She reportedly said, “ Why did you awaken me, badness to you, at such an inauspicious moment? Why I was surrounded by all the delights in the world.” He also revealed that the substance was composed of “ soporific herbs such as hemlock, nightshade, henbane, and mandrake,” and that the woman was not at all pleased about being woken up. He then tested it on another woman with the following result: “ No sooner did I anoint her than she opened her eyes wide like a rabbit, and soon they looked like those of a cooked hare when she fell into such a profound sleep that I thought I should never be able to awake her… However … after the lapse of thirty-six hours, I restored her to her senses and sanity.” Many well-respected members of society (read: non-witches, usually men) were investigating the properties of these potions, including court physician Andres De Laguna, who in the 16th century studied such a substance after taking it from the home of a woman accused of being a witch. Fairly early on, the pioneers of getting high realized they could bypass this discomfort by simply absorbing the drug through the skin. Most of these hallucinogens also produced unwanted side effects when ingested, including rash, nausea and vomiting. Together, these intrepid researchers discerned a variety of poisons that, in lesser quantities, could produce a desirable hallucinogenic effect. Popular plants experimented on included several tropane alkaloids like henbane ( Hyoscyamus niger), jimsonweed ( Datura stramonium), mandrake ( Mandragora officinarum), and deadly nightshade ( Atropa belladonna). Not everyone who experienced ergot poisoning minded the experience, and in fact many people, including women, actively worked with a variety of other plants for the express purpose of inducing sleep, as well as hallucinations. Thus, when a supply of rye became contaminated with ergot, those who consumed it sometimes also got a strong hit of the LSD-like fungus. Notably, ergot contains a number of compounds including some hallucinogens.

Susceptible to a disease known as ergot, caused by the fungus, Claviceps purpurea, rye was so commonly infected with it that until the 1850s, people thought the purple ergot that grew on the rye was actually a part of the plant. Until quite recently, rye was the primary grain from which bread was made. To get high, of course! But seriously, it’s thought the idea of witches flying around on broomsticks came from the practice of concocting “witches flying ointment” (read hallucinogens) and then using a broomstick to administer the drug to certain sensitive regions, thereby bypassing some of the negative side effects these hallucinogens cause when taken orally.

Flying broomstick