Belladonna

The plant known as deadly nightshade has an unsavory history. The ancient Greeks drank it when the visited the Oracle of Delphi and added the juice of the plant to their famous wine of the Bacchanaals; despite its name, the plant is only mildly poisonous and, if handled carefully, is a lovely, natural hallucinogenic. Throughout human history, few could deny its pleasure. During the middle ages it was used primarily as a hallucinogenic but also as a tool of torture since it caused great mental confusion and inclined the subjects of torture to be more forthcoming – if not more reliable. Some problems never change.

Deadly nightshade in a concentrated form was the poison used to slay the troops of Marc Anthony during the Parthian wars and was in the liquor which Macbeth used to destroy an army of Danes during a truce. Witches of the Middle Ages used this plant as a main ingredient in their brews; its hallucinogenic properties let them experience the sensation of flying. More mundanely, but benignly, the juice of the plant is now used as a main component in many purple dies and to treat gout, rheumatism and angina. It is also used as a childbirth anesthesia, to treat inflammatory tumors, and in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The people of Nepal still use it as a sedative, while the Morroccans consider it to be a memory stimulant and an aphrodisiac.

The plant is known by many names but, in the Western world, most commonly as belladonna – from the Italian words meaning beautiful woman. This is a reference to the Italian women in the 16^th century who used a liquid extract of the plant to dilate their pupils by placing a drop of belladonna in each eye. These women believed that large, dilated pupils made them more beautiful in the eyes of Italian men. That belief was surely an amusing primitive folk concept – why would having large pupils be something that would make you more attractive to the opposite sex? Why not bigger ears or noses. Or larger breasts or penises? (Oh, nevermind on those last two.) But still, big pupils? How does that figure?

Good of you to ask. It turns out that modern research completely validates the instincts of those 16^th century donna (or signora). We now know that dilation of the pupils, which is controlled by the ocular sphincter muscles, is an overt but involuntary indication of your sexual interest in a person. Your danged brainstem tells the ocular sphincter to gather more information about this interesting subject in its field of vision – open your eyes! Give me all the data you can gather. Is this a possible sexual partner?

But it gets more complicated. Surprisingly, not everything is about sex – maybe. Dilation of the pupils is also a good indicator of whether someone is telling the truth. This explains why your mom or a detective would look closely into your eyes to tell if you are lying. And why poker players often wear sunglasses in the middle of the night – your eyes, specifically your pupils, don’t – indeed, can’t – lie. Your eyes can’t bluff. You are betrayed by the involuntary responses of your ocular sphincters.

These responses may not be specifically about sex – the ocular sphincter responses may more generally be about winning; the brain telling the eyes to capture more information to help us survive and thrive. And maybe have more fun.

Fear and lust are not far removed.