How Ancient Civilisations Used Psychedelic Beer to Make Friends & Influence People

Here’s a wild one from history:

A study published in the journal Antiquity suggests that an ancient South American civilization spiked their beer with psychoactive drugs — not just for a good time, but to bring people together and strengthen social ties.

Pretty amazing, right?

The findings offer some of the clearest archaeological proof yet that ancient societies weren’t just using psychedelics for spiritual rituals — they were also using them to build real-world social bonds.

Party Like It’s 900 CE

The Wari civilization thrived in the Peruvian Andes between 500 and 1000 CE. This latest research comes from excavations at a Wari outpost called Quilcapampa, where archaeologists made a fascinating discovery.

They found solid evidence that the Wari were brewing large amounts of a beer-like drink known as chicha. Now, chicha itself isn’t that unusual — many ancient civilizations in South America brewed versions of it. But here’s the trippy twist:

They weren’t just drinking regular chicha. They were spiking it with vilca seeds, which are packed with a powerful hallucinogenic compound called bufotenine.

Traditionally, vilca was smoked or sniffed as a powder. But here’s where things get interesting: at Quilcapampa, no pipes or sniffing tools were found. Instead, traces of vilca were uncovered right next to where chicha was being brewed.

While there have been anecdotal reports of vilca being added to drinks, this is the first hard archaeological evidence that it actually happened.

A New Kind of ‘High’ Society

What’s maybe most fascinating is why the Wari were doing this.

Mathew Biwer, one of the study’s authors, said in 2022 that this way of using psychoactives was pretty different from what we usually see in ancient cultures.

In most ancient societies, hallucinogens were used in deeply spiritual ceremonies — and usually only by a select few people.

But at Quilcapampa, it looks like the Wari were offering hallucinogenic beer to whoever wanted it at large social gatherings.

According to Biwer, the goal wasn’t just to party — it was about forging powerful bonds with neighboring communities.

In fact, he suggested that the Wari might have used these psychedelic feasts to expand their empire peacefully, instead of by military force.

“The Wari added the vilca to the chicha beer in order to impress guests to their feasts who could not return the experience,” Biwer told CNN. “This created an indebted relationship between Wari hosts and guests, likely from the surrounding region. We argue that the feasting, beer, and vilca thus served to create and cement social connections between Wari-affiliated peoples and locals as the Empire expanded. It also was a way for Wari leaders to demonstrate and maintain social, economic, and political power.”

In other words, the Wari were creating unforgettable psychedelic experiences — and by doing so, they were subtly binding people to them.

Psychedelic Secrets of the Elite

There’s another important layer here, too:

The vilca plant didn’t grow anywhere near Quilcapampa. It had to be brought from hundreds of miles away.

That made the Wari leaders the gatekeepers of this powerful experience — and meant that nobody else could easily replicate these mind-expanding feasts.

In the study, the researchers put it this way:

“By tying their esoteric knowledge of obtaining and using vilca as an additive to molle chicha, an intoxicant that stimulated communitas, Wari leaders were able to legitimize and maintain their heightened status,” they wrote. “These individuals were able to offer memorable, collective psychotropic feasts, but ensured that they could not be independently replicated.”

Basically, the Wari elites used their secret stash of vilca — and their knowledge of how to brew it into beer — as a way to hold onto power and expand their influence.

Of course, some of this interpretation is speculative — it’s really hard to prove exactly what ancient people were thinking.

But still, the idea that psychedelics played a role in politics and social control is an incredibly compelling one.

Creating Bonds Through Feasting

Speaking to Gizmodo back in 2022, Biwer explained that Wari feasts weren’t just social get-togethers — they were also serious business moves.

“… the guests of a feast may become indebted to a host who gave them food and drink – not everyone has the means to repay,” Biwer said. “They would thus be socially obligated to repay the host in some way, which translates to real power for the host. Using feasts and surplus you can create relationships through which some people become indebted to others – there is real power in such situations.”

So basically, if someone gives you an unforgettable psychedelic experience, you kind of feel as though you owe them — and in the world of the Wari, that debt could mean loyalty, alliances, and political leverage.

Psychedelic Cocktails Across the World

And just when you thought it couldn’t get more interesting, researchers have found another ancient psychedelic cocktail — this time, on the other side of the globe.

Davide Tanasi and his team at the University of South Florida discovered traces of an ancient psychotropic brew in a vase from Egypt, dating back to around 200 BCE.

This ancient Egyptian “drink” was made from fermented fruits and two powerful psychoactive plants:

Peganum harmala (aka Syrian Rue), which contains alkaloids that enhance other psychoactive effects and Nymphaea caerulea (the Egyptian Blue Lotus), known for its dreamlike, narcotic properties

Recent research has shown that Blue Lotus contains nuciferine, now thought to be the key active compound behind its use in ancient rituals.

According to Liam McEvoy, an anthropologist from UC Berkeley, these intoxicating brews were likely consumed during the Festival of Drunkenness — an annual event where people drank, passed out, and experienced hallucinations they believed were messages from the goddess Hathor.

Talk about ancient rave culture!

Final Thoughts

Across time and continents, it seems humans have long known that sharing altered states of consciousness can be a powerful way to build community, forge loyalty, and even wield influence.

Whether at a Wari feast in the Andes or a temple party in ancient Egypt, psychedelics weren’t just about getting high — they were about forming connections, meaning, and power.

And honestly?

Maybe that’s something we’re still trying to remember today.