PLANT CONSCIOUSNESS: A SHAMAN, A HALLUCINOGENIC TEA, AND THE GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
BY SUZIE NIMMO Suzie is currently a student on the MA Bud- dhist Art: History and Conservation course at the Courtauld, She, also completed her under- graduate at the Courtauld. Her main research interests are animal iconography, imperma- nence, centre and periphery, postcolonialism, and globalisation, as they relate to Buddhist art and its conservation. She is also very interested in the ecopolitics of contemporary ayahuasca art. Beyond the realm of art history Suzie is an avid yogi, runner, raktivist and plant-based food enthusiast. 2 ‘Nature is not mute, but modern man is deaf.’1
INTRODUCTION indigenous population of the Amazon Pablo Amaringo’s (1938-2009) has used ayahuasca.5 The brew, which series of landscapes, that have come to is said to have a heady essence remi- be known as ayahuasca visions, look niscent of the forest, contains the most like Edenic paradises.2 Los Cachibo- potent psychoactive compound known, leros (fig. 1), for example, is dense- DMT (N, N-dimethylryptamine).6 Con- ly-populated with flowers, vines, leaves suming it induces violent gastrointestinal and trees, and teeming with a myriad purging and spectacular visions.7 In of coexisting human, animal, vegetal, 1985, Amaringo began painting these hybrid, celestial and unearthly beings. visions, making his internal experience The highly saturated paintings depict visible to the external world for the first the artist’s otherworldly visionary expe- time.8 As such, the psychedelic aesthet- riences, after ingesting the entheogenic ics that resulted have been viewed as brew ayahuasca.3 This sticky, foul-tast- insights into the rich visual landscape ing tea consists of a combination of the of ayahuasca. In this narrow interpreta- banisteriopsis caapi vine with one of a tion, the subject matter of the paintings number of hallucinogenic plants such as comes from the imaginary realm, far psychotria viridis.4 For millennia, the removed from the physical experience.
1. Terence McKenna, Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge, London: Rider, 1992, p. 179. 2. Luis Eduardo Luna and Pablo Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvi- an Shaman, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1991; Howard C. Charing and Peter Cloudsley eds., The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 2011. 3. Ayahuasca is the Quechua (Native American lingua franca of the Andes) name for the brew. It is also known as yajé, caapi, natem, pindé, and karampi. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 10; John Ryan Haule, Jung in The 21st Century, Volume 2: Synchronicity and Science, Hove: Routledge, 2011, p. 32; Lesley Wylie, Columbia’s Forgotten Frontier: A Literary Geography of the Putumayo, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2014, p. 183. This essay refers to ayahuasca as an ‘entheogen’, meaning ‘a chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to produce a nonordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes’. ‘Entheogen’, Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford Univer- sity Press, 2016,
fig. 1
fig. 2 4 However, underneath the layers visions contain a latent ecological agen- of fantastical imagery, reality pervades da. Firstly, it considers the scholarly and Amaringo’s paintings. ‘Reality’ is noto- art-historical framework surrounding the riously difficult to define, and debates paintings. This highlights how they have about its nature have formed an en- been marginalised and seeks to chal- tire branch of metaphysics, known as lenge their categorisation as outsider ontology.9 Considering its multivalent art. It then unearths overlooked details interpretations and problematic asso- that reveal the paintings’ grounding in ciations with truth, this essay defines it ecological issues. It examines how the as that perceived to exist objectively. Amazon rainforest provided the artist When the paintings are viewed close- with a reverence for nature as well as ly, small details relating to the global exposing him to severe cases of envi- ecological crisis begin to emerge from ronmental destruction. It deconstructs the dense jungle undergrowth.10 This the prevalent theme of the rainforest crisis is being propelled by the current in the paintings, showing that they are carbon-dependant Anthropocene epoch not simply utopian or otherworldly, but defined by deforestation, polar melting, can be directly related to the deforesta- rising of sea levels, hurricanes, fires, tion. It will look at plant consciousness, desertification, biodiversity extinction, agency, and the emerging evidence of and pollution of air, land and water.11 links between ayahuasca and ecologi- This essay argues that the ayahuasca cal oneness. Finally, the essay considers
7. DMT is endogeneous in humans, and thought to be produced in the pineal gland and released in during birth, psychotic crisis, near-death experiences and death. Strassman, DMT, p. 69. When taken orally it is easily deactivated in the stomach by monamine oxidase (MAO). However, the alkaloids pro- vided by the banisteriopsis plant function as MAO-inhibitors, keeping DMT active and allowing it to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Wylie, Frontier, p. 183; Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill, A Hallucinogenic Tea, p. 1; D. B. de Araujo, et al., ‘Seeing With the Eyes Shut: Neural Basis of Enhanced Imagery Follow- ing Ayahuasca Ingestion’, Human Brain Mapping, published online in Wiley Online Library, 2011, pp. 1-11
12. Alan C. Braddock, ‘Ecocritical Art History’, American Art, The University of Chicago Press, on be- half of the The Smithsonian Institution, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 2009, pp. 24-8
18. Maclagen, Outsider Art, p. 164. 19. Minnie Evans’ work is collected by major galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, see ‘Minnie Evans’, Artists, MoMa, < http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/7524> date accessed 28/04/2016. 20. Mestizo refers to a mixed race person, especially with Spanish and American-Indian parentage. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, pp. 24-5. Amaringo was imprisoned at age 20 for forging bank notes. Pablo Amaringo, ‘Autobiography of the Artist’, The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 2011, pp. 18-23, (p. 20). 21. See for example Ken Johnson, Are You Experienced? How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art, London: Prestel, 2011; Maclagen, Outsider Art, p. 164. Christopher Grunenberg, et al., The Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counter Culture in the 1960s, Tate Liverpool Criti- cal Forum, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2006. 22. Roberto Venosa, ‘A Holy Message of Absolute Brilliance’, The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Ama- ringo, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 2011, p. 12. For a discussion of the issues surrounding ‘primitive’ art see Sally Price, Primitive Art in Civilised Places, London: University of Chicago Press, 1989. 23. David E. W. Fenner, Art in Context: Understanding Aesthetic Value, Athens: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 2008; Alfred Gell, Art and Agency, An Anthropological Theory, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998, pp. 81-3. 24. Gell, Art and Agency, p. 9; ‘Animism’, Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, 2016,
fig. 3 8 influenced modernists firmly situated in the art historical canon.26 Similarly, this THE SHAMAN-ARTIST AND THE RAIN- essay challenges the categorisation of FOREST Amaringo’s work, demonstrating that it is not as alien to the artistic mainstream The context of Amaringo’s life as the literature might suggest, by draw- cultivated the environmental agenda ing parallels with so-called avant-garde that lies behind the paintings. In 1938, and environmental movements that have he was born in Puerto Libertad, a small become central to the narrative of West- settlement located deep in the verdant ern art.27 The essay is also the first to Peruvian Amazon.30 His family relied take an ecocritical approach to Amar- on the forest for survival, farming crops, ingo’s paintings. Ecocriticism, a recent fishing, hunting and gathering.31 In addition to the plethora of art-historical 1953, Amaringo moved to the Pucall- methodologies, examines environmen- pa, where he would remain and later tal issues in cultural practices.28 It em- paint his visions.32 His home and studio phasises the entwinement of ecological was wooden, modest, and surrounded damage with already-existing patterns by the forest.33 A comparison can be of social inequality in terms of geogra- made to Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), phy, race, class, and gender, drawing who also spent time painting at a re- together diverse strands of research.29 mote studio in the tropics. The evident Without such a focus, the paintings’ similarities between the two figures latent ecological connotations can be complicate the outsider perspective on overlooked and they remain internal, Amaringo. Gauguin is often considered psychedelic, and otherworldly. to have been a pioneer of the symbolist
Visions received criticism, such as reducing outsider art to inspiration for insiders, see Ken Johnson, ‘Sig- nificant Others - Travelling Art Exhibition Mounted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: ‘Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art’ ’, Art in America, 81, no. 6, June 1993, pp. 84-8. 27. For a discussion of the issues surrounding modernism and the avant-garde see Rosalind E. Krauss, The Originality of the Avante-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, London: MIT Press, 1986. For a survey of the 1960s land art movement and subsequent environmental art see Jeffrey Kastner, Land and Envi- ronmental Art, London: Phaidon, 1998. 28. The movement was initiated in the early 1990s by literary scholar Lawrence Buell. American art historians Alan C. Braddock and Charles Irmscher were the first to outline the approach of ecocriticism in art history. Braddock and Irmscher eds., A Keener Perception: Ecocritical Studies in American Art History, Tucaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2009, p. 3; Alan C. Braddock, ‘Ecocritical Art History’, American Art, The University of Chicago Press, on behalf of the The Smithsonian Institution, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 2009, pp. 24-8, (p. 28)
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fig. 5 10 movement, and highly influential to the photograph (fig. 6).38 The mission of French avant-garde, with some going the school, as established by Amarin- as far as to claim that he ‘initiated the go, was (and remains) the preservation art of modern times’. Alike to Amarin- and documentation of the ecosystem, go, he spent his early life in Peru. His indicating that it was one of Amarin- works inspired by his experiences in go’s top priorities.39 At the 1992 Earth Tahiti are surprising similar to Amarin- Summit in Brazil, Amaringo was elected go’s visions. In both Amaringo’s Huarmi to the United Nations Environmental Taquina (2005) (fig. 4) and Gauguin’s Programme (UNEP) Global 500 Roll of Mahana no Atua (Day of the God) Honour, in recognition his achievements (1894) (fig. 5) lush landscapes are in the protection and improvement of formed in bright blocks of blue, yellow, the environment through Usko Ayar (fig. red, pink and green. Further similari- 7).40 This is evidence that his agenda ties include imagery of unspoilt nature, was recognised by external bodies. harmonious indigenous figures, semi- The school was located in Pucallpa, a nude female forms, and central deities. city that was ‘little more than a village’ Gauguin’s mythologised narrative tells when Amaringo arrived in 1953, but of a desire to escape industrialising quickly experienced massive growth.41 forces to a pristine paradise, a concern In 1946, Pucallpa had only faced by Amaringo many years later 4000 inhabitants.42 In 1961, it had back across the South Pacific.36 26,391, and in 1981, this had grown to Amaringo’s ecological agenda 97,925.43 By 2005, the year in which is evidenced by his work with the Usko Yacu Caballo (fig. 3) was painted, the Ayar school, which he founded in the population had bloated to 259,830.44 1980s.37 He taught students how to Major pull factors to the area were the depict Amazonian plants, animals, riv- abundant land and production opportu- ers and people and their relationships, nities, resulting in an economy revolving producing works similar to the land- around the exploitation of local natural scape mural that can be seen in the resources, including timber.45 Observ-
34. René Huyghe, Le Carnet de Paul Gauguin, Parigi, 1952, quoted in Victoria Charles, Paul Gauguin, London: Sirocco, 2011, p. 13; Cindy Kang, ‘Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)’, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art His- tory, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–, March 2011,
fig. 6
fig. 7 12 ing the human impact on the landscape, logical crisis that imbues the ayahuasca Amaringo spoke of how ‘The dirt road visions.51 The region and the paintings to the capital… cut right through the are predominantly inhabited by flora virgin forest, and it was an impressive and fauna.52 This is heightened by the sight to see…such immense trees grow- ‘noisy’ features of the rainforest that ing by the roadside.’46 He expressed are pictured, such as birds, insects and awe at how such tall trees (averaging running water.53 Centuries of human around 25 to 30 m), were cut to the intervention have made the Amazon the ground.47 Amaringo’s choice of the core of the planet’s deforestation prob- word ‘virgin’ in his statement is loaded, lem.54 In Peru, despite new regulations not only identifying the area as having from 1999 to 2005, new forest distur- been undisturbed old-growth forest, but bances occurred at a rate of 632 to also framing civilisation as an infringe- 645 square kilometres per year.55 Data ment upon the natural environment.48 indicates that 86% of this deforestation Similarly, he nostalgically described was concentrated in Pucallpa and the how the forest ‘remained relatively road network around the city (including intact’ during his early life in Pucallpa, the road described by Amaringo).56 implying that it would later experience This increased by 400% from 1999 to destruction.49 In Yacu Caballo (fig. 3), 2005, which happens to have been a a Lupine Blanca, one of the tallest trees particularly active period of painting in the Amazon, extends up and out of for Amaringo.57 Much of the logging the left side of the composition. Amar- stemmed from the timber trade, which ingo painted ‘guardians’ in the act of Amaringo would have witnessed whilst protecting the tree, linking to the risk working at Pucallpa port.58 The logs the species was facing in reality.50 were stockpiled here, as can be seen in The Amazon is a site of folklore Alex Webb’s striking photographs (figs. and mythology on the one hand and in- 8 and 9). tense eco-political debate on the other. Pucallpa was, and remains, a Therefore invoking the same paradox violent hotbed of environmental issues.59 between otherworldliness and the eco- In this context Amaringo was exposed
Christian Abizaid, ‘An Anthropogenic Meander Cutoff along the Ucayali River, Peruvian Amazon’, Geographical Review, American Geographical Society, Vol. 95, No. 1, January 2005, pp. 122-135, (p. 123). 46. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 22; Amaringo, ‘Autobiography’, The Ayahuasca Vi- sions, p. 21. 47. Curtis Freese, Report on the Columbian and Peruvian Primate Censusing Studies, Institute of Labo- ratory Animal Resources, Washington: National Academies, 1975, p. 19. 48. Christian Wirth, Gerd Gleaner and Martin Heimann eds., Old-Growth Forest: Functional, Fate and Value, Ecological Studies, Vol. 207, Berlin: Springer, 2009, p. 5. 49. Amaringo, ‘Autobiography’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 21. 50. Amaringo, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 53. 51. Abizaid, ‘An Anthropogenic Meander’, p. 122. 52. Hanson, ‘Identity and Memory’, p. 70; Richard Evans Schultes, Where the Gods Reign: Plants and Peoples of the Columbian Amazon, London: Synergetic Press, 1988, p. 54. 53. Beyer, ‘Shamanic Art’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 12; Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, pp. 39-41. 54. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 9. 55. Pinedo-Vasquez, et. al., The Amazon Várzea, p. xi. 13
fig. 8
fig. 9 14 to illegal logging and other activities by Amaringo correlate with those es- such as river pollution, slash and burn tablished in scientific studies, suggesting farming and animal agriculture: that he was an informed and reliable observer. “All human beings should … put effort Water consumption and pollution into the preservation and conserva- are further issues that Amaringo was tion of the rainforest, and care for it and the ecosystem, because damage likely to have been aware of. Christian to these not only prejudices the flora Abizaid has shown that the course of and fauna but humanity itself. Even the Ucayali was manipulated to improve in the Amazon these days, many see transportation of goods and people, plants as only a resource for building with unknown environmental effects.62 houses and to finance large families. This is the river that Amaringo described People who have farms and raise seeing from his home when they moved animals also clear the forest to pro- to Pucallpa, and the river that fed Pu- duce foodstuffs. Mestizos and native callpa port.63 The dynamism and po- Indians log the largest trees to sell rosity of water in Yacu Caballo (fig. to industrial sawmills for subsistence. 3) creates a visual slippage between They have never heard of the word humans and nature. A waterfall outlines ecology! I, Pablo, say to everybody two yacu huarmi (water women), and who lives in the Amazon and the other forests of the world, that they merges into a river. The river blends must love the plants of their land, and into the blue and white patterned cloth- everything that is there!”60 ing of the shamans riding the colourful head of a yucumana (giant snake) in Amaringo was familiar with the term the foreground (fig. 10). The medium ‘ecology’ and understood the crisis of gouache allowed Amaringo to easily to be both global and anthropogenic blend forms and blur the boundaries (originating in human activity). This is between human and rainforest. Yet, supported when he later said, ‘I feel a the paintings do not always depict this great sorrow when trees are burned, as a harmonious relationship. Tension when the forest is destroyed. I feel sor- becomes a key theme in paintings such row because I know that human beings as Los Cachiboleros (fig. 1) where hu- are doing something very wrong.’61 The man figures only occupy the right-hand main causes of deforestation identified corner of the composition and are
56. Pinedo-Vasquez, et. al., The Amazon Várzea, p. xi; M. Soudre et al., ‘Adaptability of six native forest tree species to degraded lands in Pucallpa, Peruvian Amazon’ (2001), S. Kobayashi et. al. eds., Rehabilitation of Degraded Tropical Forest Ecosystems, Workshop Proceedings, 2-4 November 1999, Bogor, Indonesia, pp. 123-8, (pp. 123-4). 57. Pinedo-Vasquez, et. al., The Amazon Várzea, p. xi. 58. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 23. 59. See for example Andrea Karate and Shayla Harris, ‘Corruption in Peru Aids Cutting of Rain Forest’, The New York Times, 18/10/2013, < http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/americas/ corruption-in-peru-aids-cutting-of-rain-forest.html> date accessed 24/03/2016; Scott Wallace, ‘Quadruple Homicide in Peruvian Amazon Puts Criminal Logging in Spotlight’, National Geographic, 12/09/2014,
fig. 10
overwhelmed by vibrant botany and “Plants are essential in many ways: all kinds of beings. This is evident in the they give life to all beings on Earth by small figure, in the lower left corner of producing oxygen…they create the Los Cachiboleros, with their back turned enormous greenhouse that gives board from the viewer, reaching up towards and lodging to diverse but interrelated an enormous plant which overshad- guests; they are teachers who show us the holistic importance of conserving ows them. Amaringo stated that if we life. … The consciousness of plants is destroy the plants we ‘cannot survive’, a constant source of information for we destroy ourselves because ecology medicine, alimentation, and art, and an 64 entwines our fates. example of the intelligence and creative Amaringo’s concern for plants imagination of nature. …Thus I consid- is also articulated in the foreword he er myself to be the ‘representative’ of provided for the book Plant Spirit Sha- plants, and for this reason I assert that if manism (2006), in which he constructs a they cut down the trees and burn what’s powerful argument for their vital role in left of the rainforests, it is the same as ecology, burning a whole library of books with- out ever having read them.”65
24/03/2016. 60. Pablo Amaringo, ‘Foreword’, Peter Cloudsley trans., Howard C. Charing and Ross Heaven, Plant Spirit Shamanism, Vermont: Destiny Books, 2006, p. xi; Charing and Cloudsley, ‘Interview with the Art- ist’, Sacred Hoop, p. 19. 61. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 34. 62. The human impact of this anthropogenic management has been the complete alteration of its course and the stranding of about a dozen villages and the town of Masisea. Abizaid, ‘An Anthropogen- ic Meander’, p. 124. 63. Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill, A Hallucinogenic Tea, p. 143. 64. Amaringo, The Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 157. 65. Amaringo, ‘Foreword’, Plant, Spirit, Shamanism, p. xi. 16 Amaringo challenges anthropocentric heart the attitude of conserving na- idea that humans are supremely intel- ture’.70 Amaringo was further known as ligent. He even positions his work as an ayahuasquero.71 The artist sang ic- ‘representative’ of plants, linking it to an aros (power songs which come from the agenda to discourage further deforesta- plant) while painting and suggested that tion. However, this source was not writ- their healing action could be transferred ten in relation to the paintings, so the to the viewer.72 This creates another issue of whether his values translated link between conscious plants, ecology into his art might be raised. Amaringo and the works, and suggests that Ama- directly stated that he intended his art ringo could have intended his paintings to be a ‘tool for the conservation of the to heal the world. Plant consciousness is Amazon environment.’66 Such an eco- described by Amaringo: ‘Every tree, ev- logical stance comes across strongly, ery plant, has a spirit. People may say particularly in the meticulously detailed that the plant has no mind. I tell them renderings of botany. that the plant is alive & conscious.’73 In Each leaf, flower and stem is Los Cachiboleros (fig. 1) an unblinking carefully crafted in the large canvas eye occupies each leaf in the cluster Misterio Profundo (fig. 13), so that they found in the left-hand corner, and seven- are identifiable as real specimens. For teen black pupils peer out at the viewer. example, the bright purple leaves on By giving a plant eyes, Amaringo sug- the far right belong to a lancetilla (Al- gests that it is actively aware of its envi- ternanthera sp.). In an accompanying ronment; it is conscious.74 commentary, Amaringo described how Not all of the imagery in the aya- this plant can be used to treat arthritis, huasca visions is vegetal, and not all alleviate stress and gastric problems, of the teachers are plants. In Misterio heal wounds and cure diabetes.67 The Profundo (fig. 11) a spaceship descends artist renders plant species with indig- in the centre of the painting, and ethere- enous healing value that are at risk al blue beings emerge from it (fig. 12). of being lost.68 His experience as a An interpretation of this scene could vegetalista (a mestizo shaman deriving return us to a ) a spaceship descends in healing knowledge from plants) relates the centre of the painting, and ethereal to these detailed descriptions of botany blue beings emerge from it (fig. 12). and likely to played a part in forming An interpretation of this scene could his ecological agenda.69 In his own return us to a narrative of the outsider, words ‘A shaman has in his mind and disconnected from issues of reality.75 Yet
66. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 30. 67. Amaringo, The Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 157-8. 68. Amaringo, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 53. 69. The term chamán or ‘shaman’ is a recent Western import into the Amazon in the past thirty years. Charing, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 175. 70. Amaringo, ‘Foreword’, Plant, Spirit, Shamanism, p. xi. 71. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, pp. 12-13. 72. A key component of healing sessions are icaros, power songs in which ‘the plant talks to you, it teaches you to sing’. Don Solón Tello Lozano, quoted in Stephan V. Beyer, Singing to the Plants; A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009, p. 65; Beyer, ‘Shamanic Art’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 16. Icaros represent a transference of the spirit of the plants into the body of the shaman. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 13; Charing, The Ayahuasca Visions, pp. xi, 53. 17
fig. 11
fig. 12 18 Amaringo’s commentary suggests oth- erwise:
The spaceship that has arrived from a distant galaxy brings spiritual be- ings to teach. …They warn of the imbalance of the biosphere caused by man’s destruction of the rain forest. Through negligence, ignorance and greed, humans have prejudiced the delicate web of life on which we de- pend.76 fig. 13 Again he challenges anthropocentrism, by creating an image that denies the supreme intelligence of humans, and attributing the global crisis to specific traits that focus on the Self. The web metaphor can be found in Untitled (fig. 13), in which a group of humans sit on a ‘delicate’ yellow web, connot- ing interconnectedness. One of the plants threatened within this global fabric is ayahuasca, and its ceremo- nies are a key iconographic feature of the paintings, such as in Las Nalpeas del Renaco (fig. 14). These scenes, where humans gather around a central cauldron, are a signal that we are not looking at conventional landscapes but ayahuasca visions. As a psychotropic substance, ayahuasca is the epitome of a conscious plant. To Amaringo, it was a powerful medicine and teacher.77 Ayahuasca is a crucial yet complex fig. 14 layer in the relationship between the
73. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, 1991, pp. 33, 46. 74. ‘Conscious’, Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, 2016,
(p. 154). 79. Shanon, Antipodes of the Mind, p. 274. 80. Michael J. Harner, ‘Common Themes in South American Indian Yagé Experiences’, Harner ed., Hallucinogens and Shamanism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 155-75, (p. 172-73); Claudio Naranjo, ‘Pyschological Aspects of the Yaje Experience in an Experimental Setting’, (1973), in Harner ed., Hallucinogens and Shamanism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973, pp. 176-90, (pp. 177-90); Echenhofer, ‘Ayahuasca Shamanic Visions’ pp. 154-6; Shanon, Antipodes of the Mind, p. 274; Cardeña and Winkelman, Altering Consciousness, p. 95. 81. Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill, A Hallucinogenic Tea, p. 144. 82. Freya Mathews, ‘Community and the Ecological Self’, Environmental Politics, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1995, pp. 66-100, (p. 66).; D. Luke ed., ‘Ecopsychology and the psychedelic experience’, The European Jour- nal of Ecopsychology, Vol. 4, 2013, pp. 1-8, (p. 7); Jeff Baker, A Thread in the Vine: The Deep Ecology of Contemporary Ayahuasca Discourse, (unpublished thesis) Southern Cross University, 2015, p. 23. 83. Cardeña and Winkelman, Altering Consciousness, p. 95. 84. Michael Sanders, Ayahuasca: An Executive’s Enlightenment, Toronto: Sage & Feather Press, 2015. 85. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Forest Within: The worldview of the Tukano Amazonian Indians, Devon: Themis Press, 1996, p. 168. 20 faces, gives birth to a snake.86 Similar- may be accused of reinforcing anthro- ly, in Yacu Caballo, snakes pour down pocentrism rather than rejecting it, since into the river. Following the snake on it insists on relating to human form in the right backwards, it winds around a order to generate compassion. None- tree until its body gradually becomes a theless, the image is effective in encour- vine, which eventually becomes branch- aging an understanding of nature as a es (fig. 18). In the same scene, faces series of subjects and not just utilitarian emerge in the bark of trees and jagged objects. Furthermore, through this dis- edges of the rock face form solemn fea- mantling of the Self, as well the themes tures. Applying personhood to organic of nonlinearity, montage, and the chal- matter in such a way reflects brings lenging of binaries, the works resonate ethics into the ecological debate.87 This with post-structuralist and postmodern
fig. 15
fig. 16 21
fig. 17 22
fig. 18
86. In the context of shipibo mythology, this woman is likely to have the affliction boa chicuchischa (pregnant by boa). Amaringo, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 28. 87. Hanson, Identity and Memory, p. 66. 88. Anton Geels and Jacob A. Belzen, ‘A Vast Domain and Numerous Perspective’, Mysticism: A Variety of Psychological Perspectives, van International series in the Psychology of Religion, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003, Vol. 13, pp. 7-16, (p. 7). 89. Marietta T. Stepaniants, Sufi Wisdom, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994, pp. 13- 32. 90. For a discussion of capitalism, neoliberalism and the environment, see for example Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014; John Bella- 23 thought, creating a context for the paint- ism, may actually be less central than it ings within art history that goes beyond appears.90 modernism. When Terence McKenna wrote In addition to promoting environ- about the effects of the entheogen, he mental concern, ayahuasca oneness could have been describing one of Am- breaks down the Outsider Art para- aringo’s paintings, ‘the world becomes digm. For a person to be an ‘outsider’ an Arabian labyrinth, a palace, a more they must be Other. Oneness is a com- than possible Martian jewel, vast with mon feature in the mystical discourses motifs that flood the gaping mind with of all major religions, such as Christian- complex and wordless awe.’91 The ity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism validity of Amaringo’s visions is sup- and Buddhism.88 For example, in Islam, ported through comparison with other the concept of wahdat al wujūd (unity psychedelic aesthetics. Graham Han- of being) is central to Sufism.89 Such cock and John Ryan Haule have com- doctrines were often realised in mysti- pared Amaringo’s works to prehistoric cal, meditative or altered states, alike to rock and cave art, such as that found that induced by ayahuasca, and have at Chauvet in France, thought to be by inspired diverse artworks. Given this shamans experiencing altered states of context, the ecological and divine unity consciousness around 32,000 years.92 pictured in the paintings now looks to However, Amazonian cultures provide a be much less of an ‘outsider’ idea, but firmer comparison.93 The ayahuasca art rather one that central to human expe- of the Shipibo tribe, with its striking red rience. Whilst the antithetical ideology and black patterning, can be found in of neoliberal capitalism, which goes Amaringo’s iconography. For example, beyond anthropocentrism to individual- the vase in the foreground of Misterio
fig. 19 fig. 20
my Foster, Richard York and Brett Clark, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010. 91. Terence McKenna, Synthesthesia, New York: Granary Books, 1992, p. 258. Although McKenna was describing experiences on synthesised DMT, it shares the visual, ideational, spiritual and conscious- ness related themes with ayahuasca. Cardeña and Winkelman, Altering Consciousness, p. 95. 92. Graham Hancock draws parallels between these markings and the paintings, highlighting the ‘same themes, patterns, supernatural entities and symbols’ occurring in both. John Ryan Haule agrees, describing the parallels as both ‘striking and extensive’. Both are based on the premises established by Jean Clottes that the cave markings were made by ancient shamans inspired by altered states of con- 24 Profundo (fig. 18) resembles Shipibo is important if we are to consider his vessels (fig. 19). But Amaringo’s paint- statements), is the fact that the paintings ings are more representational than the were produced consciously, unlike An- abstract designs found in indigenous dré Masson’s (1897-1987) automatic pottery and textiles. Interestingly, it is drawings or Joan Miro’s (1893-1983) only after these paintings were made, paintings.97 Amaringo did not produce that we begin to see similar iconogra- the works whilst taking ayahuasca, but phy appear. asserted that he had the ability to recall The reliability of the paintings each of his visions, through chanting his as representations of the ayahuasca icaros.98 These did not alter his state of experience is largely agreed upon by consciousness but acted as mnemonic scholars with extensive first-hand expe- devices recalling the visions, from which rience of the subject.94 Amaringo partly Amaringo would select and collate ico- attributes his ecological concerns to nography. Ayahuasca alone does not the brew, saying that ‘When one takes inspire such compositions. Unpicking the ayahuasca, one can sometimes hear forces behind the paintings is, therefore, the trees cry when they are going to be a complex process. cut down.’95 This passage suggests that Further supporting Amaringo’s ayahuasca prompted the depiction of agency, Ross Heaven challenged How- conscious plants. The image of suffering ard Charing’s assertion that Amaringo trees comes across powerfully in the was a ‘master communicator of the aya- paintings, such as in the anthropomor- huasca experience’, rewording it to say phic tree trunks stretching across Unti- that he was ‘a master communicator of tled (fig. 13). Automatism and agency his own ayahuasca experience’.99 Ad- are not issues that exist outside of art ditionally, it might be argued that direct history but are central to surrealism translation of inner visions to outer im- and other avant-garde movements.96 agery is impossible and requires ma- Increasing Amaringo’s agency (which nipulation from the artist, considering
sciousness. However, this lineage has issues and more in-depth research is needed to outline any poten- tial connections. Graham Hancock, ‘Pablo Amaringo: A Special State of Consciousness’, The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 2011, pp. 10-11; Haule, Jung, p. 34; Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams, The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves, Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1998. 93. Leslie Wylie has identified yagé (another indigenous term for ayahuasca) aesthetics such as frag- mentation, non-linearity, heightened sensory perception and synaesthesia (union of different senses). Wylie, Frontier, p. 183. 94. The similarity to ayahuasca visions is asserted by Luis Eduardo Luna, Dennis Mckenna, Howard C. Charing, Peter Cloudsley, and others. Dennis Mckenna, for example, describes Amaringo as a ‘chron- icler of the visionary world of ayahuasca’. McKenna was the first Western scholar to come across Am- aringo and has completed research on the pharmacology, botany and chemistry of ayahuasca over the past thirty years. Similarly, anthropologist Jeremy Narby has said that the iconography strongly resembles his own ayahuasca visions. Whilst Luna has shown the paintings to many vegetalistas who say they have seen the same images themselves. McKenna, ‘Early Encounters’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 8; Narby, Cosmic Serpent, p. 60; Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 43. Haule, Jung, p. 36. 95. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, p. 34. 96. Roger Cardinal, André Masson and Automatic Drawing, Silvano Levy ed., Surrealism: Surrealist Visuality, Edinburgh: Keele University Press, 1997, p. 79. 97. However, the issue of agency within surrealist automatism is also complex. Cardinal, André Mas- son, pp. 79-94. 25 that the experience has been described style, composition, medium and scale “As an artist, I know that it would take were selected by Amaringo. There- numerous life times to be able to paint fore, it is clear that his motives played the visions from just one aya journey a role and should be considered. The … I discussed this with Pablo and he paintings were informed by Amaringo’s agreed that there was not a canvas or personal cultural and environmental palette large enough to capture the surroundings, including the destruction smallest iota of the overall Ayahuasca 101 of the rainforest. visual storm.” as ‘beyond the scope of language’.100 OUT OF THE AMAZON Roberto Venosa shared this concern, This suggests that Amaringo compressed Due to the interrelated nature of ecosys- his visions in order to interpret them in tems and the significance of the area, paint. The thematic content Amaringo the Amazonian crisis feeds into the chose to amalgamate happened to global event. The rainforest recycles the be laced with ecological concern. The majority of the planet’s carbon diox-
fig. 21
98. Charing and Cloudsley, ‘Preface’, The Ayahuasca Visions, pp. xi-xii. 99. Heaven, ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo’, Shamanic Plant Medicine, np. 100. Joan Parisi Wilcox, Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul, Ver- mont: Inner Traditions and Bear & Co, 2003, introduction, p. 1. 101. Venosa, ‘A Holy Message’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 12. 26 ide and produces about 20% of our a network. All of these biospheres are oxygen.102 Accordingly, Amaringo’s united in one composition, in connection environmental statements addressed with one another. Circles representing an international audience. Although the Earth as a whole, are often found many figures in the ayahuasca visions in the paintings, for example, the large appear to be of Amazonian ethnicity, central sphere surrounded by leaves in the works can be seen as globally-mind- Chacruna Versucum (fig. 21). ed. Among the mestiza, Shipibo and Amaringo clearly intended his Cocama healers in In Connection With paintings to promote conservation of Healers in Time and Space (fig. 20) is a ecology. Although the reception of this meditating Hindu yogi, a Campa Indi- message depends on the ecological an, a female African healer and a Tibet- awareness of the viewer, the works are an lama.103 They are all linked by their being distributed in documentaries, films use or knowledge of plants.104 Each is and the internet, on platforms which visualised in the centre of a separate similarly argue for the preservation of ecosystem, though their ripples move flora, fauna and indigenous cultural outwards towards each other, connoting practices.105 Amaringo’s paintings have
fig. 22
102. Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill, A Hallucinogenic Tea, pp. 143-4. 103. Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, Vision 13, np. 104 Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, Vision 13, np. 105. See for example Seti Gershberg dir., Ayahuasca Nature’s Greatest Gift, The Path of the Sun, 2014 (
106. Although there are likely many other causes contributing to this surge in interest, which are not discussed, indeed it is likely that Amaringo’s visions have contributed to the phenomenon. Beyer, Singing to the Plants, np.; Beyer, ‘Shamanic Art’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 15. 107. Beyer, ‘Shamanic Art’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 16; Amaringo, ‘Autobiography’, The Ayahuas- ca Visions, p. 23; McKenna, ‘Early Encounters’, The Ayahuasca Visions, p. 8. 108. Maclagen, Outsider Art, pp. 7-8 109. For a discussion of globalisation, the art world, and art history see Hans Belting, ‘From World Art to Global Art’, The Global Contemporary and the Rise of New Art Worlds, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013, pp. 178-185. 110.Kastler and Wallis, Land and Environmental Art, p.1. 111.The 1 Heart 1 Tree partners in Peru are Pur Projet and ACOPAGRO. ‘The Reforestation Programs’, 1 Heart 1 Tree, 2016,
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Gershberg, Seti dir., Ayahuasca Nature’s Greatest Gift, The Path of the Sun, 2014 (
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34 IMAGE SOURCES
Fig. 1 Pablo Amaringo, Los Cachiboleros, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, dimen- sions unknown. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: unknown author, ‘Los Cachibole- ros’, Gallery of Visionary Arts, Pablo C. Amaringo, Ayahuasca Healing Ceremonies,
Fig. 2 Minnie Evans, Three Faces in Lush Landscape, 1959. Long Creek, North Carolina. Oil on canvas with collage, dimensions unknown. American Folk Museum of Art, New York. (Image: American Folk Art Museum,
Fig. 3 Pablo Amaringo, Yacu Caballo, 2005. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, 57 x 77 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 52)
Fig. 4 Detail of Pablo Amaringo, Huarmi Taquina, Ícaro de Mujer, 2005. Gouache on paper, 57 x 77 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuas- ca Visions, 2011, p. 86)
Fig. 5 Paul Gauguin, The Day of the God, 1894. Paris, France. Oil on canvas, 68 x 92 cm. Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, Art Institute Chicago, Chicago. (Image: ‘The Day of the God, 1894 by Paul Gauguin’, Paul Gauguin,
Fig. 6 Unknown photographer, Pablo (second from left), circa 1985, Stands With His Art Stu- dents, Displaying a Mural. Photograph, c. 1985. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 6)
Fig. 7 Pablo Amaringo’s United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Roll of Honour Certificate. 1992, Brazil. (Source: Usko Ayar School)
Fig. 8 Alex Webb, The Major Logging Port on the Ucayali River. Digital Photograph, 2011, Pu- callpa, Peru. Magnum Photos. (Image: Magnum Photos.
Fig. 9 Alex Webb, The Major Logging Port on the Ucayali River. Digital Photograph, aerial view, 2011, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Magnum Photos.
Fig. 10 Detail of Pablo Amaringo, Yacu Caballo, 2005. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, 57 x 77 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 52)
Fig. 11 Pablo Amaringo, Misterio Profundo, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Acrylic on canvas, 250 x 150 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, pp. 158-9) 35
Fig. 12 Detail of Pablo Amaringo showing spacecraft and ayahuasca ceremony, Misterio Pro- fundo, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Acrylic on canvas, 250 x 150 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, pp. 158-9)
Fig. 13 Pablo Amaringo, Untitled, 1992. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, dimensions un- known. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Unknown author, ‘Ayahuasca Art’, Ayahuas- ca Info,
Fig. 14 Detail showing ayahuasca ceremony, Pablo Amaringo, Las Nalpeas del Renaco, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, 54 x 61 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 112)
Fig. 15 Pablo Amaringo, Genios del Renaco, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Oil on canvas, 118 x 84 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Seti Gershberg, ‘A Hero’s Journey Thorugh the Visionary Eyes of the Shaman Artist Pablo Amaringo’, The Path of the Sun, 2014,
Fig. 16 Detail showing Banisteriopsis Caapi vines, Pablo Amaringo, Genios del Renaco, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Oil on canvas, 118 x 84 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Seti Gershberg, ‘A Hero’s Journey Thorugh the Visionary Eyes of the Shaman Artist Pablo Ama- ringo’, The Path of the Sun, 2014,
Fig. 17 Detail of woman with boa chichuchishca, Pablo Amaringo, El Principe De La Vida, 2003. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, 57 x 77 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Im- age: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 27) Fig. 20 Detail showing Shipibo pottery, Pablo Amaringo, Misterio Profundo, 2002. Pucallpa, Peru. Acrylic on canvas, 250 x 150 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloudsley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, pp. 158-9)
Fig. 18 Pablo Amaringo, Caspi Mutkiy, 2005. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, 57 x 77 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Howard G. Charing)
Fig. 19 Pablo Amaringo, Caspi Mutkiy, 2005. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, 57 x 77 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Howard G. Charing)
Fig. 20 Unknown artist, Shipibo Pottery Olla, late 20th century. Shipibo culture, Ucayali River basin. Painted clay, dimensions unknown. Collection of Howard C. Charing. (Image: Howard G. Charing)
Fig. 21 Pablo Amaringo, In Connection with Healers in Time and Space, c. 1980s. Pucallpa, Peru. Gouache on paper, dimensions unknown. Collection of Luis Eduardo Luna. (Image: Luna and Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions, 1991, Vision 13)
Fig. 22 Detail of central sphere in Chacruna Versucum, Canción de la Chacruna, 2003. Gouache on paper, 51 x 64 cm. Usko Ayar School, Pucallpa, Peru. (Image: Charing and Cloud- sley eds., Ayahuasca Visions, 2011, p. 89) 36 37