What I’ve Learned from Reading The Cosmic Serpant (1 min read)

Written by Millionaire’s Digest Team Member: David Liebowitz

Founder & Owner of: Frequency of the Unknown

Millionaire’s Digest Team, Contributor, Travel and Writing Writer

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Over two months ago, I decided to trade some of my old books from school for some new material. Walking down the aisle all the books seemed to be the same, but then one particular cover struck me; A double helix and snake side by side with the words “The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge” as its title, I knew I found my next book.

The author, Jeremy Narby, is an anthropologist who weaves together his personal anecdote with scientific exploration. What his book argues is that there is a connection between molecular biology and indigenous shamanism and that western academics has ignored this possibility for decades. I could not help to find a sense of irony in all of this; pharmaceutical companies are happy to exploit indigenous knowledge of Amazonian vegetation but when the indigenous call the plants themselves the source of their knowledge the pharmaceutical companies call it nonsense.

It is hard for anyone who had been surrounded by Western culture for all of their lives to comprehend the statement “the plants told us.” Plants cannot talk in the literal sense, so what could they possibly mean? In order to understand the perspective of the indigenous, one has to view plants as a medium instead of inanimate objects. Plants are a form of life anyway.

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Article Credits: David Liebowitz

Millionaire’s Digest Team, Contributor

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