Entheogens and Inner Research 

During our medical work with master plants, we have learned that one of the main aims of the use of entheogens is to give sense to  inner research and therefore, be able to reach a deeper knowledge of the human being's inner realities.

In this era, humanity deeply needs to find an inner sense to its existence, as it lives in a dark age, lacking knowledge of the being's inner realities. We are living a spiritual crisis and one of the main causes of that crisis, is the growing manipulation of mass psychology, which predominates in the majority of modern societies, in almost all nations, today. 

Because of that manipulation of mass psychology, there is a loss of the inner sense of existence itself and the systematic destruction of individual differences. Humanity sees the solution to its problems, as something that lies outside itself. The world is becoming each time smaller, as it is more uniform and people are so far away from any wisdom reached by the effort of their own inner quest and instead of dedicating themselves to their own wisdom, they imitate each other evermore. In addition, a strange idea has been divulged, which seems to be present in the imagination of a great part of today's humanity and that is the incredible idea that science will discover some secret or solution that will free humanity from its brutality and injustice.                             

Nowadays, not only does the human being need new facts and greater commodities, but also that, only through his own understanding obtained by means of his own hard effort, he will be able to overcome external pressure. The human being has inner needs and his emotional and spiritual life cannot be satisfied through external objects. He needs ideas and postures that give meaning to his existence and regarding this, many ancient philosophies say that this is his real task. Therefore, it is through research and inner knowledge that the human being is able to find the solution to all his true difficulties, that is to say, achieve psychological development or inner growth. The direction of this growth does not take place outwardly, towards business, technological progress or external activity, but rather inwardly, towards self-knowledge and it is through this process that a change takes place in the conscious being. The development of the psyche; that is the inner evolution or development of consciousness does not occur on a physical level, as it happens only on a psychological one. 

In the course of the 19th century, there was an important psychological turn in the vision of the world, which gave rise to the predominant posture in today's human being; that is to say that thespirit's metaphysics turned into the matter's metaphysics. That new vision of the world has generated a general consensus, which has the characteristic of being an unconscious inclination that has great power over the masses, that is, over the majority of people. The truth of that matter's metaphysics is based on the universality of material causes and from that perspective, it is no longer the spirit that generates a body, but instead, it is matter, due to its chemical composition, which engenders the soul. That vision of the world is one of the cardinal truths of matter's metaphysics and the fact of thinking in that way is considered as decent, reasonable, scientific and normal. If an individual thinks in a different way, his thought is considered as something incorrect and unhealthy. That new vision of the world conceives the spirit as an epiphenomenon of matter and this allows stating that everything contributes in confirming that conception.
Matter's metaphysics refuse to concede the soul its own substantiality, as from this point of view; doing so would be equivalent to a heresy. If one understands that, when such statements are being put forward, one is merely approaching metaphysical issues, so one can comprehend that, if today, greater credibility is given to the causes of physical order, it is because, in the past, those of spiritual order were too often abused of. Truly, matter is as little known as the spirit and nothing is known about the ultimate causes. Today, we know so little about what is the spirit, just as a physician knows very little about what is matter and on this subject, the only thing that exists are only theories or representations.

Matter's metaphysics is the main posture of scientific materialism and from that point of view, the development of consciousness is not taken into consideration; that is that scientific materialism is not concerned about the means, techniques or ideas, as well as about the type of work, efforts and necessary attitudes to achieve psychological development. All progress achieved by the modern world of physics and present technology, have not helped us to reach deeper human values. In all the world's cultures, religion, in its inner or psychological aspects, has always had the development of consciousness as its main concern and it is precisely on this point that the abyss lies between what is called science and religion.

In the personal evolution work, the most important psychological act is that of asserting, the finality of which is to lead the human being to unity with himself. A statement is no consequence of a dispute, as it rather arises through understanding. The easy way to follow is always that of negation, avoiding understanding, qualifying it as sentimentalism or considering it without scientific value and the finality of negation is always violent and destructive. On the contrary, the psychological sense of affirmation completely goes in the opposite way and one must consider that, in order to believe, one must assert. 

From the perspective of consciousness development and the medical point of view, we believe that work performed with Ayahuasca and other entheogens, should be essentially focused on the spiritual aspect; that is to say that the main goals of a set of therapies that use master plants, should be directed to self-knowledge and personality integration, that is, in itself, to the achievement of the individual's psychological development. We believe that any work that focuses on the research of methods for the exploration of consciousness, self-knowledge and the individual's psychological development, is of utmost importance in these times of spiritual crisis, loss of moral values and ignorance of inner realities. Among these therapeutic methods, it is possible to consider the multidisciplinary and intercultural work, which is being developed since the 60´s, with the Ayahuasca ancestral medicine, thanks to the dedication of scholars proceeding from different disciplines and countries of the world.

One of the pioneering works in the study of psychology and knowledge of psyche, as a possibility for the individual's inner development, was lead for years, in several of his books, by Dr. Carl Gustav Jung. Later on, other scholars came, like Roberto Assagioli, StanislavGrof or Ken Wilber who contributed with very important tools in that sense and this is how the so-called transpersonal psychology was born. In that same direction, we must also mention the important contribution made by techniques taught by the followers of the Fourth Way, like for example, the works of Maurice Nicoll and Rodney Collin.

We have seen that, in the medical practice with master plants, the existence of a support of ancestral knowledge is important; for example, the use of ceremonies or rituals, sacred chants, dances, percussion rhythms and other techniques learned and passed on from generation to generation. We also consider that we must value the therapeutic use of knowledge that comes from different cultures of the world; such as for example, meditation and concentration practices of oriental philosophies and religions or techniques for the re-elaboration and reintegration of experiences proceeding from analytical or transpersonal psychology.

The inner research and work in spiritual evolution are practices that also were developed by the ancient Andean civilization. Therefore, there were different initiation temples where the chosen ones were being prepared in a set of ancestral knowledge and arts and one of the teaching ramifications used sacred beverages or master plants. There were many plants, which served the purpose of inducing modified states of consciousness and among them there was the Huachuma and Ayahuasca. Back then, one of the people in charge of the use of these knowledge plants was called Watuq and through sacred beverages, he was induced to non ordinary states of consciousness and thus, the Priest had the capacity to make prognostics or offer spiritual advice to the Incas. However, the master plants were also used in different initiation and passing rituals, by the priesthood and members of the Incan nobility. The use of master plants has always been a most important element around which revolved the elaboration of the original American nations´ Cosmo Vision, as well as that of the ancient Andean civilization.

Nowadays, entheogens are powerful tools with which it is possible to perform efficient research work on the human being's inner realities, as well as on the psyche's potentialities and on exploration of consciousness. Medicinal plants like the Ayahuasca, used within an adequate therapeutic context and administered by a really experienced specialist in the use of these plants, can offer an opportunity of psychological, emotional and spiritual recovery to many people who find themselves in an inner world of despair, bewilderment and confusion. Of course, medicinal plants like Ayahuasca are no remedies that can cure everything and neither are they miraculous medicines that can give a solution to any illness. However, the really experimented use of these plants can solve several problems, from the diagnosis of physical illnesses, problems or emotional and psychological blockings, up to giving solutions to conflicts on a psychic and spiritual level. The ancestral techniques for the use of master plants such as Ayahuasca or Iboga, applied within an appropriate interaction frame, with modern therapeutic techniques, showed high efficiency in the rehabilitation of drug addicts; mentioning for example, the work the Takiwasi Center, founded by Drs. Jacques Mabit and Rosa Giove, performs in the Peruvian Amazonian jungle.

Presently, one can notice that, in different individuals from diverse regions of the world and proceeding from different social realities, surges a great interest for the traditional medicine of peoples and nations who, generation after generation, have used healing rituals with master plants or entheogens. Once again, that ancestral wisdom is being slowly revalued and part of the world's population is becoming conscious of the valuable healing potential ancestral traditional medicine can offer to the world, today.

Humanity's psychological growth is urgent in this time of spiritual crisis and any contribution in that sense, however small as it may seem, must be considered as something important. Humanity's psychological growth is a phenomenon, which is slowly taking place through centuries and this development starts like an individual incubation process, as the transformation of reality initially occurs within each individual. 

Erik Hendrick Carpio
Director of the Sapan Inka Project 
Cusco, Peru 2009