A Terminal Master's Project Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture School of Architecture and Community Design College of the Arts University of South Florida May 2016 Thesis Studen Joseph Brisco Thesis Chair: Stan Russell
[table of contents]
[abstract] [research + process] [precedence studies] [peyote temple] [casa san pedro] [entheogenic healing center] [bibliography]
[abstract]
There have been many progressions in the United States related to health care over the past fifty years, however, the realm of mental health care in particular has changed very little over time span. There was actually a period from the 1950s until late 1960s when LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) was first introduced into the psychiatrists’ medicine cabinet. LSD initially was found to be very effective in treating alcoholism. One relevant experiential example is Bill Wilson’s (who founded Alcoholics Anonymous) utilization of LSD with his consequent attribution of conquering of the disease to LSD. However, the compound was soon ostracized by regulatory agencies because of its association with the anti-establishment, banishing it from the pharmacopoeia allowed to be prescribed. [The Problem] After thirty years of prescribing Prozac and other assorted pharmaceutically-derived psychiatric drugs, the economic impact of depression remains unchanged. There is a major opioid addiction epidemic on the rise, as well as marked increases in the number of individuals afflicted with various severe traumas due to social ills and imbalances in terms of lifestyle choices. There appears to be a relative lack and/or suppression of holistic natural remedies sanctioned by allopathic medicine. Collective views on the root causes of addiction have been rattled by the opioid epidemic affecting almost all classes of society, affluent or otherwise. Part of the prohibition of entheogenic medicine stems from our incomplete view of addiction which does not account for the lack of a healthy environment as the primary cause of drug use. As shown by the Rat Park Experiments, rats that were given a healthy social environment refused to take more morphine, and would choose to go through withdrawal in order to return to the social group. Entheogens are markedly different in terms working action than morphine or heroin. Rather than resorting to states of oblivion and helplessness, entheogens tend to open emotional doors, unlock repressed memories, and reveal things to the individual that one may not want to be shown but need to be revealed to create a condition of gnosis and self-healing. Each substance has a unique character that has different uses for different treatments. For instance, MDMA has been proven to have a 60-85% remission rate in cases of post-traumatic stress disorders when used clinically. Iboga (Tabernanthe iboga) has a 60-80% remission rate of heroin addiction and near-total cessation of withdrawal symptoms. Administration of Peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii) has a 50% cure rate or greater when used to address alcoholism. Psilocybin and psilocin (the active molecules created by species of psilocybe fungi) has a remission rate of 90% of Cluster Headache patients. The goal of this thesis is to study the ancestral and modern approaches to psychedelic therapy and translate the goals of the experience into architecture that enhances the therapy. The first step is to analyze how various societies and organizations are already facilitating healing in this manner. The Native American Church with the aid of peyote, the Santo Daime and their alliance with ayahuasca, and the Bwiti people of central Africa with their traditional iboga ceremonies all can serve to illustrate the way for implementation of effective holistic wellness practice. Pockets of pre-Columbian cultures also still practice plant medicine such as the Huichol of central Mexico, and hundreds of tribes in Amazonian and Andean South America via the work of ‘curanderos’ (experienced/initiated medicine that essentially serve as community doctors) with varying levels of integration into externally-imposed aspects of culture. The Marsh Chapel experiment conducted by Timothy Leary is one of the only western studies on architectural space enhancing an entheogenic experience. The aforementioned experiment involved theology students at Boston University who were given psilocybin in the setting of Marsh Chapel. The goal was to trigger a mystical experience, and almost all of the psilocybin group did report such an occurrence. Twenty-five years later, a
study completed by Rick Doblin indicated the participants still hold this experience as “one of the high points of their spiritual life.” This thesis has deep relation to my own life process. I am a federally recognized Chickasaw Indian, and I suffer from cluster headaches. I began practicing traditional Native medicine in 2013. I went from suffering two to three debilitating headaches a week in 2013, down to one every two to three months in 2015. Having this disorder would be easier to deal with if there is no stigma attached to the responsible use of plant medicines encompassed in a space to medicate-- along with the aid of practitioners/facilitators for support if needed that would encourage safe access for all. The importance of space is paramount in an entheogenic experience. Entheogens enhance sensory experience in which every single sensation takes on novel intrinsic and relative meaning interdependently. Great steps should be ensure the physical and mental comfort of the patient in mind so that they can fully explore their consciousness. In all non-western therapy ceremonies, nature is a very important element. These proceedings are enmeshed in an inseparable connection to a world infused with spirit. This is a marked contrast when juxtaposed with how contemporary therapy is carried out in the United States by and large. A simple examination room or psychiatric therapy space will not suffice. The olfactory, visual, and auditory details (external sensory stimuli) are all of utmost importance and need to be carefully considered. In essence this is the intersection of spirituality and mental health. The therapy essentially should be designed with spatial precession in mind, not unlike a Zen Buddhist Temple. Entheogens treat a wide variety of disorders-- including but not limited to preventing cluster headaches, and uprooting causes of depression, PTSD, alcoholism, opiate abuse, OCD, and End of Life Anxiety. In most of these cases they are far superior to current western models. In cases of Cluster Headaches, entheogens interrupt the onset cycle completely, resulting in the total remission from symptoms that doctors have referred to as “...the most intense pain known to medical science.” What differs about this medicine compared to traditional western medicine is that the user’s mental state and surroundings are critical factors. These medicines cannot be taken just anywhere. They must be taken in carefully chosen settings. In the case of therapy it is important that the “sitter” or therapist guides the patient through the experience. Perhaps this means a plethora of spatial experiences and types are necessary. Beyond medicinal use, entheogens are crucial to 21st century culture because they offer an escape from the consumerist obsession that has influenced us to discard our connection to nature in exchange for machine produced goods made from industrially produced materials. Entheogens are capable of reconnecting humans to the Nature which sustains all life. There is also the potential to promote peace by encouraging the exchange of techniques to achieve the entheogenic experience endogenously so that someone who practices meditation may be introduced to yoga or poi dancing. Scientific evidence indicates that meditation and other forms of the entheogenic experience are psychologically and physiologically beneficial by means of increasing ability to focus, reduction of anxiety, and developing more empathic or creative states of being in the world. The entheogenic experience can also allow community-bridging and bring diverse sets of people together by offering a way for people practicing acculturated world views to experience expanded consciousness together preventing forms of social exclusion. Spirituality does not require a religious institution, and as the United States becomes more theologically fractured, spirituality can unite people of all faiths through psychedelia. Frank Lloyd Wright once said “I believe the religious experience is outpacing religion as an institution.” [Case Studies] There is little precedence for contemporary studies of this type of architectural design. Regardless, the use of these plants dates back at least 5,500 years or more along with the creation of sacred spaces associated with them. I also looked at designs aimed at altering consciousness without entheogens such as meditation
pavilions, Zen and Botanical gardens, shrines, churches, mosques, and temples of all religions. This helped to obtain “... commonalities across all faiths...” as described by Frank Lloyd Wright. The first example is Chavin de Huantar in Peru. Chavin was a pre-Incan society that centered its religious activities on San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus sp.) as well as other entheogenic plants. The Temple of Chavin was used as part of the San Pedro Ceremony. I included studies on existing Iboga treatment facilities as examples of how this is currently being done. There are two schools of thought. The first involves medical settings. This method has been used in several scientific studies dating back to the 1950’s. It involves the patient laying down on a bed tied to machines given headphones typically playing classical music while blindfolded. This method can create difficulty with guiding the patient through the experience. Potentially, denial of the patient’s ability to experience melding with nature is also another methodological drawback. An alternate approach proceeds in more of a community setting. The spiritual center approach uses elements from Bwiti wisdom in the therapy. Looking towards nature it was necessary to study Landscape Architecture. One of the biggest influences on this concept are Zen Gardens coupled with the Tea Ceremony in Japan. The gardens function was to alter one’s consciousness before the tea ceremony. ‘Roji’, or the tea path is described by Rikyu as “Simply a path leading beyond this fleeting world.” Out of all the mainstream religions, Zen Buddhism has the most in common with the so-called entheogenic philosophy. The Tea ceremony known as ‘chadō’ can be viewed as purely entheogenic. [Designing the Healing Center] The Entheogenic Experience is broken in several elements, the main elements are: Transience, Transcendence, Sacredness, Unity, Objectivity and Paradoxical Experience. These words serve as the core concepts of the project. The programming for the space is quite extensive and also requires analyzing how one moves through each stage of the therapy. The most important programmatic elements are the gardens and community spaces. A dormitory, library, and cafeteria are required for those intending to stay. Therapy spaces need medical programmatic requirements such as monitoring/diagnostic machines, full assortment of medicines, varieties of equipment, space for the sitter, a break room for the sitter, a bed, and bathroom. These requirements will change based on the type of therapy being done-addiction therapy being the most medically intensive and PTSD the most spiritually intensive. Cluster headache treatment should function as a something similar to a retreat setting where the patient has a personal space with either a friend or medical staff to act as sitter along with inclusion of natural elements. The spaces should have elements that honor the cultures that used the plant and the plant itself. With the re-legalization of entheogenic therapy on its way, it is important to begin exploring what these centers could become as well as what they potentially can offer society as a whole on many scales. The therapy needs created space that responds to the needs of this synergistic approach to psychotherapy. Spatial qualities needed in an entheogenic experience are similar to those required in spiritual experiences. In some ways this is a matter of opinion yet it can be stated that most users prefer a somewhat natural setting with shelter where one can be by themselves if deemed necessary. These kinds of centers can offer therapy to the land as well as the patient by helping restore natural elements as part as the therapeutic design for the patient. Having hours accessible to the public offers the public the chance to become educated on local ecology, natural medicine, exposure to spiritual techniques and space to practice spiritual techniques in.
what are entheogens? Its all about context, any substance can be entheogenic. An entheogen is a substance used primarily for spiritual purposes. In this research I have focused primarily on psychedelic plants used by indigenous people in an attempt to translate the context of their original use, to a way that can be used to enhance psychedelic therapy. The NAC can be seen as the first modern psychedelic therapy as the use of peyote helped Native Americans recover from alcoholism.
ayahuasca
iboga
peyote
san pedro
diagram via http://pueblosoriginarios.com/
progression of spiritual technology
From humble beginings, humans have always been making spiritual spaces. Our very first evidence of construction is a sacred space crafted by hunter gatherers. Eventually advancing from rituals and ceremonies to reading and intrepreting someone elses spiritual experience. We litterally learned how to read specifically to atempt to recreate a spiritual experience. Today we are moving towards a decentralized spiritual experience where the individual experiences it for themelves.
[process] These are the elements of the entheogenic experience as defined by Dr. Thomas Roberts in his book “A Psychedelic Future of the Mind.� I believe each should be a goal of a therapy space to either help the patient understand what they are going through and create stronger associations from the experience to their daily lives. Having spaces with specific goals can also help guide one through a negative reaction and potentially prevent a negative experience all together.
[FLW Sacred Process]
Defining the sacred is difficult. Using Frank Lloyd Wright’s model of sacred space design, one can evaluate all the features needed to make a good entheogenic therapy space. Frank Lloyd Wright’s views on spirituality are very ahead of its time and have relationship to the entheogenic experience. He once said “I believe the religious experience is outgrowing religion. Not religion as a whole, but as an institution.” He saw the importance of this but the unimportance of the hierarchy of the instution. This relates to the entheogenic experience by pointing out the importance of the experience for yourself rather then through authority in a
La Minatura is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s expressions of the home as a temple. The design expresses Frank lloyd Wright’s expression that “through the order geometry and rhythm of nature we can sense the unvierse’s pulse of life.” One can physically see the use of earth, water, fire, and air in this one photo.
[botanitecture] botan-i-tecture n - the use of a living plant as an architectural material botanitecture is another layer of the interconectedness element of the entheogenic philosophy. botanictecture is taken from the terms botany and architecture and seeks to create architectural structures and space using plants. the main goal is create a harmony of sensory experience of nature. This kind of open space allows for total immersion into nature.
I am also exploring creating space from plants. In this case its banisteropsis caapi or yage. It loves the warm and moist Florida climate.
The biggest problem was that it needed something to attach to. It was necessary to rethink how to approach this.
[beehive huts] also known as iQukwane, in some south african cultures these are used for spiritual initation. The thatch was made from hyparhania hirta, black wattle saplings tied together with ficus natalensis bark. A central pole made from rock alder tree is placed in the middle.
This offers a solution combined with grafting that can allow yage to be used as an architectural material. Each hut can serve a single function, a bark smashing hut, a leaf separating hut, a cooking hut, and the ceremonial hut.
method one using grafting and weaving
method two using a hybrid of steel and grafting
a modern adaptation using steel
Interview with underground Iboga Nganga: Dimitri Mugianis Dimitri Mugianis has been featured on National Geographics Drugged, and HBO’s Vice series. Dimitri is a former herion addict himself . In 2002 Dimitri was using 150$-200$ of herion daily ontop of abusing cocaine and methadone. He sought treatment in the Netherlands, during his session he saw his own future, his ancestors, and his future medicineman Papa Andre that he would begin working within in Gabon. Since his experience he has remained drug free. Now he facilitates Bwiti Iboga ceremonies for addicts.
In regards to a healing ritual how do you believe the space(s) should be set up? D: In Bwiti: Check out Fernandez’s work on Bwiti, very early work on bwiti. Bwiti temples are kinda of like a
boat, triangle at the entrance a rectangle and another triange, posts mean different things, the kabbalah/ cosmic tree of life that’s the structure, the altar at the front, the garden extension of temple, sides are open, ceremony starts in the garden. The ceremonial space has a oblong benches on both sides and in the back, space up front for musicians directly maybe one or two feet from the ngaga and intiaties, 2x4 that propped up on both sides by stones precrussions hit that on both sides. Harp player in the middle inches from the persons head. Sacred harp. Around this is the village shaking rattles and singing along and dancing along around you building up the energy depending on the ceremony. Ive tried to recreat that vibe in Queens and in hotel rooms. That’s the Bwiti way of doing it. I think theres advantages to do this, the smells the sounds, counting sunrise sunset, be able to see the transition of night and to day. Outside and communally have lots of advantages.
How long should the patient stay? Ie; detox to ritual to integration? D: Heres the thing when were talking about a center and what goes on now: what goes on now is very
linear. This is my problem with any sort of center and with the temple as a model. Be in a village you have a lot of time. A 10 day detox keep you for basically a month in very rare circumstances. That’s a big issue here. The time presence is going to present failure beginning middle and an end, we heal organically. That’s damaging to healing. You want to observe someone for a couple of days beforehand depending on the drugs. Idealy for a week, rarely a week not cost effective. Once you get them stabilized the actual process usually lasts the flood doses lasts usually lasts between 8-18 hours. Afterwards the deep reflection lasts another 8-28 hours. People just sort of laying there. The rare occurance if your doing this on a regular basis people can stay with me for a week in a nether world so you have to allow for that kind of situation. What do you want to do with these people, so the longer they can stay the better. People come in 10 days then their out the door and their back into the place. How do we maximize this? I think its very difficult to do in this situation. Healing, not healing, user, not user its real hierarchical.
What should the sitters be doing in the space? What do they need? D: Whats ideal is if we could have a comfortable space for people depending on if we do it Bwiti or not still,
changing shifts. No more then 8 hours, initial period needs consistency . Acess to medical equipment, break spaces, incorporate it into the space. Bag hooked we would wrap it in raffia, doctors would be wearing doctor stuff but maybe with makeup too. Medical equipment not intrusive, heart monitors, ekg machines, heartagram, medicine, near by and easily accessible easy way to move a patient if they are not being themselves if they are on the surface it has to be comfortable if you need to do cpr, so it needs to be hard enough for cpr. People have died, place for them to vomit, clean to easily, bathroom to closeby need ot be wheeled to carried etc. place warm/cool depending on how they feel. Clean easily if they want to vomit, place close to a car or ambulance if necessary, place for music to be heard. Incorporate these elements without making them blare to someone whos very vunerable. Bwiti motifs. Bwiti allows you to lay in the temple.
How can the space enhance the experience for the patient? D:
As much connection with nature as possible. Tapestries, calming, native motif of iboga, warm place, walls that can be put up or take down very easily screening, when it gets cold so you can still see the sun. Incorporate elements of bwiti if in a urban enciornment, the more open the better, good sound system, this is a medically assassited procedure. Emphasis on medically assisted. Because it is such powerful medicine there tends to be a lot abuse, for example a studio that does ayahuasca you’ll find abuse because theres so much power in handing over this medicine, think of how much power a door man has a New York City Friday night. Avoid the hierarchy. Look out for the position of power. We need to be cognisenct of abuse and we hear the words my shaman.
What elements of Bwiti are the most important in the Iboga ceremony, relating to healing? D:If you’re going through any kind of Bwiti it has to be explained to make sense. The feel of community is the most important. Throw away everything else. To feel everyone feel safe and in a communal space. The ceremony can be made up. We use elements from bwiti we just do it to mark the time. Honoring the aboringinal in something that is big is happening.
What elements of Bwiti should be intigrated architecturally? Materials, construction techniques, spatial relationships? D: Theres inside outside feeling, place fire where can be lit, fire is important, place where you can be near the water, river fire water air, elements, line things up. Community vibe inside outside vibe
What do you think is the best way to treat people, individually? In a group? If in a group what do you think would be the best way to separate them so that they don’t interfere with each other’s experiences? D:
Group, ive done a few people at once, yea hit infers but it’s a very complicated question because you
get into a question, what is interfering, whats individual, against the collective and, so much hype put on the medicine, I think the whole movement is bullshit in the way its been presented. SO much time and money and so much pressure to be clean. They see what they see. Anything we can do to deesclate that is best. I’ve done both and I think there are benefits to both, they said it was enhanced some say it was ruined. The Integration feature is huge, what are we looking to do, people are emotional, that’s the other piece, what do we do to support that, by water by nature, a place where people can be private but atimes the space to be public. A lot of times the addicts try to hide out so to encourage interaction or activity you need a gathering space with fire, food, private spaces for comtemplation. A village environment is ideal. A lot of what were getting is rehabilitation, but its not everything but I think it’s a lot. People can get really bored what can they do, acess should be restricted? How much do we want them on social media on the internet on media? A big square movie showing. Therapy spaces afterwards can people stay how long can they stay, after iboga you need to be alone for a few days. Do they move if they stay for a month what do they do with that time. We’re talking about an issue that, this is an initatie how do we process it. Putting it on timelines most of the time they don’t work, when we get to deep emotional stuff like PTSD and addiction and compulsivesness when they things they end it, they don,t they help things get better, we use the word recovery, I understand how the process is. I’m working on on overcoming compulsiveness still. What kind of spaces would that be, I don’t know. Its one of the reasons I don’t have a clinic. I did it for a year, we had someone almost die but we had medical people. We charged people a lot of money, and not make a lot of money. Its very demanding phsysically. 12 step…. That’s something to build on. Supportive system, folks can contribute for awhile in the process and then move out. Rehabs do this all over the world. The Ibogaine subculture of the late 90s came from colonized farm people. Bwiti came to the farm later then the Jungle. Due to the French Colonization and veneral diseases, women were not producing children, men were relocated to jobs not in their culture. Feeling demasculated feel like boys, forced to be catholism, Bwiti arose to dehumanize desexualize, and help them find meaning beyond themselves. How do we instill that that fluidity. How does the architecture transition from one space to another without creating a hierarchy. Its all about the space, talking about an internal space (self), a ceremonial space, a communal space, space for what we called healing that’s the end of it, space is really important. Look beyond the so called physical spaces. Utopias can be dystopia, a clean sterile looking futuristic space can make you crazy.
Bwiti ceremony
[iboga clinics] There are a variety of clinics or retreats around the world with different approaches. From Jungle retreats to Medical facilities, each has their own benefit but have a tendency to be one or the other.
In a medical setting iboga and other entheogens are administered in the same manor. Blind folded, headphones (usually with classical music), and medical equipment. This can be difficult to help navigate the patient through the experience but has benefeits in itself and perhaps can be one phase of the treatment during the experience.
Individual setting
Spiritual retreats offer a more community like experience by holding the therapy in a group. The group supports eachother through the experience. These retreats also provide post-experience spiritual training such as yoga, meditation, and other forms of consciousness altering techniques.
Group setting
To contrast this, here is a spiritual center’s schedule “Our Psycho-Spiritual Program at Iboga Wellness Center is an 8-day program which has been designed to help people experience spiritual growth and spiritual discovery. Day 1 – Orientation/Welcoming Ceremony – getting comfortable at our center. Day 2 – Iboga Fire Ceremony focused on detoxification of the body and mind. Day 3 – Introspective time for processing the information from the ceremony. Day 4 – Offsite activity (see below) & Spiritual Shower Ceremony. Day 5 – Iboga Fire Ceremony focused on spiritual discovery. Day 6 – Introspective time for processing the information from the ceremony. Day 7 – Offsite activity. Day 8 – Closing talk and departure.”
An example of a treatment schedule. “1. Diagnostic procedures (ECG, physical exemination, blood tests) 2. Preparation for seance (BP stabilization, arrhythmia prophylactics) 3. Creating mental map 4. Therapy with ibogaine hydrochloride (HCL) with constant cardiac monitoring, performedby a team of specialists (psychotherapist, intensive care specialist, and translator) at our ibogaine clinic. The effects of Ibogaine start within 45 minutes after administering. The active process of Ibogaine treatment lasts from 12 to 24 hours. Vivid visualizations are the main feature of Ibogaine therapy which last up to 6 hours. 5. Evaluation of results in psychotherapy – During that time we actively work with our patients to use that time to analyze the conditions and causes which underlie their drug addiction and help them to find the ways out 6. Recommendations and instructions concerning pharmacotherapy to use after the dismissal from the clinic. 7. Transfer from clinic to the airport (and vice versa) is also included in the ibogaine treatment cost.”
The fire ceremony is the first part of the experience where people come together and talk about life and sit around a fire. After an hour the fire is started and iboga is given. Once they are feeling the medicine they are escourted to a mattress in the temple where the rest of the experience is done. Spiritual Shower Ceremony is the spiritual cleansing aspect, the ceremony is done in the traditional Bwiti way. You are bathed in the river using Gabonese herbs. You must throw away clothes worn to the ceremony and wear new clothes afterwards.
[Iboga Retrat Costa Rica]
Bedroom
Pool
Beach area
Common room
[Chavin de Huantar]
san pedro growing on the side of the ruins of chavin
Chavin is one of the oldest built structures in South America. It is a Pre-Incan society that flourished between 3000 b.c to 500 b.c. Chavin de Huantar was a spiritual center for the area eventually having pan-regional influence. Its location is also inbetween the coast and jungle made it a central location for cultural influence on the region. Its religious ceremonies were centered around the San Pedro cactus. Chavin’s site was chosen because of several features of sacred landscapes. In the distance is the Wantsan peak, nearby are hot springs, and the site itself as at the intersection of the Mosna river and Huanchesca river , referred to as ‘tinkuy’ or harmonious meeting of opposing forces.
There are three main spaces the Circular Plaza, the Old Temple, and The New Temple. The Circular Plaza is an open air ceremonial space. It also acts as an atrium space for entering the temple. The Old Temple is an inward facing built of passage ways around a circular courtyard. The structure contains obelisks and carvings of jaguars, caimans, and other anthromorphic figures. The Old Temple is the first example of entheogenic ritual involving a percession of spaces. The pathways lead to the Lanzon sculpture, presumably this is where initiates in the San Pedro ceremony would be initiated or transitioned into the spirit world to commune with the diety of Chavin de Huantar. The New Temple is an evolution from the Old Temple, similar features are throughout such as the Lanzon diety. The design was evolved to accomidate more space for gathering.
section of central gallery
Chavin was a place of upper class priests to come learn and practice religious rights. The Chavin Temple Complex manipulated all of the elements, light, water, sound, and air. They worked with cave like spaces, canals, architecture, psychoactive plants, and iconography to help imprint an experience of the divine. The purpose argued by John Rick is “They needed to create a new world, one in which setting, objects, actions and senses all argue for the prsence of intrisic authority - both from the religious leaders and from the realm of greater powers they potray themselves related to.” It was believed that Chavin was a pilgrimage site, however John Rick’s assement declares that elite leaders from all over the andes were looking to assert their status and possibly elevate their positions of power. It is estimated that a whole two kilometers of gallery like tunnel spaces exist in the temFace with runny nose, this face depicts the effects of N. Rusple. This is an example of transience and transcendence, tica (known as Rapé) which makes the nose runny or “removal from one world and creation of another.” Chavin’s rituals were believed to be extremely dramatic and highly effective in altering the perception of the human authoritive relationship.
Entrance to Chavin’s Temple
Reciting songs of icaro to bless the medicine
San Pedro at a market in Iquitos
[peyote temple]
this project is an exploration in contemporary shrine and garden design. A shrine is a sacred space or threshold that deliniates something sacred. This can be used as a space for a sacred object, or a barrier between you and a sacred landscape. In this project the shrine was to function as a space for peyote cultivation and prayer. The introduction of a garden was inspired by the Peyote Way Church spirit walk ceremony as well as Zen gardens. Zen Gardens are said to alter one’s consciousness to be prepared for a tea ceremony, roji known as the “simply the path leading beyond this fleeting world,” which speaks to the transient and transcendent qualities of the entheogenic experience. Another element of roji that relates to entheogenic concepts is the interconectedness of all things within the garden, everything means something. The moss’s relationship to the tree, the relationship of the path to the tree, and the space inbetween. In this essence the garden tried to bring memories of peyote’s homeland in the limestone steps of Texas and Mexico. Peyote in NAC ceremonies is known as “The Road” and the medicine man is the “Roadsman” who leads you to Jesus Christ. In this essence roji and peyote are one in the same and can be used spatially to enhance eachother. Spirals are a very important symbol in Native American Motifs. I chose to represent this by basing the temple and fire pit on the Fibonacci spiral.
south elevation
north elevation
east elevation
west elevation
4
2 3
1. House 2. Zen Cactus + Rock Garden 3. Peyote Temple 4. Ceremonial Ground
1
Each space was thought of to emobdy an element of entheogenic consciousness to prepare one for the actual experience. Emphasis on transitions are key to denote the end of every day monotony and the begining of the entrance into the spiritual world.
I decided to rethink the entire ceremony from start to finish and add relationships to the origin of Peyote Religion in Mexico with the Huichol ceremony. The function of the altar in the temple was thought of to prepare, grow, and praise the Peyote. In this space he will pick the best peyotes for the ceremony and brew them in the space similar to tea. Typically the ceremony was done on the Roadsman’s property (if done for the community) in either a Ti-Pi or a round house. Ti-Pis are transient with the experience, and is taken down once the ceremony is over. I thought that there were benefits to not using a Ti-pi in that one would be reacquainted with the sky, which played an important part in the Huichol legends. In a typical Half Moon NAC ceremony one would be staring at the fire the entire time, listening to chants, drums, and smelling the burning of sage brush.
Images to the left show a ceremony performed in a permenant structure circa 1950’s, while on the right shows a temporary tipi.
[casa san pedro] This project is another exploration in shrine design. Contrasted to the NAC ceremony which is somewhat rigid, the San Pedro ceremony is much more lose. It is often tailored to the person or the currendera or currendero themself. The intervention includes the san pedro prayer space, kitchenette, courtyard, and bedroom. As an addition to Alberto Kallach’s Casa Atalaya, much was done to respect the existing architecture and materiality.
artifacts from chavin culture
the beams holding up the ceiling allowing air comming off the ocean to enter the space.
[Entheogenic Healing Center]
Lake Fern: This site is one of the most beautiful areas in Tampa, offering lots of nature and escape from the urban life. The challenge of this site is establishing the community to aide people through their therapy, however the blank slate allows for the design of a village and its integration into the existing landscape vocabulary of Odessa.
The first step is to stop viewing addicts as criminals and begin to treat them as patients. If the war on drugs ended on marijuana alone 40 billion dollars would be freed up to fund places like this. It is important to target high opioid use areas to give people the most acess to recovery as possible. Florida was the center of the Pill Mill fiasco in the beginning of the 21st century, the results of carelessly prescribing powerful legal herion analogues, and then the abrubt end to their distribution caused a massive spike in herion use across Florida.
A unique opportunity presents itself to Florida with the reopening of entheogenic medicine. Most of these plants are from tropical places, Tampa being on the fringe of the tropical zone allows for medicinal agriculture to arise. Plants like Iboga are endangered due to poaching and destruction by Catholic Missionaries, the demand could be taken off its natural habitat if cultivated closer to the patient, and by extension the U.S. as well. Gardening is also a spiritual activity that can help recovery of trauma. Having patients tend the medicine fosters a relationship between the patient and the medicine. In addition Florida agriculture is struggling from development and disease. Adding this new economy will help save open space within the semi-natural Florida landscape.
m -
My greenhouse containing several entheogenic palnts including: yage, coffea, chacruna, and iboga.
Oak Cathedral
Palmetto walls
This site is a former citrus grove that is no longer operating. Soil degredation from years of monoculture dominates most of the site, while a renaturated forest remains, but threatened by furthur development. The project can help restore the site and give it a new life. Seeing a different future for Odessa then the automobile stirp mall suburb. Pine towers
This diagram is based on a peyote ceremony. Various line types represent actions or relationships between events within the ceremony. Things like music that start and stop, the trinity hour where all music stops except for the roadsman who sings. The hexagon structure represents the ego that is slowly shed into nothing to be reformed on the otherside anew.
Overlaying the diagram on the site helped provide a parti and establish spatial relationships between potential programtic elements
The safety harbor culture build mounds all over tampa bay including two mounds within 20 miles of the site. Each site was a “capital village” and contained the temple mound and a central plaza. Fifteen mounds are said to have existed along the shoreline of Tampa Bay. The Mounds could be built up to 20 feet high. Buildings sometimes would be located ontop. It is written by the Spanish that the Chief’s family lived ontop the main mound, and a temple mound would be opposite of the plaza.
Exchange of blankets - A blanket in native culture symbolizes the embrace of the person who gave it to you.
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