Psychedelic Shaman

The following excerpt is from National Geographic Adventure Magazine's website. Click the link above to read the entire story. For centuries, Amazonian shamans have used ayahuasca as a window into the soul. The sacrament, they claim, can cure any illness. The author joins in this ancient ritual and finds the worlds within more terrifying—and enlightening—than ever imagined. I will never forget what it was like. The overwhelming misery. The certainty of never-ending suffering. No one to help you, no way to escape. Everywhere I looked: darkness so thick that the idea of light seemed inconceivable. Suddenly, I swirled down a tunnel of fire, wailing figures calling out to me in agony, begging me to save them. Others tried to terrorize me. "You will never leave here," they said. "Never. Never." I found myself laughing at them. "I'm not scared of you," I said. But the darkness became even thicker; the emotional charge of suffering nearly unbearable. I felt as if I would burst from heartbreak—everywhere, I felt the agony of humankind, its tragedies, its hatreds, its sorrows. I reached the bottom of the tunnel and saw three thrones in a black chamber. Three shadowy figures sat in the chairs; in the middle was what I took to be the devil himself. "The darkness will never end," he said. "It will never end. You can never escape this place." "I can," I replied. All at once, I willed myself to rise. I sailed up through the tunnel of fire, higher and higher until I broke through to a white light. All darkness immediately vanished. My body felt light, at peace. I floated among a beautiful spread of colors and patterns. Slowly my ayahuasca vision faded. I returned to my body, to where I lay in the hut, insects calling from the jungle. "Welcome back," the shaman said. The next morning, I discovered the impossible: The severe depression that had ruled my life since childhood had miraculously vanished. Giant blue butterflies flutter clumsily past our canoe. Parrots flee higher into treetops. The deeper we go into the Amazon jungle, the more I realize I can't turn back. It has been a year since my last visit, and I'm here again in Peru traveling down the Río Aucayacu for more shamanistic healing. The truth is, I'm petrified to do it a second time around. But with shamanism—and with the drinking of ayahuasca in particular—I've learned that, for me, the worse the experience, the better the payoff. There is only one requirement for this work: You must be brave. You'll be learning how to save yourself. The jungle camp where our shamanistic treatment will take place is some 200 miles (322 kilometers) from the nearest town, Iquitos, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Beside me are the other four members of my tour. There is Winston, the biggest person I've ever met. Nearly seven feet tall (two meters), surely over 400 pounds (181 kilograms), he has a powerful body that could easily rip someone apart. I expect him to be a bodyguard or a bouncer; turns out he's a security guard. But there is something else about him. Something less tangible. It seems to rest in the black circles beneath his eyes, the face that never smiles, the glances that immediately dismiss all they survey. Winston does not seem like a happy man. Then the others: Lisa, who has a master's degree from Stanford and is now pursuing her doctorate in political theory at Duke University; Christy, who just quit her job counseling at-risk teens to travel around South America; and Katherine, Christy's British friend. By all appearances, our group seems to be composed of ordinary citizens. No New Age energy healers. No pan flute makers. No hippies or Rastafarians or nouveau Druids. Christy betrays only a passing interest in becoming a yoga instructor. And then there is me, who a year ago came to Peru on a lark to take the "sacred spirit medicine," ayahuasca, and get worked over by shamans. Little suspecting that I'd emerge from it feeling as if a waterlogged wool coat had been removed from my shoulder

Here is a longer clip from Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines by Terence Mckenna. This one is 13 min. long and is found on google video. By the way if you have bittorrent I understand that the entire 86 min video is available for download. I don't have a link but if you are a regular user of bittorrent then you know where to look to find a link. Anyway, enjoy!

As a student of magick and shamanism, altered states and how to attain them are an ongoing area of intense study and interest of mine. Though it may seem that I have a preference from drug induced altered states, I would love to be able to quickly and realiably achieve similar results without the need of chemical assistance. To that end I have made a life long study of the technologies of hypnosis and NLP which I have found to be THE most effective ways to achieve novel states of consciousness at will. If you are interested in hearing a discussion of such topics, tune in to the latest podcast from The Viking Youth Power Hour in which they discuss trance induction using NLP and other subjects of interest.

Well I just started reading Daniel Pinchbeck's new book 2012 and I have to say that so far I am very impressed. Pinchbeck may indeed be Terence Mckenna's successor as the literary voice of the psychedelic community. Drawing from topics as varied as mayan and toltec myth, crop circles, alien abductions, amazonian shamanism and transpersonal psychology Mr. Pinchbeck has created in his words a though provoking "thought experiment" that resonated deeply with some of my deepest intuitions about the striking transformations that are taking place on this planet. If you would like to read an excerpt of the first two chapters you can find them at disinfo.com: Chapter One Chapter two If you are interested in hearing Daniel talk about some of the themes found in 2012 you can tune into a podcast of a talk he gave at last years burningman festival entitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dimensional Shift." This is just one of many interesting Podcasts From The Psychedelic Salon which include recordings of Terence Mckenna, Shasha and Ann Shulgin, Alex Grey and others of interest. Check them out!

Here is a clip I found of Terence giving what ended up being his last recorded lecture. The video is called Psychedelics in the Age of Intelligent Machines. If you can get a copy of the video I highly recommend it.

Psychedelic Shaman Podcast #1 is now online!!! Take a listen and then post a comment here to tell me what you think. Its a little rough but its my first attempt. I this podcast I talk a little about why I use psychedelics, and some of my ideas about what modern shamanism and how modern shamans differ from shamans in tribal societies. Anyway I hope you like it. And if you have any suggestions for future shows, just leave a comment.