The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge |  | Author: Jeremy Narby
Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam
Category: Book
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Rating:  68 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
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Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0874779642
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.0899839
EAN: 9780874779646
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Product Description
A personal adventure, a fascinating study of anthropology and ethnopharmacology, and, most important, a revolutionary look at how intelligence and consciousness come into being.
This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences," leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge.
In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals how startlingly different the world around us appears when we open our minds to it.
"The Cosmic Serpent is a spellbinding, scholarly tour de force that may presage a major paradigm shift in the Western view of reality." --Michael Harner, Ph.D., president, Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and author of The Way of the Shaman
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
 Extraordinary insights into mystical knowledge December 11, 1998
Betty Sayers (Minnesota, U.S.A.)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Author, Jeremy Narby leaps between science and mysticism on his quest to explain how several millennia ago Stone-Age hunters living in the Peruvian rainforest learned the botanical properties and the chemistry of plants. Dr. Narby, a Canadian-born scientist, lived two years with the Ashaninca people in the jungles of the Pichis Valley in Peru. Early in his work with the Ashaninca, Dr Narby perceived an enigma. He writes, "These extremely practical and frank people, living almost autonomously in the Amazonian forest, insisted that their extensive botanical knowledge came from plant-induced hallucinations." For Dr. Narby, the hallucinatory origin of botany contradicts two fundamental principles of Western knowledge. First hallucinations cannot be the source of real information, because to consider them as such is the definition of psychosis. Western knowledge considers hallucinations to be at best illusions, at worst morbid phenomena. Second plants do not communicate like human beings. Scientific theories of communication consider that only human beings use abstract symbols like words and pictures and that plants do not relay information in the form of mental images. Dr. Narby said that he often asked Carlos (interpreter) to explain the origin of place names, and Carlos would invariably reply that nature itself had communicated them to the shaman during their hallucinations. Throughout Western Amazonia people drink ayahuasca. (hallucinogenic drug) Carlos said, "That is how nature talks, because in nature, there is God, and God talks to us in our visions. When a shaman drinks his plant brew, the spirits present themselves to him and explain everything." Narby observes that in the jungles of Peru are people without electron microscopes who seem to know about the molecular properties of plants and the art of combining them, and when one asks them how they know these things, they say their knowledge comes directly from hallucinogenic plants, themselves. He says, "I was staggered by their familiarity with a reality that turned me upside down and of which I was totally ignorant." For example, hunters in the Amazonian rainforests developed a muscle-paralyzing substance, curare, as a blow-gun poison. He explains that in the case of curare, a chance discovery seems improbable because... "there are forty types of curares in the Amazon, made from seventy plant species. The kind used in modern medicine comes from the Western Amazon. To produce it, it is necessary to combine several plants and boil them for seventy-two hours, while avoiding the fragrant but deadly vapors emitted by the broth. The final product is a paste that is inactive unless injected under the skin. If swallowed, it has no effect." Narby experienced two drug-induced hallucinations the memories of which motivated him ten years later (when the hot-topic, ethno-biology, was highlighted at the Rio Earth Conference), to develop the hypotheses explored in The Cosmic Serpent: Plants reveal their own properties Indians get molecularly verifiable information from drug-induced hallucinations. His research propels him along a most intricate and twisted path, and one that will fascinate readers who appreciate science as well as those of us who read about spirituality and the occult. Dr. Norby finds that shamans insist with disarming consistency the world over on the existence of animate essences (or spirits,) which are common to all life forms. The interpreter, Carlos, referred to invisible beings, called maninkari, who are found in animals, plants, mountains, streams, lakes, and certain crystals, and who are sources of knowledge. The spirits materialize when the shaman ingests tobacco and ayahuasca. Aboriginal shamans of Australia reach conclusions similar to those of Amazonian shamans, without the use of psychoactive plants, by working mainly with their dreams. Dr. Narby doggedly pursues the facts although the research takes him into areas that science hesitates to explore. Areas, he calls "blind spots." He gathers evidence to conclude that shamans know about the hidden unity of nature precisely because they have access to the reality of molecular biology! I hope to tweak your curiosity with the following intriguing phrases lifted from the text of The Cosmic Serpent: I know that any living soul, or any dead one, is like radio waves flying around in the air. That means that you do not see them, but they are there, like radio waves. Once you turn on the radio, you can pick them up.. The Shaman is simply a guide, who conducts the initiate to the spirits. The initiate picks up the information revealed by the spirits and does what he or she wants with it. Rationalism separates things to understand them. But its fragmented disciplines have limited perspectives and blind spots. And as any driver knows, it is important to pay attention to blind spots, because they can contain vital information. To reach a fuller understanding of reality, science will have to shift its gaze. Could shamanism help science to focus differently? True reality is more complex than our eyes lead us to believe. This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe. Shamans every where speak a secret language, the language of all nature which allows them to communicate with the spirits.
It's about time. March 5, 2002
John Freeman (Arroyo Grande, CA United States)
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
Jeremy Narby has made a breakthrough of epic proportions. I am not some new age fruitcake - I have a degree in biochemistry and have studied extensively in the areas of genetics, physics, and the properties of light. This book is a MUST READ for anyone even slightly concerned with finding the truth. If you do not have a scientific background, do not worry. Narby has written this book so that anyone can understand it (I estimate that 5-10 % of the information might require additional research by those with no scientific background). I find myself incorporating the theories of Cosmic Serpent into basically all other apects of study, including the Bible, Chaos Theory, the Kaballah, Sacred Geometry, and other religious beliefs from all over the world. I have read many books, and I consider Cosmic Serpent to be one of the most important books of our time, or any time, for that matter. I hope there is a follow up soon.
An insightful book that leads us back to the planet. July 28, 1999
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
I found this to be one of the most exciting books I have ever read. Not because of the science or the shaman perspective but because it leads us out of the clouds and back to the planet we live on to learn fundamental truths about life. The appreciation and love of our planet and all its species is crucial to our continued existence and Dr. Narby certainly whets our interest with his fascinating hypotheses. Perhaps, if God created everything and God is in us and all around us, God and DNA may be synonymous. And how wonderful it would be for us to feel that God actually has such a close physical association with us instead of being a separate being living in a far off realm. This book brings a number of important ideas and concepts together to attempt the creation of a whole meaning. Wonderful read!!!
Cosmic Serpent: DNA And The Origins of Knowledge February 5, 2004
Robert Snider MD (Massena, NY United States)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
I have always been conflicted with the theory of evolution. It seems rational, but speciously so. It ignores consciousness, which is senior to science. Surely, any theory that purports to map out the arrow of life must account for our ability to know that we know. Without bringing theology or Creationism, God forbid (pun intended) into the equation, Narby explains a viewpoint that puts sentinent life onto center stage. Weaving together intuition and rationlism, Narby allowed me to dispell my conflict and realize that LIFE is consciousness and is the driving force behind "evolutionary" progress. Sounds corny, I know, but read it with an open mind and see if your views don't change, even a bit.
Passion, insight, the willingness to take intellectual risks November 25, 1999
Richard Redmond (San Rafael, CA)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
I love to read books that move outside the flow of conventional thought; books that excite the imagination. Narby's passion for his subject is evident; you can almost hear him go Aha! at points in the narrative. Whether you end up agreeing or disagreeing with his remarkable conclusions, you are guaranteed to re-examine some of the most basic concepts that underlie the methods of Western science, and the conclusions those methods inescapably, and perhaps not always correctly, lead to.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
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