Painting by Yvonne McGillivray

Abstract

In light of recent specific liberalizations in drug laws in some countries, this article investigates the potential of entheogens (i.e. psychoactive plants used as spiritual sacraments) as tools to facilitate existential intelligence. “Plant teachers” from the Americas such as ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and the Indo-Aryan soma of Eurasia are examples of both past- and presently-used entheogens. These have all been revered as spiritual or cognitive tools to provide a richer cosmological understanding of the world for both human individuals and cultures. I use Howard Gardner’s (1999a) revised multiple intelligence theory and his postulation of an “existential” intelligence as a theoretical lens through which to account for the cognitive possibilities of entheogens and explore potential ramifications for education.

Introduction

In this article I assess and further develop the possibility of an “existential” intelligence as postulated by Howard Gardner (1999a). Moreover, I entertain the possibility that some kinds of psychoactive substances—entheogens—have the potential to facilitate this kind of intelligence. This issue arises from the recent liberalization of drug laws in several Western industrialized countries to allow for the sacramental use of ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea brewed from plants indigenous to the Amazon. I challenge readers to step outside a long-standing dominant paradigm in modern Western culture that a priori regards “hallucinogenic” drug use as necessarily maleficent and devoid of any merit. I intend for my discussion to confront assumptions about drugs that have unjustly perpetuated the disparagement and prohibition of some kinds of psychoactive substance use. More broadly, I intend for it to challenge assumptions about intelligence that constrain contemporary educational thought.

“Entheogen” is a word coined by scholars proposing to replace the term “psychedelic” (Ruck, Bigwood, Staples, Ott, & Wasson, 1979), which was felt to overly connote psychological and clinical paradigms and to be too socio-culturally loaded from its 1960s roots to appropriately designate the revered plants and substances used in traditional rituals. I use both terms in this article: “entheogen” when referring to a substance used as a spiritual or sacramental tool, and “psychedelic” when referring to one used for any number of purposes during or following the so-called psychedelic era of the 1960s (recognizing that some contemporary non-indigenous uses may be entheogenic—the categories are by no means clearly discreet). What kinds of plants or chemicals fall into the category of entheogen is a matter of debate, as a large number of inebriants—from coca and marijuana to alcohol and opium—have been venerated as gifts from the gods (or God) in different cultures at different times. For the purposes of this article, however, I focus on the class of drugs that Lewin (1924/1997) termed “phantastica,” a name deriving from the Greek word for the faculty of imagination (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1973). Later these substances became known as hallucinogens or psychedelics, a class whose members include lysergic acid derivatives, psilocybin, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine. With the exception of mescaline, these all share similar chemical structures; all, including mescaline, produce similar phenomenological effects; and, more importantly for the present discussion, all have a history of ritual use as psychospiritual medicines or, as I argue, cultural tools to facilitate cognition (Schultes & Hofmann, 1992).

The issue of entheogen use in modern Western culture becomes more significant in light of several legal precedents in countries such as Brazil, Holland, Spain and soon perhaps the United States and Canada. Ayahuasca, which I discuss in more detail in the following section on “plant teachers,” was legalized for religious use by non-indigenous people in Brazil in 1987i. One Brazilian group, the Santo Daime, was using its sacrament in ceremonies in the Netherlands when, in the autumn of 1999, authorities intervened and arrested its leaders. This was the first case of religious intolerance by a Dutch government in over three hundred years. A subsequent legal challenge, based on European Union religious freedom laws, saw them acquitted of all charges, setting a precedent for the rest of Europe (Adelaars, 2001). A similar case in Spain resulted in the Spanish government granting the right to use ayahuasca in that country. A recent court decision in the United States by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, September 4th, 2003, ruled in favour of religious freedom to use ayahuasca (Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, 2003). And in Canada, an application to Health Canada and the Department of Justice for exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is pending, which may permit the Santo Daime Church the religious use of their sacrament, known as Daime or Santo Daimeii (J.W. Rochester, personal communication, October 8th, 2003)

One of the questions raised by this trend of liberalization in otherwise prohibitionist regulatory regimes is what benefits substances such as ayahuasca have. The discussion that follows takes up this question with respect to contemporary psychological theories about intelligence and touches on potential ramifications for education. The next section examines the metaphor of “plant teachers,” which is not uncommon among cultures that have traditionally practiced the entheogenic use of plants. Following that, I use Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (1983) as a theoretical framework with which to account for cognitive implications of entheogen use. Finally, I take up a discussion of possible relevance of existential intelligence and entheogens to education.

Plant Teachers

Before moving on to a broader discussion of intelligence(s), I will provide some background on ayahuasca and entheogens. Ayahuasca has been a revered “plant teacher” among dozens of South American indigenous peoples for centuries, if not longer (Luna, 1984; Schultes & Hofmann, 1992). The word ayahuasca is from the Quechua language of indigenous peoples of Ecuador and Peru, and translates as “vine of the soul” (Metzner, 1999). Typically, it refers to a tea made from a jungle liana, Banisteriopsis caapi, with admixtures of other plants, but most commonly the leaves of a plant from the coffee family, Psychotria viridis (McKenna, 1999). These two plants respectively contain harmala alkaloids and dimethyltryptamine, two substances that when ingested orally create a biochemical synergy capable of producing profound alterations in consciousness (Grob, et al., 1996; McKenna, Towers & Abbot, 1984). Among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, ayahuasca is one of the most valuable medicinal and sacramental plants in their pharmacopoeias. Although shamans in different tribes use the tea for various purposes, and have varying recipes for it, the application of ayahuasca as an effective tool to attain understanding and wisdom is one of the most prevalent (Brown, 1986; Dobkin de Rios, 1984).

Notwithstanding the explosion of popular interest in psychoactive drugs during the 1960s, ayahuasca until quite recently managed to remain relatively obscure in Western cultureiii. However, the late 20th century saw the growth of religious movements among non-indigenous people in Brazil syncretizing the use of ayahuasca with Christian symbolism, African spiritualism, and native ritual. Two of the more widespread ayahuasca churches are the Santo Daime (Santo Daime, 2004) and the União do Vegetal (União do Vegetal, 2004). These organizations have in the past few decades gained legitimacy as valid, indeed valuable, spiritual practices providing social, psychological and spiritual benefits (Grob, 1999; Riba, et al., 2001).

Ayahuasca is not the only “plant teacher” in the pantheon of entheogenic tools. Other indigenous peoples of the Americas have used psilocybin mushrooms for millennia for spiritual and healing purposes (Dobkin de Rios, 1973; Wasson, 1980). Similarly, the peyote cactus has a long history of use by Mexican indigenous groups (Fikes, 1996; Myerhoff, 1974; Stewart, 1987), and is currently widely used in the United States by the Native American Church (LaBarre, 1989; Smith & Snake, 1996). And even in the early history of Western culture, the ancient Indo-Aryan texts of the Rig Veda sing the praises of the deified Soma (Pande, 1984). Although the taxonomic identity of Soma is lost, it seems to have been a plant or mushroom and had the power to reliably induce mystical experiences—an “entheogen” par excellence (Eliade, 1978; Wasson, 1968). The variety of entheogens extends far beyond the limited examples I have offered here. However, ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote and Soma are exemplars of plants which have been culturally esteemed for their psychological and spiritual impacts on both individuals and communities.

In this article I argue that the importance of entheogens lies in their role as tools, as mediators between mind and environment. Defining a psychoactive drug as a tool—perhaps a novel concept for some—invokes its capacity to effect a purposeful change on the mind/body. Commenting on Vygotsky’s notions of psychological tools, John-Steiner and Souberman (1978) note that “tool use has . . . important effects upon internal and functional relationships within the human brain” (p. 133). Although they were likely not thinking of drugs as tools, the significance of this observation becomes even more literal when the tools in question are plants or chemicals ingested with the intent of affecting consciousness through the manipulation of brain chemistry. Indeed, psychoactive plants or chemicals seem to defy the traditional bifurcation between physical and psychological tools, as they affect the mind/body (understood by modern psychologists to be identical).

It is important to consider the degree to which the potential of entheogens comes not only from their immediate neuropsychological effects, but also from the social practices—rituals—into which their use has traditionally been incorporated (Dobkin de Rios, 1996; Smith, 2000). The protective value that ritual provides for entheogen use is evident from its universal application in traditional practices (Weil, 1972/1986). Medical evidence suggests that there are minimal physiological risks associated with psychedelic drugs (Callaway, et al., 1999; Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1979/1998; Julien, 1998). Albert Hofmann (1980), the chemist who first accidentally synthesized and ingested LSD, contends that the psychological risks associated with psychedelics in modern Western culture are a function of their recreational use in unsafe circumstances. A ritual context, however, offers psychospiritual safeguards that make the potential of entheogenic “plant teachers” to enhance cognition an intriguing possibility.

Existential Intelligence

Howard Gardner (1983) developed a theory of multiple intelligences that originally postulated seven types of intelligence (iv). Since then, he has added a “naturalist” intelligence and entertained the possibility of a “spiritual” intelligence (1999a; 1999b). Not wanting to delve too far into territory fraught with theological pitfalls, Gardner (1999a) settled on looking at “existential” intelligence rather than “spiritual” intelligence (p. 123). Existential intelligence, as Gardner characterizes it, involves having a heightened capacity to appreciate and attend to the cosmological enigmas that define the human condition, an exceptional awareness of the metaphysical, ontological and epistemological mysteries that have been a perennial concern for people of all cultures (1999a).

In his original formulation of the theory, Gardner challenges (narrow) mainstream definitions of intelligence with a broader one that sees intelligence as “the ability to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in at least one culture or community” (1999a, p. 113). He lays out eight criteria, or “signs,” that he argues should be used to identify an intelligence; however, he notes that these do not constitute necessary conditions for determining an intelligence, merely desiderata that a candidate intelligence should meet (1983, p. 62). He also admits that none of his original seven intelligences fulfilled all the criteria, although they all met a majority of the eight. For existential intelligence, Gardner himself identifies six which it seems to meet; I will look at each of these and discuss their merits in relation to entheogens.

One criterion applicable to existential intelligence is the identification of a neural substrate to which the intelligence may correlate. Gardner (1999a) notes that recent neuropsychological evidence supports the hypothesis that the brain’s temporal lobe plays a key role in producing mystical states of consciousness and spiritual awareness (p. 124-5; LaPlante, 1993; Newberg, D’Aquili & Rause, 2001). He also recognizes that “certain brain centres and neural transmitters are mobilized in [altered consciousness] states, whether they are induced by the ingestion of substances or by a control of the will” (Gardner, 1999a, p.125). Another possibility, which Gardner does not explore, is that endogenous dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in humans may play a significant role in the production of spontaneous or induced altered states of consciousness (Pert, 2001). DMT is a powerful entheogenic substance that exists naturally in the mammalian brain (Barker, Monti & Christian, 1981), as well as being a common constituent of ayahuasca and the Amazonian snuff, yopo (Ott, 1994). Furthermore, DMT is a close analogue of the neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine, or serotonin. It has been known for decades that the primary neuropharmacological action of psychedelics has been on serotonin systems, and serotonin is now understood to be correlated with healthy modes of consciousness.

One psychiatric researcher has recently hypothesized that endogenous DMT stimulates the pineal gland to create such spontaneous psychedelic states as near-death experiences (Strassman, 2001). Whether this is correct or not, the role of DMT in the brain is an area of empirical research that deserves much more attention, especially insofar as it may contribute to an evidential foundation for existential intelligence.

Another criterion for an intelligence is the existence of individuals of exceptional ability within the domain of that intelligence. Unfortunately, existential precocity is not something sufficiently valued in modern Western culture to the degree that savants in this domain are commonly celebrated today. Gardner (1999a) observes that within Tibetan Buddhism, the choosing of lamas may involve the detection of a predisposition to existential intellect (if it is not identifying the reincarnation of a previous lama, as Tibetan Buddhists themselves believe) (p. 124). Gardner also cites Czikszentmilhalyi’s consideration of the “early-emerging concerns for cosmic issues of the sort reported in the childhoods of future religious leaders like Gandhi and of several future physicists” (Gardner, 1999a, p. 124; Czikszentmilhalyi, 1996). Presumably, some individuals who are enjoined to enter a monastery or nunnery at a young age may be so directed due to an appreciable manifestation of existential awareness. Likewise, individuals from indigenous cultures who take up shamanic practice—who “have abilities beyond others to dream, to imagine, to enter states of trance” (Larsen, 1976, p. 9)—often do so because of a significant interest in cosmological concerns at a young age, which could be construed as a prodigious capacity in the domain of existential intelligencev (Eliade, 1964; Greeley, 1974; Halifax, 1979).

The third criterion for determining an intelligence that Gardner suggests is an identifiable set of core operational abilities that manifest that intelligence. Gardner finds this relatively unproblematic and articulates the core operations for existential intelligence as:

the capacity to locate oneself with respect to the farthest reaches of the cosmos—the infinite no less than the infinitesimal—and the related capacity to locate oneself with respect to the most existential aspects of the human condition: the significance of life, the meaning of death, the ultimate fate of the physical and psychological worlds, such profound experiences as love of another human being or total immersion in a work of art. (1999a, p. 123)

Gardner notes that as with other more readily accepted types of intelligence, there is no specific truth that one would attain with existential intelligence—for example, as musical intelligence does not have to manifest itself in any specific genre or category of music, neither does existential intelligence privilege any one philosophical system or spiritual doctrine. As Gardner (1999a) puts it, “there exists [with existential intelligence] a species potential—or capacity—to engage in transcendental concerns that can be aroused and deployed under certain circumstances” (p. 123). Reports on uses of psychedelics by Westerners in the 1950s and early 1960s—generated prior to their prohibition and, some might say, profanation—reveal a recurrent theme of spontaneous mystical experiences that are consistent with enhanced capacity of existential intelligence (Huxley, 1954/1971; Masters & Houston, 1966; Pahnke, 1970; Smith, 1964; Watts, 1958/1969).

Another criterion for admitting an intelligence is identifying a developmental history and a set of expert “end-state” performances for it. Pertaining to existential intelligence, Gardner notes that all cultures have devised spiritual or metaphysical systems to deal with the inherent human capacity for existential issues, and further that these respective systems invariably have steps or levels of sophistication separating the novice from the adept. He uses the example of Pope John XXIII’s description of his training to advance up the ecclesiastic hierarchy as a contemporary illustration of this point (1999a, p. 124). However, the instruction of the neophyte is a manifest part of almost all spiritual training and, again, the demanding process of imparting of shamanic wisdom—often including how to effectively and appropriately use entheogens—is an excellent example of this process in indigenous cultures (Eliade, 1964).

A fifth criterion Gardner suggests for an intelligence is determining its evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility. The self-reflexive question of when and why existential intelligence first arose in the Homo genus is one of the perennial existential questions of humankind. That it is an exclusively human trait is almost axiomatic, although a small but increasing number of researchers are willing to admit the possibility of higher forms of cognition in non-human animals (Masson & McCarthy, 1995; Vonk, 2003). Gardner (1999a) argues that only by the Upper Paleolithic period did “human beings within a culture possess a brain capable of considering the cosmological issues central to existential intelligence” (p. 124) and that the development of a capacity for existential thinking may be linked to “a conscious sense of finite space and irreversible time, two promising loci for stimulating imaginative explorations of transcendental spheres” (p. 124). He also suggests that “thoughts about existential issues may well have evolved as responses to necessarily occurring pain, perhaps as a way of reducing pain or better equipping individuals to cope with it” (Gardner, 1999a, p. 125). As with determining the evolutionary origin of language, tracing a phylogenesis of existential intelligence is conjectural at best. Its role in the development of the species is equally difficult to assess, although Winkelman (2000) argues that consciousness and shamanic practices—and presumably existential intelligence as well—stem from psychobiological adaptations integrating older and more recently evolved structures in the triune hominid brain. McKenna (1992) goes even so far as to postulate that the ingestion of psychoactive substances such as entheogenic mushrooms may have helped stimulate cognitive developments such as existential and linguistic thinking in our proto-human ancestors. Some researchers in the 1950s and 1960s found enhanced creativity and problem-solving skills among subjects given LSD and other psychedelic drugs (Harman, McKim, Mogar, Fadiman & Stolaroff, 1966; Izumi, 1970; Krippner, 1985; Stafford & Golightly, 1967), skills which certainly would have been evolutionarily advantageous to our hominid ancestors. Such avenues of investigation are beginning to be broached again by both academic scholars and amateur psychonauts (Dobkin de Rios & Janiger, 2003; Spitzer, et al., 1996; MAPS Bulletin, 2000).

The final criterion Gardner mentions as applicable to existential intelligence is susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system. Here, again, Gardner concedes that there is abundant evidence in favour of accepting existential thinking as an intelligence. In his words, “many of the most important and most enduring sets of symbol systems (e.g., those featured in the Catholic liturgy) represent crystallizations of key ideas and experiences that have evolved within [cultural] institutions” (1999a, p. 123). Another salient example that illustrates this point is the mytho-symbolism ascribed to ayahuasca visions among the Tukano, an Amazonian indigenous people. Reichel-Dolmatoff (1975) made a detailed study of these visions by asking a variety of informants to draw representations with sticks in the dirt (p. 174). He compiled twenty common motifs, observing that most of them bear a striking resemblance to phosphene patterns (i.e. visual phenomena perceived in the absence of external stimuli or by applying light pressure to the eyeball) compiled by Max Knoll (Oster, 1970). The Tukano interpret these universal human neuropsychological phenomena as symbolically significant according to their traditional ayahuasca-steeped mythology, reflecting the codification of existential ideas within their culture.

Narby (1998) also examines the codification of symbols generated during ayahuasca experiences by tracing similarities between intertwining snake motifs in the visions of Amazonian shamans and the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. He found remarkable similarities between representations of biological knowledge by indigenous shamans and those of modern geneticists. More recently, Narby (2002) has followed up on this work by bringing molecular biologists to the Amazon to participate in ayahuasca ceremonies with experiences shamans, an endeavour he suggests may provide useful cross-fertilization in divergent realms of human knowledge.

The two other criteria of an intelligence are support from experimental psychological tasks and support from psychometric findings. Gardner suggests that existential intelligence is more debatable within these domains, citing personality inventories that attempt to measure religiosity or spirituality; he notes, “it remains unclear just what is being probed by such instruments and whether self-report is a reliable index of existential intelligence” (1999a, p. 125). It seems transcendental states of consciousness and the cognition they engender do not lend themselves to quantification or easy replication in psychology laboratories. However, Strassman, Qualls, Uhlenhuth, & Kellner (1994) developed a psychometric instrument—the Hallucinogen Rating Scale—to measure human responses to intravenous administration of DMT, and it has since been reliably used for other psychedelic experiences (Riba, Rodriguez-Fornells, Strassman, & Barbanoj, 2001).

One historical area of empirical psychological research that did ostensibly stimulate a form of what might be considered existential intelligence was clinical investigations into psychedelics. Until such research became academically unfashionable and then politically impossible in the early 1970s, psychologists and clinical researchers actively explored experimentally-induced transcendent experiences using drugs in the interests of both pure science and applied medical treatments (Abramson, 1967; Cohen, 1964; Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1979/1998; Masters & Houston, 1966). One of the more famous of these was Pahnke’s (1970) so-called “Good Friday” experiment, which attempted to induce spiritual experiences with psilocybin within a randomized double-blind control methodology. His conclusion that mystical experiences were indeed reliably produced, despite methodological problems with the study design, was borne out by a critical long-term follow-up (Doblin, 1991), which raises intriguing questions about both entheogens and existential intelligence.

Studies such as Pahnke’s (1970), despite their promise, were prematurely terminated due to public pressure from a populace alarmed by burgeoning contemporary recreational drug use. Only about a decade ago did the United States government give researchers permission to renew (on a very small scale) investigations into psychedelics (Strassman 2001; Strassman & Qualls, 1994). Cognitive psychologists are also taking an interest in entheogens such as ayahuasca (Shanon, 2002). Regardless of whether support for existential intelligence can be established psychometrically or in experimental psychological tasks, Gardner’s theory expressly stipulates that not all eight criteria must be uniformly met in order for an intelligence to qualify. Nevertheless, Gardner claims to “find the phenomenon perplexing enough, and the distance from other intelligences great enough” (1999a, p. 127) to be reluctant “at present to add existential intelligence to the list . . . . At most [he is] willing, Fellini-style, to joke about ‘8½ intelligences’” (p. 127). I contend that research into entheogens and other means of altering consciousness will further support the case for treating existential intelligence as a valid cognitive domain.

Educational Implications?

By recapitulating and augmenting Gardner’s discussion of existential intelligence, I hope to have strengthened the case for its inclusion as a valid cognitive domain. However, doing so raises questions of what ramifications an acceptance of existential intelligence would have for contemporary Western educational theory and practice. How might we foster this hitherto neglected intelligence and allow it to be used in constructive ways? There is likely a range of educational practices that could be used to stimulate cognition in this domain, many of which could be readily implemented without much controversy.vi Yet I intentionally raise the prospect of using entheogens in this capacity—not with young children, but perhaps with older teens in the passage to adulthood—to challenge theorists, policy-makers and practitioners.vii

The potential of entheogens as tools for education in contemporary Western culture was identified by Aldous Huxley. Although better known as a novelist than as a philosopher of education, Huxley spent a considerable amount of time—particularly as he neared the end of his life—addressing the topic of education. Like much of his literature, Huxley’s observations and critiques of the socio-cultural forces at work in his time were cannily prescient; they bear as much, if not more, relevance in the 21st century as when they were written. Most remarkably, and relevant to my thesis, Huxley saw entheogens as possible educational tools:

Under the current dispensation the vast majority of individuals lose, in the course of education, all the openness to inspiration, all the capacity to be aware of other things than those enumerated in the Sears-Roebuck catalogue which constitutes the conventionally “real” world . . . . Is it too much to hope that a system of education may some day be devised, which shall give results, in terms of human development, commensurate with the time, money, energy and devotion expended? In such a system of education it may be that mescalin or some other chemical substance may play a part by making it possible for young people to “taste and see” what they have learned about at second hand . . . in the writings of the religious, or the works of poets, painters and musicians. (Letter to Dr. Humphrey Osmond, April 10th, 1953—in Horowitz & Palmer, 1999, p.30)

In a more literary expression of this notion, Huxley’s final novel Island (1962) portrays an ideal culture that has achieved a balance of scientific and spiritual thinking, and which also incorporates the ritualized use of entheogens for education. The representation of drug use that Huxley portrays in Island contrasts markedly with the more widely-known soma of his earlier novel, Brave New World (1932/1946): whereas soma was a pacifier that muted curiosity and served the interests of the controlling elite, the entheogenic “moksha medicine” of Island offered liminal experiences in young adults that stimulated profound reflection, self-actualization and, I submit, existential intelligence.

Huxley’s writings point to an implicit recognition of the capacity of entheogens to be used as educational “tools”. The concept of tool here refers not merely the physical devices fashioned to aid material production, but, following Vygotsky (1978), more broadly to those means of symbolic and/or cultural mediation between the mind and the world (Cole, 1996; Wertsch, 1991). Of course, deriving educational benefit from a tool requires much more than simply having and wielding it; one must also have an intrinsic respect for the object qua tool, a cultural system in which the tool is valued as such, and guides or teachers who are adept at using the tool to provide helpful direction. As Larsen (1976) remarks in discussing the phenomenon of would-be “shamans” in Western culture experimenting with mind-altering chemicals: “we have no symbolic vocabulary, no grounded mythological tradition to make our experiences comprehensible to us . . . no senior shamans to help ensure that our [shamanic experience of] dismemberment be followed by a rebirth” (p. 81). Given the recent history of these substances in modern Western culture, it is hardly surprising that they have been demonized (Hofmann, 1980). However, cultural practices that have traditionally used entheogens as therapeutic agents consistently incorporate protective safeguards—set, settingviii, established dosages, and mythocultural respect (Zinberg, 1984). The fear that inevitably arises in modern Western culture when addressing the issue of entheogens stems, I submit, not from any properties intrinsic to the substances themselves, but rather from a general misunderstanding of their power and capacity as tools. Just as a sharp knife can be used for good or ill, depending on whether it is in the hands of a skilled surgeon or a reckless youth, so too can entheogens be used or misused.

The use of entheogens such as ayahuasca is exemplary of the long and ongoing tradition in many cultures to employ psychoactives as tools that stimulate foundational types of understanding (Tupper, in press). That such substances are capable of stimulating profoundly transcendent experiences is evident from both the academic literature and anecdotal reports. Accounting fully for their action, however, requires going beyond the usual explanatory schemas: applying Gardner’s (1999a) multiple intelligence theory as a heuristic framework opens new ways of understanding entheogens and their potential benefits. At the same time, entheogens bolster the case for Gardner’s proposed addition of existential intelligence. This article attempts to present these concepts in such a way that the possibility of using entheogens as tools is taken seriously by those with an interest in new and transformative ideas in education.

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i The 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances allows for indigenous peoples to use traditional medicines and sacraments even if those substances are prohibited under international drug control treaties (United Nations, 1977, Article 32).

ii Santo Daime is the name of the sacrament as well as the religion.

iii Writers and drug aficionados William S. Burroughs and Allan Ginsberg (1963) published an account of their experiences seeking out and drinking ayahuasca in South America in the early 1960s, but their report was mostly negative and did not inspire many others to follow in their footsteps. As ethnobotanist Wade Davis remarks, “ayahuasca is many things, but pleasurable is not one of them” (2001).

iv The original seven types of intelligence Gardner (1983) proposed were: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.

v Eliade (1964) identifies two primary ways of becoming a shaman: 1) hereditary transmission, or falling heir to the vocation in a family legacy passed down from generation to generation; and 2) spontaneous vocation, or being called to shamanism by the spirits. Prodigious existential intelligence may be manifest in either case.

vi Here I conceptually separate education and schooling; unfortunately, I don’t see the latter institution—the legacy of 19th-century homogenizing and democratizing socio-political programs (Cremin, 1961; Egan, 2002)—as inspiring much optimism for an embracing of existential intelligence.

vii Gotz (1970) argues that the practices of teachers might benefit from the mind-expanding potential of psychedelics.

viii “Set is a person’s expectations of what a drug will do to him [sic], considered in the context of his whole personality. Setting is the environment, both physical and social, in which a drug is taken” (Weil, 1972/1986). These factors influence all psychoactive drug experiences, but psychedelics or entheogens especially so.

The following interview with Donal Ruane was conducted in May 2006 by Gyrus, and was first published in Dreamflesh Journal Vol. 1.

Gyrus: What strikes you as unique about the experience of ayahuasca?

Donal: It’s a difficult question to answer, as I get more experienced. The reason being that my experience of ayahuasca varies according to who I drink it with, and the brew. It appears to me that how the brews are made, and the additives that are used, and the set and setting in which it is consumed, very much alter the experience.

Last year in Iquitos I had a session with an Indian shaman from the Witoto tribe—a very interesting tribe who have had an awful history of exploitation and abuse, by colonists and by missionaries, who have devastated their belief systems and their way of life. They feature heavily in Wade Davis’ book, One River. I didn’t know much about them until I met this shaman, Don Mariano. He’s from Columbia, along the Rio Negro I think, one of the tributaries of the Amazon. He’s sixty-four years old, and he first started training to be a shaman, dieting with ayahuasca, at eight years of age. So he’s been drinking for a long, long time.

His ayahuasca was very different from the other brews I’ve drunk. My experiences are mainly with two types of ayahuasca. Initially it was with the Church of the Santo Daime, and then later I started to drink with Peruvian shamans.

Now after drinking regularly with the Santo Daime for a few years I started to feel increasingly restricted. I felt the experience itself and the brew itself was controlled and there was pressure to conform to their particular model and ultimately to become a member. The church itself was founded by Raimundo Ireneu, a black rubber trapper, after a period spent drinking ayahuasca in the jungle where he received instructions to found the church from a female spirit who he associated with the Virgin Mary. Ironically enough, Ireneu himself was probably initiated into the use of ayahuasca by a Peruvian mestizo shaman. Of course, the Santo Daime only works within a certain spectrum of what is possible with ayahuasca. This is not necessarily such a bad idea; ayahuasca has the ability to manifest some pretty dangerous phenomena. Let’s say that of all the hallucinogens it is one of the more unpredictable.

Don’t get me wrong, I am enormously grateful to the church. However, as is often the case with such matters, a synchronicity nudged me in another direction. The day I bought the book Ayahuasca Visions I also met Pablo Amaringo for the first time, coincidentally, in a London art gallery where I had gone to meet a friend. Out of that initial meeting, my friendship with Pablo developed so much so, that I decided to visit him in his hometown, Pucallpa, four months later. During that first visit, while talking to Pablo, I realised there was a lot more to learn about ayahuasca than I could possibly learn in the context of the church. The ritual use of ayahuasca in the Upper Amazon region has developed over millennia into a sophisticated science, a plant alchemy with a remarkable mythology of its own.

Now there is a big difference between the Santo Daime brew and the traditional ayahuasca drunk by shamans in Peru—it’s a lot less visionary and isn’t as purging. You don’t enter the remarkable visionary realm, and you don’t get the ‘drunkenness’ which you normally associate with ayahuasca in Peru, which they call mareación—a Spanish word which translates as ‘sea-sickness’…

This is what William Burroughs talked about as “the motion-sickness of time travel”…

Yeah, he talked about it that way. It’s something that comes on usually within about two hours, but it can come on at different times. Usually you start feeling very nauseous, then your body heats up. I usually sweat and yawn profusely; it’s very uncomfortable and unpleasant. At this stage you become very disoriented, and you may vomit, sometimes in conjunction with diarrhoea. They can be separate, or you can get the two of them together. The mareación usually lasts about half an hour, three quarters of an hour, but again there’s no standard. Now you don’t tend to get this with the Santo Daime brew, and you don’t get the visions. Of course the Santo Daime is always drunk with the lights on, and traditionally ayahuasca is always drunk in the dark.

The other ayahuasca I have most experience with is what I call Pucallpa ayahuasca, which is like ‘moonshine’. That’s the standard ayahuasca recipe, which is made using the bark of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of the bush Psychotria viridis—alone. They do put additives in it, but that’s to do with particular shamans’ own likes and dislikes. Some of these additives are psychoactive, but other aren’t. For example, plants like coca have quite subtle effects compared to something like Brugmansia (which they call Toé), which is similar to Datura but in fact isn’t—although it contains the same tropane alkaloids. Some shamans use Brugmansia on its own, usually by smoking the leaves.

The ayahuasca of Don Mariano had Banisteriopsis caapi, Oco yagé (Banisteriopsis rusbyana), mapacho tobacco (Nicotina rustica), and two leaves of Toé. The Oco yagé would have been the substitute for Psychotria viridis. I only found out later that it contains 5-MeO-DMT, so it’s not very visionary. I got some slight hypnagogic visions, but not many. I originally thought that ayahuasca’s a “visionary” vine, so if you don’t get visions, you’re not getting proper ayahuasca. But while that one didn’t give many visions, it was an incredibly powerful teacher—probably one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had.

Each brew has its own personality. This one was very talkative, and it was very purgative too, due particularly to the tobacco additive, which made me really nauseous and gave me diarrhoea; I got both. And because of the Oco yagé, it lasts over six hours, rather than the average four hours.

They say that Toé and Oco yagé are “teacher” plants; the brews are less visionary, less about power and more about receiving teaching. That’s what I received: a very, very powerful teaching. I was literally talked to for four, five, six hours. Almost from the time it came on this telepathic dialogue started, which is one of the phenomena we get with ayahuasca. What it is, I’m not sure; there are many theories. The locals call these phenomena “spirits”. McKenna called it the Logos and connected it with Philip K. Dick’s creature of pure information that we find in his extraordinary novel Valis. I’ve been drinking and studying this for about seven years now, and I’m still trying to understand all these phenomena.

When I first came across Pablo’s paintings I had never before seen an artist capture the visionary realms in such a startlingly original way. I was captivated not only by the visions themselves but also by their paradoxical nature… so vividly alien, and yet so extraordinarily familiar and beautiful. I wondered, where are these dimensions located? Pablo explained to me that he had visited many such places, many universes when he drank ayahuasca. He said, “I have visited the Moon, I have visited Mars, I have visited Jupiter, yes, all the planets. There are many planets. I have visited all of them. There are many spirits in these places. There are sacred temples, places like islands with castles. In these castles some spirits are good but some are bad. They have human faces but their body is of a tiger or a snake or an eagle.” Pablo told me that shamans learn to immerse themselves in these domains and interact with the spirits like actors in a film. This only happens after dieting and drinking ayahuasca for a long time—so that you no longer see visions as if you are looking at television but are completely immersed in them.

How could this be so? How could so-called ‘primitive’ people and peasants have developed such a sophisticated methodology of interaction in these ‘virtual realities’? Jung speculated that “it may well be a prejudice to restrict the psyche to being inside the body. There may be a psyche outside the body, and one has to get out of oneself to get there.” He further speculated that this ‘psychic reality’, rather than being two separate worlds, one inside and one outside, was in fact two aspects of the same world: a microcosm and a macrocosm. This has very much been my own experience. For ayahuasqueros the difference between the purely mythological and what we would consider ‘real’ is indistinct.

In fact, the only way to really understand these ‘invisible’ realms is through metaphor: the secret language of the shaman. What we are talking about here is a way of seeing, a method of perceiving ‘reality’ differently. For the ayahuasquero the tobacco smoke from his pipe becomes a vine which becomes a rope which becomes a snake which becomes a ladder to climb into other worlds. The anthropologist Graham Townsley, while working with Yaminahua ayahuasqueros in the Peruvian Amazon, was told they called this “language-twisting-twisting”. For example, arkanna is a Quechua word meaning “to block” or “to guard”. It can be an icaro, a magical song, or an object like a crystal or an animal that the shaman puts inside you to protect you. Or it can be tobacco smoke blown over you to form a protective shirt or armour, like a bullet-proof vest. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is fluid. For a child, a chair can very easily become a flying saucer; a simple stick a golden sword that defends against evil knights. As one gets older this imaginative engagement with the mysterious potential of the universe is ‘unlearned’. The child is literally programmed not to see in this way from a certain age. Children who continue to see in this way, who refuse to give up their secret friends, are usually considered ‘deviant’ and treated as mentally ill. What we are talking about is really a technique for ‘seeing’ that we in the West have lost! A technique that enables one to view ‘reality’ as a constantly unfolding mystery… an interconnected domain of wonder, rather than the ‘objective’, fragmented view we usually perceive.

As a child growing up, I heard many stories of ‘seeing’ fairies among the old people in the west of Ireland. When I asked them where the fairies were now they always said the same thing: electricity and cars had driven them away. What really happened of course was that people stopped seeing fairies because of the paradigm shift overtaking the wider community at that particular time. The influx of new technology required a radical shift in the belief systems that had sustained that rural peasant community for thousands of years. Beliefs, which included a reciprocal relationship with nature spirits, were literally unsustainable in the ‘light’ of the electric bulb. The new magic had destroyed the old… and people gradually stopped seeing and believing in fairies. Which in my view is a great shame.

Another factor in this was the gradual encroachment by civilization on the wilderness; cars and electricity made the areas where these beliefs still existed more accessible, and he introduction of radio and television and the electric light literally lit up the darkness where these beliefs existed, ironically making them invisible once more. I love Patrick Harpur’s idea, which he expounds in his wonderful book Daimonic Reality, that the unconscious was formed during the Reformation. He speculates that the Anima Mundi, the World Soul, was withdrawn from outside and relocated within, as the collective unconscious, eventually to be rediscovered by 20th century depth psychology. In effect, the daimonic realm was forced underground into the unconscious regions of the mind at the beginning of the Age of Reason, when the mind became identified with reason.

I’ve had a lot of what I would call “archetypal experiences”, encounters with archetypal beings and phenomena. A lot has been written about this, but I don’t think there’s been as much work done on just steadily studying how and why archetypes manifest, what they are, and how our experiences of them vary over periods of time. What do these experiences actually mean?

Anyway, something else I find remarkable about ayahuasca is the purging aspect. One thing I noticed around Pucallpa is that they call all the plants La purga.

All the ingredients of ayahuasca?

No, all the different plants that shamans diet with, the teacher plants within this “science”. The science has various names. For instance, an old name that Pablo used was alquemica pallistica, which means “tree alchemy”. There’s also ciencia vegetal—a mestizo term meaning “plant science”—and ciencia de los palos, “science of trees”. A very old Quechua term is caspi yachai (“tree wisdom”).

What we’re talking about here is a form of alchemy. My theory is that this so-called “plant science” is in fact the ancient precursor of medieval alchemy. I think the Spanish named it this when they came over because they recognized what was going on.

In the same way that the Catholic communion must have been seen by the conquistadors to be “primitively” echoed in the mushroom cults of Mexico, where they called the mushrooms “God’s flesh”.

Exactly. And this science believes that a certain number of plants-some obviously psychoactive, some not-each have a “mother”, some sort of ancestor relation. They also use the terms father, or grandmother or grandfather in this sense. These are the owners of the plant, and these owners can be reached by going through a strict diet of purification and consuming the plant in isolation.

I’ve dieted with ayahuasca, but I’ve also done a eight-day diets with plants that are not psychoactive. For instance, the “jungle onion”, cebolla de selva (or cebolla de monte), is referred to as a purgative, and it did make me vomit the first time I drank it. Tobacco does the same thing. I think all the plants have a purgative effect.

But not necessarily to the point of inducing vomiting? Perhaps more just detoxifying?

Yeah, making you sweat or whatever. They flush things out of you. To me the whole point of the science is a purification of the body, in order to communicate directly with these plants and learn things from them. And this is done over periods of time. It requires isolation from people: no conversations, no looking at people, and no people looking at you. Sitting alone, eating a special diet: no salt, no sugar, no pork, no alcohol, no sex. In fact, traditionally you eat only boiled plantain with a small number of fish-interestingly enough, fish that only eat plants. There’s boca chica (a type of snapper), palometa (related to piranhas), and sardinas.

With some of the plants, particularly the trees, the diet is even more important because some of them are highly poisonous. It’s much more dangerous to not go with the diet with those than it is for, say, ayahuasca. It’s interesting that purifying the body allows you to ingest “poisons”…

So some things we consider inherently poisonous may just have bad reactions with things we habitually consume.

That’s what it seems to be. One of the people I got to know and interview was an old shaman called Don Fidel Mosombite—who incidentally first turned Terence McKenna onto ayahuasca in the mid-1970s. He has been a practising ayahuasquero for over fifty years, and has dieted with a lot of plants and trees. One of these was the catahua tree (Hura crepitans). He told me he dieted with this tree for three months. He had to drink the sap of this tree once and he was intoxicated for three days. He said he thought he was going to go insane! During this time he had an experience where he was suspended by a rope upside-down from a steel pole, rather like the hanged man in tarot. During this he was cut loose and started to fall, and if he hadn’t dieted well he would have been killed. Just before he hit the ground he suddenly transformed into the commander of a ship which was travelling underwater. This was the catahua ship. Then a voice gave him instructions on how to smoke the leaves of this tree in order to heal people.

We take the word ayahuasca and put it on our Western list of psychedelics. Do you think that creates a false impression of how it works, and that it should be seen as embedded with the entire ciencia vegetal, this whole belief system revolving around spirits and their various plants?

The whole molecular level of nature is connected with spirits in this science. The scientific categories we have broken things down into, they have personified.

Do the key constituents of ayahuasca—Banisteriopsis caapi, Psychotria viridis, etc.—do they have a special role in the “pantheon”?

Different shamans have different views. Graciela said that the jungle onion, and Ajo Sacha, which is jungle garlic, are much more important than ayahuasca. That they’re much more potent for healing. But what Pablo said to me is that ayahuasca is at the centre of the whole system. Usually you go from ayahuasca to the other plants—though this isn’t always so.

There’s different ways they heal, specific to the plant. Take plants like Sangre de drago [Dragon's blood, Croton lechleri], or Una de gato [Cat's claw, Uncaria tomentosa], which have particular effects. They’re medicinal herbs. Dragon’s blood is phenomenal for congealing cuts.

But there is also a lot of magic involved in this science. For example, it is believed that by blowing an icaro into a glass of water and getting the patient to drink, it will cure a wide range of illnesses.

Could you talk more about the effects of ayahuasca in relation to this system?

My experiences with it don’t fit the materialist view of how it works, which says that you take certain plants, mix them together in certain amounts and you get this effect. In terms of dosage, you can take more and not have a very strong experience, or take less and have a much stronger experience.

I feel there are realms made visible by ayahuasca that are to do with the plant itself; but there also appear to be realms that are all around in the jungle—and I don’t know what that’s all about. Because that doesn’t fit our paradigm. I’ve had experiences of ghosts, all sorts of different presences, little dwarves or whatever, that they connect with different plants, different phenomena out in the jungle. They seem to be things connected with place. I don’t have those experiences when I’m drinking here in London. Having all those trees around you, it seems to open up another level of the experience.

What is made visible here in your flat? Or is it a more interior experience?

It’s just a more interior experience. One of the things they say is that the further away from humans you are, the more pronounced the experience is. To get really in touch with spirits, you have to be way out in virgin jungle. I’ve never done that, but I’d love to. Certainly the city isn’t a very pleasant place to be when you’re opened up like that. It’s not that there aren’t all sorts of energies or spirits around in cities…

Maybe ayahuasca just isn’t the best way to approach them.

It comes from a particular place, and it’s connected with that ecology. And that seems to be the realm that it opens up.

Something I also wanted to mention about the varying effects of dosage is that shamans appear to be able to “take it out of you” after you’ve drunk it-by either blowing you with tobacco, or rubbing you with aguardiente, which is sugar cane rum, and camphor.

Like a magical thorazine?

Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. It’s been done to me, and it very obviously did happen. That was a time when I’d only taken half of what I’d done the night before, but it really was quite ferocious. They often sniff ayahuasca and see it as having an effect, y’know?

And you think this is beyond “set and setting”?

I think it is beyond that, I think there’s a magical element to it, and I don’t really know how it works. Maybe it is set and setting, maybe set and setting and intention are that powerful. Maybe intention is that powerful, and when you put it together with ayahuasca, it multiplies its power by a million, like putting a magnifying glass over it. You have the sun, and a piece of paper, and with the magnifying glass it bursts into flames. Maybe that’s what it does to the intention: it ignites it. But there certainly seems to be an aspect to it that I can’t understand, a magical element.

Could you back-track to the vomiting thing? You talked about it being called La Purga. In our culture, vomiting’s associated with eating disorders, being too drunk, basically a pathological thing—undignified.

From the first time I witnessed it, it did completely throw me. The diarrhoea as well. It was very casually dealt with. I also saw people doing that after smoking pipes of tobacco—vomiting and diarrhoea. But they also have a thing about spitting as well, which we have a taboo against.

The healing process is about purging the body. And they use plants that purge the body, that make you spit up phlegm, which make you vomit and have diarrhoea, and sweat. That’s four ways of getting toxins out of the body. That’s usually in conjunction with dieting, which means that you’re also reducing your intake of toxins.

So, similar to alchemy before the point when magic and science separated, what they’re practicing here is a quite sophisticated “nature science”, knowledge of plant properties and so on, but completely intermingled with what our culture would call “superstition”. For them it’s part of the same system.

The way I understand it is that it’s a metaphor anyway, and the goal that’s produced out of alchemy is spiritual enlightenment—personal mastery and immortality.

What form of immortality do they see it as?

All shamans believe they live on in spirit form after they die.

Reincarnation?

Ordinary mortals keep on returning to the material realms until they work everything out they have to. Shamans, on the other hand, depending on how advanced they are, because of the spiritual work they have done through the suffering of the dietas, believe they become pure spirit and live on eternally. Death is not the end, basically. There’s a lot to be said about the whole psychedelic experience being a preparation for death. And that resonates for me.

The whole idea of making gold out of shit, as it were, I can see happening in the dieting, in purifying the body, vomiting and diarrhoea, getting rid of the toxins and pollutants. But also all the psychological stuff as well. I was releasing angers and resentments, and releasing memories, phenomenal memories. This wasn’t when I was on ayahuasca, it was dieting the day after. Just sitting there and remembering kids I went to school with, all this sort of stuff. It was like my memory banks were completely opened for the first time. I suppose rather like what we are told will happen at the exact point of our death—confronting all our past deeds.

One of the more startling experiences I had was when two entities in a canoe confronted me. They were like aliens. I’d just travelled through this awesomely beautiful multi-coloured golden city, and they told me that the Spanish never found El Dorado—that this is it. That the extraordinary experiences that ayahuasca can make available to us if we follow the proscriptions of the diet were in some way a secret fount of knowledge and teaching, connected with immortality, that humans could make contact with—and have been making contact with it for thousands of years. That El Dorado was a metaphor that the Spanish mistook for a literal truth. There never was any golden city in the jungle. I suppose this is an ongoing problem humans have had interpreting mythology, including the Bible—taking it literally. Metaphor is, at its simplest, a way of interacting with the ‘other’, with the unknown.

What about the identity of the “spirit” of the plant, or plants? McKenna has his thing about “the Mushroom Voice”. Whether you see the psilocybin mushrooms as being seeded from space, as McKenna suggested, or having evolved on Earth, genetically it’s a distinct entity in nature. Ayahuasca, however, doesn’t exist without humans. The constituent plants exist of course, but we’re talking about an admixture that’s an artifact of human culture.

If there were no humans, I don’t think this realm could exist. Because the third ingredient along with the two plants is human consciousness. That realm is some sort of common ground—Jung would call it the collective unconscious. It’s also a realm where you can meet other shamans and mystics and so on, and where shamans have fights. And it carries over into dreams.

It seems that an awful lot of revelation comes through in dreams, during or after the diet. And that’s the most understandable, clear information coming through. Certainly the combination of the dieting, the plants you use, and the tobacco you smoke, enhances and incubates dreams in combination with isolation from the normal everyday familiar world of human interaction. Being deprived of status and normal social relations focuses the mind into the now. The initiate is ‘betwixt and between’, a liminal state where revelation can take place.

Many people may think that the key to this mestizo shamanism is the visionary experience of taking ayahuasca.

Sometimes the visionary experience is superfluous. Often the more interesting stuff can happen just after, or a period of time after you drink ayahuasca. I think it stays in the body; particularly if you keep on dieting, it’ll stay in the body longer than normal. After drinking for months in Peru, when I came back I’d say there was still ayahuasca operating in me for up to a year afterwards. I brought up an awful lot of things, negative things, and it appeared to teach me about my depression… which then, over time, transformed into something else. Something I could understand. Something I had control over. This happened after I came back from Peru. It was a very difficult period, for a few months, where it kept coming back. It appeared to be showing me how it worked: this is how it works, and you have control over it, you don’t have to be a victim of this.

Ayahuasca to me is a harsh teacher. It expects an awful lot of you, and if you don’t learn the lesson, it can push your face in it. There are many stories in the mythologies around Pucallpa of the bad sides of ayahuasca—as much as it can give you good things, it can give you bad things. It can make you lazy, lethargic, it can destroy your life. It can cause illnesses, if you go against it. It is believed that if you diet badly, it punishes you. Instead of doing good, it does harm to you.

If you mix different plants, it gets jealous. It is conceptualized as having all the characteristics of human beings by the shamans who use it, including anger and jealousy. There appears to be an almost sexual relationship going on between the shaman and the plants, and the spirits of the plants are very jealous; you’re not allowed to mix plants. For example, when I was dieting with this jungle onion, I wasn’t allowed to drink ayahuasca for three months afterwards. I couldn’t even smell it, Graciela said, because they get jealous when they get mixed up.

Many of Pablo’s experiences, being attacked by sorcerors, have happened in his dreams, when he wasn’t using ayahuasca at all. When you do drink ayahuasca, especially when you’re dieting, you tend to have very light sleep, very “lucid” sleep, where you’re almost awake.

You’ve said of Western anthropologists who have taken the plunge and partaken of ayahuasca ceremonies, that that’s all well and good, but that actually the literature misses some of the more important effects you only get after a prolonged initiatory experience. What have we missed?

Well, I haven’t experienced anything that I haven’t heard anyone else talk about; but in the main field of anthropology, it tends not to be talked about. In Jeremy Narby’s book Shamans Through Time, there’s an anthropologist called Edith Turner who talks about seeing these ghostly figures coming out of a person being healed, and I’ve seen phenomena like that.

What convinced you that this was something other than an hallucination? Not that it’s not “real”, but that there’s not much that people haven’t seen when taking strong psychedelics!

Because I wasn’t intoxicated enough at the time. These experiences happened before or after taking ayahuasca. I’ve seen enough hallucinations to know this wasn’t that. “Hallucination” is a very problematic word anyway.

I’ve seen smoky figures standing over sick people, presences around me while I’m drinking. These were there, with your eyes open. I’ve also seen figures sitting in the trees, watching while I’m doing ayahuasca, which are transparent, like the creature in Predator. Like silhouettes of crystal or glass.

The word “shade” comes to mind…

Yes, that’s an interesting word. On the borders, betwixt and between. That’s where I’m at. To me there’s many levels of hallucinations; I’ll have to start cataloguing it to figure it out. There’s the full-colour visions that you see on ayahuasca, very fast, with your eyes closed. There’s another level of figures you can see, like the snakes I saw here on the floor, which were so realistic I nearly tried stamping on them! On that level I’ve seen figures come to me and hand me things at the beginning of sessions. A few weeks ago, actually, a figure came to me and gave me a glass of beer; I don’t know what that was about because I don’t drink any more…

One of your ancestors!

One of my demons… When I had the very powerful mystical experience with Don Mariano, these Shipibo women came and put books on a table in front of me. They were communicating to me using sign languages. I’d call them “hypnagogic”, dream-like. The sort of phenomena I associate with mushrooms or acid.

Then there’s all the aural stuff, voices speaking to you, and your psyche dividing into parts. That could account for the spirit phenomena, but I’m not sure. You get a chance to see your fears and neuroses, your own operating system, but detached from it to observe how it works. How it creates your sense of self in the world, and how it creates the world you perceive and experience.

Jung described individuation as separating out the distinct parts of yourself…

That’s certainly what I’ve observed in my work with ayahuasca. There are many levels to working with it. There’s the idea of “plant teachers”, and the idea that it’s like university, with a hierarchy of levels of understanding, moving upwards all the time. I had a huge breakthrough experience last year in Peru and it became so different from my previous experiences. I had a lot more confidence with it, and I learned how to deal with a lot of my fears. I also know that’s not the end! I know that when you reach a certain level, you level off; then suddenly you go boom and you’re moving up again. That “jumping up” is quite a challenge, and can be quite traumatic, because it opens up a whole new realm.

You sense that these levels are governed by the experience itself, and only loosely tied to human traditions?

Yeah. If you keep on working with it, it brings you to different levels. That’s an alien idea for us: that plants could be enabling something like that, that they could teach us.

That they could do anything but just sit there! Could you talk about icaros a bit, the magical songs of the ayahuasqueros? Is that specific type of tradition unique to South American ayahuasca use, or do they have similar things in Central American mushroom use, in Siberian shamanism, or whatever?

I’m not as familiar with the other traditions. I know singing itself is definitely a part of all shamanic traditions. Being a shaman is often equated with the ability to sing, and without songs you are not a shaman. One of the things that I thought was interesting was if you compare Shipibo shamanism with mestizo shamanism. Mestizo shamanism is about 150 years old, and it was learned by people of mixed blood, people from Europe who left the cities to work as rubber trappers in the jungle around Pucallpa and Iquitos. They got ill and went to indigenous Indians and learned about ayahuasca. With mestizo shamanism, you mostly learn songs from your maestro. Some of them can be received, but a lot are handed through family members. Often the songs that are believed to be most powerful are those in different languages: Quechua, Campa, other Indian dialects. It’s the reverence for the Other. You find that again with gringo spirits that appear to mestizos; it’s something from outside your own culture that has power. But for the Shipibo there isn’t this tradition of handed-down songs. The songs they sing are always improvised on the night of the session.

Unlike most other shamanic traditions, they don’t really have “objects”. They have a pipe, and bottles of aguardiente, medicinal plants and stuff. They might have rattles, but these would usually be made from the leaves of the piníon tree. Their basic tools are blowing their pipe tobacco, maybe certain perfumes… and icaros.

When I was dieting I would get repeating nightmares, hag-ridden kind of experiences, very terrifying. After a period of time I would start singing songs when these came up. There’s a whole vocal aspect to these experiences for me. I was waking up and going [lets out a strained high-pitched sound]. At the time this seemed almost like trying to scream, or trying to articulate the terror I was going through-which often woke everyone in the village up! But over a period of time, those high-pitched sounds became the songs I had been learning while drinking ayahuasca. It wasn’t conscious, it would just come out, until someone woke me up.

The other way I received icaros is directly through the mareación, the ‘sea-sickness’ phase of taking ayahuasca. You get very dizzy, very hot, your body boils, you’re sweating, it’s very uncomfortable. You also start yawning and yawning, and the more you yawn the more tired you get—you feel like you’re falling asleep or going unconscious. Melodies came to me spontaneously, having that experience. I don’t know where they came from, I would just start singing.

Graciela Shuna

Later, Graciela taught me how to put words to them. They have particular phrases in Quechua, which are in all the songs, and which are almost interchangeable. They’re all about calling the doctors, calling the magic, giving power, asking for power from the plants, etc. A lot of the songs have the same sort of words and phrases, with different melodies; the same phrase is repeated over and over again. Those phrases are important, but it seems to me that they’re not as important as the melodies. Once you have the melody, you have power from it, because you have something you can use.

When I was dieting with the jungle onion, on the first night after drinking it, I had this incredibly vivid dream where this very powerful man came. There’s all these images of power they have; they talk about doctors, policemen, presidents, kings, queens, commanders in the army. Often I had dreams about powerful people. In this dream it was a kind of trickster, a very powerful, rich businessman. I didn’t trust him. He was doing a deal with me, and he was taking me somewhere in a car with three other older men. He was sending me into this building that was falling apart. All the floors were damaged by water, very weak in the middle. A beautiful old house, with beautiful designs on the walls. When I got to the top room I started falling through the floors… down, down, down. But it wasn’t frightening. There was a brass band playing a waltz, and I started singing along with it spontaneously. All around me, as I was going down faster and faster, were all these beautiful dancing designs, like ayahuasca visions, beautiful patterns… I was amazed.

Of course, I woke Graciela up; she was sleeping beside me, and I was singing my head off! “Donal! Donal!” [laughs] She interpreted the powerful man as being the father of the plant. He was coming to teach me something, a Shipibo icaro. And the beautiful designs I was seeing were the songs: the designs were the visual manifestation of the song.

What is the nature of the power of icaros?

It’s having a relationship with something that’s outside yourself, but also within yourself. By learning about that and engaging with that, you learn something, and you get power. You’re powerful by the fact that you’re relating in that sort of way.

Maybe related to the strength that a Jungian would see gained in integrating parts of the Self? Psychic integration.

Yes, exactly. When she started interpreting my dreams, I could see her pattern. Everything was interpreted in order to empower me. To show me that everything-all my experiences, all of my psychic life-was part of an interconnected landscape that I was now becoming familiar with and learning about. By engaging with that, and by being able to have a relationship with that landscape, that was giving me its own power.

There’s that paradox of relating to something outside you and inside you. And when we talk about “psychic integration”, the process is actually about separating things out, as figures, landscapes…

It is a funny one. It gets back to the idea of, “What the hell is an archetype?” They’re part of us, but they’re outside us as well. And everybody can engage with them, so they’re personal, but they’re also universal at the same time. It seems that there’s a space where they exist that’s both outside us and inside us.

There’s a fragmentation, but I presume for someone who’s insane, these parts wouldn’t be connected in any way. But when you’re in this altered state and you’re learning about it, it doesn’t feel like a part is going way over there and I’m “losing my mind”. What you’re doing is leaning about all these compartments of your consciousness. They’re like mirrors that are reflecting each other. You can observe consciousness itself at work, how it operates. You can see all these negative or problematic parts of yourself, and you can see how they work, and how they control. And you can also see how they don’t have to control you. It’s like Cubism or something, getting a chance to see it from loads of different perspectives. In that act of observing these parts of yourself, you get a chance to have power over them. It’s a slow process.

Obviously, once you have this understanding of what’s going on with yourself, you’re much more able to see what’s going on with other people, and help them.

It’s like the “theory of mind” in evolutionary thought, where self-awareness is seen to be at least partly initiated by the evolutionary pressure in proto-hominid apes to understand others. The pressure to act in a socially effective manner required having an understanding that something like your own self-experience is probably happening inside others. And thus, to understand, manipulate or empathize with others, you looked within, to make guesses about other people’s thoughts and motives, based on your own inner workings.

“Modular” theories of consciousness are also popular in evolutionary thinking now—seeing discreet types of intelligence, like social intelligence, technical intelligence and so on, as having evolved semi-independently. Obviously it’s different to the psychological “compartments” you were talking about, but interesting all the same.

You described the experience in concrete, spatial terms…

It does feel like the mind divides into these compartments. And one of those is an observer, watching the other parts. It’s separate from them. And that’s incredible. The fact that it’s separate. You see that they’re not integral parts of you—which is how you feel. You can feel your fears are you, but they’re not. They are, but they’re also outside you, and you can control them.

How did Graciela conceive of this, or is it just your experience? Was there part of her mythology that expressed that, and did she know what you were talking about when you related it?

No. I think it’s a Western thing. They have very different models. The whole issue is one of witchcraft and sorcery; it seems to me that they don’t have an explanation for negative experiences in altered states. Or, they do, but it’s an external one. All negative experiences in these states are rationalized as sorcery and psychic attack and so on. It’s not an aspect of yourself. Like paranoia, in the West would be seen as an internal thing projected out. Whereas they take it on as an external threat, and treat it in that way. But it works, what they do. It’s still a huge area that I expect to carry on trying to understand.

Another thing is the idea of voices that come to you. I don’t know what they are.

Disembodied voices?

It’s hard to say… It’s like what we were saying about the inner/outer division: for all intents and purposes, it’s ‘our’ own voice, talking to us. But it’s different. In one of the first experiences I had after drinking with Graciela, after she had gone to bed we had what appeared to be a telepathic conversation for an hour and a half while she was asleep in the next room. Among other things she told me that I could become a shaman. The next day she came and told me that I’d come and talked to her in her dreams, and that I’d thanked her for all she had done for me. A few weeks later during an ayahuasca session she said while in trance that the spirits had talked to her, and she confirmed the very things I’d been told that previous night by ‘her’. So she confirmed the conversation I had with her, about becoming a shaman.

I’ve had other conversations, and they’ve been quite extraordinary. If I’m rational, it can’t be spirits, because spirits don’t exist. Right? So it must be a part of myself. In some way, by dieting and drinking a lot of ayahuasca regularly, you break down your normal consciousness, and there’s a paradigm shift. And in that shift you gain access to a fount of information, the Logos, whatever you want to call it, and whole realms of beings. This feeds you information about all sorts of things. It can be predictive, it can tell you about healing people, all sorts of stuff.

What about songs being used to shape and guide the experience?

Yeah, and to take you to places. My experience of that is that the experience of drinking ayahuasca is too awful to contemplate without singing. The songs appear to be like roads, or some sort of guidance through what appears to be a chaotic experience. They’re guides through what can be an incredibly alien environment. That’s all I can say.

The beliefs around those songs are that particular plants teach you songs, and that that is a direct communication with the spirit of that plant. That plant is actually speaking to you through songs, and by having the song of that plant, that gives you the power of that plant to heal, and to protect yourself and so on. There’s loads of different types of songs: songs to take you to different places, songs to cure different illnesses, songs to modify the visions, songs to calm people down when the mareación is too much, songs to reduce the visions when they’re overwhelming and frightening, when you think they’re never going to stop… And then there’s the songs that are like “story songs”, which tell stories about the mythological experiences you can have: of going underwater and meeting mermaids, meeting the ghost ships, spirits of the jungle, etc. There’s songs with words, and songs that are just hummed, blown or whistled melodies.

Actually, icaro means “to blow”, and there a whole mythology of the breath of the shaman having power to heal. By smoking tobacco, you make the breath visible. That’s one of the reasons for smoking tobacco. The whole idea of blowing and sucking is found throughout South American: blowing for protection or to heal, or sucking out things like magical darts or whatever.

There’s a number of ways the tobacco works. They can blow out the smoke, and you can see it, the breath, the power, blowing over someone’s body. So that enhances the ritual, theatrical aspect. The other thing that comes out, which I find really interesting, is the “magic phlegm”. This is the phlegm that comes up from smoking tobacco.

A different view from our culture. We don’t call it the “magic phlegm”!

Very different. They call it the mariri, the magic phlegm, and only some shamans have it. It’s really weird how they get it. They get it through the diet, and it comes in the stomach, and then up, and it burns inside them… It’s difficult to understand. The shaman will bring it up, and he will suck the dart or whatever that’s causing the illness out of the person, with the phlegm in his mouth. That acts as a protection—so the arrow doesn’t go back into him, and cause harm to him. He holds it there, then he spits that phlegm out.

The other thing is that they use perfume. So they put a perfume in their mouth, suck something out of someone, and then tsssscccccchhhhh! they spit the perfume out. Again, the perfume protects. Or else they have the perfume and they blow it over someone as a fine mist, like blowing tobacco smoke.

The perfume stuff is fascinating to me. It’s also used to modify the visions. An apprentice shaman puts perfume on himself; so again there’s a whole sexual aspect of contact with spirits. You’re preparing yourself by putting on nice clean clothes and perfume before you drink. There’s also sniffing perfume when the mareación is coming on, to enhance the visions. There’s a whole olfactory realm, or spectrum, with ayahuasca, as well as the auditory aspect.

Do you hallucinate smells?

No, but you can modify the experience incredibly with smells. With the aguardiente, with camphor. There’s agua de florida (flower water), and Tabu, different commercial products that they use. I’m still learning about this, it’s such a big, big area. There’s been very little research on this. In talking to Pablo, it seems there’s less and less perfumeros around. There’s ayahuasqueros, tabaqueros, paleros (who are tree specialists), toéros (who work with Toé). And from what I can gather from Pablo, there’s very few perfumeros left. It’s a really sophisticated thing, the perfumes they make are really powerful. Shamans will go to a perfumero to get special perfumes to protect them from sorcery or to heal an illness. Like you might sing to create patterns around you for protection, he will do that with smell, with odours. Pretty wild stuff!

When using perfumes with ayahuasca, does the odour make a transition into visuals?

Yes, that’s one aspect. It also helps to calm you down, it can reduce anxiety. But yeah, you see the smells, absolutely.

On ayahuasca, you’re incredibly suggestible, so all these things are tools. By virtue of having an intention, you feel like you can make it happen. There’s certainly a kind of self-hypnosis; and by implication, you can hypnotize the person who you’re healing. And by doing that, by convincing them that you have this power and that you’re doing this, that by itself will enable them to heal themselves.

So it’s like Paul McKenna as well as Terence McKenna!

There’s all sorts of things going on there. I don’t like to use the term “placebo”, because people go, “Oh yes, placebo, I understand it.” It’s like “archetypes”-we don’t actually understand these things. We see placebo as kind of like you’re pretending, or you think it so it works… I think it’s a bit more complex than that.

What are you trying to achieve with the film?

I’ve always been a filmmaker. I went to art school, and got into making Super 8 films, and after that I worked with bands, then went on to do Exploding Cinema, trying to create a whole alternative culture around film making. Then I got involved in raves, VJaying, further away from film making.

Then I went through an awful crisis in my mid to late thirties. I was experimenting with all sorts of different substances, like a mad doctor, getting hits and misses, after not taking any for a long time. I started falling apart, and this very difficult crisis lasted on-and-off for a few years. During that I discovered ayahuasca, and I just started shooting film. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing. I was interested in shamanism, and always had been since reading Casteneda’s books as a teenager.

On one of my trips to Peru in 2001 I went with a camera to interview Pablo Amaringo, after talking to him before and realizing he knew an awful lot. But there was no real plan about what the film was going to be like. It evolved over a period of time. When I was working with a production company after coming back from Peru, I had all this footage, and I said I wanted to do something with it. The film came out of that process. I started to see that my story was actually part of the film, and that’s what I should be looking at.

Then I went out to Peru again with a cameraman, to get more footage, and to start documenting the experiences I was having much more comprehensively. I started thinking about how my story and experiences would be the best way for me to try and understand shamanism, the mythology and so on. Otherwise it was just “funny primitive people” doing weird shit out in the jungle, which we have no bridge to; I realized I was the bridge to this experience, and that this was a powerful way to try to understand this. Part of my healing has been to try and understand what these people are talking about.

So the film’s come about as a result of several different stories: their stories and folklore, the shamans over there; partly, my own story; and the stuff I brought to it from Ireland, folklore that I’d collected there, some of which seemed to resonate with the oral traditions around shamanism I was hearing around Pucallpa. All these elements gelled together as an idea, Stories on a Stick.

At the same time, with me the director in the film, I started thinking about the whole documentary form. It’s an interesting way of interacting with the documentary process, which is seen as being objective; in a way I was “going native”, crossing over a line. About a year after I started doing this, these mainstream films started appearing, like Supersize Me and American Splendor. You could see the whole idea of documentary breaking down, using reconstructions and so on like in Touching The Void. This gave me the confidence to really push the boundaries of what a documentary could be. I was really interested in playing with the form like this, and of course the film lent itself to this sort of experimentation because it was about psychedelic states, dreams, mythology, memory and the supernatural.

Putting yourself into the film, deconstructing and reconstructing your experiences… Did this relate to or grow out of the experience on ayahuasca, of having the different parts of your psyche laid out before you, with an observer part watching?

I hadn’t consciously thought of that, but now that you mention it I’d say there’s something interesting going on there. It’s quite a cubist film in that way, in that there are all these different perspectives—even down to the whole thing of working with special effects, trying to create these visual metaphors. There’s a mixture of the diary form, from my own diaries, written and video diaries; there’s my own memory, which is very elastic; and there’s the special effects, trying to reconstruct internal, subjective experiences and create visual metaphors. People have said you can’t reconstruct these things, and you can’t. But since humans started taking plants, going back to Palaeolithic caves, there’s been representations of the experience; whether it’s just dots pecked onto a cave wall, the entoptics, the swirls, whatever.

Maybe they knew they were falling short of representing the whole experience, but they still felt compelled to mark it.

All around the Amazon, the face painting, the weaving, the pottery, it’s all there, it’s everywhere, those designs are integrated into all aspects of their lives. They were creating metaphors, connecting everything. The stick of maize becomes the vertical shaft, which the shaman travels up and down to the upperworld and the underworld, which has a cross at its centre: the four directions, north, south, east and west, a map of human consciousness. It’s incredible how it all integrates, right down to how smoke becomes a snake, or a rope, or a vine, or a ladder. Things morph into other things. It integrates the world you live in. And that’s a powerful thing to do. Otherwise you’ve got a world that doesn’t make any sense, and that’s terrifying.

By Joe Bageant
Ajijic, Mexico

I’ve spent most of this week watching American television and movies. I leave the TV on all night long. I toss and turn with my bad back, and bad lungs, catch a rerun episode of Two and a Half Men, or CSI, and conk out again. Then I awaken to the U.S. morning talk shows. It’s a grueling regimen, only for the strong. Or the lonely. For periodic relief, I switch to Mexican television (be patient, I really am going somewhere with this). Mexican TV is not one iota better than US television, but is veeerrry heavy on the booty. More than heavy. Astronomical. Think all-but-bare tits and ass close-ups every fifteen seconds, straight through commercials, dramas, comedy shows, history shows, and even the news where possible. Every show but the bullfights and that old nun who comes on at ten PM, who invariably drives me back to the U.S. channels.

Ahhhh … Safely in the American national illusion, where all the world’s a shopping expedition. Or a terrorist threat. No matter, as long as it is colorful and wiggles on the theater state’s 400 million screens. Plug in and be lit up by the American Hologram.

This great loom of media images, and images of images, is so many layers deep that it has replaced reality. No one can remember the original imprint. If there was one. The hologram is a hermetic snow globe, a self-referential circuitry of images, and a Möbius loop from which there is no logical escape. Logic has zilch to do with what is going on. The smallest part holographically recapitulates the whole, and vice versa. No thinking required, we just cycle and recycle through an aural dimension. Not all that bad, I guess, if it were not generated by forces out to fuck every last pair of eyeballs and mind plugged into it.

The investing class has put thousands of billions into movies, TV and other media to keep the hologram lit up over the past six decades. Which is to say, keep the public in an entertained stupor, awed, mislead, and most importantly, distracted. But the payoff probably runs in the trillions.

For the clear-eyed citizen, there is a growing inner horror and despair in all this, with nowhere to turn but the Internet. The Net is a cyber reality, no more real than the hologram, and indeed a part of the hologram, though not quite yet absorbed and co-opted by capitalism. We take what relief we can find.

However, for the unquestioning rest, the hologram, taken in its entirety, constitutes the American collective consciousness. Awareness. It enshrouds every citizen, defining through its permeation the daily world in which we all operate. Whether we love or hate it, there is no escape. Go live in a shack in the woods. Call that escape. But everything in the outside world continues to run in accordance with the humming energy of the hologram. There is no cutting our umbilical link to the womb of this illusion, this mass hallucination. There is only getting a longer umbilical cord, closing your eyes, and pretending that what the rest of the nation does has no effect on you. We were all born and raised in that womb. We can no more divorce the neurochemistry and consciousness it shaped in us, than we can deny that we had an earthly mother and are of her tissue. Our consciousness is born of the hologram’s connective neural and electrical tissue.

That common womb of American consciousness is dying. Slowly or rapidly, depending on how you assess the global ecocide and peak everything, it is dying. There will be resuscitations along the way, more massive infusions of money, fear and the rawest sort of fantasy fed to a mood and commodity drugged public. Still, its condition is terminal, because the hyperdrive consumer culture it was built to sustain, is itself unsustainable. Its appetite ate the world. In fact, so voracious is its appetite that even if our “consumer economy,” (legalized feudal theft) sees a recovery, and resumes the level of growth required just to keep capitalism alive, it will die just that much faster. It is not in capitalism’s DNA to care about the death of the earth. Nor is it in the brain chemistry of an American satiated on prime beef and sailing across the landscape at 70 miles per hour in a $40,000, steel exoskeleton from General Motors, to care. Hominid gratification is what it is — hard wired — and there is no circumventing it.

The system has just begun its crash, and already we are seeing an armed infantilized nation wail, hurl blame and do horrific things, the worst of which we do to one another (excluding sending predator drones after Middle Eastern school kids). Surveillance, witch hunts, destruction of civil liberties, and the government inching toward star chamber trials for those who do not display correct traits. Citizens embracing totalitarianism as stability in the face of the ultimate instability — the death of the planet.

The political regime or philosophy does not exist which can turn this scenario around. Slow it down, maybe, but put things in reverse, nope. Not when six billion mouths are munching at one end of the last noodle, and at the other end a fraction of a billion well armed technological people want the entire noodle. Not when life is already so damned cheap you can buy a girl slave in Haiti for twelve bucks, or 50 child slaves for your Asian sweatshop for less than the cost of a new car. Or an American working man for half of what it takes to support a family, then throw his ass over the company fence when he’s no longer needed. Or bury him in mines as he cries out in Jesus’ name, blow him up in Iraq, and Stelazine his kids minds and souls under the hot lights of the hologram, readying them for “the labor market.” Schenectady or Soweto, life is dirt-cheap and getting cheaper everywhere on the planet.

Meanwhile, gangster capitalism needs that hologram to maintain the illusion that life is not cheap, and that Jennifer Anniston’s ass can be yours in mind and dream (Personally, I’m a Julianna Margulies fan — The Good Wife”). And most of all, “The Gram” is required to keep its captives deluded and sated enough to remain productive and consuming — not to mention hating the right people — right up to the last moment before total collapse, and they are no longer needed. The higher owning/investing class is safe, no matter what happens. Oh sure, as Edward Bellamy wrote, a few of them topple from their high perch on humanity’s coach during the hell bent journey, but their class remains.

What happens to the rest of us in that great, sweating, moaning throng who have drawn the coach these centuries? What will remain for us on ruined plains of collapse?

Here is what I believe will remain. Reality and the truth, and the opportunity for spiritual evolution, which, in the end, I think will include most people. And much suffering. The reality of the world has always involved suffering. Despite the ballyhoo of modern science and technology, just as much suffering remains, more actually, given our increased numbers on the planet. Suffering happens to individual human beings and there are far more of those now. Of course, fat cat NGOs and governments deal in percentages and rates, so they will not have to account for the increased millions of miserable beings. We have more humans suffering — and not just from poverty either, think of depleted uranium, toxic waste, sweatshop slavery — than we had humans on earth a couple hundred years ago.

The hologram has, and still does, prevent Americans from grasping any of this. Instead, the hologram allows us to believe that life can exist without suffering. We actually achieved that state for a while, too, by forcing the suffering on unseen people elsewhere. We accepted the hologram’s one voice to the many as truth (not that we had much choice, The ‘Gram was all we knew), then let our souls and national character necrotize in the warm bath of self-gratification and statist hubris.

Nasty picture ain’t it? One surely painted by a bitter, sick old man who hates America. Years ago, my fellow countrymen used to ask if I hated America. They finally quit asking me when I started answering, “Hell fucking yes!” But I don’t hate Americans. In fact, while I do not believe in “hope” — that superstitious, childish wishing upon a star — I do believe America is once again, for all the wrong reasons, the last best hope of the world. If we do not succeed in destroying it first.

Clearly, we have taken an unimaginably disastrous course, and intend to take everyone else out with us. Yet we have only done what most of the world’s nations would have done, given such brute power and wealth for such a time. Perhaps more accurately, done what most of the world’s governments and leadership would have. So long as nations have hierarchical leadership, they will have escalating hierarchical greed, power hunger and destructive folly — and therefore, eventually approach hierarchical evil at some point. It may be an old saw, but power does corrupt.

Study us. See how an essentially good people (although the Native Americans would never agree) went wrong. After all, we were born the same unblemished child as everywhere else on the planet. And even now, given what has happened, one cannot fully indict all the “little people,” past or present. My granddad was a decent guy until the day he died. So were my dad and mom. And I try to be. But all of us can be rendered blind by faceless machines not entirely of our own creation, and then made submissive beasts to the coarsest among us. Ask any German. Or Hutu. We can be manipulated to believe that the rules do not apply to us, as in the cult of American exceptionalism. Arrogance is experiential and environmental in cause. I’ve been there and back several times in my life, and I am sure of that. Human experience can make and unmake arrogance. Ours is about to get unmade.

Inside most Americans is a globally brattish child. Thanks to our endowed natural resources (since squandered) and to armed national theft abroad, the American has not suffered enough to become a responsible adult on the planet. I suggest that others learn from our example and do differently while they still have the chance. Take heart that they may yet live in a country where capitalism’s nihilistic dynamo has not built up such a head of steam. There are still some left, but as near as I can tell — and mind you, I don’t know shit — their leadership is caught up in the same elite games and traps. National leadership is its own moral and spiritual trap.

Who am I to give advice? Nobody. But this is the Internet, and any dick brain with a keyboard may do so.

My advice is to resist pride in anything said to be national, whether it be prosperity, healthcare, culture, competence, social cohesion and identity, or whatever. Pride and courage do not live in the same house. Courage, which has little to do with blood and guts, but everything to do with sacrifice, chooses to dwell alongside humility.

Again, what will be left after the big collapse? Perhaps after a period of terror, violence and chaos, when the undeniable on-the-ground truth becomes apparent, through ecological disaster, war and other events, a more positive national cathexis will occur. If it does, it probably will not resemble anything we can conceive of in these times. If we can get past the terror involved from our present apprehensive vantage point, it is easy to see why positive national, even global cathexis may be unavoidable.

Cause for well-reasoned optimism exists. Its way the fuck out there, but it’s there. Not that it is something to cling to, or even pursue. Clinging and desire are the cause of all suffering in the first place. Doing so only prolongs suffering, personal, national or planetary. The Buddhists are right about that one. So are the Baptists when they say “The world gets right when the people get right.”

The big problem at the moment though, for us as sentient beings, is:

What to do when I get out of bed each day? Give money to the Democrats? Move out of the country? Stay and fight the bastards?

Throwing money at frauds and fools doesn’t work. Moving to Mexico or Canada takes money in a time when money and jobs are scarce everywhere. As for staying and fighting, really fighting, there is not one person reading this who is going to go strangle the sleazy fucks having martinis on Wall Street with their pet Senator. Nobody reading this is going to instill genuine physical fear, which is the only thing such lizards might respond to. We are left to work within the system, as per the hologram’s directive. Their system. Ha!

The answer, to me at least, is to do the most obvious thing first. And I do mean obvious in the most mundane sense. Like fixing breakfast with all the contemplative awareness possible. Seriously. The tiniest right action, the action in complete unself-conscious natural awareness, connects to all the rightness in the universe. And the universe is always right. Because it owns all of our asses, plus black holes, and those teensy pinholes in time that physicist say make you an immediate neighbor of Shakespeare and mastodons — only you don’t know it. It owns the molecules of the ages. Everything.

This proposition is unappealing to Americans and just about everyone else in the western world. To be perfectly honest, a big screen TV, the Internet, and tickets to a Rams game are more accessible and immediately gratifying. Right action in the moment does not light up your neural pleasure centers like cheap sex or jalapeno Doritos. However, I am trying to do it anyway, at least until the opportunity for cheap sex presents itself. When it does, it will most likely be the right action for that moment. Funny how things work.

In any case, by the mundane right action of breakfast, I mean fixing breakfast to locate one’s heart in that particular day. Then proceeding toward the least harm one can discern to do, with full knowledge that we always do harm, whether we intend to or not (the world is full of subtle unintended violence). Eliminate whatever suffering in sentient beings one encounters, whether it be in bums, dogs, kids, plants, or the rich fucker next door moaning over his enormous tax bill. To him that is suffering. There’s no sliding scale about this shit. I once worked for a guy who bawled when some kid keyed his Porsche. Misery is relative. Compassion is sublime.
Besides, this is what the heart is designed for — to serve as a compass for the spirit, regardless of how one defines spirit or denies its existence. What the hell, we gotta call the best in ourselves and in our species something, so we can connect with it. The mind has some terrible limitations in doing that sort of thing. As in, it cannot. Necessary as rationalization is for survival, reason ain’t everything. In the big picture, it is a small ingredient. Merely an asset, a monkey tool.

Even thinking seems ultimately to lead to the value of non-thinking, which is to say, pure human existence and consciousness. Pure unadulterated duration. This is the most fearless plain, the one on which all things are manifest as they really are, in their purest form, before social and personal hallucinations settle over them like a shroud.

In such times as these, that hard bright plain is bitch to find, much less travel. For sure it starts with the moment called now.

And right now, good god, it’s two AM! Time for the nightly Law and Order rerun on Mexican TV.
Hologram take me home.

A seminal interview with Dennis McKenna, Ph.D on the evolution of ayahuasca and the entheogenic movement and the imminent tipping point on planet earth the movement parallels. In which experiential journalist Rak Razam quizzes Dennis on his role as a scientist and a leading ayahuasca researcher, while Dennis waxes lyrical on bio-piracy, the proliferating business of shamanism in Peru and around the world, and the urgent need for integration of the plant teacher experience in people’s everyday lives to truly make a difference. Is the sacrament of ayahuasca becoming commercialized? As pharmahuasca – and the startling development of ayahuasca in a pill form – spreads beyond the vine itself, is the wisdom of globaluasca transcending its Gaian roots to connect with a new generation without the plant dogma? Is the future a religious, compartmentalized Entheogenic Evangelism? Or will lodges transform into “psychedelic monasteries” training plant Jedis? Its been ten years now since Dennis’ brother Terence passed on, and Dennis deconstructs some of his theories, from Timewave Zero to the Singularity and provides a critical analysis of the 2012 phenomenon and the unfolding Archaic Revival…

BP and the US Government has said they are trying everything possible to stop that multi million gallon oil from continuing to flow into the Gulf.

I am about to dispute that claim and offer an expose’ as to why that story about them doing everything possible is a lie and a profitable enterprise to those who would make money from this disaster.

The Top Kill method was started and suspended several times. It was being attempted only half heartedly. The reason is, there is no money to be made with a solution that simple.

The real money is in the use of dispersements.

There is a company called NALCO. They make water purification systems and chemical dispersements.
NALCO is based in Chicago with subsidiaries in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia.

NALCO is associated with UChicago Argonne program. UChicago Argonne received $164 million dollars in stimulus funds this past year. UChicago Argonne just added two new executives to their roster. One from NALCO. The other from the Ill. Dept of Educaution.

If you dig a little deeper you will find NALCO is also associated with Warren Buffett, Maurice Strong, Al Gore, Soros, Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hathaway Berkshire.

Warren Buffet /Hathaway Berkshire increased their holdings in NALCO just last November. (Timing is everything).

The dispersement chemical is known as Corexit. What it does is hold the oil below the water’s surface. It is supposed to break up the spill into smaller pools. It is toxic and banned in Europe.

NALCO says they are using older and newer versions of Corexit in the Gulf.. (Why would you need a newer version, if the old one was fine?)

There is big money and even bigger players in this scam. While they are letting the oil blow wide open into the Gulf, the stakes and profit rise.

The Dolphins, Whales, Manatees, Sea Turtles and fish suffocate and die. The coastal regions, salt marshes, tourist attractions and the shore front properties are being destroyed, possibly permanently. The air quality is diminished. The Gulf of Mexico fishing industry is decimated.

All to create a need for their expensive and extremely profitable poison.

Some friends and I have compiled extensive articles and reports to support this claim.

Thank you:
Sir_Templar. He brought this to our attention and hs supplied links and articles.
Spongedocks. She tirelessly searched through mountains of information & supplied valuable links & resources..
Bobbi85710 She has contributed links articles and uncovered the Stimulus funds.

The Research:

‘This is NALCO:

_http://www.nalco.com/index.htm_(http://www.nalco.com/index.htm)
Goldman Sachs was part of a three-pronged group that purchased NALCO:
_http://bit.ly/8Z3Ai6_(http://bit.ly/ 8Z3Ai6)
Buffett’s Bet On Water, NALCO (NLC is trade code):
_http://www.istockanalyst.com/articleicleid/3095068_
(http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3095068)
‘Blackstone, Apollo and Goldman Sachs to acquire Ondeo NALCO’ (COREXIT 9500):
_http://bit.ly/bVHQkR_(http://bit.ly/bVHQkR)
The Milken Institute – Leon Black of Apollo Management LLC (i.e. NALCO): _http://bit.ly/vJLz_ (http://bit.ly/vJLz)
BP plc, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, NALCO Holding Co., Halliburton Co:
_http://yhoo.it/amEhiS_(http://yhoo.it/amEhiS)
The Chicago, NALCO, Arab, Blago, Rezko Connection:
_http://bit.ly/d88×31_(http://bit.ly/d88×31)
Obama’s Economic Adviser Buffet,= Berkshire Hathaway Inc – NALCO Holding Co:
_http://bit.ly/ati3AL_(http://bit.ly/ati3AL)
NALCO and the China Connection:
_http://bit.ly/daKYmk_(http://bit.ly/daKYmk)
‘NALCO eyes doubling of sales in China:
_http://bit/. ly/bi7BZw_ (http://bit.ly/ bi7BZw)
Berkshire the second-largest shareholder in NALCO:
_http://bit.ly/cvHDAl_(http://bit.ly/cvHDAl)
Company Profile ‘NALCO Holding Co:
_http://bit.ly/9qeTkd_(http://bit.ly/9qeTkd)
‘96 “partnerships with enviro products thru 2010″! Attendees: Gore M. Strong & NALCO:
_http://is.gd/ ctV7p_(http://is.gd/ctV7p)
Gore/Strong EPA Conference ‘96:
_http://is.gd/ctVfN_(http://is.gd/ctVfN) BP Embraces Exxon’s Toxic Dispersant, Ignores Safer Alternative It has been confirmed that the dispersal agent being used by BP and the government is Corexit 9500 , a solvent originally developed by Exxon and now manufactured by Nalco Holding Company of Naperville, IL. Their stock took a sharp jump, up more than 18% at its highest point of the day today, after it was announced that their product is the one being used in the Gulf. Nalco’s CEO, Erik Frywald, expressed their commitment to “helping the people and environment of the Gulf Coast recover as rapidly as possible.” It may be that the best way to help would be to remove their product from the fray.

Take a look at some of the facts about Corexit 9500:
A report written by Anita George-Ares and James R. Clark for Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. entitled “Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Three Corexit Products: An Overview ” states that “Corexit 9500, Corexit 9527, and Corexit 9580 have moderate toxicity to early life stages of fish, crustaceans and mollusks (LC50 or EC50 – 1.6 to 100 ppm*). It goes on to say that decreasing water temperatures in lab tests showed decreased toxicity, a lowered uptake of the dispersant. Unfortunately, we’re going to be seeing an increase in temperatures, not a decrease. Amongst the other caveats is that the study is species-specific, that other animals may be more severely affected, silver-sided fish amongst them.
_http://www.protecttheocean.com/gulf-oil-spill-bp/_
(http://www.protecttheocean.com/gulf-oil-spill-bp/)

Here is the Stimulus money: Awards in Lemont , Illinois
Below are the stimulus contracts, grants, and loans in this city. You can click on an award to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the award and vote on whether you are satisfied with it or not. For a more local view, you can drill down to awards in a particular city. Just choose a city from the following list.

The total of cost of all the projects submitted by Lemont is $164,030,462. 00 Type Description Amount City State Jobs Vote Contract This is a Time-and-Materials task order in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the Basic Contract DE-EM0000156.… $305,550 Lemont IL 1 -1 Contract Argonne National Laboratory manages a variety of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-funded projects, which will create jobs and help… $163,724,912 Lemont IL 19 25 _http://tinyurl.com/252mhnh_ (http://tinyurl.com/252mhnh)
~~~~
~~~~
LEMONT , IL UCHICAGO ARGONNE, LLC
Contract: $163,724,912 – Department of Energy – May. 22, 2009
~~~~~~~~
NALCO is associated with Exelon and Com Ed. (Ayers’ father was CEO of Com Ed.)
Com Ed hired a CEO form NALCO and a director from Dept of EDU. Isn’t B. Ayers w/Edu?
_http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22533_
(http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22533)
Pay close attention to UChicago Argonne. They control Fermi, as well as other majopr energy industry connections.
_http://research.uchicago.edu/uc_anl_centers.shtml_
(http://research.uchicago.edu/uc_anl_centers.shtml)
ComED & Exelon are connected to NALCO through UChicago Argonne.
All areconnected to Fermilab. That stimulus millions to Lamont is funding all these connections.
They even hire each other’s executives. ComEd names 2 new outside directors
(Crain’s) — Commonwealth Edison Co. has appointed two new outside board members as the utility continues to seek to distance itself from parent Exelon Corp. in the ongoing controversy in Springfield over future electric rates.

Added to the ComEd board are Edward (Ted) J. Mooney, former CEO of Nalco Holding Co. in Naperville, and Jesse H. Ruiz, partner in the law firm of Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP and chairman of Illinois State Board of Education. The appointments were effective Oct. 16.
_http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22533_
(http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22533)
~~~~
This is NALCO India. It’s in Brazil, Russia & China.= BRIC.There is also a plant in Indonesia. (There are a couple articles at this link.
_http://www.topnews.in/companies/nalco_
(http://www.topnews.in/companies/nalco)
~~~~
A Few Words About Nalco
Please note the date of article Nov. 2009.(Timing is everything).
“It is no wonder why Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is the biggest shareholder. ”
_http://dailyreckoning.com/a-few-words-about-nalco/_
(http://dailyreckoning.com/a-few-words-about-nalco/)
~~
If you read this article carefully, you will see the Dome they were allegedly using to “try to block the spill” was a lie. It was never intended to stop the oil flow.

It was an experiment being conducted for another project.: Science magazine features Mines hydrates research

GOLDEN, Colo., Oct. 12, 2009 – Science magazine has published a paper by Colorado School of Mines doctoral graduate student Matthew Walsh, and faculty and co-directors of the Center for Hydrate Research (CHR), Carolyn Koh, E. Dendy Sloan, Amadeu Sum, and David Wu — “Microsecond Simulations of Spontaneous Methane Hydrate Nucleation and Growth.”

The article was recently featured on “Science Express,” the magazine’s web site that highlights selected articles that will appear in upcoming print issues.

Wu explains gas hydrates as vast untapped energy reserves found in the ocean and the permafrost that are also a potential storage medium for hydrogen fuel or sequestering carbon dioxide. Hydrates currently pose the greatest challenge in the delivery of oil and gas in pipelines, which can be plugged by the formation of hydrates, he said. The Mines research reported in Science helps explain how hydrates form, and could eventually lead to ways to control their growth.

“Methane hydrates form at high pressures and low temperatures, and have an unusual crystalline structure in which water molecules form cages around individual methane molecules, ” Wu said. “How such complex structures form is notoriously difficult to study since the process of nucleation is a rare random event that happens in a few nanoseconds and at a random location over a few nanometers.”
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation-Renewabl e Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and CBET Division, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Mines Hydrate Consortium, which is presently sponsored by BP, Champion Technologies, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Multi-Chem Group, Nalco, Petrobras, Schlumberger, Shell, SPT Group, StatoilHydro, and Total.
_http://www.mines.edu/Science-magazinates-research-_
(http://www.mines.edu/Science-magazine-features-Mines-hydrates-research-)
~~~~
Special Report on BP plc, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, Nalco Holding Co., Halliburton Co., and Domestic All-Star Paradigm Oil and Gas, Inc. (PDGO)
May 2, 2010 3:01 PM EDT
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — (MARKET WIRE ) — 05/02/10 — _www.EnergyStockAlerts.com_ (http://www.energystockalerts.com/) is a premier source for microcap and blue chip research and commentary.

The scale and carnage of BP’s recent oil spill disaster continues to grow on a daily basis. The Wall Street Journal, citing industry experts, on Friday estimated the size of the continuing oil leak at 25,000 barrels a day (up from the U.S. government’s Thursday estimate of 5,000 barrels a day). BP shares have fallen 12% since the disaster.

The accident has forced President Barack Obama to put on hold politically sensitive plans to expand offshore U.S. oil drilling . In March, President Obama unveiled plans for a limited expansion, in part to try to win Republican support for climate change legislation. The White House announced Saturday morning the President will travel to the gulf coast today to get an update on efforts to contain the massive spill.

Yesterday news reports that several banks (including Goldman Sachs, GS and Citigroup, C ), recommended buying BP shares. They argue investors are over reacting since the April 20 explosion.
Yesterday oil giant BP (BP) released news that it has tested the dispersants (manufactured by Nalco Holding Co. (HAL)), on Friday night and authorized it’s use on a larger scale. BP also added, it is looking for additional suppliers to begin manufacturing the material in mass quantities.
_http://tinyurl.com/2cachel_(http://tinyurl.com/2cachel)
~~~~
The day after the rig blew, there was a Symposium on alternative energy. The Keynote speakers were none other than John Holdren and Ray Lahood.
(Timing is everything): Chicago Summit To Address Four Key Challenges
Clean water; carbon, energy and climate; urban sustainability; and global health to be discussed April 21 to 22 March 25, 2010

On April 21 to 22, engineering, government, non-profit and business leaders from across the United States and abroad, as well as local high school and college students, will convene at Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel as the Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago Council on Science and Technology present the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges for the 21st Century: Chicago Summit 2010. The Chicago Summit is designed to stimulate the engineering, science and policy advances needed to address four key “grand challenges” facing the United States: clean water; carbon, energy and climate; urban sustainability; and global health.

Among the many notables to attend the summit will be U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, assistant to the president for science and technology, Dr. John P. Holdren, and the Haitian Ministry of Health’s Marie Denise Milord.
_http://www.wwdmag.com/ Chicago-SummitnewsPiece20381 _
(http://www.wwdmag.com/Chicago-Summit-To-Address-Four-Key-Challenges-newsPiece20381)
The summit was held as scheduled: Rig blew April 20, 2010. Summit next day.
_http://www.iit.edu/grand_challenges/am_Singles.pdf_
(http://www.iit.edu/grand_challenges/program/pdfs/GC_Program_Singles.pdf)
~~~~
This is a hodgepdge of articles:
_http://www.thestreet.com/find/resulth.y=0&ct=&sb=d_
(http://www.thestreet.com/find/ results?q=nalco&search.x=0&search.y=0&ct=&sb=d)
Some examples: Statement Regarding Disclosure Of Information About COREXIT … By GlobeNewswire 05/28/10
.
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10769t-corexit.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10769717/1/statement-regarding-disclosure-of-information-about-c orexit.html) Nalco Releases Additional Technical Information On COREXIT By GlobeNewswire 05/27/10
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10768n-corexit.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10768572/1/nalco-releases-additional-technical-information-on-co rexit.html) Funds for Cleaning Up After BP By Don Dion 05/26/10
Cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico is good for business for a diverse collection of companies dedicated to this and other types of environmental efforts.
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10767-after-bp.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10767546/1/funds-for-cleaning-up-after-bp.html) Why George Soros Is Buying Westport Innovations By Eric Rosenbaum 05/25/10
Westport Innovations nabs a major investor in the first quarter: George Soros.
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10766novations.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10766495/1/why-george-soros-is-buying-westport-innovations.html)
Nalco Statement On May 24 EPA Press Conference On Dispersant Use … By GlobeNewswire 05/24/10
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10765of-mexico.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10765543/1/nalco-statement-on-may-24-epa-press-conference- on-dispersant-use-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html) Professor Buffett’s Spring Cleaning By Don Dion 05/21/10
Buffett has made a few interesting tweaks to his portfolio, including scaling back Berkshire’s position in Kraft by more than 20%.
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10763-cleaning.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10763249/1/professor-buffetts-spring-cleaning.html) Nalco Statement On EPA Analysis Of Sub-surface Dispersant Use … By GlobeNewswire 05/20/10
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10762rsant-use.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10762894/1/nalco-statemen t-on-epa-analysis-of-sub-surface-disper sant-use.html) Got Water? RealMoney.com ($)
PHO offers lets investors dip into one of the most crucial and overlooked commodities in the world.
_http://www.thestreet.com/p/rmoney/etf/10763316.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/p/rmoney/etf/10763316.html) Nalco Releases Sales Impact Of Gulf Response By GlobeNewswire 05/17/10 _http://www.thestreet.com/story/10758-response.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10758977/1/nalco-releases-sales-impact-of-gulf-response.html)
Nalco States Medium-term Financial Objectives By GlobeNewswire 05/17/10
_http://www.thestreet.com/story/10758bjectives.html_
(http://www.thestreet.com/story/10758978/1/nalco-states-medium-term-financial-objectives.html) _http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-19-904462.html_
(http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20100419-904462.html) seems the wall street journal is chasing this too
_http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/995965.column_
(http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0131-confidential-20100129,0,1995965.column) rahm and nalco
_http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1829823/posts_
(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1829823/posts) Pelosi’s husband
_http://www.nationalsummit.org/speaker-fyrwald_
(http://www.nationalsummit.org/speaker-fyrwald)
_http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=143358_
(http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=143358)
_http://www.executivesclub.org/ABOUTUS7/Default.aspx_
(http://www.executivesclub.org/ABOUTUS/ClubLeadership/BoardofDirectors/tabid/67/Default.aspx) board of directors of the executives club of chicago
_http://www.economics.wsj.com/participants.php?facilitator=fyrwald_
(http://www.economics.wsj.com/participants.php?facilitator=fyrwald)
Chairman President and CEO NALCO HOLDING CO (NLC) Headquarters: NAPERVILLE, IL Chemicals And Allied Products
In 2009, J. Erik Fyrwald received $5,620,847 in total compensation. By comparison, the average worker made $32,048 in 2009. J. Erik Fyrwald made 175 times the average worker’s pay.
_http://www.nalco.com/aboutnalco/governance.htm_
(http://www.nalco.com/aboutnalco/governance.htm)
_http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/100300968.html_
(http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/nalco-plans-subsidiaries-to-boost-business-diversi fication_100300968.html)
_http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/20…ll-Despite- EPA_
(http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/23/869241/-BP-Wont-Change-Dispersants-In-Oil-Spill-Des pite-EPA)
~~~~
And finally this:

Ying Yeh looks for new challenge, hopes to help clean China By Zhang Qi (China Daily) Being in the limelight is nothing new for Ying Yeh. As the first Chinese woman appointed the global vice president of a Fortune 500 company and the minister-counselor for Commercial Affairs in the US, Ying Yeh has received plenty of accolades.

But what surprised many was her recent decision to leave behind her successful 12-year career at Eastman Kodak and join Nalco, a virtually unknown US company.
_http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bw/2009-05/18content_7785331.htm_
(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bw/2009-05/18/content_7785331.htm)
~~~~~~~~~~
So there you have it folks.

The wellpipe rupture was a “Convenient” accident. The officials have no intention of stopping that oil spewing into the Gulf. They scammed us with the Dome experiment. They used the Top Kill method as a ruse to make us believe they were trying something. I’m sure they had many calls to use a method that has been around for decades and being used successfully many times.

It’s all about the profit.

This expose has shown Who, what, when, where and why, the dithering.

It’s about the dispersements, the stimulus, the billionaires who are vested in NALCO, the scientists who are all onboard with the green agenda, Chicago and blatant deception.

Always follow the money!
~~~
Obama blaming BP:
Obama blames BP and orders probe
_http://english.aljazeera.net/news/am…713717747. html_
(http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/20105231713717747.html)
Pelosi blaming Bush:
_http://tinyurl.com/249e2n2_ (http://tinyurl.com/249e2n2)
~~~

Greed, corruption, conspiracy, fraud and deception are where the blame lies. From the top down is involved.

Remember, you cannot redistribute fishing/shrimping industries, tourism, ocean front property, boating. That wealth will have to be destroyed.

They are poisoning our Gulf for personal profit!

“I am here for only one cause – to defend the life and the sovereignty of indigenous peoples. I am not just one person; I represent all our indigenous peoples. The government must respect my right to continue fighting for our rights as indigenous peoples.” – Alberto Pizango

Lima, Peru – Alberto Pizango, the exiled chief of the national Peruvian indigenous organization, AIDESEP, will return to Lima today where a capture order for his arrest remains in effect. Pizango was granted asylum in Nicaragua nearly a year ago after the Garcia administration attempted to hold him responsible for fatalities during the violent June 5th army raid on indigenous protestors outside the Amazon town of Bagua. The incident, which left 34 people dead on both sides and more than 200 people injured, eventually led to the Peruvian Congress repealing two of nine contested Presidential decrees that had sparked nationwide indigenous protests.

Pizango, who is likely to be arrested upon arrival, will be accompanied by an international delegation including Daysi Zapata, Vice President of AIDESEP, film star Q’orianka Kilcher (The New World, Princess Kaiulani) also of Peruvian indigenous descent, and Gregor MacLennan, Peru Program Director for Amazon Watch. International and Peruvian human rights groups are calling on the Garcia Government to drop the trumped up legal charges against Pizango and instead address the root causes of the conflict with indigenous peoples.

For Pizango, the risk of arrest and incarceration is outweighed by his deep concern over the threats facing Peru’s indigenous peoples: “I represent indigenous peoples, I am returning to take on the hard task of resolving these problems, so that we as indigenous peoples can have a voice, can have justice, and can truly live in peace as we deserve.”

Pizango is returning just days before Peruvian President Alan Garcia is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. on June 1st. Lima will also be in the spotlight as it hosts the General Assembly of the Organization of American States from June 6-8.

The protests last year were sparked when President Garcia used the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement to justify the promulgation of a series of decrees that roll back indigenous land rights and open much of the Peruvian Amazon to foreign corporations. Given the U.S. connection to the conflict in Peru, rights groups are pushing President Obama to raise this issue with Garcia.

“Pizango’s courageous return to Peru marks an important opportunity for the Peruvian government to begin repairing its relations with indigenous peoples,” said actress and indigenous rights activist Q’orianka Kilcher. “President Garcia should consider that the world is watching and that all of this is unfolding on the eve of his meeting with President Obama and the assembly of the Organization of American States.”

Peruvian human rights experts agree that the pending charges against Pizango have no legal foundation and should have been dismissed long ago.

Pizango stated: “Nearly a year has passed since the tragic events in Bagua, yet we have not reached any resolution. Now is the moment for the Peruvian government to show good faith and stop persecuting indigenous peoples.”

To mark the one-year anniversary of the violence in Bagua, indigenous and human rights groups are planning a series of events to bring attention to continuing indigenous rights violations and the criminalization of protest in Peru.

In February 2010, the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations asked the Peruvian government to “suspend the exploration and exploitation of natural resources which are affecting [indigenous peoples]” until the government has developed consultation and participation mechanisms in compliance with the ILO convention 169 on the rights of indigenous peoples.

“The Garcia administration does not seem to have learned the harsh lessons of Bagua. Just last week, the government intensified its assault on indigenous rights by offering yet more indigenous territory to foreign oil corporations so that half of all indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon now fall within oil concessions,” stated Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch’s Executive Director.

“President Garcia is imposing a model of ‘development’ for the Amazon that is based on shortsighted extraction of natural resources and tramples on the rights of the people’s whose lives depend on the rainforest,” added Soltani.

International norms such as ILO Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples obligate governments to respect indigenous peoples’ right to decide their own future. Governments are legally required to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of affected indigenous peoples before moving ahead with policies or economic activities.

Click here for more information.

“In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery…”
- Cormac McCarthy

Life on this planet lives through virtue of interconnectivity. All of nature exists as an evolving web of consciousness. The light of the sun floods the elemental networks of the planet with energy that builds fractal realms of biological sentience and experience. This world-creation is a sparkling summit of universal complexity.

And yet, modern humanity lives in a state of distraction and fragmentation, lost within an exclusive, secular faith of primitive linear reason, disconnected from the many modes of understanding and perception that bring balance and health. The loss of a harmonious participation with ones bio-region results in a tragic destruction of bio-diversity and diminution of quality of life.

Re-cultivating our full humanness and interconnectivity can assist the wholeness and integrity of our communities and the ecologies we are inextricably one with. Many existing indigenous communities retain traditions that maintain interconnection with the spirits and ancestors of their bio-region. For the ancient indigenous ways are expressions of the land itself, not human creations. Over many hundreds of thousands of years, the ceremonies, medicine, arts and stories generated through shamanic practices have assisted human groups in maintaining harmony between nature and culture, body and mind.

There are many different names across cultures for people who initiate ecological and spiritual knowledge and healing within their communities. Some of these names include Shamans (Tungus, Siberia), vegetalista (Mestizo, Peru), Dukun (Indonesia), Huna (Hawaii). Such people cultivate ways of understanding that employ intuition, creativity, and exploration of the Divine Imagination or ‘Dreaming’. From within their own unique traditions, they traverse the underworlds and heavens of the World Tree to divinate, to cure, to learn. They are often deeply knowledgeable of the medicine of plants, therapeutic touch, and work as helpers and guides at the transformational passages of birth, living and dying. They work as initiators of collective ecstatic ritual.

People living within technological capitalist cultures cannot healthily appropriate or mimic these traditions, but we can still learn much from contact with traditional wisdom and their methods of spiritual development, and ‘Learn How To Learn’ from that wisdom. Such wisdom can help to deepen our own connection with the earth where we stand, honoring the spirit of the land and developing our own rituals, celebrations, healing ceremonies, rekindling our ancestral memory, and reawakening our innate planetary memory…

The Land

Animist cultures view plants and features of their ecosystem as fellow sentient subjects, not as material objects. Plants and fungi are revered in the many Amazonian cultures as ‘plant teachers’, non-human people who are fellow subjects in the universe, communicable, and to be respected.

In Amazonian vegetalismo practices, the ritual consumption of the sacred plant potion Ayahuasca reveals the world of nature multi-dimensional society, a system of spiritual relations in an all-encompassing fertility circuit. From the inner dialog, the vegetalista learns the medicinal and magical properties of plants, and learns to see deeper into the spiritual ecology of the deep forests.

The attitude of dialog even extends to the mineral kingdom and features of the landscape(stone people,crystal realms,earth elementals). Such dialog or ‘eco-sophy’ with ‘more than human’ nature is common to Animist cultures. In Tibetan Bon Po, mountains are considered spiritual mandalas, with the summit being the center-most point where the deity of the mountain is most present. In African Animist cosmology, rivers are presided over by the orisha (spirit, totem) Oshun, present in the currents and eddies of the river where her force moves ever onward…

The deep ecologist Rupert Sheldrake suggests thinking of our bio-regions and ‘places’ in terms of “spheres of action, operation or investigation”. Humans with shamanic awareness do not treat their environment as contemporary humans tend to do, as inert backdrops for their ego-drama, but rather as nested, interacting field of sentience which one must relate to appropriately, with respect and receptivity.

“Places traditionally associated with the presence of nature spirits are not distributed equally across the landscape. They are concentrated in particular areas, such as hill tops,waterfalls, springs, streams and rivers, in and around various trees, in caves and grottoes … these fields must be embedded within larger fields, such as the fields of river systems and mountain chains… and ultimately Gaia and the entire solar system.”

Sacred places would be protected across generations, no one would want to upset the balance as they knew the consequences would ripple throughout the entire web of creation. This way of respect encompasses the animal kingdom and the hunters respect for the spirit of their life givers.

In such a cosmology, the entire universe consists of ‘vibratory organisms’ ranging from elementary particles to galaxies, with each organism participating in every other. Shamans, curanderos, develops a sensitivity, a sympathetic resonance with this vibrant sentient whole. The purpose of cultivating harmonious communication is to maximize the nurture and fertility within the ecosystem and community.

Communal Shamanic Rituals

Compared to the often solitary heroic image of the shaman that capitalist cultures have inherited from new age literature, it is common that shamanic practices operate within groups of close affiliation, extended families and tribes. A communal context supports ecstatic experiences, creates bonding, filial love, and communal cohesion. By communities collectively entering into catharsis and mystical union, differences and conflicts in the community are worked through.

In South America the complex interweaving of many spiritual lines from different cultures have come to mix and be re-formed within the overwhelming natural vitality of the Amazon. Such community traditions include Barquina, Unio de Vegetal and Santo Daime. These shamanic lineages combine elements of African cosmology and ritual with Amazonian plant traditions and the symbology of Christianity (itself a syncretic mythology). They are living traditions, evolving their doctrines (teachings) through songs and chants received in the shamanic ‘miracao’, the realm of visions, akashic memory and contact with spiritual intelligences.

In such lineages, the entire community, not just a solitary shaman, imbibes sacrament, dances, sings, chants, prays, channels spirits and heals. Mystical and transpersonal experiences are held in the ritual vessel through the consecration of prayers and the collective experience of the group. Different spiritual works are developed, some for healing, some for spiritual purification, some for jubilation and festivities.

In such shamanic ceremonies, end is joined with beginning. The shamanic dance connects to the first dances deep in mythic time. In the transcendence of history, one returns to cyclic time, creating a sympathetic bridge to all cultures and peoples across time and space. In the deep ecstatic trance people will dialog with or even physically incorporate spirits of ancestors, of the land, and of higher dimensions. They emerge into the group experience to share wisdom and healing energies. In the African Jurema and Cambondle cults it is common for people to personify and enact representations of the ecosystem, such as Yemanja, the ocean, or ‘Princesa Jurema’, the ‘princess’ of the Jurema tree imbibed in ceremonies.

These new lines of tradition indicate that ancient methods for collective shamanism can migrate and adapt to new conditions in order to work with the specific plants and energies of the bio-region.

Shamanism and Reason

The role of shamanism in the Western world diminished through complex social forces. In the Classic world the role of the shaman sometimes survived the development of agriculture and city-states in the form of gnostic mystery schools. Such groups preserved and cultivated ancient lines of Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew and Christian spiritual wisdom, but became dispersed and suppressed by the development and centralization of the Roman Christian Empire, with its vast mandate to standardize religious beliefs, and so the western world lost the intuitive, metaphoric and systemic perceptions of shamanic ecstasy.

The demands for social conformity under the militaristic and economic values of Empire lead to a ‘mono-phasic’ consciousness – a way of life that insisted upon just one limited perceptive mode; rationality, and an essentially materialistic orientation toward the natural world.

“Monophasic consciousness, most often embodied as the scientific method, disavows the validity of any knowledge accessed through transrational processes. Perceptual diversity is important for evolutionary competence and human adaptability. Already, without it, the monophasic consciousness of Western, developed nations has led to loss of cultural diversity and biodiversity.”
- Perceptual Diversity:Is Polyphasic Consciousness Necessary for Global Survival? By Tara W. Lumpkin

Because western civilization suffers from mono-phasic consciousness – the inflexible rigidity of a primitive and linear ‘reason’, which arrogantly exalts itself as a superior approach to existence – we have neglected the intuitive, metaphoric, integrative and non-linear capacities that bring balance to reason and allow a meaningful connection to the natural world and the imaginal realms.

As a counterbalance to the unprecedented split between mind and nature which was the Industrial Revolution, the art and prose of the Romantics inaugurated a quest to break out of the tyranny of ‘Newton’s sleep’. The psychologist Jung, influenced by Romantic and Gnostic lines, exhorted an enrichment of reason “with a knowledge of man’s psychic foundation”, the lower stories of our “species’ house”. Jung encouraged the holding of both reason and the primordial mind in consciousness simultaneously, so a new synthesis could emerge. His work opened the way for a myriad of inquiries into the mysteries of consciousness which has transformed the fields of psychology, ethnography and anthropology.

Establishing a living bridge between the primal and the modern may be the evolutionary task of our time.

Shamanism and Simulcra

The New Age movement represents the desire to reclaim full humanness but often falls into the entrapments of simulation. In seeking to cultivate a ’shaman-ism’ we often fall into simulcra. In his critique of the modern age, Baudrillard claims that contemporary society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that the modern human experience is of a simulation of reality rather than reality itself.

‘Shamanism’ within the New Age is arguably a simulcra. It is a term invented by anthropologists to refer to the practices of spiritual healers and communal rites of passage in nature-orientated communities. By employed this singular umbrella term, anthropologists, ethnographers, and other Western scholars have simplified and exaggerated the universality of traditional cultures, who have their own names for their sacred practices.

Neoshamanism and ‘core shamanism’ are based on the idea that removing the cultural references and symbology reveals a core system of practice, which can be taught through commercial workshops and courses. This concept overlooks the unique influence of ancestral connection to place, and that symbols and metaphor are of essence to shamanic practices. The weave of symbols used in prayer, invocation and healing interconnect with the bio-region, community, ancestors and spiritual powers.

The symbols and metaphor of shamanic ritual have a powerful integrative potential because they express deep structures of relationships between the false dualism of inner and outer, mind and matter.

Shamanism and Colonialism

Alice Kehoe in her book Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking, asserts that New Age forms of Shamanism, misrepresent and ‘dilute’ genuine indigenous practices and may also reinforce racist ideas such as the Noble Savage. Many members of traditional, indigenous cultures and religions, such as Native American and First Nations activists, are suspicious of ‘neoshamanism’ and ‘plastic shamanism’, believing it to rely heavily on cultural appropriation and the commodification of their traditions.

Hobson, a Cherokee writer, coined the term ‘the whiteshaman movement’, criticising the trend of ‘white’ authors to assume the persona of Native American shamans in their writings, or else work as interpreters of Native American spirituality, and in doing so inadvertantly reinforce cultural stereotypes and distortions. Adding to this contemporary confusion is that ‘indigenous’ is a colonial concept, as are ‘aboriginal’, ‘native’, and ’shamanism’.

A promising solution to escape being enmeshed in polarizing colonial terminology is the recognizing of the diversity of original languages and traditions, anchored in the experience of a community within its bio-region. All ancient traditions have arisen from an ancient and unique interconnection with the land and sky, and with the discipline of self-enquiry, a ‘philosophical’ enterprise that must integrate and incorporate all aspects of being, including those so surpressed in our culture, the mythic, symbolic, imaginal, intuitive and creative. And so it is to the land and skies, both inner and outer, that the people living within material technological cultures must look to revive their true being.

Bioregional Shamanic Gnosis

The practices of the shaman, the vegetalista, the kuna, the priest, are each distinct expressions of the experiences of a peoples journey through time and the innate mysteries of the natural world. For people without their own shamanic traditions, the interconnection with the earth and the education it gives exists here and now to be rekindled. Even in our fragmentary technological world, we are still part of ‘The Dreaming’. All creatures, organic and inorganic, human and non-human, live by the Dreamings that play through them. This earth-centered, animist approach to reclaiming full humanity has been called ‘bio-regional animism’ or ‘deep ecology’.

Bio-Regional Animism seeks to re-cultivates the sacred relationship of humans and the eco-systems they inhabit by recognizing the lessons taught by animist cultures worldwide, past and the present, and applying the animist process to our eco-systems. It spiritually relates our modern culture to the forest, rivers, mountains, animals, energies, and scientific principles as individuals with inherent worth and dignity. Knowing where your water and food comes from, social activities of local wildlife, and the medicinal value of indigenous plants, builds the foundation for relating to our ecosystem through ceremonies and meditations. This is achieved by discarding the dualism of modern society, and realizing there is only spirit.

Such an approach, that negates the dualistic concept of mind and matter, spiritual and physical, has been termed ‘co-essence’.

Co-Essence

Co-essence describes how the spiritual essence is shared and flows between beings and realms. Co-essence describes this experience of shared connection, symbiosis, the necessary and extensive interdependence, co-existence, of the Web of life. Co-essence recognizes that our essence is shared, that my essence is as much in you as in me.

Correlates to the concept of ‘co-essence are found in the pan-Mesoamerican beliefs of nagualismo and tonalismo, signifying the transformation of a person into an animal, and a person’s companion animal or destiny, which everyone is believed to possess. Such aspects of co-essence embody peoples ties to the earth, nature, and fate, as mediated by animals and bio-regions.

Co-essence is a body wisdom that is cultivated in many shamanic practices. By inducing altered states of consciousness through the body – prolonged dancing, singing, extreme heat or cold, plant psychedelics, hyper-ventilation – the gates of perception are opened, revealing the systemic co-essence of nature.

The cultivation of systemic perception and the experience of interconnectivity brings about a paradigm in health and living that is fundamentally ecological because we no longer regard nature as ‘other’. We feel, to use chaos physicist and evolutionary biologist Stuart Kauffman’s phrase, ‘At Home in the Universe’.

We come to feel ‘in’ the world rather than on it. We are brought down to our humblest bacterial roots and understand ourselves as channels of the elements in this creative, vivid and mysterious planetary process. We understand ourselves to be more humble than we may have thought, yet simultaneously more, through virtue of our fundamental interconnection with everything else.

This experience re-configures the ingrained and unquestioned mode of thinking of reality in terms of ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’, ‘mind’ and ‘matter’. The transpersonal experience confronts and calls into question these conventional categories with which we cut up and rationalize the flowing mystery of our experience within this world. There dawns an understanding that is much more supple, where the snake bites its tale, and the distinctions between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ become more dynamic and fluid.

We share and are connected in a greater movement we are creating together. Our thoughts are each others thoughts, a collective chorus of life, the unified thoughts of the uni-verse, the One Song. We are all part of each other. As the Huichol say “Todos unidos !” – All united.

In the year 2000 I first went down to the Ecuadorian Amazon. I had been asked by the Australian based Rainforest Information Centre (RIC) to live for 6 months deep in the jungle and film the endangered pink river dolphins. Oil companies were wanting to drill in the lagoon where they live and RIC was in the process of turning this into a Protected Forest. I spent 6 months living in this isolated part of the jungle passing my days alone in a dugout canoe filming the wildlife and getting the evidence we needed to show the dolphins did in fact live in the lagoon.

I left wanting to find out more about the oil companies impacts in the Amazon as it is not well reported and so I went on to make a couple of short documentaries about the matter.

First we made a film Amazanga Kausai about an indigenous tribe who are losing all their ancestral territory to oil, gold and timber companies. The film helped to raise $30,000 so we could buy the land and give it back to the rightful custodians.

I then commenced on a journey from the headwaters in Ecuador down the Amazon River to Brazil documenting the impacts of the oil industry on those living down river. I am currently editing a feature film “Blood of the Amazon” about my findings.

Feeling it was not enough just to document this environmental devastation I wanted to really help make a positive difference.

I had heard about Mycoremediation (the use of mushrooms to break down hydrocarbons/oil) and wondered if it was possible to find a native mushroom that could help with the horrific contamination in the Amazon.

A fantastic group of scientists came together and we set up The Amazon Mycorenewal Project and have been working for the last 4 years and getting some incredible results .

Over the years I have witnessed so many terrible spills and spoken to hundreds of locals affected. In some villages up to 80% of the residents have cancer and the children are covered in skin lesions.

This is mainly due to over 1000 toxic waste pits left behind by Texaco. After drilling, waste including oil, heavy metals and radioactive substances were dumped into these unlined pits. This continues to seep down into the water table and surface in the streams, rivers and peoples wells. Without running water they are still dependent on using the rivers and wells for drinking, cooking and washing.

Realising that this was a priority I then started fundraising to build rainwater catchment systems. Every year I go down and work with families who are in real need of clean water and together we set up rainwater systems. Over the years I have improved them with better filtration. Due to the surrounding gas flares even rainwater is not clean.

I have also just started another project educating people about building with rubbish. There is a huge problem with plastic and no rubbish man to collect it so it is either burnt or left. With the Committee of Human Rights I started the first project in Ecuador to build a workshop space out of plastic bottles filled with rubbish. These buildings are structurally sound and a fantastic way of turning waste into a resource.

My energy and focus is also turning to Yasuni National Park. This has been deemed by 50 of the worlds top scientists as The Most Biodiverse Area on Earth. There are 2 uncontacted tribes still living deep in the jungle and being on the Equator is believed to have been an oasis in the last ice age.

This incredible area is now also under threat from the oil industry. Although President Rafael Correa assured us when he first took Presidency he would not enter, time has changed and now they are looking to go in.

There is no such thing as a clean oil industry and so how can we stand back and allow this to happen. Knowing about the incredible abundance of species who make Yasuni their home we must do all that we can to help protect this area. The Ecuadorean government has agreed to leave the oil in the ground if the international community pay half the value.

So far some countries have paid up but not enough. If we are really concerned about climate change and the burning of fossil fuels surely the best solution is to leave it in the ground. Now is the time for the world to come together to protect the most precious place we have left on Earth.

This is the real Avatar.

If you would like to support my work and help me help the people of the Amazon please visit my website, spread the word and most of all help me to manifest ££$$€€. Together we have the opportunity to truly
to make a positive difference.

For the Earth

Nicola Peel

www.eyesofgaia.com

After 8 years of integrated research and experiential learning on this topic, I wanted to write this article about the ancient South American shamanic tradition of Ayahuasca dieta. May this article demystify this beautiful practice, clearing up misconceptions and empowering informed relationships with the tradition.

Please do to add questions, differences of opinion, or additional information as you see fit, and it will most likely get integrated into this body of information as it gets passed along.

What is Vegetalismo and Dieta?

Dieta is an ancient traditional practice usually done by curanderos, or Ayahuasca healers (commonly referred to as ayahuasqeros or shamans), from the beginners in training to the experienced masters. It is a way that Ayahuasca has taught humans to develop relationships with certain other, non-psychedelic master healing plants of the Amazonian pharmacopia. Curanderos specializing in dieta are often called vegetalistas.

In a dieta, which may last between a week and 4 months, or in some cases longer, the dieter creates a clear, sacred space inside their body and immediate surroundings by eating only a few basic foods, having extremely limited social contact, and abstaining from all kinds of sex. This creates a private setting in which one can have an intimate and focused encounter with the plants.

The diet usually begins with an Ayahuasca ceremony at night, followed by the consumption of a special tea made from whichever master plant has been chosen for this dieta. This tea is usually drunk every morning for the first 1- 7 days. More Ayahuasca ceremonies are then commonly dispersed through the rest of the diet, a common one being on the last night.

This strict regimens of abstinence, combined with the injestion of the master plant and the insight and guidance of the ceremonies, has a wonderful effect of helping to create a deep and loving relationship with the spirits of these master plants, which can be beneficial in many profound ways.

Why Practice Dieta?

Of course, abstaining from most foods and having only the 4 main dieta foods can be incredibly purifying for a body which has been assaulted by food toxins, chemicals, allergens and the like for most of its life, although this should not be the only reason to do it, as there are other Ayahuasca compatible diets which are much healthier as a cleanse.

Traditionally, dieta has been practiced by those aspiring to become facilitators of Ayahuasca ceremonies, or “curanderos” – Ayahuasca healers. The spiritual alliance with the various master plants, created through many long dietas, is widely considered absolutely essential to developing the important qualities necessary to hold space for others in these ceremonies.

Still, many facilitators run these ceremonies without having practiced dieta at all. I am not necessarily saying that all of these people shouldn’t be doing so, as many years of experience with Ayahuasca alone counts for a lot too. Yet, it’s clear to me that those facilitators are really missing out on some important aspects of the work, and this can be quite problematic sometimes.

With that said, those not intending to run ceremonies still sometimes do dieta for its healing benefits alone! Despite its fallbacks as a health cleanse, the master plants are such powerful healers and teachers, that the experience can be very transformative and beneficial in the individual’s life, and in a lasting way at that!

Many people tend to do dieta just as a way of having a more extended Ayahuasca experience, packing their time with many ceremonies and deepening the effects of the Ayahuasca with the cleansing aspect of the diet.

However, to those people I would recommend another similar practice which does not involve the master plants, and allows a wider variety of vegetables and fruits. This “Ayahuasca diet” is commonly confused with dieta. It is simply, no salt, no refined sugar, no oil or hot spicy foods, no sex, and not too much stimulus or excitement. The foods can be fine tuned with great intention to maintain balance and optimum health.

Can dieta work without Ayahuasca?

Yes. Many people who, for whatever reason, have found that Ayahuasca is not for them, continue to practice dieta for the healing relationship with the master plants.

While Ayahuasca has the ability to hugely bless, assist, and illuminate the process on many levels, it is not necessary for a succesful diet. The insight and mental awareness that the ceremonies may bring to the relationship is helpful, but the interaction is still taking place on a subtle spirit level, wheather you are mentally seeing and understanding it or not.

Do I need a skilled shaman to facilitate my dieta?

For your first dieta, and especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with Ayahuasca, I would strongly recommend working with a skilled and trusted ayahuascero, and allowing them to facilitate the whole process for you.

Once you have some experience with Ayahuasca and are familliar with the best practices of how to make a ceremony and take good care of yourself while doing so, it is better to do the ceremonies alone. This emphasizes the solitude of dieta and gives you the space to learn through personal experience, how to hold the space yourself.

As a sidenote, I do not really recommend doing ceremonies alone outside of dieta until you are at the point of hosting them for others as well. There is really no reason to deprive yourself of a shaman’s important role. In my opinion, money issues are usually not a good reason.

However, even if you do your ceremonies in solitude and are able to make or obtain the Ayahuasca, you might want to make sure your master plant medicine comes from a curandero, as each plant has a very specific way of being prepared, and it also requires knowledge to be able to choose an appropriate plant.

In many cases, any shaman who is making your medicine will also want to host your diet, in order to chaperone your process and help make sure you don’t do anything stupid. At first, that might be greatly helpful as well, and it’s always interesting to watch how these curanderos work dieta.

Once you have done some considerable research about master plants for dieta, and learned the way to prepare the one that you choose for yourself, from a very informed place, I would say that, using this guide, you should be good to go doing dieta without another facilitator.

What are the dieta rules?

From shamanic lineage to lineage, and region to region, the rules of dieta tend to vary a little bit. Some take an extremely strict approach, and others bend some rules and are more laid back about certain things. There is so much conflicting information out there, and many strong opinions.

I have studied primarily along a stricter tradition, but have been informed by my discussions with a variety of other curanderos on the topic, and my continuous Internet research. The rules I present here are foundational to the tradition and are widely accepted.

There are three main foods that are allowed : fresh water fish with scales and teeth, green unripe plantain, and plain white rice. Absolutely no oils, seasonings, salt… etc. may be added. This is a no salt, no sugar of any kind, and very little flavour kind of diet.

There are some who believe you can have just a little bit of sugarless boiled root vegetables near the end of the dieta, but I do not support this and strongly advise against it. Still others support eating fruit during dieta – I believe that this is a dangerous misconception, based on confusion between Ayahuasca diet and dieta.

There are 5 teas that are allowed as well : lemon grass, lemon leaf, chujuhuasca, basil and cat’s claw. Chujuhuasca and cat’s claw also happen to be cancer treating plants.

No sex of any kind, including masturbation, is allowed, and so in that light it is discouraged to spend much time thinking sexy thoughts. Additionally, some stricter traditions do not permit any touching of other people for any reason.

Soap, shampoo and toothpaste are strictly prohibited. Also, better not to use any moisturizers, creams, cleansers, sunscreen, insect repellant, lip gloss, mouth wash, inhalers, body spray… etc. When absolutely necessary, a small amount of all natural disinfectant or itch treatment for bites can be allowed, in moderation.

Any vitamins or prescription drugs of any kind are definitely not allowed. If you have a condition which does not allow you to go without them for the period of a dieta, then you are not a candidate for dieta.

Very important during dieta is solitude and the time and space for rest and reflection. This is the rule that is most commonly bent or broken, as some people fully engage the world in many ways, working, teaching and socializing. Speaking from experience, I strongly advise against such activities while in this very special state.

The strictest form of dieta insists on absolutely no talking to anyone for any reason. This could be an expensive ideal, however, depending on the practicalities at hand. I have adapted this to no talking, except at meal times, when I will have practical interactions with others. A little talking can be fine, but out of respect to the plants, do not talk about the details of your ceremonies or insights with the master plants until the diet is over.

While it’s good to stay relaxed and centered, activities like walking, exercise, dance and yoga are encouraged. You have to do things that keep you from going insane with boredom. Reading, burning insense, practicing an instrument and all that sort of thing are great.

I once asked a curandero if it’s OK to listen to music. He replied that it’s fine, as long as you’re not doing it as a form of escapism. It’s important to stay present and remain focused on your personal journey with the plants, rather than mentally running away from stuff that might be coming up for you. With that being said, TV and movies are highly stimulating, and are therefore discouraged.

What are the consequences of breaking the rules?

Knowingly or ignorantly breaking the rules of dieta without properly ending your diet first (using a ritual which I will describe later) is a serious act of disrespect to Ayahuasca, and the master plant you are working with.

In the case of Ayahuasca, she may respond to this in a variety of ways, inside and out of the ceremonies, and this will depend on your existing relationship with the plants, and the nature and intent of how you broke the rule.

One thing that has been known to happen is a string of intense difficulties coming up in forthcoming ceremonies. Energy blockages and related issues could gather in your system. The medicine could withhold some of her healing benefits or powers. The possibilities are vast.

It would be logical to assume that this would be like a kind of punishment, but I think that is too simplistic of an explanation. Imagine cheating on your spouse during your honeymoon, in their plain view. The problems that could create between you in your ongoing relationship are complex and deeply regretful.

When it comes to the master plants, the consequences may vary from plant to plant. Each one is so unique in its own way and may respond differently. One thing that could happen is that the plant spirit may leave your presence and never return. Additionally, they could withhold their healing assistance, their teachings or their protection.

Other problems are also possible, but it’s very hard to predict ahead of time. The bottom line is, if you’re going to do dieta, do it right. And if you really can’t control yourself, it’s better to end the dieta early than to break the rules, especially those regarding sex and food.

How do I choose which plant to diet with?

There are so many wonderful healing plants in the Amazon and throughout the world, that it would seem easy to choose a powerful master plant for a dieta, and yet, the process is not as simple and obvious as it may look.

Dieta is an ancient tradition that originates not from shamans, but from Ayahuasca. She is the master of dieta, and it’s important to acknowledge that by only dieting with plants which she has specifically instructed you to work with, or which have become traditional dieta plants through her instructions to generations of ayahuasqueros.

For hundreds of years, Ayahuasca has been giving curanderos specific instructions on which plants to use under what circumstances and how to prepare them for dieta. Any good vegitalista should be always in the process of gathering this ancestral knowledge and learning from new experiences, so that they can properly help new dieters to choose their plants.

For this reason, it is best to ask the medicine which plants to work with, and failing any specific answers in your ceremonies, or if you are unsure if the authenticity of what you are getting in your journey (perhaps it’s fuzzy, unclear, or feels you may be imagining it), seek facilitation or advice from a skilled curandero.

The plants have asked me not to mention their names publically on the Internet, even for educational purposes but especially for buying or selling online, as this is a dangerous time for Amazonian plant medicine. Therefore, I cannot give you any more information here.

For how long, and when should I diet?

As mentioned earlier, dietas usually range between one week and 4 months. I know of some who do extremely long ones of a year in length, but that to me seems very extreme and unnecessary, and must require some major rule bending. I will need to research it more.

It’s best to do dietas of one week, two weeks, but not three weeks, a month, two months, three months, or four months. So for example, you would not do 2 and a half months – it would be either 2 or 3. A dieta is like a cycle, so as they get longer, the cycle that you’re following gets bigger.

If at all possible, it’s better to follow the moon cycles to represent your cycle for 2 week diets or longer. Try to start either on a new moon or a full moon, and then of course finish on the same moon.

For some reason, Bolivian shamans tend to follow calendar months, while Peruvians follow the moon, in perfect weeks of 7 days. I encourage moon awareness, but depending on your flow you may find that the calendar month works better. Many people use the calendar so it tunes you in with a collective consciousness. Sometimes you can use both!

If at some point during your dieta you have an accident or become quite sick, or if there is some emergency or you are for some reason required to go to the doctor, break your diet immediately! Do not go to the doctor while dieting, and don’t try to fight off a sickness either – your body will not do well. In that case, timing goes out the window.

For your first dieta, I do recommend a week. It can be harder than you expect, and it’s good to ease gently into the process. Then, slowly graduate to longer and longer ones from there. Another option is to start with a week, and when it’s done you may continue on to a second week if you still feel you can.

A week long diet is a beneficial encounter with the master plant, but if you do two weeks with your Ayahuasca ceremonies only at the beginning and ending (not during the two weeks) the spirit of that plant will be with you for the rest of your life, helping you along the way. This is an enormous gift of healing, protection and assistance.

In a dieta of 1-3 months, I recommend leaving those first two weeks without ceremonies, and beginning your them after that special period of total intimacy with the master plant, as often as you wish.

Once three months has passed, it is said that you will need to begin with a new master plant, as the cycle has completely worked itself out by that point. A four month diet really is very unhealthy, so it’s recommended that you only do this perhaps once, or maybe twice in a lifetime.

Ayahuasca really appreciates slow but steady, consistent and dilligent effort. So if you are on a path with dieta and Ayahuasca, it is recommended that you always do one diet per year. You do not need to do more than that – in fact, it’s possible that it could have a harmful effect on your psyche, as one is a lot to integrate in a year, especially a longer one.

How about dieting with others?

It is fine to do dieta with other dieters, and in some ways, this can strengthen the process for all involved. It’s a little less important to avoid talking with other dieters too. However, it’s advisable to make sure you have a lot of privacy and time alone, as intense emotions can erupt and you do not want to pass these energies between you.

Can I diet outside of South America?

Of course, the tradition of Ayahuasca dieta did originate in South America, making it a very integrated and practically effortless place to arrange a dieta. The foods, conditions and lifestyle are native to this place, so dieta feels very natural here. The heat and the jungle are relaxing and purifying, you can easily access all the plants, and you can recieve quite an intuitive download from the land.

However, if you are not native to South America, it would be wise to consider the ecological footprint of your plane ride and the immense amount of unsustainable fossil fuels this requires. I have heard that one plane trip across the states makes the same amount of emissions as a lifetime of a family car in regular use.

The plantain would have to be imported by plane to arrive in your country, but I would consider this footprint to be less harmful than a two-way trip for yourself.

If you are not from South America but would like to diet once a year, I would say work in your native country until you’re ready for a really long, super special dieta in South America that will foster memories and learning to fuel you for many more years without returning.

Make contacts, have things mailed to you, and set yourself up from where you are as best as you can. If you’re lucky, the medicine may even direct you to work with a master plant native to your region – an innovation that is starting to crop up as Ayahuasca now travels the world.

If Ayahuasca is illegal in your country, you may choose to work without it while there.

Are there any special rituals involved?

There are many special rituals associated with dieta, although most of them are unique to the various shamanic groups and lineages. There are special songs and blessings for the beginning and end of the diet and these vary from group to group. There is only one ritual that I have encountered which seems to be universal.

This one is very important, as it’s the way to properly break your diet. The morning after your last night of dieta, wake up bright and early and fix yourself a plate with a nickel’s sized bit of salt and of sugar, as well as a lime cut in half and a red hot pepper. Eat them all up and then have a little bath in a natural body of water.

This ritual is the perfect way to tell the plants that you are finished, and it also ritually reintroduces you to the four corners of taste. This natural bath could be thought of as a baptism in the waters of the Earth, celebrating this succesful work, as a kind of rebirth.

It’s also common to have a special feast following the breaking of the diet, although speaking from experience, it is very wise to exercise moderation and slowly reintroduce yourself to your normal lifestyle.

What if I want to improve on aspects of the tradition which seem locational or outdated?

Of course, the purpose of tradition is not to become stale or stagnated throughout time, due to the problem of following the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of it. Keep in mind, however, that the plant traditions of south america do have a special ability to stay fresh and alive, as the plants themselves are always still living and actively engaged with the work.

A tradition based on words spoken by a master, and written down, thousands of years ago, has more potential to be misunderstood today than one based on an active and current relationship with plants who have essentially not changed in all this time and are still thriving in their work with humans.

Still, most curanderos have a knowledge base which is a combination and synergy between fresh new understandings based on plant interactions, and information which has been passed down by generations upon generations of humans, based on human-plant relationships of the past. So while the traditions stays fresh, one must always maintain awareness of possible human error.

I do however issue a very strong warning to anyone considering changing or altering the tradition of dieta in some way. I have been blown away by the arrogance of some of the most well meaning and conscious individuals whom I have spoken to on this subject. People somehow seem to believe themselves to know far better than some master shamans, how dieta should be conducted, without much experience, knowledge, or lets face it, wisdom on the matter.

Anyone I have spoken to who has, to me, seemed obviously misguided in their assertions that dieta should be altered in one way or another, have been very well intentioned, good people, who in many ways I have great respect for. So, please, take the time to deeply humble yourself before acting on your careful considerations about some possible slight modifications to the dieta.

Even if it is a very small modification that you would propose, I would say wait until you have completed at least 4 successful diets in the traditional way, of at least 4 weeks in length before putting this into practice. The most common mistake is believing yourself to have reverse engineered the tradition without having the experience practicing it to back that up.

Handy Tips?

If you are in a place where there are lots of mosquitoes, I highly recommend using medicinal alcohol as a way of disinfecting and numbing the itch from their horrible bites. This is allowable during dieta and is highly recommended, as the alcohol evaporates quickly right off the skin.

I find that plantain tastes really good when cut up into chips and fried (without oil of course) on the frying pan. With some lemon grass tea, this is something I would enjoy outside of dieta as a really nice light snack.

If you can get a whole, or partial plant with the leaves, of your master plant that you are dieting with, it is wonderful to have it there with you during your time in solitude, to connect with how the plant looks, feels and smells, and use it to help you enhance the relationship with its more subtle spirit form.

If you are in the native land where your master plant ally is from, you could also purchase one at the market to plant yourself in a special ritual, as a demonstration of your love.

If you have lemon grass, chujuhuasca, or other of the allowable teas, it can be very nice to boil your rice in them for some additional flavour. Sometimes, anything to make the rice taste a little more interesting can make a world of difference.

Addendum

This article is a work in progress, and I hope to improve on it greatly in the coming years. I welcome constructive contributions of all kinds and give thanks that there is still such an untapped resource of information out there for me to keep exploring, even just within my closest medicine allies.