About Those Witches and Their Broomsticks

First off, while this video may be technically SFW, it is not for children. We know that witches were depicted as riding broomsticks as far back as the year 1451. Daven Hiskey from Today I Found Out goes a little further into the reason some women took such pleasure in riding a broom stick. Yes, it was the drugs.

(YouTube link)

In days of yore, women who would never be afforded the honor of being called a scientist or a physician learned what plants could heal, kill, or get one high. Many of these plants were later associated with witchcraft because they could easily cause death. But in the hands of someone armed with the ancient knowledge passed down to them, they could be a mind-expanding trip. It's strange to think of this parallel world where highly respected men were sponsored by kings and nobles to experiment with turning ordinary substances into gold, while more secretive folk were performing real magic with herbs and flowers.