Shamans practice

Anthropological evidence suggests that prehistoric shamans practiced magic in the caves of southwestern Europe 40,000 years ago, and it is likely that the practice is older than that. Magic, therefore, is likely to be as old as the human race. 

Figure 5. An example of protoalkaloids. Mescaline is the alkaloid derived from L-tyrosine and extracted from the Peyote cactns (Lophophora williamsii) belonging to the Cactns family (Cactaceae). MescaUne has strong psychoactive and haUncinogenic properties. Peyote cactns grows in the desert areas of northern Mexico and the sonthern parts of the USA. This plant was nsed in Pre-Colnmhian America in the shamanic practice of local tribes.

The scientific discovery of mescaline and related molecules in cacti other than peyote began in 1945 with the first report that the San Pedro cactus (Trichocerus pachanoi) was used in rituals by the Indians of Andean Ecuador. These shamanic practices were quite similar to rituals developed in Mexico for peyote. By 1950, it was established that mescaline constitutes about 1-2 percent of the San Pedro cactus when dried, about 0.12 percent of the fresh plant. 

Although the histories of psilocybian and of Amanita mushrooms are entwined, the categories are quite different chemically, pharmacologically and in associated shamanic practices. The Amanita species will therefore be discussed in Chapter Nine of this book. 

I have come to see the revival of interest in shamanic practices as expressions of a worldwide seeking for the renewal of a spiritual relationship with the natural world. Over the past two millennia Western civilization has increasingly developed patterns of domination and exploitation based on an arrogant assumption of human superiority. This dominator pattern, which, from the point of view of Earth s ecosystems, functions like a pathogenic parasite, has involved the gradual desacralization, objectification, and exploitation of all nonhuman... 

COMPARISON OF PSYCHOLYTIC THERAPY WITH TRADITIONAL SHAMANIC PRACTICES... 

It is debatable whether a Westerner who uses Shamanic practices divorced from the social, cultural, and mythological setting in which they were originally embedded can usefully be called a shaman.s... 

Ogunbodede O, McCombs D, Trout K, Daley P, Terry M. New mescaline concentrations from 14 taxa/cultivars of Echinopsis spp. (Cactaceae) ( San Pedro ) and their relevance to shamanic practice. JEthnopharmacol 2010 131(2) 356-62. 

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Other accidents could have introduced early cultures to the hallucinatory effects. While harvesting the plant for seeds (for oil) or fiber, accidental fires could have produced a resinous smoke, which was then inhaled. The smoke would have also appealed to the magicoreligious practices of native shamans (30). The smoke itself is inherently evocative of visions and mystery—a natural medium for shamanism It contained a property that could induce a form of trance it was readily consumed by the cleansing power of fire its smoke rose to the abode of the gods and it allowed dreams to be materialized. 

This indigenous pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet was a kind of shamanism closely related to the motifs and cosmology of the classical shamanism of Siberia. Tibetan folk shamanism, called Bon, continues to be practiced today in the mountainous area of Nepal that borders Tibet. Its practitioners are generally despised by the Buddhist community, being thought of as heretics and as generally low types. 

Most prehistoric shamans were concerned with using magic to help with the success of the hunt. They painted pictures on the walls of caves of the types of animals that the hunters desired. It is believed that this practice was a type of sympathetic magic, based on the idea that like attracts like. By painting a picture of a deer or a bison, the prehistoric shaman hoped to draw the actual animal to the hunter. Perhaps he or she believed that the picture captured the animal s soul and that the body would follow. 

In the Neolithic period, however, a new type of religion formed based on the needs of the village. People started to perform group rituals guided by priests. Priests were the first alternative to the shamans, and sometimes they were rivals for authority. In contrast to the intuitive spontaneous visions of the shamans, the priests worshiped specific gods and told stories about them called myths, which remained basically the same over time. The type of magic that the priests practiced made use of elaborate props and clothing and formal ceremonies that... 

Circa 10,000 Humans enter the Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, begin to farm, and live in villages shamans adapt to the needs of farmers and new religions develop with priests who practice ceremonial magic. 

These remarks of the French anthropologist become particularly relevant to Mazatee shamanistic practice when one considers that the effect of the mushrooms, used to make one capable of curing, is to inspire the shaman with language and transform him into an oracle. 

Among the Jivaros and Canelos tribes, divination consisting of yage trance is continually practiced by the medicine man or shaman, chiefly in connection with the treatment of illnesses. The shaman is considered a physician, not a priest his chief business is to kill or harm other people, enemies, with sorcery, and to cure the evils sent by enemy sorcerers. 

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