I have recently begun reading the book The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby. This is a fascinating book about an anthropoligist sent to study the traditional use of plants by native peoples in the amazon rainforest.

I had passed over this books many times in the passed not realizing that it was a detailed account of one man's attempt to understand the enthogen ayahuasca and how the knowledge aquired through its use is just as valid as how western science aquires knowledge. Indeed in its own way it is superior to western science in that the plants are the teachers of how to use them. There is no guessing involved. Here is a brief synopsis of the book.

Originally sent to try to prove the economic efficacy of how the natives of the region use the plants, he was initially fustrated by how the shamans described how they went about finding out the medicinal uses of these plants. While no one would argue with the effectivness of these plants at curing, it was the shamans' claim that they were shown how to use the plants by ayahuasca. Ayahuasca being a hallucinagen, this was initially very fustrating to Mr Narby, how could he prove that these indians were using the plants in an econmicly efficient way if they claimed that they got the knowledge from the plants themselves. This conundrum leads the author to eventually experience the power of ayahuasca for himself. This becomes a totally transformational moment for the author. His experience leads him to the Radical idea that perhaps anthropoligists have been wrong in assuming that the discriptions of the spirits seen after taking ayahuasca were mere hallucinatory imaginings. Instead perhaps these visions should be taken literally!

This radical notion leads the author to consider that perhaps the serpents, vines and other serpentine motifs of the ayahuasca visions were actually DNA communicating with the mind of the shaman!

This book is absolutly fascinating and I cannot recommend it enough! It presents an idea of how our knowledge of the universe can be augmented by expanding our concepts of how the universe works and that by combining western science with the knowledge of tribal cultures can give us knowledge greater than what can be understood by either worldview alone.