Introduction: N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in conscious experience. Increasing trends in its use, as well as new trials administering DMT to patients, indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the phenomenology the drug may occasion. This is particularly in light of the hyper-real, otherworldly,...
Emerging from a diverse and long history of shamanic and religious cultural practices, psychedelic substances are increasingly being foregrounded as medicines by an assemblage of scientific research groups, media institutions, government drug authorities, and patient and consumer populations. Considering scientific studies and recent popular media associated with the medicalization of...
César Calvo explores the Peruvian Amazon through a shamanic consciousness in his autobiographical Las tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonía . Like the other authors considered here, as Calvo tells a story of personal adventure, he also relates a critical history of the violence caused by outsiders seeking enterprise in Amazonia. Calvo presents the entheogenic plant-based brew...
May 21, 2021Carolina Pinheiro Barros, Vanessa Sagica
This paper aims to investigate the symbolical effectiveness of the Shamanism concerning the cure of its subjects and to raise questions about the silence of these natives in favor of scientific cure practices (power cures). We have the methodological support from the Discourse Analysis, which studies the language not only in its linguistic form, but also in its relation with the social — the...
Rituals of incorporation (utarnu) of numinous ontologies in Himalayan Tantric ritualisms represent an interesting field for developing a reflection on different phenomenologies of the body. From the physical body of the tantrika (Tantric practitioner), the formal remains of an individual atman-Self, I investigate the experiences that make it a receptacle for a numinous Other. This article is an...
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a fun and interesting activity, but most participants have difficulties in attaining lucidity, retaining it during the dream, concentrating on the needed task and remembering the results. This motivates to search for a new way to enhance lucid dreaming via different induction techniques, including chemicals and electric brain stimulation. However, results are still...
Ayahuasca is a traditional plant decoction containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and various β-carbolines including harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, which has been used ceremonially by Amazonian Indigenous groups for healing and spiritual purposes. Use of the brew has now spread far beyond its original context of consumption to North America, Europe, and Australia in neo-shamanic...
Shamanship is a thing-ish practice. Early missionary observers in Korea noted that features of the landscape, quotidian objects, and specialized paraphernalia figure in the work of shamans (mansin) and in popular religious practice more generally. Subsequent ethnographers observed similar engagements with numinous things, from mountains to painted images, things vested with the presence of soul...
A Sepik myth tells of a time in which women were in charge of powerful spirits before jealous men reversed the gender roles by force. Today, the men of Timbunmeli (Nyaura, West Iatmul) have lost control over spirits who have started to act through female bodies. Christian charismatic rituals hint at mythical times, and remind villagers that women are the original custodians of spirits now...
ABSTRACT Robin van Löben Sels’ book Shamanic Dimensions of Psychotherapy: Healing through the Symbolic Process is reviewed. Early visions and dreams led the author to a shamanic understanding of early physical and emotional wounds. In her book, she emphasizes the importance of healing the body as well as the psyche. Shamanic phenomena, which can be understood as a symbolic process, contributes...