Survivor Thailand Psychedelics

[Thunderdog]

I am watching "Survivor: Thailand" show and was wondering what plants might be available to the players on their island. The experience in which they are participating seems to me to be perfectly positioned to "go native" and celebrate primitive rituals for team building and advantage. The available flora on the island might provide the necessary potions to enhance the experience. Thanks.

[Eirias]

Ha ha.. Yeah wouldn't THAT get the ratings going?? I imagine that if there was an ethnobotanist amongst the "Survivors" that he would undoubtedly be the most adaptable to survival in any enviroment with extremely variant foliage.
I do not watch such programs for a myriad of reasons, this particular volume of the series sparks the emergence of the issue of "cultural imperialism" foremost in my mind. We exploit the setting of Thailand for a dubious "competition" which has clear roots in our unempathetic capitalist society, so that the masses can pretend that the consumerist, ecostastus-based culture-- in which we are collectively trapped-- is somehow more "adventurous", "fantastic", or even "mythological" rather than the consciousness 'blindfold' that is the truth of such inane components whci only serve to reinforce the American Way of Life. Just my two cents, though... I DO watch the Simpsons ;)
Anyway to answer your question, indigenous psliocybian fungi native exclusively to Thailand are numerous, the example appearing explicitly in my recollection is Psilocybe Samuiensis, a moderately potent mushroom native onyl to the resort island of Ko Samui, where full-moon PsyTrance parties are sometimes held. The Thai strain of P. cubensis is also rather potent and apparently abudant on the mainland. As far the plant kingdom is concerned, there is of course opium from Papaver somniferum, as well as Kratom, the leaves of the large tree Mitrogyna speciosa, which also possess the capacity for opiate-like effects. I'd even speculate that some of the DMT-containing Acacia species would thrive in SE Asia, but I cannot back this up with hard data.
Hope this answers your question. Please see www.erowid.org (http://www.erowid.org) for incomparable data on these and other entheogenic and psychoactive substances. Also Paul Stamets's magnum opus "Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World" is invauluable in identifying hallucinogenic mushrooms worldwide.