Shamanism, Science and the Origin of Knowledge

“Shamanism , Science and the Origin of Knowledge”

 

By RWB Victor G. Popow (Manitoba)

 

 

Until only recently the scientific and anthropological study of Shamanism was disjointed, judgmental and completely misunderstood. Shamans(1) (which may include indigenous and even non-aboriginal people) have and continue to be involved with the general welfare of their tribal members (settling disputes), healing or communicating with spirit but have been viewed by western academia as psychotic, neurotic or schizophrenic. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that shamans were seen as “creators of order, who cure people by transforming their incoherent and arbitrary pains into an ordered and intelligible form (Claude Levi-Strauss 1949).” Anthropologists invented the term “shamanism” to classify an otherwise incomprehensible practice found among ‘primitive’ or indigenous societies. The word ‘shaman’ is originally Siberian, its origin unknown, some have said it reflects an almost Gnostic(2) connotation meaning “to know”, or from the Tungus language the ‘saman’ was one “who beats a drum, enters into trance and heals people”. Mircea Eliade, one of the foremost authorities in the history of religions identified similarities of practise and concepts among shamans around the globe. He called them “technicians of ecstasy” who specialize in trance states during which their “soul is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky or descend in to the underworld.” They speak a ”secret language” which they directly learn from the spiritual world by imitation. They speak of a “ladder- or vine, rope, spiral staircase, twisted rope ladder”- that connects heaven and earth and which they use to gain access to the spiritual world. They consider the spirits they speak with to have come from the sky and to have created life on earth (Narby, 1998).

 

Albert Einstein

 

 

 

Mircea Eliade discovered worldwide archtypical references to shamanic ladders, stairways, or braided ropes on all five continents, the symbols of the rope like that of the ladder implied a direct contact between earth and sky, the gods and men.  We only need to recall the vision of Jacob in the Old Testament where Jacob envisions a ladder reaching to the heavens with the angels of God ascending and descending. In Freemasonic ritual the winding staircase of the Second Degree similarly describes connection between the Great Architect and the builder.

According to Eliade the shamanic ladder is the earliest version of an idea of an axis of the world, which is

 
————————————
 

(1) There is evidence that shamanic tradition traces back 40,000 years and is the underlying tradition which gave rise

to the world’s religions. A fascinating book on shamanism and consciousness is Graham Hancocks Supernatural.

(2) Gnosticism- an early Christian movement which espoused individual development through knowledge of God

directly and not just faith or belief in God. The ancient Gnostic Gospel manuscripts found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt

in 1954 are at odds with the edited New Testament Gospels as they convey that by looking within ourselves we will find God. Jesus is depicted more as mystic preaching that the kingdom of heaven is within each of us and all

around us.

————————————

 

correspondingly the Tree of Life in Kabbalism, the Tree of Knowledge of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament or Yagsdrall, the Tree found in ancient Norse mythology. The axis mundi or axis of the world is the connecting point that connects the different levels of the heavens and the earth.  The axis mundi gives access to the other-world and to shamanic knowledge. This passage normally reserved for the dead is used by the shaman employing their techniques to acquire divine knowledge which may used to protect, heal and otherwise share with others.

 

Shamanic spirituality insists that intelligent animate forces imbue all life forms. Shamanic knowledge is, above all, knowledge of these entities which seem to be also be sources of power that a shaman may connect with, it is through the idea of “yoshi” (spirit or animate essence) that the fundamental unity of human and non -human spirit takes shape. 
 

“Every tree, every plant, has a spirit. People may say that a plant has no mind. I tell them that a plant is alive and conscious. A plant may not talk, but there is a spirit in it that is conscious, that sees everything, which is the soul of the plant, its essence, what makes it alive.” Pablo Amaringo, Peruvian Shaman & Artist.
 

 

Dr. Jeremy Narby an Anthropologist who conducted years of field research in the Peruvian Amazon read of the remarkable healing abilities of the shamans and first hand experienced a plant based medicine for his chronic back pain [which was later cured] and wanted to know the source of the shaman’s knowledge. They told him something that his materialist scientifically trained rationalist mind couldn’t comprehend: their wisdom was from the spirit of the plants themselves.  The plant spirits, known as “doctorcitos” or little doctors or “abuelos” (grandfathers) teach shamans how to diagnose illness, which plants to use for treatment and what diet to follow. They are also taught icaros or shamanic hymns that are sung to help summon the presence of spirits. As Narby soon learned shamans in South America had been using plant based teas to enter altered stated of consciousness that confer spiritual as well as medicinal wisdom.  The idea that plants possess intelligence is not new but only being re-discovered by western science(3).      A new form of police lie detector equipment-the psychological stress evaluator (PSE) follows fluctuations in the frequency modulations of the voice and adapting equipment plant researchers have done the remarkable- captured the voice of a plant.(4)  Plant speech apparently sounds like a high voltage wire hum, rhythm like and song-like which is fascinating considering that shamans speak of a song of the universe that is ‘beneath all things’ and further claim that it is the plants who teach their songs (icaros) to the shaman.

 

Humanity’s relationship using plants for achieving communion with the gods or enhancing consciousness for healing and learning purposes is ancient and widespread. The San Pedro cactus or ‘cactus of vision’ which it is thought has been used in South America for 3,000 years is known for “opening doors” and acts as a “mediator between men and gods”. For the ancient Greeks ekstasis meant the flight of the soul from the body and this term was used to describe the effects at the Greater Mysteries initiatic ceremonies of Eleusis induced by ergot (parasitic fungus) cultivated from barley, wheat and certain wild grasses. All initiates entering the sacred Telestrion Temple were obliged to drink the kykeon, sacred liquid that was an essential part of the rite. The Rites of Eleusis was practised for 2,000 years before it was closed by Christians in the 4th century AD. Rebirth from death, like many initiatory rites including western practices of Freemasonry formed the secret of Eleusis. The ancient Poet Pindar said: “Happy is he who, having seen these rites, goes below the hollow-earth; for he knows the end of life and he knows its god-sent beginning.” The Rigveda, the oldest of the four Hinda Vedas dates back more than 3,000 years

————————————

(3) See “Intelligence in Nature” by J. Narby PhD and “The Secret Life of Plants” by

(4) R. Heaven & H. G. Charing, Plant Spirit Shamanism pp44.

————————————

and describes Soma as a god, a plant and a sacred beverage. Its effects are described: “We have drunk the soma, we are become Immortals, we have arrived at the Light, we have found the Gods.” (5)  Ancient Egyptian sacred iconography found on stellae, magical papyri and sacred vessels indicate an intimate knowledge of plant lore and altered states of consciousness using the Blue Water Lily and Mandrake root (also used by ancient Druids) has been shown to produce hypnotic and hallucinogenic effects. The ritual of modern Freemasonry speaks respectfully of the acacia plant in their death rituals of the third degree. The sacred Arc of the Covenant which was viewed as a sacred instrument of faith between man and God was constructed of acacia wood which has been called the plant of immortality, acacia is also known to contain a high concentration of the DMT molecule (6) or what has been called the “spirit molecule.” Today, the shamans of South America employ the sacred tea of ayahuasca – a combination of chacruna leaves and the banisterioposs caapi plant. It becomes clear If one looks in a detailed manner at the historical use of psychotropic hallucinations used in cultures around the world as referenced by Graham Hancock in “Supernatural”, anthropologist Jeremy Narby PhD in “Cosmic Serpent-DNA and the Origins of Knowledge”, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Benny Shanon in “Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Expereince” or psychiatrist Rick Strausmann’s “DMT: The Spirit Molecule” we find that humankind has always employed plant wisdom to learn about healing the sick and helping gain insight into the nature of reality. It seems our current western society has seen that objective knowledge is the only way to know the world in any serious way. That may apply in many ways until you include subjective human consciousness in the equation. It’s very difficult to be objective about the subjective, consciousness is like swimming, you have to get wet. Some basic questions regards to the use of teas, mushrooms, cacti or leaves that can’t be explained as yet by empirical research:

1) western medicine largely regards hallucinations as illusionary in nature-projections from the mind that has no basis in reality and if this is correct how is it common visionary experiences can be experienced by Swiss anthropologists, Israeli psychologists, Chilean Shaman, North American Aboriginals drinking for example ayahuasca tea?

2) the notion that plants possess intelligence and speak to people is viewed as incomprehensible or ridiculous by western science. However the implications from a scientific standpoint is if plants do emote, think and communicate where does this knowledge ultimately come from? What is the source of knowledge itself?

 

A unique theory has been floated by Anthropologist Jeremy Narby that DNA is the language of life itself. Every living thing on the planet- microbes, plants, animals, humans has contained within it miniature coded text that has survived in some cases of the genetic sequence unchanged for the last 3.5 billion years. In an average human there is enough DNA strands to cover 125 billion miles- enough material to cover the planet five million times! DNA contains an unfathomable amount of genetic data. Think of our fastest most sophisticated computing device

–DNA contains 5 trillion times more information.

As Narby has pointed out a single cell contains more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica put together, yet weighs less than a few thousand millionths of a gram. The DNA or double helix looks like two serpents intertwined twisting endlessly about themselves. Shamans all over the world describe all life as being originated from serpents. Shamans further speak of ropes, vines, ladders, trees as the means by which they ascend to heaven or spirits descent to earth to communicate. It seems no one before Narby noticed the staggering connections between the myths of primitive peoples and cultures and molecular biology. The myths and medicines of native peoples have always been discounted yet knowledge of curare and

————————————

(5) The Vedas refer to soma as aja ekpad ‘not born, one foot’ which suggests a single stem mushroom without seed, said not to be born.

(6) DMT- N,N-dimethyltryptamine. An international comprehensive study of the chemistry, psychological and Psychopharmacologic effects of ayahuasca tea and its principal alkaloid harmaline measured both acute and long term effects of ingestion and it was found to be safe, non-toxic, did not cause addiction or any other adverse reactions. In fact, ayahuasca had been found to change subjects lives, both physically and mentally in positive and profound ways. See- Ayahusca–an Ethnopharmacologic History by Dennis J. McKenna PhD.

————————————

aspirin [and a host of other medicines] were born from knowledge of indigenous peoples.  From ancient Sumeria to Egyptian, Australian aboriginals to Scandinavian creation myths speak of twinned serpents, twirling ladders, twisting ropes, spiraling staircases, intertwined vines or trees that stretch from the earth to the heavens – the so called axis mundi or centre of the world by which all life revolves.   The ancient Egyptians spoke of the “provider of attributes” a double headed serpent to describe their version of what Narby coined the DNA/mystical “cosmic serpent”. For the Shipibo-Conibo of the Amazon, the earth is embraced by Ronin, a cosmic amphibious anaconda which is half-submerged but surrounds all life. The Ashaninca Shamans speak of the “great transformer” Avireri who created all life on earth and lives in the underworld (the cellular level) in sea water and adopts the form of a cord or vine.  Pulling all these myths and images together Narby integrated Shamanism and biology and came up with a highly speculative thesis that ayahuasca or similar plant medicines enable shamans to access knowledge and or their visions at the cellular DNA level. The spirits that are encountered, seen and contacted in altered states of consciousness are bio-photonic emissions (7) or resonances generated by DNA or some form of light field that allows all humans and creatures to connect in some fashion. Scientists have only recently confirmed that DNA does emit coherent (8) photonic radiation.  Does our own genetic wiring allow us the capacity to connect, see and grow more than we can imagine?

 

 

 

 

Building on the foundational work by Fritjof Capra’s “The Tao of Physics”, the physicist Amit Goswami put forward the paradoxes of quantum physics- non-locality, action-at-a– distance, and quantum uncertainty that can only be resolved through a hypothesis that consciousness and not matter is the basis of the reality of our universe. Instead of a split between subject and object Goswami9 sees consciousness of the subject and object experience as both elements of the same consciousness that is the ground of all being, therefore all consciousness is unitive.   According to the Western Hermetic Tradition mastery over the dream state and the achievement of the continuity of the conscious state is the secret goal of spiritual alchemy. Of course we know ancient Greek mystics were widely engaged in lucid dream practice the same as Buddhist Llamas practice dream yoga and similiarly shamans or North American Aboriginal elders enter the dream state through fasting, using rattles, drums and repetitive chanting. With respect to plants, their distillation and refinement processes were used to enhance psychical development to reach the goal of a

purified state. Achieving this state of consciousness was considered an extraordinarily difficult process but the

 
————————————
 

(7) Physicist Fritz-Albert Popp discovered biophotons are tiny particles of light emitted by all living things. Popp theorizes living organisms as a means of instantaneous nonlocal signaling from one part of the body to the other indicates an organism’s global state of body health. Additionally, Popp also discovered that it also seemed the biophoton light emissions seemed to be a highly sophisticated communications system between all living things.

(8) When sub-atomic particles are said to be coherent they in fact become “ordered” or highly inter-linked by bands

of electromagnetic fields and resonate like a number of tuning forks that have become attuned in the same frequency. As one scientist stated “coherence is like comparing photonic emissions from a single 60 watt light-bulb to the sun. Ordinarily light is inefficient. The intensity from a normal light-bulb is only 1 watt per square

centimeter- because the interference waves cancel each other out- the light generated by the sun is about 6,000

times stronger. But of you could get the photons of one small light-bulb to become coherent and resonate in harmony the energy density of the single light-bulb would be thousands to millions of times higher than that of the surface of the sun.”

(9) The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness creates the Material World by A. Goswami.

 
————————————
 

way to immortality. Once this state was reached bodily death was no longer a mystery to be feared but merely a transition to other dimensions of existence having no resemblance to earthly life.   Recent investigations into human physiology has revealed that DMT is also found naturally occurring within the body in the lungs, blood, urine and spinal-cerebral fluids of the nervous system which may explain human transpersonal psychological phenomena such as religious ecstatic, visionary meditative, or near-death states of consciousness.

 

Physicists David Bohm and Harold Puthoff have surmised that “interactions in the domains of nature as well as of mind are mediated by a fundamental information field at the heart of universe. The genius Nicholas Tesla, father of modern communication technologies had spoken and built long forgotten devices that work with “an original medium” that is a kind of force field that permeates everywhere.  His idea’s and exotic arcane devices fell into disrepute but recently Bohm, Puthoff and other scientists are rediscovering the role of information in nature and locating nature’s information field in the quantum vacuum. It would seem this field transports light, energy, pressure and sound. It is thought that this vacuum field not only transports energy but is also a sea of information. It has even been said that the quantum vacuum is “the holographic information mechanism that records the historical experience of matter itself.” (10)  World renowned psychiatrist Stanislav Grof “found that in deeply altered states of consciousness, many people experience a kind of consciousness that appears to be that of the universe itself. This most remarkable of altered state experiences surfaces in individuals who are committed to the quest of apprehending the ultimate grounds of existence. When the seekers appear come close to attaining their goal, their descriptions of what they regard as the supreme principle of existence are strikingly similar. They describe what they experience as an immense and unfathomable field of consciousness endowed with infinite intelligence and creative power.” (11)  Sri Aurobindo stated “All is consciousness- at various levels of its own manifestation…this universe is a gradation of planes of consciousness.” Nobel laureate biologist George Wald said that “mind, rather than emerging as a late outgrowth in the evolution of life, has always existed.” Indian Vedic tradition regards consciousness not as something that emerges into material existence through a brain or central nervous system but as a vast field that is pervasive in the entire universe. This field is unrestricted by any physical restraints, objects, or individuals and can be experienced directly through meditation when the gross layers of mind are stripped away. In Indian philosophy the ultimate end of the physical world is a return to Akasha-the original spiritual energy womb of creation and dynamism. Hindu and Chinese cosmology has always maintained that all things and beings which exist are a concrete distillation of this basic energy of the cosmos which descends or forms from an original source. Creation and all existence is a progressive downward and outward from the primordial source.

 

 

“Matter in quantum mechanics is not an inert substance but an active agent, constantly making choices between alternative possibilities..it appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices , is to some extent inherent in every electron.”

 

Physicist Freeman Dyson.

 

 

 

————————————
 

(10) See Science and the Akashic Field-an Integral Theory of Everything by Ervin Laszlo PhD for an amazing perspective on fundamentally new ideas of quantum physics and consciousness.

(11) Ibid pp 155.

 
————————————
 

Have we finally arrived at a point in time where science has confirmed and recognized what shamans, mystics and alchemists have known all along? Infinite and informed energetic fields and perhaps our Creator itself may lie within our very own core? There is a very old story that states the gods wanted to hide the truth from man so they chose not to hide it in the sea, for they realized he would eventually penetrate its depths, or high in its mountains or forests because man would look there. Rather the gods chose to hide the truth within man because they reasoned he would never look there.  The Shamans and true mystics have long known of ancient methodologies that enable all of us to ask questions, receive answers, and realize more, each of us has the ability to self actualize through our own dedicated efforts. Why has it been so fantastic for any of us to actually accept this transpersonal reality? Is it too difficult to comprehend? Are such thoughts and ideas too far removed from traditional religions which seem to only espouse their own dogma rather than help liberate people spiritually? The analogy of Plato’s Cave seems perfectly suitable in describing the current societal norm of the western world. It’s more depressing to consider that people don’t seem to care to know about the actual nature of themselves, the world and, what may actually exist inside and outside of themselves. It is said that the illuminated Master Jesus stated in the Nag Hammadi manuscripts how sad he felt that people choose darkness over the light. When he was asked (The Gospel of Thomas considered heretical writings by the Catholic Church) when the Kingdom of Heaven would come down to earth he enigmatically stated what you ask for is already here but men do not see it.  The new film The Adjustment Bureau ends with a line which explains that the truth has always presented itself to each of us and in many different forms.  Shamans and recently science seems to converging at a truth or perennial philosophy known to a great majority of theologians, sages, mystics through history that:

1) There are two realms of reality- the physical and the non-physical/non-local;

2) All beings human, animal and non-human (plant) species partake of both realms;

3) Human beings posses a capacity through their own physical nature (DNA composition and DMT molecules present in their physical bodies), however unused, to connect to the non-local transpersonal extra- physical quantum field of consciousness;

4) The perennial philosophy teaches us that the supreme destiny of humanity is reunion with the divine or unified field. The divine spark within humans (or Hindu-Atman) and the sacred ground (Brahman) can be recognized. This perception is the final goal –mystical enlightenment (12) and this pursuit (the ‘holy life’) is the greatest and most important responsibility of each individual.  The shaman reflecting the true perennial philosophy tell us the living cosmos is conscious, alive, interconnected and imbedded with life and information. There is a complex hierarchy beyond the multitude of physical universes that is as real as our own physical reality, a realm of spirit which can be called in modern parlance consciousness.

5) We are as much created as we are co-creators in this great reality.

 

 

“Seeking for truth, I considered within myself that if there were no teachers of medicine in this world, how would I set to learn the art? Not otherwise than in the great book of nature, written with the finger of God..the light of nature, and no apothecary’s lamp directed me on my way.”
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, Physician, Alchemist and Rosicrucian.

 

 
————————————
 

 

(12) Various illustrations of sacred states of consciousness- Samadhi in yoga, moksha in Hinduism, satori in Zen, fana in Sufism, ruach hakodesh in Hebrew Kabbalah, Unio Mystica in Christian mysticism, peak experience from Abraham Maslow, holotropic experience from Stanislav Grof and flow experience coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

 

 
————————————
 

RW. Bro. Victor may be contacted directly at [email protected]

For Further Reading:

-Plants with Soul by Michael Posner, Walrus magazine, July/August 2006.

-When the Impossible Happens-Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities by Stanislav Grof MD, PhD.

-2012-The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck

-Supernatural-Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock

-The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggert

-Cosmic Serpent- DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby PhD

-Science and the Akashic Field –an Integral Theory of Everything by Ervin Laszlo

-Flow –by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi