Romancing the Spirit Vine: A Talk with Margaret De Wys
A battle with cancer led Margaret De Wys to Ecuador for traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies. After miraculous healings Margaret started an apprenticeship and began a life-altering romantic relationship with the shaman who healed her.
I interviewed author Margaret De Wys about her memoir, Black Smoke.
What led you to Ecuador to work with Ayahuasca medicine healing?
Ayahusaca brought me to South America. Pulled me down there. If I'd had a real choice, I might never have made it to Ecuador. I had no knowledge of ayahuasca in the beginning. I didn't choose it. Ayahuasca chose me. The pretext was cancer, and I believed I was dying. Carlos a Shuar uwishin (healer) came into my life in Guatemala. He'd seen the cancer inside me and said he could cure me. I followed him into the jungles of the High Upper Amazon. I had some crazy faith that what I was doing was right. Fear threw me out of the nest. It was like a big fireball, this big explosion yelled at me. Move.
Describe your first experience with Ayahusaca.
At the time I didn't know where the journey was going to take me. I was going into the unknown, into the jungle, into the soul, into the center of the earth, and my journey became much more than just about me getting healed. Healing included arduous, intense purifications, difficult initiations, and drinking plant medicines. Carlos told me I was choosing my path, my destiny to live.
The first ceremony took place in the jungle outside Puyo, Ecuador. Deep in the forest I sat quietly among the Shuar and the Quechua waiting for the affects of the medicine. It felt funereal. The only light came from the fire burning in the center of the room. The floor was pounded dirt, the overhead palm thatch, the sides of the longhouse open to the elements. Some of the locals began vomiting, others passing out. I hoped the medicine wouldn't have an affect on me. When it hit, a cold tingling rose from my feet through my core, and the floodgates in my brain opened wide flushing out images and sounds. Time expanded and receded as my pupils dilated in order to see more. The cells in my ears could hear a twig crack hundreds of yards away. My nasal cavity vibrated and I began to shake violently.
During healing Carlos drew black smoke from my flesh, where the cancer was. I looked inside. My cells were alive, pulsing, beating the rhythm of the cosmos. Some were spontaneously regenerating, sending live signals to others beside them. The dark spots in my breast were black holes sucking energy into another sphere, one in which living things were doomed. Carlos pressed hard swirling his fingertips deep into fleshy parts of me where the black smoke lay. I cried in pain as I watched his hand magnetized the black smoke. It spread like army ants in file and followed his motion away from my body.
Did you know after your first ceremony that it was possible to heal yourself with Ayahuasca?
During the ceremony I could feel the sickness being sucked out and something seemed to shift on a cellular level. The ayahuasca brought spirit doctors, and I could see inside my body. I could see the cancer moving out. I knew I would continue drinking the medicine. It or Carlos or both were curing me.
The book is about healing and also about love. When did you and Carlos start to fall in love?
I don't know. For me it just sort of naturally came into being. But later in our relationship Carlos told me Nunqui (Mother Earth) formed a pact with us, marrying us in Guatemala. He said he thought it strange because we didn't know each other. "But I knew we should be together. Now I understand why. The sickness of the earth, the sickness of the tribes, and the sickness in our bodies is linked. Nunqui wants you to help me in my work. She wants you to heal the people and the land with me," he said.
What are some of the challenges of falling in love with a shaman?
After living in the jungle for some time I suddenly realized I felt extremely alive, like I hadn't felt before. Maybe that had a great deal to do with my healing. Carlos was loving, demanding, creative, at times manipulative and stubborn. The romance, the love was compelling, so present, so real, so exciting. The experience, tactile; what took place in the jungle was riveting -- in horror, in sensuality and beauty, in the moment. Rituals, prayers, selecting medicines, placement of a person -- everything was carefully orchestrated. Carlos was/is a brilliant healer. When he heals a patient it is with great love. The spirit that flows into him is love from the heavens, from the Great Spirit.
As a lover and apprentice I was "up in there," learning during healing rituals. And that was great. I spoke with another person recently who'd apprenticed under a healer. He said there should be a support group for shaman's apprentices!
Throughout eleven trips you went back and forth to Ecuador to the United States and Canada. Was healing slowed by having to come home, or were these integration periods necessary?
No, the healing wasn't slowed. After my first trip I'd found out from doctors in New York that the cancer had disappeared. But I had a lot of integration to do. I was making judgments in my dreams and rearranging my feelings while I slept. I'd dropped my composing career, and my marriage fell apart. I lost my home. Everything flipped. And ayahuasca came to me in the States. First I'd smell it as it swirled down -- the revoltingly sweet, rotten smell. I'd have just enough time to grab on to something before I was in the spirit world. I'd be taken for as long as eight hours. Ayahuasca -- we're married now. And I don't every want to get divorced from la medicina.
Aside from writing a thoughtful book, how do you explain your experiences? What's the right way to talk about the Ayahuasca healing cosmology here at home?
I had no thought of writing this memoir. I am a composer who couldn't put two sentences together before this whole thing began. I didn't think of writing a book until three or four years after things had settled down. Then, I was forced into it. The medicine wanted me to write from a personal point of view, naturally, and in the form of a healing story.
The right way to talk about ayahuasca is with reverence. I know plant spirits and energy heal the body. I know there is a vast, inexplicable universe and there's inherent power in that knowledge. I want people to know that ayahuasca embodies the holy sacred, natural living, respect, and love for Mother Earth. The medicine reveals to a person that they know what life is. To know how to live. To know its great value. As an apprentice, to know one has helped people heal is the happiest feeling. Carlos showed me remarkable treatments that were both death-defying and life-affirming. Black Smoke reveals the process of deep risk, trust, and the female voice establishing psychic and physical authority.
The book chronicles your journey through the jungle, but it also takes you back to the Hudson Valley and puts Carlos in your world. Did the relationship change and how did he deal with your culture?
People were crowding us to be healed. I was talking to cancer patients daily. Carlos's work was very effective here. But Black Smoke is a cautionary tale. Crossing cultures can be dangerous, and in the book the reader will see how dangerous it was for Carlos, and for me.
What is the role of the vision quest today? Can it still serve a purpose in western, post-modern culture?
Absolutely. Vision quests strip away the false, the pretentious, the negative, and open one to a world of life, possibility. Both are gateways beyond fear. The roots of disease (spiritual, emotional, physical) are fear, repression, the calcification of love and the life force within a person. Ayahusaca and vision quests unleash artificial trappings and burdens. This kind of healing is the holiest work in the world.
Any new projects in the works? What are you up to these days? What do you want to learn more about yet?
I've recently returned from Nigeria where I live very simply in an Igbo village. No electricity, running water, bathrooms, refrigeration. But Ah! The people and the land. Palm wine. Kola nuts. Hot peppers. Pounded yam. Music. Holy Spirit. Spirit Masks. Tradition. Ancient ways of curing. Herbal medicine people. Traveling has allowed me to work with healers in Brazil, Egypt, Sub Sahara Africa and Indonesia. There seems to be another book coming about spirit possession, I think.
For more information on Margaret's book, visit the Black Smoke Home Page.
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Trip Reports
I've come to the conclusion that the plant spirits (of whatever plant it is that we choose or that chooses us) really want us to write up trip reports of our experiences.
It also seems to be the way we earn our next trip.
Synchronicity Time
Funny, just last night I was on Erowid reading about people's experiences with ayahuasca (usually in the form of mimosa hostilis). Hadn't done that in months...
It's good to hear about healing experiences with entheogens, as most of what I've heard/read has dealt with psychological transformation.
It's also good to hear more news from the shamanic frontier; even if I never get there, it's enough that it exists. Thanks.
This interview reminds me
This interview reminds me of the post-colonial author Tayeb Salih and his book "A Season's Migration to the North." For those who have read it, the connection will be apparent.
I believe it is time for someone on RealitySandwich versed in critical-race theory to begin offering gentle nudges to the community at large about internalized racial superiority and its inherent implications for those seeking healing/hope/salvation/love/knowledge/wisdom/etc from indigenous and native (i.e. not-White) cultural traditions. Our community here on RealitySandwich is by and large white. Consequently, it would be an unfortunate travesty if, in the process of creating a new vision for humanity, we fail to acknowledge white privilege (the means to travel to a 'poor' country and partake in traditional ceremonies) cultural appropriation (adopting those traditions as our own because we feel we don't have a 'good' culture, or that white culture is nonexistant or lost) the extofication of the 'other' (steamy romances with natives on spiritual quests or on study abroads) and internalized superiority (the interesting tendency of white people to assume positions of power when working on social justice projects).
It is not my intention to diminish this woman's struggle with cancer. It is merely a feeble attempt to open up a dialogue that I feel has been absent from RS for too long.
Questions on alternatives to cultural appropriation
Good afternoon,
I have heard a lot about cultural appropriation as a concept and the thing that I have always wondered about if there are any real alternatives(with the understanding that neither you nor anyone else is obligated to provide these alternatives, but I would appriciate it).
In the case of religion, I was/am usually told that one should go back to one's own cultural religion as to do anything else would be cultural appropriation. What if you are white, american and not Christian? Would you do a family tree to pre-Christian times and adopt that tradition? If there was more than one tradition, would you go with the one that you had the closest link to? What if those traditions were for the most part lost or are incompatable with life in the 21st century?
Thank you for your time and patience,
C23
Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer
On culture...
I am writing a thesis on this very subject. It is quite tricky. On one hand, there are a number of Native Americans (I am focusing on North Americans) who are very outspoken against "whites" appropriating their spirituality and ceremonies and passing them off as traditional. The most extreme view purports that this is yet a continuation of colonization and another form of cultural genocide. They claim that figures like the shaman are literary symbols created by academics and other writers to benefit and conform to a Western model. This idealizes Native Americans in a reductionist manner, places them in an abstract de-context, and tends to ignore the social realities of real Indians (i.e. poverty, alcoholism, land rights, environmental degradation of tribal lands, etc). The American Indian Movement is a representative organization who feels strongly in this regard. Ward Churchill has also published extensively about this subject. An excellent, and very fair, analysis can be found in the book Playing Indian by Phillip Deloria. He is perfect for this kind of introspection because he is a Native American Yale anthropologist who uses the Western academic modality to critique the historical and contemporary interplay between cultures. Highly recommended.
On the other extreme end of this spectrum you may find "New Age" Indians who are very open to offering their ceremonies and spiritual practices to people from other cultures. Many of these practitioners congregate with all kinds of peoples from variegated cultural inheritances, although their critics, who are mostly Native American, claim that these people are "sell outs" and "plastic medicine men", and are often times the only Indians present at their gatherings. One of the most widely referenced New Age Indian is Sun Bear, whose clientele is predominantly white. Carlos Castaneda is also brought up frequently as a kind of counter-cultural hinge who left open the doorway for many of us in the West. Interestingly, he has been dubbed the Grandfather of the New Age by some, and exposed as a fraud by others.
Then, of course, there are a number of middle paths and viewpoints and examples of mutual cooperation that has led to remarkable collaborations. One stand out example is the relationship established between some Earth First! environmental groups and Natives who align themselves to learn from each other and work towards a common goal.
I think some of the main points that need to be considered are the effects that cross cultural fertilization has on local communities. Disciplines like anthropology and New Age-like spiritual seeking tend to be very extractive without giving back much in return. This is not always, or even mostly the case, but many Native Americans feel that they are being encroached upon by seekers who appropriate their traditions out of context and with little concern for anything other than self-interest. People need to be aware that, for one thing, Native American traditions are not part of a Pan-Indian ceremonial; tribal and ritual bounds and practices were traditionally (and still are) highly regarded and respected by Natives, no matter their particular heritage. It also needs to be made aware that Native Americans (especially the shaman) are not static Romantic versions of perfect beings with all the answers to our problems. It seems that sometimes interest in Native American spirituality gets lost in its own fluffy language and forgets that there are real Indians still living who do not fit nicely into a Westernized concept of who they are or what they should be (again, see Playing Indian). This brings up a third point: without paying attention to and politicizing the social realities of Native peoples and their communities, this can easily become a form of extractive appropriation. One of the biggest points of contention is that we are only interested in the shamans, the spiritual experience, and do not do anything to help out the very real, and very visceral social ills that minority groups like Native Americans face every day.
I am working with a Mohawk from my local community and he is very pleased to share knowledge and spiritual ways with "outsiders". They really do believe that White man has a purpose on this land. But they demand the same thing from you and I that they do from anyone: a total respect that is not selective and does not ignore the distasteful parts of their existence, and their histories (or ours!).
You made another interesting point about returning to Pagan traditions. This comes up in conversations and research more often than I expected. When asked by Euro Americans what to do, since we have lost our roots, the resounding reply is that we have not lost our roots; our roots are in the shamanistic traditions of Pre-Christian Europe. And if we feel disconnected from these, it is no different than young Native Americans born today into a fragmented world of cultural dissolution and confusion. The common element is that all of these traditions, Pagan, Native American, Shamanic--they are all based on local relationships with the earth, its plants, animals, powers, spirits, and with Spirit itself. And they are all subject to transformation. We are the binding force. If you want to learn, ask the world around you to teach you. If you feel drawn to Native American ways, approach them with ancient reverence, and do so knowing your heart and by being aware of the contradictions and symbolic import involved. Ultimately, the shamanic ways are available, right here, wherever you are, and they have never left us.
One final quote by a Native American from a source I do not have with me: “There is no need for an Eagle to become a Hawk, or a Hawk an Eagle; each needs only to be exactly what they are”.
Transformation
Howdy Matt,
Gutsy choice for a thesis. Best of luck!
"The common element is that all of these traditions, Pagan, Native American, Shamanic--they are all based on local relationships with the earth, its plants, animals, powers, spirits, and with Spirit itself. And they are all subject to transformation."
This is the direction that our transformation needs to take, for sure. We need to reestablish our local natural relationships. And when transformation happens, it follows some basic rules. Like everything we learn is added to our existing core beliefs, rather than changing them. For example, when Cortez conquered the Aztecs, and forced them into Catholoacism, they superimposed it onto their already pagan beliefs.
I think the same thing is happening as monotheistic beliefs are subjected to transformational influence from earth based "shamanism". We white folks tend to superimpose new spiritual input on top of our already established monotheistic materialistic, reductionist and capitalistic core beliefs. The result can often be a difficult marriage of contradicting beliefs, acting out their differences in ongoing internal conflict.
Western civilization makes its living by exploitation of the environment... always has. To give that environment the respect it deserves is not easy under the circumstances. But that is what has to be done.
cheers,
jim
You made another
You made another interesting point about returning to Pagan traditions. This comes up in conversations and research more often than I expected. When asked by Euro Americans what to do, since we have lost our roots, the resounding reply is that we have not lost our roots; our roots are in the shamanistic traditions of Pre-Christian Europe.
I would have to say that that is true in theory but in practice it tends to break down quickly. Take Celtic religion, for example. We know that there were hundreds of deities that existed throughout the various Celtic countries(many areas had their own deity or deities) and we have the name of, at most, about six. We don't know how(or if) they did magic, and if so, how. We are only pretty sure that they even had respect for the Earth.
I would even go so far as to say that the idea that people should go back to pre-Christian shamanic cultures(except for one exception in one of the Scandanavian countries where a shamanic culture is pretty clearly defined) should be viewed with great skepticism as it becomes very easy to fill in the many information gaps with original research that can be outright dangerous(refer to Lobsang Rampa and remember that he came from the time when there was not only very little information on Tibetan Buddhism but very little ability to get information on it without a great deal of money and ability.)
Thank you
C23
Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer
conversation on appropriation for Alki
Hey Alki,
Since I am the one who did this interview and since I have worked with a number of different Ayahuasca traditions and healers, I'll try to give you my take on cultural appropriation.
To be blunt, what it sounds like you want is the admittance of some kind of travesty. You would like Margaret to feel bad for her position in creation, or you would like Natives to feel more protective of their traditions and more cynical of people of other races or cultures. You would like white people (an incredibly vague classification) to feel as if they are scoundrels or thieves, or you would like cultures to suspect each other's intentions.
No doubt there is an unequal distribution of wealth in this world. No doubt if Ayahuasca were hoarded or if money and food were hoarded, if anything is hoarded, we are not doing our job to support our brothers and sisters.
It should be clear, however, that the teachings of Ayahuasca medicine, as they have been taught to me by many different shamans in many different places, is about love and universal community peace.
To me, the conversation about cultural appropriation should shift gears and become a conversation about how people with material necessities (clothing, food, medical care, housing, etc) can share better with the global community.
The reason I do not write about cultural appropriation is because the wisdom of the universe is not partial to one skin color or tradition. Love is at the core of everything. When we fight against this truth, we create hell. When we settle into it, we find the renewable resources we need to share and coexist. That's heaven.
I was taught this by shamans both white, black, and brown, turning into 30 foot tall eagles and ripping things like religious brainwashing out of my psyche in realms that transcend words like culture by so many light years that it literally makes no sense for me to judge anybody or anything. This law was written onto my heart and into my dna. These shamans did not judge me or consider my "culture" when they healed me and showed me things beyond the confines of my material mind.
The lesson we all have to learn is much greater than cultural appropriation in my opinion.
If you listen to somebody when they speak, you can hear the overflow of the heart. Margaret and so many countless people who drink Ayahuasca from other cultures are not learning about a tradition, a ritual, a religion, a context, a cosmology, or an academic "meme."
We are learning about the nature of life, eternity, and love.
I challenge any cynic from any culture to drink Ayahuasca 100 times with a healer and see if they come out concerned by things like skin color or tradition.
What one person sees as white privilage another sees as an impoverished heart. What one sees as material abundance another sees as wasteful. What one sees as poor another sees as rich.
I am a full time social worker, giving my time to schizophrenics and the homeless. Other people are in the business world. Others sell apples. Some chop wood. Some carry water.
If these cultures can share, so lovingly, their wealthy vision of reality, then we can learn to share things like clothing.
In my opinion, this is not a conversation about appropriation. It's a conversation about a dark power trip that has been happening on this planet for a long time now among human beings. That story is not unique to white people. The tribes in the jungle have warred for thousands of years over issues as relatively petty.
Greed is a human problem. Hunger is a human problem. These things are also spiritual problems.
We need to have a great deal of patience for our own culture (whatever image of culture we have created). We need to love each other unconditionally and forgive. And we need to share our resources.
If somebody uses their experience with a foreign culture and passes themselves off like an expert in order to gain power, then that's just crappy. But that problem is not unique to Ayahuasca. It's also unique to any PhD who claims to be an expert of sociological theories like "cultural appropriation" and then uses their theoretical knowledge of a concept like "appropriation" in order to take stabs at people, or interviews, that rub them the wrong way.
Isn't it a radical idea to imagine a world in which any problem we think we have is always our own? Isn't it radical to imagine a world in which we can learn to claim peace and love in our hearts no matter what?
Our greatest spiritual leaders have taught us that even to the death, it is possible.
As I have experienced things like demonic possession in Ayahuasca ceremonies, I have seen terror in my own mind beyond words and culture and skin, and I have also learned that these fears can be transcended.
No doubt their is an unequal distribution of material and spiritual wealth and basic needs on this planet. But whose helping who? If white people or Americans or westerners are taking more than they should, then they are poor in spirit. They suffer in a different way than those who lack food or clothing.
Cynicism is one form of that suffering.
Ayahuasca has taught me so much about helping others and living within my means, etc. It was a vehicle to teachings that so many religions and traditions have all spoken about. It both was and wasn't unique to the jungle or the culture.
We should start talking about what we have in common and how to share love, instead of hoarding our ideas, cultures, traditions, entheogens, money or food.
I appreciate you raising this subject, and I hope you find enough here to stimulate the conversation you are looking for.
I can honestly say that I've yet to meet somebody who isn't doing the best they can. Ayahuasca taught me to see like that.
Adam Elenbaas
hi all, adam, i think
hi all,
adam, i think it's a legitimate question. specifically because margaret brought it up time and again in her memoir. the culture that carlos introduced her to was rife with really glaring inequality between men and women. she was threatened when she chose to address that. conversely, when carlos came to the USA, she spoke of both his difficulties and her difficulties in maintaing boundaries, adjusting to NYC and money.
so yes, your visions are valid and the core teachings of aya are universal. of course these learning about the nature of life, eternity, and love turns one towards allieviating suffering.
carlo's culture didn't change much on basic equality rights even with the healings and the teachings. our culture... well, so. i think these are good points and questions people have raised.
cheers
Transformation vs Appropriation
I haven't had a lot of hands-on experience with the rituals and beliefs of entheogen-centered cultures and so have had to rely on the experiences of others. Most of this is due to the fact that I am on disability and am simply too poor to travel to the places where these cultures exist.
It doesn't mean, however, that I should turn a blind eye to indigenous cultures being exploited for their shamanic wealth. I haven't read Ms. De Wys' book, and if I had, I still don't know if I'd be in a position to judge. Is the book exploitative? Does Ms. De Wys stand to make money turning indigenous beliefs into New Age pablum?
I don't know. I do know that my hunger for experiences of the sublime may at times blind me to the realities of the lives from whom these experiences come. Like the narrator of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I tend to focus on the journey, rather than the (human) landscape.
On the other hand, what binds us in our humanity is that innate urge to explore. This cuts across all boundaries and barriers.
In terms of what exactly is "pagan", I don't know for certain. I do know that venerating the complexity/simplicity of nature makes me feel good. It connects me to something far greater than my own personality and physical body. As does reading from the Nag Hammadi library, or A Course in Miracles.
The ways in which I worship may or may not be indigenous to modern American culture and/or my personal ancestry, yet they seem to fit in ways I can't really articulate.They heal me and at times heal other people.
I really appreciate Alki for bringing up this important topic and for the responses it has garnered. It has given me a lot to think about.
Privilege
Very Good Points
Propaganda Anonymous
Thank You Alki and redd2 for bringing up the notion of Critical Race Studies and providing some personal testimonial.
I agree very much with both your posts.As someone who has been involved with RS since its inception, I would like to tell you that there are people on these boards who have written very well about Race studies as well as Class consciousness studies (and also great gender analysis)
My own personal favorites posters to read in these areas have been Alan Scheurman, Devon Church, Chibi One, and some others.I hope I'm not blowin out their spots by shouting them out, but I just wanted to reassure you that there are people here having similar discussions. And what you have added to it is great.
Without coming across too "Look at me, Look at me!" here, I'd like to state that focusing on aspects of consciousness like Race and Class is part of my main concern here on RS.That is pretty much the driving thesis to most of the things I write about.
In reference to your posts, I refer you to this interview with Michael Muhammad Knight for further exposition of what I'm sayin.
Also I think when people like Antonio Lopez make the posts about what Van Jones is doing in the Environmental Justice side of things, this is also bringing forth important conversations.
Lastly, be on the look at for a Realitysandwiich co-sponsored event very soon, that will take into consideration many of the points you two have raised.
PEACE, Love, Unity, Having Fun,
Freedom, Justice, and Equality
For the new era of Human Living Beings
Cult-(ural) Identity Sustains Separation
Hello-
I would like to preface my views-to-follow with the fact that they’re based on personal experience and (possible) beliefs and therefore are not offered as contrary to the personal views shared in each post. I respect all viewpoints.
I would like to thank Adam Elenbaas for his fine interview that captured the adventure and hope of a dear sister who dared to follow what was flowing through her: her arduous journey to heal a terminal illness. Perhaps Cancer is a good teacher in that it fails to recognize or discriminate in matters of race or culture. Fighting to stay alive makes us more recognizable as Human, que no?
I would also like to thank Alkipsychologist for listening to his own song that opened this door to ‘Critical Race Theory’ and for the enlivening, divergent views that follow. Here is my take based on my developing awareness, and though I cannot control how others must react, I mean no disrespect to anyone’s current belief system or traditions. But like Alkipsychologist (and all others), I must share my song as it is flowing through me…
I have a gift: I am a canary in a deep mining tunnel that sings (off-key) whenever I sense something poisonous to Humanity; whenever I sense a belief and/or subsequent viewpoint that sustains the energy of Separation. In other words, what keeps us believing we are different. I sense the microcosm of duality whenever our various cultures (cults for short) are espoused and touted as lesser or greater; deprived or privileged and elevated through ‘traditions’ that are based on our psychological need to identify with ‘our’ Past. Remember the modern, beautiful country of Czechoslovakia? Remember how one knucklehead stirred a 1200 yr old story (the Past) allegeding that his cult (Serbians) was plundered by another cult (Bosnians)? And how this led to the ‘unity’ of two separate peoples that ultimately led to war and genocide. This is just but one example of the power and need of our ego-selves to cling to our Past for misplaced identity.
In my view… as long as we hold to our various and eloquent forms of culture for our continued identities, which include beliefs in nationality, race, religion, gender, culture, etc, we will continue to exist in the pain of fear-based Separation; and Humanity and therefore the Macrocosm (Love) will never be realized. We will continue to carry our burdens and pass on pain (through the need for justice/revenge) to our young, instilling in them the separatist beliefs that exist in identifying with any culture other than Humanity. Cults, perhaps, are our veils that must be ‘torn’ (this implies great difficulty) before a doorway to embrace Oneness or Wholeness as a human species is realized. Perhaps we are each required to release our cherished forms of antiquity: our mental identities; our ideas of ‘honoring’ our ‘wronged’ ancestors... (The Past).
If I continue in the beliefs of being ‘American, Hispanic/Irish, masculine, Californian, etc,’ I will never be One with anyone. And if it is true that our beliefs create our collective reality, then our existence in painful separation is our own doing, and perhaps we need to find a way to stop being different. Perhaps we need to open a door into a reality that makes us the same or equal- a place our hearts seem to know. Having personally entered this doorway, I find myself not knowing a goddamn thing about who or what I may truly be. I am none of the cults listed above and the best thing in this is that I see that everyone on this planet also doesn’t have a clue as to who they really are… To me, this makes us family- Humanity- all getting our asses soundly kicked. And being this empty in this unknowingness may just allow God or whomever, to fill my cup…
And just to throw in more… What about our ideas and experiences of past lives? I suspect our linear, linguistic mental ways cannot comprehend the strong possibility that we have each experienced many cultures. Who is to say that our sister in Adam’s interview was not once an indigenous shaman in Ecuador and is following her song to reconnect? What do any of us really know…? Our beliefs; our faith? Our bodies made up of vibrating atoms and a whole bunch more?
I say, let us work on discovering our true-selves by first contemplating and eventually learning to release ALL our ideas and beliefs that keep us separate; that keep us from being fully human. Providence is perhaps recognizing that our collective Unknowingness may be our gateway home.
Many blessings to my Human family. With deep love and commitment.
Transcending Culture ... Culturing Transcendence
More "head and tail of serpent" here ... seems only to be a question of to what degree ones consciousness actually expands.
In my understanding, that as the "beats" turned into "hippies" {1950's-60's}... a new indigenous culture was stating to "ferment"
Transcending other previous versions of "culturing" by integrating them ... not by juxtaposing them.... really beginning to wake up to global and/or universal possibilities.
All culturing is 'but the "Karma Yoga" of the mixing of the various varieties of human occupation ....
Labor, merchantile, artisian, craftsman, administrator, intellectual ... there is no culture that is really anything other than this mixing/yoking
... and of course the inherent sense of "transcendence" associated with the "Spiritual"
... the very cultural "spice" that both adds and takes away from each others mixing.
What if a new planetary culture of global humanity is beginning to brew.
The more things added to the mix .. the more adjustments are made to stabilize the "flavor/mood/humor/mellow/rasa"
Like all skin color is really only relative to how close or far one lives in relation to the equator ... as they begin to mix ... over time ...
In one lives in Boston one develops the accent there ... if Alabama ... the accent asociated with that geographic zone.
The more one travels about, especially in todays world .. or how much exposure to cultural variety through media one has ... well the less prominant the exposure of each
Well who cannot say that as time passes, there will not be "new culture" ... new spirituality ... new buisness ... new law .. new skin viabilities .. genes et etc
May take centuries to stabilze as a global "norm" ... as one looks around ... what else does one really see is happening
The reality of sucess being based on the very integrity of each "heirloom principle" mixed in ... nothing more ... nothing less
The less synthetics are added to the mixture ... the more "traits of actual or inherent value" find their place in the quantum synergy.
There is nothing in the "theory of relativity" that ultimately commands cultural integrity ... as the Quantum Psyche of each is always it's own self-motivational factor
Copyrighted
'Critical Race Theory'
Propaganda Anonymous
'Critical Race Theory' is a study like Sociology.To me, it is near anthropology.It is not TOO academic, in my opinion.
Most Critical Race Theory deals with the relationshipsof people thru the eyes of the 'LAW'Therefore, this is a fairly Hard social science.HARD meaning that the results of such ideas affectpeople on the everyday and visceral level.
What is so significant about 'Critical Race Theory'and, what appears to be it's main area of study, 'Critical White Studies' is that it only adds to our intellectual capabilities in making sense of this world.
I am all for Heart-centered consciousness.
I have spent time with Shamans in Ayahuasca ceremonies. I have spent time in Monasteries Meditating and achievingsome sublime states that seem to have been beyond words
And this only further convinced me how important wordsand intellectual abstractions are.We need balance, Balance between all our chakra centers
One Shaman told an anthropologist that what holds many peopleback is that they Love thru their Hearts TOO MUCH
They need to start Loving thru their SPLEENS.
Adam, your response to Alki was very well written and sonorous in sound. You are a gifted poet, and I enjoyed reading it.I also dig where you are coming from. And I agree with itwhole heartedly.
I am not making this post to try to argue anything with anyone here.I am making this post in order to clarify and expoundupon the subject of 'Critical Race Theory'
I am very happy Akli brought it up. As I feel it is an important component in us getting closerto the beautiful center in everyday life.
The term, "Consciousness of our Abstractions" is very important. I am of the mind that sees every symbols we use to thinkand communicate, whether it by words, symbols, song, math, etc., as a metaphor.We live in a world of metaphors. What happens is, some of us forget that. We mistake the map for the territory. And lose our consciousness of the Abstractions (i.e Metaphors) we use.This is the world of the Intellect. It is only thru constantly revising our maps and reclarifying terms are we able to stay in feedback with the vibrations of a universe in flux and evolution.Therefore, something like Critical Race Theory is an important addition to our discussions about consciousness.
We are not born within a vacuum. So the position and skin colour we are born into here in the US, does determine some, but not all, of our levels of consciousness and our chances to expand upon that consciousness.
As it stands at the moment, something like Ayahuasca has mostly been filtered through a group of people who are mostly WHITE from Middle to Upper Class economic standings and are usually College Educated.That's just seems to be a definite truth.
Now, I believe that part of the mission of this site and those of us involved with it, is to help spread the word about Ayahuasca and the beauty it holds.
And this is being done in a responsible and fun way, because of people like Adam and others.We are all learning as we move and that's a great thing.
Positive
Energy
Activates
Constant
Elevation
Oregon
Oregon Judge's Ruling on Ayahuasca
Here is a link to the full text of the judge's opinion:
http://entheogene.over-blog.com/article-29439116.html
cultural appropriation
Thanks Adam
for the excellent interview and for your response to Alkipsychologist.
No one has adequately defined 'Critical Race Theory.' Perhaps this is just as well, for so far it sounds like a big fat alienating guilt trip. Propaganda Anonymous has said that it is akin to Sociology. I took Sociology in college, and that is no recommendation to my mind. Prop. A. further states that it hinges upon our relations to the Law, and that is less recommendation still.
At this critical juncture in history, the world needs ayahuasca. I need ayahuasca. I don't need a guilt trip. And incidentally just because I'm white does NOT mean I enjoy a "middle to upper class" economic standing. Far from it. I dropped out of the middle class a long time ago, and anyone who thinks I enjoy a privileged existence on account of race can start sending me a stipend equal to their combined pension and social security expectations right now.
By the way, thank you Lygeia for the link to the judge's decision on ayahuasca. I'm rather afraid to look for fear his decision might turn out to be based on narrower and more mutable principles than I'd like, but hopefully it'll be better than that.
PEACE. Learn it first before bashing it
Propaganda Anonymous
PEACE Anteros. It's too bad you feel that way about 'Critical Race Theory' and/or 'Critical White Studies' and/or 'Whiteness Studies.' If one really utilizes the insights found in this branch of Sociology, and yes it is found underneath the discipline of that, (Read this brief definition of it here) one can see the freedom in learning about this social aspect of people.
'Critical White Studies' is relevant to the Law, because it affects things that are handled by law courts. Things like Housing, Employment, Property Estates.
Traditionally 'White Privilige' has ensured that those of one skin color statistically tended to have better chances of accumulating more of those things than others, of a darker tone. That has been a fact in America.
And all that privilege becomes systematized and institutionalized. We do not exist within a singular vacuum of our individuals life. We exist along a historical trajectory, where past generations affect our everyday interactions.
RACE, though a social construct, still has LEGAL ramifications, and with that economic determinants. This is on a spectrum of course, we're all in our own space-time coordinates, but there are many studies that show that "White" Men tend to have better economic standings than say "Black Women," on the average.
This is because of White Privilege. A Privilege that has been set in play in this country, and in Europe, over hundreds of years. That's cool that you, "dropped out" of the middle class world, I feel you there Anteros. But see, some peoplewere never IN to Drop out in the first place. To be born IN, in a country where the dominanting classes tended to be "White" is a Privilege, compared to the many who were born down, and receiving the brunt of Institutionalized Racism.
My opinion is that Ayahuasca will cleanse you during a ceremony, and you'll feel great. My experience with it is that it then gives one instructions on how to get closer to some sublime states while in ceremony. This is the work to do done in the humdrum world.
For me, part of that work is to remind everyone that we are all one, yes, but also to show how these Socially Constructed Institutions that were erected before we were even born, play out and effect us in ways we might not even be able to see.
So it is through the great work of people like Tim Wise, Bikari Kitwana, and yes Hip-Hop, that the discussion of how RACE determines certain things in our socially constructed world, and then through the opening of one's eyes, then mind, we can move beyond these things and slide into a nice groove of Beyond RACE.
But on the whole, I don't think Society is there yet. There are stages that need to be worked through. I think we will.
And then you'll see "White" people who can Dance. "White" Men who can jump. And "White" people being cool with other cultures without exploiting the crap of them.
(Some jokes there folks.)
Anyway, We're getting there.
Discovery of the Gene for White Skin
Is there such a thing as a "pure" tradition?
ayahuasca shows origin of suffering
first of all; big thanks for your great posts(^.^) ----------------------------------- often conventional "healing" of an illness or other severe diseases often neglects the cause or origin of that specific malady. If only working on the symptoms, while neglecting the real cause of the disorder, the cause stays inherent and will shift to other parameters and impact alternate organs or the future. Or to speak in terms of Alexander Swijasch: the healer empties the karma bucket of the ill person, but in return fills his own... Ayahuasca is different... ...ayahuasca(, or should I better say mother earth, or god, or higher self, mother, father, nature, everything <3 ) is showing you the source of (your) illness......and you free yourself on your own.........simultaneously changing your life.... ......................................... here something interesting by national geographic: Deep in the Amazon jungle, writer Kira Salak tests ayahuasca, a shamanistic medicinal ritual, and finds a terrifying—but enlightening—world within.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/features/peru.html
Yay!
Kira is a great writer!
I've worked with the same shamans at the same lodge she visited, Blue Morpho, regularly over the past 4 years!
Adam Elenbaas
composer?