PeacefulSwannie wrote:
Hi Tim

He will probably come back to the thread when things slow down here....(winter is coming)  at present he is pruning all the fruit trees for a green waste pick up, and he has to clear all the area for where my orchid house is going to go, and he has other projects going like making shelves for his big shed......  just not enough hours in the day at the moment..... and I am not home either so he has also the house to keep up while I am away....  and all the animals to feed and care for.
I am still far from the end of all the extra hard work, and My attendance here will be quite sporadic for a while, but I had a moment so wanted to stop in and make a comment. This thread has accumulated a lot of info and discussion in my absence, which I welcome, but it also has not entirely went in the direction I had in mind. I wanted to bring into the discussion the link between Shamanistic drugs, and their ability to activate unused, atrophied organs in the brain. Senses that lie dormant that at one time must have been of tantamount importance to survival.
the pineal gland for instance has long been called the third eye. It is much atrophied in comparison to many more primitive species. It does have many characteristics of an eye including receptor cells like the photo receptors of the eye. However like a land-locked building ships; whats the point? What purpose can energy receptors serve in an organ blocked from light? Perhaps they developed to sense energies that can penetrate the skin, muscle and bone that surround it. What might these energies be? Magnetism for a sense of direction? radiation, though I would be at a loss to understand how the ability to sense radiation would be important to survival in the prehistoric world.
Perhaps the energies a fully functioning eye in the dark could react to were something more exotic, such as the energies that can transcend time, such as do tachyons, and perhaps other as yet undiscovered particles and energies. The ability to perceive potential threats and needs in advance would be an advantage for survival paralleled only by the development of intelligence. how good would it be to know that the water hole was safe but that a tiger would be arriving from the north in about an hour, Time to go, drink, and vamoose long before the tiger was in scenting range. Or perhaps it was an organ attuned to receive communication from God, or other spirits, which we quit using once we decided to make our own way in the world without following imposed strictures.
Nonetheless, if it is reactivated, or at least partially, by Shamanic concoction does it help the Shaman communicate with God, or other spirits for advice? Does it help see into the future so as to lead the tribe into safer paths away from danger? Is it today the organ behind psychic and other gifts for those lucky few born with it slightly less dormant that most others?

These are the types of questions I wanted to follow through in this thread. What the drugs are, and the effects they have are good and interesting, but few take the time to ponder on the how, what exactly are the changes in the brain that cause the experiences. Why does some drugs seem to open your entire life's memories like pages in a book? (Would this help Alzheimer patients?). Why did the ancient Greek oracle breathe escaping natural gas before making prophesies? What does each drug do, and what parts of the brain are enhanced to provide the visions, the gained knowledge or understanding? This is to me the prime direction of this thread.

Shaman


Balance is the prime law of the universe, everything is in balance, or striving to return to balance.
Edited 1 time by Shaman1 Apr 25 15 1:55 PM.