Chuinjuatin

Chuinjuatin is a naturally occurring drug, found in the leaves of tree the grows in southern Venezuela. Used mostly for ritual purposes by the natives of the area, by the late fifties it had been extracted and was undergoing testing in the United Kingdom, with some human trials being conducted with volunteers.

The indigenous tribes who used Chuinjuatin did so by chewing it into a paste and then swallowing it. Around six ounces of such paste was considered a reasonable dose, and it would put the users into a trance-like state lasting three or four days at a time. During this period, they were largely insensible and needed to be tended to by other members of the tribe. The natives believed that this was because the drug liberated the spirit from the body, allowing it to travel the spirit realms having mystical experiences. When the drug wears off, there are no side effects, nor is Chuinjuatin physically addictive.

In at least one case, a test subject named Jane Waterliegh experienced what she believed to be time travel after taking the drug, in which she visited a deeply unpleasant future, and upon her return to her present of the late 1950s, determined to prevent this future by killing the man she believed responsible for it. At her trial, her lawyer plead insanity resulting from the drug test. He was, however, troubled by the general agreement that Jane had not known of the existence of the man she killed prior to her supposed time trip…

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Origin: Consider Her Ways by John Wyndham.