The Cosmic Serpent Read Online Free PDF Page A

few evenings later, during one of our taped conversations, I returned to this question:
    â€œWhen one does a cure, like the one you did the other day for Sabino, how does the tobacco work? If you are the one who smokes it, how can it cure the person who does not smoke?”
    â€œI always say, the property of tobacco is that it shows me the reality of things. I can see things as they are. And it gets rid of all the pains.”
    â€œAh, but how did one discover this property? Does tobacco grow wild in the forest?”
    â€œThere is a place, for example in Napiari, where there are enormous quantities of tobacco growing.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œIn the Perene. We found out about its power thanks to ayahuasca, that other plant, because it is the mother.”
    â€œWho is the mother, tobacco or ayahuasca?”
    â€œAyahuasca.”
    â€œAnd tobacco is its child?”
    â€œIt’s the child.”
    â€œBecause tobacco is less strong?”
    â€œLess strong.”
    â€œYou told me that ayahuasca and tobacco both contain God.”
    â€œThat’s it.”
    â€œAnd you said that souls like tobacco. Why?”
    â€œBecause tobacco has its method, its strength. It attracts the maninkari. It is the best contact for the life of a human being.”
    â€œAnd these souls, what are they like?”
    â€œI know that any living soul, or any dead one, is like those radio waves flying around in the air.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œIn the air. That means that you do not see them, but they are there, like radio waves. Once you turn on the radio, you can pick them up. It’s like that with souls; with ayahuasca and tobacco, you can see them and hear them.”
    â€œAnd why is it that when one listens to the ayahuasquero singing, one hears music like one has never heard before, such beautiful music?”
    â€œWell, it attracts the spirits, and as I have always said, if one thinks about it closely ... [long silence]. It’s like a tape recorder, you put it there, you turn it on, and already it starts singing: hum, hum, hum, hum, hum. You start singing along with it, and once you sing, you understand them. You can follow their music because you have heard their voice. So, it occurs, and one can see, like the last time when Ruperto was singing.”
    AS I LISTENED to these explanations, I realized that I did not really believe in the existence of spirits. From my point of view, spirits were at best metaphors. Carlos, on the other hand, considered spirits to be firmly rooted in the material world, craving tobacco, flying like radio waves, and singing like tape recorders. So my attitude was ambiguous. On the one hand, I wanted to understand what Carlos thought, but on the other, I couldn’t take what he said seriously because I did not believe it.
    This ambiguity was reinforced by what people said about spirits; namely, that contact with spirits gave one power not only to cure, but to cause harm.
    One evening I accompanied Carlos and Ruperto to the house of a third man, whom I will call M. Word had gone around that Ruperto, just back from an eight-year absence, had learned his lessons well with the Shipibo ayahuasqueros. For his part, M. boasted that he had a certain experience with hallucinogens, and said that he was curious to see just how good Ruperto was.
    M. lived on the crest of a little hill surrounded by forest. We arrived at his house around eight in the evening. After the customary greetings, we sat down on the ground. Ruperto produced his bottle of ayahuasca and placed it at the bottom of the ladder leading up to the house’s platform, saying, “This is its place.” Then he passed around a rolled cigarette and blew smoke on the bottle and on M. Meanwhile, Carlos took my hands and also blew smoke on them. The sweet smell of tobacco and the blowing feeling on my skin were pleasurable.
    Three months had gone by since my first ayahuasca session. I felt physically