Graham Hancock: Entheogens & Evolution [MP3]

SUPERNATURAL: Did entheogens make our ancestors human?

Speaker: Graham Hancock From: Shamanic Freedom Radio Date: May 26, 2009 FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD - PART #1 [58MB] right click, save target as FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD - PART #2 [58MB] right click, save target as

Modern technological societies value only the alert, problem-solving state of consciousness, and have demonized trance states brought on by the consumption of psychedelic drugs. But in his book Supernatural, the background to his talk at the October Gallery, Graham Hancock presents staggering new information that experiences induced by plant hallucinogens may have played a vital role in the evolution of our species – opening our ancestors to supernatural realms and making us truly human for the first time. It all happened very recently.
Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as ‘the greatest riddle in human history’, all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers. In his lecture, Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious ‘before-and-after moment’ and to discover the truth about the influences that shaped the modern human mind. His quest takes him on a journey of adventure and detection from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain and Italy to remote rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa where he finds a treasure trove of extraordinary Stone Age art.
He uncovers clues that lead him to travel to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful plant hallucinogen Ayahuasca with Indian shamans, whose paintings contain images of ‘supernatural beings’ identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves and rock shelters. And Western laboratory volunteers placed experimentally under the influence of hallucinogens such as mescaline, psilocybin and LSD also report visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other ‘dimensions’.
Could it be that the human brain is not just a generator of consciousness, but also a receiver of consciousness, and could the ‘supernaturals’ first depicted in the painted caves and rock shelters be the ancient teachers of mankind? This new approach strongly suggests that human evolution is not just the ‘blind’, ‘meaningless’ process that Darwin identified, but something else, more purposive and intelligent, that we have barely even begun to understand. By criminalizing and demonizing the consumption of psychedelic drugs it may even be that our societies are blocking off the next vital step in the evolution of our species.
Graham Hancock is the author and coauthor of a number of best-selling investigations of historical mysteries, including Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural, The Sign and the Seal, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, The Mars Mystery, and Underworld. His books have been translated into 27 languages and have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.

http://www.grahamhancock.com/

Evidence that Hopi Shamans used magic mushrooms?

On a recent tip to Arizona, I visited the Navajo reservation, Hopi ruins, meteor crater, Sunset volcano and the Grand Canyon. This was an academic trip with my daughters school and I had a great time.

After reviewing my photos, one in particular from the Desert View Watchtower caught my eye. A portion of the Hopi Snake Legend mural appears to feature a fist full of Psilocybe mushrooms being passed from one man to another and near his feet is a very distinct smoking pipe.

The known sacred sacraments of the Hopi are:
Datura (Jimsonweed & Desert Thornapple)
Nicotinana trigonphylla & attenuata
Mirabilis Multiflora

I researched the Hopi ethnographic / ethnobotanical literature I had access to and found only vague descriptions of entheogens. I found no mention of mushrooms as shown in my photo (above). Kachinas, Hopi mythology and folklore are all very representative with those of a shamanic culture. The Hopi religion is rich mythology and has many sacred rituals. They are polytheists, having many supernatural beings or "gods". The head of each clan was a Shaman who had a number of initiated helpers. They believed the soul of the ecstatic could leave the body and visit the realms of gods, animal and ancestor spirits. They also brought the rains, ensured a good harvest, and healed the sick. Hopi ceremonies are for the benefit of the entire world.

Hopi is a derived form of Hopituh Shi-nu-mu, "The Peaceful People" or "Peaceful Little Ones". (Maria Sabina called Mushrooms "Little ones") The culture's religion focuses on spirituality, its view of morality and ethics. The Hopi follow divine instructions and prophecies received from the caretaker of this world, Maasaw. They are anti-war and have a total reverence and respect for all things, to be at peace with these things, and to live in accordance with the instructions of the Creator or Caretaker of Earth.

Why no reference to the mushrooms? This could be due to most traditional Hopi knowledge being passed down orally with very little existing in the form of written records. If a few generations did not have access to or use the mushroom, this practice could have been lost as was the case with many other extinct traditions.

According to the Hopi, they are a gathering of people from many separate tribes from distant areas. Should this be true, the Hopi ancestors would have had a very diverse pharmacopeia and Psilocybe coprophilia is native to the Colorado Plateau so it is plausible they were used. The artist of this mural is Fred Kabotie who was a Hopi born in 1900, was he trying to preserve this shamanic knowledge on the verge of being lost?

I would like to conclude with I am NOT an expert on the Hopi people and my research was somewhat limited. If there are any inaccuracies in this post or if you have any thoughts or answers about this mystery. Please do share them in the comments or email me. Thanks!

Jan Irvin: Announcing The Gnostic Media Podcast & The Holy Mushroom!

I would like to share with you an excellent new Podcast hosted by Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media. Jan is one of the researchers and producers who brought us The Pharmacratic Inquisition and authors of AstroTheology & Shamanism.

He is also the author of the recently released book:

The Holy Mushroom
Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity:
A critical re-evaluation of the schism between John M. Allegro and R. Gordon Wasson over the theory on the entheogenic origins of Christianity presented in The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross.

 
The Gnostic Media Podcast!

Episode #001 is a recording he did back in April of this year, 2008. He went with Richard Andrew Grove of 8thestate media and Paul Verge of Divergent Films to the home of pioneering entheogenic researcher, Professor Carl A. P. Ruck of Boston University. Professor Ruck co-authored Persephone’s Quest with Gordon Wasson, he also co-authored Apples of Apollo with Clark Heinrich and Dr. Blaise Staples. He’s the author of the book Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess, Secrets of Eleusis, and more recently he co-authored The Hidden World, Survival of Pagan Shamanic Themes in European Fairytales. This episode features the entheogenic rites of the Eleusinian mysteries, John Marco Allegro’s research in The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, and Ruck’s upcoming books.

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Episode #002 features an interview Professor John Rush regarding his new book Failed God: Fractured Myth in a Fragile World. This is the first academic book since the publication of John Allegro’s The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (1970) that argues Allegro was correct - and provides ample support for the mushroom foundations of Judeo-Christianity.

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Episode #003 features an interview with my friend & author Dr. Martin Ball, host of the Entheogenic Evolution podcast series. They discuss the spiritual use of entheogens, especially mushrooms and Salvia Divinorum, as well as religious vs. spiritual freedom. Do you think you have religious freedom?

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www.gnosticmedia.com

12,000-year-old shaman grave site found

Earliest known shaman grave site found!

Reuters: Nov 4, 2008
By Michael Kahn

An ancient grave unearthed in modern-day Israel containing 50 tortoise shells, a human foot and body parts from numerous animals is likely one of the earliest known shaman burial sites, researchers said on Monday.

The 12,000-year-old grave dates back to the Natufian people who were the first society to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Leore Grosman and colleagues said.

"The interment rituals and the method used to construct and seal the grave suggest this is the burial of an ancient shaman, one of the earliest known from the archaeological record," they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Shamans play an important role in many cultures, mediating between the human and spiritual worlds and acting as messengers, healers, magicians to serve the community, the researchers said.

The Israeli team found the bones in a small cave in the lower Galilee region of present-day Israel that was a Natufian burial ground for a least 28 people.

At the time of burial, more than 10 large stones were placed directly on the head, pelvis, and arms of the elderly woman whose body was laid on its side. The legs were spread apart and folded inward at the knee.

The special treatment of the body and use of stones to keep it in a certain position suggests the woman held a unique position in the community, likely some sort of a shaman, the researchers said.

"The burial of the woman...is unlike any burial found in the Natufian or the preceding Palaeolithic periods," Grosman's team wrote. "We argue that this burial is consistent with expectations for a shaman's grave."

The woman was also interred with some unusual grave goods, including the complete tortoise shells and select body-parts of a wild boar, an eagle, a cow, a leopard, and two martens, as well as a complete human foot.

The grave portrays several hallmarks that later become central in the spiritual arena of cultures worldwide, the researchers added.

"Tortoises, cow tails, eagle wings, and fur-bearing animals continue to play important symbolic and shamanistic roles in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide today," they wrote.

"It seems that the woman in the Natufian burial was perceived as being in a close relationship with these animal spirits."

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE4A251K20081104

New scientific evidence further confirms Terence McKenna's Stoned Ape theory!

From: The UK Telegraph
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
1:05PM BST 20 Oct 2008

Stone Age man took drugs, say scientists
Scientists have discovered evidence suggesting Stone Age man used herbal mixtures to get high.

It has long been suspected that humans have an ancient history of drug use, but there has been a lack of proof to support the theory.

Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes.

Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an archeologist from North Carolina State University, made the breakthrough on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.

They found ceramic bowls, as well as tubes for inhaling drug fumes or powders, which appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried 400 miles to the islands.

While the use of such paraphernalia for inhaling drugs is well-known, the age of the bowls has thrown new light on how long humans have been taking drugs.

Scientists believe that the drug being used was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species. Drugs such as cannabis were not found in the Caribbean then.

Opiates can be obtained from species such as poppies, while fungi, which was widespread, may also have been used.

Archeologists have suggested that humans were extracting mind-expanding drugs from mescal beans and peyote cacti as far back as 5,000 years ago, but have not found direct evidence that this is true.

They consider that drugs were being used to induce spiritual or trance-like states by people who had religious beliefs.

Summary of Terence McKenna's "Stoned Ape" Theory of Human Evolution

McKenna theorizes that as the North African jungles receded toward the end of the most recent ice age, giving way to grasslands, a branch of our tree-dwelling primate ancestors left the branches and took up a life out in the open -- following around herds of ungulates, nibbling what they could along the way.

Among the new items in their diet were psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing in the dung of these ungulate herds. The changes caused by the introduction of this drug to the primate diet were many -- McKenna theorizes, for instance, that synesthesia (the blurring of boundaries between the senses) caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language: the ability to form pictures in another person's mind through the use of vocal sounds.

About 12,000 years ago, further climate changes removed the mushroom from the human diet, resulting in a new set of profound changes in our species as we reverted to pre-mushroomed and frankly brutal primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed by frequent consumption of psilocybin.

McKenna's "Stoned Ape" Theory, in his own words -- excerpts from interviews, transcripts, etc.

Similar blog entry's that may also interest you:

• Fraser Clark: Monkey's Trip, A Short History of the Human Species
• The oldest Representations of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in the World

Shamanic Ecstasy

"Shamanic ecstasy is the real "Old Time Religion," of which modern churches are but pallid evocations. Shamanic, visionary ecstasy, the mysterium tremendum, the unio mystica, the eternally delightful experience of the universe as energy, is a sine qua non of religion, it is what religion is for! There is no need for faith, it is the ecstatic experience itself that gives one faith in the intrinsic unity and integrity of the universe, in ourselves as integral parts of the whole; that reveals to us the sublime majesty of our universe, and the fluctuant, scintillant, alchemical miracle that is quotidian consciousness. Any religion that requires faith and gives none, that defends against religious experiences, that promulgates the bizarre superstition that humankind is in some way separate, divorced from the rest of creation, that heals not the gaping wound between Body and Soul, but would tear them asunder... is no religion at all!" Jonathan Ott

What is Shamanic Ecstasy and how does it compare with other forms of ecstasy?

From the Greek ekstasis, ecstasy literally means to be placed outside, or to be placed. This is a state of exaltation in which a person stands outside of or transcends his or herself. Ecstasy may range from the seizure of the body by a spirit or the seizure of a person by the divine, from the magical transformation or flight of consciousness to psychiatric remedies of distress.

Three types of Ecstasy are specified in the literature on the subject:
a. Shamanic Ecstasy
b. Prophetic Ecstasy
c. Mystical Ecstasy

Shamanic ecstasy is provoked by the ascension of the soul of the shaman into the heavens or its descent into the underworld. These states of ecstatic exaltation are usually achieved after great and strenuous training and initiation, often under distressing circumstances. The resulting contact by the shaman with the higher or lower regions and their inhabitants, and also with nature spirits enables him or her to accomplish such tasks as accompanying the soul of a deceased into its proper place in the next world, affect the well-being of the sick and to convey the story of their inner travels upon their return to the mundane awareness.

The utterances of the shaman are in contrast with those of prophetic and mystical ecstasy. The prophet literally speaks for God, while the mystic reports an overwhelming divine presence. In mysticism, the direct knowledge or experience of the divine ultimate reality, is perceptible in two ways, emotional and intuitive. While these three varieties of ecstatic experience are useful for the purposes of analysis and discussion, it is not unusual for more than one form of ecstasy to be present in an individual's experience.

However, it can be argued that, generally speaking, there are three perceptive levels of ecstasy.

The physiological response, in which the mind becomes absorbed in and focused on a dominant idea, the attention is withdrawn and the nervous system itself is in part cut off from physical sensory input. The body exhibits reflex inertia, involuntary nervous responses, frenzy.

Emotional perception of ecstasy refers to overwhelming feelings of awe, anxiety, joy, sadness, fear, astonishment, passion, etc.

Intuitive perception communicates a direct experience and understanding of the transpersonal experience of expanded states of awareness or consciousness. While the physiological response is always present, the emotional response may or may not be significant when intuition is the principal means of ecstatic perception. Some have argued that beyond the intuitive state there is a fourth condition in which the holistic perception exceeds mental and emotional limitations and understanding.

The ecstatic experience of the shaman goes beyond a feeling or perception of the sacred, the demonic or of natural spirits. It involves the shaman directly and actively in transcendent realities or lower realms of being. These experiences may occur in either the dream state, the awakened state, or both. Dreams, and in particular, lucid dreams, often play a significant role in the life of a shaman or shamanic candidate.

Links
Ayahuasca, shamanism, and curanderismo in the Andes by Steve Mizrach
Shamans and scientists
Mazatec Shaman Maria Sabina
Gaian Botanicals