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Psychedelic Scriptures and Celestial Sight: Atropa Belladonna and Myrrh
From Cleopatra’s nightshades to modern myopia cures — psychoactive lore, spiritual rituals, and medical advancements
This is an excerpt of Sky Gods and the Recipe for Immortality: The secret influence of psychoactivity over science, society, and the supernatural.
Atropa belladonna’s effects share key parallels with Genesis’ eye-opening effects of the Biblical forbidden fruit. In addition to being used by Renaissance women, Cleopatra famously used the enchanting plant to dilate her pupils.
Modern science is showing Atropa belladonna’s potential for curing myopia, as Ohio State News reported in 2023:
“The results of a new clinical trial suggest that the first drug therapy to slow the progression of nearsightedness in kids could be on the horizon. The three-year study found that a daily drop in each eye of a low dose of atropine, a drug used to dilate pupils, was better than a placebo at limiting eyeglass prescription changes and inhibiting elongation of the eye in nearsighted children aged 6 to 10…
About one in three adults worldwide is nearsighted, and the global prevalence of myopia is predicted to increase to 50% by 2050.”
