Ethnobotany is the study, in the simplest term, it's the study of plants and people.
It's the study of the way that people interact with the plants,
usually in traditional societies, but not necessarily.
So all the things that people use plants for, ranging from medicine to construction materials
to textiles to foods, you know, is all legitimate material for ethnobotanists to study.
And ethnopharmacology is a little more restricted because ethnopharmacology focuses on,
I mean, the formal definition of ethnopharmacology is the interdisciplinary scientific study
of biologically accurate...
...substances used or observed by indigenous people.
So there are a few caveats.
For one thing, it's not restricted to plants, right?
A lot of what ethnopharmacology studies is, might be things that come from animals.
Obviously, a lot of it has to do with the study of plant medicines or things used as medicines.
But also, toxins are a good part of it.
You know, the study of arrow poisons, for example, is certainly part of ethnopharmacology.
So ethnopharmacology, as the name implies, the ethno part is about people,
and the pharmacology side is about pharmacology and the study of drugs.
So it's interdisciplinary.
It focuses on all the ways in which people interact with drugs and toxins, you know.
So it includes everything from...
...pharmacology to chemistry to anthropology to, you know, medicine, public health, you name it, toxicology, all of that.
It relates to shamanism because in these indigenous or traditional cultures,
usually the shaman is the person with the knowledge of the plants that are psychoactive
or medicinal, he's the person, he or she is the person that knows how to use these things.
They're the keepers of the plant knowledge, in a way, so that's...
I mean, they're more than herbalists, but they're also the herbalists.
They're the ones that know their medicines and how to use them for whatever purposes, spiritual and medical as well.
In shamanism, and one of the things that distinguishes it from mere herbalism,
is that the shaman is a specialist in altered states of consciousness.
The famous anthropologist and scholar, Merci Eliade, calls shamanism the archaic techniques of ecstasy.
And in shamanism, the shaman deliberately...
is a master of various techniques for inducing altered states of consciousness,
which may involve the use of psychoactive drugs, but not always.
There are other techniques, too, that can be used, like frenzied drumming, or dancing, or flagellation,
or extremes of, you know, physical stresses, to induce altered states.
But the idea is to deliberately induce an altered state,
and the shaman...
goes on a journey.
This is the primary mode throughout the world,
that the shaman journeys to the center of the world,
which may be visualized as a tree.
It's often visualized as a tree, or some kind of axis.
But that axis unites the upper world, the middle world, our ordinary world, and the lower world.
And the shaman is a person...
who is able to navigate these realms,
and, you know, knows how to move around in these realms,
and actually retrieve information and come back.
Or, a lot of what the shaman does is curing.
It's related to curing, and in shamanic traditions,
the understanding often is that, you know, illness is caused by loss of soul.
And that the soul has wandered off,
and is out in these realms.
And the shaman has to go and find the soul,
and restore it to the person's body,
and then restore, you know, restore...
cure the illness that way.
Whether the illness is physical or mental.
And there's not really a distinction always made.
You know, in fact, all illness in these traditions is usually understood
to basically be due to witchcraft,
or, you know, some sort of malevolent influence,
even physical illness.
So the shaman is a specialist in this technique.
And they are often a specialist in the use of plants
for inducing altered states of consciousness.
That's the realm.
So in some ways, the shaman fulfills a function for the society,
is in that he or she,
is the person with one foot in both worlds.
He's a foot in the real world of everyday human affairs,
and the world of spirits and the supernatural.
So they can be a conduit of communication between those worlds.
And in some ways, that's like a priest, you know.
A priest represents the people to the realm of spirits and so on.
But the shaman actually goes to these worlds.
And not just talks to these people,
to these entities or whatever,
but moves in these dimensions,
which are very real experimentally for the shaman,
and for the people.
And so curing is part of it,
but also other things of concern to the community.
Where to look for game, for example.
Where to find, when to plant the crops.
All of this stuff comes from this realm
of sort of supernatural knowledge.
So the shaman is a wise person,
the keeper of knowledge,
and the connection to knowledge.
So that's kind of a long-winded explanation.
But the shaman has, you know,
wears many hats in some ways.
He or she fulfills multiple functions for the society.
So these psychedelics and other types of
what you might call psychoactive,
psychoactive molecules are found widespread in plants,
and even animals, and fungi, and the whole thing.
I mean, they're all over the place.
So I think in one sense, that seems remarkable to us.
But in another sense, we shouldn't really be surprised,
because this is a reflection simply of biochemical evolution.
I mean, we are evolved from the same ultimate origins
that the plants are and the fungi are.
So the fact that there are molecules in these organisms
that mimic neurotransmitters
and interact with neurotransmitter receptors and so on
is just to be expected, in a sense,
in that, you know, most of these psychoactive molecules
are, you know, one or two steps from amino acids
The alkaloids generally come from amino acids,
and especially the example of DMT,
where, you know, tryptophan is an amino acid,
and it's in all organisms because it goes into proteins.
It's one of the amino acids that goes into proteins.
But two enzymatic steps, two steps away from tryptophan,
is DMT.
And the enzymes that...
do that conversion are pretty much found in any cell.
So it's not too surprising, in a way,
that DMT is very widespread,
because it's only two steps away
from what they call primary metabolism.
In other words, the metabolism that we share with everything.
The fact that these neurotransmitter-like substances
are out there in the plant kingdom,
or the fungal kingdom, or even the animal kingdom,
is not as remarkable as the fact that, you know,
indigenous people living immersed
in these highly chemically diverse ecologies
have become, you know, very clever
about discovering these things
and figuring out how to use them,
you know, in their shamanic traditions.
And this is...
You know, this in some way is more remarkable
than the fact that the compounds are there.
It's that people have evinced a lot of ingenuity
in digging these things out
and figuring out how to make them active.
Like, for example, again, DMT
is a very powerful psychedelic,
but it is not orally active.
So you can eat plants all day that contain DMT
and nothing will happen,
because it's inactivated,
as you know, by an enzyme in the gut
called monoamine oxidase.
And...
But indigenous people have figured out
that there are also plants
that contain monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
And they've figured it out
through trial and error or whatever
that if you combine a plant containing DMT
with a plant containing a monoamine oxidase
and MAO inhibitor,
then it becomes very active.
And how did they figure that out?
Was it through trial and error?
Not so clear, you know,
because there are many plants out there
and many potential combinations.
So how did they figure that out?
Nobody really knows.
You know, but the point is
they were, you know, motivated enough
to seek out these altered states
that they actually did figure out.
They approached it, I don't know how,
either accidentally, which seems unlikely,
or through trial and error,
which seems also unlikely.
Who knows how they figured it?
Maybe animals do this thing.
Maybe they watch animals.
I mean, what they will tell you,
as you know, in South American traditions,
you say, how did you figure out
how to combine, you know,
Banisteriopsis bark,
which contains the MAO inhibitor,
the leaves of chacruna,
which contains DMT,
and come up with this very powerful
orally active psychedelic.
They will say, well, the plants,
the plants told us how to do this.
And, you know, as a Westerner,
you just scratch your head and you say,
well, that's ridiculous, you know,
I've never heard such a ridiculous thing.
But they'll always tell you that,
you know, so who knows?
You know, there does,
seem to be,
in some way,
I mean, the shamans
and other people that use these things
will say, you know,
half the reason they take these,
it's not just to induce altered states,
it's to learn things.
And a lot of what they
like to learn,
a lot of the reason they take them
is to learn about the properties of plants.
You know, what they're good for,
what their biodynamic properties are,
what they might be used for,
what they might be used to treat or cure,
or what their psychoactive effects are.
So a lot of what motivates the shaman,
I think,
in their relationship to nature,
is the same thing that motivates scientists.
The shaman is a kind of scientist.
It's curiosity.
You know,
they want to know,
what does this plant do?
You know,
and what does this plant do
if I combine it with this plant?
It's a very experimental approach
that they're taking to all this.
And they do learn.
And I think
that
one thing that shaman do,
and again,
if you look at the ayahuasca tradition,
one thing that they do is
in exploring these altered states,
they have become very adept
at sort of monitoring
their own
inner landscape
and their own physiological state.
So,
you know,
they sort of have a baseline.
You know,
they know what the baseline
state of ayahuasca is.
And then if they put another plant in there,
in that mix
that they want to investigate,
they can see how does that move
the experience away from baseline.
So in some ways,
they can acquaint themselves
with what that plant might do.
It's a sort of hands-on,
direct, experimental way.
And
I think
that that's a lot of
what goes on
in this kind of shamanism.
This is how this pharmacopoeia
gradually built up over,
you know, centuries.
Essentially through experimentation,
through experimental,
like empirical
bioassay,
if you will.
Well, I do.
Actually, I do personally
think that it did.
And I think that
a lot of what
is coming out of
sort of the frontiers of
neuroscience
right now supports that.
You know, we now have
these brain imaging tools
and these sophisticated tools
so we can look at people,
what's happening in their brains
when they are in
profoundly altered states of consciousness,
either on psychedelics
or in, you know,
in mystical states
of various types,
or deep meditation.
We can actually see
what part of the brain
is lighting up in a word
and mediating these things.
So I think, I mean,
just last week,
there was a whole new study
published about how they've located
what they're calling
the transcendent states.
You know, so the brain
is architecturally
and physiologically set up
to experience
these transcendent states.
And certain drugs
will activate them
and certain practices
will activate these brain areas
and there's a lot of overlap,
for example,
between, you know,
the areas of the brain that are activated
by psilocybin, which is one of the ones
that we're talking about,
deep meditation,
you know, there's a lot of overlap.
So I do think that,
you know,
that the spiritual experience
is kind of built into
the human brain.
And the larger question is,
or the more interesting question is,
why should it be?
And what is the use of that?
What is the evolution
of the brain?
What is the evolutionary advantage
of being able to have
transcendent experiences?
Or is there one?
This whole issue about
what language is
and the association,
you know,
of sound and symbol
and all that,
which is the basis of language.
And language, more than anything else,
probably is what sets us apart
from everything else in nature.
I mean, we are immersed
in an ocean of language,
an ocean of symbols,
where symbols
are linked to sounds.
And, you know,
I can sit here
and utter meaningless sounds,
essentially, inherently
meaningless sounds,
but they make sense to you
because they evoke
meaningful mental pictures.
And this is the thing,
you know, and the brain
has the ability
to experience synesthesia.
And synesthesia is one of these
functions that,
you know,
the translation of one sensory modality
into another.
So, you can, you know,
hear colors
and that sort of thing,
or see sounds
and that sort of thing.
And that is also the basis
of language when you think about it.
And psychedelics
are interesting in this respect
because psychedelics
are one of the few ways
that you can reliably
induce these synesthetic experiences.
It is very common
to have synesthesia,
you know, on psychedelics.
Some people are genetically
endowed with synesthesia.
And they just experience
that all the time.
I have the strong intuition
that children
below a certain age
are probably spontaneously
synesthetic all the time
because the
brain structures
that separate these
different sensory modalities
are not set in place yet.
So, it is very common
for children to have
synesthetic experiences.
And that is a part of brain development
and growing up and learning
to speak and all that.
If you look at genetically
synesthetic
people, about 1 in 100
persons is genetically
synesthetic, meaning it happens
spontaneously to them.
If you look at those people,
it is very
common, it is usually
the rule that it is very closely
linked to
their apprehension of words
and numbers.
And they will say, you know,
the number 13 is
smooth and hard
and dark blue
and for them
it is absolutely
an apprehendable thing
that it is like that.
Or the letter A
is purple polka dots.
They are not
making this up.
This is real for them.
So it says something about
the way that the
centers in our brain
that process meaning,
process language, work
and how they tie into
sensory pathways.
You know,
if you think about the fact
that psychedelics can evoke
this synesthesia rather easily,
I mean, you don't have to go very far
before you can,
you know, you can imagine
a hungry primate,
a language-less primate
out there
foraging on mushrooms
or whatever, accidentally
or whatever, or deliberately,
but first initially accidentally
they take them.
Mushrooms are a good candidate
because they don't require any processing.
No MAO inhibitors
required, you just
reach down and eat them up
and it spontaneously
elicits this thing
and it very easily triggers
synesthesia.
And, you know, you can
imagine
you know, the person
finds this is why chanting
and singing and all this has
so much to do with shamanism
because it modulates the visions.
So that person
can, you know, start
shouting and singing and chanting
and suddenly what's happening
behind the eyes
goes crazy, right?
And then they pick up a stick
and start beating a hollow log
and hey, that's even cooler,
you know, they bring in rhythm.
Well, so they've just invented
language, music, musical instruments
all that stuff
poetry
you know,
all in one productive
session.
And it makes you feel good.
It induces ecstasy.
So you only have to do it
spontaneously
or accidentally a couple of times
and then you
get it, you know, and then you sort of say
hey, that was great, that made me
feel good. So then you go back
to repeat it.
knows about the way to interpret these
myths, you know,
but in
the forbidden fruit
it was the tree of knowledge.
Right? It wasn't
I mean, it was knowledge that was
forbidden. It was
you know,
I mean, curiosity
was not
encouraged. We were
you know, what was encouraged
or what we were more or less
commanded to do
in the context of this myth
was to remain
not really human.
You know, to remain like animals.
Innocent. And to not
know about
things like our own individuality
and
things like death, you know.
And that was the thing, I think
you know, and at some point
I mean, the whole
thing about
Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge
is of course a myth
but it's really about
at what point did we
separate from
did we
achieve self reflection?
Right? This is what animals
don't have. Well,
by and large, I mean
there are evidence that maybe
some do to some extent, but
I think two things. The idea
that, you know, you have an eye
sense, a sense of an eye
and the sense of
probably knowledge
of, or the intuition
of your own mortality.
That's the loss of innocence.
I think that in
the context of fundamentalist
Christianity
thinking
is not encouraged.
You know, I mean
that's what they're trying to get away from.
That's the whole thing, you know.
You lost innocence.
You know, you
lost innocence because
you asked too many questions
and you thought too much
and, you know, you questioned
things, right? And this is
what Christianity discourages,
at least the fundamentalist type.
Christianity is
sort of foisting
the
notion on people
that, you know,
there are simple answers
to complex
questions. I mean, I call it
simple answers for simple people.