Is there an objective truth to the psychedelic experience? During the book club we began to share some personal, subjective ‘truths’ and, as usual, found many common themes that brought out harmony within a rich diversity of personal experiences. This was how our book club meeting around The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby (1998) unfolded. The overarching question became: when we hear of shamans inter-dimensionally ‘fishing’ for knowledge that is useful for the tribe (in the sense that Terence McKenna spoke of), what is this strange fish that Narby has brought back from his own adventures upon the entheogenic ocean?
 
If, as Narby suggests, we are somehow tapping into our collective DNA, the DNA of all biological (many of us also asserted the conscious livingness of ‘inanimate’ life) forms, if we are tapping into and communicating with our ancestors, dreaming, the sacredness of country, through the cosmic serpent, then what is the message we are getting back? Is it compatible with a vision of state-controlled, corporate-controlled monetisation of what is now a generation of psychedelic heritage in the West? What do these ancestors, these plants, this living field of memory, say to the community that they’ve been speaking with for lifetimes through this spiralling, speaking, helical thread running through all of life and communicating with us through these psychoactive plants about our place in the ecology, about the planet, about our DNA, about Earth Rights?
 
How much has the lifetime of psychedelic experience shown us about other hominids? Our prehistory? The nature of time? Someone pointed out the outer appearance of the ayahuasca vine as two intertwined vines when it is in fact actually one, and this symbolic teaching in visual semiotic language that ayahuasca is giving about duality here. The Caduceus, the Nagas, myths ancient and global of water being a gateway to other worlds, of water retaining genetic memory, the use of water in almost every kind of psychedelic experience, in our brew, for example, the anaconda, the subterranean rivers and veins of Chi flowing through the earth and the atmosphere, association of the rainbow serpent with these life-giving waters, geomancy: is there ‘lost’ gnosis in the land? In the plants? In the animals? In planetary consciousness? Are we capable of rediscovering this eco-gnosis and shapeshifting ourselves and the planet? This is how the discussion flowed as we discussed the possibility that psychedelics could be giving us added cerebral pliancy, a kind of epistemological and ontological flexibility allowing for much greater cross-cultural dialogue and experimental methodology.

We spoke about so much more, so come along next time! Truth does not require your participation, but it is fun to get involved anyway.

Author: Marc Devitt