High Kingdom: Why Animals Take Psychedelic Substances
When some people get high, they become animals. But I don’t mean this in a negative sense. One of the key reasons indigenous Amazonian...
Ayahuasca stirs up debate over its effects
A recent invitation I received to write an essay about yajé (or ayahuasca) for an academic-type anthology on the “the power of psychedelics for...
Remembering Wholeness: Ayahuasca and the Structural Violence of Modern Life
Why does one write, if not to put one’s pieces together? From the moment we enter school or church, education chops us into pieces:...
Ayahuasca Tea Rapidly Helps Patients Heal Severe Depression
Long confined to indigenous societies of the Amazon rainforest, the ayahuasca tea is being researched by scientists as a potential medicine for depression. An article published...
The Natural & Visionary Wonderland of Ayahuasca Art
I have been told time and again by countless ayahuasca drinkers that the experience of ayahuasca is ultimately beyond words. These impenetrable descriptions are...
Is it Cultural Appropriation for White People to Drink Ayahuasca?
White people in the Amazon, drinking a sacred indigenous brew, under a thatched roof, while a ceremonial leader in a feather crown and indigenous...
A Shamanic View of How Ayahuasca & Nature Communicate With Us
In a shaman's world view, everything is energy, and for them the word spirit and energy have the exact same meaning. Indigenous knowledge often...
Psychoactive Plants and Shamanic Consciousness
The shaman is not only a hunter, warrior, healer, diviner, and entertainer, but also a natural scientist and thinker. Anthropologist Elizabeth Reichel-Dolmatoff reports that...
Advice for Encounters with Scary Serpents and Talking Plants During Ayahuasca...
It’s always difficult to speak of the world of spirits as a reality—the cultural leap is gigantic. I like Romuald Leterrier’s concept best of...
Is the Pineal Gland Really the Mystical Powerhouse of the Brain?
Western psychedelic folklore loves the molecule DMT and the mysterious pineal gland of the brain that appears to naturally produce it. It’s pretty common...