Psychoactive Initiation Plant Medicines: Their Role in the Healing and Learning Process of South African and Upper Amazonian Traditional Healers (original) (raw)
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Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2012
The use of psychoactive plants by traditional healers in southern Africa appears to be a neglected area of ethnobotanical research. This article explores the healing dynamics involved in the use of popular psychoactive plant preparations known as ubulawu in the initiation rituals of Southern Bantu diviners. Research methods include a review of the literature, fieldwork interviews with Southern Bantu diviners, and an analysis of experiential accounts from diverse informants on their use of ubulawu. Findings reveal that there is widespread reliance on ubulawu as psychoactive spiritual medicines by the indigenous people of southern Africa to communicate with their ancestral spirits-so as to bring luck, and to treat mental disturbances. In the case of the Southern Bantu diviners, ubulawu used in a ritual initiation process acts as a mnemonic aid and medicine to familiarize the initiates with enhanced states of awareness and related psychospiritual phenomena such as enhanced intuition and dreams of the ancestral spirits, who teach the initiates how to find and use medicinal plants. The progression of the latter phenomena indicates the steady success of the initiates' own healing integration. Various factors such as psychological attitude and familiarization, correct plant combinations/synergy and a compatible healer-initiate relationship influence ubulawu responsiveness. Keywords-medicinal plants, psychotropic plants, psychospiritual healing, South African traditional medicine, traditional healers, ubulawu Anyone can use the plants [ubulawu] to connect with their ancestors. The plants give you what you are. Mama Maponya-Northern Sotho Diviner
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2012
The use of psychoactive plants by traditional healers in southern Africa appears to be a neglected area of ethnobotanical research. This article explores the healing dynamics involved in the use of popular psychoactive plant preparations known as ubulawu in the initiation rituals of Southern Bantu diviners. Research methods include a review of the literature, fieldwork interviews with Southern Bantu diviners, and an analysis of experiential accounts from diverse informants on their use of ubulawu. Findings reveal that there is widespread reliance on ubulawu as psychoactive spiritual medicines by the indigenous people of southern Africa to communicate with their ancestral spirits-so as to bring luck, and to treat mental disturbances. In the case of the Southern Bantu diviners, ubulawu used in a ritual initiation process acts as a mnemonic aid and medicine to familiarize the initiates with enhanced states of awareness and related psychospiritual phenomena such as enhanced intuition and dreams of the ancestral spirits, who teach the initiates how to find and use medicinal plants. The progression of the latter phenomena indicates the steady success of the initiates' own healing integration. Various factors such as psychological attitude and familiarization, correct plant combinations/synergy and a compatible healer-initiate relationship influence ubulawu responsiveness. Keywords-medicinal plants, psychotropic plants, psychospiritual healing, South African traditional medicine, traditional healers, ubulawu Anyone can use the plants [ubulawu] to connect with their ancestors. The plants give you what you are. Mama Maponya-Northern Sotho Diviner
An Account of Healing Depression UsingAyahuascaPlant Teacher Medicine in a Santo Daime Ritual
The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 2013
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive traditional plant medicine preparation used by the indigenous tribes of the Upper Amazon in their shamanic traditions. Its use has become popular amongst Westerners seeking alternative means of healing, and the medicine has now spread across the globe via syncretic spiritual healing traditions such as the Santo Daime Church. Despite the increased use of the medicine, little research exists on its effectiveness for healing depression. The existing literature does not contain a detailed self-reported phenomenological account of ayahuasca healing a case of depression. The aim of this paper is to share a personal account of healing depression using ayahuasca in a Santo Daime ritual in Johannesburg, South Africa. This experience was unplanned and unexpected and resulted in a profoundly transformative healing process. Based on my experience, I describe ayahuasca's ingestion as having created a powerful mind-body-spirit connection that resulted in what appeared and felt like a profound reconfiguration of the bio-electrical energy system in my body and a powerful anti-depressant action on my mind. These effects were catalyzed by a strong intention to heal and trust in and take responsibility for myself. Other South African Santo Daime members have reported healing of depression with ayahuasca, although in longer and different processes. It appears that the medicine engages the individual's unique collective self (life-history, physical and mental disposition, beliefs and intents) resulting in different outcomes for different individuals. Thus, from my own and others' experience, I describe ayahuasca as a spiritual medicine; one that promotes enhanced awareness and deeper connection to one's core self, to others and the greater universe, while facilitating the manifestation of one's intentions and beliefs. This encounter with ayahuasca provided me a first-hand experience of learning and healing from the medicine, making real to me the indigenous Amazonian description of plants as being teachers and doctors. Ayahuasca is a psychoactive plant medicine preparation used among the indigenous groups of the Upper Amazon. The word ayahuasca (also known as caapi or yage) is a Quechua term meaning 'vine of the souls' and is applied both to the beverage itself and to one of the source plants used in its preparation, the malpighiaceous jungle liana, Banisteriopsis caapi (Schultes, 1957). The preparation is made by boiling or soaking the bark and stems of B. caapi together with various other plants. The mixture employed most commonly is the Rubiaceous genus Psychotria, particularly Psychotria viridis (Schultes, 1957). The medicine is primarily used for cleansing, divination and curing illness and disease as part of indigenous shamanic practices (Luna, 1984). Shamanism involves practitioners who, by using 'techniques of ecstasy' (entering trance and enhanced states of awareness), through various means (depending on the tradition in question) such as song,
2014
Psychoactive plant research has been actively pursued over the last century around the world, particularly in the Americas. Yet, southern Africa has often been regarded to have relatively few psychoactive plant species of cultural importance with little research conducted on the region’s potential psychoactive flora. However, in the last decade, renewed interest has occurred in the study of psychoactive plants from southern Africa. Recent anthropological studies have demonstrated the significance of psychoactive plant medicines in the initiation process of southern African traditional healers and in treating mental illness, while numerous ethnopharmacological studies have screened southern African plants for psychotropic activity, with promising new findings and research directions resulting. Yet, despite this great progress, the indigenous cultural (ritual) uses of psychoactive plants by the indigenous people of southern Africa remains a neglected area of ethnobotanical research. Aspects identified as requiring further study include: the indigenous cultural understandings of mental illness and psychoactive plants, the role of psychoactive plants in the spiritual practices of southern African traditional healers, the influence of various psychoactive plant species used in traditional formulas and the folklore and mythology relating to indigenous psychoactive plants. Thus, much is still to be learnt and documented from the southern African traditional healers regarding their worldview and their botanical, diagnostic, methodological and healing knowledge that can provide insights into the treatment of mental illness and the actions of psychoactive plants.
Southern Africa: The Forgotten Cradle of Psychoactive Healing Plants
Folia Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2014
This paper summarizes and contextualises the history of psychoactive plant research in South Africa as well as the recent advances made in the field. Hypothesized mechanisms by which African psychoactive plants heal the mind are highlighted. Key areas requiring further research include: the indigenous cultural understandings of mental illness and psychoactive plants, the role of psychoactive plants in the spiritual practices of southern African traditional healers, the influence of various psychoactive plant species used in traditional formulas, the use of African psychoactive plants in treating drug addiction and the folklore and mythology relating to indigenous psychoactive plants.
Healing with Plant Intelligence: A Report from Ayahuasca
Anthropology of Consciousness
Numerous and diverse reports indicate the efficacy of shamanic plant adjuncts (e.g., iboga, ayahuasca, psilocybin) for the care and treatment of addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, cluster headaches, and depression. This article reports on a first-person healing of lifelong asthma and atopic dermatitis in the shamanic context of the contemporary Peruvian Amazon and the sometimes digital ontology of online communities. The article suggests that emerging language, concepts, and data drawn from the sciences of plant signaling and behavior regarding "plant intelligence" provide a useful heuristic framework for comprehending and actualizing the healing potentials of visionary plant "entheogens" (Wasson 1971) as represented both through firstperson experience and online reports. Together with the paradigms and practices of plant signaling, biosemiotics provides a robust and coherent map for contextualizing the often reported experience of plant communication with ayahuasca and other entheogenic plants. The archetype of the "plant teachers" (called Doctores in the upper Amazon) is explored as a means for organizing and interacting with this data within an epistemology of the "hallucination/ perception continuum (Fischer 1975). "Ecodelic" is offered as a new linguistic interface alongside "entheogen" (Wasson 1971).
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 2002
This paper investigates the use of plants for psychoactive purposes in southern African healing traditions. Information on psychoactive plant use was gathered by screening the ethnobotanical literature and interviewing 15 traditional healers on their use and prescription of plants for psychoactive purposes in South Africa. This information was subsequently compiled into an inventory. The inventory lists 306 plants, representing 94 families, with psychoactive uses in southern Africa. The plants listed in the inventory were arranged alphabetically by family, followed by the botanical species name, ethnic names and corresponding ethnic groups utilising the plants for psychoactive purposes, and literature reports on psychoactive use. Where available, information on plant part used, preparation, dosage, route of administration, known and potentially active psychoactive ingredients and personal fieldwork notes were included. Particular families contain high numbers of species used for psychoactive purposes. The chemotaxonomic research cited indicates that the presence of compounds with potential psychoactivity may account for the higher number of species per family used. Watt (1967) appears to have made the last comprehensive review investigating psychoactive plant use in southern Africa. Therefore, this inventory is a new and useful synthesis on the important, but thus far neglected, area of psychoactive plant use in southern Africa. The high number of species reported as having psychoactive uses from the literature supports the hypothesis that southern Africa has a flora that is rich in psychoactive chemicals that is substantially utilised by indigenous groups. ACANTHACEAE Crabbea hirsuta Harv. [(S) letsuijana/mereko] Sotho diviners use unspecified parts in conjunction with divining dice in South Africa (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). Unspecified groups in Zimbabwe use the roots administered in porridge for madness (Gelfand et al., 1985). ADIANTACEAE Pellaea calomelanos (Swartz) Link [mumvuriwedombo (Sh)] The whole plant is taken as an infusion or smoked for convulsions in Zimbabwe (Gelfand et al., 1985). ALLIACEAE Agapanthus campanulatus Leighton [leta-la-phofu (S), ubani (Z)] Unspecified parts are used by the Sotho in South Africa to treat people "who have the spirit", which appears to be a type of mental disturbance (Laydevant, 1932). The Zulu use unidentified species of Agapanthus for inducing visions (imibono) and dreams in South Africa (Nonkazimlo Podile, pers. comm.). Tulbaghia alliacea L. f. [wild garlic] Unspecified groups administer rhizome infusions as enemas for fits in the Transkei, South Africa (Hutchings et al., 1996). Tulbaghia capensis A plant resembling this species is reported to be used in South Africa with Boophane disticha (L. f.) Herb. to induce visions (imibono: Zulu) (G. Mpai, pers. comm.). Tulbaghia leucantha Bak. [false garlic, mhondya (Sh)] Unspecified parts are administered in powder form and eaten in porridge for madness in Zimbabwe (Gelfand et al., 1985). AMARYLLIDACEAE Boophane disticha (L. f.) Herb. [bushman poison bulb, leshoma (S), incwadi (X), incotho (Z)] The Sotho and Xhosa use bulbs as narcotics (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). Unspecified groups use a weak decoction of the bulb scales which is commonly administered as a profound sedative to violent, psychotic patients (Van Wyk & Gericke, 2000). The plant is also given to newly circumcised Sotho initiates, producing a stupor (Jacot Guillarmod, 1971). The narcotic alkaloid heamanthine, distichine and buphanine and a water-soluble alkaloid have been isolated from the bulbs (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). Traditional healers and patients in South Africa drink bulb infusions to induce hallucinations for divinatory purposes, and also as a medicine to treat mental diseases. However, many injuries result from the toxic use of this plant (J.F. Sobiecki, pers. obs.). Crinum species [umduze (Z)] An unidentified species is reported to be used in the same way as Boophane disticha (L. f.) Herb. for inducing hallucinations in South Africa (Ruven Naidoo, pers. comm.).
An Account of Healing Depression UsingAyahuascaPlant Teacher Medicine in a Santo Daime Ritual
Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 2013
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive traditional plant medicine preparation used by the indigenous tribes of the Upper Amazon in their shamanic traditions. Its use has become popular amongst Westerners seeking alternative means of healing, and the medicine has now spread across the globe via syncretic spiritual healing traditions such as the Santo Daime Church. Despite the increased use of the medicine, little research exists on its effectiveness for healing depression. The existing literature does not contain a detailed self-reported phenomenological account of ayahuasca healing a case of depression. The aim of this paper is to share a personal account of healing depression using ayahuasca in a Santo Daime ritual in Johannesburg, South Africa. This experience was unplanned and unexpected and resulted in a profoundly transformative healing process. Based on my experience, I describe ayahuasca's ingestion as having created a powerful mind-body-spirit connection that resulted in what appeared and felt like a profound reconfiguration of the bio-electrical energy system in my body and a powerful anti-depressant action on my mind. These effects were catalyzed by a strong intention to heal and trust in and take responsibility for myself. Other South African Santo Daime members have reported healing of depression with ayahuasca, although in longer and different processes. It appears that the medicine engages the individual's unique collective self (life-history, physical and mental disposition, beliefs and intents) resulting in different outcomes for different individuals. Thus, from my own and others' experience, I describe ayahuasca as a spiritual medicine; one that promotes enhanced awareness and deeper connection to one's core self, to others and the greater universe, while facilitating the manifestation of one's intentions and beliefs. This encounter with ayahuasca provided me a first-hand experience of learning and healing from the medicine, making real to me the indigenous Amazonian description of plants as being teachers and doctors. Ayahuasca is a psychoactive plant medicine preparation used among the indigenous groups of the Upper Amazon. The word ayahuasca (also known as caapi or yage) is a Quechua term meaning 'vine of the souls' and is applied both to the beverage itself and to one of the source plants used in its preparation, the malpighiaceous jungle liana, Banisteriopsis caapi (Schultes, 1957). The preparation is made by boiling or soaking the bark and stems of B. caapi together with various other plants. The mixture employed most commonly is the Rubiaceous genus Psychotria, particularly Psychotria viridis (Schultes, 1957). The medicine is primarily used for cleansing, divination and curing illness and disease as part of indigenous shamanic practices (Luna, 1984). Shamanism involves practitioners who, by using 'techniques of ecstasy' (entering trance and enhanced states of awareness), through various means (depending on the tradition in question) such as song,
Psychoactive botanicals in ritual, religion and shamanism
Chapter 18 in: Ethnopharmacology, E. Elisabetsky & N. Etkin (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Theme 6.79. Oxford, UK: UNESCO/Eolss Publishers. http://www.eolss.net, 2005
Psychoactive plants have played an important role in medicine, religion, ritual life, and recreation since ancient times. In shamanic religions, which appear to have dominated throughout much of human pre-history, trance induced by psychoactive plants and other techniques permits direct contact with the divine. For this reason, plant hallucinogens and other psychoactive botanicals have been considered by cultures throughout history as "plants of the gods": sacred substances that bring knowledge, power, healing, and mystical insight, but that must be used with utmost respect and caution. With the spread of Christianity, and especially since the Inquisition and Conquest of the New World, the religious use of psychoactive plants has been severely and sometimes violently suppressed. Western scientific and popular interest in psychoactive plants enjoyed a resurgence in the mid-twentieth century, though the excesses of the 1960s "psychedelic era" provoked a backlash, exacerbating existing biases within the scientific, medical, and law-enforcement establishments. Psychoactive compounds produce their peculiar effects on consciousness by mimicking the chemical structures of neurotransmitters or otherwise altering the transmission of nerve impulses. Over the past two hundred years, chemical and physiological studies of natural psychoactive compounds and their synthetic derivatives have resulted in major contributions to medicine and neuroscience. This chapter presents an overview of twenty-two important psychoactive plants used in religious or ritual settings throughout the world, with supplementary information on ten additional species. The cultural and historical background for each plant is presented alongside pertinent botanical, chemical, and pharmacological information. An appendix provides a summary of the names, traditional and biomedical uses, and active components of plants discussed in the text. A general introduction and concluding discussion help set the topic of psychoactive plant use within the intertwined historical, social, philosophical, scientific, and contemporary legal contexts.