An excerpt from Chapter Seven : The Crisis and the Construct

The word “shaman” originates from the Siberian word šamán (meaning ‘to know’) and was popularised by the largely theoretical Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade. With the publication of the first of Carlos Castaneda’s books, The Teachings of Don Juan in 1967, the general public began to access the ideas of practical shamanism. Castaneda’s first book was a relatively straightforward anthropological work, yet his many other books venture into territory far outside the scope of any traditional form of anthropologically known ‘shamanism’. His work represents to me quite a critical perspective of the Western ideological view of shamanism, and I think, clearly shows the restrictions, existential nihilism, and literal folly involved in following such traditions. As much as Castaneda glamourises the ‘magical’ world of the shaman, I think he also deconstructs the ultimate usefulness or workability of such a rigid path informed by such strict traditions.

Terence McKenna venerated the archetype of the shaman, yet I personally think this archetype represents an outdated model that is perhaps more relevant to how the old world was organised. The majority of traditional cultures have shamanic traditions, and most appear to utilise plant psychedelics. Yet, it is true to say that many shamans do not use or need to use psychoactive plants. In many cultures, those individuals who have a pre-existing tendency for altered states of consciousness are encouraged to become a shaman and for them, reaching trance states to communicate with spirits is not difficult – through dancing, drumming, or simply sheer intent.

Western people are often quite culturally insecure and will seek other traditions that have an apparent understanding of life’s spiritual dimensions, attempting to adopt those traditions as their own. My contention is, and always has been, that transplanting different cultural traditions and viewpoints onto the Western culture does not offer us the richness and fullness of potential within which to work, play, and heal. It seems to me that Westerners are often quite loath to face their cultural insecurity and would rather find solace in a cultural transplant with its religious rules and guidelines to follow. In many cases, Western ‘shamans’ will draw from many traditions to create a syncretic quasi-religious framework. I am not saying that we cannot learn from traditional cultures, but in blindly following traditional pathways and their particular rules and limitations, our naturally creative ‘presentness’ is often lost. The traditional form of the ritual is like a rote, a magic formula, a technology, but it is not presently creative and requiring aware interaction. Therein lies the present sense of humanity and the present moment of beingness – and it is also true to say that much of the true essence of authentic shamanism is spontaneity, ingenuity, and present moment problem solving in the realm of the metaphysical, the physical domain and their intersection.

I have seen many in the West attribute miraculous powers they have read about in books like Carlos Castaneda’s to indigenous shamanic figures. That is not to say that indigenous shamans do not have the power to heal, as that is the first ability of the shaman that is useful to the community. Sometimes it seems that the Westerner wants to possess a ‘magical’ power simply for the sake of power alone. We must remember that in the predominant Western religion, Christianity, a person cannot officially be a saint unless they perform miracles. Out of the 34 miracles that Jesus reported in the New Testament, 22 are miracles of healing. In the Far East, it is traditionally viewed that any demonstration of ‘siddhis’ (magical powers), and especially public demonstrations of them, is considered to be very poor form among saints. Jesus seems to be of this mindset when he was asked, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you,” he replies, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet.” (Matthew 12: 38-40)

There is something incredibly potent in being able to manipulate ‘nature’ with the human form that cannot easily be discounted. A man empowered to transform nature is one who is then no longer in battle with it. Have one fish and you can have 200 fish. Your ‘magical technology’ has then won over nature, in the same way ‘science’ appears to have won over nature, so perhaps the allure of magical power has the same appeal that science has for many human beings. 

It is indeed plausible that Jesus ingested Syrian rue and acacia for their profound psychoactive effects not dissimilar to Ayahuasca, as both plants commonly grow in modern day Israel. And it is not at all far-fetched that Jesus could have been initiated by the Essenes with the psychoactive plant alchemy of the Syrian Rue and Acacia. The Israeli researcher Benny Shanon believes that Moses may well have been intoxicated by the DMT-containing smoke of the burning bush, which was probably an acacia, as there is largely no other vegetation in the Sinai but acacias. If these theories are at all accurate, the true nature of the Judeo-Christian cultural and mystical roots may well lie in the plants or in the mystical states offered by such plants.

It is probably impossible to offer proof regarding these matters, as we are dealing with events that occurred more than two thousand years ago. If there is proof, it may be within the extremely secretive Vatican library, known to contain a very large number of ancient manuscripts not accessible to the public. This might sound fantastic to some, but let us not forget that one of the most primary Masonic symbols is that of the acacia, a tree that is not native to Europe. Perhaps the acacia represents some secret knowledge brought back from the Middle East by the crusaders, specifically the monastic order of the Knights Templars. The Knights Templars were in the end tortured and killed by the church, as a threat to ecclesiastic power. Let us also not forget that it is commonly observed that many Knights Templars fled to Scotland and set up the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. It is also a fact that Rick Strassman’s research into DMT was largely funded by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Schizophrenia Research Program, as reported on page 113 in his well-known book, DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

With the plants, whether they be mushrooms or syrian rue and acacia, we can have direct access to the spiritual worlds. Then we do not even need the shamans or priests to tell us how it is, because then we can see for ourselves, and learn for ourselves. Then we are not controlled by the primitive men who believe that power lies in control, because what will we do if we are not controlled? What will we have to face? Many modern day human beings do not have the commitment to face the inner world, to do the work and pay the price for whatever collateral damage there may be, if indeed there is any at all. Yet quite easily, countries and thousands upon thousands of men will go to war and pay the ultimate price in collateral damage for many worldly and much lesser agendas. At the end of the day, what damage does there lie in ingesting these plants and letting go into what actually is? There is none, but only the potential to be exposed to a vast personal and transpersonal truth that men commonly fear beneath their psychological armouring and shielding, and that is a raw reality which innately requires heartfelt consideration, profound inner work and subsequent outer change.

My contention is that these teacher plants are simply teacher plants, helpers, tools, catalysts – but not the Holy Grail. I believe that many of us can become too enraptured by these plants and what they offer us. Many are enchanted by the lesser or greater lights on the cosmic super highway. My perception is that within our bodies we can reach states much more ‘natural’ and useful to us. Through relationship, love, and sexuality, our primary communication to each other becomes apparent, and psychoactive plants can only accentuate those potentials.

Religion gives human beings an excuse to share the same beliefs, act in the same way, sing the same songs, and dance the same dance. But is that dance one that emanates from within us? Or is it a prescription that we must follow? Personally, I think that creativity is not just a faculty that artists must cultivate, but also a practice necessary for individual health. Many religious traditions preclude creativity, because by following the ritual, we are completely enmeshing ourselves within an inflexible structure or format. That is not to say the format or structure is worthless, but I think it is clear that by strictly maintaining an inflexible structure, we can lose our unique, natural and organic way. Or did we ever even develop it?

Much of Christian theology contends that Jesus in his divinity is separate from man, and therefore that God must be separate from man. With tryptamines, the first realisation many have (and for many it is a continuing realisation), is that ‘God’ is not separate from man! The individual realises ‘I am that’, a term that can be said in Sanskrit in many different ways, including ‘that thou art’ or ‘I am that I am’. The meaning of these terms is to communicate an ultimate reality, which is that which permeates all, which nothing transcends, and which like the universal space around us fills everything completely from within and without, as the supreme non-dual Brahman. These understandings clearly challenge the comparatively unsophisticated Middle Eastern monotheistic religions that historically place God and man apart.

The ‘Easterners’ very clearly have had a much more sophisticated spiritual understanding than we have found in the West. Easterners have not argued about petty issues of theology for hundreds of years as Westerners have, but have addressed deeper metaphysical issues in languages such as Sanskrit, over many thousands of years, in a far more adept way than any of the Romanised languages of the West. In the East, advanced metaphysical practices have traditionally prevailed, and to some degree, we can find such practices in the Middle East as well. Westerners are heathens in comparison, as European tribal peoples were ripped from their pagan and natural connection with the earth by the Romans and their church, and plunged into the dark ages for 1000 years, during which time the Western mind was heavily constrained and repressed by Christianity.

[Back to Articulations Book page]