Part Three: Of Scientists and Shamans: Mind, Molecules & Magic
By Zoe Seven
(From AVS Journal)
A second way focuses on psychological analysis. One can take a medicine that produces a physiological effect that heals or reduces pain on the physical level. I could take an aspirin to stop a headache. In the same way, psychoactive medicines act in the psychological realm. Some antidepressants may be of help to those who are chronically down in the dumps. And entheogens can be useful for a person to reflect on his or her own thoughts regarding any given topic. Such an approach is a form of self-guided psychotherapy. And from the perspective of the entheogen (psychoactive plant) consumed, it would be passive rather than interactive. It would be one’s own mind interacting with one’s own thoughts.
Yet a third manner of working with psychoactive plants seems to be driven by an interaction with the consciousness of the plant species consumed. These voyages are interactive, as they appear to be communications between two types of consciousnesses: the human mind/spirit and the plant mind/spirit. A plant’s biological form is much the same as a human biological form. Each of them has a “limited” consciousness, due to being anchored in physicality.
The soul uses the physical form to exist in the physical realm. And finally, the fourth sort of occurrence that has happened in my research is when I felt that I was actually interacting with the intelligence which created both my own soul and the plant spirits. There is a big difference between these four sorts of inner voyages. Can an automobile tell one how its automatic transmission works? Of course not, since cars can’t talk. And even if an automobile could talk, it would not be likely to be able to tell you how its transmission worked anymore than most human beings could explain how their lymphatic system works, right? To find out about how this biological structure works, one would have to research it or see a physician or scientist who has studied the human body. In fact, it would be better if the actual designers of the human body could somehow be contacted, correct?
Similarly, a physical specimen of a psychoactive plant probably couldn’t answer questions about what neuroreceptors its chemistry binds to in the human brain. Its consciousness is based in 2nd density life forms, and as such it is largely limited to the realm of physical survival. But it seems as though a plant’s spirit can open a channel of communication with its creator, and/or enable the user to connect with an informational field. Through their use of entheogenic plants, shamans claim to be able to communicate with “the source of all knowledge.”
Shamans have also claimed throughout millennia that they are able to leave their physical vehicle behind by disengaging their spirit or soul from it. Back when I began to write my trilogy, I became curious about shamans. I wanted to understand what makes such individuals tick. And perhaps taking my role of investigator to the extreme, I delved into the mind of the shaman by “becoming” one. For me, there was really no other way of writing about the subject. These types of transpersonal experiences are very real—at least for those who experience them. In my first book, I share a few experiments in consciousness where I engaged the out-of-body state.
End of Part Three.
Copyright: Zoe 7 for AVS Journal. All rights reserved.