Healing with Plant Intelligence: A Report from Ayahuasca

A first-person account describes the healing of lifelong asthma and atopic dermatitis within the shamanic context of the contemporary Peruvian Amazon and online communities. The article suggests that concepts from plant signaling and behavior research, often called 'plant intelligence,' offer a useful framework for understanding the healing potentials of visionary plant entheogens like ayahuasca. Biosemiotics provides a coherent map for contextualizing reported experiences of plant communication with these plants. The archetype of 'plant teachers' (Doctores in the upper Amazon) is explored as a way to organize this data within an epistemology of the hallucination/perception continuum. 'Ecodelic' is offered as a new term alongside 'entheogen.'

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Numerous and diverse reports indicate the efficacy of shamanic plant adjuncts (e.g., iboga, ayahuasca, psilocybin) for the care and treatment of addiction, post‐traumatic stress disorder, cancer, cluster headaches, and depression. This article reports on a first‐person healing of lifelong asthma and atopic dermatitis in the shamanic context of the contemporary P eruvian A mazon and the sometimes digital ontology of online communities. The article suggests that emerging language, concepts, and data drawn from the sciences of plant signaling and behavior regarding “plant intelligence” provide a useful heuristic framework for comprehending and actualizing the healing potentials of visionary plant “entheogens” (Wasson 1971) as represented both through first‐person experience and online reports. Together with the paradigms and practices of plant signaling, biosemiotics provides a robust and coherent map for contextualizing the often reported experience of plant communication with ayahuasca and other entheogenic plants. The archetype of the “plant teachers” (called D octores in the upper A mazon) is explored as a means for organizing and interacting with this data within an epistemology of the “hallucination/perception continuum (Fischer 1975). “Ecodelic” is offered as a new linguistic interface alongside “entheogen” (Wasson 1971).