Stahl Shrine

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Stahl Shrine #

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Cover of LSI: Ancient LSD, Secret of the Eleusis Kykeon and Vedic Soma by Matthew Ray Stahl
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Orientation #

For millennia, what the ancients were brewing for their kykeon and soma rites has stumped alchemists, chemists, and scholars alike. What follows is not a historical reconstruction (the ancients had neither coffee grinders nor 95% ethanol). It’s Stahl’s proposed adaptation for the modern era. Treat it as a strong hypothesis awaiting archaeological proof.

Kykeon is similar in effect to MDMA, but the lowest dose of kykeon is like the maximum dose of MDMA.

Tolerance resets in at most 3 days (X is a day of use, O is a day without): X O O O X

🏗️ Under renovation. This shrine is being upgraded as befits its glory and wonder. Expect rough edges while the work is under way.
  1. Use the pharmacokinetics tool to plan your journey.
  2. Procure fresh young barley grass powder. Each serving should be in an individually sealed packet.
  3. Follow an aldehyde preserving diet starting at least 18 hours prior to administration.
  4. Extract ergine/LSA
  5. Practice meditation to ensure you’ll meet the kykeon in the best possible frame of mind. Kykeon isn’t like cannabis—indifferent to whatever mood you present.
  6. Implement plan from step 1.

Pharmacokinetics #

What follows is a guess built from journey reports,1 turned into a simulator to make specific predictions. Picture the body as three compartments. The stomach holds ergine and barley grass aldehydes (NOT REALISTIC). The liver either passes ergine through untouched or converts it into kykeon, depending on whether aldehydes are present. The brain is where the subjective effects happen.

Ergine trickles out of the stomach slowly: it takes about 30 minutes to start, the rate peaks around 3-4 hours in, and it’s fully released by around 7 hours. Barley grass aldehydes leave the stomach fast, in about 5 minutes. In the liver, aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) attacks whatever aldehydes have arrived. When aldehyde is present in the liver, all ergine arriving is converted into kykeon instead of passing through. Kykeon has a short half-life in the brain. Ergine is largely cleared by the kidneys, and that requires drinking water.

Drag the sliders below, click the timeline, and see what the model predicts.

Ergine/LSA Extraction #

Even beginning chemists will recognize this as a straightforward LSA extraction.

  1. Grind the seeds to a fine powder in the grinder .
  2. In a shot glass, combine the seed powder with 30mg tartaric acid and the ethanol. Stir for ten minutes.
  3. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes (1 hour is better), to let the seed fragments settle out of the solution.
  4. Pour only the clear liquid into the baking dish. Discard any cloudy liquid and spent seed matter. Let a fan carry the alcohol away.

Materials #

  • 25 HBWR (Argyreia nervosa, Hawaiian baby woodrose) seeds
  • 30mg tartaric acid
  • 30ml of 95% ethanol (or purer)

Tools of the Rite

  • Spice/coffee grinder
  • Shot glass
  • Refrigerator
  • Small glass baking dish
  • Fan
  • Magnetic stir machine (optional)

Aldehydes TLC #

Tender young barley grass aldehydes (isovaleraldehyde, valeraldehyde, and crotonaldehyde) are vulnerable to oxidation and metabolization. Prior to ingesting, freshness is paramount; each serving should be in an individually sealed packet. After ingesting, big bad aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) can prematurely degrade these little beauties. Some foods inhibit ALDH (helping preserve the aldehydes) while others invigorate it (accelerating their breakdown). So, food choices in the days around the rite are key.

Eat:

  • Fruits
    • Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum)2
    • Chinese quince (Chaenomeles sinensis)2
    • Cocoa3
    • Dates3
    • Durian (Durio zibethinus)4
    • Gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica)3
    • Lemon (yellow)2
    • Papaya3
    • Pineapple3
    • Pomegranate3
    • Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola)2
    • Wax apple (Syzygium samarangense)2
  • Vegetables
    • Spinach3
  • Grains and legumes
    • Millet3
    • Oats3
    • Peanuts3
    • Sorghum3
  • Spices
    • Cinnamon3
    • Garlic (Allium sativum)5
    • Ginger (Zingiber officinale)3
    • Pepper3
    • Peppermint (Mentha piperita) essential oil6
    • Turmeric3
  • Other
    • Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)3

Consider:

  • Spices

Everything not listed under Eat or Consider above is effectively Avoid.

Avoid list (foods confirmed to invigorate ALDH)
  • Fruits
    • Coconut water3
    • Mango (Mangifera indica)8
    • Orange3
    • Pear3
    • Persimmon (Diospyros kaki)8
    • Sweet lime3
  • Vegetables
    • Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)8
    • Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc.)9
    • Cucumber3
    • Onion (Allium cepa)3
    • Tomato3210
  • Seeds
    • Fenugreek seeds (Trigonella foenum-graecum)8311
  • Herbs and spices
    • Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)8
    • Tea3

This avoid list makes the point that there’s no obvious pattern separating Eat from Avoid. Pear and orange invigorate ALDH while gooseberry, pineapple, and pomegranate preserve it. Cucumber and tomato invigorate it while spinach preserves it. So don’t guess the classification (not “citrus,” not “nightshades,”). If a food isn’t on the Eat or Consider list above, treat it as Avoid.

We can guess why Stahl’s book has no chapter on ALDH-preserving foods: His default diet did not invigorate ALDH.12

Sample Rite #

Theory is nothing without a day to hang it on. Here’s how one rite might play out.

Lest We Forget #

We lost this knowledge for a couple thousand years. Let’s not make it a habit. Write it down and pass it on. Keep the kykeon flowing.

Notes #

  1. Deepest, most fervent thanks to Hamilton Morris—intrepid psychonaut who marched fearlessly into the ergine-aldehyde unknown so the rest of us wouldn’t have to. May his liver enzymes be forever blessed. Read the saga in The Kykeon Cold Case. ↩︎

  2. Zhang, Y. J., Wang, F., Zhou, Y., Li, Y., Zhou, T., Zheng, J., Zhang, J. J., Li, S., Xu, D. P., & Li, H. B. (2016). Effects of 20 selected fruits on ethanol metabolism: Potential health benefits and harmful impacts. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(4), 399. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Srinivasan, S., Dubey, K. K., & Singhal, R. S. (2019). Influence of food commodities on hangover based on alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase activities. Current research in food science, 1, 8–16. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Maninang, J. S., Lizada, M. C. C., & Gemma, H. (2009). Inhibition of aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme by Durian (Durio zibethinus Murray) fruit extract. Food Chemistry, 117(2), 352-355. Dose-dependent inhibition of yeast ALDH, up to 70% at 0.33ppm, attributed to durian’s sulphur-rich compounds—the same mechanism behind disulfiram-ethanol-like reactions when durian is eaten with alcohol. ↩︎

  5. Iciek, M., Bilska-Wilkosz, A., Górny, M., Sokołowska-Jeżewicz, M., & Kowalczyk-Pachel, D. (2016). The effects of different garlic-derived allyl sulfides on anaerobic sulfur metabolism in the mouse kidney. Antioxidants, 5(4), 46. Diallyl trisulfide (DATS), one of garlic’s organosulfur compounds, significantly decreased ALDH activity in mouse kidney (p = 0.018); diallyl sulfide and diallyl disulfide had no significant effect. ↩︎

  6. Elder, T. D., Segal, S., Maxwell, E. S., & Topper, Y. J. (1960). Some steroid hormone-like effects of menthol. Science, 132(3421), 225–226. ↩︎

  7. Myristicin, present in both mace and nutmeg, is psychoactive in its own right. So treat these as an unknown wildcard rather than a straightforward ALDH-preserving spice. ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. Wang, F., Li, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Zhou, Y., Li, S., & Li, H. B. (2016). Natural products for the prevention and treatment of hangover and alcohol use disorder. Molecules, 21(1), 64. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  9. Ushida, Y., & Talalay, P. (2013). Sulforaphane accelerates acetaldehyde metabolism by inducing aldehyde dehydrogenases: relevance to ethanol intolerance. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 48(5), 526–534. ↩︎

  10. Srinivasan et al. (2019) placed tomato under “Avoid” (ALDH-invigorating). But Zhang et al. (2016) measured a 46.14% decrease in hepatic ALDH activity in mice given tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) juice after alcohol dosing, which would suggest “Eat.” In view of the disagreement, keep under “Avoid.” ↩︎

  11. Srinivasan et al. (2019) measured a 62.40% decrease in ALDH activity for fenugreek seeds, which would suggest “Eat.” But Wang et al. (2016) reported that fenugreek seed polyphenolic extract upregulated ALDH expression in alcohol-treated liver cells. In view of the disagreement, keep under “Avoid.” ↩︎

  12. Stahl (pp. 216-217): “For as long as I can remember I have followed a ketogenic diet consisting of proteins like eggs, chicken, flank steak, brisket, turkey, pork, hamburger meat, fish. Fats consisting of olive oil, avocados, the fats in meats, salad dressing such as blue cheese, sour cream. Low carbs consist of non starchy vegetables like broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, squash, zucchini and cabbage.” But he must be eating minuscule amounts of broccoli and cabbage (ALDH-inducers). We should not follow Stahl here: Keto diets carry serious risks and few benefits. ↩︎

September 29, 2026