Graham Hancock on Ayahuasca

[Belfegor99]

Hi all,

Just a short note for those interested, that we have an interview with author Graham Hancock about his new book Supernatural, in the latest issue of our free PDF magazine Sub Rosa:

Sub Rosa Magazine (http://subrosa.dailygrail.com)

Graham talks about his experiences with ayahuasca (as well as DMT, mushrooms, and ibogaine) and other facets of the book. There's also other interesting articles, such as one on Aleister Crowley and DMT, by Blair Blake. If it sounds interesting, take a look - love to hear some feedback (good and bad) to help us improve what we're doing.

Peace and Respect,
Greg

[gone]

Hi Greg

I downloaded this a few weeks ago after you posted it on the shaman-australis forum: good all round effort.

[Belfegor99]

Thanks Gelfer, appreciate the supportive message. I was wondering when I would bump into another SAB member elsewhere.
;)

Peace and Respect,
Greg

[Dna]

I think that Hancock to be a thorough and thought-provoking author. I am in the middle of his latest book (supernatural), having just read 'Fingerprints of the Gods'. I wonder if the opinions he has expressed in Fingerprints have been changed by his Ayahuasca and other experiences?

Dna..

[ October 22, 2005, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: Dna ]

[Vajra Guru]

I will read Hancocks new book, but have not yet. I consider myself something of a shamanic initiate, and tend to purchase any books in that arena that look interesting. So why did I not buy it? Well I am not well off and on seeing 'Supernatural' I pondered for a moment whether to part with the 20 pound, or to put it off and instead buy the book in my hand. I believe I took the better option by parting instead with the 8 pounds for 'Old Souls' by Tom Shroder. For those of you who dont know this is a book about the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson, the only scientist to ever fully and scientifically investigate reincarnation. A man who has devoted half his lifetime to this and yet been largely ignored. Some of us know his name only from the odd quote in an article where his work is mentioned. Now to compare this to Hancocks latest book would do Stevenson a dis-service, as Hancock seems to have overnight gone from the pyramids etc. to shamanism and manifested a 600 page book that hopes to be authoritive. I dont buy that. As a Buddhist and a shamanic initiate I know that to try to work out what the truths revealed by etheogens are is no easy task, and takes much time to absorb and ponder. My concern is that every psychonaut gets the initial excitement from their experiences, the big break throughs, and they want to write a book, shout there truth. Though this is not a bad thing it makes me wonder how fully he can understand this subject, or how much his opinion will alter in the near future.

However all that aside I imagine it will be an entertaining book, I am sure I will enjoy just as much hearing about Graham Hancock off his head on drugs as I did Daniel Pinchbeck, David Ike and all those merry Anthropolgists I read about in my book collection!

[Belitlil]

I, too, wanted to write a book about G'aya's insights... got as far as a couple of poems (in Spanish, btw) and this...

http://www.erowid.org/culture/art/artists_h/art_hannah.shtml

prefer the latter, really

[Dna]

My concern is that every psychonaut gets the initial excitement from their experiences, the big break throughs, and they want to write a book, shout there truth. This is definitely not the case with Hancock, who is a very scholarly and thourough Author. I am up to page 200 in his book. Be assured that the conclusions are based on reasoned arguement and they make compelling reading. This is not the case with Daivd Icke, for example. I read his 'Truth Vibrations' in 1992(?) and found it to be very trippy and a little too far out for me. He seems to have since gone on to talk about an evil reptilian race etc... I suspect he is somewhat deluded. I went to see a talk by him at around that time too. A friend of mine who organised the talk found him a depressing presence who only wanted to talk about 'his stuff' and was not really grounded in this reality at all. I think I'll go wash the dishes now, and then mow the lawn.

;)

Dna.

[ October 22, 2005, 09:44 PM: Message edited by: Dna ]

[Lowlight]

Tom Shroders book is amazing. Ive got hancocks latest but have yet to start it...to much to do.

[felix4life]

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=2068802005

Drugs, art and the aliens who lit our way to civilisation

ANNA SMYTH

GRAHAM HANCOCK is breathless. He's telling me about his first hallucinogenic trip in the Amazon jungle, and he just can't get the words out fast enough. The former journalist and now bestselling science writer spent five weeks living with indigenous Indian shamans in Peru, where he ingested a sacred plant drug known as ayahuasca.

We pick up the story just after the shaman began the ritual ceremony by singing the icaros, ancient chants which draw the spirits around the circle. Hancock then took a sip of the drug, which he describes as a "vile-tasting liquid, so strong and bitter-sweet and salty, so dark and concentrated as to be repellent". His muscles involuntarily relax, he closes his eyes and then the visions begin.

"I had a very scary beginning to that trip," he says. "I saw incredible transformations of different animals and beings glowing with light that appeared directly in front of my field of vision. It was a typical scene which many describe as an alien abduction. They were very anthropic, and definitely wanted to communicate with me. It was rather like going to a strange new country, where I had to start learning the rules of communication."

Getting deeper into the experience, Hancock took another dose of the drug, but his body couldn't take it. The nausea came on strong and soon he was out in the dark, puking. Before long he was drenched in sweat with only dry heaves left. He sank to the ground and called an end to the trip because he was so afraid. He opened his eyes, and the visions left him. You could conclude from this account - detailed in Hancock's latest book, Supernatural - that Hancock is just another traveller keen to acquaint himself with the customs of new cultures. But there is a little more to this trip than meets the eye.

A reporter by trade, Hancock was born in Edinburgh before moving to India in his childhood. He returned to attend school and university in Durham, from where he graduated in 1973 with a degree in sociology. He went on to pursue a career in journalism, writing for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Guardian.

But in the 1980s he gave up newspaper reporting to pursue his own passion - the lost civilisation of man. In the past 20 years, he's written several books including the best-selling Sign and Seal on the Ark of the Covenant - as well as filming documentaries about his research.

"Three years ago I decided to go back to the subject which fascinated me at university," he says. "I was interested in human origins, in what makes us different from the apes. I found that it wasn't the use of tools, as many people believe, but abstract thought and the ability to manipulate symbols." The answer was art. Cave paintings and writings which depicted thoughts and visions, none of which have ever been achieved by other species. In fact, even our human ancestors had no artistic capability. Or not until 40,000 years ago, at least.

"Previously, we were very uncreative and boring. We used the same tools continually without modifying them. Then, suddenly, a light switched on in our brain. Fossils from 40,000 years ago show that we began to explore spirituality, looked for signs of life after death and innovated specialised tools. And we began to paint. In France, Italy and South Africa and all over the world, they've discovered incredibly accomplished paintings, but no explanation for this burst of development."

This has been termed the "greatest riddle in archaeology", and many academics have devoted their career to its study. The reason behind the sudden transformation, the majority have concluded, is hallucinogenic plants. Magic mushrooms would be a relevant example, but all over the world, man stumbled across drugs which opened the possibility for spiritual, creative thought.

Professor David Lewis-Williams, of South Africa's Witwatersrand University, believes that is the end of the story. These visions - and therefore the art they produced - were universal because all of mankind has the same neurology. Our brains are wired in the same way, so when we take these drugs, our bodies have the same response. Indeed, at the University of New Mexico, researchers have found that volunteers given hallucinogenic drugs drew the same kinds of paintings as those found in the ancient caves. This, coupled with a wealth of other evidence, supports Lewis-Williams' theory that drugs are the answer.

For most people that explanation would suffice, but not for Hancock. He could not accept that the beginnings of human spirituality came down to brain chemistry. For him, there had to be more to it, and he decided to investigate, hence the first-hand research trip.

What he has found - and what forms the basis of his new hefty tome - is a theory that to many will sound absurd. He believes that when shamans and drug users experience these hallucinations, they are actually tapping into a parallel universe. The visions - be they of fairies, elves or aliens - are real, they exist all the time, and they want to communicate with us.

"Think of it as though the brain is like a TV receiver. In order to cope with everyday life, we have to tune into "Channel Normal" for the majority of the time. But if we retune our brains with these drugs, or alter our state of consciousness through rhythmic dancing and drums, we can see images of the parallel dimensions."

Hancock does not prescribe for a second to the idea that when people experience "alien abductions", they are seeing foreign creatures that may whisk them to another planet. What he does believe is that the spirits dwell in this other dimension, and if we let them, they will continue the teaching that they gave to our ancestors.

"I believe these hallucinogenic experiences are the basis for all modern-day religions. If you think about it, why would we ever have cause to imagine a spirit world? Our uncreative ancestors didn't, but then they found these drugs and saw for themselves the spirit world, and realised there was more to life. I think religion resulted from the need to explain these supernatural encounters."

A sceptic would maintain that, outwith the experience of those on drugs or in a trance, there is no evidence to support Hancock's theory. And many could take offence to his assertion that when Mohammed, Jesus Christ and St Paul thought they were experiencing God, they were, in fact, just accessing the parallel world. Part of the problem with accepting this higher plane comes in locating its origin. If these spirits are the "ancient teachers of mankind", as he says, where did they come from? In this instance, as with every other, Hancock points to science. Prepare for the most astonishing claim yet. "The secret could be in our DNA," he says. "When Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA, died, it was revealed that his first vision of the helix module occurred while he was on LSD. Although he was an atheist, he then published a book which subscribed to the theory of intelligent design, that our universe was not simply the result of a series of chemical accidents.

"In brief, what he said was that after the Big Bang, life did not evolve first on Earth. At the far side of the universe, another civilisation developed, a highly advanced civilisation who surpassed the stage we have currently reached. He asserted that in some way their world became threatened - global warming, or some such catastrophic event - and so they devised a way to pass on their existence. They genetically-modified their DNA and sent it out from their planet on bacteria, with the hope that it would collide with another planet. It did, and that's why we're here." What Hancock goes onto explain is that the DNA was encoded with messages from that other civilisation.

They programmed the molecules so that when we reached a certain level of intelligence, we would be able to access their information, and they could therefore "teach" us about ourselves, and how to progress.

Of course, this talk of aliens sending off bacteria sounds like the ramblings of a deranged guest on a Jerry Springer show. But the astonishing thing is that Hancock is intelligent and articulate, and his writing is as expert as you would expect from an esteemed international correspondent.

Precisely because he is so credible, his idea will no doubt entice those looking for more conspiracy theories, and you need only look as far as Dan Brown to see the commercial success available.

But to give him credit, Hancock at no point claims these discoveries for himself, he always points to archaeologists and scientists who have been fascinated by similar concepts. Indeed, all that he asks for is that people more qualified than himself, investigate the questions he raises.

"I know [this] sounds preposterous and pointless to anyone committed to objective science. The more closely I pursued these questions, however, the more convinced I became that they point towards matters of extraordinary substance, and that science has done us an immense disfavour by its policy of ridiculing and discouraging all rational inquiry in this area."

• Supernatural by Graham Hancock £20 published by Century. Graham Hancock will be appearing at Borders, Glasgow on 18 October at 6pm. Tickets available on 0141 222 7700.

[Dna]

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> &quot;The more closely I pursued these questions, however, the more convinced I
became that they point towards matters of extraordinary substance, and that science has done us an immense disfavour
by its policy of ridiculing and discouraging all rational inquiry in this area.&quot; </pre>[/QUOTE]Yep, I like that. We have been done an immense disfavour.

Dna

[ October 24, 2005, 07:43 AM: Message edited by: Dna ]

[Vajra Guru]

Science has not done me an immense dis-favour in this matter. I have done my own research with various etheogens, and worked with many psychic methods, despite the opinions of mainstream science.

On the whole people have done themselves the immense disfavour by believeing scientists know everything, and that public opion should be the guide to how they live their own lives.

It reminds me of a conversation between Carlos Castenada and Don Juan, in which Carlos rants about the Spanish stopping the Indians gaining knowledge and power etc. Don Juan appears to sympathise (sarcasticly). Carlos eventually realises he is of course talking to an Indian with a greater knowledge and power than any Spaniard he knows of. One can only truly limit, oneself, in the quest for knowledge and experience. Even the poorest and sickest person can question someone wiser than themself, eat a special plant or sit and watch their breath.

[ October 24, 2005, 05:22 AM: Message edited by: Vajra Guru ]

[Charlie]

Hi, Greg:

I downloaded both issues, and am truly impressed, from a number of perspectives:

Speaking as a former publishing professional, the graphic design in Sub Rosa is uniformly excellent.

You've really taken advantage of the digital format by incorporating multi-media hot links (like the Hancock audio blurbs). Very creative.

I was expecting a lot of second-hand observations, but you folks got the interviews directly from the sources. Again, very professional.

Your choice of subject matter is really at the cutting edge of visionary thought, without floating off into New Age vapidity, or bogging down in empirical mores.

Let us know when your next issue comes out...

[Belfegor99]

Heya,

Vajra Guru: Funny you should mention Ian Stevenson, he's our featured 'Profile' in Issue 3 (which hopefully will be out in December). Our cover story should also be of great interest to members on this board, although I won't mention too much about it until it's all done.

Charlie: Thanks for the feedback on the magazine, appreciate it. It's a tough gig, trying to walk that fine line between cutting edge/visionary art, history and science, without heading off into cheesier New Age subject matter.

Peace and Respect,
Greg

[Vajra Guru]

Gregor,

On a very personal level I feel totally ashamed about the response of the scientific community, towards the great and indomitable man. To go out and seek evidence for something as profound as this, knowing that both church and state are against you, and to actually find it! And then to have your colleagues ignore your findings. Every science minded human should be utterly ashamed that this is the state of the system we use to explore and understand our consensus reality.

For my small part I have offered to work with his team on the subject of my NDE, as I suppose I feel in someway it may at least cover my own personal debt, and apology, toward Dr. Stevenson.

VG

[felix4life]

Coast to Coast with George Norry: Tuesday, November 1
Best selling author Graham Hancock will talk about ancient and lost civilizations, the global flood myth and his latest book, Supernatural.