The lotus plant holds a prominent place in ancient Egyptian art and mythology, with the blue and white lotus often found depicted in papyrii and wall art. A number of academics have also suggested that the blue lotus may have had psychedelic properties, and – in the form of an infusion of the plant soaked in wine – been used in rituals to invoke visions of ancient Egyptian deities.

In the 1970s, William Emboden, a professor of biology, wrote a paper (“The Sacred Narcotic Water Lily of the Nile: Nymphaea caerulea“) in which he identified the ‘lotus’ as a water lily. He noted that tomb paintings that have maintained their colours have allowed us to “clearly define the water lilies as Nymphaea caerulea (blue water lily) and not another species”, and additionally that analysis of flowers found in the garlands of multiple mummified remains, including those of Ramses II, were also the same species.

Emboden cited evidence that “water lilies of several species and genera are able to intoxicate by inducing a hypnotic state” due to the presence of the psychoactive alkaloid nuciferine… “Would this not be the perfect trance material of the shaman?” He then noted that…

It is the observation of the great Egyptologist I. E. S. Edwards (1976) that cups in the form of the white water lily were used as drinking vessels, while those that represent the blue water lily were used for ritualistic purposes.

Further evidence for the use of the blue water lily as a psychoactive substance may be adduced from the famed golden shrine of Tutankhamun. In the second scene of the top register, the queen pours some liquid into a vessel from a vase in her right hand, while in her left hand she holds a water lily and a poppy. In the lower left register, the king pours some liquid into the right hand of his queen as he holds a bouquet of water lilies and poppy flowers. The one inscription between the king and queen is translated as ‘‘Adoration with offerings may the Great Enchantress receive thee, O Ruler, beloved of Amun.’’ Here we have an association between the two narcotic flowers in association with ritual libation.

These suggestions of a psychedelic use of the blue water lily later entered the public consciousness in 1998 through a British documentary series on the cultural impact of psychoactive plants, Sacred Weeds, which in one of its episodes (video embedded below) both discussed, and tested, this theory.

More recently, Liam McEvoy – a fourth-year UC Berkeley student majoring in anthropology and minoring in Egyptology – has revisited the topic. Diving deep into hieroglyphic texts, and collaborating with chemists at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, McEvoy sought to find out whether the ancient Egyptian lotus was indeed the blue water lily, and if it could be prepared into a psychedelic brew.

As he learned to read hieroglyphs, he came to understand the flower’s importance on ancient scrolls and its role in the Hathoric Festival of Drunkenness, in which ancient people got drunk, passed out and — for a fleeting moment when they awoke — reportedly saw the face of Hathor, the goddess of love, beauty and fertility.  

“It’s always depicted with the same petal shape,” McEvoy said. “It’s always depicted with the spots on the bottom of sepals. It’s a very specific plant.”

However, he found that most plants sold as Nymphaea caerulea online did not seem to be genuine Egyptian ‘blue lotus’ – he was only able to find one seller offering an ‘authentic’ plant, and when they analyzed that particular one its nuciferine levels were much higher, while the other samples did not seem to be psychoactive. “Our findings suggest the blue lotus is actually unique in comparison to other water lilies,” McEvoy says. “It’s a very specific plant.”

Beyond that, he now also thinks that the infusion process that the ancient Egyptians used for the flower depended on something other than wine:

Pure and chemically isolated nuciferine, an alkaloid, is easily dissolved in alcohol, he said. But not a nuciferine-packed flower with a waxy, water-repellent exterior.  Instead, it needed something else to unlock its nuciferine: a substance akin to olive oil, with fats that allowed the slightly fat-soluble alkaloid to fully dissolve in wine.

“We’re beginning to think the ancient Egyptians didn’t just put it into wine,” McEvoy said. “We hypothesize they actually created an infused oil, which was later added into wine.”

McEvoy hopes to test his hypothesis by chemically analysing a 3,000-year-old goblet in the Hearst Museum for traces of just such a psychedelic oil.