Shamanism and Science

The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge is a brilliant and thought-provoking book that argues there for the connection between the drug-induced trances of an Amazonian tribe and their creation myths are somehow related to modern genetics.
Jeremy Narby holds a Stanford PhD in Anthropology who did his dissertation on these Amazonian peoples, though this is not his dissertation. Instead it is one of the most interesting and intellectually challenging books I have ever read! It brings together so many of the issues that interest me: Religion, Science, Evolution, Physics, Cosmology, the Supernatural, and Indigenous knowledge. I initially thought of the writings of Carlos Castaneda, but there is a scientific and intellectual rigor in Narby's book that I can not find in Castaneda's writings.
I find that Narby makes a compelling case for the unity or at least the synthesis of 20th century biology, DNA, and the indigenous knowledge and visions of these South American shamans.
Reading Narby's experience of taking hallucinogens was eerie, but I could relate to some of his sensations. Your mind is never the same after these types of experiences. Though your more rational self may want to deny the reality of "altered states" of consciousness, the vividness of the experience won't allow you to deny them entirely or to dismiss the possibility of them either.
I fond myself in constant agreement with Narby about the arrogance and consequent ignorance of Western "science" and knowledge. Finally, Narby's narrative is compulsively readable. It is a tremendously important book.
Another book I taught with class of students who similarly found it provocative and insightful.
Czar