An ancient hallmark of human societies has been the deliberate intoxication of the body and mind in order to facilitate altered states of consciousness. Some people go so far as saying that deliberate intoxication is a sign of high cultural intelligence and self-awareness - it shows an understanding of a certain causality for relationships the environment, it is often done in groups and it has often become a custom or tradition that is eventually being handed down to younger generations.
And while anthropologists and ethnobotanists are keen on researching these behaviors in human societies, types of deliberate intoxication in social settings can also be observed in many species of the animal kingdom. And that's where it gets really interesting...
For today we will take a look at dolphins.
Underwater psychonauts
Dolphins must be some of the most incredible beings sharing the Earth with us. They have been observed to be highly social mammals with a large degree of cognitive abilities and a wide range of emotional characteristics.
But while there are great propositions and theories about their cultural life and even their potential use of highly advanced forms of language and communication, recently dolphins have been filmed in what could be called a shamanic ceremony, hacking some of nature's defence mechanism in order to gain altered states of mind, eerily similar to what human shamans have been doing for thousands of years with plants and - say - psychoactive toads.
Puff, puff, give the pufferfish
The pufferfish is known to be a highly hazardous organism that uses poison to fend off its attackers. But similarly to human beings dolphins have figured out that many poisonous things that are fatal in high doses can be extremely interesting or even beneficial in small doses when consumed with care.
And so, the BBC filmed this group of dolphins recently who seem to not only utilize the toxic pufferfish to get high - they also pass the fish around to their fellow dolphins to take a hit before they let the pufferfish go on its way unharmed. The behavior of the dolphins strongly hints at the notion that they have just intoxicated themselves purposefully to be absolutely blissed out ;)
Before I write any more about it, you just have to see it, here's the clip with the pufferfish that raised eyebrows around the world in recent years.
A word of caution
Though this certainly looks convincing we have to remember that all of these claims may in the end turn out to be fabrications by TV studios. Don't get me wrong, I would love this dolphin intoxication to be real, and I find it rather likely that that is the case, but we have been fooled so many times by claims made on Television, and the degree of manipulation that is possible through the preselection of pictures coupled with a certain narrative can make something seem objectively true when it in fact isn't.
Then again, looking at the dolphins' eyes and body language I see no reason to doubt the validity of these claims.
As always, I invite you to make up your own mind and to follow your own intuition when observing this group of dolphins doing their thing ;)
What do you think? Is this legit? Can you see dolphins behaving in ways reminiscent of human beings deliberately getting intoxicated?
To me it seems natural that this would be the case, largely because I consider most animals' cognitive abilitzies to be highly underestimated in the public arena because they don't build skyscrapers or telephones - at least none that we know of yet, maybe they exist in the depths of the ocean somewhere and we are the idiots for not having found them ;)
Image sources:
unsplash.com
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Check out other parts of this series:
Life Is Weird: The Bird That Echoes Human Endeavours | Pt. 1
Thanks for stopping by <3