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Ayahuasca: An Ethnopharmacologic History

By youniverse on Tuesday, 27 May 2014, hits: 6646

 

Join Dennis McKenna for the live, interactive video course, "What Plants Can Teach You: Consciousness and Intelligence in Nature." 

A new paradigm is emerging that recasts how we relate to and understand nature, supported by new scientific evidence. Plants instruct us through their behavior, through their interdependence with the environment, and through direct transmissions conveyed by spirit.  Dennis will be joined by some of the leading experts in the emerging field of plant intelligence, including: Chris Kilham, Stephen Harrod Buhner, Tony Wright, Dayna Baumeister, and Simon G. Powell. This 5-part Evolver webinar starts on June 17. Click here to learn more.

The following is excerpted from The Ayahuasca Experience, edited by Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., recently released in a new edition by Park Street Press.

AYAHUASCA HISTORY

Of the numerous plant hallucinogens utilized by indigenous populations of the Amazon Basin, perhaps none is as interesting or complex, botanically, chemically, or ethnographically, as the hallucinogenic beverage known variously as ayahuasca, caapi, or yagé. The beverage is most widely known as ayahuasca, a Quechua term meaning “vine of the souls,” which is applied both to the beverage itself and to one of the source plants used in its preparation, the Malpighiaceous jungle liana, Banisteriopsis caapi (Schultes 1957). In Brazil, transliteration of this Quechua word into Portuguese results in the name hoasca. Ayahuasca, or hoasca, occupies a central position in mestizo ethnomedicine, and the chemical nature of its active constituents and the manner of its use make its study relevant to contemporary issues in neuropharmacology, neurophysiology, and psychiatry.

 

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Comments  

0 # Morris 2014-05-29 06:32
It says it was written by Dennis... but it references one of Dennis's papers as being written by "Terence McKenna et al." ... Curious.
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