For hundreds of years,forest-dwelling shamans throughout the upper Amazonhave used...

[narrator] For hundreds of years,
forest-dwelling shamans throughout the upper Amazon
have used Ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew that contains DMT, to access spiritual knowledge
that could help treat a variety of illnesses. When the Spanish invaded the Americas,
a Franciscan friar recorded use of peyote, the cacti that contain mescaline,
in what is now Northern Mexico. He reported, “Those who eat it
see terrifying and amusing visions.” Further south, the Aztecs
ate little mushrooms with honey. Some saw themselves dying in a vision
and wept. The Spanish viewed this tradition
as a threat to Christianity. And they actually brutally suppressed
the "mushroom cult," as they called it