Ancient Trips

I just came across a few crazy things while browsing the web that I'm just going to combine into one wild psychoactive post.

While looking at images on Fffound! I ended up on a link to this visually insane animated promo for MTV.

MTV Sight from ilovedust on Vimeo.

Then I was on BoingBoing & saw this article about the study of ritual use of psychedelic substances throughout history. The premise is that our ancestors took part in practices such as fasting, sensory deprivation, and imbibing in plants or drinks that altered your senses. Combined with sacred architecture that amplified the effects, the vision quests of ancient people could be found around the globe. This probably occurred on a larger social scale to the Egyptian initiates, the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the pre-colonial cultures of Mesoamerica. This possibility should be fairly obvious to anyone with an understanding of history and, more importantly, human nature. Even today, there is a drug-fueled rite of passage many young people are known to go through... it's known as 'college'.

Discovery.com
"Acoustic Archaeology Yielding
Mind-Tripping Tricks"

I experienced the chirping echo of the Temple of Kukulkan myself when my family vacationed in the Mexican Yucatan a few years ago. However, my mind was not being altered by anything- other than perhaps the 100º+ heat at Chichen Itza that day.

Finally, I was just searching Google for Mayan graphics when I saw this very freaky 3D rendering of a Aztec Priest by digital artist Sofia Vela Cruz. She really gave the character the kind of sociopathic feel that you'd expect from a priest who eats magic mushrooms then rips the hearts out of other humans.

Click on the image for her website: