The Plants of Consciousness

Posted on February 3, 2008
Filed Under Spirituality, Consciousness |

The word Shaman first entered western consciousness through contact with the peoples known as the Tungus. Since then the word ’shamanism’ has become broadly used to describe specific types of activity the world-over. The knowledge and skills they posses could surely be considered as a form of ‘magic’. One aspect of shamanism which has long interested me is their ability - through various means - to enter altered states of consciousness. In many cases this is achieved through the use of psychoactive plants.

There’s still a lot of speculation regarding just what these plants actually do, and how they function. In the west it is difficult to avoid the belief in ‘chemical based consciousness’ and all that it represents. Whilst the shamans lay claim to plant ’spirits’ interacting with our own. I would say the truth is a mix of the two…that somehow these plants interact with our consciousness (whatever consciousness actually is) and in effect rewire our experience of it.

This is why it is such a difficult thing to quantify - because it is utterly dependent upon how you perceive ‘life’ and what you believe consciousness actually is. I think it is also one of those things which is difficult (if not impossible) to discuss without at least a bit of personal experience. Like virgins discussing the subjective experience of sex.

So in a world that struggles to grasp at the vagaries of consciousness, it is a little odd that some form of lesser science or understanding can be applied to ‘consciousness altering’ plants.

However the knowledge to understand these things is readily at hand. There are thousands of years of knowledge and experience to be found in the shamanistic traditions. Yet there is an arrogance which believes a few centuries of science naturally supersedes all the thousands of years of understanding which came before it. Fortunately there are now a good number of fields which are working to interpret the ancient knowledge through the filter of modern science as opposed to completely ignoring or replacing it.

The new age then, which we must eventually enter will surely be a blend of both old and new understandings.