pdf: 6.426kb - University of South Africa

apprenticeship from evil spirits and sorcerers, and to
instruct him about the diet and prescription to be
observed. However, it is the spirits of the plants that
actually teach him the magic melodies and the use of
medicinal plants to diagnose and to cure.
I have found that even if the vegetalista were to
become a camalonquero, or any other specialist, the
diet during initiation will always involve ayahuasca.
The other plants may be used on their own, in
between days of drinking ayahuasca, or as admixtures
to the ayahuasca, during the diet. After his initiation
the vegetalista will decide on a specific plant teacher,
but the initial plant teacher will, in most cases, always
be the ayahuasca. This is why one of my informants,
Don AgostõÂ n, says that ayahuasca is the `father of all
medicines'.
The necessity of the diet Ð which includes also
sexual segregation Ð to learn from the plants, was
stressed by every vegetalista I met (Luna 1986; 1991;
Dobkin de Rios 1984; McKenna 1995). Sexual
activity may be discouraged prior to the ritual
ingestion of hallucinogenic plants because of a desire
to channel libidinal energy toward interior states of
contemplation. Any discharge of such energy might
be viewed as detracting from the experience itself. The
reason various drug-using societies are so particular
about the food eaten before an individual ingests a
hallucinogen may be due to a desire to heighten the
effects of the drug when it is finally taken. An example
may be the common taboo against salt ingestion.
Although the biochemical effects of a lack of salt in
the diet in tandem with the hallucinogenic experience
are badly understood, this is the kind of voluntary
control of internal states that healers often attempt. At
another level, however, the main effect of both sexual
restraint and particular diets seems to be the shrouding
of the actual experience in an aura of the unusual
and the special. Thus when the initiate or the shaman
comes to the experience, his expectation of entry into
non-ordinary realms of consciousness is heightened
Ð and he is, in effect, psychologically as well
as physically prepared for access to realms of the
unconscious (Dobkin de Rios 1984 b:207).
Dietary prescription, according to McKenna
(1995:353), can also reflect accurate observations of
the incompatibility of ingesting specific foods together
with certain plants. It is well known, for
instance, that when ingesting chuchuhuasa, a beverage
made of the bark of Maytenus ebenifolia and
alcohol, one should avoid eating peccary (a wild pig).
The combination produces an intermittent high fever,
similar to malaria. Compatibility and incompatibility is
often explained in terms of friendship or enmity
between the spirits of the plants.
Access to the sacred dimension of reality happens
through consumption of psychotropic plants and the
dietary prescriptions mentioned above. By ingesting
these plants and keeping the prescribed diet, the
initiate is supposed to be in the appropriate state of
consciousness for learning the body of knowledge
necessary for his future shamanistic practices. These
plants `open the mind' of the initiate, so that he can
effectively explore the flora, fauna, and geographical
setting which surrounds him and will be able to
remember it all in the future. Much of this learning
process takes place in dreams, which are said to be
especially vivid during the period of initiation. The
personal disposition of the individual and his ability to
withstand the hard training and the dangers involved
in the shamanic initiation will determine the degree of
his development. The sexual abstinence and the diet
should not be broken, as the person may be
`punished' by the spirits of the plants with sickness
or even death (McKenna 1995:353).
Plant-teachers
Sacred plants are plants which cause visions and
hallucinations and are a central feature of shamanism
in many regions of the world. To modern urban
Westerners the idea of visions induced by psychotropic
means may seem like an aberration, perhaps
even a type of decadence. Indeed, during the late
1960s, when the youthful exploration of psychedelics
was rampant, one would often read in the press about
mystical episodes being `artificially' produced by
drugs like LSD and psilocybin. The perception was
that such drugs invariably produced a distortion, a
wavering from `reality'(Drury 1982:43).
In the pre-literate world of the shaman, the exact
opposite is true. Here the sacred plants are believed to
open the doors to the heavens, to allow contact with
the gods and the spirits, and to permit access to a
greater reality beyond (Drury 1982:43). For the
American Indian, the presence in a plant of any
psychotropic effect whatever was plain evidence of its
containing supernatural `medicine' or spirit-shaking
power (Schultes 1992:18).
Our attitude to such matters in modern Western
society is mirrored by our language. The word `drug'
itself is a highly coloured term and is frequently
associated with acts that are disapproved of in the
mainstream. As a consequence, the `drug experience',
if one could call it that, is not something valued by
modern Western culture as a whole. Little distinction
exists in the popular mind between sacred and
psychedelic drugs, like those which feature in shamanism,
and the recreational, addictive or analgesic
drugs which are part of contemporary urban life
(Drury 1982:4).
Eliade's belief that the use of psychotropic plants in
shamanistic techniques represents a more recent,
degenerated innovation, is not supported by evidence
from either the Old or the New World Ð just the
opposite. Current studies point favourably to strong
ISSN 0256±6060±Unisa Lat. Am. Rep. 16(2) 2000 53