Introduction
Drugs
-defining the term
-religious functions
-Western uses
-traditional uses: shamans
-situational variation of effects
-classifications
Traditional Drug Use
-post-WWII awareness
-religious specialist
-focus on psychotropics
-culturally defined sense of reality
The Practice
-other elements involved
-emphasis on hallucinogens
-mind/body connection
-setting the stage: faith
-articles included on religious drug use
Article: On the Peyote Road by Mike Kiyaani, as told to Thomas J. Csordas
Peyote
-sacrament and spirit
-"road men"
-Mike Kiyaani
Peyote Religion
-history of the Native American Church
-a peyote prayer meeting
-chief peyote and the altar/fire place
-adapting a practice
Opposition
-Navajo tribal government resistance
-1994 protective federal law
Mike Kiyaani's Story
-WWII Navajo Code Talker
-Truman Daily and peyote
-experimentation
-"it talked to me"
"How it Works, How it Can Heal": A Peyote Ceremony
-patient and healer
-the "patient talks his mind"
-insight
-special ceremony at midnight
-"talking with nature"/the Almighty
Spirit Peyote
-came to the Navajo on a very hard road
-power to enter into the heart
-humility and sincerity
-appropriation by the White Man
Article: Ritual Enemas by Peter T. Furst and Michael D. Coe
Mexican Indians at Conquest
-widespread ritual drug and alcohol use
-Spaniard POV
-account of the Anonymous Conqueror
-intoxicating enemas
Mesoamerican Drug Use
-sacred nature
-alcohol
-hallucinogens
The Maya to the South
-little conquest/colonial documentation of drug use
-mushroom effigies
-worldview
-Thompson—why?
-theories and discoveries: new and old evidence
-ritual use of intoxicating enemas
Intoxicating Enemas
-among South American Indians
-distinguished from Old World enemas
-rectal delivery system
Evidence
-iconographic discoveries
-new insight into old evidence
Conclusions
-still some who practice in Middle America
-unanswered questions
-insight into the classic Maya
Article: The Sound of Rushing Water by Michael Harner
The Sound of Rushing Water: A Healing Ritual
-tsentsak
-makanchi
The Jí'varo Indians of Ecuador
-witchcraft as a major cause of illness/death
-waking life versus real life
-strong demand for specialists
Shamans
-the bewitcher and the curer
-natema
--preparation and chemical composition
Harner's Approach
-background/experiences
-underestimated centrality of the drug
The Use of Natema
-contact with the "real"
-high proportion of shamans
-"darts" and spirit helpers
The Jívaro Point of View
-regurgitation and the transfer of tsentsak
-the novice shaman
-abstinence and self-discipline
-differentiation of types
-amassing power/tsentsak
Bewitching
-victims
-throwing the tsentsak
-pasuk and wakani bird
-a test of power
Curing: A Complementary Position
-diagnosis and treatment
-curing ceremony
-sucking darts/capturing the tsentsak
-identifying the bewitcher/suspicion
Maintaining Power
-constant accumulation of tsentsak
-tobacco juice
-the rainbow
Words Fall Short
-the difficulty of conveying the reality
-the centrality of natema
Article: Psychedelic Drugs and Religious Experience by Robert S. de Ropp
Cult of the "Flower Children"
-synthetic hallucinogens
-white Americans
-spiritual forefather: William James
Psychedelic Drugs and the Religious Experience
-Leary and the seven questions
-comparison with James
-static saintliness
-ability to permanently alter level of being?
-"the most that can be said"
Other Approaches
-Masters and Houston
"nature mysticism"
-Alpert
--the highs and the lows
--psychedelics as an Upaya
How the Psychedelics Work
-wide range within "anesthetic revelation"
-Huxley and Broad: "Mind at Large"
-we can't know for sure
Legal, Social, and Spiritual Questions
-drug use in the United States
-public hysteria
-the "Young"
- Leary's "guided trip" proposal
-strong government resistance/prohibition
--effects of legislation
-avoiding the question/problem
-the "abyss of meaninglessness"
Those Who Have Partaken
-two very different groups
-the trap of overuse: a weakened will
-a personal experience
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