Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon (43 page)

THE SINGLE ACTIVE MOLECULE

An even deeper issue in understanding ayahuasca lies in the attempt to relate
its psychoactive effects to specific active molecules. There are several reasons
why people try to do this. Many North Americans seek ways to evade the emetic and purgative effects, the ferocious physicality of the ayahuasca experience.
That is why they seek parenteral ingestion of DIM, primarily through smoking-to eliminate the need for the vomit-inducing harmala alkaloids. That is
why psychonautic tourist Daniel Pinchbeck says that the smokable or injectable form of synthetic DIM is "modern science's greatest contribution to archaic Amazonian spirituality." 52

We tend to think this way because modern science has in fact defined medicines as having only one compound that is bioactive. This approach solved
some practical problems, such as the need to patent and standardize medicines.53 The idea has been that the medicinal or psychoactive effects of a plant
are accounted for by specific chemicals, and that the best medicine consists of
standardized, predictable dosages. Science journalist Joel Swerdlow suggests:
"The study of whole plants and combinations is rare-largely because single
active compounds, particularly those that have been modified, are easiest to
patent and because FDA regulations encourage this approach."54

There are several problems with the assumption that the ayahuasca experience is due to its single active molecule. First, there is a significant experiential difference between drinking ayahuasca and an intravenous injection of
dimethyltryptamine. Differences in the rapidity of onset and duration of the
experience mean differences in the amount of time available for contemplation and exploration; the presence or absence of purging means differences in
the experience of corporeality and catharsis; the harmala alkaloids-and even
MAO inhibition itself-may make independent contributions to the quality or
contents of the experience.

Further, emphasis on a single active molecule has prejudiced consideration
of whole plants, which can contain dozens of bioactive substances.SS There
is little doubt that every plant contains a unique mix of multiply-interacting
substances in complex additive, synergistic, and antagonistic relationships,
presumably in a variety of feedback loops. The fact that it is difficult to describe
these relationships is no reason to decide that they are unimportant. Yet, once
it has been determined that the companion plant-chacruna, sameruca, chagraponga-contains DIM, the inquiry stops. Still, mestizo shamans select
particular companion plants-and combinations of companion plants-for
their specific effects. If their only function is to provide the single active molecule dimethyltryptamine, what is there to choose among them?

Similarly, if the purpose of the ayahuasca vine is to contribute a single active
molecule, or even just a few active molecules, whose function is to inhibit peripheral MAO, then it should not matter if another plant is substituted, as long
as it contains the same molecules. But substituting, say, Syrian rue for the ayahuasca vine, even though the rue contains the same harmala alkaloids, does
apparently make an experiential difference. The experience with rue has been
described as crystalline, cold, overwhelming, erratic, and uncaring, compared
with that of the ayahuasca vine, which has been described as warm, organic,
friendly, and purposeful.56 This may be because the harmala alkaloids are in
different proportions in the two plants: levels of THH are higher in the ayahuasca vine, and harmaline is higher in rue.57 Experiential differences might
also be due to the fact that rue contains tannins and quinazoline alkaloids not
found in the ayahuasca vine.58 Thus, too, self-experimenters tend to use only
the minimum amount of rue necessary to inhibit MAO; using more apparently
serves no purpose other than increasing the emetic effect. But the amount of
ayahuasca vine can be increased beyond the minimum necessary, and increasing the amount is claimed to add a special dimension to the experience. 59

Finally, the focus on single active molecules ignores context. The terms pharmacologicalism and pharmacological determinism have been coined to capture the often unstated premise that the effects of a substance are entirely determined
by its chemical structure, thus ignoring the effects, among other things, of
traditional ceremonial settings, the authoritative presence of a healer, social
pressures both within and outside the ceremony, and expectations of particular outcomes.b° It ignores as well the presumably complex interactions among
plants deliberately used for modulatory effects during the ceremony, including not only nicotine and other tobacco alkaloids but also any of the scores of
additional plants that may be added to the ayahuasca drink.

Ayahuasca Analogues

Substituting other plants for the ayahuasca vine and the companion plantschacruna, sameruca, chagraponga-is part of a quest for what are called ayahuasca analogues-duplications of the ayahuasca drink "compounded with
the correct percentages of DMT and beta-carbolines" but using materials more
readily available in North America., One of the most commonly used alternative sources of (3-carbolines is the plant Peganum harmala, also called Syrian
rue, which grows wild in the western states, and is available in South Asian and
Middle Eastern groceries under the name esfand or harmala Potential North
American sources of DMT include a variety of plants in the genera Acacia, Desmanthus, Phalaris, and Mimosa .3 There are a number of neologisms for these
analogues both generally, such as pharmahuasca, anahuasca, and gaiahuasca,
and for specific combinations, such as mimosahuasca and acaciahuasca.4

NOTES

1. McKenna, 1989, p. 202. See DeKorne, 1994, pp. 91-101; Ott, 1994, pp. 51-70.

2. Ott, 1994, pp. 80-85; Shulgin & Shulgin, 1997, pp. 294-295.

3. Callaway & McKenna, 1998, p. 491; Ott, 1994, pp. 81-84, 86; Shulgin & Shulgin,
1997, pp. 418, 537.

4. See Shulgin & Shulgin, 1997, pp. 294-295. For a literary account of ingesting a
mixture of the bark of Minosa hostilis and a powdered extract of Syrian rue, see
Pinchbeck, 2002, pp. 141-143.

THE TELEPATHY MEME

When harmine was first isolated from the ayahuasca vine, and before it was
identified as the same compound found in Syrian rue, Peganum harmala, it
was called, variously, banisterine, yageine, and, interestingly, telepathine.
Apparently it was a traveler named Rafael Zerda Bayou who first claimed,
in 1915, that ayahuasca visions were telepathic-an idea reiterated by pharmacologist Alexandre Rouhier in 1924-and suggested the corresponding
name telepathine for its active constituent. The name was then used by Colombian physician Guillermo Fischer Cardenas when he actually isolated the
compound in 1923. In 1932, a brief article appeared in Science News-and then apparently summarized in Modern Mechanics-describing how a drink made
from the plant yage induces "magnificent and terrifying visions in motion picture form," and is said to grant the power to see things at a distance-"like
mediums in a trance. 1161 In 1939, it was determined that banisterine, yageine,
and telepathine were all the same as harmine, and that is the name that has
been used ever since.62

And that probably would have been the end of that, except that American
novelist William S. Burroughs ended his first book-originally published in
1953 as junky, under the pseudonym William Lee-with a brief meditation
on yage. "I read about a drug called yage, used by Indians in the headwaters
of the Amazon," he wrote. "I decided to go down to Colombia and score for
yage.... I am ready to move on south and look for the uncut kick that opens
out instead of narrowing down like junk." The last sentence in the book says,
"Yage may be the final fix." Burroughs picked up on the name telepathinewhich was, in fact, no longer being used-and noted that ayahuasca "is supposed to increase telepathic sensitivity."63

Hernando Garcia Barriga, writing in 1958, added to the telepathy narrative. "Savage Indians," he wrote, "who have never left their forests and who,
of course, can have no idea of civilized life, describe, in their particular language, and with more or less precision, the details of houses, castles, and
cities peopled by multitudes.1164 What-other than ayahuasca-induced telepathy-could possibly be the source of such knowledge? Psychiatrist Claudio
Naranjo had similar thoughts in 1967, but in the opposite direction. When
he gave city dwellers harmaline-note that this is not the same as harmine,
although related to it, and also a constituent of the ayahuasca vine-they reported that they saw tigers and jungle imagery.65 Clearly the synthetic chemical had somehow connected Naranjo's subjects mentally to the jungle.

Of course, none of this took into account other possible reasons for these
results. As anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff has pointed out, even
isolated Indians in 1958 knew a lot about cities, having been told about them
by missionaries, soldiers, rubber tappers, traders, and travelers, and having
seen pictures in calendars and magazines .66 And we have no idea what expectations Naranjo's volunteers brought to their experience, although I think we
can make a pretty good guess. But so embedded had this meme become that,
in 1967, a Haight-Ashbury resident told physician Andrew Weil that Eskimos
given ayahuasca saw visions of huge cats.67

Then, in 1971, Charles Lamb published Wizard of the Upper Amazon, which
purported to be a transcription of the true story of Manuel Cordova Rios, an
Iquitos ayahuasquero who claimed that, when he had been kidnapped by Indians in his youth, he had learned their language during group telepathic
ayahuasca sessions, been made their chief, and finally returned to become a
healer for his urban clientele."

The reliability of this account has been seriously challenged.69 But the telepathy meme it contained was passed along by best-selling writer Andrew
Weil in his first book, The Natural Mind, published in 1972. Weil was particularly fascinated by the alleged "group vision sessions in which all participants
see the same visions"-that is, visions of jungle cats, other animals, enemy
tribes, and village scenes-which he took as evidence for the "reality of shared
consciousness. 1171 Weil was so enthusiastic about Cordova Rios's alleged telepathic experiences that he wrote a glowing introduction when the book was,
at his suggestion, reprinted as a paperback in 1974. Ayahuasca, he wrote, "has
long been credited with the ability to transport human beings to realms of
experience where telepathy and clairvoyance are commonplace. When German scientists first isolated harmaline, an active principle of ayahuasca, they
named it `telepathine' because of this association. 1171 I suppose only a pedant
would point out that it was harmine, not harmaline, that was named telepathine; or that Fischer Cardenas did not name the compound he isolated after
his own experience; or that he was Colombian, not German.

In this introduction, Weil referred to what was apparently his only experience with ayahuasca, which must therefore have taken place before 1974,
while he was traveling in Colombia, and which was evidently quite miserable,
leaving him violently sick and spending most of the night lying in a mud puddle.72 In his next book, Weil gives a much more detailed account of this experience. But, by this time, he seems to have lost much of his initial enthusiasm
for the alleged telepathic qualities ofayahuasca; he specifically points out that
there were no jungles or jaguars in his visions, and no "telepathic news bulletins of distant events. "73

Meanwhile, Kenneth Kensinger, a missionary and anthropologist who
had worked for many years with the Cashinahua, echoed the narrative of Hernando Garcia Barriga. Several Cashinahua, he wrote in 1973, "who have never
been to or seen pictures of Pucallpa, the large town at the Ucayali River terminus of the Central Highway, have described their visits under the influence
of ayahuasca to the town with sufficient detail for me to recognize specific
sights and shops."74 And he echoes Manuel Cordova Rios as well. According
to Bruce Lamb, during a particularly intense ayahuasca session, Cordova Rios
saw his mother dying; when he returned to the home of his youth, he learned
that she had died just as he had seen.75 Kensinger similarly reports that, after
one ayahuasca session, six of the nine participants told him that they had seen the death of his mother's father, two days before Kensinger himself was informed of the death by radio.76

And then, in ig8i, Peruvian poet Cesar Calvo Soriano wrote a novel of acknowledged genius entitled Las tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonia, which he based on the story of Manuel Cordova Rios. He described
how the shaman Ximu telepathically controlled the visions of his young apprentice, "calibrating the hallucinogenic apparitions in the mind of the young
man.... The slightest gesture of the old man developed in his consciousness
the caresses of an order. Whatever Ximu thought was seen and heard by the
boy. They understood each other through flashes of lightning and through
shadows, amid slow visions and colors, and Ximu began to confide his patience and his strength." 77

So the meme continues, with frequent invocations of the old name telepathine. David Luke, for example, is a parapsychology researcher at the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at the University of
Northampton in England. Interviewed by James Kent, the former editor of Entheogen Review and Trip magazine, Luke spoke about telepathy with ayahuasca,
"because ayahuasca is reputedly quite potent in inducing telepathic and clairvoyant experiences. One of the active principles, harmaline, was even called
`telepathine' when it was first isolated from this decoction in the 1g2os.1178
Countercultural writer Paul Krassner, in his book Magic Mushrooms and Other
Highs: From Toad Slime to Ecstasy, says that "shamans say that ayahuasca is `very
telepathic,' and years ago, after also experiencing a ceremony, the first scientist to isolate the psychoactive alkaloid in ayahuasca named the chemical
`telepathine. "' 79