Friday, May 26, 2006

Enthogens, DNA, and Technology

I have recently begun reading the book The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby. This is a fascinating book about an anthropoligist sent to study the traditional use of plants by native peoples in the amazon rainforest.

I had passed over this books many times in the passed not realizing that it was a detailed account of one man's attempt to understand the enthogen ayahuasca and how the knowledge aquired through its use is just as valid as how western science aquires knowledge. Indeed in its own way it is superior to western science in that the plants are the teachers of how to use them. There is no guessing involved. Here is a brief synopsis of the book.

Originally sent to try to prove the economic efficacy of how the natives of the region use the plants, he was initially fustrated by how the shamans described how they went about finding out the medicinal uses of these plants. While no one would argue with the effectivness of these plants at curing, it was the shamans' claim that they were shown how to use the plants by ayahuasca. Ayahuasca being a hallucinagen, this was initially very fustrating to Mr Narby, how could he prove that these indians were using the plants in an econmicly efficient way if they claimed that they got the knowledge from the plants themselves. This conundrum leads the author to eventually experience the power of ayahuasca for himself. This becomes a totally transformational moment for the author. His experience leads him to the Radical idea that perhaps anthropoligists have been wrong in assuming that the discriptions of the spirits seen after taking ayahuasca were mere hallucinatory imaginings. Instead perhaps these visions should be taken literally!

This radical notion leads the author to consider that perhaps the serpents, vines and other serpentine motifs of the ayahuasca visions were actually DNA communicating with the mind of the shaman!

This book is absolutly fascinating and I cannot recommend it enough! It presents an idea of how our knowledge of the universe can be augmented by expanding our concepts of how the universe works and that by combining western science with the knowledge of tribal cultures can give us knowledge greater than what can be understood by either worldview alone.

4 comments:

Nexus23 said...

Sounds like a great book, thanks for the tip

thehealingroom said...

Hi Michael,

I clicked on one of my interests and all these bloggers came up. You included.
So, I'm here to visit and to say we share some interests, which is very cool.
I just started a blog and would welcome a visit as well.
I noticed that you haven't blogged for a month. What's up?
Did you finish the book?
I haven't read it but I have attended 5 aya ceremonies. I was glad that I hadn't read anything that would give my preconceived ideas on how it "should" go.
Now that I have my own experience I love hearing others talk about theirs.
peace to you,

Rockitoomee said...

You are an explorer, a seeker of truth, and I appreciate your posts. Have any of your ayahuasca explorations resulted in the "cleansing" of "demons," the terrifying entrapment discussed by the N.G. reporter, and others? I look forward to you sharing the knowledge that you bring back (bring out).

SoothSayerKrine said...

Very Intersting summery. Also I love any time East and West meet and this hapens.