Contact:
Ken Siman
Tarcher/Putnam
212-951-8582
[email protected]
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origings of Knowledge, a Book by Jeremy Narby, Ph.D.
"The first time an Ashanica man told me he had learned the medicinal properties of plants by drinking a hallucinogenic brew, I thought he was joking ,"said Narby. "Ten years later, I discovered that much of what Amazonian shamans told me corresponds exactly to the latest findings of molecular biologists researching DNA."
When Narby tried the Indians' hallucinogenic brew, ayahuasca, he too saw brilliant multicolored snakes. But being a pragmatist, he initially discounted these visions. However, in recent years, as Narby began following the latest findings in molecular biology, he became haunted by the stories his Indian sources had told him. So he began an investigation of the surprising similarities between shamanism and science.
Digging into field work by other anthropologists, Narby found that shamans on all five continents talk of a cosmic serpent, a very long single and double entity that is the key to life. They also report seeing twins, twisted ladders and sky ropes in their visions. Many say that this form shows them that the life principle is the same for all species.
Among Narby's most astonishing discoveries were paintings and drawing done by shamans of their own visions showing identifiable bio-molecular forms, such as the double helixes of DNA, triple helixes of collagen, and chromosomes duplicating during cell division. Could it be that scientists and shamans are converging on the same discoveries about life after centuries of following diverging paths?
When I talked with scientists, they described DNA as if it were the product of an intelligence," said Narby. "They call it an information-storage and duplication device, a text, or a program. When I asked them about this, they still maintained it was the result of chance. And this is biology's blind spot. But some scientists admit that it's getting harder to believe in random evolution, because the old theory cannot explain their new data. A few are willing to consider that perhaps they might learn something by talking with shamans."
Narby argues that bringing shamanism and science together could lead to a deeper understanding of such cutting-edge issues as bio-ethics, medicine, genetic engineering, and the urgent need to protect not only biodiversity in the Amazon rain forest, but the complex knowledge of shamans -- the native doctors and scientists -- in ecosystems around the world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jeremy Narby, Ph.D, is co-author with Jacques Dubochet of Voting on DNA: Science, Democracy and Genetic Engineering. Narby lives in Switzerland, and will be on a book tour in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York April 21-28. To set up an interview, contact Ken Siman at Tarcher/Putnam, 212/951-8582.
ORTHODOXY THAT EVOLUTION OCCURS BY CHANCE IS CHALLENGED
IN THE COSMIC SERPENT: DNA AND THE ORIGINS OF KNOWLEDGE
ANTHROPOLOGIST JEREMY NARBY FINDS CONNECTION BETWEEN AMAZONIAN SHAMANISM AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
To arrange interview with Narby, contact Ken Siman at Tarcher/Putnam, phone 212/951-8582
For many years, scientists have assumed that there is no direction in evolution, that life itself evolved by chance and that changes are random. But the more scientists understand about DNA, the key to evolution, the harder it is getting for them to believe that there is no intelligence in nature's design.
"Scientists are now having to take seriously what shamans -- the primitive scientists of cultures around the world -- have been saying for centuries," said Jeremy Narby, Ph.D., an anthropologist who has done extensive field work among Indians in the Amazon. In his new book, THE COSMIC SERPENT: DNA AND THE ORIGINS OF KNOWLEDGE (A Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam Book; April 13, 1998; $22.95 U.S./$30.95 Canada), Narby explores the astonishing fact that the shamans from the Amazon to Siberia report seeing double helixes, like the DNA molecule, in their visions.
Narby first noticed this phenomenon among the Ashaninca Indians in Peru. When he interviewed Ashaninca doctors and shamans about how they learned their plant remedies, they told him stories of seeing serpents in their visions and communicating with these animate essences in nature.
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