Home › Forum Online Discussion › General › Natural selections from The Cosmic Serpent, DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby
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August 5, 2006 at 11:05 pm #16245snowlionParticipant
DNA is minded and conscious
Natural selections from The Cosmic Serpent, DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby
DNA is minded and conscious. It is the living language substance of life, and it lives inside all the cells of all life forms on Earth. As your eyes scan these words, there are two meters of DNA in every single cell in your eyeballs, winding and unwinding like a snake.
How…could biology presuppose that DNA is not conscious, if it does not even understand the human brain, which is the seat of our own consciousness and which is built according to the instructions in our DNA? How could nature not be conscious if our own consciousness is produced by nature?
[Joseph] Campbell dwells on two crucial turning points for the cosmic serpent in world mythology. The first occurs “in the context of the patriarchy of the Iron Age Hebrews of the first millenium B.C., [where] the mythology adopted from the earlier neolithic and Bronze Age civilizations . . . became inverted, to render an argument just the opposite to that of its origin.” In the Judeo-Christian creation story told in the first book of the Bible, one find elements which are common to so many of the world’s creation myths: the serpent, the tree, and the twin beings; but for the first time, the serpent, “who had been revered in the Levant for at least 7000 years before the composition of the Book of Genesis,” plays the part of the villian. Yahweh, who replaces it in the role of creator, ends up defeating “the serpent of the cosmic sea, Leviathan.”
For Campbell, the second turning point occurs in Greek mythology, where Zeus was initially represented as a serpent; but around 500 B.C., the myths changed, and Zeus becomes a serpent-killer. He secures the reign of the patriarchal gods of Mount Olympus by defeating Typhon, the enormous serpent-monster who is the child of the earth goddess Gaia and the incarnation of the forces of nature. Typhon “was so large that his head often knocked against the stars and his arms could extend from sunrise to sunset.” In order to defeat Typhon, Zeus can count only on the help of Athene, “Reason,” because all the other Olympians have fled in terror to Egypt.
1. Western culture has cut itself off from the serpent/life principle, in other words DNA, since it adopted an exclusively rational point of view.
2. The peoples who practice what we call “shamanism” communicate with DNA.
3. Paradoxically, the part of humanity that cut itself off from the serpent managed to discover its material existence in a laboratory some 3000 years later.
Jeremy NarbyIntelligence of Nature MP3 : Narby gives a talk on shamanism, ayahuasceros, and his cosmic serpent idea, over a drum circle at Rhythm For Unity in Milwaukee, along with another sort of breakbeat rhythm.Wack remixes by Bobby G
August 6, 2006 at 12:56 am #16246MatthewQiParticipantI enjoyed reading his book Cosmic Serpent and DNA – or something like that. It was mentally stimulating, but I wasn’t overly impressed. It seemed to me that he was very much interested in presenting his “hypothesis”. Seemed to be playing to the academic crowd for self promotion. I do respect the field work he did and the time spent with native shamans. Maybe I misunderstand him. Maybe the only way he could communicate and feel understood was in his cultural context thus leaning on the scientific modality.
If I recall correctly, his experiences were induced by a facinating mix of two plants. One which is a hallucinagen (but can’t be readily digested) and the other a plant that allows the hallucinagen to be digested. When he asked the natives how they learned this, they said that the plants taught them. I forget the name of the plants, but I do know someone who has ingested them with a shaman. He had a really tough first experience. It cleans you out and can be very unpleasant before one is ready to experience deeper levels. In my opinion, people can tend to look at it as a short cut to enlightement without realizing they are going to do the “work” one way or another.
The connection of the Serpant and DNA is not a big deal in my opinion. Spirit is Spirit and in all things. The Serpant is symbolic of Kundalini or the intelligent all pervading life force which I have also seen interpreted as Tao – whether correctly or incorrectly.
Matt
August 6, 2006 at 4:14 am #16248snowlionParticipantI would have to agree, I found this website to be a interesting spin, I personally am not interseted with the whole expand your horizons with acid or mescaline. I had to here this over & over again in the 1970’s, even though it was more of the 1960’s thing with Dr. Leary.
It has some decent graphics, I consider myself to be more traditional not really into dissecting the whole science side of all this, maybe one day I will check out that book. There is a lengthy thing about the bardo states bu Dr. Leary it is a loooong read on Tibetan practices with pschydelic enhancers…bardo states…
until next time…Snowlion
August 6, 2006 at 12:51 pm #16250MatthewQiParticipantYes that is it. The dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is thought to be the active ingredient which is also produced in the body by the pineal gland and is thought to facilitate mystic experiences ( a link on the topic: http://www.bridgeofstars.co.uk/pineal-gland.htm).
DMT is illegal in the US, however, a peruvian religious group who drinks the tea as part of a ceremony is allowed to use it as a result of a court ruling that found that it was part of their religous freedom in America.
August 7, 2006 at 11:46 am #16252IntelligenceParticipantSorry folks, don’t care what you think..
prove me wrong with something better
and if you’ve never done an entheogen have the common sense to SHUT UP..
entheopgens are best way to experience DIVINE..
human consciousness can only sustain the divine at such an intense level for so long before needing sleep and quiet.. entheogens are MAGICK POTIONS that are, until we find something better, the best way to go..
this book is EXCELLENT..
if you missed it in the sixties DO IT NOW before you are dead.
LEARY was probably the smartest man alive
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