American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2007

The biological foundation for a shamanic epistemology is indicated by the cross-cultural distribution of a shamanic cosmology derived from knowledge obtained during altered consciousness. These special forms of consciousness involve integrative brain conditions that access ancient ways of knowing, expressive systems, which have evolutionary roots in the communicative and social processes involved in animal displays or rituals. These were augmented over the course of hominid evolution into expressive and mimetic activities that provided a basis for significant epistemological expansions of consciousness exemplified in shamanic out-of-body (OBE) experiences. These manifestations of consciousness involved new modes of self and processes of knowing, reflecting selection for expanded symbolic brain processes that enhanced psychological, cognitive integration and extra-personal cognition. Shamanic alterations of consciousness also contributed to experiences of personal spirit essences and encounters with extrapersonal spirit presences that reflected activation of innate brain operators involving self-structures and psyche. The evolution of the hominid capacity for knowing involved new understandings of nature (animism), mind (spirits), self (power animals) and others (gods) that were elicited by shamanic practices and expressed though a shamanistic ideology. These phenomena reflect activation of innate aspects of consciousness, illustrating features of shamanism as a neuroepistemology.

2018

The Ape That Understood the Universe is the story of the strangest animal in the world: the human animal. It opens with a question: How would an alien scientist view our species? What would it make of our sex differences, our sexual behaviour, our child-rearing patterns, our moral codes, our religions, our languages, and science? The book tackles these questions by drawing on ideas from two major schools of thought: evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory. The guiding assumption is that humans are animals, and that like all animals, we evolved to pass on our genes. At some point, however, we also evolved the capacity for culture - and from that moment, culture began evolving in its own right. This transformed us from a mere ape into an ape capable of reshaping the planet, travelling to other worlds, and understanding the vast universe of which we’re but a tiny, fleeting fragment.

Shamanism and psychedelics are central to understanding the evolutionary roots of ecopsychology and its basic principles. The ancient ritual roots of shamanism constituted the context within which psychedelic experiences contributed selective influences to the evolution of human neuropsychology. Both shamanic psychology and ecopsychology involve a neuroepistemology that reflects the neurotransmitter effects of psychedelics on cognition. Shamanism contributed to the development of our ecopsychology through influences on psychological, social and cognitive evolution. Shamanism embodies the concept of animism, the notion of the spiritual essence of all nature which is recognized as the core of the oldest of humanity’s religious beliefs. Shamanism provided the context within which this animistic attitude and the sense of the sentience of the many entities of the world were developed, especially in the relationship to animals. Animal species and their variant qualities provided a natural metaphoric system to structure psychological development and the evolution of social organization. Within the context of shamanism, the worlds of animal species and spirits intertwined in the creation of symbolic potentials for the differentiation of self – embodied in animal spirit powers – and the collective identity of society – embodied in totemic animals. This incorporation of the elements of nature into personal powers and social identity made shamanic ecopsychology a basic feature of human nature and culture.

The Evolntion of Thonght Evolnlionary Origins of Great Ape 1ntelligence Research on the evolotion of higher imelligence rarely com- hines data from fields as diverse as paleomology and psychol- ogy. 1n this volome we seek to do jost that, symhesizing the approaches of ...

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2002

Psychedelic Information Theory (PIT) is a formal deconstruction of psychedelic hallucination, expanded consciousness, and shamanism, and as such it attempts to move topics which have traditionally been classified as metaphysics into fields of physics and mathematics. The goal of PIT is to unify all existing psychedelic research into a formal model which accurately describes the complex dynamics generated when a psychedelic drug is introduced into human neural and social networks. PIT is a general model which links psychedelic pharmacology directly to the nonlinear dynamics of expanded consciousness, neuroplasticity, shamanic technique, and tribal organization. This book should be equally enlightening for shamen, physicians, scientists, mathematicians, mystics, and anyone seeking to model or understand the functional limits of expanded consciousness.

Journal of Biosocial Science, 2006

Eggers S. 2006. Book review: The Metaphysics of Apes: Negotiating the Animal–Human Boundary. By Raymond Corbey. Pp. 227. J Biosoc Sci 38:845-846.

This paper will evaluate the hypothesis that the phylogenetic development of higher cognitive faculties in human beings was prompted by the prehistoric, ritualistic use of psychotropic hallucinogens, or entheogens. The ritualistic use of entheogenic drugs is a uniquely human behavior. Although ample evidence supports the existence of a preference for intoxicated states among elephants, chimpanzees, and some butterflies (McKenna 1992:XVI), no other species replicates our elaborate, culturally institutionalized relationship with the metabolites of psychoactive plants. The use of plants by humans can be considered a cultural mimetic complex, an agglomeration of cultural knowledge and experience that has been transmitted and imitated since the beginnings of our collective history. This mimetic complex has, through the influence of physiologically active metabolites, stimulated human symbol formation, linguistic facility, and olfactory sensitization, all of which conferred important evolutionary advantages to our phylogenetic predecessors. By determining the ultimate evolutionary function of shamanic practices and the neural ecology of psychotropic-induced altered states of consciousness, we may illustrate a holistic view of plants, humans, evolution, and the transpersonal experience of psychointegration.

OBJETIVO: Capacitar al participante para realizar de una manera positiva y efectiva juegos y dinámicas. CONTENIDO PROGRAMATICO: Conceptos básicos, técnicas de conducción grupal, el juego, el animador, la dinámica • Conceptos básicos: Lic. Educación Integral Prof. Enrique González 2. FULANO SE COMIO UN PAN EN LAS CALLES DE SAN JUAN: Los jugadores se ubican en sus sillas formando un circulo. Quien dirige el juego dice: "Fulano se comió un pan en las calles de San Juan". El aludido (a) contesta: ¿Quién yo? Y responden Si, Tú al tiempo que contesta: Pero yo no fui, acto seguido se pregunta: ¿Entonces quien? A la cual el o ella responde de nuevo dando el nombre de otro participante: ¡ Fue fulanito!. Así pues, se repite el dialogo anterior, hasta que todos sean nombrados. Implementos: sillas colocadas en circulo 3. NUMEROS: Se forma una ronda con todos los participantes, los jugadores deben estar siempre en movimiento, es decir, caminando. Quien dirige el juego da la orden: "Una pareja", "Dos parejas", tres.. cuatro... etc. Al escuchar la orden, los jugadores deben tomarse de la mano. La persona que quede sin pareja o si se equivoca de número sale del juego. 10. EL REY MANDA: Quien dirija el juego hace las veces de Rey Todos los demás formaran un equipo. Cada equipo elige un nombre a fin de favorecer la animación del juego con una barra a su favor. Cada equipo elige a un representante y este será el único que servirá al Rey acatando sus ordenes. Si el rey pide por ejemplo, un reloj, el representante de cada equipo trata de conseguir el reloj en su equipo a fin de llevarlo prontamente al Rey. Solo se recibe el regalo del primero que lo entregue. Al final gana el equipo que haya suministrado más objetos. Lic. Educación Integral Prof. Enrique González