Jeremy Narby’s thesis in The Cosmic Serpent, the idea that Amazonian shamans use ayahuasca to lower consciousness into the teeming micro-worlds of DNA, was compelling and seductive. My sense has always been that he was acutely aware of the dangers of such a convincing weaving-together of the worlds of animism and science - that if too successful, the book may engender a muddy confluence of the two rather than a fruitful new relationship where the distinct values of each complement rather than lose their power in some swirling half-way meeting point. He told me his spoken word ventures with The Young Gods found him occasionally disconcerted with the lack of caution among some of the new generation of young Western ayahuasca users, where the rigour inherent to both our culture’s scientific method and other cultures’ shamanistic method has often been dissolved in enthusiasm. Perhaps it’s a good thing that, as far as I’m aware, The Cosmic Serpent never really took off in the way it might have. Only recently have I heard it mentioned more and more often in conversation, giving me the impression that it’s quietly grown in impact, hopefully giving its deceptively simple ideas time to take proper root.
The Cosmic Serpent delved into the world of indigenous shamanism with the rather unscientific (but fertile) attitude that we should try taking the perspective of shamans at face value, to see where this led. Following this path armed with (but not beholden to) the discoveries of 20th century biochemistry led Narby to conclude that these shamans may well be keepers of a tradition that affords us a shockingly experiential method of communication with the biosphere’s genetic information storehouse. These codes that we’ve begun to document and decipher using our discipline of detachment are alive, and talking to us in the visionary worlds unlocked by plant psychedelics.
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