Onayabaon Shinan: conciencia y cosmos en la sabiduría ancestral Shipibo-Konibo

Abstract

This article examines a possible Indigenous conception of consciousness based on the reflections and visionary practices of the onanya (wisdom keepers of the Shipibo-Konibo nation), in contrast to the reductionist interpretations of neuroscience. While the latter tends to explain consciousness as a mere product of the brain, Indigenous reflections understand it as a relational faculty that connects human beings with cosmic intelligence and the community of the living. The text develops the hypothesis of a “primordial consciousness”: an original psychic stratum, still present though repressed, that enables experiences such as clairvoyance, telepathy, or oracular knowledge. Such capacities constitute psychic technologies cultivated through initiatory diets, dreams, and relationships with master plants. This Amerindian philosophical horizon is presented as both a critique of modern fragmentation and a pathway to rethinking health, knowledge, and the human sense of belonging within a living cosmos.