Christian Rätsch Psychoactivity: The Fountain of Culture lyrics
Psychoactivity: The Fountain of Culture
Christian Rätsch
GENRE
[Lecture and presentation]
Well, good morning. Okay. Some ten minutes ago I thought I won't speak to anybody, but now I'm happy that some of you found the way this early. Usually I'm better in the evening, but I try my very best, and I started with burning some incense. Maybe you can sense the smell: that is a Juniper species from the high Himalayas, and that's the place where I want to take you.
What I present here is the view of the origin of shamanism originated by psychoactivity by the shamans in Nеpal. I did a lot of research in Nepal for thе past eighteen years, and this year I had some peak experiences on a shaman's place, and when some of my shaman friends in Nepal told me their view of history, and especially of the history of religion, I knew what I'm gonna present here: It's the shamanic view of how psychoactivity started culture.
And I also want to dedicate this lecture to the shamans, because they are the true keepers of psychoactivity. And first I want to say what I mean. I believe that psychoactivity is the most important generator for the cultural process in general. And by "psychoactivity", I mean the chemically extraordinary state of our nervous system due to endogenous neurotransmitters or analog substances obtained from the outside world and introduced into the human body. Psychoactivity produces visions, reveals secret knowledge, enables to enter alternative realities, promotes artistic creativity, and provides subtle energies for healing processes. This is my general view of psychoactivity.
So, for the shamans in Himalayas, especially in Nepal, it is a true fact that civilisation began in the Himalayas. And when I asked them, "What do you mean by 'civilisation'?", they said, "Yeah, civilisation was started by us, by the shamans." And then we were talking about religion, and a guru shaman—his name is Indra (you know Indra, who loves to drink soma a lot)—he said, "You know, we shamans are from the time before religion. Religion is for those who cannot see. And I believe that psychoactivity keeps you away from religion; it is the opposite thing. And the shaman said, "Well, okay, for those who cannot see, religion might be helpful, and also we have to produce some visible objects for people who cannot see into the other reality to understand what is going on in the other world.
So, can we start with the slides now? Because I have a slideshow to take you to the center of the shamanic universe in Nepal.
So, in every ritual you always have to think of Lord Ganesh first. Ganesh is the son of Shiva, and when I speak now about Shiva and Ganesh and so forth, these are mainly known as Hindu deities, but for the shamans they are the original deities before the religion started. So, Ganesh is the one who guards the door to the other world, to the other reality. So, if you want to get a glimpse of the shamanic universe, you always have to address your first prayer to Ganesh.
And I wanted to work with this picture. Ganesh is a shamanic god, because he was killed by his father and [?] head and then he replaced it by an elephant's head. And that means he went through the dying-and-rebirth process; so, he was an initiated shaman by his father himself, by Shiva.
This is Indra guru, the guy who said this beautiful statement: "We shamans are from the time before religion; religions are for those who cannot see." And, you see, this is a typical shamanic dress, and they dress themselves like this to show the people that they are ready to travel into the other world.
In fact, shamanism is very old in the Himalayas. This is a seven-thousand-five-hundred-year-old burial, and this is obviously a shaman because only shamans are buried in this position.
Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal, and that's also the capital of shamanism. It sounds strange, but that's the case because the god who guards the city of Kathmandu is Shiva himself, and Shiva is the master and originator of shamanism, and he's also the one who introduced tantra and yoga to the people.
This is a typical depiction of Shiva. Look at his eyes, and then remember your last night in the coffee shop.
The forerunner of Shiva, or one form of his, is Rudra, and this is the oldest depiction. Rudra is the master of animals, the guide of souls into the other world.
This is the sacred tree of Rudra. You see the leaf? That is the eye to see until the other world. And you see the fruits? The blue fruits and the kernel? That's rudraksha. Every shaman has to wear this kind of fruit always to be present in Shiva or in Rudra, and to show that he or she is a follower of this god. This kind of beads you can see around the shamans' bodies; also around the yogis' and the ascetics' bodies.
This is Shiva in his form as Mahākāla; *Mahākāla* means "the great time". Mahākāla is the most important god for the shamans. He is actually the original form of the shamanic god, and he's the destroyer of demons; and that's the main task for shamans.
Shiva is also depicted half-man, half-woman; that means he unifies both poles of the universe in himself. And he and his consort are the persons, or the gods, who created all the psychoactive plants—and the Himalayas is a paradise for psychoactive plants. For example, this datura was created by Shiva. When he was drinking amrita, the elixir of immortality, and some drops were falling down to earth, so this plant sprang up from the elixir of life. Also, this is considered a sacred plant of Shiva. It's a *Brugmansia*; both are very potent psychoactive plants, and are mainly used only by shamans because it might be too strong for a regular person.
When Shiva was churning the ocean and drinking the amrita from the ocean in the beginning of history, he also found a poison, a very strong poison, and he drank the poison; and also, some drops of the poison was spit on the floor, and all kinds of plants came up from that.
And this is an aconite species which originated from the poison; and this is also a plant used by shamans, and also by some yogi people. They smoke it, but it is quite dangerous. There is other plants which are not dangerous at all.
And the consort of Shiva, Parvati or Kali or—she's known by many names—she created also alcohol. And I found that, in the psychedelic community, there is people who believe that alcohol is bad; but, not the shamans: They love it, and they drink it a lot. This is a alcohol bottle, and you see it's decorated by Mahākāla, the shamanic god himself.
This year, I was on a pilgrimage with the shamans to the Gaurishankar, and I realised that they drank about two liters of distilled alcohol just in the morning. And I asked them, "Hey, how can you survive that? I would be totally drunken." And they said, "Well, you know, when we drink alcohol, we have this mantra (that's a magical spell) that turns the alcohol into amrita, into the elixir of life. So, unfortunately, they cannot tell you this mantra; you have to—you have to get it by Shiva when he elects you to become a shaman.
And this is a modern depiction, it's an advertisement for beer; Mahākāla is drinking beer. So, they also mix, you know? Sometimes people even in our world say don't mix cannabis with alcohol, but they especially like the mixture. Well, they can do anything; it's amazing.
So, here this is the national plant of Nepal, the most sacred plant of the country. It grows everywhere, and for ten meters high. You can find the plant as the most common roadside plant in Kathmandu and everywhere in the mountains.
And this is hemp (cannabis, ganja, bong, or whatever you wanna call it), and that plant was created by Shiva's wife. I just give you a short myth of how ganja originated:
Shiva, the creator and destroyer of the world, lived with his heavenly wife, Parvati in the Himalayas, the roof of the world. He never stayed at home, however, but went into the mountains instead, where he amused himself with divine names and played with allured goddesses. This did not please Parvati, and so she searched for a means of binding her husband to her in their home. She found a hemp plant, took its resinous female flowers. When she returned home, Parvati gave him the hemp to smoke. Shiva was immediately stirred by joyful arousal, and an unprecedented desire for his wife. The two joined together in heavenly bliss. Shiva experienced that sacred ecstasy that would later open the doors of paradise to his devotees. After this, Shiva remained with his wife; and whenever the two conjoined, they smoked hemp. This is why hemp is considered the best aphrodisiac. It was given to humans so that they could live forever in happiness and domestic peace.
This is the shamans' version, and you see, when Shiva smoked the first chillum, his third eye opened, and that was the breakthrough to enter other realities. So, if you want to follow Shiva, you know what you have to do.
Of course, sex and tantra is part of shamanism, and sex is very important, and the aid is ganja (cannabis), often mixed with datura and other substances. They have a good recipe book over there.
And this is a Tamang shaman, and he smokes ganja for Shiva, and for entering a deep state of trance. When you talk to the true shamans, not what we call the chicken shamans, and ask them, "Do you use hemp?" Then they said, "Sometimes"; then you know he's a real one, because they have the mantras to open the doors of perception easily without any pharmacological help. They also can take you with them into that state, but only when they put a spell (the mantra) on you, and sometimes they have to do very deep trance work, and when they have (like) serious cases of illness, and they have to stay for hours in the other world, then they use smoking mixtures from ganja and datura.
So, this is a very nice place in Nepal. The Ganjala, that's the hemp pass. And, according to the shamans, Shiva was passing over this pass in the high Himalayas, and he was smoking a lot of dope, and then he fall into a deep trance, and he fall into this lake, and there he still lies. Sometimes it's—he's visible there, and so from there he is dreaming the world. And, because he's a god, he's a multiple personality, so one part of him is sleeping in this lake, another part is dancing on the Kailash.
And this is his beautiful consort in a more frightening depiction: This is Kali. Kali is the most important goddess of the shamans, and they pray to her in different forms. And when they do their shamanic job, they have to dress as a woman, so they encircle themselves with Kali.
So, Kali once got very furious about Shiva, because when Shiva was falling into this lake (you—you have just seen), she had nothing to play with, so she thought, "What can I do?" And then she created the witches, and from that she created seven witches, the whole—all the witches until today were born. And when Shiva came out of his deep trance, he found that there were witches doing evil things and putting sickness into people. Then he created the shamans, and he also created this plant. This plant is like a broom, but this broom is not used by the witches to fly, this broom is used by the shamans to drive out the evil spells from the witches.
Here you can see how he treats it. In normal—during the day, they usually don't wear the shaman's costumes and they don't go into trance. Into trance they go usually only in the night, because in the night there is the demons around, and they are very important for healing, because you travel in the other world, and you talk to the demon, you give him a little offering of some Schnaps or something. And because they're greedy, they take everything, and then they have to deliver some information. So, they are important.
You have heard of the yeti, the abominable snowman. That is, of course, not an animal or a pre-human being, that is originally one of the shamans' gods. The real name is Banjha(n)kri; that means "the shaman of the forest". So, therefore, nobody will ever find the yeti in nature because you have to go in trance, and then you can find the yeti easily.
The Banjha(n)kri (the wild man or the wild shaman, the forest shaman), he wears a skin of a deer, of this deer. And that is supposedly a symbol of this mushroom. And maybe you have heard of the theory of soma being identified as a fly agaric mushroom, the Amanita muscaria. We never found any ethnographic evidence for the use of Amanita muscaria in the Himalayas. And this year was the very first time that this man told me he's—his father—there was a very famous shaman in Bhutan, and he told me when he was helping his father as a kid he saw that he went to the forest to collect fly agaric mushrooms, and he dried them over the fire and swallowed them for going into a deep trance. So, that was the very, very first information I got firsthand from shamanic people in the Himalayas. And with this guy, we went to search for some shamans who still do the fly agaric mushroom. So, maybe in a few years I can come back to that topic.
Well, just to wake you up. By the way, the yeti loves to drink Schnaps, too, so he's like a real shaman. And he—If you want to contact him you have to put some alcoholic offerings in front of the forest.
This is two shamans sitting there. They're usually normal people, and what they drink there is chhaang, beer made from rice. And the one to the left is called the king of Gaurishankar (Gaurishankar is the most sacred mountain of the shamans), and he's a Sherpa, and he is a very strong shaman, I can tell you.
You see, this is another Tamang shaman. He has one dreadlock; that's in honor of Shiva. I asked him, "Then why don't you have dreadlocks all over?" He said, "Because, you know, I'm a poor peasant, and when I work in the rice field it's very unconvenient to have dreadlocks all over.
And this is the view into the shamanic universe. It's the other world, where they used to travel. This is a mandala, and the shaman is always sitting in the south; and he's protected by a wall of fire in his back, and he is facing north; and in the north there you have the Garuda bird; that is one of the most important shamanic animals in Nepal, because he's the killer of snakes and demons, too. And so, when the shaman travels into the other world, first he has to contact Garuda, and Garuda may be his riding vessel. He can also take other people with his claws and carry them around. On the—the east you have Kali, and in the—no, in the—in the—yeah. In the east you have Kali, in the west you have Shiva. So, that is the shamanic mandala.
And here you see one in deep trance. I always were curious about how they fall into trance, and in the West some people have this belief that you just have to play a drum to fall into trance, but that is stupid, of course. And the true shamans will laugh about that. The drum is nothing else than a tool, but to fall into trance—to travel into the other world—you have to have the mantra, which is the sacred word. And that mantra you get when you are chosen by Shiva to become a shaman. And so, for the shamans the mantra is the most important thing. And second, the incense and the alcohol and maybe some other psychoactive plants.
Here's a female shaman. She's also Tamang, and here also in deep trance, and they told me they see the same things every time and they can meet other shamans in the other world and so forth, and that they can fly into all parts of the universe through trance. And if you see see them doing that, they are shaking and shouting and singing and drumming. The drum is like a tool for navigating through the other world. Here you can see the movement, the shaking, the—. In most languages in Nepal, the word trance translates literally as "shaking".
Here we have a thangka painting, and this is a so-called jha(n)kri thangka; that means a shaman's painting. And usually people think thangka painting originated in Tibet. That's wrong: It originated in Nepal, especially in the area of Kathmandu. And the shamans say—well, the whole tradition of thangka painting was started with the shamans, because there were some shamans who could paint well, and because usual people cannot see how it looks like in the other world, so they started to draw, make drawings or paintings from what they have seen. And that was the beginning of the thangka tradition. So, the thangka tradition has its origin in the shamanic ecstasy.
And this is a thangka used by a Tamang shaman for many years, because it shows how he travels into the other world. You see at the bottom there is all the shamanic tools, and there rises the dragon, and the dragon encircles the whole universe, and the shaman travels through the dragon, in the inside of the dragon, into the other world, so that the dragon is the channel into the other reality. This is the very first time that I show this picture, because I just got this thangka now, and after eighteen years I was surprised to learn all this, that there is shamans using thangkas for travelling.
Also the shamans discovered the chakras, and I don't want to get too deep into that, but you heard about the chakras and as the energy centers in our subtle body. And what is important is that for the shamans, the basement chakra is very important and the head chakra, and they unify in the heart, because the shaman's work is applied unconditioned love. This is what the woman I showed earlier said to me: "You know, that is our force; we have to love everybody as much as we can, and that is the most important part of healing. And so I asked her, "So, you would say shamanism is love?" She said, "Yes, that's maybe the basic definition of it." And it's—also, the chakra in your throat is important, because when the shaman leaves the body, he leaves through the throat chakra.
Here you can see that the the bird inside the—that throat chakra means that you can fly out there. So, when you leave your body from the throat chakra, the first thing is you fly into this vessel, and when the shaman flies into it and the big opening and—, then he sees an ocean of amrita, and so he dives into that ocean, and there he meets one hundred and eight protective gods and goddesses, and they give him power to journey further through the other world. And then he cames out where the water would be poured out, and flies away.
This is a depiction from one of the tunnels: how to enter the other world; it's from a mandala painting.
And here you see the shamans reading the tangka of Garuda, and it was very interesting: I showed them the stanca, and both of them said, "Wow! He looks exactly like (like) we see him, but the painter added a little bit here and there."
And this is an incarnation of Shiva as Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhāva. People usually believe that he brought Buddhism to Tibet, but he was the originator of tantra, and he found all the shamanic tools and techniques in a cave in Kathmandu—near Kathmandu. This is another depiction of Padmasambhāva when he is full of shakti. Shakti is not only from the female force, shakti is also the name for the shaman's power, for the—for the shamanic energy.
And this is the most important tool of the shamans: that's a phurba, a magical dagger. And they all have phurbas made from wood, and they use this to kill the demons, and also to heal other ailments, and to take out bad energies from your body and so forth. So, this is the tool you can see in this world, and this is in the cave of Padmasambhāva, and you see the shaman woman there. She prays with this tool, she prays for shakti, and to make it alive, and when you have a phurba, which is a life in the shamanic sense, then you can use that to travel into the other world, too. But, usually the shamans don't give you the mantras to do that, but you can go with them, and if you travel with this tool in your hands then you're protected from all the evil spirits. So, also if you—maybe—if you have something like that at home, and you got on a bad trip, just take it in your hands and it protects you from the bad spirits.
So, they they use what is called mudras with these magical daggers, and these mudras are especially designed to kill certain types of demons.
And this is how the phurba looks in the other world. This is a thangka painting, and you see the heads of the phurba [are] the same as Mahākāla, it is Shiva himself. And the shamans are considered phurbas himself; so, when he flies into the other reality, he turns into this being. And you see the legs, there is no legs; the legs is like the—the dagger, and it sticks in the heart of a demon. The demons always are like human beings; they don't look like what we would imagine as demons.
And this is the complete shamanic universe. The phurba is also the axis mundi, the world tree. It represents heaven, earth, and the underworld, and it's the center of the shaman's universe; it's the center of every shaman; and it is synonymous with Shiva, Mahākāla, the shaman, and the phurba: That's all the same. So, the shaman itself became—becomes a magical dagger when he's in trance, and the axis mundi is surrounded by the Kalachakra, the time. And so, that is basically the idea of the shamanic universe.
And this is the shaman's drum, and you see the holder of the drum is the magical dagger, and they say this is an emergency phurba. When they don't have another one, they can use the drum for the same thing. And the drum means also the heartbeat of the shaman, the heartbeat of Shiva, the heartbeat of time. And so, the drum is producing or creating the shamanic time.
This is Padmasambhāva again, blue. They often depicted blue because blue is the symbol of the other world, the color blue; and also, you become blue when you drink certain poisons of psychoactive plants. And here he is dancing.
You see, this is the shaman's dance in this reality. Shiva is known as the dancer, and when the shaman starts to dance, he transforms himself into Shiva.
And, well, Shiva also created the bear, and that animal is considered to be the shaman among the animals. And all the shamans say if you look for new plants, what to use in healing, just watch the—that animal. The name is bhālū; you know, you have heard that name from The Jungle Book, I believe.
And so, the man who told me the story about the Amanita muscaria said also that his father used this plant for travelling into the other world. And I couldn't believe because it's a bamboo; it's an species. And I asked him, "How do you know that?" And he said, "Well, we watched the animal eating it, and then you fall in trance. So, this—here you see it again—this is the first time to be reported as a psychoactive plant, and I believe it contains maybe DMT or related compounds, because that is very possible because the whole family contains a lot of tryptamines.
So, in shamanic rituals, incense is very important, and you see the incense holder here is a phurba again, so that is a continuous theme in shamanism.
Here you see the offering of incense. That's the same stuff I burned earlier this morning, and that is a psychoactive juniper. You see how much smoke they produce. I was a little concerned to produce a more smoke here because I don't know what happens; but, when the shamans go into deep trance, they inhale this like holotropic breathing, and it sounds like [sound of three sharp inhalations and exhalations in rapid succession]. Like this, you know, and then they get full of—of smoke and—. Just try that, it's amazing.
This is the plant Juniperus recurva growing only in the higher mountains, between two and three thousand meters altitude.
And this is another plant used for incense, that is sage, Artemisia. And there is some Artemisia species with psychoactive properties. And, of course, all these plants are considered to be created by Shiva and Parvati himself, because this is the shaman's pharmacopia.
And also, this time, for the first time, I found the use of another solanaceous plant called Cestrum nocturnum, or night jasmine. You see in front of the two shamans there is a vase and—containing some flowers, and that's Cestrum nocturnum. It's not very strong, but it's psychoactive—especially when you dry it and smoke it. It can be used as a marijuana substitute. And what is interesting here is … symbolically it's directly connected with the elixir of life. So, this was the first time I have ever seen the ritualistic use of this plant by shamans. And it's only in one village in the whole area of the Gaurishankar, the sacred mountain. Here you see the plant; that's the flowers.
And you see this guy is smoking. Shamans love to smoke; they smoke everything, and as much as possible. And it was interesting: That night I did not only see the first use of Cestrum nocturnum, they also showed me a new smoking plant. They smoke leaves from an Ericaceae tree, and I tried it and the effect was very much like nicotine. So, now people do the analysis and it might be a plant high in nicotine. Here you see the plant. They just use the leaves. And also, this plant never has been reported as they're being used this way and as being psychoactive. Do you see the shaman rolling his cigarette, or joint? It's nice if they fill it with cannabis. And, well, the effect is very much like very strong tobacco, like mapacho tobacco.
And this is also typical. To smoke together means to make friendship, as we know all. That's why we love Amsterdam so much. Yeah, this is the altar of the king of Gaurishankar, the Sherpa. You see it's—the whole altar is decorated with plants; that's mainly the sage the Artemisia. And on the left you see a mask, and that mask is Mahākāla. And the shaman here, he goes into deep trance and asks Mahākāla for—to allow him to turn into him personally. That takes about an hour of singing, drumming, and so forth. And I mean, it's easy to see that he's somewhere else. And then, when he's in deep trance, he takes the mask and puts it on and dances through the whole village. And this is to drive all the demons and evil spirits away, because Mahākāla himself is the destroyer, is the original shaman; and so, if you want to be strong, then you have to become Mahākāla himself.
This is in Kathmandu. Mahākāla is the local god of Kathmandu, the biggest representation.
And now we back on the Gaurishankar, and I'm almost through my little journey to the shamans' world. This is the peak of a mountain 4000 meters high. And the whole story is too long to tell now, but in the beginning of time, Parvati died, and Shiva was very sad. And he was carrying her dead body, and parts of the body dropped down, and the heart and the clitoris of Parvati fall on top of this mountain, and that's why it's the most sacred place for the shamans: because you have the basement chakra, the heart chakra, and you are connected with the heavens. So, once a year, on the so-called Shiva moon—that is, the full moon in August. This place is crowded by hundreds of shamans. They come there because it's believed that Shiva moon, at Shiva moon, the Moon will be poured out. The Moon is the vessel of soma, or amrita, and this—the whole content of the Moon is poured out over this place, and there you can bathe in amrita and get shakti. And that is—it's like a fuel station for shamans.
Here you have the king of Gaurishankar, and he's praying to the goddess and asking her to give him all the power and the love so he can heal the people. With this picture I want to thank you for your attention and hope you got a glimpse of what shamanism can be. Thank you very much.
[Q&A]
[Christian Rätsch]
… adopted these gods and goddesses from the shamans, in the shamans own view. They would never say "I'm a Hindu" or "a Buddhist", they say "I'm a shaman." And I can use the symbolism of both Hinduism and Buddhism to work with and to give people insights of the structure of reality, but they always say Shiva was long, long before Hinduism. Hinduism was invented just a couple of thousand years ago, but Shiva is the creator of everything (for the shamans). And so … shamanism has its role in the society, and the society has to use religion to maintain their lives, but it's not—the shamanism is not a religion, and—it is experience and it's direct: the direct contact with pre-Hindu, pre-Buddhist gods.
[Man from audience]
So, what's the difference?
[Christian Rätsch]
Well …
[Man from audience]
The magical or active part of it. I mean, how do you define religion in this?
[Christian Rätsch]
Religion is a belief system, and the shamans say you need a religion if you cannot travel into the other world to see the true reality. So, religion is belief; shamanism is experience.
[Man from audience]
It's knowledge. So, no religion could be based on knowledge? On understanding? On insight?
[Christian Rätsch]
I did not get that, sorry.
[Man from audience]
So, no religion could be based on insight, personal experience in meditation, drugs, whatever?
[Christian Rätsch]
Well, from personal experience, religion can be useful, but for shamans …
[Man from audience]
[?] personal experience.
[Christian Rätsch]
Shamans don't do this for personal experience, they do this for healing people.
[Man from audience]
For service, yes.
[Christian Rätsch]
And if you do meditate, then you are already on your ego trip. This is what I think.
[Man from audience]
All right, that's sufficient.
[]
Thank you. We have time for one more.
[Second man from audience]
Quick technical question: When you were working with the shaman who traced the mantra to try and bring into the other world, were you under the influence of any psychoactives at the time?
[Christian Rätsch]
Um …
[Second man from audience]
Or was it purely [?] magical effect?
[Christian Rätsch]
When I travel with a shaman, he gives me my phurba, and he puts the mantra on seven grains of rice. And I have to swallow these seven grains of rice to make the mantra active in my body. And with them, when he is around, it's very easy for me to go with him right away. If I sit at my home with my phurba and I try to journey like this, it's impossible. And the phurba is like an outside tool, and the mantra is the real important thing. And this time I had some very amazing experiences with—. (You have seen the dancing shaman, he was very strong and doing the mudras and everything.) And one morning, he came and put two phurbas just here.
And in the moment he put it here, I left my body immediately, fly about 4000 meters high, could look on the Himalayas, it was very beautiful. And when I realised what happened, I was back and I was totally sober that morning. Yeah, it was [?].
[Second man from audience]
[?] first offering to Shiva.
[Christian Rätsch]
Yeah.
[Second man from audience]
The other quick technical point: Did you see use or mention of mudras in sex tantra? They're actually using the hands basically to insert into somebody in mature positions.
[Christian Rätsch]
In—In sex tantra?
[Second man from audience]
In—actually in tantric sex. Where they're actually used internally as well as externally.
[Christian Rätsch]
I—You know, tantric sex is basically an imagination of the Western world.
[Second man from audience]
Uh-huh.
[Christian Rätsch]
And you can see tantric sex around the temples as depictions …
[Second man from audience]
Mmm hmm.
[Christian Rätsch]
… and there's all kinds of techniques known
[Second man from audience]
Yeah.
[Christian Rätsch]
And—But—Well, I never found a tantric priestess in the Himalayas.
[Second man from audience]
Yeah.
[Christian Rätsch]
I found them somewhere else, but—.
[laughs]
It's very difficult to get ethnographic information on tantric sex. I believe it's totally eradicated in India, and I know that there is tantric sex being practiced in some monasteries around Kathmandu, and it's also believed that the Kumari goddess cult is basically [?] sex tantra stuff. But that's very difficult.
[Second man from audience]
Sure.
[Christian Rätsch]
As soon as I know more, I'll tell you.
[Second man from audience]
Thank you.
Well, good morning. Okay. Some ten minutes ago I thought I won't speak to anybody, but now I'm happy that some of you found the way this early. Usually I'm better in the evening, but I try my very best, and I started with burning some incense. Maybe you can sense the smell: that is a Juniper species from the high Himalayas, and that's the place where I want to take you.
What I present here is the view of the origin of shamanism originated by psychoactivity by the shamans in Nеpal. I did a lot of research in Nepal for thе past eighteen years, and this year I had some peak experiences on a shaman's place, and when some of my shaman friends in Nepal told me their view of history, and especially of the history of religion, I knew what I'm gonna present here: It's the shamanic view of how psychoactivity started culture.
And I also want to dedicate this lecture to the shamans, because they are the true keepers of psychoactivity. And first I want to say what I mean. I believe that psychoactivity is the most important generator for the cultural process in general. And by "psychoactivity", I mean the chemically extraordinary state of our nervous system due to endogenous neurotransmitters or analog substances obtained from the outside world and introduced into the human body. Psychoactivity produces visions, reveals secret knowledge, enables to enter alternative realities, promotes artistic creativity, and provides subtle energies for healing processes. This is my general view of psychoactivity.
So, for the shamans in Himalayas, especially in Nepal, it is a true fact that civilisation began in the Himalayas. And when I asked them, "What do you mean by 'civilisation'?", they said, "Yeah, civilisation was started by us, by the shamans." And then we were talking about religion, and a guru shaman—his name is Indra (you know Indra, who loves to drink soma a lot)—he said, "You know, we shamans are from the time before religion. Religion is for those who cannot see. And I believe that psychoactivity keeps you away from religion; it is the opposite thing. And the shaman said, "Well, okay, for those who cannot see, religion might be helpful, and also we have to produce some visible objects for people who cannot see into the other reality to understand what is going on in the other world.
So, can we start with the slides now? Because I have a slideshow to take you to the center of the shamanic universe in Nepal.
So, in every ritual you always have to think of Lord Ganesh first. Ganesh is the son of Shiva, and when I speak now about Shiva and Ganesh and so forth, these are mainly known as Hindu deities, but for the shamans they are the original deities before the religion started. So, Ganesh is the one who guards the door to the other world, to the other reality. So, if you want to get a glimpse of the shamanic universe, you always have to address your first prayer to Ganesh.
And I wanted to work with this picture. Ganesh is a shamanic god, because he was killed by his father and [?] head and then he replaced it by an elephant's head. And that means he went through the dying-and-rebirth process; so, he was an initiated shaman by his father himself, by Shiva.
This is Indra guru, the guy who said this beautiful statement: "We shamans are from the time before religion; religions are for those who cannot see." And, you see, this is a typical shamanic dress, and they dress themselves like this to show the people that they are ready to travel into the other world.
In fact, shamanism is very old in the Himalayas. This is a seven-thousand-five-hundred-year-old burial, and this is obviously a shaman because only shamans are buried in this position.
Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal, and that's also the capital of shamanism. It sounds strange, but that's the case because the god who guards the city of Kathmandu is Shiva himself, and Shiva is the master and originator of shamanism, and he's also the one who introduced tantra and yoga to the people.
This is a typical depiction of Shiva. Look at his eyes, and then remember your last night in the coffee shop.
The forerunner of Shiva, or one form of his, is Rudra, and this is the oldest depiction. Rudra is the master of animals, the guide of souls into the other world.
This is the sacred tree of Rudra. You see the leaf? That is the eye to see until the other world. And you see the fruits? The blue fruits and the kernel? That's rudraksha. Every shaman has to wear this kind of fruit always to be present in Shiva or in Rudra, and to show that he or she is a follower of this god. This kind of beads you can see around the shamans' bodies; also around the yogis' and the ascetics' bodies.
This is Shiva in his form as Mahākāla; *Mahākāla* means "the great time". Mahākāla is the most important god for the shamans. He is actually the original form of the shamanic god, and he's the destroyer of demons; and that's the main task for shamans.
Shiva is also depicted half-man, half-woman; that means he unifies both poles of the universe in himself. And he and his consort are the persons, or the gods, who created all the psychoactive plants—and the Himalayas is a paradise for psychoactive plants. For example, this datura was created by Shiva. When he was drinking amrita, the elixir of immortality, and some drops were falling down to earth, so this plant sprang up from the elixir of life. Also, this is considered a sacred plant of Shiva. It's a *Brugmansia*; both are very potent psychoactive plants, and are mainly used only by shamans because it might be too strong for a regular person.
When Shiva was churning the ocean and drinking the amrita from the ocean in the beginning of history, he also found a poison, a very strong poison, and he drank the poison; and also, some drops of the poison was spit on the floor, and all kinds of plants came up from that.
And this is an aconite species which originated from the poison; and this is also a plant used by shamans, and also by some yogi people. They smoke it, but it is quite dangerous. There is other plants which are not dangerous at all.
And the consort of Shiva, Parvati or Kali or—she's known by many names—she created also alcohol. And I found that, in the psychedelic community, there is people who believe that alcohol is bad; but, not the shamans: They love it, and they drink it a lot. This is a alcohol bottle, and you see it's decorated by Mahākāla, the shamanic god himself.
This year, I was on a pilgrimage with the shamans to the Gaurishankar, and I realised that they drank about two liters of distilled alcohol just in the morning. And I asked them, "Hey, how can you survive that? I would be totally drunken." And they said, "Well, you know, when we drink alcohol, we have this mantra (that's a magical spell) that turns the alcohol into amrita, into the elixir of life. So, unfortunately, they cannot tell you this mantra; you have to—you have to get it by Shiva when he elects you to become a shaman.
And this is a modern depiction, it's an advertisement for beer; Mahākāla is drinking beer. So, they also mix, you know? Sometimes people even in our world say don't mix cannabis with alcohol, but they especially like the mixture. Well, they can do anything; it's amazing.
So, here this is the national plant of Nepal, the most sacred plant of the country. It grows everywhere, and for ten meters high. You can find the plant as the most common roadside plant in Kathmandu and everywhere in the mountains.
And this is hemp (cannabis, ganja, bong, or whatever you wanna call it), and that plant was created by Shiva's wife. I just give you a short myth of how ganja originated:
Shiva, the creator and destroyer of the world, lived with his heavenly wife, Parvati in the Himalayas, the roof of the world. He never stayed at home, however, but went into the mountains instead, where he amused himself with divine names and played with allured goddesses. This did not please Parvati, and so she searched for a means of binding her husband to her in their home. She found a hemp plant, took its resinous female flowers. When she returned home, Parvati gave him the hemp to smoke. Shiva was immediately stirred by joyful arousal, and an unprecedented desire for his wife. The two joined together in heavenly bliss. Shiva experienced that sacred ecstasy that would later open the doors of paradise to his devotees. After this, Shiva remained with his wife; and whenever the two conjoined, they smoked hemp. This is why hemp is considered the best aphrodisiac. It was given to humans so that they could live forever in happiness and domestic peace.
This is the shamans' version, and you see, when Shiva smoked the first chillum, his third eye opened, and that was the breakthrough to enter other realities. So, if you want to follow Shiva, you know what you have to do.
Of course, sex and tantra is part of shamanism, and sex is very important, and the aid is ganja (cannabis), often mixed with datura and other substances. They have a good recipe book over there.
And this is a Tamang shaman, and he smokes ganja for Shiva, and for entering a deep state of trance. When you talk to the true shamans, not what we call the chicken shamans, and ask them, "Do you use hemp?" Then they said, "Sometimes"; then you know he's a real one, because they have the mantras to open the doors of perception easily without any pharmacological help. They also can take you with them into that state, but only when they put a spell (the mantra) on you, and sometimes they have to do very deep trance work, and when they have (like) serious cases of illness, and they have to stay for hours in the other world, then they use smoking mixtures from ganja and datura.
So, this is a very nice place in Nepal. The Ganjala, that's the hemp pass. And, according to the shamans, Shiva was passing over this pass in the high Himalayas, and he was smoking a lot of dope, and then he fall into a deep trance, and he fall into this lake, and there he still lies. Sometimes it's—he's visible there, and so from there he is dreaming the world. And, because he's a god, he's a multiple personality, so one part of him is sleeping in this lake, another part is dancing on the Kailash.
And this is his beautiful consort in a more frightening depiction: This is Kali. Kali is the most important goddess of the shamans, and they pray to her in different forms. And when they do their shamanic job, they have to dress as a woman, so they encircle themselves with Kali.
So, Kali once got very furious about Shiva, because when Shiva was falling into this lake (you—you have just seen), she had nothing to play with, so she thought, "What can I do?" And then she created the witches, and from that she created seven witches, the whole—all the witches until today were born. And when Shiva came out of his deep trance, he found that there were witches doing evil things and putting sickness into people. Then he created the shamans, and he also created this plant. This plant is like a broom, but this broom is not used by the witches to fly, this broom is used by the shamans to drive out the evil spells from the witches.
Here you can see how he treats it. In normal—during the day, they usually don't wear the shaman's costumes and they don't go into trance. Into trance they go usually only in the night, because in the night there is the demons around, and they are very important for healing, because you travel in the other world, and you talk to the demon, you give him a little offering of some Schnaps or something. And because they're greedy, they take everything, and then they have to deliver some information. So, they are important.
You have heard of the yeti, the abominable snowman. That is, of course, not an animal or a pre-human being, that is originally one of the shamans' gods. The real name is Banjha(n)kri; that means "the shaman of the forest". So, therefore, nobody will ever find the yeti in nature because you have to go in trance, and then you can find the yeti easily.
The Banjha(n)kri (the wild man or the wild shaman, the forest shaman), he wears a skin of a deer, of this deer. And that is supposedly a symbol of this mushroom. And maybe you have heard of the theory of soma being identified as a fly agaric mushroom, the Amanita muscaria. We never found any ethnographic evidence for the use of Amanita muscaria in the Himalayas. And this year was the very first time that this man told me he's—his father—there was a very famous shaman in Bhutan, and he told me when he was helping his father as a kid he saw that he went to the forest to collect fly agaric mushrooms, and he dried them over the fire and swallowed them for going into a deep trance. So, that was the very, very first information I got firsthand from shamanic people in the Himalayas. And with this guy, we went to search for some shamans who still do the fly agaric mushroom. So, maybe in a few years I can come back to that topic.
Well, just to wake you up. By the way, the yeti loves to drink Schnaps, too, so he's like a real shaman. And he—If you want to contact him you have to put some alcoholic offerings in front of the forest.
This is two shamans sitting there. They're usually normal people, and what they drink there is chhaang, beer made from rice. And the one to the left is called the king of Gaurishankar (Gaurishankar is the most sacred mountain of the shamans), and he's a Sherpa, and he is a very strong shaman, I can tell you.
You see, this is another Tamang shaman. He has one dreadlock; that's in honor of Shiva. I asked him, "Then why don't you have dreadlocks all over?" He said, "Because, you know, I'm a poor peasant, and when I work in the rice field it's very unconvenient to have dreadlocks all over.
And this is the view into the shamanic universe. It's the other world, where they used to travel. This is a mandala, and the shaman is always sitting in the south; and he's protected by a wall of fire in his back, and he is facing north; and in the north there you have the Garuda bird; that is one of the most important shamanic animals in Nepal, because he's the killer of snakes and demons, too. And so, when the shaman travels into the other world, first he has to contact Garuda, and Garuda may be his riding vessel. He can also take other people with his claws and carry them around. On the—the east you have Kali, and in the—no, in the—in the—yeah. In the east you have Kali, in the west you have Shiva. So, that is the shamanic mandala.
And here you see one in deep trance. I always were curious about how they fall into trance, and in the West some people have this belief that you just have to play a drum to fall into trance, but that is stupid, of course. And the true shamans will laugh about that. The drum is nothing else than a tool, but to fall into trance—to travel into the other world—you have to have the mantra, which is the sacred word. And that mantra you get when you are chosen by Shiva to become a shaman. And so, for the shamans the mantra is the most important thing. And second, the incense and the alcohol and maybe some other psychoactive plants.
Here's a female shaman. She's also Tamang, and here also in deep trance, and they told me they see the same things every time and they can meet other shamans in the other world and so forth, and that they can fly into all parts of the universe through trance. And if you see see them doing that, they are shaking and shouting and singing and drumming. The drum is like a tool for navigating through the other world. Here you can see the movement, the shaking, the—. In most languages in Nepal, the word trance translates literally as "shaking".
Here we have a thangka painting, and this is a so-called jha(n)kri thangka; that means a shaman's painting. And usually people think thangka painting originated in Tibet. That's wrong: It originated in Nepal, especially in the area of Kathmandu. And the shamans say—well, the whole tradition of thangka painting was started with the shamans, because there were some shamans who could paint well, and because usual people cannot see how it looks like in the other world, so they started to draw, make drawings or paintings from what they have seen. And that was the beginning of the thangka tradition. So, the thangka tradition has its origin in the shamanic ecstasy.
And this is a thangka used by a Tamang shaman for many years, because it shows how he travels into the other world. You see at the bottom there is all the shamanic tools, and there rises the dragon, and the dragon encircles the whole universe, and the shaman travels through the dragon, in the inside of the dragon, into the other world, so that the dragon is the channel into the other reality. This is the very first time that I show this picture, because I just got this thangka now, and after eighteen years I was surprised to learn all this, that there is shamans using thangkas for travelling.
Also the shamans discovered the chakras, and I don't want to get too deep into that, but you heard about the chakras and as the energy centers in our subtle body. And what is important is that for the shamans, the basement chakra is very important and the head chakra, and they unify in the heart, because the shaman's work is applied unconditioned love. This is what the woman I showed earlier said to me: "You know, that is our force; we have to love everybody as much as we can, and that is the most important part of healing. And so I asked her, "So, you would say shamanism is love?" She said, "Yes, that's maybe the basic definition of it." And it's—also, the chakra in your throat is important, because when the shaman leaves the body, he leaves through the throat chakra.
Here you can see that the the bird inside the—that throat chakra means that you can fly out there. So, when you leave your body from the throat chakra, the first thing is you fly into this vessel, and when the shaman flies into it and the big opening and—, then he sees an ocean of amrita, and so he dives into that ocean, and there he meets one hundred and eight protective gods and goddesses, and they give him power to journey further through the other world. And then he cames out where the water would be poured out, and flies away.
This is a depiction from one of the tunnels: how to enter the other world; it's from a mandala painting.
And here you see the shamans reading the tangka of Garuda, and it was very interesting: I showed them the stanca, and both of them said, "Wow! He looks exactly like (like) we see him, but the painter added a little bit here and there."
And this is an incarnation of Shiva as Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhāva. People usually believe that he brought Buddhism to Tibet, but he was the originator of tantra, and he found all the shamanic tools and techniques in a cave in Kathmandu—near Kathmandu. This is another depiction of Padmasambhāva when he is full of shakti. Shakti is not only from the female force, shakti is also the name for the shaman's power, for the—for the shamanic energy.
And this is the most important tool of the shamans: that's a phurba, a magical dagger. And they all have phurbas made from wood, and they use this to kill the demons, and also to heal other ailments, and to take out bad energies from your body and so forth. So, this is the tool you can see in this world, and this is in the cave of Padmasambhāva, and you see the shaman woman there. She prays with this tool, she prays for shakti, and to make it alive, and when you have a phurba, which is a life in the shamanic sense, then you can use that to travel into the other world, too. But, usually the shamans don't give you the mantras to do that, but you can go with them, and if you travel with this tool in your hands then you're protected from all the evil spirits. So, also if you—maybe—if you have something like that at home, and you got on a bad trip, just take it in your hands and it protects you from the bad spirits.
So, they they use what is called mudras with these magical daggers, and these mudras are especially designed to kill certain types of demons.
And this is how the phurba looks in the other world. This is a thangka painting, and you see the heads of the phurba [are] the same as Mahākāla, it is Shiva himself. And the shamans are considered phurbas himself; so, when he flies into the other reality, he turns into this being. And you see the legs, there is no legs; the legs is like the—the dagger, and it sticks in the heart of a demon. The demons always are like human beings; they don't look like what we would imagine as demons.
And this is the complete shamanic universe. The phurba is also the axis mundi, the world tree. It represents heaven, earth, and the underworld, and it's the center of the shaman's universe; it's the center of every shaman; and it is synonymous with Shiva, Mahākāla, the shaman, and the phurba: That's all the same. So, the shaman itself became—becomes a magical dagger when he's in trance, and the axis mundi is surrounded by the Kalachakra, the time. And so, that is basically the idea of the shamanic universe.
And this is the shaman's drum, and you see the holder of the drum is the magical dagger, and they say this is an emergency phurba. When they don't have another one, they can use the drum for the same thing. And the drum means also the heartbeat of the shaman, the heartbeat of Shiva, the heartbeat of time. And so, the drum is producing or creating the shamanic time.
This is Padmasambhāva again, blue. They often depicted blue because blue is the symbol of the other world, the color blue; and also, you become blue when you drink certain poisons of psychoactive plants. And here he is dancing.
You see, this is the shaman's dance in this reality. Shiva is known as the dancer, and when the shaman starts to dance, he transforms himself into Shiva.
And, well, Shiva also created the bear, and that animal is considered to be the shaman among the animals. And all the shamans say if you look for new plants, what to use in healing, just watch the—that animal. The name is bhālū; you know, you have heard that name from The Jungle Book, I believe.
And so, the man who told me the story about the Amanita muscaria said also that his father used this plant for travelling into the other world. And I couldn't believe because it's a bamboo; it's an species. And I asked him, "How do you know that?" And he said, "Well, we watched the animal eating it, and then you fall in trance. So, this—here you see it again—this is the first time to be reported as a psychoactive plant, and I believe it contains maybe DMT or related compounds, because that is very possible because the whole family contains a lot of tryptamines.
So, in shamanic rituals, incense is very important, and you see the incense holder here is a phurba again, so that is a continuous theme in shamanism.
Here you see the offering of incense. That's the same stuff I burned earlier this morning, and that is a psychoactive juniper. You see how much smoke they produce. I was a little concerned to produce a more smoke here because I don't know what happens; but, when the shamans go into deep trance, they inhale this like holotropic breathing, and it sounds like [sound of three sharp inhalations and exhalations in rapid succession]. Like this, you know, and then they get full of—of smoke and—. Just try that, it's amazing.
This is the plant Juniperus recurva growing only in the higher mountains, between two and three thousand meters altitude.
And this is another plant used for incense, that is sage, Artemisia. And there is some Artemisia species with psychoactive properties. And, of course, all these plants are considered to be created by Shiva and Parvati himself, because this is the shaman's pharmacopia.
And also, this time, for the first time, I found the use of another solanaceous plant called Cestrum nocturnum, or night jasmine. You see in front of the two shamans there is a vase and—containing some flowers, and that's Cestrum nocturnum. It's not very strong, but it's psychoactive—especially when you dry it and smoke it. It can be used as a marijuana substitute. And what is interesting here is … symbolically it's directly connected with the elixir of life. So, this was the first time I have ever seen the ritualistic use of this plant by shamans. And it's only in one village in the whole area of the Gaurishankar, the sacred mountain. Here you see the plant; that's the flowers.
And you see this guy is smoking. Shamans love to smoke; they smoke everything, and as much as possible. And it was interesting: That night I did not only see the first use of Cestrum nocturnum, they also showed me a new smoking plant. They smoke leaves from an Ericaceae tree, and I tried it and the effect was very much like nicotine. So, now people do the analysis and it might be a plant high in nicotine. Here you see the plant. They just use the leaves. And also, this plant never has been reported as they're being used this way and as being psychoactive. Do you see the shaman rolling his cigarette, or joint? It's nice if they fill it with cannabis. And, well, the effect is very much like very strong tobacco, like mapacho tobacco.
And this is also typical. To smoke together means to make friendship, as we know all. That's why we love Amsterdam so much. Yeah, this is the altar of the king of Gaurishankar, the Sherpa. You see it's—the whole altar is decorated with plants; that's mainly the sage the Artemisia. And on the left you see a mask, and that mask is Mahākāla. And the shaman here, he goes into deep trance and asks Mahākāla for—to allow him to turn into him personally. That takes about an hour of singing, drumming, and so forth. And I mean, it's easy to see that he's somewhere else. And then, when he's in deep trance, he takes the mask and puts it on and dances through the whole village. And this is to drive all the demons and evil spirits away, because Mahākāla himself is the destroyer, is the original shaman; and so, if you want to be strong, then you have to become Mahākāla himself.
This is in Kathmandu. Mahākāla is the local god of Kathmandu, the biggest representation.
And now we back on the Gaurishankar, and I'm almost through my little journey to the shamans' world. This is the peak of a mountain 4000 meters high. And the whole story is too long to tell now, but in the beginning of time, Parvati died, and Shiva was very sad. And he was carrying her dead body, and parts of the body dropped down, and the heart and the clitoris of Parvati fall on top of this mountain, and that's why it's the most sacred place for the shamans: because you have the basement chakra, the heart chakra, and you are connected with the heavens. So, once a year, on the so-called Shiva moon—that is, the full moon in August. This place is crowded by hundreds of shamans. They come there because it's believed that Shiva moon, at Shiva moon, the Moon will be poured out. The Moon is the vessel of soma, or amrita, and this—the whole content of the Moon is poured out over this place, and there you can bathe in amrita and get shakti. And that is—it's like a fuel station for shamans.
Here you have the king of Gaurishankar, and he's praying to the goddess and asking her to give him all the power and the love so he can heal the people. With this picture I want to thank you for your attention and hope you got a glimpse of what shamanism can be. Thank you very much.
[Q&A]
[Christian Rätsch]
… adopted these gods and goddesses from the shamans, in the shamans own view. They would never say "I'm a Hindu" or "a Buddhist", they say "I'm a shaman." And I can use the symbolism of both Hinduism and Buddhism to work with and to give people insights of the structure of reality, but they always say Shiva was long, long before Hinduism. Hinduism was invented just a couple of thousand years ago, but Shiva is the creator of everything (for the shamans). And so … shamanism has its role in the society, and the society has to use religion to maintain their lives, but it's not—the shamanism is not a religion, and—it is experience and it's direct: the direct contact with pre-Hindu, pre-Buddhist gods.
[Man from audience]
So, what's the difference?
[Christian Rätsch]
Well …
[Man from audience]
The magical or active part of it. I mean, how do you define religion in this?
[Christian Rätsch]
Religion is a belief system, and the shamans say you need a religion if you cannot travel into the other world to see the true reality. So, religion is belief; shamanism is experience.
[Man from audience]
It's knowledge. So, no religion could be based on knowledge? On understanding? On insight?
[Christian Rätsch]
I did not get that, sorry.
[Man from audience]
So, no religion could be based on insight, personal experience in meditation, drugs, whatever?
[Christian Rätsch]
Well, from personal experience, religion can be useful, but for shamans …
[Man from audience]
[?] personal experience.
[Christian Rätsch]
Shamans don't do this for personal experience, they do this for healing people.
[Man from audience]
For service, yes.
[Christian Rätsch]
And if you do meditate, then you are already on your ego trip. This is what I think.
[Man from audience]
All right, that's sufficient.
[]
Thank you. We have time for one more.
[Second man from audience]
Quick technical question: When you were working with the shaman who traced the mantra to try and bring into the other world, were you under the influence of any psychoactives at the time?
[Christian Rätsch]
Um …
[Second man from audience]
Or was it purely [?] magical effect?
[Christian Rätsch]
When I travel with a shaman, he gives me my phurba, and he puts the mantra on seven grains of rice. And I have to swallow these seven grains of rice to make the mantra active in my body. And with them, when he is around, it's very easy for me to go with him right away. If I sit at my home with my phurba and I try to journey like this, it's impossible. And the phurba is like an outside tool, and the mantra is the real important thing. And this time I had some very amazing experiences with—. (You have seen the dancing shaman, he was very strong and doing the mudras and everything.) And one morning, he came and put two phurbas just here.
And in the moment he put it here, I left my body immediately, fly about 4000 meters high, could look on the Himalayas, it was very beautiful. And when I realised what happened, I was back and I was totally sober that morning. Yeah, it was [?].
[Second man from audience]
[?] first offering to Shiva.
[Christian Rätsch]
Yeah.
[Second man from audience]
The other quick technical point: Did you see use or mention of mudras in sex tantra? They're actually using the hands basically to insert into somebody in mature positions.
[Christian Rätsch]
In—In sex tantra?
[Second man from audience]
In—actually in tantric sex. Where they're actually used internally as well as externally.
[Christian Rätsch]
I—You know, tantric sex is basically an imagination of the Western world.
[Second man from audience]
Uh-huh.
[Christian Rätsch]
And you can see tantric sex around the temples as depictions …
[Second man from audience]
Mmm hmm.
[Christian Rätsch]
… and there's all kinds of techniques known
[Second man from audience]
Yeah.
[Christian Rätsch]
And—But—Well, I never found a tantric priestess in the Himalayas.
[Second man from audience]
Yeah.
[Christian Rätsch]
I found them somewhere else, but—.
[laughs]
It's very difficult to get ethnographic information on tantric sex. I believe it's totally eradicated in India, and I know that there is tantric sex being practiced in some monasteries around Kathmandu, and it's also believed that the Kumari goddess cult is basically [?] sex tantra stuff. But that's very difficult.
[Second man from audience]
Sure.
[Christian Rätsch]
As soon as I know more, I'll tell you.
[Second man from audience]
Thank you.
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