Day 33 Drug Use is Not Shamanism

I do not use psychoactive plants in my practice to enter the spirit domain and I will tell you why.

Right now you can easily join a group of people and take a trek into the jungles of the Amazon to meet with indigenous shamans who will house you and feed you and let you try their hallucinogenic drug to supposedly connect with the spirit world. At great expense, time, money and physical discomfort you will indeed see visions and have a huge hallucination. But your vision will never be what those shamans experience. Why? Because they are from a different culture than you are. They have completely different beliefs and so, since beliefs create reality, their reality is different than yours, therefore what they see is different than what you see and their vision is different from your vision.

They actually know this! So they are not giving away any shamanic secrets or initiating you into their tribe or anything else of the sort. They are making money sharing a plant that is plentiful and they get lots of money and the guests honor them and treat them so special like holy men, well it is all great fun and enjoyable for them. And that is fine.

You will never see or experience what an indigenous shaman experiences with his holy plants. You do not believe what he believes. In our modern western culture we understand psychology, how the brain works mechanically, synapses and brain activity, we know about the left lobe and right lobe and treat depression and disease with modern methods. In our belief system as modern men we have no need for psychoactive drugs to be able to reach our Creator. Creator is not far away and only accessible through priestly ritual to us. These drugs are useless for that purpose to us. Sure you will have an hallucinogenic experience for sure! We know how these drugs interfere with the lobes of the brain and cause an increase in the firing of synapses to cause hallucinations, but to connect with the spirit world? Not for the white modern man, sorry.

I do not use nor recommend any use of drugs for this reason. Make sense?

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

www.shamanelder.com