Sociality with nonhuman beings and among participants is central to Luangan healing rituals in Indonesian Borneo, yet it is not sufficient for success and can even conflict with it. A myth reveals that this ritual sociality is built on a 'conditional ontology' of not-knowing and human finitude. Because ritual outcomes are inherently uncertain, there is a constant risk of 'reversibility' that demands ongoing efforts and cautionary measures, including repeated dramatized acts of 'undoing and redoing' to manage that uncertainty.
The potent jungle tobacco Mapacho, central to Amazonian shamanic healing practices, is regarded not as a pathogen but as a spirit ally that purifies, heals, protects, and teaches. Its efficacy requires smoking, through which the shaman and tobacco become mutually absorbed. Mapacho smoke blurs culturally recognized boundaries of the Western Self, permeating both internal and external realms of the healing environment. This paper explores the relationships among Mapacho, Peruvian Shipibo shamans, and Western patients, suggesting that the boundaries Westerners typically use to distinguish each from the other may be as smoky as the medicine practices themselves.