The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

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The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 · rating details · 1,220 ratings · 140 reviews

This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences," leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge. In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, T...more

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Published April 5th 1999 by Tarcher (first published April 13th 1998)

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Mar 08, 2012 D.M. Kenyon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science, religious-spiritual

Jeremy Narby's Cosmic Serpent is a densely academic book that is 50% footnotes. This not light reading, but on the other hand it is essential reading. Narby's premise is that hallucinogenic drugs used by shaman in the Western Amazon actually give them access to medicinal information through knowledge coded in DNA. This would be a rather bizarre premise except for the fact that Narby is a trained PhD. in anthropology and his work is based an extensive survey of academic materials across numerous...more Jeremy Narby's Cosmic Serpent is a densely academic book that is 50% footnotes. This not light reading, but on the other hand it is essential reading. Narby's premise is that hallucinogenic drugs used by shaman in the Western Amazon actually give them access to medicinal information through knowledge coded in DNA. This would be a rather bizarre premise except for the fact that Narby is a trained PhD. in anthropology and his work is based an extensive survey of academic materials across numerous disciplines.

His journey starts with his experience in the Western Amazon basin where he was invited to try powerful hallucinogen called "ayahuasca". This compound, by itself is mystifying because it is made through a complex chemical process that one would not expect would be within the reach of native Amazonian chemistry. And yet, ayahuasca is used throughout the Amazon rain forest as an access to a hallucinatory world where images of spirits inform shaman how to use the hidden power of the plant life in the Amazon rain forest cure a very broad spectrum of disease. Only in the past decades have pharmaceutical companies invade the province of these shaman to start mining for botanical compounds to patent and basically steal from the indigenous population.

More than an anthropological account of how shaman use hallucination to find cures for disease, The Cosmic Serpent is a challenge to Western rationalism and modern science. Narby calls into serious question the limits of the scientific process and how we come to know things int he industrialized world. His argument is actually quite convincing as he punches holes in rational constructive thinking and makes the case for completely different and more intuitive platform of knowledge.

While many in the scientific world have scoffed at his theories, Jeremy Narby has succeeded at least in throwing a monkey wrench in the the more-myth-than-truth paradigm of science and has opened the door for inquiry into what may prove to be the future of human knowledge.(less)

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Jan 21, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: science buffs with a penchant for interdisciplinary studies, day trippers

Shelves: non-fiction

For anyone interested in DNA, shamanism and the origins of life and knowledge, this book is a must-read. The author attempts to establish connections between modern science's biomolecular understanding of DNA and the knowledge imparted on shaman by their ayahuasca-induced hallucinations. Intrigued? Open your mind and read on. You won't be disappointed.

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Jun 01, 2012 Nicolas Shump rated it 5 of 5 stars

A brilliant and thought-provoking book that argues that perhaps the drug-induced trances of an Amazonian tribe and their creation myths are somehow related to modern genetics.
Narby is a Stanford PhD in Anthropology who did his dissertation on these peoples, but this is not his dissertation. Instead it is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking books I have ever read! It brings together so many of the issues that interest me: Religion, Science, Evolution, Physics, Cosmology, the Supern...more

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May 10, 2009 Maze Martinez rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in anthropology, ethnogenic research, biology, spirituality.

This book was phenomenally excellent in its scope, pacing and informative research. Though the book is based on academic research, it reads like a mystery novel as it unfolds each new chapter with clarity and discovery.

Narby's path begins in the jungles of South America where he learns from the shamans of the Ashaninca about Ayahuasca and the visions that have sustained their culture for thousands of years. He draws connections between their experiences with Ayahuasca and similar themes that ap...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recentlyread

Narby's experience as an anthropologist in the Amazon leads him to believe that ancient indigenous tribes in South America, Africa, and Australia have common themes in their shammanistic traditions, imagery, and mythology that mirror the work being done by microbiologists today. He looks for more similarities in science and ancient shammanism to create his own understanding of where we come from and why we are here.

I found this book very inspiring from a creative perspective, and tore through it...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Menno rated it 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who is interested in DNA or shamanism or just wants to expend his view upon things, i really want you to pick up this book and read it. It is a great book in several ways, but above all it teaches you how to look at other cultures and there history for answers we are looking for these days in western world.

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Nov 03, 2007 travis lawrence rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those interested in DNA (both in a background of science and those not)

a great first person detailed account of his research in the studies of shamanic accounts of the great mythical serpent found in all religions and our modern notion of DNA

how they are the same story just told in different manners
how further discovery of DNA's role does nothing more than exactly correlate with the poetic tales of the great cosmic serpent

a quick read
maybe too quick
i took it out on 2-3 sittings
starts off a little slow by following his introduction and buildup of what he will shortl...more

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Dec 03, 2007 Walter rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: hippies w/o science

This was a slightly crazy book by an anthropologist who has taken too many hallucinogenic "ayahuasca journeys". He has a thesis that ayahuasca allows shamans to communicate with nature via DNA. He proposes that DNA crystals in cells can receive information from biophotonic emissions and that all life is interacting in this way. I could have entertained his ideas if he presented them differently. He was very antagonistic to Western science, but still attempted to take advantage of it's legitimacy...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Gareth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, philosophy-reviews, philosophy-of-science

This is quite a fascinating book. It doesn't perhaps have the most compelling narrative - Narby traces quite a 'serpentine' path through science, anthropology, evolutionary biology, etc, and whilst these observations are frequently fascinating and thought provoking, they don't especially make for a coherent 'story'.

But it's Narby's overall hypothesis which is most intriguing. The shamans of the Amazon - along with other native cultures - profess a detailed knowledge of botany and the effects of...more This is quite a fascinating book. It doesn't perhaps have the most compelling narrative - Narby traces quite a 'serpentine' path through science, anthropology, evolutionary biology, etc, and whilst these observations are frequently fascinating and thought provoking, they don't especially make for a coherent 'story'.

But it's Narby's overall hypothesis which is most intriguing. The shamans of the Amazon - along with other native cultures - profess a detailed knowledge of botany and the effects of various psychotropic substances that is difficult to account for rationally. This, of course, is a disputable claim, but if true it demands an answer: How did they come by such knowledge? But it is an answer which, Narby argues, traditional anthropology and science are not in a position to provide.

Narby's proposed solution is that we should take the claims of the shamans seriously: they say that 'the spirits tell them', so why not believe them? But 'spirits', in Narby's interpretation, are not the traditional immaterial entities of myth and religion, but the mechanism of life itself - specifically, DNA. Highlighting the prevalence of serpent symbolism in shamanic cultures (especially in the Amazon), Narby argues that shamans have found a means to 'interrogate' the information held in DNA (the snake-like double helix), and in fact to 'converse' with it. In his words, the biosphere which is controlled and moulded by DNA is 'minded' - it is conscious and intelligent.

It is to Narby's credit that, whilst endeavouring to make his case in robust scientific terms, he recognises that his argument will do nothing to convince scientists and rational sceptics, their world view being one inherently opposed to even considering his hypothesis. Here, he makes some good observations, I think, concerning how the method and principles of modern scientific materialism (of which Darwinism is an expression) necessarily exclude such possibilities: that nature is conscious and purposive; that - even if we are not talking of divine design - there may be other principles at work in evolution than the mechanistic theory of natural selection (which he considers woefully inadequate to account for biological complexity and intentionality).

This is, obviously, an unpopular view (the majority of evolutionary biologists being firmly in the mechanistic/materialistic Darwinian camp). Add to this Narby's openness to the meaningfulness of shamanic-type hallucinogenic experiences, and it is easy to see how the book will be summarily dismissed or ignored by those who would be best placed to consider his arguments (biologists, anthropologists, scientists in general). However, this would be a great shame. This is far from a 'quack' book. Narby is personally and passionately invested in the issues he raises - he talks hallucinogens himself, under supervision of a native shaman, and through his involvement in the indigenous culture he comes to realise the threats and dangers they face from Westernisation and the exploitation of big business. Furthermore, his sincere and thoughtful appraisal of the topics raised, always seeking to phrase his ideas in the terms of science and rational discourse, make this a valuable contribution not only to literature on shamanism and hallucinogenics, but also to those seeking to appraise the biases of science and the Western perspective.(less)

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Aug 15, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a winner. Exactly the right balance between scholarship and accessibility. Almost half the book is made up of end notes and bibliography, and Dr. Narby is brave, cautious, and eloquent stating his thesis: that it is possible, and even likely, that DNA is sentient. Since he's a vetted scientist, this is no easy claim to make. Nor does he rely except but for a fraction of the book on his own experience with Ayahuasca, which is very limited, and one of the few things that I would have like...more This was a winner. Exactly the right balance between scholarship and accessibility. Almost half the book is made up of end notes and bibliography, and Dr. Narby is brave, cautious, and eloquent stating his thesis: that it is possible, and even likely, that DNA is sentient. Since he's a vetted scientist, this is no easy claim to make. Nor does he rely except but for a fraction of the book on his own experience with Ayahuasca, which is very limited, and one of the few things that I would have liked to see differently in the book. He comes by his thesis combining studies in a number of disciplines, from biochemistry to comparative mythology to his own field of anthropology, etc. I especially liked his criticism of the fact that scientist termed that part of DNA that we do not understand with the pejorative term "junk DNA." He said, "This is cowboy science." We shoot first, then ask questions. He would have liked to see that aspect of it termed "mystery DNA" as that would admit the truth of it: which is that scientists really do not understand how the brain works, nor certainly even less do they understand DNA.

I loved how he talked about the 250,000 species of plants in the Western Amazon and how the fact that native Amazonians were able to put together the right three plants out of these 250,000 to create a substance now called in pharmacology curare. Scientists chalk this up to "random" luck, even though in the particular case of curare, not only is the combination of plants exactly the right kind to create a drug that will kill the prey, but not poison its meat, and also relax the muscles so that, say, if a money is shot it will wrap its tail around a tree branch and the hunter will have to climb the tree to get it. To make this drug one must cook it for a period of 72 hours exactly, and also not be anywhere near the boiling pot, as its fumes are extremely toxic and will kill if inhaled. But according to scientists, the fact that Amazonians have taught themselves how to do this is pure luck. Some luck! But examples of such random luck abound in the Amazon and the pharmaceutical industry, though quick to disparage its source, is also quick to capitalize on these drugs and their multiple uses in Western medicine.

Too much to list here, but I annotated about half of it: there just was so much in it to make one think.(less)

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Aug 03, 2011 Geoff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Geoff by: Jeff Wilfong

Shelves: eagle-condor, spirituality

This book realigned my perception of the world.

That Amazonian shaman can emerge from ayahuasca journeys and draw pictures of DNA is, to me, mind blowing. Without aid of microscopes they are aware of these forms.

Which tells me that they have, under the guidance of Mama Ayahuasca, the ability to focus their attention at the molecular level and communicate with the "spirit" of plants and animals - that spirit most likely being the vibrational signal emanating from the DNA itself (bio-photons).

And t...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Linda Abrams rated it 5 of 5 stars

A spiritually-adventurous-life-changing book! Jeremy Narby's exploration of knowledge as it is experienced in shamanic culture opens up a way of seeing reality, and accessing non-ordinary reality, through the practice of plant spirit shamanism. Do the visions we explore while working with the shamans and their plant medicines expand our capacity to know, and more fully understand, life's mysteries? This book was the start of a personal journey (I read it in 2008) that has led to a five year odde...more

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Mar 01, 2007 jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the beginner to genetics, this book provides an amazing introduction written by an anthropologist, in a more lively language than much of science writing. For anyone interested in sacred plants, DNA, the workings of the human brain and consciousness, and a fairly humble perspective on explorations into unknown cultures and phenomenon.

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Aug 02, 2012 Frederik rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gekocht

Ik dacht: "Laat ik maar eens een populair pseudo-wetenschappelijk boek lezen!" Ik werd niet teleurgesteld. Dat kan je dubbel interpreteren: het wás pseudo-wetenschappelijk, maar anderzijds ook boeiend.

Narby's boek leest lekker weg en roept gaandeweg belangrijke vragen op. Maar vooral in de laatste hoofdstukken gaat hij helemaal uit de bocht. Ik spreek dan niet meteen over zijn centrale hypothese over de mogelijke informatie-overdracht tussen het DNA van verschillende cellen via lichtdeeltjes (bi...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Sphynx rated it 5 of 5 stars

I /adore/ this book for all it's crazy ideas and passionate, inspired pseudo-scientific prose.

I recommend it to someone with an interest in biology, psychedelics, and/or anthropology, but mainly I recommend it to readers who are tired of reading the work of authors who are apparently bored or stressed between the lines. The voice of this author, particularly in THIS book is refreshingly enthused, with a manic, mad-scientist kind of dedication to details and this is his wonderful creation. ("It'...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Caterina Ragusa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was blown away by this book. I literally began to experience things with a different, fresh, and absurdly interconnected looking-glass. This book, as well as another with the word "Cosmic" in the title, needless to say, has triggered a continuous stream of bellowing synchronistic double-helix patterns embedded within the structure of my day to day experience. I really dig this book. I really dig Narby's work, here. And I really dig that an old wonderful friend recommended this to me with impec...more

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May 24, 2012 Maggi Summerhill rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who are willing to look

I have just read the most fantastic book - The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby.
He is an anthropologist but he also draws on molecular biology and biophysics - it sounds very academic, but his interpretation is very easy to follow and laid out in a very engaging manner.
I'll give you a quote from him " We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.'
Thanks to this book I finally understand the subject of collective...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: cosmic origin of life theorists

Recommended to Matt by: Jenny

Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery. The Cosmic Serpent is a fascinating look at Amazonian Shamanism and the wisdom gained through hallucinations. Not only does the author show a connection between the knowledge among the world's indigenous people and the modern understanding of molecular biology, but he argues that the western scientific community is essentially trying to catch up. The Cosmic Serpent claims that DNA, previously thought to...more

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Dec 15, 2009 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I actually read this book twice from front to back (in two days)--it was that amazing! The whole concept kept me up at night wondering about my own existence. I just love how this young anthropologist, deep in the Amazon, finds the secrets to all of man's knowledge through his hallucinations from natural plant sources. The shaman keep telling him their secrets and, although, at first he thought it was crazy stuff--he comes to truly believe what they say. He compares the world's early myths and r...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Jacob rated it 1 of 5 stars

The concept and the first chapter hooked me, and then the downhill slide began. The style of writing bothered me more than anything else. Narby's insistence on conferring some kind of scientific framework onto his thinking is mind-numbingly dull. The same three thoughts trotted out again and again. Contains 40 pages worth of interesting things to say. I couldn't just abandon it, though, because the material seemed so promising--this idea that shamans, through the practice of drinking ayahuasca,...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Hayley Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
By Jeremy Narby

When rain forest Shamans are asked how they know such an extraordinary amount about medicinal plants, they respond, as if it should be obvious, "The plants teach us." In this riveting book, anthropologist Jeremy Narby explores a vision he experienced after drinking ayahuasca, the "vine of the soul," which Shamans have used for healing and to acquire knowledge for thousands of years. He makes an astonishing connection between anci...more

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Sep 03, 2010 char rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: visions-and-visionaries, books-read-in-2010

What is DNA?

When I recently heard the forensic scientist's explanation, I was amazed that this conventional scientific discussion was reflecting themes I'd recently encountered in fiction – fiction made rich and multi-dimensional through its author’s experiences in magical practice.

“Some of you may be familiar with the term: DNA is God”.

I wasn't familiar with this. But I had been climbing (or descending) the double-helix through several strands. Started by Alan Moore’s 1999 ‘Snakes and Ladder...more

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Sep 13, 2009 Sean rated it 2 of 5 stars

Look, the first time I took a hallucinogen, I too saw all of the natural world break apart and twist together and reveal to me its interlinked workings, its fundamental connectedness to me and every other living and non-living entity in the universe entire, I too saw into the deeper reality of the unified cosmic consciousness, and I (alone?) learned that the funniest thing in all of creation is the taste of a 7-11 watermelon Slurpee.

But did I write a breathless book about it and pretend that non...more Look, the first time I took a hallucinogen, I too saw all of the natural world break apart and twist together and reveal to me its interlinked workings, its fundamental connectedness to me and every other living and non-living entity in the universe entire, I too saw into the deeper reality of the unified cosmic consciousness, and I (alone?) learned that the funniest thing in all of creation is the taste of a 7-11 watermelon Slurpee.

But did I write a breathless book about it and pretend that none of this had ever occurred to anyone else in the western world and that only I, on my personal magical mystery tour into the world of psychedelics, had discovered the ONE TRUE SECRET that would forever re-write the laws of science and place me alongside Copernicus, Newton and Einstein?

No. I did not. I went to bed early, closed my eyes, and watched the pretty colors some more.

Jeremey Narby took the other route, and so, following his ayahuasca fueled vision of two giant, fluorescent snakes, wrote a book every sentence of which is delivered as if by Pinto in Animal House, the first time he gets stoned, when with eyes wide he says, “So, our whole solar system could be like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being!” Gee willikers! Neat!

The book starts off all right. Questioning the scientific method as the only means of gaining knowledge is certainly reasonable. His investigations into comparative mythology and the preponderance therein of snakes and twins across cultures is interesting, if not already rather well known. But the book just gets loopier after that.

Narby bashes all scientists with absurd generalizations about how they hate mystery, etc., he trots out all kinds of nonsense about evolution, which he grasps not at all, and every one of his arguments is along the lines of, “Did you realize how complicated the human genome is? Let me throw a bunch of huge numbers at you! See? Wow is it ever big! And that’s supposed to have come about by chance? No way!”

Here’s a paraphrase of how most chapters begin: “Now I’m not a biologist, so I don’t know anything about biology, but I read a book and talked to this friend, and oh my god! You won’t believe what I found! DNA is superintelligent and comes from outer space!”

Anyway. He’s right that there is more to the universe than what we in the west think we know, and more ways than we know to know it. But he’s too timid to actually propose anything other than a mushy-headed load of vague crap about consciousness I can’t even summarize since he never directly says what it is. In short, it’s something about how life is so complicated, it must have been directed by some form of intelligence. Hm, now where have I heard that argument before?
(less)

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Aug 09, 2008 Nuveausapien rated it 4 of 5 stars

Author, Jeremy Narby, guides the reader through his exploration of shamanic practices in the Amazon. This autobiographical account of the anthropologist's journey into apparent scientific enlightenment through the use of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic utilized by the indigenous healers called ayahuasqueros due to their use of the plant in ceremonial practice. Through his extensive investigation of corroborative data in the fields of anthropology, molecular biology, and genetics which are extensivel...more

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Apr 24, 2008 BLEEPING Herald Newsletter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 1985 Jeremy Narby was an eager, 25 year-old anthropology student doing fieldwork for his doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University. For two years he lived amongst the Ashaninca natives in the community of Quirishari in the Peruvian Amazon’s Pichis Valley. "My training had lead me to expect that people would tell tall stories," relates Narby. "I thought my job as an anthropologist was to discover what they really thought, like some kind of private detective."

The only "tall story" Narb...more

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Jun 21, 2009 Billy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: metaphysics, spirituality-religion, south-american-studies, biology

This is an amazing account, brimming with youthful exhilaration, of an anthropologist wresting with a life changing experience with Ashaninca shamans. At first strictly scientific, he refuses to believe the shamans when they said they learned of their exhaustive and mystic knowledge of medicinal plants and diverse forest gardens from the plants themselves. He is told that to hear what they are saying, he must drink ayahuasca, which he knows contains one of the most potent hallucinogens, dimethyl...more

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Dec 13, 2007 Nomy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like connecting science and spirituality

the thesis of this book is that the visions of snakes that indigenous people see in hallucinations are actually communications with the same thing that western scientists call DNA. the anthropologist author is respectful and aware of his biases, and it's actually by confronting his own bias and 'defocalizing his gaze' (so that he can see more than one thing at once) that he came to see the connections. for those who need the "hard data" of science, he gives details about molecular biology and su...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Kathleen Cross rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating journey into the study of DNA and the origin of knowledge. Narby started out an arrogant establishment researcher who was "intellectually superior" to his research subjects (South American shamans), and ended up humbled by the "oneness" of all things. The premise of this book is that plants have intelligence, and they can convey that intelligence to humans who know how to receive it. Bizarre premise? Well it's not so far-fetched once Narby gets through with you.

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Nov 24, 2012 Bryan Winchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fascinating book, not only the theory presented that perhaps the visions Amazonian ayahuasqueros see in their ayahuasca revelries are seeing down on the level of DNA, but in watching how the author changes from being a typically dismissive, Western-educated "rational" anthropologist into a more open-minded, wonder-filled person who realizes the world and reality is A LOT more mysterious and strange than our Western scientific perspective would consider.

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Mar 06, 2012 Alisha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science, favorites

Holy shit. This is an amazing synthesis of mysticism and science, research and unique spiritual experience. It's the story of an anthropologist, studying the botanical knowledge of indigenous peoples in the Amazon, who becomes convinced of the foolishness of the old research adage "If you can't test it, it doesn't exist." It's the best hypothesis about the origin and nature of the psychedelic/hallucinatory experience I've ever read. Read it. Now.

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“This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.” — 13 people liked it

“When I started reading the literature of molecular biology, I was stunned by certain descriptions. Admittedly, I was on the lookout for anything unusual, as my investigation had led me to consider that DNA and its cellular machinery truly were an extremely sophisticated technology of cosmic origin. But as I pored over thousands of pages of biological texts, I discovered a world of science fiction that seemed to confirm my hypothesis. Proteins and enzymes were described as 'miniature robots,' ribosomes were 'molecular computers,' cells were 'factories,' DNA itself was a 'text,' a 'program,' a 'language,' or 'data.' One only had to do a literal reading of contemporary biology to reach shattering conclusions; yet most authors display a total lack of astonishment and seem to consider that life is merely 'a normal physiochemical phenomenon.” — 10 people liked it

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