Shamans, healers and medicine people who are in service to their communities have been part of global culture for millennia. It’s a powerful role, but it’s been mythologized in the West because of the absence of that archetype: we killed all our medicine people over 500 years ago.
When we think of, what is social change? It brings up, for me, questions of what is a society, what is our culture? And, even if you look at the language of a culture, it’s an organism. It is an organism which grows, and is made up in this case of individuals who— Western culture, at least 20th century, 21st century culture, has been very dominated by the idea of the individual.
In my previous article “20 Essential Books on the Mysterious Power of Ayahuasca”, Rak Razam (one of the co-coiners of the term “entheodelic storytelling” along with Graham Hancock, Jeremy D. Johnson and I) had the great honor of having two books on the list; The Ayahuasca Sessions and Aya Awakenings (now a documentary).
Everyone’s journey is unique, and my calling to the medicine of ayahuasca was also a unique path–I never realized I was writing a book until it was too late. I went to Peru in 2006 on a magazine assignment to track down the mythic archetype of the shaman, and discover how that was changing as a generation of western seekers went in search of a reconnection to plant entheogens and the spiritual world they open up.
Right now, I am undergoing what ayahuasca users call “integration.” Following a ceremony, there’s an indefinite period, maybe days or weeks, when the plant’s lessons continue to seep in. People often tout taking part of an ayahuasca ceremony, or experimenting with any intense mind-altering substance, as “life changing.” Integration, in a way, determines just how your life changes.
