According to Ian Darwin Edwards, a
scottish researcher, the legend of
Santa Claus' Flying sleigh and
reindeers originated from
drug hallucinations of the inhabitants of
Lapland.
According to Edwards, the people living in northern
Finland (
Lapland) were feeding their
reindeers
poisonous mushrooms and after that drank the reindeer's
urine, thus getting the hallucinogenic substances into their own system. And therefore got into a state comparable to being under the effects of
LSD.
In this state, they thought it possible for them to fly with their
reindeers. Later in their
stories, the flying sleigh appeared behind the
reindeers.
Edwards also suspects, that in their hallucinogenic state, the
laplanders also saw the person, we nowadays know as the
Santa Claus.