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Saturday, 22 March
Legacy of the Shamans:
Ancient Traditions and New Dimensions


 07.30    Opening of the Registration Desk

08.15 – 08.45 Room Singapore Tune In 
Kajuyali Tsamani
Freeing from Straining Energies
We permanently burden ourselves with straining energies, which can be the cause of our physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses. With the help of proper breathing, and by becoming aware of our vitality, we can free ourselves from these energies and boost our wellbeing. This ancient practice from the Andes will be improved by sacred chants, music, and offerings.
No entrance after the beginning!

09.00 – 10.30 Room San Francisco Panorama 

The Legacy of the Shamans:
Ancient Traditions and New Dimensions

Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller

Daniel Pinchbeck: "Breaking Open the Head": An Iboga Initiation with the Bwiti in Gabon
Torsten Passie: Dreams, Trance, Ecstasy – Their Vanishing
within the Cultural History of the Occident
Nana Nauwald: Shamanic Visions: Awakening into Reality
Jeremy Narby: Synergies between Science and Shamanism
Claudia Müller-Ebeling: Entheogens and their Visionary
Expression: A Time Travel through Art and Culture


 10.30 – 11.00      Break

 11.00 – 12.30      Concurrent Presentations

11.00 – 12.30 Room San Francisco  
Claudia Müller-Ebeling
Entheogens and their Visionary Expression:
A Time Travel through Art and Culture

(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
In her illustrated talk, noted art historian and ethnologist questions if experiences with magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca and other DMT-containing substances are related to typical visionary forms of expression. Based on literary records, personal accounts and works by ethnicities, and from contemporary Western artists, she demonstrates that inspiration can clearly be attributed to experiences with these respective substances.

11.00 – 12.30 Room Montreal  
Panel Discussion
From Ayahuasca to Zen:
Paths to Expanded States of Consciousness

With Bruno Martin, Nana Nauwald, Vanja Palmers, Bea Rubli, Manuel Schoch, Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
(German, without translation)
Many spiritual traditions dismiss the use of psychoactive substances as catalysts for expanded or mystical states of consciousness as illegitimate shortcuts in a natural spiritual process. They identify the pharmacologically induced states as "artificial paradises" and argue, that such states differ fundamentally from states arising spontaneously or through perseverant practicing and exercising spiritual methods.
This round of consciousness researchers with vast experience in exploring inner worlds will discuss the legitimacy of the use of psychoactive substances as well as the common grounds and the distinctions of these states, and their long-term effects on self-development.

11.00 – 11.40 Room Sydney  
Jeremy Narby
Synergies between Science and Shamanism
(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
Though rational observers have misunderstood shamans for centuries, times are changing. Scientists are now open-
ing up to learning with their indigenous colleagues. An anthropologist active between systems of knowledge reports on a recent encounter between a leading tuberculosis researcher and a well-respected ayahuasca shaman. The goal of their collaboration is to find a cure for a deadly disease by combining visions and technology, plants and molecules. The point is to move beyond old blockages and do what it takes to solve real problems. The anthropologist Jeremy Narby is convinced that microscopes and modified consciousness can be combined in a quest for knowledge.

11.50 – 12.30 Room Sydney  
Daniel Pinchbeck
"Breaking Open the Head":
An Iboga Initiation with the Bwiti in Gabon

(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
Daniel Pinchbeck will discuss his experiences taking iboga,
a psychedelic rootbark inducing a trance that lasts for thirty hours, in an initiatory ceremony with the Bwiti tribe of Gabon, a small country on the equator in West Africa. The bark powder temporarily releases the soul from the body, allowing the initiate entry into the African spiritual cosmos, where he is shown the outline of his fate. Some of the Bwiti call the ceremony "breaking open the head" Pinchbeck describes how his own head was broken open, and how he has gingerly attempted to put the pieces back together again. He will finally compare his experience to a second session with ibogaine in a clinic in Mexico.

11.00 – 11.40 Room Singapore  
Torsten Passie
Dreams, Trance, Ecstasy: Their Vanishing within the Cultural History of the Occident
(German, without translation)
Dreaming, Trance, Ecstasy are altered states of consciousness with which even prehistoric humans have searched for an access to the fields of reality that are inaccessible during the awake state. Still, for today's ethnology, it is a mystery why these states have been of such great importance for so many different people all over the world. This seminar aims to trace the cultural-historical context leading to an increasing phenomenon of exclusion and devaluation of dreaming, trance, and ecstasy within the culture of the occident. Against the outlined background, it becomes significant why the potentially consciousness expanding psychedelics underlie a basic discrimination that is factually barely justifiable.

11.40 – 12.30 Room Singapore  
Dale Pendell
Plant Teachers and the Path of Eve: The Mythopoetic Roots of Psychedelic Practice in the Western Tradition
(English, without translation)
We will look for the mythopoetic roots of psychedelic praxis in the Western Tradition. Faust, the great necromancer, is of course the shaman, but in Eve we find our first curandera. Blake called Milton "a true Poet, and of the Devil’s party without knowing it." Norman O. Brown pointed out the links between Eve and Pandora, the "all-gifted," and that her true gift was the pharmakon. We will look at Eve as the one who dared – and the one who shared: the patron goddess of the "poison path."

11.00 – 12.30 Room Samarkand
 
"Rising Researchers" IV: Ayahuasca Research
Moderation: Thomas B. Roberts
(English, without translation)
Manuel Villaescusa: Subjective short Term Effects of
Ayahuasca Intake in Western psychotherapeutic Setting.
A qualitative Study on the Effects experienced by European Subjects during the Week after Participation in Ayahuasca Sessions
Beatriz Caiuby Labate (Authors: Rafael Guimaraes dos
Santos, Isabel Santana de Rose): Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions: A bibliographical Exploration
Paulo Cesar Ribeiro Barbosa: A longitudinal Evaluation of
Personality Traits, psychiatric Symptoms and Quality of Life of Ayahuasca-naïve Subjects
Brian Anderson: Enchantment and Ecology: Environmental
Values in the Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal
Kenneth W. Tupper: Ayahuasca in the 21st Century: Philosophical and Policy Challenges
Rafael Guimaraes dos Santos (Co-Authors: Beatriz Cajuby
Labate, Isabel Santana de Rose): Initial Approaches to the Potential of Ayahuasca as an auxiliary Tool in the Treatment of chemical Dependency

 12.30 – 14.00      Lunch Break

14.00 – 15.30 Room San Francisco Panorama 

The Legacy of the Shamans:
Ancient Traditions and New Dimensions

Simultaneous translation Ger/Eng and Eng/Ger
Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller

Kathleen Harrison: Relationships of Plants and Mushrooms with Human Cultures
Kajuyali Tsamani: Coca teaches us how to Live:
The Teachings of the Kogi
Christian Rätsch: From Ethnomycology to Modern Mushroom
Circles: Rituals beyond Space and Time
Wolf-Dieter Storl: Local Plants and Consciousness
Baba Rampuri: The Edge of Indian Spirituality: Naga
Babas, Oral Tradition, and the Psychedelic Experience


 15.30 – 16.15      Break

 16.15 – 17.45      Concurrent Presentations

16.15 – 17.45 Room San Francisco  
Kajuyali Tsamani
Ayahuasca: Vine of the Soul, Cord of the Universe
(Spanish, simultaneous translation Spa/Eng)
Ayahuasca is a sacred plant from the Amazon, ritually used for millennia. Its power to convey visions, awareness, and wisdom, allowed indigenous people to develop a way to cohabitate, during which the healing of the social and cultural life, on a physical, mental, and spiritual level can take place permanently. The ancient, sacred tales and the ayahuasca rituals are closely connected with communal life. Nowadays, these sacred practices are shared with humans from other societies and cultures, thus receiving recovery, healing and insight, when previously, the use of ayahuasca had long been reserved to the native people. To share the knowledge and the healing properties with others is one of the most important teachings ayahuasca has been given to the natives, who initially have received it.

16.15 – 17.45 Room Montreal
 
Panel Discussion
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Psychedelics: A Conversation between Experts and Users
With Ralph Metzner, Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch, Torsten Passie, Manuel Schoch, Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller
(German, without translation)
During this session you have the opportunity to ask experienced experts all your questions about the safe use of psychedelic substances.

16.15 – 17.45 Room Sydney
 
Kathleen Harrison
Spirit in Nature:
Psychedelic Plants and Mushrooms through Native Eyes

(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
Drawing from her fieldwork in Mexico and South America, the experienced ethnobotanist will share perspectives, stories and images from the worldview and ritual practices of indigenous people who live in respectful relationship to psychoactive species. Sacred medicines and humans are seen as part of an animated fabric of beings. The presentation will look into cultures that incorporate psilocybin mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, ayahuasca, peyote or tobacco into their ceremonies, with particular focus on the enduring traditions of the Mazatec people of Mexico.

16.15 – 17.45 Room Singapore
 
Wolf-Dieter Storl
Deities, personifying as Plants
(German, without translation)
"Plants are much more than what their descriptions in botanical books suggest," says Wolf-Dieter Storl. They own an intelligence and a wisdom which they can reveal to shamanic consciousness. Under the guidance of the well-known ethnologist and author we will try to approach an understanding of these worlds.

16.15 – 17.45 Room Samarkand
 
"Rising Researchers" V
Moderation: Thomas B. Roberts
(English, without translation)
Kevin Feeney: Peyote Conservation and Indian Rights
Aaron A. Jenks: Evolution and Origins of Salvia divinorum
Henrique Soares Carneiro: Cannabis and the Afrobrazilian Tradition
Juan C. Gonzalez: Hallucinogens or Lucidogens:
The Debate is open
Diana Reed Slattery: Communicating the Unspeakable?
Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere
Tom Froese: Enactive cognitive Science: Toward a scientific
Re-Enchantment of the Concrete
Levente Móró: Psychonauts: Systematic Phenomenology
of Altered Consciousness

 17.45 – 18.30      Break

 18.30 – 20.00      Concurrent Presentations

18.30 –20.00 Room San Francisco
 
Baba Rampuri
The Edge of Indian Spirituality: Naga Babas,
Oral Tradition, and the Psychedelic Experience

(English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger)
Baba Rampuri will open The Book of the World and talk from the Oral Tradition in the context of his life among Naga Babas.
Like the others in the entourage of the Indian God Shiva, the Naga Babas, naked yogi-shamans live at the margins of the world as all shamans do. Some call them "The Hell’s Angels of Indian Spirituality". Yet, even though "outsiders", they maintain a very legitimate authority and honored connection with the world. Theirs is an oral tradition, which they call the Tradition of Knowledge.
Explorations and opening up of consciousness require journeys to the edge of the world, hoping to find such characters to act as our allies, protectors, and mentors. And, of course, the physical journey is only a small part. Albert Hofmann not only greatly facilitated this process, he provided one of the few ways in these times, to cross to the other side.
Baba Rampuri entertains and enlightens us with accounts of his "bold journey which explores the true intersections of Eastern and Western thought," (Deepak Chopra) as he became the first foreigner to be initiated into India‘s most ancient order of yogis and shamans, the Naga Sannyasis, and a guru with a number of disciples within the order.

18.30 – 20.00 Room Montreal
 
Panel discussion
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Psychedelics: A Conversation between Experts and Users

With Rick Doblin, Dennis McKenna, Dale Pendell, Daniel Pinchbeck, Moderation: Kathleen Harrison
(English, without translation)
During this session you have the opportunity to ask experienced experts all your questions about the safe use of psychedelic substances.

18.30 – 19.10 Room Sydney
 
Ralph Metzner
Alchemical Divination:
Healing the Past, Visioning Possible Futures

(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
Alchemical divinations are processes of structured intuitive inquiry, using meditative light-fire yoga methods. We work in the spirit of the deity Janus, god of doorways, passages and transitions, whose two faces look into the past and the future.
Looking into the past, we connect with unresolved aspects of our past experience, to "re-member" and integrate those into our present sense of self, with greater freedom to make choices. Looking into the future, we ask for guidance about our probable and possible futures, empowering us to realize our highest potentials.

18.30 – 19.20 Room Sydney
 
Christian Rätsch
From Ethnomycology to Modern Mushroom Circles: Rituals beyond Space and Time
(German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng)
The noted ethnopharmacologist and author of the definitive book Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants sheds light on the historical process, leading from R. Gordon Wasson’s ethnomycology to modern use of magic mushrooms in a ritual context. Christian Rätsch shows that we can experience archaic experiences in modern settings, also.

18.30 – 20.00 Room Singapore
 
Nana Nauwald
Shamanic Visions: Awakening into Reality
(German, without translation)
Long standing inner and outer travels within shamanic cultures let the researcher of shamanic worlds know: they still fly and operate on the cosmic web of the world – shamans and their meanwhile manifold heirs, psychonauts between Stone Age and Internet. Plants, sound, movement, trance, and the intelligent system of our biochemistry are means of conveyance and tools for visiting and exploring the worlds of consciousness and awakening into the reality of being human.
In shamanism, awakening into the diversity of reality is a way of awareness, a way of becoming human. In this seminar, Nana Nauwald will encourage us through her lively narration, through sound samples, and short exercises, to consciously, curiously, joyfully and beneficially experience and live the spirit of shamanism – according to our present-day conditions of life.

18.30 – 20.00 Room Samarkand
 

Sylvia Thyssen and Jon Hanna
What about Erowid?
Questions and Answers about Online Drug Information

(English, without translation)
Twelve years after Erowid‘s founding, the internet is ubiquitous and so is drug information. How do people decide where to find facts and opinions about psychoactive plants, chemicals, and related technologies? What are some important issues to consider when using online data sources? Erowid.org will be around after all of us are gone: what legacy of information do we want to pass on to the next generations? This presentation will offer a generous Q&A session for audience interaction.


20.30 – 22.15 Room San Francisco
 Movie 

Jan Kounen
Other Worlds
A Journey Into The Heart of Shipibo Shamanism

Documentary, 75 Minutes, English
After a short introduction, the Dutch director will present his highly appraised documentary, leading us into the heart of Shipibo shamanism:
"Questembetsa is a Shipibo-Conibo Shaman, who enabled me to experience Shamanism from the inside. There are 45 000 Shipibo Conibos living together along the Amazon River in Peru. Questembetsa is the spiritual guide of all Shipibo Conibos. He is the Master Shaman who trains all of his people‘s Shamans. Questembetsa enabled us to film a summer solstice ceremony, which lasted for three days and three nights. This traditional celebration has never been recorded on film, and justly so. It has not occurred for 70 years and has obviously been seen by very few 'non-Indians.' Using night-vision cameras, we were able to immortalize these unique moments.
Under Questembetsa's protective watch, I participated in ceremonies and experienced what can be characterized as a 'near death experience.' For me, this was a powerful consciousness experience, where I crossed over, to the other side of the mirror. Once my initiation began, it would continue for over a year. Having experienced this journey of initiation and learning, I am now able to speak about Shamanism."
This documentary film will be the testimony of a personal and subjective adventure. It will also show the dangers and risks involved in shamanism: Losing yourself in the light or the darkness of your recently awakened emotions or misinterpreting the feelings or visions. This could lead to schizophrenia, in the event these journeys are not guided by competent shamans or compliant with an unyielding discipline and strict diet.
The film will primarily show the therapeutic power of the shamans and their plants. This power is a type of ancestral psychoanalysis or human psychotherapy backed by
4 000 years of experience and practice. The film allows the Shamans to speak for themselves. It shows how their cultures and their belief systems culminate from their knowledge of the Invisible.

 

 

7th March 2008 • Subject to Alterations




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