychoactive mandrake plant, but also the blue water lily. Drugs such as mandrake would have been burnt on incense holders and the fumes absorbed through the nasal passage.
The SACRED WEEDS programme proposed that the blue water lily had been used as a major stimulant both for ritual and social purposes. It obtained samples of the flower, which grows on water, and infused this with wine as is suggested by certain friezes showing the flower being used in social situations. Two volunteers, one male the other female, agreed to sample the concoction in order that Egyptologists might monitor the response. The results were compelling, showing that the subjects experienced an acute sense of euphoria and well-being, extending beyond that which might have been achieved simply by consuming wine alone.
I watched the programme transfixed, not just by the evidence which suggested that the blue water lily was used as a psychoactive drug but also by the response of the two volunteers in the presence of some rather stuffy observers. It was incredible television. Indeed, it was one of the most compelling documentaries that I have ever seen, and would love a copy if anyone has one. It convinced me completely of the significance of the blue water lily in ancient Egypt.
Michael showed slides of beautiful alabaster vases found in the tomb of Tutankhamun fashioned to resemble both the stem and flower of the blue water lily. These, Michael suggested, were used by the king to consume extracts of the plant. Friezes showed the pharaoh surrounded by the blue water lily and also the mandrake plant. This has led Michael to conclude that the image of the pharaoh as a militaristic leader, smiting his enemies, diverts us from the real fact that Egyptian kings considered the use of drugs, such as the blue water lily and the mandrake, important in communication with the gods. Through this process they could achieve a state of cosmic consciousness necessary for an earthly embodiment of the divine, and this would have been especially so during the Amarna period.
Michael pointed out that the consumption of drugs in Egyptian society extended far beyond the Amarna period and was important to the culture throughout its 3,000-year history. Furthermore, that it might well have had shamanistic roots which predated dynastic history, a theory I put forward in my book GODS OF EDEN He also touched upon the subject of nicotine and cocaine being found in Egyptian mummies during the 1990s by German toxicologist Svetlana Balabanova. Although he admits that the presence of cocaine, the active ingredient of the coca plant, cannot suitably be explained, there are a number of plants which were known to the Egyptians that contain tiny amounts of nicotine. If this is so, then it might be that the Egyptians were able to unlock and absorb their nicotine content in some way. I pointed out in my book GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS that there is strong evidence for the presence in parts of Africa of a wild form of the tobacco plant prior to the age of discovery. However, its origins and classification remain unclear.
Michael's lecture was fascinating and has shown that in Egypt the rites of kingship, as well as the ritual functions of the priesthood, were integrally bound up with the use of psychoactive substances, especially during the Amarna period.
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