Datura

         Datura (or Thorn Apple) has long been used as a sacred
         hallucinogen, especially in Mexico and the American Southwest, and
it has played a major role in native medicine and magico-religious rites.
The Datura plant has also been recognized since ancient times as a dangerous
and potent narcotic.

In the Old World, Datura has had a long history as a medicine and sacred
hallucinogen. Early Sanskrit and Chinese writings mention Datura metel. It
was undoubtedly this species that the Arabian doctor Avicenna reported in
the eleventh century under the name Jouz-mathal ("metal nut"); this report
was repeated in Dioscorides's writings. The name Metel is taken from this
Arabic term, while the generic epithet Datura was adapted to Latin by
Linnaeus from the Sanskrit Dhatura. In China, the plant was considered
sacred: when Buddha was preaching, heaven sprinkled the plant with dew or
raindrops. A Taoist legend maintains that Datura metel is one of the
circumpolar stars and that envoys to earth from this star carry a flower of
the plant in their hand.

In ancient China, Datura was taken together with Cannabis in wine as an
anesthesia for minor surgery. In India , it was called the tuft of Shiva,
the god of destruction. Dancing girls sometimes drugged wine with its seeds,
and whoever drank of the potion, appearing in possession of his senses, gave
answers to questions, although he had no control over his will, was ignorant
of whom he was addressing, and lost all memory of what he did when the
intoxication wore off.

Even today, seeds of powdered leaves of this plant are often mixed with
Cannabis or Tobacco and smoked in Indochina. In 1578, its use as an
aphrodisiac in the East Indies was reported by psychic investigators. The
English herbalist Gerard believed that Datura was the Hippomanes which the
Greek writer Theocritus mentioned as driving horses mad. In ancient Greece,
the priests of Apollo are believed to have induced their prophetic state
with Datura.

When intoxicated by Datura, physiological activity begins with a feeling of
lassitude and progress into a period of hallucinations followed by a deep
sleep and loss of consciousness. In excessive doses, death or permanent
insanity may occur.

(http://psychicinvestigator.com/pise/Drugs/Datura.htm)