teacher plants

from Daniel Vitalis's excellent Rewilding podcast series, Arthur Haines discussing the missing nutrient in our diets: entheogens. He talks about entheogen use in hunter-gatherer societies and tells us a little about his own personal experiences with these sacred plant medicines.

http://www.danielvitalis.com/rewild-yourself-podcast/arthur-haines-on-the-teacher-plants

• A bit about Arthur’s background
• How Arthur was introduced to psychoactive plants
• Being a credible witness
• Entheogen use in hunter-gatherers
• Spiritual realm vs the scientific realm
• Arthur’s personal entheogenic experiences
• Entheogens are endogenous compounds
• Entheogens were called “teacher plants” by indigenous tribal leaders for a reason
• The missing nutrient in our diet?
• Using entheogens to deal with death trauma
• Arthur describes his sacred experience with Saguaro Cactus
• Discerning tips for working with a shaman

entheogens and cultural deconditioning

http://www.danielvitalis.com/rewild-yourself-podcast/nora-gedgaudas-on-using-entheogens-to-free-our-minds-from-cultural-conditioning

This interview really warms up and a fascinating subject area is covered including the significance of particular serotonin receptor sites and a meaningful discussion of the entheogens with regard to human potential.  I have a sightly different understanding of the timeline and unfolding of the human story and less enthusiasm for religion but the discussion here is high;y relevant to the human predicament.  I sense that our initial initiation into entheagenic consciousness was through our connection with fruit trees and that later other species such as mushrooms helped partially reawaken this.  I can't remember whether it was on this audio or just around the same time that I heard the remark that alcohol is the ultimate anti-entheagen.  An interesting comment I feel; for me  alcohol in any quantity beyond the small amounts that occur naturally in the matrix of a plant ferment disturb the connection that is sustained by an entheagenic diet.

"There's some universal human values that are programmed into our species that emerge when people use these medicines again...medicines don't necessarily give you that rather they decondition things that have been overriding that message...what seems to emerge is  a world view similar to the ancient world"  Daniel Vitalis

"We have a rich repository of receptors for these substances and we even produce some of the substances seemingly for no other purpose than to elicit these experiences which says something very fundamental about ho we need to remember we are" Nora Gedgaudas

Note on entheagen from Frank Mc Eowen  The Spiral of Magic and Belonging: A Celtic Path of Soul and Kinship:  'Entheogen literally means "revealer of the God within" and I propose that entheagen "the Goddess within" could also be used.'  

psychedelics are part of the diet with dennis mckenna

http://www.danielvitalis.com/rewild-yourself-podcast/dennis-mckenna-on-hunting-magic-mushrooms-and-dmt-in-south-america

Dennis McKenna points out that our natural diet is psychoactive.  We bred the alkaloids out of plant foods because they taste bitter.
All true psychedelics are serotonin 2A agonists.  They act like the native neurotransmitters but have  a different effect.   They change our relationship to nature.  The idea of separation from nature and the devaluation of nature is really the legacy of 2000 years of Judeo-Christian influence on our culture where the message is 'don't value existence in this world your reward is in the next world.'