Narby is an ethnobotanist, and he makes the key observation that, while Western scientists have freely picked from the fruits of indigenous plant knowledge, these same scientists do not believe the indigenous claim about how they received their staggering encyclopedic understanding of the most diverse ecosystem in the world.

The plants told us, they say. In particular, the plants communicate directly through images, feelings, and language during ayahuasca, datura, and tobacco-based ritual sessions.

Two Biases in Western Science that Narby Addresses

Narby ascertains that there are two biases in Western science that prevent the acceptance of this claim (which is nonetheless resulting in molecularly verifiable information that our civilization has profited mightily from).

First: we posit that hallucinations and visions are internal creations, and to think otherwise is the definition of psychosis, a break from reality.

Secondly: Plants cannot communicate with humans on an imaginal level, using language, symbols, or images. To think so leads back to the first point: la-la land.

Narby goes on to posit a theory about drug-induced hallucinations being the interior experience of an actual communicatory event with other non-human entities, through the language of DNA. Hmmm… I need more convincing about this explanation, but I like the spirit of the inquiry.

The Relevance for Lucid Dreaming & Other Visionary Experiences

But what really caught my eye is how the subjective reports of communication (as well as verifiable information that results from these uncanny experiences) are similar to that of advanced lucid dreaming and other non-drug-induced visionary experience.

Narby writes that for the Ashaninca peoples, “There was no fundamental contradiction between the practical reality of their life in the rainforest and the invisible and irrational world of ayahuasqueros. On the contrary, it was by going back and forth between these two levels that one could bring back useful and verifiable information that was otherwise unobtainable” (p. 47).

The shamanic perspective of lucid dreaming is similar. In the Native Americas, as well as Australia, Micronesia, and Asia, many cultures practice lucid dreaming as a communicatory event with the spirits of the land. Consciousness in the dream is a way of bridging the two realities, empowering the dreamer in the moment while allowing uncanny insight to be revealed and brought back to consensual, everyday reality.

Because lucid dreaming as it is advertised in the West is so infantile in design, it is refreshing to see parallels with other shamanic vision states that are still practiced today.

Shamanic tourism is gaining popularity every year. This segment of the ecotourism industry serves First Worlders who want to experience entheogens in a somewhat Indigenous context.

Of course, shamanic tourism is really a hybrid between cultures, mediated by a recognized shaman or group leader who is privy to both worlds (as well as a third – the spirit world).

Anthropologist Evgenia Fotiou’s research has focused on Westerners” experience of these contemporary ceremonies. Last year she discussed how most Westerners take part in ayahausca ceremonies with the paradigm of “self-exploration.” This is a much more atomistic approach to ayahuasca than Indigenous groups who cultivate relationships with the spirit world for the pursuit of healing other individuals and communities.

This year at the annual SAC conference Fotiou discussed the role of sorcery in Peruvian ayahuasca ceremonies. Guess what? That shamanic vacation package bought on-line does not insure against dark magic.

Fotiou’s participatory research drawn from dozens of group sessions suggests that, whether or not Western participants are aware of it, their shamanic leader may be in engaged in a sorceric battle with competing shamans. In her words, “Dark forces and light forces are at work.”

Perhaps this is not so surprising as shamans are competing for a limited number of tourists. And sometimes, accusations of sorcery are just as damaging to a local reputation as actually practicing it.

Something to keep in mind next time you are considering a mind-expanding retreat in the wilds of the Andes.

By the way, we”ve started an Anthropology of Consciousness page on Facebook. A great place to find more resources, conversation, and ideas about the role of altered states, mysticism, and entheogens in historic and contemporary societies.

While I am being slightly tongue-in-cheek, I agree with the AAA’s position that mixing professional anthropologists into combat operations is not congruent with the profession’s core values. It also endangers field anthropologists who, you know, happen to not be spies. People like me.

Check out the AAA’s new blog to learn more about the HTS project.

For all its material correlates and consequences, the anthropology of consciousness incorrigibly connotes an aspect or dimension that is immaterial, yet somehow integral to that which is at the most intimate core of the personal”that which bursts forth in life and vanishes in death, leaving behind a useless husk. Cultures in every age and place have called it spirit, placed it at the center of their worldviews and religions, and sought to grasp its ephemeral essence. Even our materially oriented culture reaches out for the spiritual, however defined.

How does something/someone called spirit impinge on consciousness, lifting it from myriad electrochemical processes into the richness and depth we experience in the world, in others, in ourselves? What is it: will o” the wisp or Pentecostal flame? A metaphor standing in for a bundle of meanings, a component of obsolete dualism, or an emergent property of material processes? A divine presence mixed into physicality”the indestructible lan vital that incarnates (and perhaps reincarnates) to transform dead matter into beings who experience joy, suffering, desire, and mortality? How has it been understood across time and cultures, and how can it be understood in the new century?

The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, a section of the American Anthropological Association, welcomes proposals for papers and panels related to this crucial theme for its Annual Meeting, to be held March 19-23, 2008 at the Yale Divinity School in New Haven. The event is open to a broad range of academic disciplines and theoretical orientations, and will serve as a forum for the presentation of ideas that may overstep the strict bounds of one’s own discipline. Possible topics include, among many others:
” Spirit as metaphor: changing uses and significance in the new century
” Defining the Interface Between Spirit and Matter
” Crossroads: the quest to locate the nexus between material and spiritual worlds
” Computer simulation as a way to simulate/induce spiritual experiences
” Neural correlates of spiritual experiences
” Spirit after life: spiritual phenomena in medical crises
” The anthropology of spirit possession: ethnography, etiology, implications
” Spirit manifestation via the I Ching and other oracular systems
” Other topics germane to an understanding of the anthropology of consciousness

Scholars, practitioners, educators, and students are invited to join in this intellectual adventure designed to expand our understanding of human capabilities and experiences. The conference will include academic presentations, experiential sessions, and invited panels. Please email your proposals by January 10, 2008 to:
james.vanpelt@yale.edu

For more information and to download the proposal and registration forms:
www.sacaaa.org