The cosmic serpent dna7/7/2023 ![]() ![]() Narby calls into serious question the limits of the scientific process and how we come to know things int he industrialized world. More than an anthropological account of how shaman use hallucination to find cures for disease, The Cosmic Serpent is a challenge to Western rationalism and modern science. Only in the past decades have pharmaceutical companies invade the province of these shaman to start mining for botanical compounds to patent and basically steal from the indigenous population. And yet, ayahuasca is used throughout the Amazon rain forest as an access to a hallucinatory world where images of spirits inform shaman how to use the hidden power of the plant life in the Amazon rain forest cure a very broad spectrum of disease. This compound, by itself is mystifying because it is made through a complex chemical process that one would not expect would be within the reach of native Amazonian chemistry. ![]() ![]() His journey starts with his experience in the Western Amazon basin where he was invited to try powerful hallucinogen called "ayahuasca". in anthropology and his work is based an extensive survey of academic materials across numerous disciplines. This would be a rather bizarre premise except for the fact that Narby is a trained PhD. Narby's premise is that hallucinogenic drugs used by shaman in the Western Amazon actually give them access to medicinal information through knowledge coded in DNA. This not light reading, but on the other hand it is essential reading. Jeremy Narby's Cosmic Serpent is a densely academic book that is 50% footnotes. ![]()
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