Essay for Anthropology of Religion
Shamanism has been around for millennia and is currently experiencing a resurgence in modern Western societies. Often known to us ‘civilized ones’ as ‘witch-doctors’ and ‘medicine-men’; in anthropological terms, a shaman is a religious specialist that deals directly with the supernatural or the transcendent present. Doing this involves the shaman going through a state of trance to reach the altered state of consciousness necessary to meet with the supernatural. Although there are many catalysts and tools that may be used to achieve trance, such as drumming, dancing, fasting, meditation and sensory deprivation; one ancient tool that is sometimes perhaps underrated and underappreciated in their importance to certain shamans and whole societies, are the sacred psychoactive plants.
Firstly, it is important to understand exactly what shamanism is and the role a shaman plays in their societies. The term shaman (usually pronounced SHAW-MEN) derives from the Tungus speaking people of Siberia, where shamanism had been first encountered and documented in modern times. Although there is significant evidence that shamanism has existed for millennia and has been found in many cultures and societies all over the world. A shaman is a type of specialist, usually in smaller-scale societies, who unlike priests and clerics who serve as intermediaries or middle-men between the laity and the supernatural having direct contact with the transcendent present. Shamanism usually encompasses multiple functions such as healing, illnesses, divination and clairvoyance; such as the power to see into the future and retrieve answers about future events; influencing natural events such as the weather and also causing illnesses to others, more commonly referred to as sorcery. Shamans are usually male, but there are also known female shamans. Typically, the position of a shaman is inherited, but there are also individuals who have received a calling to become one, depending on the specific culture.
In engaging in the supernatural realm, the shaman goes between what the anthropologist and great authority on shamanism, Micheal Harner, calls an 'ordinary state of consciousness' and a 'shamanic state of consciousness'[1]. The famous writer, Carlos Castaneda, would also similarly distinguish this as a move from 'ordinary reality' to 'non-ordinary reality' [2]. In more mainstream anthropological terms, this could be understood by the transfer between the world of humans and the transcendent present. The shaman enters a trance which gives them the essential altered state of consciousness needed for them to conduct their work. Unlike the controlled forms of altered states accessed through meditative acts and yoga in the Hindu and Buddhist religions, shamanic trance is considered an uncontrolled altered state of consciousness in that it is not as manually accessed through meditation and through concentration of one’s breath, but usually involves an external tool such as drumming or repetitious music which then produces trance that is sometimes seen as possession as an outside spirit or forces may be involved.
One of the most ancient methods of altering consciousness among shamans and the human race in general has been through the use of psychoactive plants. Psychoactive meaning that it contains certain chemical substances or 'drugs' that can alter ones consciousness upon ingestion. This method seems to make sense as for millennia; humans lived as one with natural world, particularly among hunter-gatherer societies. In Siberia, home of "classic" shamanism, there has been a close relationship between the psychoactive fly-agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), shamans and peoples of the Koryak, Ostyak and Kamachadal tribes among others [3].
Among the Koryak, before conducting their séances, shamans eat fly-agaric to get into a state of ecstasy, where the senses become deranged, objects change in size and visions involving entities are experienced. To prolong this state, more fly-agaric is consumed and even the urine of those intoxicated on the mushroom is saved and drank. In this powerful state of trance, shamans typically encounter spirit entities that may help them heal other members of the community, teach them certain knowledge and to communicate with spirits of the dead. For the Bwiti, a tribe located in Gabon, in Western Africa, their plant sacrament ibogaine ( Tabernanthe iboga) is more than just a tool of the shaman, it is a super-conscious entity that guides all mankind. Iboga is not just restricted to their shaman, but is of importance to their whole community. The Bwiti believe that before one is initiated into an iboga ceremony, they are nothing and that only through contact with the spirit of iboga through initiation, do they become something. Once initiated, one becomes a baanzi, one who knows the 'other world'. Recent research on ibogaine has proven to be very effective in treating drug addictions and alcoholism.
In the rainforests of the Upper Amazon in South America, the strongly psychoactive brew made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and other plants, is central in shamanic practices and lives of aboriginal Indian tribes of the area. The brew, commonly known as yagé or ayahuasca ("vine of the dead" in Quecha, pronounced AYA-WASKA), combines the Banisteriopsis vine, which contains the psychoactive beta-carbolines harmine and harmaline and other species of plants, usually psychotria viridis or chakruna which contain what is considered one of the most powerful psychoactive substances, DMT ( N, N-dimethyltryptamine) [4]. DMT is also thought to be contained in the human brain, within what French philosopher René Descartes called the 'seat of the soul', the pineal gland, also known as the area of the third eye and crown chakra in certain eastern traditions. Although the role DMT plays in our bodies is not yet fully understood, it has been linked to being involved in dreaming, mystical and near-death experiences [4]. Ironically, we are all by default carrying what is considered an illegal Schedule I drug within our own brains, which also exists among many plants in the natural world.
When DMT is ingested orally in its plant form, it is rendered inactive by the monoamine oxidase enzyme within the human digestion system, which breaks down and metabolizes the substance before it can reach the blood-brain barrier. What is fascinating, is that the Banisteriopsis vine, besides containing its own psychoactives, also works as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, therefore allowing the DMT of the psychotria viridis or chakruna to bypass the breakdown process of the enzyme and effectively subject whoever drinks it to its intensely powerful effects.
Considering the millions of different plant species within the richly dense 'lungs of the Earth' that is the Amazonian rainforests , it's quite extraordinary that these people have found and utilized this pharmacological knowledge, especially considering MAO inhibition was not discovered or mentioned in Western science until the 1950's. When questioned by anthropologists and scientists about how this knowledge was discovered, the typical response that they receive tends to be that the ayahuasca spirit herself taught them about it. Although this may be waved off as nonsense to the empirical and rational worldview of Western science, an alternative explanation may be that these people, like scientists themselves, went through numerous experiments of trial and error that eventually produced some interesting and meaningful results. Regardless of which perspective one takes to account for this elixir, we must be able to at least appreciate that these people, who have lived directly with the land for thousands of years, have accumulated an immense amount of botanical knowledge and increased awareness of the natural world. This is somewhat negatively acknowledged in the present day by pharmaceutical companies taking an interest in finding out about traditional organic knowledge and exploiting it for profit in the West, without any given attention to the ritualized, reciprocal and respectful relationship and context traditionally used with these plants.
The ayahuasca experience tends to last four to six hours, often with themes and visions revolving around the natural world and animals such as jaguars and the great archetypal cosmic serpent. From a shamanic perspective, these animals may represent separate entities and spirit helpers or may be another shaman in shape shifted form. For shamans and cultures that practice the darker side of shamanism sometimes known as sorcery, hostile spirits and members of rival communities may send magical darts to bewitch and harm each other within the ayahuasca trance. In general however, ayahuasca seems to be considered a magical elixir, whose gentle feminine spirit generally teaches and heals. Often during the onset of the experience, many will go through la purga, the purge which usually includes intense vomiting and sometimes diarreah. This is typically seen as a normal process of the ayahuasca spirit cleansing the body of physical toxins from the body, before proceeding to cleanse and heal psychic tension and problems. Interestingly, research on this purging process has shown to be effective in combating intestinal parasites [4].
Typically when conducting a healing ceremony among ayahuasca using cultures, the shaman and patient both ingest the bitter tasting brew. The shaman is sometimes known as an ayahuasqueros, one who has memorized a large number of icaros or magical songs that are sung during the ceremony and experience. Among the Shipibo-Conibo people of Peru, these songs are vital to healing ceremonies. They have realized that the ayahuasca experience, with its intense visual nature, is quite susceptible to being driven and directed by sound, in this case the vocal sounds of the various icaros. The ayahuasqueros uses the icaros to guide the patient through the experience and to direct healing energy into their body. The songs can at one moment lead the patient through ecstatic blissful states of experience with the ayahuasca spirit, when subtly the shaman may occasionally stop their singing, which typically results in quite the opposite experience; one involving terrifying visions and haunting themes. The Shipibo ayahuasqueros say that the darker side of ‘reality’ and oneself must be experienced to fully appreciate the true nature of ayahuasca and her blissful healing states.
From a psychological standpoint, shamans can be seen as a prehistoric type of psychotherapist, using sound and suggestion to heal a patient who is in a very open and vulnerable state of mind. Indeed the shared intense mental and emotional journey, where both patient and healer are involved, requires a high level of selflessness on the shamans part, as the patient is given an ally who together with the spirit helpers can overcome illnesses and misfortune. Shamans can run the risk of contracting the patients’ illnesses if they are not powerful or trained enough. This act of self-sacrifice creates a strong emotional and spiritual bond between them, which can only help on the path to healing and regeneration. The Shipibos beliefs about experiencing the dark side of the experience also shows very close parallels to Jungian psychology and Jung’s concept of the ‘Shadow’; the darker side of one’s personality that must be confronted to complete the process of individuation, leading to harmony and unity in the balanced human being.
From the anthropological view, it seems that there isn’t as much importance and emphasis on the symbiotic relationship of shamans and sacred plants such as ayahuasca. For the Jivaro of Ecuador, ayahuasca seems to be more than just a method of trance exclusive to a shaman, but central to all members of their society and cosmology. In certain tribes such as the Jivaro, the laity may have access to the brew to obtain its sacred knowledge or receive help from the spirits. The Jivaro are also known for partaking in violent battles in the spirit realm with other communities. They tend to take an individualistic approach to taking the brew to supernaturally fight their enemies. On the other hand, the Cashinahua of eastern Peru, do not involve themselves in similar individual aggressive acts under ayahuasca, but rather take it as a group to share and experience the journey together. And of course more commonly, it is used like the Shipibo, in more personal one on one healing ceremonies, where the shaman is viewed as a doctor, leader and ally. The preceding examples show that perhaps these powerful plants in addition to being methods of trance, can also serve as rites of intensification that create a strong sense of community or reinforce certain social behaviors, cosmologies and culture as a whole. The Jivaro have a high proportion of shamans due to their individual style and open access for any of them to achieve trance through ayahuasca, perhaps showing an influence on their social structures. Indeed for the Jivaro, reality is believed to only actually be seen and experienced when using ayahuasca. ‘Ordinary reality’ is seen as an illusion and a misleading lie. The Jivaro believe there is only one single reality and that is the supernatural one experienced on ayahuasca, which shows its power to reinforce cosmology and its central role in Jivaro culture.
From a Western perspective, it seems that shamanism in general with its claim to heal or journey to other ‘worlds’ and ‘realities’ is dismissed as acts of primitive peoples who are uneducated in science. However, thanks to fields such as anthropology, our collective ethnocentrism may slowly be lifting, as a cultural relativist point of view can help us first understand and learn what shamanism means through the eyes of these other cultures. Then we may see how it may apply to us, instead of ignorantly dismissing it all as ‘primitive and uneducated’. Regarding psychoactive plants such as ayahuasca, our culture seems to be poised with what Micheal Harner calls ‘cognicentrism’, the analogue in consciousness of ethnocentrism.
Altered states of consciousness seem to have little use in Western society, where we seem to be fanatically obsessed with empiricism and rationalism as the only ways to discover truth in our current paradigms, where reality is seen as mechanistic and completely material, nothing more. Altered states of consciousness in general seem to be thought of as pathological states and indeed a shaman, one who sees and experiences other realities, would be considered schizophrenic and quite insane within this worldview.
Our collective cognicentrism, our prejudice and narrow mindedness towards different states of consciousness would seem crazy to shamanistic cultures who value the sacred knowledge they gather from these states. Harner illustrates the difference between an ordinary state of consciousness (OSC) and a shamanic or altered state of consciousness (SSC) by referring to animals. Animals considered “mythical” to us in an OSC, such as dragons and griffins are “real” in an SSC. The idea that there are “mythical” animals may be a useful and valid construct in life within an OSC, but irrelevant in an SSC experience. A person in the OSC may use the term “fantasy” for experiences of the SSC and conversely, a person in the SSC may use the term “illusion” in SSC terms, to what is experienced in the ordinary state of consciousness [1]. Therefore to view this situation whilst suspending ones cognicentrism, one may perhaps view both perspectives as the right one as they are viewed from their own specific state of consciousness.
It may be argued that shamanism is a sort of a primordial spirituality, because of its direct relationship and gnosis of the mind and ‘Other’ that has withstood the test of time. It seems to be forgotten that the many spiritual teachers such as Christ and the Buddha received their teachings or enlightenment through an altered state of consciousness and direct contact with the transcendent present. In modern times, the value of these experiences have lost their meaning as they have been put into a secondary source through books and upheld by strict dogma. So perhaps Jesus and Buddha can be considered as a type of shaman in that they may have experienced higher states of consciousness and received knowledge from them, which they then tried to use to heal their fellow people.
Perhaps the 60’s and current experimentations with psychedelic drugs is an unconscious need or yearning for spiritual fulfillment and to once again experience direct contact with alternate ‘realities’ and states of consciousness and the transcendental present, which are not encouraged or emphasized in our society, perhaps rooted in a residue of Christian colonialism where these were seen as blasphemous and demonic acts. However, resurgence in interest in shamanism may back it up as more and more people of the Western world are starting to attend ayahuasca ceremonies in their traditional context with an actual shaman. Indeed it seems that there may be some hidden knowledge contained deep within the rainforests of the Third World, that may help us solve some of our present day problems and conditions we face, from global warming to depression, as in Jungian terms, it may help us reconnect with the lost and forgotten feminine Mother Goddess archetype and the wisdom and importance of the natural world we all belong to.
In the overwhelmingly intense ayahuasca experience, which directly confronts the Western minds obsessive ego attachment and its assumptions about reality; completely in the hands of these shamans who serve as our sole guide with beautiful icaros, it seems that we are the ‘primitive, uneducated savages’ and that they are the truly ‘civilized’.
-Pedram Kianzad
References
[1] The Way of the Shaman by Micheal Harner.
[2] The Teaching of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda
[3] Hallucinogens and Shamanism by Micheal Harner.
[4] Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence McKenna.
Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchbeck
Higher Wisdom by Charls S. Grob and Roger Walsh.
http://www.erowid.org
Other Worlds by Jan Kounen - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8756441303971858561
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