Dr. Hofmann found that the alkaloidal components of 
the two seeds were identical, and they yielded d-lysergic 
acid amide and d-isolysergic acid amide, in the LSD 25 
family of substances and known heretofore only as de- 
rivatives of ergot. Is it not surprising to find in higher 
plants such as the Convolvulaceae the same lysergic acid 
derivatives as in the lower fungi’ The third substance 
found in these seeds was chanoclavine, also isolated by 
Dr. Hofmann et al. some years ago from a culture of 
Claviceps species. * 
Thus it comes about that, thanks to the achievements 
of our biological chemists, we may be on the brink of re- 
discovering what was common knowledge among the 
ancient Greeks. I predict that the secret of the Mysteries 
will be found in the indoles, whether derived from mush- 
rooms or from higher plants or, as in Mexico, from both. 
I would not be understood as contending that only 
these substances (wherever found in nature) bring about 
visions and ecstasy. Clearly some poets and prophets and 
many mystics and ascetics seem to have enjoyed ecstatic 
visions that answer the requirements of the ancient Mys- 
teries and that duplicate the mushroom agapé of Mexico. 
I do not suggest that St. John of Patmos ate mushrooms 
in order to write the Book of the Revelation. Yet the 
succession of images in his Vision, so clearly seen and yet 
Ozolotepee and San Andrés Lovene, District of Miahuatlan; and 
finally a settlement called Roalo, between Zaachila and Zimatlan, just 
south of the city of Oaxaca. In San Bartolo J. violacea is used to the 
exclusion of Rivea corymbosa, but in the other towns both are used. 
These data are based on personal correspondence and also Thomas 
MacDougall: Ipomoea tricolor: A Hallucinogenic Plant of the Zapo- 
tecs, in Boletin of the Centro de Investigaciones Antropolégicas de 
México, No. 6, March 1, 1960. Reports from Juquila, to the west of 
the Zapotec towns mentioned above, indicate that J. violacea seeds may 
also be used among the Chatino Indians. 
* A. Hofmann with R. Brunner, H. Kobel, and A. Brack, Helv. 
Chem. Acta, 1957, 40: 1358. 
[ 153 ] 
