Article by Ralph Miller

In the September 2006 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine there is a very interesting article on Daniel Pinchbeck, author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, and his use of the Ayahuasca medicine. I wanted to let you know of this interesting article and reference a few quotations from it in this article.

Humanity exists in a relationship with the plant kingdom. Some plants give us nourishment for our bodies. Some plants have medicinal properties and can help to heal illnesses and injuries to our bodies. And still other plants can offer nourishment to our souls. Indigenous cultures that use these plants consider them to be 'teacher plants' because they transmit a wisdom that is outside of everyday human consciousness.

Ayahuasca is a teacher plant that has been in use by Amazonian cultures for thousands of years. It has only been in the last few decades that an awareness of it has emerged for people from modern western cultures. Many, like Pinchbeck, feel it is a bridge for humanity from a collective forgetfulness back to a human harmony with nature. If we can actually remember who we are and our connection to nature, it will create a quantum evolution in our consciousness.