Plants as Gaian human-regulators

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by Budbro93, Aug 10, 2012.

  1. For most people this idea is radical. Most people in Western society feel that they are separate from nature, but maybe I a reaching a more nature related group of individuals. I've been considering the relationship between humans and shamanistic/psychotropic plants. Cannabis is a fine example of a plant which has a symbiosis with humans via their phytocannabinoids. On a broader scale plants such as ayhauasca, Iboga, pscilocibe (yes I know it's a fungus), cocao, etc.. used in shamanic rituals bring a deep understanding of our environment and ourselves within it. You will not find traditional aboriginal people trampling on the Earth like it is a garbage dump, in stark contrast to modern societies- societies which ban the use of shamanic plants.

    From approx. 200,000 BC - 35,000 BC humans consumed shamanic plants ritualistically and regularly and so nothing is found of human civilization at this point. Why then would humans with the same brain capacity as ours, capacity for speech and tool making, and group organization, not make civilization and somehow aprox. 8,000 BC suddenly appear in climax as the Sumerians? I submit that the biosphere is a self-regulating living system and that humans are just one unit of organization within that self-regulating system and that certain plants which produce alkaloids (such has ayahuasca, anamita muscaria, Iboga, coffee, etc.) are all hormones produced by this self-regulating system-- I prefer to call it Gaia-- and that ingestion is the method by which the human organization is regulated.

    However, a break in this link has brought us to a point of destroying nature necause of our disconnection: like a cancer which no longer receives the proper information for regulatory growth and death. I submit that human expansionism is the cancer of our planet and if we do not cure ourselves before leaving Earth we may very well take our cancer else where. Humans civilizations which do not have direct access to the Gaian mind -- the planetary subconscious of nature-- become lethal to their environment and their neighbors. the most violent civilizations around our the ones which denounce inner cultivation and boundary dissolution.

    Which brings me to my last point on the Ego as a primary effect of this disconnectedness, and the main driving factor in all human-caused problems. Plants psychedelics dissolve boundaries, the primary boundary being that of the self and the world- the initial feeling of separation and thus formation of the Ego. The Ego is a social convention: it is a quaking mess of paranoia based on fear of death, pain, and loss and the primary wrench in our cogs as a species. We are all the same, human, and to fight among ourselves as we do when we separate ourselves from one another is madness and a hideous discord of nature.

    If you cannot see that your body belongs to the Earth, your blood to the water, and breathe to the skies, and that you are the Big Bang (or creative process) still banging away saying "yoohoo here I am! look how I shine"- then you can't see the forest for the Universe. So how can this be dissolved? There are many ways, but the most direct is the use of shamanic plants. It is possible to practice meditation to achieve endogenous releases of N-N-DMT which is a shamanic experience on it's own level, and everyone should try it at least once, but it can take a very long time depending on person to person.

    Just some thoughts, sorry for the eye-bleeding paragraphs. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I drew from Stoned Ape Theory, Gaia theory, and personal experience -each plant having it's own consciousness related by chemicals, expressed often as "faries, spirits," etc.
     
  2. There has actually been a vibrant debate in western academia over the last 30 years concerning the social construction of nature, and how this extends across cultural barriers. The proliferation of political ecology as a recognized discipline has been a recent phenomenon and i don't think we've yet seen the apex of intellectual investigation on the subject. Check out the work of Demeritt, Cronon, or Bamford. Lots of others, but that gives you some variety.

    Is there a chance perhaps you're not giving enough weight to the other non-psychotropic plants that humans and primate ancestors casually domesticated over millennial? Cultural traditions concerning sustenance foods have long been documented as intimately related to the resulting cultural superstructure.

    I don't mean to be rude, but this is.... an incredibly bigoted thing to say. It may not have negative connotations, but you're ascribing a very specific kind of attitude, outlook and lifestyle to multiple groups of distinct peoples, based on a (mis)perceived genetic distinction.

    It's also flagrantly untrue. Both historically and in modernity.

    You're ascribing to the "noble savage" narrative. A notoriously potent European idea which has been alive and well since the time of the Roman Empire.

    The Sumerians, by no means, "suddenly appear in climax". There are lots of other civilizations before the Sumerians. And if you asking what distinguished the Sumerians from these other cultures? A prolific common language.

    You're attributing intelligent regulation to a system of biochemical interaction that can be sufficiently explained through organic chemistry?

    I like the Gaia hypothesis, I do. I find it comforting.... but not compelling.

    I'd respond by saying that your premise is fundamentally incorrect. Expansionism is not exclusive to humans, or mammals, or invertebrates or even animals. I would argue that the nature of homeostatic equilibrium only works if all lifeforms are equitably expansionist.

    Again, this is demonstrably untrue.

    I think you're using the new-age definition of 'ego'. Not the Neo-Freudian defintion that's commonly used in sociology.

    I don't think it's for everybody, but i definitely dig the idea of people experimenting with their consciousness.
     
  3. Yea i've been thinking/learning about this. Exploring one's consciousness, I think, is an essential part of the human experience. If I may, i'd like to suggest reading some of Terence Mckenna's work/findings. You might find you like him.
     
  4. It's an interesting concept, but I feel that our disconnect from nature is due to the rise of civilization, not the disuse of these alkaloids.
     
  5. We are not really disconnecting from nature as individuals. But many are seperayed from.nature and can't get to it
     

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