5 Questions for Historian of the Strange Robert Damon Schneck
Robert Damon Schneck is, in my view, today’s most literate and discriminating historian of Fortean phenomena.
Buddhism and the Psychedelic Society: An Interview with Terence McKenna
Allan Badiner conducted this following interview with Terence McKenna at Big Sur’s Esalen Institute in the Spring of 2001.
Shamanic Initiations: Stepping Into My Power
In traditional shamanic societies, healers undergo a rite of passage. Some shamans may experience direct initiation by spirit in forms of intense messages and visions in dreamtime. In 1998, I had a vision that prompted Don José Joaquin Pineda to ask me to become his apprentice.
Speaking With Nature: Black Bear
Many of us know that awesome feeling in the presence of a large, wild creature of nature. In musing with Black Bear, the sacred feminine reveals, “This primal force is who you are.”
An Introduction to One Spirit Medicine
I first encountered these practices many years ago, during my fieldwork in the Amazon and the Andes. But these traditional practices are being confirmed today by what we’re learning about the body and the brain.
The Spirit of the Stratocaster: Talking Wolves and Ayahuasca with John Sheldon
After ayahuasca taught him to connect with divine energy, guitarist John Sheldon found a scintillating focus for his life’s work, writing songs that tell a new story about wolves in North America—and how we can save them from extinction.
The Recreation of the Self
You self-identify through the things you see before you. You know your name because somebody says it. You know your identity because you were told who you were by other people. If there was nobody to say your name, who would you be?
The Ayahuasca Experience
Ayahuasca is both a medicine and a visionary aid. You can employ ayahuasca for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual repair, and you can engage with the power of ayahuasca for deeper insight and realization. If you consider attainment of knowledge in the broadest perspective, you can say that at all times, ayahuasca heals.
Navigating the Rainbow Jungle
We have a landscape of neural jungle in our brains. Modern science has given us Brainbow imaging technology, which is a magnificently beautiful way in which to view the networked jungles of brain cells without having to cut into the brain. This method, developed at Harvard University, enables scientists to locally insert a particular sort of DNA into the genome.
Nahualism: The Ancient Knowledge of Dreams
When we go to sleep, the tonal and the nahual come together, forming a unique energy body. When this energy body is formed, we reach the state that in Náhuatl is known as temixoch, that is, a blossom dream, a lucid dream, controlled at will.