All language subtitles for Psychedelica.Series.1.02of14.Shamanic.Root.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

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>> Since the dawn
of modern humans,

every culture in every region
practiced what some would call

shamanism.

This mystical
practice is scarcely

understood but not forgotten.

In the 1960s, amateur
ethnomycologist, Gordon Wasson,

wrote his first
book titled, "Soma--

Divine Mushroom of
Immortality," after noticing

the indigenous mushroom
culture in Siberia.

Siberian shamans would collect
the fly agaric or Amanita

muscaria mushrooms, and
either dried and ate them

or would feed them to reindeer
and drink the urine to get

the effects free of nausea.

Because this culture neighbored
ancient Indian culture,

Wasson surmised that
the Amanita muscaria

mushroom must be the lost
ingredient of the drink, Soma.

Soma was the sacred and
psychedelic beverage

of ancient India.

But how could this
mushroom have ended up

in a foreign
religious sacrament?

This drove Wasson to
dig deeper to discover

what shamanism truly is.

>> The term itself came from
the Siberian cultures and was

brought into English
through Russian and German.

And people started
to recognize it

as a phenomenon that was found
in many parts of the world

and started applying it to
Native American practices,

into Australian practices,
and things like this.

What really is a
shaman kind of depends

on the perspective we take.

>> So the shaman is like
a spiritual bounty hunter.

He or she deliberately
induces these altered states

with drugs or other means.

But then, they don't just
sit there and have the trip.

They can actually actively
navigate in that world.

>> The shamans have attained
a sufficient sophistication

to explicitly understand that
the vessel of our chemical

transformation is the body.

And the plants lift the
imprisoning structures

of the ego.

And the ego flows
out into the world.

>> Beyond the confines of
small tribes in Siberia,

author Gordon Wasson discovered
that larger societies were also

using psychedelic plants as
a form of societal shamanic

ritual.

>> Even in studying
the Hindu culture,

the Ganges River comes
out of Shiva's top knot.

In very many depictions, you
see a picture of a cannabis leaf

on top of Shiva's head.

And also, he's holding a vessel
that contains bhang, B-H-A-N-G,

which is a cannabis-containing
beverage that is flavored with

cinnamon and cardamom
and other spices.

And I was also very interested
to learn about the Eleusinian

Mysteries.

>> The Eleusinian Mysteries
in ancient Greece clearly had

a psychedelic sacrament.

We even know what it was now.

It a form of ergot
that grows on barley.

Was used in a beverage
called the kykeon

that initiates of the
Eleusinian Mysteries drank.

And then, they had extraordinary
and life-changing experiences

in the dark halls.

They were addressing,
setting there as well.

These experiences were
underwent and undergone

in a place called the
Telesterion, which

was underground and in
darkness, probably dimly

lit with little
lamps here and there,

creating a setting for the
experience to unfold in.

And the initiates of the
Eleusinian Mysteries,

who included people like
Plato, people like Socrates,

people like Cicero, came
out, and afterwards,

reported that their
lives had been utterly

transformed by the experience
that they had undergone.

They had lost their
fear of death.

They knew that they
were immortal spirits,

that they were just temporarily
housed in a human body.

>> From ancient India to Greece,
psychedelic plants have been

used for deeply spiritual
quests and large-scale healing.

But what was the first
well-organized psychedelic

society?

Scholars and historians had
all but given up on uncovering

the mysterious beginnings of the
shamanic society, when in 1976,

Soviet archaeologist
Viktor Sarianidi unearthed

the 4,000-year-old temple
complex in present day

Turkmenistan.

This complex is nearly a
half a million square meters

divided into a large northern
and smaller southern region.

Its walls, made of clay
bricks, span 120 by 150 meters

and were reinforced by
20 rectangular towers.

Roughly 6500 to 1700
BC, the northern region

was burned down, and the whole
complex was abandoned quickly,

leaving the mystery
of its origins

only with the
artifacts found there.

Author and researcher
Chris Bennett

spent years investigating
the spread of cannabis

in the ancient world and began
piecing the puzzle together

from this location.

>> The debate about Soma and
Haoma, the origins of them,

has changed lately because
of archaeological finds.

And one of the
really important ones

is the work of the Russian
archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi.

He wrote about this
in his book, "Margiana

and Protozoroastrism."

And Sarianidi he was doing
work in the outer regions

of Afghanistan, in an area
known as the Bactria-Margiana

Archaeological Complex.

And in this region, he found
a number of temple sites,

and these were big temples,
about the size of a football

field.

And half of the
temple sites were

dedicated to the preparation of
this beverage, which Sarianidi

has identified as Soma,
Haoma, the sacred beverage

of the Persians and the
Indians-- ancient Indians.

>> It is still debated whether
this lost city of Gonur Tepe

had a supreme ruler or simply
an elite class and high priest.

In many ways, the priests
of larger civilizations

mirrored the role of the
predecessor, the shaman.

>> So, the shaman in the
traditional role is basically

a liaison for the community to
this realm of the supernatural

and these supernatural forces.

So, in that sense, it's kind
of a priest-like function.

>> At Gonur Tepe, the high
priest was the gatekeeper

to spiritual and
psychedelic experiences.

The psychedelic trip
has been equated

to a mystical
experience, as it allows

the user to peek behind the
veil of cultural conditioning.

And the high priest was the
one that bestowed these vision

quests upon the people.

Only through his
approval were commoners

allowed to drink this sacrament.

Gordon Wasson claimed that
the Amanita muscaria mushroom

was the psychoactive
ingredient in Soma and Haoma

because of the mushroom's
common use in nearby areas.

But this claim is unproven, and
some believe quite implausible,

due to the kind of experience
these mushrooms elicit.

Amanita muscaria
mushrooms have been

known to cause euphoria but
also nausea, sweating, cramping,

and salivation.

So, the mystery has
continued through the ages,

until Victor Sarianidi sent
scraping samples from Gonur

Tepe out to be analyzed.

>> Based on archaeological
evidence that's recently come

up in the last decades, they
found big bowls in the ground

where the Soma would have
been ground with mortars

and pestles, and then
also straining devices,

as well as bowls, with
fossilized remnants in it.

And so they took some of these
fossilized remnants, which

was like a fossilized liquid
substance, and had it tested.

And they found evidence
of cannabis, ephedra,

and in some cases, poppy.

And all these plants grow in
this region as well, still.

>> Poppy is the base
ingredient for opium,

which elicits a sedative and
euphoric effect, while ephedra,

the basic ingredient
for amphetamines,

is a stimulant and
appetite suppressant.

And lastly, cannabis elicits
a slightly psychedelic effect

with an increase in appetite,
causing this beverage

to act as a symphony of
mind-altering ingredients

for these ancient
Indo-European cultures.

>> And it's interesting it has
his counterpart in the Avestan

religion over in Persia,
where it's known as Haoma.

Because of language similarities
and mythological similarities--

they're both
Indo-European languages--

this combined use and identity
indicates a much older origin

from an identical call, so
going considerably far back

into history.

We know that they were
involved in trades

with another
Indo-European culture

living in central China,
known as the Gushi Culture.

And we found numbers of
perfectly preserved specimens

of both cannabis and
ephedra at this site.

And it's likely that these
Indo-Europeans living in China,

who were exporting
cannabis, were

likely the suppliers of the
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological

Complex's use of it and
delivered by Scythians.

My view is that the
Chinese term for cannabis,

which is [NON-ENGLISH],,
traveled with cannabis

into the Bactria-Margiana
Archaeological Complex with

this name that became Haoma
and then through dialectical

changes as it reached into
India became Soma in the Vedic

language.

>> Along several
ancient trading routes,

the nomadic horseback Scythians
had burial kurgans that were

recently unearthed.

Not only were
golden vessels found

containing remnants
of cannabis and opium,

but the frozen tundra preserved
the tattoos on their skin,

depicting animals
warping and spiraling,

as if seen in a
psychedelic trance.

Ancient Greek
historian Herodotus

recorded the funerary
rites of the Scythians

as they built tripod tents
and fumigated cannabis seeds

inside.

But this wasn't the
only place in history

we see the use of a tent
with smoke and vapor.

>> There is a
Polish entomologist

and anthropologist, Sula Benet,
who suggested that this Hebrew

term, [? canabasin ?] was a
reference to cannabis and that

this reference appears for the
first time in the Exodus 30.23,

where God who--

appears to Moses
in flames of fire

from within a burning
bush, commands

Moses to make a
holy anointing oil.

And every time that Moses
has to speak the Lord,

he has to go inside
this enclosed tent--

a little area called "the
tent of the meeting."

And he covers
himself in this oil.

And he also places some of the
oil on the altar of incense.

And he speaks to the Lord
and the pillar of smoke

over the altar of incense.

None of the other Israelites
in the biblical story

ever see or hear the Lord.

They can only tell if Moses
is talking to the Lord

if smoke is pouring out of
the tent of the meeting.

>> Moses is believed by
historians to have lived

in the 16th century BC, just
after the period of Gonur Tepe

and connected to the
same trade routes.

The phenomena of inhaling
mind-altering substances

in order to speak
to divine sources

are also seen with
the Oracle of Delphi,

which ranged from
the eighth century

BC and possibly earlier, in
the late Mycenaean times.

The scholar Martin
Litchfield West

wrote that the
Pythia, or Oracle,

exhibited Central Asian shamanic
practices, as she reportedly

sat upon a tripod above a chasm
from which vapors poured forth

as she inhaled them
and prophesized.

If it is true that these
age-old stories show

a deep appreciation for
mind-altering plants,

how much farther back can
we trace shamanic traditions

into history?

>> That evidence, we first
encounter it in the painted

caves of upper-Paleolithic
Europe going back close

to 40,000 years ago.

And curiously enough, just
quite recently in Indonesia was

discovered a series
of painted caves,

which date back to more or
less exactly the same period,

the high 30,000s almost
40,000 years ago in the past.

There are certain types
of imagery that regularly

and routinely crop up
in those deeply altered

states of consciousness
brought on by psychedelics.

And it's precisely those
types of the imagery

that we find in the
ancient rock and cave art

all around the world.

You'll often find geometry in
the paintings or engravings.

You will find-- and
this is really quite

diagnostic-- you will find
creatures that are referred

to as therianthropes.

That's from the Greek therian,
which means wild beast,

and anthropos, which means man.

They're hybrid human
and animal figures.

>> Not only were these visionary
illustrations important enough

to appear in humanity's earliest
art in the painted caves,

but they were also
immortalized in the flesh,

as the therianthropic paintings
on the cave walls conjure

similar imagery to that
of the Scythian tattoos.

There are remnants
of shamanic practices

in every corner of the globe.

Might we also find references
to psychedelics in the creation

myth of the Bible?

>> If you look at the
imagery that is conjured up

of the serpent in
the Garden of Eden--

I mean, I'm not saying that
painters in the 14th century

actually saw the serpent
in the Garden of Eden.

But if you look at
the imagery that's

conjured up, very often--

actually, I would say about
eight times out of 10,

you'll find that that
serpent is a therianthrope,

that that serpent has a
serpent body and a human head,

for example.

Or it may be equipped
with arms and legs

off-- branching off that
serpent body in some cases.

So right there,
there's a suggestion

that we're dealing with a
classic entity of vision.

In the mainstream
Christian position

on the serpent in
the Garden of Eden,

is that it represents the
devil, the bad guy who's

come to tempt and
mislead Adam and Eve.

But the very powerful
alternative point

of view provided
by the Gnostics is

that the serpent was one of the
ancient teachers of mankind,

that he's coming to
say to Adam and Eve,

you need to learn the difference
between good and evil.

If you go back to
the book of Genesis,

the forbidden fruit is the
knowledge of good and evil.

That's what the-- that's
what that tree is.

It's the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.

And its fruit is
therefore- is therefore

the knowledge of good and evil.

But is there a
deeper layer to that?

Could we, indeed, be
talking about some kind

of natural psychedelic?

>> What would it mean to
discover that the forbidden

fruit that the parents of our
species ate was psychedelic

in nature?

And is it possible
that this fruit

initiated the rapid expansion
of the human neocortex?

>> Well, there's an interesting
set of findings about how

humans differ from our
chimpanzee relatives in terms

of the use of these psychedelics
and what happens in the body.

The human serotonergic
system is much more sensitive

to these substances.

The binding of the
serotonin neural receptors

with the psychedelics is two
to four times more powerful

that what happens
in chimpanzees.

>> John McPartlin
and Dr. Jeffrey Guy,

the founder of GW
pharmaceuticals,

they both have speculated that
cannabis may have played a role

in this time period, that
the psychoactive effects

of cannabis may have resulted
in new novel ways of thinking

and approaching problems.

And the creativity aspect may
have provided that element

for the great leap forward.

>> Another theory, popularized
by the McKenna brothers,

was the potential for
coprophilic spores or rather

manure-loving mushroom
species, like psilocybin,

as being the impetus for
humanity's great leap forward.

Cattle worship is seen
throughout ancient Egypt,

Greece, Israel, Rome, Germany,
and is seen in Jainism,

Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism.

Our ancient ancestors,
seeking food

in the plains and grasslands,
would have eventually found

the cattle that
grazed in the fields

and noticed a
strange mushroom that

grew from their
droppings that influenced

the lingual and problem-solving
regions of the brain.

Were cannabis and
psychedelic mushrooms

possible causes for
such drastic differences

in intelligence between modern
humans and our ancestors?

How much of our modern
society has been influenced

by our shamanic roots?

>> Really, out of shamanism come
the roots of religion for sure,

pharmacology.

But chemistry and poetry and
theater and all of these things

really find their
roots in shamanism.

>> There's a certain point
when religion doesn't want

the shamanism in there anymore.

That's really where we see the
decline of the shamanic use

of these substances,
as religions become

more politically motivated as
a means of controlling society

and organizing society.

There became, I think, both
a theological and political

desire to unify the people under
one consolidated head and rule.

>> As religious institutions
and political leaders began

combining their powers, as we
see mirrored in major corporate

mergers today, the momentum
was to keep spreading.

And at the start of what
we call the Modern period,

European nations began sending
forces to the Americas.

And as a result, indigenous
tribes were decimated,

and countless generations
of shamanic wisdom

was erased from the Earth.

Was there an agenda?

If so, what was the purpose?

>> I do believe that there
are many forces that see

the psychedelic
movement as a threat.

And it's its vast.

In earlier times, it might
have been the church.

But I also see
that it's a threat

to the pharmaceutical industry.

>> Big pharma imported $86
billion in drugs and exported

$47 billion worth in 2015 alone.

The power of this industry
and its advertising sector

has forced the
world of shamanism

beneath the shadow
of Western medicine.

But what truly is the
difference between the two?

>> In shamanism, when
you have sickness,

when you have an ill
individual for any reason,

you don't do what Western
medicine does and look

for the causes of that illness
at the level of the physical

being.

The causes of that illness
are always one level above.

They're at the next level,
in the spiritual dimension.

There's a spiritual
disconnect which

is the source of this illness.

So, the shaman will address
the spiritual problem,

the nonphysical problem in
order to step down and solve

the physical problem.

In Western medicine, we
have no such concept.

Because Western
medicine doesn't even

believe in the
spirit or the soul

or any such aspect
of human beings.

Western medicine really does
regard human beings as rather

clever and sophisticated
meat robots.

But that is not--

that is not the
shamanistic view.

The shamanistic view is that we
are immersed in an incredibly

complex multi-layered
reality and that--

and that what is happening at
other levels of that reality

directly impact what happens
at the level of reality

that we inhabit.

>> This perspective on the
nature of healing is summarized

by radio host and
filmmaker Max Igan,

who has spent years traveling
the world to visit shamanic

tribes to preserve their wisdom.

>> Shamanism, it can be seen as
something integral to the human

experience.

I'm a firm believer that all
life progresses according

to the Fibonacci sequence.

If you look at
Fibonacci sequence,

how that sequence works is
you actually get the present,

and you combine it with the
past to create the future.

That's how it works.

If we can get our
present culture

and combine it with
these past ways,

we will create a viable future.

But if we discard all of
that ancient knowledge

and simply go with our
technological flow,

we're going to lead ourselves
to a very bad place.

>> A few modern healers,
such as Kimba Arem,

utilize ancestral and modern
techniques in her alternative

practices.

And her experience
has taught her

where the healing
intelligence truly

lies in terms of
shamanic ceremonies.

>> And I actually see that
rather than the shaman is

healing them, that the shaman
is activating that person's own

inner healing ability.

Because that's really
the true power,

is reminding people that
they, too, are the divine.

We're the healer.

Like if you cut your finger,
you're the one who heals it.

The doctor or the shaman
can help address the wound.

But we're actually
doing the healing work.

>> Perhaps it is the adoption of
unhealthy patterns that builds

and obstructs the pure healing
intelligence within each of us.

So if we look beyond
the cultural adornments

and poetic language, might we
find a more scientific basis

to shamanic rituals?

>> One of the things that they
did was use ritual practices,

including chanting and
singing and drumming,

that begin to change
our brain wave pattern.

The alteration of consciousness
in the shamanic ritual

starts off with a
stimulatory phase--

dancing, drumming,
singing, chanting--

to the point of exhaustion
and to the relaxation phase.

Well, this is a shift
from stimulating

the sympathetic nervous system
to the parasympathetic nervous

system.

The parasympathetic
nervous system

is the part of the nervous
system that relaxes us.

And so basically, the
relaxation response

is part of what's brought
about by ritual activities.

>> American-based psychoanalyst
Wilhelm Reich mentioned

a similar pattern when he
spoke about the four stages

of a primal pattern that
healthy cultures share--

tension, charge,
discharge, and relaxation.

It is seen in the
movement of many forms

of classical and modern music,
all forms of storytelling,

love-making, as well
as healing catalysts.

Even though the content
on top of this pattern

will always change,
the underlying flow

is what establishes a space
for a healing response.

Something must dredge
up the traumatized

psychological material from
the unconscious, which would be

during the stimulatory phase.

The contents must be
processed, breathed through,

and exacerbated in order to
bring about a critical point

when the psyche transforms
the way it holds that content.

Finally, the discharge
is a pivot point in which

breakthroughs are made--

not by the shaman, but by the
natural healing intelligence

of the one who is
seeking the remedy.

This leads to the
relaxation phase,

which allows a new unhealthy
pattern to integrate.

This is the same as what's seen
in the Savasana stage of yoga.

What other shamanic anomalies
may have a physiological

and neurological basis?

>> It Is by agreement there's
a marker at the beginning

and at the end.

You invoke the
spirit at the end.

You thank the spirits and
each other at the end.

And you move into ordinary
time-- ordinary space time.

So that's the
significance of ritual.

It's a fantastic-- to
do it in the right way,

it opens up fantastic
possibility.

Because then,
[INAUDIBLE] feel safe.

For example, if
you're in a ritual

and you're exploring
something and you--

say psychologically you're
working on your relationship

with your mother or your
father or traumatic things,

and people are laughing
back in the dining area,

cracking jokes, and
drinking whatever-- beer--

what's that gonna be like?

It's not respectful of people.

It's like trying to do therapy
in the middle of the subway.

>> It is likely that
in traditional shamanic

communities, the whole
group was not only involved

in the ceremony, but they all
had similar belief systems,

allowing all of them to be
more rooted in the customs

of their ritual.

If one person was
experiencing a healing crisis,

the rest of the group
was likely holding

space for their healing,
rather than distracting them

with unnecessary
noise or movement.

If they understood
the basic criteria

for psychological healing, are
there other shamanic anomalies

that may have a physiological
or neurological basis?

>> Shamanism has certain
characteristics that are pretty

much universal.

And a lot of what the shaman
does is retrieve souls--

illness-- mental and physical
illness in these cultures

is often understood
as a loss of souls.

The idea of the shaman
is a soul traveler

will often go to
what's conceived

as the center of the
universe, the world tree.

>> There is a well-known
phenomenon of the out-of-body

experience, or
astral projection.

Well, what we know is that
there is a particular part

of the brain that's supposed
to integrate our sense of self

with our body, the
temporal parietal junction.

And when this part of the
brain is taken offline,

then we're able to
experience ourselves

independent of our body.

>> Does this mean that the
shaman simply convinces his

or her own brain that the
mind and body are separating?

And if so, does that mean
that it's just a mirage?

Or is belief, imagination,
and creativity

the physical mechanisms by
which an aspect of the shaman

leaves his or her
body to perform work

in other dimensions?

Perhaps this is the
underlying knowledge

that shamans utilized when
crafting a healing environment.

>> Shamans become healers.

They become good artists.

They can design
their own rituals.

They create their
own music and so on.

Again, what makes
the shaman a shaman

is that he or she had
a substantial number

of personal experiences.

>> Through lifetimes of
shamanic experiences,

bringing wisdom from the other
side to this physical world,

could this be the basis
of all shamanic rituals?

What would the shamans
of today look like?

Would they still be
wearing the same clothes

and singing the same
songs, or would they

be doing brand new work
with the same spirit,

joining hearts and hands
in ancestral twine,

as Xavier Rudd would say?

And if shamans of the
past did healing work

for their village, what
would a modern shaman

truly use to get their music
and their message to the people?

If this shamanic power
is still present today,

it would be present
within all of us,

and the real tragedy
from there would

be to remain ignorant
of this gift.

The modern mindset
seems to marvel

at the latest and greatest
technology while disregarding

the importance of our heritage.

What if this is exactly why
the health of the masses

and the health of the
planet is struggling

to keep up with the rapid
changes that we are causing?

What if the passing of
each generation to the next

is a direct connection
to our shamanic ancestry

and the biological
technology of the human body

remembers all that our
lineage has been through?

And what if the remedy
to all our human problems

is simply to remember who
and what we truly are,

embodied in the heart and soul.

If psychedelic plants
and shamanic rituals

are a vital key to
unlocking our past,

is this why they've
been suppressed, feared,

and crusaded against in the
old world, as well as the new?

In the late 1400s, as
European Naval forces set out

to the New World,
they would soon

stumble upon shamanic tribes
in every corner of the Americas

with a rich history in
using psychedelic plants.

One such region in
South America would soon

reveal an ancient psychedelic
cocktail of several botanicals.

Was there any connection
between this ancient religious

sacrament and the Old
World's Soma and Haoma,

or is the shamanic phenomenon of
seeking deeply-expanded states

of consciousness through plant
medicines an innate function

of those people that
lived closest to nature?

Up next, join us as we
explore the deep mysteries

of the Amazon rain forest and
the ancient shamanic traditions

that live there.

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