User:Amila

From NarratingLandscapes

Research Proposal

Ayahuasca: The Vine of the Soul

Ayahuasca is any of various psychoactive infusions or beverages prepared from the Banisteriopsis caapi species, caapi, quintensis and inebrians vine, native to central and south America. The common use of ayahuasca is with the intention to diagnose and or cure illnesses and for communicating with spirits of plants, animals and humans. The plants involved in the preparation of ayahuasca belong to a class which vegetalistas call doctores, because it is their belief that these plants possess spirits from which one may learn about curing and from which the shaman receives the magic phlegm and the magic chants. The association of learning of magic chants or melodies with the ingestion of physcotropic plants is quite common. It is found among the Huichol who ingest Peyote. Many of these plant teachers are used as additives of ayahuasca because it is through ayahuasca that the spirits of these plants can be contacted and manifest their curative properties (Luna, pg.30). It is an open question whether ayahuasca should be regarded as principally a shamanic medicinal brew, or whether it should be regarded as an entire medicinal tradition specific to the Amazonas.

The etymology of the term shaman means "one who knows", the shaman is a person who is an expert in keeping together the multiple codes through which this complex system appears. The term vegetalista refers to an expert in the use of plants, medicinal and psychotropic, however it shouldn't be confused with that of a herbalist, which denotes a person knowledgeable in the use of medicinal plants. All vegetalistas are usually also herbalists but not all herbalists may be called vegetalistas (Luna, p.34). One who deals mainly with ayahuasca is called an ayahuasquero. A good ayahuasquero is a person who prepares ayahuasca very well, they say that se ve clarito, the visions are clear, that they look real (Luna, p.149).

The use of Ayahuasca in the context of mestizo folk medicine closely resembles the shamanic uses of Ayahuasca as practiced among indigenous peoples for curing, for divination, as a diagnostic tool and a magical pipeline to the supernatural realm. The Quechua Natives of Ecuador say that ayahuasca has the ability to release the spirit and allow it to wander freely before returning to the body (Balick & Cox, p.155).Jeremy Nardy writes that shamans can access an intelligence through the ingestion of ayahuasca, which they say is nature's, and which gives them information that has stunning correspondences with molecular biology. Intelligence comes from the Latin inter-legere, to choose between. There seems to be a capacity to make choices operating inside each cell in our body, down to the level of individual proteins and enzymes. The serpent is a major part of symbology across most of the world’s traditions and religions, it is a clear symbol of infinity and the cyclic nature of the cosmos. The author's hypothesis is that it is connected to the double helix of DNA inside all living beings ([1]). In at least one important way, the living world is inherently symbolic (Nardy, 1995).

It is certainly intriguing that amongst a vast flora, plants that produce profound changes of consciousness were discovered. Even more intriguing is the fact that these plants seem to have been always used in a sacred, not recreational context, with the purpose of communicating with the spirit world to obtain information and power (Luna, p.54). The magic plants act to validate and reify the culture, not to some temporary means of escape from it. Ayahuasca is used and plays a central role in the religious and cultural lives of numerous tribes in Central and South America. Among the Campa for example, "healing practices require more than an absorption or application of a remedy. Herbal recipes do no suffice in bringing about improvements in health, and it is only in so far as they are part of a list of instructions revealed by the plant-mother that they have effects on the patient's condition" (Luna, p.65).

Bibliography:

Luna, Luis Eduardo, 1986. "Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon." Stockholm Studies in Comparative Literature, Stockholm

Balick J. Michael & Cox A. Paul, 1997. "Plants, People and Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany." Scientific American Library, New York

Nardy, Jeremy, 1998. "The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge." Georg, New York