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Out of My Mouth There Flew a Spider: An Ayahuasca Monologue

Stephan V. Beyer

[The Ayahuasca Monologues] • In this clip the author Steve Beyer talks about how he became a sorcerer when he used the magical power of his shaman-honed intentionality for purposes other than healing.

This video was recorded at the Third Annual Ayahuasca Monologues, held at Webster Hall in New York City, on November 5, 2009. 

Steve Beyer is a retired professor at Graduate Theological Union and has a law degree and doctorates in both religious studies and psychology.  He is author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizon Shamanism in the Upper Amazon. Erik Davis recently wrote an article in praise of this book on Reality Sandwich, describing how Beyer "found the sweet spot between scholarly and popular writing, the otherworldly and the disenchanted, participation and observation" when writing about the sacred plant medicine. 

Read an RS interview with Steve in which he discusses his recent work.  

Click here to watch a video clip of Adam Pollina's monologue from the same evening.

 

Comments

Thanks

Submitted by justin on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 16:49.
Beautiful and important message. Very simple and practical, but takes real dedication. Thanks for your honesty. -justin-

Man's eternal quest

Submitted by Buffalo Dave on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 19:48.
This video illustrates mans eternal struggle to separate his ancient primitive brain induced natural reactions from his more recently developed logical reasoning capabilities. This quest will continue for another million years.

The Quest

Submitted by LionKimbro on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 20:12.

...in order to become what, a robot?

A rock?

Towards what logical rational ends?

I feel like you're stuck in a snag, but if you are here, I suspect that it's because you want to get out;  I want to give you a jostle so that you can get out of it, so I want to push your world-view a bit.

Steve Beyer didn't say, "There isn't a world of spirits;"  Nor do I think he said "Matereality isn't true."  I think he is sincere when he says, (paraphrasing:) "I don't think I gave his wife cancer."

I don't see this as a "harm reduction" model of "appeasing" or "accomodating" the "lower mind."  Rather, he is talking about the lifeworld inside our minds, imaginations, hopings, dreamings, purposings, that is a living world, and deserves to be appreciated in vision, feeling, efforts, decisions, relationship, in daily life.

I don't see how a word of this contradicts science in any way.