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-- Forwarded message --
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:53:38 -0500
From: Pata de Perro [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [LEADigitalWild] the wild as seen from the wild?
I have just returned from the Putumayo, on the foothills of the Andes mountains, doorway
to the Amazon jungle in Colombia, where I spent 10 days drinking yage with a shaman.
From there the perspective is quiet different. The putumayo happens to be one of the most
biodiverse regions in the world, and the wild is definitely present.the wild
we can see (even if there is much deforestation) and the wild we learn to see through the
yage medicine (definitely sublime). There is no academia around .but there are other
forms of knowledge that replace it.The knowledge of the wild itself, the knowledge of the
different indigenous tribes that live in the region; Kofan, Inga, Kamsa and the knowledge
of the plants, rocks, animals etc... Unfortunately none of the beholders of this
knowledge will be participating in this online conversation. The wild has not been
invited to take part. But, I understand it must be quiet complicated while standing in a
US city to find representatives of the wild that would be interested in participating in
these talks and I don't blame you.
Since the wild is not taking part in the discussion, very humbly I will try to
transmit a bit of the knowledge that wilderness has given me ...certain plants,
certain indigenous people.
The key question in this discussion seems to be whether or not humanity and
technology
(+ new technology) are a part of the wild or not and if the wild is
disappearing.
Many indigenous people adhere to this first idea; that indigenous people are
the people of nature and that westerners are somehow outside of nature - and
that when the last of the indigenous people have been killed or absorbed into
western culture, the planet as a living organism (or ecosystem) will die, as it
will have lost one of the key elements to maintaining its already very
deficient balance...
Western man is considered by some indigenous people to dwell outside of nature
because he has somehow broken the laws of nature and lost harmony with nature.
A frontier has been breached. This frontier marks for example the point whence
human beings began to get sick - as it is considered that while harmony with
nature is maintained there is no possibility of sickness. This breached
frontier can also be noted by the loss of instinct (or sixth sense) on the part
of humans - the many senses that all animals share like knowing what plants are
beneficial for health (dogs know by instinct to eat grass to purge themselves)
or if an earthquake is coming etc. we have lost long ago. We have to learn
everything through others - an eye is closed within us that is open for other
animals.
(Similar to the biblical idea of the loss of the garden of eden)
Also, according to a legend from the putumayo (oral tradition passed down for centuries =
unwritten history) - the reason that the Europeans came to the Americas was because the
indigenous people of the Americas broke the laws of nature and therefore opened the
doorway that permitted the discovery and further corruption of the Americas by the
Europeans. (According to this indigenous people remained in the garden of
eden longer then us westerners - but today have also lost harmony with nature).
These are a few random stories and ideas I have heard in the Amazon region and
which I find are related to the theme at hand.
In reference to the online conversation, I found Roger Malina's coments on dark matter
and dark energy very interesting. I don't know if this energy / matter is necessarily
dark or if it called dark by the astronomers because they do not understand it (dark
could be considered also negative - air is not dark yet it is not visible) but it seems
that finding out that we only perceive 3% of the wild and that 97% of it is
invisible to us reaffirms what I learned in the putumayo and Amazonas through
yage and oral tradition - that is - that there are many dimensions other then ours and
that there is much more then meets the eye - So perhaps this dark energy/ matter are
those other dimensions? That we cannot perceive with the naked eye?
Reality is a question of perspective the indigenous perspective is different
from the scientific perspective (but the same / only the terms change really)
-(personally I find its also a more pleasant perspective as
