More on the symbolism of the serpent in various forms (dragon, caduceus, kundalini) and its parallel to the DNA structure in “Shopping for Spirit: The Search for Truth” (Equilibra.com):
“In Jeremy Narby’s excellent book “The Cosmic Serpent – DNA and the Origins of Knowledge” – he investigates shamanism and the indigenous peoples uncanny biochemical knowledge of the plant kingdom. Whilst studying Ashaninca ecology, Narby discovered that these honest people living almost unheard of in the Amazon forest insisted that their extensive botanical knowledge came from plant induced hallucinations. 26 These hallucinations happen in a trance state during which, Narby found shamans talked of a ladder or vine, a rope, a spiral staircase, or a twisted rope ladder that connects heaven and earth which they use to gain access to the world of spirits. These spirits present themselves to the Ayahuasquero (shamans) when they drink their special plant brew.27
These indigenous people refer to these normally invisible beings as the maninkari, and we are informed that they are found in animals, plants, mountains, streams, lakes and certain crystals and these ‘beings’ are the source of all knowledge. These hidden spirits are literally ‘those who are hidden’ and are considered to be ancestors with whom one has kinship. As these maninkari are present in all living things, the Ashaninca think of themselves and all living things to be members of the same family.27
The medicine men of the Kamsa and Inga tribes of the Valley of Sibundoy have unusually extensive knowledge of medicinal and toxic plants and Salvador Chindoy (shaman) insists that his knowledge of the medicinal use of plants has been taught to him by the plants themselves:28 as this knowledge is throughout some indigenous peoples all over the world today. Shamanic traditions invariably state that images, metaphors and stories are the best means to transmit knowledge.29
Throughout his time living with and absorbing the traditions of these local people, Narby came across a recurring and consistent theme behind the explanations of indigenous people’s beliefs and descriptions of where and how they obtained their knowledge – the Serpent or snake. Which is the case in many ancient and modern indigenous cultures; the creation of life is associated with snakes or a cosmic serpent. Narby had his own experience of taking these hallucinogenic herbs and describes his experience as follows: ‘Deep hallucinations submerged me… I suddenly found myself surrounded by gigantic boa constrictors that seemed fifty feet long. These enormous snakes are there, my eyes are closed and I see a spectacular world of brilliant lights and in the middle of these lazy thoughts the snakes start talking to me without words.’30
Narby continued his investigation and discovered the serpent was associated just about everywhere with shamanic knowledge and even in regions where snakes are unknown in the local environment. He discovered the works of Eliade who states that in Siberia the serpent occurs in shamanic ideology and appears upon the shaman’s costume, where the reptile, the snake itself, is unknown.31 He discovered that serpents abound in the creation myths of the world and that they are not only the origin of knowledge, but of life itself!31 Narby discovered that shamanism rests not in doctrines, but in experience – personal experiences.32 These personal experiences, relayed by many people from many tribes all seemed to be symbolically describing the very same source as the source of all the shamanic knowledge about plants and creation itself – the serpent or snake – or DNA. Narby found that Shamans were describing a very similar theme behind their origins of knowledge, ranging from a spiral ladder, stairway, braided ropes, rope or ladder, vine, a bridge, a chain or arrows: all acting as communication between heaven and earth.33 Narby had discovered the similarity between the shaman’s stories and DNA.
A book called Ayahuasca Visions: The religious iconography of a Peruvian shaman, by Luis Luna and Pablo Amaringo, contains, amongst a mine of information on Amazonian shamanism, fifty paintings of great beauty by Amaringo, who paints only what he sees during his shamanic visions. When Narby showed this book and the paintings in particular to a friend with a good understanding of molecular biology, his friend said, looking at the paintings, ‘look, there’s collagen… And there the axon’s embryonic network with its neurites… Those are triple helixes, … and that’s DNA from afar, looking like a telephone cord. This looks like chromosomes at a specific phase. There’s the spread out from of DNA and right next to it are DNA spools in their nucleosome structure.’34 Narby began to look more closely at the association of the shaman’s visions and ‘provider’ of knowledge and its links with DNA.
Narby noticed in many ancient texts and symbols, seals and messages, this same picture of a double helix, or two intertwined snakes35 – such as in the Caduceus an ancient symbol representing medicine – or a representation of DNA, a.k.a. twin’s a.k.a. separation. In many of the ancient myths and legends, the gods all had duality, a male and female counterpart. As we mentioned in Part Two, the nine Gods of the Ennead historically came from the Primordial Waters, the God Nun and the Goddess Naunet (Nanet), the male and female aspect denoting balance. The link here with DNA is hypnotic.
In the myths and legends we tend to find serpents (knowledge) are almost invariably associated with water and as Narby discovered, the creator of life, the cosmic serpent is a master of metamorphosis in the myths of the world where it plays a central part, it creates by transforming itself; it changes whilst remaining the same. So it is understandable that it should represent itself differently at the same time.36 Narby looked for a connection between the cosmic serpent – this master of transformation of serpentine form that lives in water and can be both extremely long and small, single and double – and DNA. He found that DNA corresponds exactly to this description.36 Narby discovered that there was indeed DNA ‘inside’ the brain as well as in the ‘outside’ world of plants, given that a molecule of life containing genetic information is the same for all species. DNA could then be considered a source of information that is both external and internal.37 The molecule of life was the same for all species and genetic information in a rose, a bacterium or a human being was coded in a universal language of four letters – A,G,C,T – contained in DNA.38 All the cells in the world contain DNA – be they animal, vegetable or bacterial – and they are all filled with salt water. As the DNA’s four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine) are insoluble in water, they tuck themselves in the centre of the water molecule where they associate in pairs to form rungs of the ladder; then they twist up into a spiralled stack to avoid contact with the surrounding water molecules. DNA’s twisted rope ladder shape is a direct consequence of the cell’s watery environment. Narby discovered that DNA goes with water just like the mythical serpents do.39
Shamans use images other than the serpent to explain the creation of life. Mircea Eliade has shown that these different images form a common theme that he calls the axis mundi, or the axis of the world, and that he found this theme in shamanic traditions all over the world. According to Eliade, the axis mundi gives access to the Otherworld and to shamanic knowledge, a kind of paradoxical passage, normally reserved for the dead that shamans manage to use while living, and this passage is often guarded by a serpent or a dragon. For Eliade, shamanism is a set of techniques that allows one to negotiate this passage, reach the axis, acquire knowledge associated with it and bring it back with them – most often to heal people.40
Narby established the connection between the origins of shamanic knowledge and DNA and felt this connection was clear. In literature of molecular biology, DNA’s shape is compared not only to two entwined serpents, but also, very precisely to a rope, a vine, a ladder or a stairway. We can see with the early depiction of the Yin/Yang symbol (see below) the correlation between the source of existence and the twin serpents. 40
After Narby’s many experiences with Ashaninca it seemed more likely and no longer unreasonable for him to consider that the information about the molecular content of plants could truly come from the plant itself.41 He began to realise that the only way to understand shamanism was to defocalise ones gaze so as to perceive science and the indigenous vision at the same time.42 According to Narby, shamans take their consciousness down to molecular level and gain access to bio-molecular information.43 This is similar to what Vogel was asking his subjects to do and is similar to remote viewing, remote sensing which has been the ‘tool’ of the intelligence agencies for a number of years. Only through this process ‘consciousness’ is projected ‘externally’ – instead of internally – into the external consciousness of the Earth to enable the intelligence agencies of a particular country to ‘spy’ on other governments and countries.”
In their visions, shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level and gain access to information related to DNA, which they call ‘animate essences’ or ‘spirits’. This is the level where they see double helixes, twisted ladders and chromosome shapes, serpents, dragons and other spiritual beings. This is how shamanic cultures have known for millennia that the vital principle is the same for all living beings and is shaped like two entwined serpents (or a vine, a rope, a ladder) – caduceus. Accessing DNA is the source of their astonishing botanical and medicinal knowledge, which can only be attained in a defocalised and non-rational state of consciousness – in the absence of the intellect/ego – with the results being empirically verifiable. All the myths of these cultures are filled with biological imagery and the shaman’s metaphoric explanations correspond quite precisely to the descriptions that biologists are starting to provide.”44