true hallucinations.htm - Federal Jack

The oo-koo-he was a much more sensitive subject. There had been a murder at LaChorrera a month or two before we arrived— actually several murders—and Guzmanclaimed they all had to do with oo-koo-he. Supposedly a shaman had murdered one oftwo shaman brothers by painting the top rung of a ladder with a DMT-containing resin.When the victim grabbed the rung, the resin had absorbed through his fingers and he hadgotten vertigo and fallen, breaking his neck. The shaman whose brother had been killedstruck back by causing an accident. The alleged murderer's wife, daughter, andgrandchild had been in a canoe above the chorro and, unaccountably unable to reach theshore, they had been swept over it. It was generally assumed that they were victims ofmagic. Only the wife had lived through it. It was not the time to be poking around askingabout oo-koo-he.Basilio insisted that the ayahuasca was a day upriver at his father's malloca, or house. Hehad a small canoe, so only two of us could go with him. After consultation, it wasdecided that Ev and I should go. We left at once for the river and I took my film canisterof snuff with us.The day was calm and the sky blue. An extraordinary peace and depthless serenityseemed to touch everything. It was as if the whole earth was softly exhaling itsexhilaration. Had such a mooddeveloped no further it would have passed into being but a pleasant memory; in light oflater events, I now look back to that afternoon of deepening contentment and almostbucolic relaxation as the first faint stirring of a current that was shortly to sweep metoward unimaginably titanic emotions.When we arrived at Basilio's village late in the day, we found our new Witotoacquaintances very kind, a different sort from the Witoto of San Jose del Encanto. Wewere shown a matted tangle of cultivated ayahuasca plants and given cuttings and abundle of the vine so that we could make our own brew. Basilio described to us his ownsingle experience with ayahuasca when, several years before, after days of fever from anunknown cause, he had taken it with his father. He described the ayahuasca as a coldwater infusion, rare for that area, where vigorous boiling usually plays a part in thepreparation. After soaking the shredded ayahuasca for a day and a night, the unboiledwater becomes hallucinogenically potent. There had been many "fences" to cross inBasilio's visions. He had a sense of flying. The father had seen the "bad air" that hadweakened his son as coming from the mission, which was recognized as a place of illomen. After this experience, Basilio recovered his health and was less often at themission, he told us. It was all very interesting, our first exposure to "field conditions,"and it accorded well with our data on ayahuasca usage and beliefs in the area.We hung our hammocks in a small hut near the main malloca that night. I dreamedoffences and the pasture back at the mission. Early the next morning we were rowed back