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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