How Do Witches Fly?: A Practical Approach to Nocturnal Flights

by Alexander Kuklin

Books which examine the folklore of Europe's traditional "witch" plants are not uncommon, and some give some coverage to describing the psychotropic and hallucinogenic effects of these plants on the human body. However this book is rather more unusual than that in that the author is first and foremost a biochemist with an extensive and intimate knowledge of the alkaloids, or poisonous constituents, for which the plants most commonly listed as being those of flying ointments are rightly famous. Although there is much folkloric material here there is a great quantity of scientific material concerning the physiological effects of the plants and their constituents which is otherwise not easily available to the average reader. Of particular interest, though they may prove distressing for some readers, are the accounts of experiments conducted on bitches to determine the ability of the alkaloids to be absorbed into the body through the vaginal membranes, as well as details of the ways in which the various constituents react against one another to produce sometimes surprising results. For example, one might have imagined that using both aconite (aconitine) and belladonna (atropine) together would have produced a doubly toxic effect on the user, but not the two alkaloids have antagonistic (or opposing) toxic effects upon each other, each neutralizing the most toxic effects of the other while leaving the hallucinogenic effects of both largely intact. This is, in short, a fascinating book for those interested in what these plants actually do (rather than what we think they ought to do) to the user.

Genres: Nonfiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 1999

Reviews

[Angela Maher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read references to the flying ointments of witches before, I thought this would be an interesting read that went into a bit more detail. There are some interesting parts in this book, but unfortunately, as a whole, it's a bit of a mess.
There are numerous errors, with wrong words used (eg 'flower' instead of 'flour', and 'reach and poor' instead of 'rich and poor'), extra words in the middle of sentences that are remnants from when it has been edited, and many cases of sentences being broken up, not formed properly, or just not grammatically correct. In other words, it hasn't been properly proofread.
The tone of writing varies with the subject, and frequently terms simply aren't explained making it difficult to grasp the content.
There are sections that have only a tenuous connection with the subject. In the chapter about herbs, especially, there are long descriptions of plants with no mention of their role in witchcraft, or some where it's stated there is no documented connection.
Also, it frequently mentions witches using the ointments to meet with the devil (or at least being accused of using it for this purpose) but does not mention that witchcraft pre-dates the Bible, and therefore true witchcraft has no connection to Satan.
This has the bones of a very interesting book, but it needs a major overhaul to achieve it.