Original subtitles

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In the spring of 2018, the National Academy of Sciences

released a report that used biomass as the metric,

pulling data from hundreds of different studies.

The researchers determined which kingdoms and species

account for the largest collective mass.

Land-based plants make up a stunning 80%

of Earth's total biomass.

If this is true, why does it seem

that humans seem to view them as an afterthought?

Surely, such a thriving kingdom has some intelligence.

Is it possible that plants have something

we can absorb besides oxygen?

And could that something be knowledge?

Knowledge that can help us understand our own humanity

on the planet.

Plant intelligence is very sophisticated,

and we're still trying to understand.

And it's very, very different from human intelligence.

And it's very important not to anthropomorphize

this intelligence, that is, to ascribe human quality onto them

and to believe that they manifest this intelligence

in the same way we do.

Plants through photosynthesis, which is basically

absorbing sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water,

they create all the chemicals, all the

sugars that they need to live but to also

trade with other animals, birds, insects, other plants.

And this is a very advanced intelligence.

There's a high level of efficiency and conservation

of energy.

But the intelligence of these plants goes even further.

Not only are they equipped with short and long-term memory,

but they can engineer their local environment.

Trees are the best example.

As they grow larger, they can have

a profound effect on the soil and organisms around them.

When a forest grows to create its own canopy,

other plants and trees can begin growing on the existing trees'

branches.

Plants can even communicate with other plants and even animals.

Often, this is through the release

of pheromones or scents.

The plant kingdom and queendom is amazingly

intelligent, and we certainly know that plants have

the ability to communicate with each other,

that they can be protective of one another,

that they abound in all kinds of phytochemicals that help

to protect their immunity, such as their essential oils.

So we're still learning about all the wisdom

that lives in the plant realm.

Plants exist in a state of consciousness that humans

don't always seem to understand fully,

and we see them as somewhat less evolved than us.

But plants are the heroes of this planet.

They have provided oxygen, food, clothing, shelter, medicine,

and we know that with sacred plant medicines,

they have been used since the beginning of time

to uplift and expand human consciousness.

As we gain a deeper understanding of plant

intelligence and their interconnectedness with all

other life on this planet, many believe it is time

to re-examine some of the most misunderstood types of plants,

psychedelics.

Is it possible some plants are trying

to interconnect us with the intelligence of nature?

The word psychedelic means to reveal the soul.

And it seems that when these psychedelic plants are ingested

or imbibed in some way, they help

to offer a glimpse of something more infinite, more

extraordinary than we see with our regular eyes.

It's not a state that everyone needs to be in all the time.

Sometimes, one experience is enough to totally change

the way you want to live.

Psychedelic experiences are very important for the health

of every aspect of the human being, the energetic aspect,

the mental, emotional, and spiritual because they allow us

to rehabilitate, to heal, to understand who we are.

And that's what the word psychedelic

means in ancient Greek, revealing the mind,

manifesting the soul.

They're not something new.

I think a lot of people think that psychedelics

were invented in the '60s.

But we need to remember that almost every culture

on the face of the Earth has had some historical use of altering

consciousness.

Many scholars and respected psychedelic researchers posit

that the idea of the Garden of Eden is not describing

a literal physical place but an allegory meant to illustrate

the harmonious relationship human beings can have with

Mother Earth, one that we enjoyed in the past but have

lost sight of in modern times.

"The Urantia Book" talks about a Garden of Eden,

which was the home of two celestial visitors,

Adam and Eve, and that the tree of life was planted

in the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve to use because this

tree of life was going to help them to be immortal.

It is a plant that has super chemical powers.

[SPEAKING FRENCH]

The story of the tree of life can be found in many cultures.

We can see it in representations and through the very specific

use shamans make of plants.

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This means using trees that we don't know very well today

but which can be found in some parts of the rainforest

in order to disconnect the human spirit and reach the divine.

I think that you can find this story or possibility mixed up

in many cultures, the idea that you

can enter in direct communication with the divine

through plants.

[SPEAKING FRENCH]

It's notable that in the story of the Garden of Eden,

the forbidden fruit is a fruit that came from a vine.

And this vine could remove veils and make humans like gods.

Like the forbidden fruit, ayahuasca

comes from a vine, referred to in scientific communities

as Banisteriopsis caapi.

This vine is found mostly in the Amazon.

Could this ancient story actually

be referencing the magical plant found in the Amazon?

There are lots of origin myths in the Amazon.

It's usually about how the plant was the origin of the people,

and it doesn't have the moralistic framework

that Christianity has.

But the myths around ayahuasca are creation myths,

essentially.

Anton Parks notes that the etymology of the word Samael,

the snake in the Garden of Eden, can be traced to the Sumerian

language.

And one meaning of his name is the bearer

of the plant of understanding.

Could this lend more credence to the fact

that the ayahuasca plant could be the proverbial tree

of good and evil?

[SPEAKING FRENCH]

In Sumerian Eden texts just like in the Bible,

we find two trees, the tree of life and the tree of good

and evil.

The tree of life refers to eternal life.

We understand that the tree of good and evil

would be the so-called civilizing tool that Enki

is going to bring to humanity.

In fact, in Sumerian, "ngish" means both tree and tool.

If ayahuasca was known to the Sumerians,

it might help explain the more recent yet still ancient origin

story.

The UDV church based in Brazil has tales of a different origin

altogether.

They teach that ayahuasca was not

native to the rainforest of the Amazon

but brought there by King Solomon when,

according to some biblical scholars,

he visited the New World.

Anthropological evidence suggests

that our ancestors possessed a much deeper knowledge

of these plants and integrated them

into their spiritual lives.

From what we know, starting with all the way back with cave

paintings, psychedelics have been used really since

the beginning of humanity all over the world by indigenous

peoples everywhere.

To better understand the effects of these plants,

these cultures relied on a teacher to guide them through

these healing experiences, a shaman.

In the Western world, the word conjures

images of wizards or witch doctors

casting magic spells in a Hollywood movie.

But the very real practice of shamanism

exists in different cultures and belief systems dating back

thousands of years.

Though some say that shamanism goes back as far

as the Stone Age and that Siberia was the origin

of the practice, but throughout time,

they have served the role of connecting humans to the spirit

world and for healing individuals

and the communities.

Often, the shaman will use plant medicine

to facilitate their opening of consciousness,

to be the intermediary of this energy and information.

But I believe at the end, it's an art,

a philosophy that works with the two most powerful tools that

impact human consciousness.

And these two tools are chemicals in plants, compounds,

and music or sound in general to reveal

the nature of our consciousness, to create therapy, healing,

inner education, rehabilitation, empowerment,

and being part of the collective harmony

that is on Earth and part of the intelligence that

is part of Earth.

The role of the shaman is actually something unique.

It's different than, let's say, just a medicine person.

The role of the shaman is to have

one foot in each world, the visible world

and the invisible world.

And in doing that, there is journeying.

There is negotiating with spirits

and there is healing, bringing people's soul fragments back.

There's retrieving information that the community

needs for hunts or for preparation

or for healing the community.

Is it possible that ancient people knew the intelligence

of these plants?

Plants predate humans by hundreds of millions of years.

And to many ancient people, they are

considered the very foundation of our survival

as a human race.

Simply put, the ancients understood

that humans need them more than they need us.

And this understanding drove many ancient cultures

to make medicines from certain plants.

Lists of herbs have been found on Sumerian clay tablets

dating back to 1550 BCE.

Opium is among the plants listed,

confirming that early civilizations already

had a deep understanding of plants'

various medicinal capabilities.

There is even a special class of plants

that produce psychedelic compounds, which

reliably provide visionary moments of awakening.

Today, one particular region has become ubiquitous

with ceremonial use, the Amazon.

Winding through nine South American countries,

this mighty river is the heart of one

of the most diverse and complex ecosystems on the planet.

It is here that indigenous people harvest chacruna leaf,

chagropanga vine, and ayahuasca vine to make a ceremonial

psychedelic brew called yagé, better known today

as ayahuasca.

The effects of ayahuasca are often

described as visual and auditory hallucinations and periods

of deep psychological introspection.

And they are often left with a sense of illumination

that they experienced something revelatory about the world

and about themselves.

The primary active ingredient in ayahuasca is a compound called

N,N-dimethyltryptamine, more commonly referred to as DMT.

Although DMT is the primary psychoactive

compound in the brew, the ayahuasca

vine itself does not contain any.

Rather, it contains enzymes that act

as MAO inhibitors, which make the DMT found

in chacruna orally active.

The ayahuasca vine is mixed with the leaves

of the other psychoactive plants that prolong the DMT's effects,

stretching the associated hallucinations from a mere 20

minutes to several hours.

According to the shamans and adepts,

this beverage allows someone without the training

of a shaman to journey into spirit realms

to communicate with ancients or to heal personal trauma.

Although a lot of people have tried a psychedelic journey,

there are only a few that are able to connect

to their ancient past.

Located along the Ucayali River in Peru,

an indigenous Amazonian group still engages in this practice.

They are called the Shipibo-Conibo.

They have maintained deep connections

to their traditional past despite

the ongoing encroachment of modern society.

It is this group that feels they were

told by the gods in their dreams to find these plants

and share them in the community.

There are many different legends and versions of how

ayahuasca was discovered.

And the Shipibo culture, through the people

that I've interacted with, they talk

about that they received instructions in dreams

about how to go and seek these particular plants out,

how to hook them together, and how to utilize them so

that the ideas that through their direct connection

living in nature, that they received information, possibly

through dreams.

And that's what guided the process.

When they ingested them and teaching them many survival

skills, not only to improve their health

or their connection with nature but also rituals to bond

the community together and to facilitate their communion with

expanded states of awareness.

Although the ayahuasca plant might be connected with

an ancient practice and possibly to the gods,

modern-day doctors are taking up studies and practices

of their own, on not only ayahuasca but other forms

of these plant medicines.

Could it be possible that science can open up

what is really happening to us while ingesting these plants?

Doctor Rick Strassman of the University

of New Mexico School of Medicine speculated

that DMT is created endogenously by the pineal gland

and reliably destabilizes the patterning in the brain, thus

opening the mind to deeper realities and possibilities.

One of the things that's unique about DMT is that it

seems to get one into a state where there's an intelligence.

And so there's been a lot of speculation as to what that

might be, might it be extradimensional

beings or might it just be the activation

of certain areas of the brain.

It's a mystery why most plants, human beings,

animals have endogenous DMT and MAOI,

monoamine oxidase inhibitors.

These are chemicals that would inhibit these enzymes that

break down DMT.

I think that's possibly to inform us of what reality is,

and maybe they're involved in our dreams

in the mystical state but also healing

different aspects of the self and keeping

us tied to the spiritual aspect of being.

Research conducted by Jimo Borjigin,

a pineal gland researcher at the University of Michigan

discovered the presence of DMT in the pineal gland as well

as in the hippocampus and neocortex,

involved in higher order brain function,

like learning and memory.

But DMT levels were believed to be

too low to have a discernible effect.

Why is that?

Those that have studied DMT speculate

that our ancestors may have naturally produced

higher levels of DMT, which could

have helped them maintain a deeper connection with nature.

Today, we may be unintentionally inhibiting our body's ability

to produce DMT.

Unlike our ancestors, we subject ourselves

to a slew of unnatural processes and substances.

One possible culprit is fluoride,

which has been added to some towns' and cities' drinking

water for decades.

Ostensibly used to protect our teeth,

this fluoride may be calcifying within our body.

Our modern diets definitely have an effect on our health

and our state of mind.

And we have found that fluoride has a calcifying

effect on the pineal gland.

Pineal gland is associated with the production and release

of serotonin, which helps us feel good;

melatonin, which helps us sleep; and dimethyltryptamine,

which is associated with mystical or expanded states

of awareness.

So the calcification of this gland, that one factor

alone can inhibit our experience of mystical states.

It doesn't end there.

Other obstacles stand in the way of the pineal gland's

abilities.

Wi-Fi radiation is also on the rise across the planet.

These frequencies can cause inflammatory responses

and abnormal development in the body.

We're surrounded with wireless frequencies that have

been shown to affect negatively many things in the body

including pineal function, so we face many challenges.

But with the assistance of plant medicines,

we can hopefully get all of these endocrine glands flowing

again, so we can have naturally occurring mystical experiences.

Despite all of the advancements in technology

and modern science, do we actually live in a world that

has become less optimal for human health and connection?

We're getting too immersed in our technology,

and what we sacrifice is the closer connection with nature.

I think the shamans are very attuned to the effects

that the people of the merchandise,

they call us sometimes, are having on the planet,

that we're decimating the resources,

we're overharvesting even ayahuasca.

So there are a lot of pressure.

So I think their intuition is certainly

that there is a planetary ecological crisis going on.

On one hand, we have the technology that we live

in our Western society that we use on a daily basis.

And that technology separates us from connecting.

And in the natural world, we have technology.

We have these powerful morphogenic fields all

around us that we can tap into.

We can also use ceremony, ritual,

invocation to access certain levels of intelligence.

So it's through the use of plant medicines

and through the study of ancestral technologies

that we're able to get all of those things

without actually having to use these devices that cause us

to seek outside of ourselves.

Even though most are derived from plants,

our medicines can also contribute to our disconnection

from consciousness.

Most pharmaceuticals are derived from plants.

And typically, what happens is that the researchers will zero

in on the one most potent compounds that

has the action that they want physiologically.

But plants have thousands and thousands

of compounds that are complex.

And what that complexity means is that the side effects

are less, that our bodies have evolved to have this very

profound kind of healing.

When we just try to focus in on the one compound

and sort of sledgehammer ourselves with that,

then we end up causing a lot of side effects.

How did we wind up here?

How have we allowed technology to intrude

so much on our spirituality?

Perhaps warnings were there, waiting

to be discovered all along.

Nag Hammadi, Egypt, 1945, a collection

of ancient papyrus texts are discovered in an earthen jar.

The writings were poetic reflections and poems

covering philosophy, personal spiritual knowledge, mysticism,

and the origins of the universe.

Treated as heresy by the Orthodox Christian Church,

these texts came to be known as the Gnostic Gospels.

The Gospels speak of archons, malevolent and powerful

demonic beings that could control the thoughts

and actions of humans.

The archons were deeply feared by the ancients for the chaos

and suffering they could bring.

Could they represent some of the oppressive systems that

influence modern-day society?

Perhaps the Gnostic Gospels were actually

warning us of forces that are now pushing us away

from spiritual consciousness.

If you go beyond the realms of form,

you're dealing with different states of consciousness.

One of the names given to this force

is archons or archontic, which comes from the Gnostic belief

system.

And this archontic awareness is extremely psychopathic,

extremely distorting, and it's distorting the reality

that we are living in.

And if you don't hold your consciousness, awareness

in that balanced state and therefore, not get pulled in,

it will pull you in.

That's what's happened in this world.

We collectively have accrued, amassed so much trauma.

And that trauma has caused us to,

in general, be very disassociated.

Because we are disconnected, we give our power away

unknowingly.

And this power has been so readily taken and received

by other forces that are utilizing it.

It is a collective consciousness that

has been empowered through our own choices

and our own ignorance.

Is this an external battle between good and evil,

or rather, an internal war between our thoughts

and our perceptions of separation?

Do origin stories such as the expulsion of Eden

suggest the loss of oneness at the expense of higher cognitive

function?

Ethnobotanist Terence McKenna posited

that our departure from primate to human

began with the consumption of fungi.

Terence McKenna in his book "Food of the Gods"

talks about the descent of humans from the trees

into foraging on the ground below and discovering

psilocybin mushrooms growing out of bovine patties.

These mushrooms sharpen eyesight and hearing,

and they also facilitate expanded awareness

that he believes were instrumental in the development

of language.

The mushrooms grow in the manure of the cattle.

When the hunting packs of early primates followed along

behind the cattle, they inevitably

encountered the mushroom, ate it,

had their visual skills thereby increased.

There are many other cultures that refer to plant medicine,

such as ayahuasca or psilocybin, as communicating with them when

they ingested them and teaching them many survival skills,

not only to improve their health or their connection with nature

but also rituals to bond the community together

and to facilitate their communion with expanded states

of awareness.

These alternative theories of human evolution additionally

call into question the theory of natural selection and how we

see ourselves in the evolutionary story.

Symbiosis, this relationship between species for mutual

benefit, this is what drives evolution.

It's what drives life on the planet, a cooperation

rather than competition and survival of the fittest

of that whole Darwinian model.

That's an older way of looking at things.

Competition happens for sure, but it's much less important

in the grand scheme of things.

We've got to wake up to the fact that we are out of harmony

with nature.

And then we have to wise up in the sense

that, what do we do now?

How do we change our behavior to bring ourselves back

into harmony?

If psychedelic plants like ayahuasca can reconnect people

to the Earth, could plants be orchestrating

humanity's continued evolution of consciousness?

Is it possible this ancient knowledge accepted

by so many of our ancestors is slowly becoming mainstream

again?

Ayahuasca has potentially many physiological benefits,

and DMT is only a part of the picture.

I mean, the ayahuasca vine itself contains

the beta-Carbolines, which recent research shows

that these beta-Carbolines, they seem to stimulate neurogenesis.

They actually stimulate production of new neurons

and formation of new connections in the brain,

particularly with the hippocampus, which of course,

is where memory is and trained.

Some military veterans struggling with PTSD have

turned to ayahuasca therapy.

Many report positive life-improving results.

While the effects can be intense,

the healing that so many experience suggests

ayahuasca's potential is worth exploring, especially for cases

where traditional treatments have been ineffective.

With legal roadblocks slowing progress,

only a few clinical studies have taken place.

One completed study found that for participants suffering

from reoccurring depression, a single dose of ayahuasca

provided long-lasting antidepressant effects.

Another study tracked the effect ayahuasca had on patients

during a six-month period.

According to the study, they displayed

improved mental health and an acceptance

of emotional independence.

Psychedelics, I feel, could be an emergency dispensation

to get us to wake up and take better care of this Earth

and learn to find ways to harmonize.

Psychedelics can enhance this awakening,

but we need to learn to use them as a tool without expecting

them to heal us because it's about a rehabilitation.

It's about an alchemical transformation.

When we start to connect to the medicines,

we start to merge with nature.

And I think that over time, we start

to dissolve that separation between us

and our natural surroundings.

The truth is we are part of nature.

We are nature.

By reconnecting with nature through psychedelic plant

medicines, we might be able to heal ourselves and reopen new

levels of consciousness that are already inside of us.

And if we are willing to follow through and use

the lessons learned after an experience, perhaps the world

itself can begin to heal, to rebuild itself

as the Garden of Eden mankind once enjoyed.

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Up next, join us as we explore the unrivaled yet misunderstood

healing ability of psychedelic plants

and how experiencing ego death can allow us to fully live.

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