Tonight I read more of the Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine.

Musing 1: That "Ayahuasca... is nourished on death and overcomes it" strikes me as further evidence for Jeremy Narby's argument in The Cosmic Serpent that this brew connects us in some way to our DNA and the larger perspective of that life force shared by all living things. It is that force that both overcomes death, through reproduction, and is nourished on it, as in survival of the fittest, the circle of life, etc.

Musing 2: In DMT - Water Spirit, D.M. Turner says "DMT is never smoked or burned in the cultures where a shamanic tradition exists." Is the uncommon Huaorani practice of burning Banisteriopsis leaves the exception that proves the rule? The reason given by the shaman is that the burning technique is a method for performing witchcraft, which the Huaorani do not support.

Musing 3: The Huaorani characterization of the ayahuasca vine as an "attractor plant" reminds me of The Secret and other Law of Attraction material. They say, "This is why whenever you touch this plant you must be aware of what you are thinking, because whatever you are thinking is what you will attract to your life when you touch this plant. This is why the Huaorani seldom use this plant." Heh. If you have played around with LoA principles, you have an experience of how difficult it can be to focus solely on the positive.