GOD a dit:
Other than suport inexperienced people if they have problems what can a "shaman" do that you cant ?
well, without going into the possibility of ´spirits´ that they could have the abilities of dealing with, just think about it:
We all have been noobs once when taking psychedelics for the first times, and then we started to learn little by little, through direct experience, and by reading and talking to others. We found out many things about how to deal with the experience, what kind of situations it´s good to take, what sort of people to be around, what sort of music to listen to or not, etc etc
now these shamans, through direct line of ancestry, have hundreds (or thousands) of years of experience.. It´s not a couple of years, or even a life time of knowledge.. Its many many generations of straight contact of the whole culture with these substances. We take them, talk to close friends about it and then go to the streets and act ´normal´... Their whole culture is based on dealing with these states of mind
The Huni Kuin tribe, which is the one I´ve been having contact with, put great emphasis on the songs, or icaros, that are maybe the most important part of the whole ritual. Its not just about playing some nice song that sounds good. In the synaesthetic world of the ayahuasca experience, there is a science behind the chants, when to sing each song, or in other words how to operate and navigate the seascapes of ayahuasca, turning the whole experience into a productive one, and not just preventing the ´noobs´ from fear and despair.
