Romans Are Said to Have Ingested Fish Brains That Caused Hallucinations

Ancient Romans reportedly ingested the brains of a bream called the dreamfish to get high, and modern scholarly studies have confirmed the toxicity and hallucination-inducing qualities of the Sarpa salpa bream.

Hallucinogenic fish live in the Mediterranean Sea, near the Hawaiian and other Polynesian islands in the Pacific Ocean and are also present in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The fish is part of the diet of the people of Tunisia, France and Israel but is deemed uneatable in Spain and Italy.

There are eight families of bream fish and more than 15 species worldwide that get people intoxicated if they eat the brains of the fish or don’t clean the guts out of the body cavity right away. It is okay to eat the body of the fish, which is not dangerous. Around parts of the Mediterranean, it is a traditional dish when prepared with pepper and rosemary. But if people eat the head, they can experience hallucinations and nightmares.

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Scholarly Study Documents Bad Trips

The high is a bad trip or nasty experience, according to Luc de Haro and Philip Pommier of Centre Antipoison, Hôpital Salvator, Marseille, France, who published a paper in 2006 titled “Hallucinatory Fish Poisoning (Ichthyoallyeinotoxism)” published in the Clinical Toxicology journal. The study chronicles the experiences of two men who ate the Salema porgy fish, as it is known.

The paper describes the experience:

“A 40-year-old man experienced mild digestive troubles and terrifying visual and auditory hallucinations after eating a specimen of Sarpa salpa in a restaurant. As he had severe behavior troubles, he was managed in the hospital and recovered 36 hours after the meal. He was unable to recall the hallucinatory period. Another man, 90-years-old and previously healthy, had auditory hallucinations 2 hours after eating a specimen of Sarpa salpa. The two following nights, he had numerous nightmares and recovered spontaneously after a period of 3 days.”

The 40-year-old, an executive, was healthy but felt tired and weak after eating baked sea bream while vacationing in the French city of Cannes on the Riviera in 1994. He became nauseated and vomited and felt acute muscle weakness. He imagined he was hearing “aggressive and screaming animals” and saw giant arthropods surrounding his car. He had to quit driving. He went to the hospital and recovered after 36 hours. He did not experience physical trauma other than weakness.

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Salema porgies as food; in some countries the bream is considered inedible. (Public Domain)

The other man, the 90-year-old, hallucinated after eating a bream that he had bought at the market in St. Tropez on the Riviera. He had terrifying hallucinations and nightmares for two nights. He feared he had gone insane and was afraid to tell his loved ones or his doctor but later told authorities at a poison control center.

Romans and Polynesians Possibly Ate Hallucinogenic Fish to Get High

Reports on the Internet make the claim that the ancient Romans ingested dreamfish fish brains specifically to get high. In Polynesia, reports say, the fish was ingested during ceremonies. Several sites report this, but they do not include much detail or sources for the information.

In Arabic the hallucinogenic fish is called “that fish that makes dreams.”

The fish may pick up toxins by feeding on seagrass with phytoplankton. (Public Domain)

Scientists are unsure why the fish causes hallucinations. A study in 2012 speculated that the fish eat phytoplankton that lives on seagrass of the species Posidonia oceanica, which may impart toxins. Still scientists do not know which toxins induce the bad trip, The Vintage News reports.

It is interesting to note that apparently not everyone has a bad trip after eating dreamfish. A National Geographic photographer, Joe Roberts, wanted to see what the high was like. He had a cook broil it with stewed pumpkin. He said the hallucinations were not as vivid as others reported and that they were not negative. The ZME Science website says Roberts was happy with the experience.

Roberts’ positive experience may help explain why the Romans and Polynesians took the fish brains voluntarily.

Top image: Salema porgy fish off of the South African coast.       Source: Public Domain

By Mark Miller