Regarding kava, as mentioned in the first few paragraphs, I enjoyed it greatly the few times I tried it but had horrible skin reactions as well as strange arthritic-like symptoms. I think it can be an effective mechanism to replace alcohol addiction given there was no hangover, but as a Scandinavian maybe my naturally dry skin cannot handle it.<p>Regarding math, you can represent math in any symbols. Math is pure logic. No matter how esoteric your branch of mathematics it can be reduced all the way to basic axioms. Many ancient societies had understood enough mathematics in order to construct monuments aligned with the heavens, and reasoned about math in unique visualizations.