Summary: When Western medical researchers wanted to unlock the healing properties of plants they asked Amazonian shaman. Simon Green is doing the same.<br> <a href="http://ba0.8a3.myftpupload.com/279-simon-green-plant-medicine-spirits/"></a><br> Remarkable healing stories.<br> Interview with Simon Green healer and founder of Quantum Life Bodyworks on Shamanism and healing work with plant medicine.<br> Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with Simon Green about his Shamanistic practices and the healing properties of plant medicine:<br> Alex Tsakiris: Maybe we need to add a little Yankee imperialism into the mix too and say, “ayahuasca… it’s DMT… I’ll figure out a way to crush it down, crank it out, give it to people, and lo and behold, they have a lot of the same kinds of experiences.”<br> Simon Green: …that’s a very common troupe in stories about ayahuasca but in fact, ayahuasca is called “ayahuasca” because of the vine ayahuasca which is not the tryptamine-containing compound or plant.<br> Alex Tsakiris: It’s the blocker, right? It’s the one that blocks it in your stomach so that it doesn’t run through so you can process the DMT?<br> Simon Green: Correct. Exactly. At a biochemical level but in fact you can take ayahuasca without any DMT admixtures and have a similar experience. The visions aren’t as bright. The DMT containing plant gives brightness to the visions but it’s the intelligence of the ayahuasca, of the vine; that plant that contains the MAOI inhibitors that allows for the oral application of DMT. They’re not the same thing and as you mentioned, Rick as I recall, many of his subjects were extraordinarily confused by what they encountered or surprised to say the least. I think this is one of those instances where we can say well there’s that pharmacological attitude of taking the constituent chemical saying, well that plant works because of the constituent chemical and not looking at the bigger picture and saying well, there’s a relationship between the human and the plant they’re envibing. And we could’ve gone to those people who have a longstanding with those plants and say, what do you think about DMT versus MAOI inhibitors?<br> <a href="http://www.quantumlifebodyworks.com" target="_blank">Click here for Simon’s website</a><br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBn1gG4J7rg" target="_blank">Click here for YouTube version</a><br> <a href="http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/279-simon-green-on-plant-medicine-and-plant-spirits.2332/" target="_blank">Click here for forum discussion</a><br> <a href="http://whyscienceiswrong.com/blog/" target="_blank">More interviews with Alex on WhyScienceIsWrong.com</a><br> Read Excerpts From The Interview:<br> Simon talks about the challenges of measuring the processes taking place in healing ceremonies and the importance of historical experiences–[7min.51sec-10min.38sec]<br> Alex Tsakiris: We were chatting before about the conversation I had with Paranthroplogy journal editor, Jack Hunter, who is taking an anthropological approach to saying as we look at how these extended consciousness experiences are happening, how do we really nail down what’s happening scientifically? As you and I were talking about, is it a ritual doing it? Is it the spiritual doing it? Could you do this just as well with a Ouija board to somehow access these spirits? Or with a psychic or a medium? And it really raises the question of, we’re playing around with not only these substances but we’re playing around with these spirits in a way that we really don’t understand. What are we getting into when we do this?<br> Simon Green: I think we get ourselves in many cultural backwaters. I’m thinking for example of all the technology that we’ve adopted in modern western culture. We adopted without question mobile telephones or tobacco cigarettes; or all of the new chemicals that come on to the marketplace that are fantastic.
