There are two substances called mescal.

The first is the mescal bean (Calia spp.), which is very toxic. One bean is enough to cause nausea, seizures, and death. It may -- or may not -- have been used at one time as a hallucinogen and in divination. Mescal beans share a southwest US and Mexico range with the peyote cactus. Mescal beans are now sometimes worn on a string as an amulet.

The second is mescal or mezcal, which is a distilled spirit made from agave or maguey plants, succulents in the family Agavaceae. This is the famous drink with the worm in it. The undistilled fermented sap of the agave is called pulque. In Nahuatl, the distilled drink is mexcalli -- hence mescal.

My guess is that Richard may have had interesting conversations with this mescal.

The primary psychoactive alkaloid of the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii) is called mescaline. I have no idea why it was called this instead of, say, peyotine. My guess is that there was some confusion with the active constituent of the mescal bean, which is called cytisine.

Although Carlos Castaneda did a lot of reading, he tended to get some details wrong, especially about how to live in the Sonoran desert. His apparent creation of the mescalito spirit seems to me to fall in the error category.

Again, if anyone can provide me with any references to the contrary, I would be happy to hear about it. Being right is fun, but it is less fun than learning something new.

-- Steve

www.singingtotheplants.com/

i definitely believe in these plant spirits, some show up different for others. giving them a name is not of the importance. also i believe they communicate on a whole other level with sound, visions, sensations, vibrations. not buy having a simple ENGLISH conversation with you. "HEY HOW"S IT GOING THERE" type conversation or "YEAH YOU SHOULD STOP DOING THAT AND DO THIS" i think this is just your mind chatter, chattin it up with your ego, your subconscious, your unconscious. but when your communicating IN a supra-conscious state (when your really high) you are limitless with language. you are dealing with UNIVERSAL language or MOTHER EARTH'S language when working with these spirits. you are learning another language which is beyond the speaking tongue. this plant spirit is teaching your spirit, you are learning from it and it is learning from you. sometimes they know a little bit more about yourself then you do. maybe this why purging happens with some of these plant beings. it is like pressing the delete button on the computer to allow room for plant medicine download.

speaking of amazonian plant medicine, this is why the dieta is so important. it is not just drinking ayahuasca. your body becomes this garden as you diet the many plants and learn their beautiful medicine. this way you are able to absorb more of the teaching and when it is time to call upon these particular plant spirits and their medicine to help, they will be their for you whether you are high or not. (when your ready your ready) and again this is just my belief, also this is what the plants had told me. hahaha

many blessing