sbram 's review for:

The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby

3.0

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Really interesting book about shamanism. This would be a great follow up to anyone who has been listening to Terrance McKenna lectures about psychedelics. This book takes an academic but less skeptical approach to shamanism. Narby explores shamanism through a less objective anthropological lens and intertwines his own experiences with ayahuasca. His research comes from the place of “what if the shamans are to be taken directly at their word in what they believe these experiences mean?” I think that approach is super important because it does not automatically assume the Western scientific view is correct, but attempts to see if there is overlap in the two belief systems. I don’t think that Narba does an excellent job at supporting his hypothesis with research in the biological sciences however, I suspect because his field is anthropology and not biology or medicine. Nonetheless, it is an interesting read.