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| Saturday, 22 March |
Legacy of the Shamans: |
| Ancient Traditions and New Dimensions |
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| 08.15 – 08.45 | Room Singapore | Tune In |
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| Kajuyali Tsamani Freeing from Straining Energies We permanently burden ourselves with straining energies, which can be the cause of our physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses. With the help of proper breathing, and by becoming aware of our vitality, we can free ourselves from these energies and boost our wellbeing. This ancient practice from the Andes will be improved by sacred chants, music, and offerings. No entrance after the beginning! |
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| 09.00 – 10.30 | Room San Francisco | Panorama |
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The Legacy of the Shamans: Daniel Pinchbeck: "Breaking Open the Head": An Iboga Initiation with the Bwiti in Gabon |
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| 11.00 – 12.30 | Room San Francisco | |
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| Claudia Müller-Ebeling Entheogens and their Visionary Expression: A Time Travel through Art and Culture (German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng) In her illustrated talk, noted art historian and ethnologist questions if experiences with magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca and other DMT-containing substances are related to typical visionary forms of expression. Based on literary records, personal accounts and works by ethnicities, and from contemporary Western artists, she demonstrates that inspiration can clearly be attributed to experiences with these respective substances. |
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| 11.00 – 12.30 | Room Montreal | |
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| Panel Discussion From Ayahuasca to Zen: Paths to Expanded States of Consciousness With Bruno Martin, Nana Nauwald, Vanja Palmers, Bea Rubli, Manuel Schoch, Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller (German, without translation) Many spiritual traditions dismiss the use of psychoactive substances as catalysts for expanded or mystical states of consciousness as illegitimate shortcuts in a natural spiritual process. They identify the pharmacologically induced states as "artificial paradises" and argue, that such states differ fundamentally from states arising spontaneously or through perseverant practicing and exercising spiritual methods. This round of consciousness researchers with vast experience in exploring inner worlds will discuss the legitimacy of the use of psychoactive substances as well as the common grounds and the distinctions of these states, and their long-term effects on self-development. |
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| 11.00 – 11.40 | Room Sydney | |
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| Jeremy Narby Synergies between Science and Shamanism (English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger) Though rational observers have misunderstood shamans for centuries, times are changing. Scientists are now open- ing up to learning with their indigenous colleagues. An anthropologist active between systems of knowledge reports on a recent encounter between a leading tuberculosis researcher and a well-respected ayahuasca shaman. The goal of their collaboration is to find a cure for a deadly disease by combining visions and technology, plants and molecules. The point is to move beyond old blockages and do what it takes to solve real problems. The anthropologist Jeremy Narby is convinced that microscopes and modified consciousness can be combined in a quest for knowledge. |
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| 11.50 – 12.30 | Room Sydney | |
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| Daniel Pinchbeck "Breaking Open the Head": An Iboga Initiation with the Bwiti in Gabon (English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger) Daniel Pinchbeck will discuss his experiences taking iboga, a psychedelic rootbark inducing a trance that lasts for thirty hours, in an initiatory ceremony with the Bwiti tribe of Gabon, a small country on the equator in West Africa. The bark powder temporarily releases the soul from the body, allowing the initiate entry into the African spiritual cosmos, where he is shown the outline of his fate. Some of the Bwiti call the ceremony "breaking open the head" Pinchbeck describes how his own head was broken open, and how he has gingerly attempted to put the pieces back together again. He will finally compare his experience to a second session with ibogaine in a clinic in Mexico. |
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| 11.00 – 11.40 | Room Singapore | |
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| Torsten Passie Dreams, Trance, Ecstasy: Their Vanishing within the Cultural History of the Occident (German, without translation) Dreaming, Trance, Ecstasy are altered states of consciousness with which even prehistoric humans have searched for an access to the fields of reality that are inaccessible during the awake state. Still, for today's ethnology, it is a mystery why these states have been of such great importance for so many different people all over the world. This seminar aims to trace the cultural-historical context leading to an increasing phenomenon of exclusion and devaluation of dreaming, trance, and ecstasy within the culture of the occident. Against the outlined background, it becomes significant why the potentially consciousness expanding psychedelics underlie a basic discrimination that is factually barely justifiable. |
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| 11.40 – 12.30 | Room Singapore | |
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| Dale Pendell Plant Teachers and the Path of Eve: The Mythopoetic Roots of Psychedelic Practice in the Western Tradition (English, without translation) We will look for the mythopoetic roots of psychedelic praxis in the Western Tradition. Faust, the great necromancer, is of course the shaman, but in Eve we find our first curandera. Blake called Milton "a true Poet, and of the Devil’s party without knowing it." Norman O. Brown pointed out the links between Eve and Pandora, the "all-gifted," and that her true gift was the pharmakon. We will look at Eve as the one who dared – and the one who shared: the patron goddess of the "poison path." |
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| 11.00 – 12.30 | Room Samarkand |
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| "Rising Researchers" IV: Ayahuasca Research Moderation: Thomas B. Roberts (English, without translation) Manuel Villaescusa: Subjective short Term Effects of Ayahuasca Intake in Western psychotherapeutic Setting. A qualitative Study on the Effects experienced by European Subjects during the Week after Participation in Ayahuasca Sessions Beatriz Caiuby Labate (Authors: Rafael Guimaraes dos Santos, Isabel Santana de Rose): Brazilian Ayahuasca Religions: A bibliographical Exploration Paulo Cesar Ribeiro Barbosa: A longitudinal Evaluation of Personality Traits, psychiatric Symptoms and Quality of Life of Ayahuasca-naïve Subjects Brian Anderson: Enchantment and Ecology: Environmental Values in the Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal Kenneth W. Tupper: Ayahuasca in the 21st Century: Philosophical and Policy Challenges Rafael Guimaraes dos Santos (Co-Authors: Beatriz Cajuby Labate, Isabel Santana de Rose): Initial Approaches to the Potential of Ayahuasca as an auxiliary Tool in the Treatment of chemical Dependency |
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| 14.00 – 15.30 | Room San Francisco | Panorama |
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The Legacy of the Shamans: Kathleen Harrison: Relationships of Plants and Mushrooms with Human Cultures |
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| 16.15 – 17.45 | Room San Francisco | |
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| Kajuyali Tsamani Ayahuasca: Vine of the Soul, Cord of the Universe (Spanish, simultaneous translation Spa/Eng) Ayahuasca is a sacred plant from the Amazon, ritually used for millennia. Its power to convey visions, awareness, and wisdom, allowed indigenous people to develop a way to cohabitate, during which the healing of the social and cultural life, on a physical, mental, and spiritual level can take place permanently. The ancient, sacred tales and the ayahuasca rituals are closely connected with communal life. Nowadays, these sacred practices are shared with humans from other societies and cultures, thus receiving recovery, healing and insight, when previously, the use of ayahuasca had long been reserved to the native people. To share the knowledge and the healing properties with others is one of the most important teachings ayahuasca has been given to the natives, who initially have received it. |
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| 16.15 – 17.45 | Room Montreal |
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| Panel Discussion Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Psychedelics: A Conversation between Experts and Users With Ralph Metzner, Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch, Torsten Passie, Manuel Schoch, Moderation: Lucius Werthmüller (German, without translation) During this session you have the opportunity to ask experienced experts all your questions about the safe use of psychedelic substances. |
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| 16.15 – 17.45 | Room Sydney |
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| Kathleen Harrison Spirit in Nature: Psychedelic Plants and Mushrooms through Native Eyes (English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger) Drawing from her fieldwork in Mexico and South America, the experienced ethnobotanist will share perspectives, stories and images from the worldview and ritual practices of indigenous people who live in respectful relationship to psychoactive species. Sacred medicines and humans are seen as part of an animated fabric of beings. The presentation will look into cultures that incorporate psilocybin mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, ayahuasca, peyote or tobacco into their ceremonies, with particular focus on the enduring traditions of the Mazatec people of Mexico. |
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| 16.15 – 17.45 | Room Singapore |
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| Wolf-Dieter Storl Deities, personifying as Plants (German, without translation) "Plants are much more than what their descriptions in botanical books suggest," says Wolf-Dieter Storl. They own an intelligence and a wisdom which they can reveal to shamanic consciousness. Under the guidance of the well-known ethnologist and author we will try to approach an understanding of these worlds. |
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| 16.15 – 17.45 | Room Samarkand |
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| "Rising Researchers" V Moderation: Thomas B. Roberts (English, without translation) Kevin Feeney: Peyote Conservation and Indian Rights Aaron A. Jenks: Evolution and Origins of Salvia divinorum Henrique Soares Carneiro: Cannabis and the Afrobrazilian Tradition Juan C. Gonzalez: Hallucinogens or Lucidogens: The Debate is open Diana Reed Slattery: Communicating the Unspeakable? Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere Tom Froese: Enactive cognitive Science: Toward a scientific Re-Enchantment of the Concrete Levente Móró: Psychonauts: Systematic Phenomenology of Altered Consciousness |
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| 18.30 –20.00 | Room San Francisco |
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| Baba Rampuri The Edge of Indian Spirituality: Naga Babas, Oral Tradition, and the Psychedelic Experience (English, simultaneous translation Eng/Ger) Baba Rampuri will open The Book of the World and talk from the Oral Tradition in the context of his life among Naga Babas. Like the others in the entourage of the Indian God Shiva, the Naga Babas, naked yogi-shamans live at the margins of the world as all shamans do. Some call them "The Hell’s Angels of Indian Spirituality". Yet, even though "outsiders", they maintain a very legitimate authority and honored connection with the world. Theirs is an oral tradition, which they call the Tradition of Knowledge. Explorations and opening up of consciousness require journeys to the edge of the world, hoping to find such characters to act as our allies, protectors, and mentors. And, of course, the physical journey is only a small part. Albert Hofmann not only greatly facilitated this process, he provided one of the few ways in these times, to cross to the other side. Baba Rampuri entertains and enlightens us with accounts of his "bold journey which explores the true intersections of Eastern and Western thought," (Deepak Chopra) as he became the first foreigner to be initiated into India‘s most ancient order of yogis and shamans, the Naga Sannyasis, and a guru with a number of disciples within the order. |
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| 18.30 – 20.00 | Room Montreal |
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| Panel discussion Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Psychedelics: A Conversation between Experts and Users With Rick Doblin, Dennis McKenna, Dale Pendell, Daniel Pinchbeck, Moderation: Kathleen Harrison (English, without translation) During this session you have the opportunity to ask experienced experts all your questions about the safe use of psychedelic substances. |
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| 18.30 – 19.10 | Room Sydney |
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| Ralph Metzner Alchemical Divination: Healing the Past, Visioning Possible Futures (German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng) Alchemical divinations are processes of structured intuitive inquiry, using meditative light-fire yoga methods. We work in the spirit of the deity Janus, god of doorways, passages and transitions, whose two faces look into the past and the future. Looking into the past, we connect with unresolved aspects of our past experience, to "re-member" and integrate those into our present sense of self, with greater freedom to make choices. Looking into the future, we ask for guidance about our probable and possible futures, empowering us to realize our highest potentials. |
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| 18.30 – 19.20 | Room Sydney |
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| Christian Rätsch From Ethnomycology to Modern Mushroom Circles: Rituals beyond Space and Time (German, simultaneous translation Ger/Eng) The noted ethnopharmacologist and author of the definitive book Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants sheds light on the historical process, leading from R. Gordon Wasson’s ethnomycology to modern use of magic mushrooms in a ritual context. Christian Rätsch shows that we can experience archaic experiences in modern settings, also. |
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| 18.30 – 20.00 | Room Singapore |
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| Nana Nauwald Shamanic Visions: Awakening into Reality (German, without translation) Long standing inner and outer travels within shamanic cultures let the researcher of shamanic worlds know: they still fly and operate on the cosmic web of the world – shamans and their meanwhile manifold heirs, psychonauts between Stone Age and Internet. Plants, sound, movement, trance, and the intelligent system of our biochemistry are means of conveyance and tools for visiting and exploring the worlds of consciousness and awakening into the reality of being human. In shamanism, awakening into the diversity of reality is a way of awareness, a way of becoming human. In this seminar, Nana Nauwald will encourage us through her lively narration, through sound samples, and short exercises, to consciously, curiously, joyfully and beneficially experience and live the spirit of shamanism – according to our present-day conditions of life. |
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| 18.30 – 20.00 | Room Samarkand |
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Sylvia Thyssen and Jon Hanna |
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| 20.30 – 22.15 | Room San Francisco |
Movie |
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Jan Kounen
7th March 2008 • Subject to Alterations |
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Gaia Media Foundation
LSD Symposium 2006
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