Module 4 | Post 2 Indigenous medicine

This is one of many posts on indigenous medicine. The different perspective on healing and the alternate view of our connection and relationship to nature offers opportunities for healing and health not available in western medicine.  In this article, an M.D. relates his experience and learning during a 6 year study beside indigenous healers in the Amazon and the use of their medicines, specifically Ayahuasca tea to heal a variety of ailments that defy western methods. 

http://www.know-thyself.org/using-indigenous-medicinal-knowledge.html

Another interesting book on this topic is called “The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge” by Jeremy Nasby.   I read this book several years ago and it is a fascinating account of an anthropologist who spent time in the amazon studying the connections between shamanism and molecular biology and at the end of the book, discusses how his own world view is fundamentally altered by his research and experiences with the people he studied.  Whatever the contention with his findings and methods, the impact on his views is very  interesting for our course.  Jeremy returned a few years later to complete a documentary video called Night of the Iliana available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9zimhLIGA.

 

 

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