- Ayawรกskha -
Nature, Being and Entheogenic architecture
Luis Rojas Paipilla
- Ayawรกskha -
Nature, Being and Entheogenic Architecture
How the ritual of Ayawรกskha expands on the Posthumanist discourses and reveal the ritual as a set of parameters to aid future architecture to strength the relation between its inhabitants and nature?
Luis Rojas Paipilla First and only edition. Printed in London - United Kingdom Produced as part of the Masters Architecture (RIBA Part II) course at the University of Greenwich 2017-2020
Contents Prologue
Part Two: The Brew, Ego Dissolution and the Ethereal
Acknowledgements Abstract Glossary
Introduction: The Indigenous, being more-than-humans The Indigenous Perspective What is Ayawáskha? Misinterpretation of the traditional use Reconstructing Indigenous Epistemologies and Philosophies Ayawáskha as a case of study for architecture A metaphor for the journey to the Amazon
Research Method Statement Navigational Tool: A Glossary of Questions
Part One: The Ritual, An Entheogenic Praxis
An ancient therapy ‘La Pinta’, the Vision of the brew Performing the Ritual
Spatial Interaction Design Elements for Architecture Ritual Reconstruction
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Human, fear of becoming the other Omitting ego for Self-reflection, Self-recognition and Self-redefinition Repentance and accepting the consciousness of Nature Conviction to evolve with each other in Sympoiesis
Part Three: The Purge, Being after Death
Beyond the pure function of a shelter The Psychotropic Practices of Architecture The Purpose of Entheogenic Design
Conclusion: The Awakening, Life in the Ethereal What is Ayawáskha? Abya Yala, Land of Indigenous Beings Notes Mediography Appendix
Frontera Verde (2019) First series to explore Amazonian Indigenous Perspective and reconstruct tradition by the means of a series. Image 0.01
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Seed of Ayawรกskha Vine of the Soul - Banisteriopsis Caapi Image 0.02
Acknowledgements My sincerest thanks to Michael Aling, David Hemingway, and Jake Moulson for the invaluable guidance. To my partner and fellow studying colleagues for their unconditional support.
To us, humans, nonhumans and beings more-than-humans. To co-existence.
Abstract Ayawáskha: Nature, Being, and Entheogenic Architecture is a study of the indigenous epistemologies of tribes in the Amazon rainforest through the ritual of Ayawáskha, discussed through an engagement with the contemporary discourses of Posthumanism and Panpsychism. The thesis aims to expand on the current redefinition of the notion of the ‘human’, and the needs of architecture to be designed towards the praxis of coexistence with nature and other earthly beings. The Ayawáskha is a ‘brew’ consumed in a ritual by the indigenous people in the Amazon Rainforest. Through the ingestion of Ayawáskha, a hallucinogenic decoction, the purpose of the ritual is to expand their understanding of the ecology they are part of and their role within it. Guided by a Taita (shaman), the ceremony is an empirical psychotherapy that cleans physically and psychologically the participants’ impurities to unblock the obstacles that prevent them from the visionary capacity.
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The vision is what enables to make connection with nature, for indigenous people it is innate instinct in the human beings, it expands the consciousness until becoming one with the environment. Starting with fear, the ritual goes through self-recognition, repentance, determination to change, purge, and ending in an ecstasy that reinforces the lessons learnt during the visions. The ritual presented in this study is examined within indigenous epistemologies of the communities and cultures from which it emerges (the Tukanos and Shipibo tribes). By understanding the indigenous perspective and the importance of Ayawáskha, the thesis reconstructs the ritual across spaces and objects of the Maloka, the indigenous hut. Simultaneously, the study engages with contemporary theories in order to redefine the ritual stages as a set of parameters (design element) that will aid future architecture to enhance the relation between its inhabitants and nature, by creating spaces for feeling and acting differently as a result of thinking differently. Enabling Architects to design environment as well as subjectivation and to enact architecture as a ‘psychotropic practice’.
Taita Enchantment during Ayawáskha ritual Image 0.03
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Frontera Verde (2019) First series to explore Amazonian Indigenous Perspective and reconstruct tradition by the means of a series. Image 0.01 Page 10
1.1 Glossary Abya Yala:
Nature
Ayawáskha
Ontology
The name that the continent of the Americas was known by the indigenous nations before the colonial period. it is an entheogenic brew made out of Banisteriopsis caapi vine and other ingredients. The brew is used as a traditional spiritual medicine in ceremonies among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin
Cosmology
The science of the origin and development of the universe. Modern astronomy is dominated by the Big Bang theory, which brings together observational astronomy and particle physics. (Definition of in English by Oxford Dictionaries, 2020)
Ecology
The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
Entheogen(ic)
A chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to produce a nonordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes. (Definition of in English by Oxford Dictionaries, 2020) The term Entheogenic refers to a class of psychoactive substances that induce any type of spiritual experience aimed at development or sacred use. The term entheogen is chosen to contrast recreational use of the same drugs.
Epistemology
The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being. Posthumanism Is a philosophical perspective of how change is enacted in the world. As a conceptualization and historicization of both agency and the “human,” it is different from those conceived through humanism. (Cary Whole)
Praxis
Praxis: the process of using a theory or something that you have learned in a practical way. praxis as meaning “action oriented towards changing society” praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied, or realized. “Praxis” may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas he philosopher Aristotle held that there were three basic activities of humans: theoria (thinking), poiesis (making), and praxis (doing). Corresponding to these activities were three types of knowledge: theoretical, the end goal being truth; poietical, the end goal being production; and practical, the end goal being action.[2] Aristotle further divided the knowledge derived from praxis into ethics, economics, and politics..
Ritual
A religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. (OED, 2020)
The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. (Definition of in English by Oxford Dictionaries, 2020)
Sensorium
Indigenous
Taita
“Born or originating in a particular place,” 1640s, from Late Latin indigenous “born in a country, native,” from Latin indigena “sprung from the land, native,” as a noun, “a native,” literally “in-born,” or “born in (a place),” from Old Latin indu (prep.) as a noun in this book
Maloka
Is an ancestral long house used by indigenous people of the Amazon, notably in Colombia and Brazil Each community has a maloca with its own unique characteristics.
‘The sensory apparatus or faculties considered as a whole’ (Sensorium | Definition of sensorium in English by Oxford Dictionaries, 2019) Another name for shaman in Colombia.
Totuma
A crock of plant origin made from the fruit of the totumo tree (Crescentia cujete). it is used by native peoples throughout Central America, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Panama as a kitchen implement. It is used to contain liquids and solids, drink water and other applications. The word totuma comes from the chaima.
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It is late and I am far from home I is dark, wet and late, I don’t know many people here And I don’t know why I came here Page 12
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Contents:
The Indigenous Perspective What is Ayawรกskha? Misinterpretation of the traditional use Reconstructing Indigenous Epistemologies and Philosophies Ayawรกskha as a case of study for architecture A metaphor for the journey to the Amazon Research Method Statement Navigational Tool: A Glossary of Questions
The Indigenous, being more-than-human -
Introduction Taita A more-thant-human being Fig 0.05
The Indigenous Perspective The indigenous peoples across the world are diverse and cannot be identified homogenously. However, many indigenous nations find they share significant commonalities associated with the philosophy of ‘being-more-than-human’. 1 and a science based upon ‘natural laws of interdependence’ Indigenous people in the Amazon, such as Tukanos and Shipibo tribes, are not the exception. Their culture, traditions and understanding of their existence are built upon their relationship with the rainforest and the awareness of the intrinsic connection that exist with it. Within their traditions, the ritual of Ayawáskha is a manifestation of their philosophy of being-more-than-humans, referring to be part of nature as one entity. This approach enables indigenous people to self-reflect, expand their knowledge and perception of nature, and acknowledge their role as part of the ecology.
Taita during ritual Visonary effects Fig 0.06
1- Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, Chapter 9, note 3.
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What is Ayawáskha? Ayawáskha is a psychotropic decoction prepared from the combination of a jungle vines of the same name and other complementary plants. It has been traditionally used as a spiritual medicine in ceremonies among different indigenous communities of the Amazon basin. Ayawáskha comes from two words in Kichwa language, Aya: Soul/Spirit and Wáskha: Vine/Liana. Generally, it refers to both to the plant Banisteriopsis Caapi and most importantly to the decoction prepared with it, also known as Yajé in other indigenous cultures.2 The word Ayawáskha has been variously translated as the ‘Vine of the soul’ or ‘Spirit liana’. The vine represents the means of connection with the ethereal, for indigenous people, a state multidirectional interaction in the cosmos, from a macroscale to a microscale, where there is an interconnectivity of the ‘self’ in relation with all ‘spirits’ that exists. Based on Prof David Skrbina theory of Panpsychism, the concept of ‘Spirit’ is problematic in the academic context, instead he proposed to replace it with the concept of consciousness, what he describes as a homolog state of being. In the thesis, when referring to the word ‘spirit’, ‘spiritual’ and any equivalent variant is to be interpreted in the context of consciousness. Therefore, the Ayawáskha is a vehicle of connection with the consciousness of nature, the brew is consumed not for sensory gratification, but for immersion in a collective mental and ‘spiritual’ world in which the participants become something more than humans.3 The ritual is an empirical process that cleans body
and mind in order to expand the understanding of the ecology they are part of and their role within it. Within this thesis, the used of the word visions is preferred instead of hallucinations due to the erroneous cultural connotation of the latter. Both are products of the imagination; however, the latter is more connected with craziness as a disease. By restoring indigenous philosophy, Ayawáskha is understood as medicine in this context and the plant is not the one that gives the visions, instead it is the one that removes the obstacles that prevents from the visionary capacity of the individuals opening up paranormal and intuitive abilities that, for indigenous people, are innate in the human-being. The ceremony is conducted during the night under the guidance of the Taita through a sequence of stages that enables to transform the personalities of the participants, going through their feelings to stimulate on understanding the links that exist in its ecology. The ritual starts with the cleansing of the body, a sequence of acts that represents the goodwill and protection as a preparation for receiving Ayawáskha. Following the ingestion of the brew, the self-identity is deconstructed in sequence of feeling that starts with fear, goes through self-recognition, repentance, determination to change. The purge is the final act that marks the end of the purification process where body and mind, of selfreflection state where it is release what is not need for the self. Consequently, the visions enter in an ecstasy state where there are not limitations of the perceptions and reinforces the lessons learnt during the ritual process, a praxis left for each individual to exercise in their daily life after awakenings from the vision.
Ayawáskha - the brew Preparation of indigenous medicine Fig 0.07
2- Weiskopf, Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio, 10. 3- Jay,High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture, 5-15.
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Misinterpretation of the traditional use There is archaeological evidence of Ayawáskha use as early as 1000 BCE. A leather ritual bag, likely belonged to a shaman, was founded in a cave used as a tomb in what is now southwestern Bolivia, the bag contained what archaeologist described as the earliest artefacts of the Ayawáskha ritual and remaining psychoactive substance.4 The use of psychedelics is common across different cultures, according to anthropologist Donald E. Brown the impulse of consciousness alteration is one of the essential components of human culture. Its use has significantly influenced the way society and culture are structured by providing a different perception of the way the world is viewed. However, this is not exclusive of human, there are evidence on the origin of these impulses to exist likely long before we became ‘humans’.5 In the 15th century, when Europe acknowledged the existence of Abya Yala,6 known today as continent of The Americas, this resulted in the colonisation and omission of indigenous culture and their intellectual authority and philosophies of being human. According to Simone Bignall and Daryle Rigney, the legacy of colonialist systems on philosophical thinking after the Enlightenment is a problematic issue that remains part of the current approach in most European philosophy.
Ayawhaskha Ritual Performance of Tukano Tribe Fig 0.08
4- Blakemore, Ancient hallucinogens. [online] 5- Jay,High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture, 10. 6- Arango, S. (1993). Historia de la Arquitectura en Colombia, pag 356
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Reconstructing Indigenous Epistemologies and Philosophies
Ayawáskha as a case of study for Architecture
Posthumanism is strongly influenced by the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, the ‘posthuman turn’ is defined as a convergence of posthumanism with postanthropocentrism by the philosophers Rosi Baidotti and Simone Bignall.7 It is a complex and multidirectional set of discourses and material events. By the radical criticism of how humanism developed in the western society, it encourages to build upon the potential epistemologies of becoming-human by the practice of a more inclusive approach to ontology of ‘human’. Additionally, it is an opening to the potentials of thinking beyond the established frames of anthropocentrism for the imagination and redefinition of concepts towards a world focused direction. Bignall and Rigney enquire about the role of their philosophy in the continuing exclusion of Indigenous ontologies in the emerging posthumanities.
This inquiry into the Ayawáskha Ritual in this thesis takes in consideration Rosi Bradotti and Jodi Byrd’s suggestion that ‘Indigenous critical theory could be said to exist in its best form when it centres itself within indigenous epistemologies and in specificities on the communities and cultures from where it emerges, and looks outward to engage European philosophical, legal and cultural traditions in order to build upon all the allied tools available’.11 Therefore, the Ayawáskha ritual becomes the case study for this thesis to research on the indigenous perspective, it is used as a metaphor to discuss broader issues of the contemporary philosophy in regards to the redefinition of human and the relationship with nature.
On the one side, posthumanism describes that indigenous people share internationally similar views on the features that constitute humanity, the conceptualisation of being human is stablished in inextricable relations with the nonhuman world. Such philosophies include the refusal of anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism; a genealogical and constructivist account of identity; and an acknowledgement of species interdependence and consubstantial intersubjectivity in interactive ecologies shared by human and non-human beings.8 On the other side, the exclusion of indigenous ontologies allows Continental European Philosophy to claim the ‘new humanities’ as its current ‘discovery’ after modern humanism.9 However, under close scrutiny, this apparently ‘new’ intellectual frontier in fact traces an ancient philosophical terrain already occupied by indigenous epistemologies and associated modes of human experience.10 7- Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, 1. 8- Ibid., 159. 9- Ibid., 160. 10- Ibid., 177.
The ritual is deconstructed together with the Maloka (the indigenous hut where the ritual takes place) as a set of elements, objects and spaces that are used as stimulations for consciousness to maintain a balanced relation with nature. Based on what Marcel Mauss and Pierre Bourdieu have called ‘habitus’12, the ritual and the Maloka are approached as a network of habits, beliefs, and expectations held by the person who experiences and use it. By the understanding of their meanings, these can be used as mnemonics for architectural design to engage with the way peoples relate with nature, and to create life experiences that could shape awareness unconsciously, what Andrej Radman define as the ‘psychotropic practice’ of architecture.13
11- Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, Chapter 9. 12- Jones, Architecture and Ritual, 3. 13-Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, Chapter 9.
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A journey to the Amazon This thesis is structured in similar manner to the ayawáskha ritual, it is divided in three parts to emphasize a methodology of studying the ritual across different narratives that existed during the investigation, and that could lead to different focus of interpretations. The main narrative is the journey to the ayawáskha ceremony, a timeline of the preritual, during-ritual and post-ritual. While the journey happens, the intention is to take the readers’ imagination to a closer focus in relation to the ceremony, the first part being the preparation to the ceremony, the second as the cleansing process during the ritual, and the third as the visionary state of connections. Alternatively, it looks to the indigenous culture in the first part, the western culture in the second, and the intersection between them in the third. Similarly, it is a view to the past, present and future; to the body, mind and ethereal; the Participant, the Taita, and the Brew; to description, meaning and purpose; to thinking, feeling, acting; so on and so forward. More specifically each part looks at the following: Part one – The Ritual, Entheogenic Praxis of Being – expands on what is Ayawáskha within the cultures of indigenous people and provides a view from the perspective of an outsider of the culture. It describes the composition and effects of the brew as well as their meaning from the perspective of indigenous philosophy. It provides a view of the importance of the ritual as a social mechanism to remain in balance with nature. It defines how the ritual is performed, the role of the Taita, the elements, objects that are involved, acts, meanings, the spaces of interaction and feelings. It ends with the reconstruction Ayawáskha as an indigenous praxis of being in the form of ritual.
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Amazon River Boat journey from Iquitos - Peru Fig 0.09
Part two - The Brew, Ego Dissolution and the Ethereal – take the elements of the mind stages of the mind during the vision state as a metaphor to deconstruct and redefine the notion of ‘human’ by engaging the praxis of Ayawáskha with homologous contemporary discourses and theories. Through the feelings of fear, self-recognition, regrets, and determination of change it would expose the conflictive relationship with nature of contemporary society, to end in a rejection of the being ‘human’ as we know it. Part Three - The Purge, Being after Death – marks the new beginning and the analysis of architecture from the perspective of ayawáskha, identifying design elements create experience that influences the way inhabitants think and perceive the space, and ultimately influence behaviour toward create new connections, respond to it and evolve with it. This chapter also explores the new role of architecture as a psychotropic practice meaning to the capacity of affecting human way of thinking by the design of environment and the importance for architecture to do it. However, it also makes a difference of the Entheogenic practice to be more specific when engages with Ayawáskha and indigenous culture. The Conclusion - The awakening, Life in the Ethereal – Provides with a description of the implementation of Entheogenic design in a Virtual Reality Environment. It describes the VR experience and the relation with Ayawáskha. It also resembles the closure of the ritual, is a manifesto of what Ayawáskha is. It summarises the views and connections examined in this thesis and narrative that look to engage the reader to find new ones and to define what is Ayawáskha.
Circulations in the Amazon Bridgest connections above the trees Fig 0.10
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La Maniwa The Amazonian Rain forest Fig 0.11 Page 23
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The forest is dense, I cannot see anything Everything moves, it doesn’t see safe Where are we going? Where are they taking me? Page 25
Research Method Statement Reader cleansing process
Ambitions
Thinking process Brain Coonections
The ambition of this thesis is to find new means of strengthening the relationship between humans and nature by the design of architectural environments. It studies the Ritual of Ayawรกskha as a mean of connection used by indigenous people in the Amazon to identify design parameters that can be used in architecture. It engages with contemporary discourses to have a broader understanding of the relationship between human and nature in order to find further parameters. It attempts to test the finding of the research by designing a virtual environment based on the connection that Ayawรกskha creates with nature and explore further possibilities for architecture as an Entheogenic Practice.
Readership The content of this thesis is primarily aimed at architectural professionals. Although the content is relevant for philosophy and other disciplines that studies the human such as anthropology, phycology, sociology, etc. The content is also relevant for gaming design and similar as it explores to the creation of a virtual world based on the narrative of the ritual. The content is relevant to indigenous culture to engage their traditions with the contemporary technologies, and for other culture to build a bridge in the understanding of nature through experiencing Ayawรกskha. The output of the thesis can be utilised by anyone that wants to understand and relate to nature differently.
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Thinking Process The Brain Connections of Ayawhaskha Diagramm 01
Areas of research Stimulations
Limitations This thesis uses a specific case study to discuss a broader argument about humanity, limiting it to the narrative of the ritual which for an analysis of argument by philosophy or similar disciplines may find that ignores other aspects of humanity and nature. The ritual is used as a metaphor and the research should not be taken as such. It aims to expand and open question to other similar arguments to build upon and with them on the matter regarding the relation between human and nature and how it can be used to influence architecture toward a design that enhanced it.
Relevance & Consequences
Predominately, there is an urgent need for this thesis to establish a bridge between culture in regards of the matter of nature and human relationship to expand in the discipline of architecture to design spaces that strengthen them. This is not an isolated investigation and aims to connect to other disciplines to build up on the data for developing cultural, ethics, technology, economy and society towards a balanced relation with nature.
Areas of Research Stimulations of the Knowledge Zone Diagramm 02
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Research Method Statement Reader cleansing process
Reconstructing the ritual through my own experience, interviews and conversation with people who have participate in it. Designing objects and Environment to test the theories speculative thoughts discussed in this research. This will offer the reader a chance to experience the thesis outputs providing the reader a method to construct conclusions to the validity of the research findings.
Secondary Research Methods
Historic, Philosophical, scientific, anthropological research methods are established to provide context to the thesis argument, including; journals, articles, web articles, core books (defined within thesis framework diagram), exhibition and museum visits. A wide range of resources will be applied. A range of relevant case studies are included to support theoretical ideas developed with the thesis and support the critical speculation upon the thesis title.
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Artefact Design
Interviewing Shamans and people that have done the ritual.
Reconstructing the ritual through the objects and Designing environment..
This enables me to have a closer ap-proach to the culture and traditions in comparison to other people that are not as familiar with them.
Provide a different perspective of the experience parallel to my own in order to find connections and common grounds.
It explores forms, textures, colours that can build in the argument of design that stimulates feelings to create connections with nature.
I have been detached to the culture for the past five year which limits the research to have a more specific and updated understanding of the case of study.Not being indigenous or growing in the community will always limit the interpretation of ayawรกskha.
This were not recorded in an academic manner which limits their validity.
Due to the limited time, non-objects were built physically. Although they can be experienced in the virtual reality with the limitations of the technology
Interviews can be prepared to ask specific question in relation to the finding after the research and look for additional connections.
Objects can be built to test the argument and record data.
Description
Doing the ritual in the past and being in relation with indigenous people while living in Colombia.
Advantage
Primary Research Methods
Interviews
Disadvantage
The research methodology of this thesis to investigate into understanding of ayawรกskha ritual and the connection it enables with nature. Then, by finding similarities between Contemporary discourses with indigenous philosophy, The ritual used as a metaphor to reinterpreted, artefacts, objects, spaces that are form the ritual. Working on findings during the investigation that the ritual is a sequence of feelings that enables the self-reflection to feel connected with nature, a virtual environment is design to test the research and evaluate on the new findings. In addition it expands in the idea of architecture to be a Psychedelic practise, meaning that it is able to affect the way people behave through the way they perceive therefore it can be research the importance of the focus in that aspect of feeling and behaviour.
To Participate in an Ayawรกskha Ceremony
Research Methodology Statement
Findings
For future investigations, text can be approach in Quechua and Kichwa for a more valid interpretation.
Virtual reality Experience The technology allows to be immersed in a virtu-al environment to test the research. To explore different skills that are not necessari-ly required in architecture studies. It allows test the architecture as well as objects designed in relation with the ritual despite being not build physically.The technology enables to be immersed in the design, and create analog of the ayawáskha effects with the virtual world. Learning the software’s required much more time than expected. It provided me with a lim-ited level for creating and testing the environ-ment, hence the result is limited. The technology required to ware the headset and hols the controllers, which are not compati-ble with what the participant sees. Despite the technology help to simulation and ayawáskha experience, it does not cause the same results.The circulations on the design are limited to the physical space and the maximum area enable by the device as it losses track of the space. With a more time and skills, the design environment can be more in detail and add virtual beings such animals, or environmental effects such change of the atmosphere, time, climate while being in the experience. In addition to engage with sound and other ways of affect the participants.The technology brings many opportunities for interaction and gaining a better experience. By building menus Menu, pre-set views, animations etc. the user be directed to analyse specific points of view.
Artefact Design
Literature review
Reconstructing the ritual through the objects and Designing environment..
Journal, books, and publications.
It explores forms, textures, colours that can build in the argument of design that stimulates feelings to create connections with nature.
There is a variety of investigation ins aya-wáskha in different mean despite the culture does not record their knowledge
Due to the limited time, nonobjects were built physically. Although they can be experienced in the virtual reality with the limitations of the technology
Objects can be built to test the argument and record data.
Language barriers and translation inter-pretations vary the contents meaning of the information when researching aya-wáskha. There may not be books written that investigates the ritual of ayawáskha from an architectural perspective that analysis space through the same aspects of the ritual.The information regarding ayawáskha is limited to the analysis of the psychedelic effects or cultural aspects.
For future investigations, text can be ap-proach in Quechua and Kichwa for a more valid interpretation.
Series/Movies/ Documentaries Watch variety of Media
In informs with visual information, interviews and aesthetics that can be used to the form and design of the thesis.
The validity of the information is lim-ited as the approach of the ritual generally is analysed from someone outside the culture. The information is limited to culture or to analysis of the psychedelic ef-fects Visit the places
Form of the Thesis
The thesis is structured in similar manner to the ayawáskha ritual. Each section resembles a stage of the ritual and aim to test the aya-wáskha experience by stimulating the reader visually to create different feelings while is reading, feelings that are part of the process of the ritual. The contrast of the black against the photo creates a cinematographic effect that could engage people to continue reading despite the complexity of the text. Limitations of the sources for the images. It may have a better effect with a broader source of them. Perhaps create them. The effects are limited to each person interpretation of the text and image. It is also lim-ited whether the person associate the ritual with the reading process.There are difficulties in regards of printing in colour black as it vary depending on the colour and may affect they quality for perceiving the typos. In addition to editing the document to make contrast with it, it requires longer time than expected. Several test would be required to achieve the effect discussed
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Ayawรกskha Ritual Structure The thesis as a Reading Ritual
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Ayawhaskha ritual Structure The thesis as a reading ritual Diagramm 03
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Contents:
An ancient therapy ‘La Pinta’, the Vision of the brew Performing the Ritual
Spatial Interaction Design Elements for Architecture Ritual Reconstruction
The Ritual,
An Entheogenic Praxis -
Part One Ritul Artefacts The tools for healing Fig 1.12
An ancient therapy Taking Ayawáskha is an exhaustive therapeutic experience, it is an empirical psychotherapy performed in a context of the ritual. It is a simultaneous cleaning of the physical and psychological impurities that unblocks the obstacles that prevent us from the visionary capacity which, for indigenous people, is innate in the human being. The body is purified by the acts of the Taita during the ritual, the mind works through a process of self-knowledge, surrounding voluntarily the ego to the visions, challenging our vulnerability and ultimately having a direct contact with the ethereal where the ‘spirits’ become real. Ayawáskha transforms our personalities through a sequence of feelings that, starting with fear, goes through self-recognition, repentance and determination to change, to end in purge followed by an ecstasy that reinforces the lessons learnt in the process.
Cleansing process The Participant and The Taita Fig 1.13
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La Pinta, the Vision of the brew According to Dr Richard Evans Schultes, an American biologist first to chemically study the brew, Ayawáskha is a preparation with of the species liana of the genus Banisteriopsis Caapi. The bark of the B. Caapi contains Beta-carbolic alkaloids (harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine), capable of inducing visions generally in blue, grey or purple colours. The natives usually use admixtures to increase the duration and intensity of these effects. The most common are the leaves of Diplopterys Cabrerana, another liana of the same family known as chagropanga in Kichwa language, or those of a Psychotria viridis shrub or chaqruy which means ‘to mix’. In the leaves of D. cabrerana and P. viridis have been isolated other types of psychoactive alkaloids called tryptamines, which at the same time contains a substance whose name is Dimethyltryptamine or DMT. 14
However, the B. Caapi vine contains beta-carbolic alkaloids, the ingredient used to counteract the effect of MAO. Hence, for indigenous people is the vine who opens the possibility to experience the benefits from the DMT, ‘it is only that combination of active ingredients that allows the brew to expand consciousness and produce visions’16
Tryptamines are naturally found in mammals’ brain as neuromodulator or neurotransmitters. It binds to trace amines, the receptors substance, which initiates a physiological response when combined together. Similarly, DMT is a chemical substance derivative and a structural analog of tryptamines that occurs in many plants, animals and naturally in the human brain in small amounts.15 We, as human beings, cannot benefit from these alkaloids as the stomach and lower intestines of mammals naturally produce an enzyme called Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) which breaks down the visionary substance of DMT before it crosses the blood-brain barrier to enter the central nervous system.
There are several modalities of use of ayawáskha nowadays, it varies according to the purpose it is used for and the context. Based on J. Weiskopf description there are four major modalities:18 1. The mestizo, based on the indigenous tradition and limited to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 2. Medicinal: managed by Western doctors in South America. 3. Therapeutically, for people seeking self-realization. 4. Religious, groups that use ayawáskha to worship a god such as Santo Daime in Brasil. Adding a 5th the Illegitimate, when used illegally as a drug outside the culture for recreational purpose.
These visions, known as ‘Pinta’, take the form of multicoloured mental images that range from vivid portraits of plants, animals and mythical beings to scenes of our own lives. The ritual is one of the few spaces in our society where a certain degree of madness is tolerated and this is, perhaps, its greatest value in the therapeutic sense. Of course, it is madness controlled by the Taita, who, in his own native way, acts as a psychotherapist for those who are afflicted.17
14-Weiskopf, Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio, 10. 15-Carbonaro; Gatch, “Neuropharmacology of N,N-dimethyltryptamine”. Brain Research Bulletin. 126 (Pt. 1): 74–88. 16-Weiskopf, Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio, 153. 17-Ibid., 41. 18-Ibid., 50.
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Ayawáskha brew during the coction process Fig 1.14
Ayawรกskha - Banisteriopsis Caapi Fig 1.15
Chaqruy - Psychotria Viridis Fig 1.16
Chagropanga - Diplopterys Cabrerana Fig 1.17
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Finally! I can see something… Seems like a door… …But ... ...to no where
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Performing the ritual The ‘traditional’ form of preparing the ritual, as described in this thesis, is a combination of different traditions between the cultures that practice the ayawáskha ritual, as such it is a myth. By calling it ‘traditional’ denies the adaptation processes of the culture after the colonisation period. In addition, it ignores the different practices in each of them. Therefore, there is not only one but many forms of the ritual and, in some respects, there is little in common. There may not be a single element of the ritual as described that can be called, without mistake, universal for these cultures. However, the following description is an overview of the ritual from studying Tukanos and Shipibo tribes along with the description from the perspective of an individual taking ayawáskha, based on my own experience as a participant. Generally, every participant understands that the vine is a tool from nature to be used by an experienced ‘healer’ who has a long history working with the plant and through their own consciousness, it is also know with the title of Taita. This provides the respect from the community and their trust to lead them through the ritual and their own worlds. It is taken as a group to practice the interconnectivity seeing during the vision. Most cultures consume ayawáskha during the night as they believe that darkness awakes the sensorium, women during menstrual cycle are not allowed as the blood is a symbol that resemble death. In addition, it is companied with music, chants, in relation to nature, and with a common purpose of healing, in other words, to adjust the balance of the invisible links between each other common well-being.
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There is not a universal way of preparing the brew, it varies from tribe to tribe. As the B. Caapi grows across the Amazon and Andean mountains, the ground composition changes the hallucinogenic effects and, according to the Taitas, the visionary experience of consciousness of that land. Therefore, they combine with other admixtures, generally chagropanga or chaqruy, to increase the visionary effects. The vines and leaf are cooked in water until it forms a decoction between green and brown. Usually it is prepared separate from the contact of other individuals and in a different building to the Maloka, perhaps outside in the chagra, the outside space surrounding the Maloka. Prior the ritual night, participants avoid meat and remain abstinence of alcohol, or similar substances, and sex for a couple of days or as long they prefer. During the day of the ritual, normally once a week, participants stop all activities in the midday for cleaning themselves with water from the river and rest. After the sunset, people head to the Maloka or other ritual place in relation to the Maniwa (nature) but at the same time save from it. People gather while awaiting for the Taita, and around 7pm the ritual starts. The cleaning process take place with the use of the touch of Chakapa on people’s body, the smoke of the Sahumerio and chants of the Ikaros. Once the last person is cleaned and protected, the brew is served. Around midnight, every person starts consuming the brew, first the Taita, followed by the apprentices and then each of the participants.
The RappĂŠ A dried and powdered tobacco snuff that is bowed up the nose Fig 1.18
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East- Sunrise
Spatial Interaction The participants are free to move in the space that is being enchanted by the Taita, usually the limits chagra and the start of the Maniwa. In the outside people seat around the bonfire to admire the light or the sky, if there is a full moon it is believed as a good sign for mind clarity. When the brew start making effects, the participants move to a comfortable and safe space inside the Maloka, where there are hammocks hanging which provides the feeling of protection like being inside a womb. The effects amplify the sensorium and connect the stimulation with memories, they can be traumatic as well as pleasant. The Taita conduct thus emotions that thus memories cause with the sound of the Ikaros, as guide that harmonize each person as elements in space.
End of the Eects
Self consciousness dissolution
The Death Zone - Bad Trip You need the assistance of a Shaman
Uncontrolled
The feelings felt during the ritual are usually presented as a sequence from the unconsciousness, starting with fear, goes through self-recognition, repentance and determination to change, to enter into a state of purge. Purging may be one of the most significant states during the ritual, it is the reminder to the self that the body has its own consciousness, it acts by itself and in this case against the will of the person. It is also a release of what it is not needed physically and psychologically, as well as a convulsive reminder that the biological human body is like any other animal being, referring to a connection with certain primal instincts.
Ceremony closure Closure Ceremony, Lighting a candle, cleaning the body and feast
Confronting your fears Emesis or dyspepsia: Release action
Consciousnes s
Midnight- Darkness
Ingestion of the Entheogenic brew According to your impulse or instincts, the change of space - Close to fire - look to it an hear -To the hammocks to ‘rest’ - eyes close -Hallucination -Icaros - music - sounds -Be in company of other person or Alone Close to water
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Diss olu tio n
d le ol tr n Co
West - Sunset
A final state of visions follows, this time a more vivid one where there are not limitations from the body, as it is exhausted from the purification process, but the mind remains awake and now with a more open awareness. As the body rest under the protection of the Taita, the consciousness is able to detach from it, to move freely in space, to connect and to become an animal, a tree or any other unimaginable beings where the self no longer exists. It is an ecstasy of the mind in connection with that forest, with nature and with other beings in it, a state that could only be comparable with what the western culture understands as an out-of-body experience. It is a state of harmony where everything is balanced according to the law of nature, where it is possible to feel the unimaginable, a state where the ethereal becomes ‘real’. (Michael to Read)
Rit�al Each culture and Taita has their own way of preparing the ceremony/ritual and guiding the people as well as the combination of the plants
The ritual ends with the awaking of the individual, a final cleansing from the Taita and celebrating with a fresh feast from the forest. The participants are left with lessons learnt during the ritual and is to them to make the changes and practice them.
Natural Growing of the plant, collection from the forest the Morning of the ceremony
Brew coction: in the maloka with a prayer and other members of the tribe
People arrives and settle. Introduction of the plant and ceremony Shower The prayer (open to any religion or culture) or thinking of the intention.
Ingestion of the Dr�g
Icaros - songs Ignoring the meaning of the Ceremony Energy Cleaning with the smoke of Mapacho Smoke (tobacco) Sensation of Fear and uncertainty from the person
The Person - The intention Why? - Self preparation Preparation one week before the ceremony: Meditation, bringing your mind to a quite place. Light diet, no meat or spicy food, fasting. No sex, no alcohol or drugs Wrong intention: for being rich. For Fun. Because is trendy
The Taita (Shaman) - Is He/she prepared? There are Professional ethics like in any other profession. The main Preparation for Taitas is to know understand the process for the Person and the effects of the plant. Be a guide whose take the brew With you. Mainly they had to be able to work through their own continuousness before being able to works with others Someone that does not respect the traditional use of the plant and sell it as a drug and don’t bring assistance
The Environment The environment is the main influence to the person, in other to keep clear the mind, the Ceremony is taken in isolation spaces in nature.
Ayawhaskha Ritual Spatial Interaction Diagramm 04
Not in cities, houses or clubs
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Design Elements for Architecture The ritual space should be understood as a protected plane designed by the Taita, where different consciousness moves freely under its guidance, the limits are the Maniwa in the edges, the chagra as the transition between the inside world and outside one, the Maloka is the architecture, a safe space which also is alive, it is another creature as part of nature. Inside, there are Hammocks, the most intimate space where beings can be themselves. The ritual is a multidirectional interaction in the cosmos from a macroscale to a micro one. There are additional elements that can be highlighted from the description above that have further meanings for the cultures that perform the ritual.
Chakapa - Healing Tool Fig 1.18
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The Night,
the time of the ‘spirits’, the moment in which the senses are more sensible to the changes of the environment as it remains calm, it helps to focus in the visions when consuming the brew.
Chorrera,
which means waterfall as well as shower, represents an anticipation of the body cleansing as a sign of goodwill from the person who does it. It is preferred to be done in the river as part of the participants’ preparation prior the ceremony to mark the end of the daily base activities.
Shipibo Drum - instrument for Ikaros Defines heart beat rhythm Fig 1.19
Sahumerio,
is the action burning an incense like biotic material that contains tobacco, it realises frag ants smoke for stimulation and protection of the individuals. The use of tobacco, other meaningful plant in the indigenous cosmologies, aid the Taita to take out the dangerous energy from the space, people and objects, and creates a protective boundary for the ritual. There are other uses of tobacco with similar purses such as ointments, as Rappé (a dried and powdered tobacco snuff that is bowed up the nose) or as a liquid, sometimes mix with the brew, for the openness, protection and stimulation of the inside and outside of body.
Willka and Rattle - the altar and the instrument for Ikaros Fig 1.20
Chakapa,
Willka,
Totuma,
Moon & Fire,
is a fan made of leaves whose stems are attached or tied with threads, in some tribes with rattle. It is the symbol healing for Taita, it helps to evoke feelings and clean the participants by the touch of its leaves which is individually or in small groups according the participants needs. a crock of plant origin made from the fruit of the totumo tree, is used as a natural recipient for the brew of ayawรกskha, the wood like textures resemble nature and complements the feeling while drinking the brew as if drinking directly from a tree.
Rappe Pipe - Use of tobacco Fig 1.21
or altar, is the spaced that marks the centrality of the ritual, it is a meeting point between the brew, the Taita and the person where the three of them interact and talk between each other. The Willka is an open space of exchange where different symbols of deities, believes, myths, religions are present. as a sign moon for mind clarity and guidance in time of ritual. Fire is generally presence as candles in the altar or bonfire.
Totuma - Cup Fig 1.22
Ikaro,
is the chant, between spoken and sung, that uses the voice of the Taita and the movement of the Chakapa in a strong and sustained sounds that mark rhythm of the ceremony, it guides from the beginning when the Totuma with ayawรกskha is enchanted, until the end of the ceremony when the participants awake from the visionary state. It is also a part of the purification process, it brings calm in the hours of madness, which sounds are the conversation of the Taita with the animals, plants and ethereal. It may be accompanied by instruments or with silence which also makes part of the chant. The Ikaros balance the different currents of feelings, both human and ethereal, that flow through the environment during the session.
Sahumario - Fire and Smoke Fig 1.23
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Ritual Reconstruction The complexity of the cultural heritage of Ayawáskha make difficult to approach when studies are made from a different culture. For indigenous people, the existing scientific studies on ayawáskha fail to understand the benefit of the plant as the studies analyse the effects in isolation from different disciplines observing the specific factors. However, for indigenous people study ayawáskha as a whole, finding connection and new meaning from different perspectives, from how the way the plants grow and how it can affect the way they are. Additionally, it is required to acknowledge that in indigenous culture Ayawáskha is also a metaphor for the exchange of feelings between the brew, the shaman and the participants. The rituality of ayawáskha revolves around ethical principles such as ‘respect and admiration’ that can be directed towards plants, animals, spirits and cultural ethical norms of ethnic groups. The ritual is a social mechanism that enacts thus values and allows and transfer to people’s daily life and behaviour. This mechanism includes another aspect of a psychological nature, concentration, discipline, perception management. The different ritual artefacts and elements are tools that serve to shape human consciousness. It is not the form of the ritual that matters, but the function it achieves, in focusing human consciousness to a common purpose, understand its relationship with the ethereal.
19 -Weiskopf, Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio, 553.
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Within indigenous thought, restoring good health is not just a matter of correcting perceptible discomfort or symptoms, it also has to do with the need to establish a balance between ‘human’ and its natural environment, which can also include his society. The disturbances that occur in the ethereal world are reflections of bad relationships or discords between man - nature - society. Seen this way, everyone is sick, since the balance between man and his environment is susceptible to constant shocks and periodic adjustments are required. So Ayawáskha becomes a preventive medicine space, a weekly cleaning, carried out directly by purging each body and in a more subtle way, by the energy harmonization work carried out by the Taita. The ritual is the process in which the individuals self-reflect in nature, re-evaluate themselves, and change the way they relate with it. It enact thus actions that changes their society towards a common purpose, coexistence. Ultimately, of Ayawáskha is a way of living, a praxis of being.
Ayawáskha Ceremony Adaptation in Andean Tribes Fig 1.24
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Ayawhaskha ceremony a Look from inside the Maloka Fig 1.25
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Contents:
Human, fear of becoming the other Omitting ego for Self-reflection, Self-recognition and Self-redefinition Repentance and accepting the consciousness of Nature Conviction to evolve with each other in Sympoiesis
The Brew,
Ego Dissolution and the Ethereal -
Part Two Ayakhaskha Serving the brew Fig 2.26
Human, fear of becoming the other The current contemporary global society has been the result of the Eurocentric vison of the world, for centuries it evolved from how Anthropos/Human differenced themselves from other beings, including the non-recognized humans and nonhuman entities, to an exceptionalist civilizational standard based on the privileged of self-reflective reason for human species as a whole and European culture more specifically.20 Therefore, this approach of European thought remains today above in a hierarchical position as the conditioner of human, social and cultural evolution in comparison to other views available, similarly to the position that became central to the colonial ideology of European expansion. Radical currents of theory such as feminist, postcolonial and anti-racist critical theory, environmental activists, among others, question the founding principles of European humanism and its role in the project of the Western modernity.21 These movements interrogate more specifically the idea of “Man” as the supposed “measure of all things”, an ideal that combines the individual’s physical, intellectual and moral perfections. This ideal “Man” has shaped the way humans relate within themselves, in an impersonal and individualist manner, extending to the way nature is treated and the other nonhumans entities that are part of the same ecology, looking at them as an impersonal thing without rights, deeper meaning or intrinsic value, as natural ‘resources’ that exist entirely to the benefit of ‘Man’. Prof Skrbina expands on this idea that, with no deeper meaning or value, 20-Braidotti, Philosophical Posthumanism, Preface. 21-Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, 5-12. 22- Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West, 333. 23-Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, Chapter 17.
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plant and animal species are generally seen as mindless and insentient objects, and thus as deserving no respect or moral consideration.22 Human is word that derives from the Latin word humanus, an adjective associated to humus (ground, earth, soil), which refer to the ‘earthly beings’ as an opposition to the divine, Gods and Goodness. Humanus was an adjective used by antient Romans to exclude themselves from the divine, barbarian, and animal; consequently, the term human was a means of selfdefinition from the perspective of ‘what is not’ by the exclusion of others. The term merged with the meaning of Anthropos, the Greek term for human to refer as a political animal, polis referring to civilized. Since the notion of human was stablished, it has derived in a dualistic relation to the others and conceived only from the perspective of the Anthropos.23 Through history it has evolve to a prestige, as not all humans have the same importance. This refers to times of colonisation when indigenous people were seeing less humans than European settlers, hence the term human refers to specific kinds which different rights, equally expanded to the hierarchical relation to knowledge. This may be the cause of current individualism in different western societies during the times called Anthropocene and Capitalocene, dictated by both Anthropos and Capital. Nowadays, this conflictive relationship that human have with themselves and with nature obstructs humans from the potential that exists from stablishing a different approach. Ikaros A conversation with animals and other beings Fig 2.27
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What is that sound… ……Is it raining? Is the river? It sounds like water...
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Omitting ego for Self-reflection, Self-recognition and Self-redefinition How Human can be redefined?
On the same view, according to Dr Ferrando, Posthumanism is a comprehensive revision of the notion of ‘Human’ as a whole, it is an extensive self-revision of the society from three different perspectives. Firstly, the radical criticism of classical humanism and the definition of the ‘human’ based on the idea of ‘Man’ by excluding itself from ‘others’, resulting in self-other dialectics where the difference is pejorative. Secondly, the critique of species supremacy and the rule of Anthropos over the planet. “Man” placed itself to the centre of the discourse in relation to other nonhuman knowledge with the right of true over other nonhumans epistemologies. Finally, a criticism to Dualism as a problematic division between different agents. By acknowledging there is a spectrum between dichotomic dialectics, the approach to the discourses could be a revised set of relational links instead. Ferrando call this Philosophical Posthumanism, an integral redefinition of the notion of human from a Post-humanistic, Post-Anthropocentric and PostDualistic perspective.24 The ‘Posthuman’ is a key concept in the contemporary academic debate to confront the urgency for ‘human’ to be redefined, known in humanities as ‘Posthuman Turn’. It is defined as a convergence of posthumanism with postanthropocentrism, is a complex and multidirectional discursive and material events that encourages to build on the potential of the critics of humanism by radical epistemologies, and aim at a more inclusive practice of becoming-human towards becoming-world.25 When acknowledging 24-Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, 185-190. 25-Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, Chapter 1 26-Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, Chapter9. 27-Weiskopf, Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio, 605. 28-Mind Field S2 (Ep 2): The Psychedelic Experience of Ayahuasca, 2017.
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indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, there are to find similarities in the way ayawáskha deconstruct the individual, enabling the self-reflection, self-recognition and self-definition in context of a ritual practice. The called ‘new’ approach in the ‘posthuman turn’ and other western philosophies has been an ancient praxis for indigenous people in the Amazon, the conceptualisation of their being is constituted inextricably in relations with the nonhuman world and other modes of experience. The indigenous philosophies refuse anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism to acknowledge species interdependence and consubstantial intersubjectivity in interactive ecologies shared by humans and nonhuman beings.26 Nonetheless, the praxis of Ayawáskha operates differently to way western philosophy does, the brew is a means that enables the capacity of the mind to envision the links and possibilities that there are between the variety of beings in nature. It physically disables what allows the individual to identify it-self from the ‘other’, a state of visions where the ego does not exist, as defined by the Taitas.27 By taking Ayawáskha, it could fundamentally transform the understanding of the human mind, and perhaps the consciousness. Scientific research leaded by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, one of the first British researchers in over 40 years to investigate the effects of psychedelics on the human mind, describes that psychedelics effect of ayawáskha does not increase brain activity as previously thought. Instead, it decreases the activity in certain areas and the grater the decrease the greater the reported feelings of what is called ‘ego dissolution’.28
The Altar Meaningful beings coming together Fig 2.28
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The ego, the self–identity, is what separates us from the ‘others’, what creates the narrative of the outside world and the inner being, the dichotomy of selfother. Different to an unconscious state where the feelings and sensation cease, when the ego dissolves by taking ayawáskha, the attachment to the identity is what desist and everything else remains as bare perception. In other words, without the mind focusing in ourselves, it opens the opportunity to perceive the ‘outside’ world from a different perspective, perhaps becoming something else. That removal of the ego enables to operate between the spectrum of both, the self and the other, to recognise, revise and redefine the ‘self’ through what posthumanists describe as set of relational links. Likewise, Panpsychism is a revision of the way consciousness is approached by theorist, it questions the definition of consciousness from an anthropocentric perspective and the self-given privilege that it is limited to humans, and perhaps ‘higher animals’.29 This theory is a statement about theories of mind, that all things, however defined, possess some mind-like quality. In other words, that everything in nature has minds or souls. As explained by Prof David Skrbina, it is a meta-theory of mind and not a theory of mind itself, it is an affirmation opened to be proved otherwise, however, until then mind should not be considered exclusive to humans.
defend. Panpsychism provide a fundamental question and the brew may provide an answer by enabling to become another being in the ethereal. Being able to recognise consciousness in all beings in nature consequently creates a different relation to it and within it, this amplifies the awareness of existence of all beings in a different level of understanding. In other words, becoming the other is a metaphor that enables us to a new world of ideas, a new knowledge zone. It is not to become the other physically, however, it is an interrogation in that connection that ayawáskha creates. What is to think, to feel, to be like other creatures or other beings in the universe? Philosopher Thomas Nagel addresses a similar question, What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, he reassures that, despite the fundamental epistemological limitations of human being, it is very high likelihood that there is something that is like to be a bat. The acknowledgement of it does not preclude the argument to imagine that it may be like something despite that we will never know.’30
In the context of the ritual, Panpsychism may find Ayawáskha as a possibility to examine what they 29 - Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West, 319. 30 - Nagel, What is like to be a bat?, 179-180
Receiving the Brew A multi-spices connection Fig 2.29
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‌I cannot no see anymore Everything is blurred Everything disappears in front of me Where am I going? Page 60
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Repentance and accepting the consciousness of Nature How Ayawáskha discard ego from the discourse? According to Dr Ferrando, life on earth may have evolved from inorganic matter through a natural process, from a biological perspective, all living species shared a significant percentage of DNA and the same universal ancestor, the LUA cell, from where all beings have evolved.31 Therefore, there is biological inextricability between self and others, which forms a system, an organism, what chemist James Lovelock as Gaia.32 Evolutionary processes generate diversity at every level of biological organization, as well as diversity facilitates evolution. However, evolution does not imply any type of hierarchy, nor progression from inferiors to superior organisms, it complies with a hybrid, processual perception of the existence.33 This division made by humans goes against the true its nature of a being as part of nature intrinsically connected with it. The Anthropocene, the geological epoch marked by significant human impact in Earth’s geology and ecosystem, is an undeniable effect of anthropogenic processes in conflictive relation with nature, agriculture being the most significant of all.34 This contemporary era of ecological crisis is a prospect of a unifying factor of the uncertain future faced by all of humanity and nonhuman life. There are uneven consequences that threatens to engulf quickly or completely the vulnerable and precarious life-forms first than others.35 This suggest there is an urgent need for rethinking the nature of human influences in a complex interactional systems, a return to the nature of ‘human’ being to 31-Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, 53. 32-Lovelock, Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence. 25. 33-Ferrando, Philosophical Posthumanism, 42-44. 34-Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 100-101. 35-Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, 4, 41 36-Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 100-101. 37-Definition of trouble by Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 2. Page 62
work together with nonhuman in a dynamic ecology of reciprocal determination and influences towards a mutual future. For Prof Donna Haraway, an evident ecological-interactional-system for mutual evolution, ‘No species, not even our own arrogant one pretending to be good individuals in so-called modern Western scripts, acts alone; assemblages of organic species and of abiotic actors make history, the evolutionary kind and the other kind too.’36 Haraway defines this epoch as the Chthulucene, an epoch for staying with trouble’, a time of possibilities for living and dying is response-ability on a damaged earth. 37 It marks a new beginning by learning to reconstruct the refugia38 on earth, together with nature and the nonhumans as continuum of ‘human’ life, along with inheriting the damage of the past and working with it to cultivate with each other in every possible way. This inquires revise transversally the ethical relation with nature across a broad range of matters in other disciplines beyond humanities such as politics, economic, science, etc. A new opportunity to expand contemporary discussion about the recomposition of the human as an enhanced and revised subject in the posthuman era for vital new theorisations of human scope, responsibility and potential in the posthuman condition.39 This ethical revision proposed by Posthumanism, Panpsychism, Ayawáskha, and similar praxes has an importance consequence on human existence in being more empathetic to each other (humans, nonhumans,
more-than-human, and other beings in nature and the ethereal), along with the acknowledgment that all lives are intrinsically connected, have common aspects and dependent from each other, that if ‘they’ suffer we suffer. Moreover, based on Prof Skrbina’s argument on the shared quality of enmindedess of humans and the nonhumans as an example, the virtue of approaching common and universal characteristics is that humans may come to understand the universe in a more intimate and personal manner, finding the nonhumans as companions species, and perhaps find themselves at home in it. This is turn that can serve as a basis for more compassion and ecological values, and therefore of new ways of acting.40 Contrarily, without deeper meaning or value, the nonhumans would exist, out of other choice, to benefit human, ‘the representative of a hierarchical and violent species whose greed and rapacity are enhanced by a combination of scientific advances and global economic domination’41 This draws a fine line between acknowledging the extend and seriousness of this dilemma, on one side, and succumbing to an abstract futurism and its affects of despair and its politics of indifference, on the other side, where technology or God will come to save in the apocalypse.42
Holding the Brew A decision-making act Fig 2.30
38-Oxford English Dictionary definition: In biology an area in which a population of organisms can survive through a period of unfavourable conditions, especially glaciation. 39-Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, 41 40-Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West, 4. 41- Braidotti, Philosophical Posthumanism, Preface. 42- Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 2.
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Something is burning here, It doesn’t feel safe I should go back But I don’t know how
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Conviction to evolve with each other in Sympoiesis Life on earth that includes human people in any tolerable way is over, that apocalypse really is now.43 Neither position of hope nor despair would direct humans to find connections of the existence on earth with companion species, the string figures for Prof Dr Haraway. The ‘Posthuman Turn’ and the Anthropocene evoke further time of difficulties for human’s life as commonly known, the first proposes a revision to the human as a whole from a multidirectional perspective, and the second is a boundary that mark an inflation point for human existence. Extending on Haraway’s definition of the Chthulucene, the epoch of for learning responseability on the damaged earth and the time of new beginnings for the Chthonics (the beings of the earth), she proposes SF (Science Fiction, Speculative Fabulation, Speculative Feminism, Science Fact, So Far) as a method for tracing thus connections that exist between humans and nature, the String Figures that form patters and assembly and require responses, passing on and receiving from companion species, making and unmaking.44 Hence, SF is a practice and a process of becoming-with each other in communication and evolution as a response to the fears of the Anthropocene and Capitalocene. The purpose then is to recognise and make connections, to create new ones and ultimately to make kin with earthy beings, the latter referring to something other/more than entities tied by ancestry or genealogy as a practice of learning from each other. Making kin is to be responsible of each other 43-Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 11. 44-Ibid., Chapter 1. 45-Ibid., Chapter 4 46-Ibid., Chapter 3
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and coexist together in multispecies kinship including human and other-than- and more-than-human beings.45 Haraway proposes Sympoiesis as the model system of interconnection, learning from and making with each other as multispecies symbionts. The term sympoiesis refers to ‘a collectively producing systems that do not have self-defined spatial or temporal boundaries where information and control are distributed among components. The systems are evolutionary and have the potential for surprising change’.46 In other words, sympoiesis is a simplified word referring to a system of ‘making-with’ each other in collaboration, as non-earthlings never are and act alone. Therefore, making kin is the methodology for restoring refugia in sympoietic-collaboration system, a biological-evolutionary-developmental ecology, for indigenous people it is a return to a natural instinct of being in a wisdom response to this time of difficulties on earth. The consumption of Ayawáskha questions the reality in which human have existed and enables to selfredefine it. It provides with the opportunity to become other, a different being. This requires the refusal of what have marked the existence of humans until now, to reject what is against of a multispecies existence in collaboration, against to the essential condition of nature systems, against the capacity of making connection with each other, against the natural visionary instincts of the mind, and against the capacity to recognise nature as a continuum of human existence and other existences.
Ayawáskha enable to perceived what is limited by being human, it restores thus connection in the brain to bring the frightful memories of being human and emotion that comes with it, taking the mind to a process of working with thus feelings and questioning human identity, though its deepest fears, omitting its ego to find itself, repenting from its actions, and willing to evolve. Lastly, purging is the final state of the mindand-body cleansing, the division between the past being and new being. By accepting the natural instinct of purging as symbolic act of releasing what it not needed, it marks the death of the human as it is known, freeing the mind and body from their limitations, and enabling to be what it is wanted to be. That is what the consumption of Ayawáskha means for indigenous people.
Ingesting the Brew Will to change Fig 2.31
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‌I can see something now ‌Is it someone? It is Fire ... ... and Something is burning
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The brew is making effect, I feel dizzy, confuse and scare. Some people is still sitting around the fire in the chagra admiring the night, I can’t stand it anymore, I need to go inside‌ to the Maloka Page 72
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Contents:
Beyond the pure function of a shelter The Psychotropic Practices of Architecture The Purpose of Entheogenic Design
The Purge,
Being after Death -
Part Three -
Beyond the pure function of a shelter Being indigenous, is being intrinsically connected with nature, in balance with it. It is, perhaps, because they are in constant relation with it, as their symbionts. Hence, indigenous people are more-than-human beings, that enable them to perceive differently the world to the way other cultures do. When approaching indigenous cultures from an architectural perspective, it cannot be interpreted without a complete understanding of the context of being indigenous, being more-than-human, and their social practices such as the ritual of Ayawáskha. Only then, it would reveal that design spaces like the Maloka, the indigenous common house, are associated with the creation of connections between indigenous and nature, a design that influences the way of being. The Malokas are wooden structures covered by leavesmade roof and woven walls, it provides protection from sun and rain as well as a retreat from the forest. Physically they are light, ephemeral and flimsy structures, however they have a great concentric symbolism that can be recognized from the air. It is the result of the convergence between the physical and unmaterial layers, in the sense of the indigenous being immersed in the wild environment, culture in nature, layers that continue within the Maloka. Inside, there is a further contrast between the periphery and the centre with the family compartments around the edge and the tallest-innermost-sacred space marked by four columns and encircled by the ritual dance path, the Maka.
47-Niño-Murcia, Territorio Chamánico, 321-388. 48-Jones, Architecture and Ritual, 3.
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The construction has further meanings, it is a social activity where all individuals collaborate as an act of unification of the community. It is built to mark the beginning for new families formed by young adults, generally the elder borders of different communities. The site is chosen in isolation but still close to other Maloka. They are built in relation of the river, principal landmarks as well as the main means of communication, it links the different Malokas to form a ramification a genealogical tree of the communities. The Maloka is built facing the east towards the rise of the sun and the river meaning the face to the outside world. The chagra is cleared space around the Maloka for public exchange. It forms a bigger area at the main entrance as it is the side encountered by visitors. This external space has a great ritual significance at times of ritual purification, it comprehends protected for the beings to be. The Maloka is understood as living being, as organism, as the womb of indigenous life. Generally associated with the wombs of the Pachamama, mother earth, giving them a special connection to their Maloka since they are born. It is not only associated with the female, during the night of rituals of the ritual it is associated to male to emphasize the importance of Taita. The space transforms as a place of creation of life, a creation of new beings, that is associated to the experience of death and birth of Ayawáskha. During the nights of the rituals, indigenous people can perceive the connection to the space in a new ways, each of them are part of the same organism, hence the association of
the Maloka being alive. Their minds travel in and out the space, the inside world and the outside one being them the connection. From the personal experience, to a collective experience and the spiritual one. Creating a relation of mind body and the ethereal.47 At first, when looking at the Maloka, the relation between the space and the function may not be clear and could appear to be vague of meaning. However, it is a complex and variable relation between user and building that requires both to perceive the space and to be involved in its use, more specific in the ritual. An interpretation of Peter B. Jones, British architect and architectural historian, on the similar matter of what Marcel Mauss and Pierre Bourdieu have called ‘habitus’, is that the arrangement of the space has to intersect with a set of habits, beliefs, and expectations held by the person who experiences and uses the space.48 Once that connection between spaces and ritual use is achieved, building and activities tend to reinforce each other, the Maloka reassures the indigenous by reinforcing their beliefs and intentions, corroborating their view an understanding of the world, and their way of being.
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The Psychotropic Practices of Architecture The analysis of the indigenous Maloka expands to an additional focus of study, to how architecture shapes the way inhabitants think and their relationship with nature without conscious awareness. This inquires into what is the role Architecture and Architects regarding human behaviour. Based on the studies of Guattari’s ‘architectural enunciation’ by Andrej Radman, Professor of Architecture, he argues that the role of Architects has significantly transformed. Focused on the qualities of posthumanist architectural practice, he explains that the analytical responsibility of Architects extend from the design of environment to design subjectivation. Similarly to ayawáskha experiences, subjectivity refers to the procedures by which the subject is led to observe itself, analyse itself, interpret itself, and recognize itself as a domain of possible knowledge. Radman suggests that if the purpose of design is to change us and by creating spaces in which inhabitants feel and act differently as a result of thinking differently, then architecture is effectively a ‘psychotropic practice’ that balances the routines of experience.
Spinoza ‘Man are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has determined’. Hence, Architecture design could be the cause that determine the desires, for indigenous a desire of changing toward a different being. Though studying of Ayawáskha, the desire of changing is cause by bringing the memories, pleasant and unpleasant ones, to create feelings that consequently affect the perception as well as thoughts, and ultimately the way of being. When designing under indigenous approach, creating a space that creates an ayawáskha like experience, Architecture becomes in a Entheogenic practice
Understanding Architecture as a Psychotropics practice, Psyche (mind) and Tropē (turn, turning), is to acknowledge the potential of design to influence brain function resulting in alterations of perception, feelings, cognition and behaviour. However, this is not to say that architecture determine behaviour, inhabitants have a will that enables them to act think by themselves. The ‘limitation’ of inhabitants’ will also offers a clue for architecture to design such a space, according to 49-Radman, Posthuman Ecologies, Chapter 4 50-“the way the subject experiences [him/her]self in a game of truth where [s]he relates to [him/her]self” (Foucault, 1998) 51- Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, 59. 52 Bignall and Braidotti, Posthuman Ecologies, 65.
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The Purpose of Entheogenic Design How ego limit consciousness? Maloka is the architectural space, refugia, the ecology, the world of the ethereal, interconnection, it is what resemble the cosmology of indigenous people. A poetical space for coexistence, interconnection, where different beings gather together, adapt to each other , evolve together, exist together. Maloka is a living organism same as Gaia, Terra, Pachamama. Architecture design should engage towards indigenous design approach, understanding the world as a creation spaces in connection with them and their environment, enabling to be affected by it as well as to response to it, a symbiotic relation that creates new ones towards a new way of living. It is not to say that architecture determinates behaviour, this would oversimplify the complex interaction between people and their habitat as describe by Darwinian evolutionary principal,53 however it is to acknowledge that buildings have some kind of shaping influence on life. The Maloka, as a piece of architecture, suggest frameworks to define relationships between the more-than-humans with other beings and nature. Consequently, this influences the way indigenous people form communities and societies. On the other side, the Maloka is reflection, a built interpretation, of that relationship between different beings and with nature, for indigenous it is a mirror that reflects the world, knowledge about it, and a model to interact with it. In other word, the building design become and enact multispecies connections in
sympoietic-collaboration system to create refugia, more specifically, to be an organism together with nature, and invisible guidance that shape the way of living viewed the perspective of Taitas. Engaging with Ayawáskha as a way to creating spaces that enable to find the connection between inhabitants and a nature, is to say that would become an Entheogenic practice instead, a more appropriate definition in relation of the worlds designed Taitas The Amazon rain forest has been the scenario of capital interest for the western world, the way nature is understood have had a significant effect on indigenous people’s life, an example of this is the vast deforestation for agriculture and the many fires that are cased to clear land. By engaging with indigenous philosophy, other cultures could understand the importance of the forest for indigenous lives, nonhuman life and their own lives. Perhaps, by engaging with the way Entheogenic Design operates the approach and develop of the forest could change an unimaginable way never thought before, resembling the many connections that exist there as only one life, the Maniwa.
53- Jones, Architecture and Ritual, 3. ‘ the idea of fitness for purpose od adaptation, evolution and natural selection’
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I feel tired And I don’t know where to go I can’t feel myself But I don’t want to sleep I just want to move Page 83
I can here the Taita now...
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... still singing
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....calling me
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...talking to me
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....guiding me
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Contents:
What is Ayawรกskha? Abya Yala, Land of Indigenous Beings
Virtual Reality Technology Ayawรกskha Environment Design Process Abya Yala, Game Instructions
The Awakening,
Life in the Ethereal -
Conclusion -
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The Purpose of Entheogenic Design How ego limit consciousness? The thesis present itself as a speculation of how architecture can strengthen the relationship between the inhabitants and nature by taking in consideration ingenious people’s approach. The ritual of Ayawáskha is used to identify the design elements that allows that connections to happen. Virtual environment has been designed to test these ideas and explore new possibilities for architecture to engage with the Entheogenic Practice, meaning that the design environment could influences behaviour towards creating a more empathetical relation with nature. Ultimately, to create a design that produces an Architectural interpretation of an Ayawáskha experience. It is now to the reader to interpret and judge. Virtual Reality (VR) technology is used as means for testing the design space, it enables to alter the perception of the participant by immersing it in a simulation of the architectural space, similar to the state of the mind perception when is immersed in the ethereal under the effects of ayawáskha. It also resembles what could be the visions or out-of-body experience as it enables to ‘be’ another being in the simulation. The utilisation of this technology also reveals further aspects that builds on the narrative of the ayawáskha ritual. In order to create an Ayawáskha experience in the VR, it is required to create the guardian, an area of protection where the participant can move safely, likewise the space enchanted by the Taita.
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Based on the findings in the research, the connections made during Ayawáskha are the result of a thinking process influenced by the feeling, the latter is caused by memories that the vision brings. These memories are designed by stimulation that creates the Taita using elements and artefacts, and the aid of Ayawáskha visions. Therefore, Architectural discourse could create environments that influence how people feel and enable the creation connections to nature. In order test this, the proposed design environment aims to resemble primal memories with nature, in relation to tress, rivers, animals and other layers of nature. By creating such a space, the environment could influence the way participants feel, therefore influence the way they think, perceive and, relate to nature and ultimately be in it. During the ceremony, the feelings are directed in a specific sequence by the Taita, it is a guide through the participants’ feelings towards the self-reflect and the will to change. The proposed architectural environment would enable the self-reflection by designing sequence of environments, each of them is focused to a specific feeling and memory. They are arranged in to follow the suggested order by the ayawáskha ritual. The circulation are the guides of the Taita. A space of death nature is created to emphasis in the purge, the rejection of the undesirable. This space is designed toward the understanding of the importance of nature by the absent of it. That would enable the participant to be empathetic toward it. Lastly, the participant would be persuaded to go beyond the guardian by connecting
both realities perceptions (Virtual and Physical) with an object that exist in both. By doing it, it will end the simulation and would enable to understand the physical space that it has been interacting with and imagine the possibilities of creating a different one. An alternative test of perceiving the final space is through the animation of the virtual reality, a camera is programmed to around the environment, it resembles the mind travelling freely in the space while the body remain steady in the physical reality. The test enables to explore a different approach to Ayawáskha. Building on the narrative of the ritual, an architectural space can be designed with meaning as well of intentions. Like the Maloka, the proposed design for the test is an example of the entheogenic practice of architecture engaged with contemporary technologies. It enables to a imagine a world of possibilities where culture can be designed towards nature in a society that is distant from it, it offers a different possibilities for sustainable design as well as for technologies, it is constantly inquiry in nature new means to connecte together and work towards the same direction with it. It also a bridge between cultures in a global society and imaging a model for a new one on Earth, other planets and the universe. It is also an example of how engaging with indigenous philosophy could open vast possible interpretations of the ‘traditional’ use of Ayawáskha and what it means. Ayawáskha is a powerful and meaningful word, it evokes the praxis of being for indigenous people.
It is a means for understanding the world as well as for creating ethical values to co-existence in a balanced relationship with nature. It deconstructs and questions the ego for creating a more empathetical understanding of world as well as redefining the self from that experience. It is a creative field where new connections with the others are formed. It provides a mechanism for evolving together with nature towards a common purpose, as one planet, as one organism. Ayawáskha brings a different view to the debate of redefining the ‘human’ by contemporary discourses, a view that has being there within indigenous philosophy and yet not recognized. It is a metaphor of exchanging feelings for thinking differently, hence acting differently. It is a correction of the perception of the world and an acknowledge the intrinsically relation between all lives on earth. It is to find convergence between each other for multispecies existence in collaboration, including the views of all, humans, nonhumans, more-than-humans, and other beings in the ethereal. Ayawáskha provide an opportunity to become a different being, as a response to the crises of the Anthropocene. It requires the acknowledgment and the rejection of being ‘human’ to be able to become other, a metaphor for the self-reflection and the will to change. Just then, the more-than-humans are capable to find, perceive and feel the connection with nature, and to think and respond with it. It is to connect with the primal instinct of ‘response-ability’ that requires to be fully present, to be fully aware of the world.
Ayawáskha is the capacity to design spaces with full of ontological meanings for all beings, spaces that engage the inhabitants to the praxis of Ayawáskha. It is to design the environment as well as subjectivation. It is the capacity of architecture to stimulate the inhabitant’s behaviour towards a mutual interaction between space and user, a mutual adaptation to each other, enabling connections and responds by designing the way they feel, think, and behave. Consequently, the way beings are. Ayawáskha is practicing Architecture, designing worlds full of meanings. It is acknowledging that Architecture is a psychotropic practice, that influence the thinking by altering the way inhabitants perceive. More specifically, to understand Architecture as an Ethnogenic Practice, that influences the inhabitant’s way of being by the way they feel. Ayawáskha is the heritage of nature to help beings to interpret it and understand it. It is a world of meaning and possibilities, of connections, where there are no limits and even technology has a place. Ayawáskha is a broad view of existence, for indigenous people a praxis of being. It is a complex interpretation of the world in the form of ritual. When talking about Ayawáskha it cannot be limited to a ‘psychotropic drug’ and its hallucinogenic effects. Ayawáskha is to Be, to Die and to Birth again. That is what Ayawáskha does.
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Knowledge Zone Mediography
Literatura review Arango, S. (1993). Historia de la Arquitectura en Colombia. 1st ed. Bogota, Colombia: Lenter Ltd. Colomina, B. and Wigley, M. (2016). Are we human?. 1st ed. Baden, Swit.: Lars Müller Publishers. Ferrando, F. (2019). Philosophical Posthumanism. 1st ed. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. Guattari, F. and Deleuze, G. (1991). What Is Philosophy?. 1st ed. US: Columbia University Press, pp.1-15. Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. 11th ed. Durham, NH, US: Duke University Press. Huxley, A. (n.d.). The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. 1st ed. London: Penguin Press. Jay, M. (2010). High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture. 1st ed. London UK: Thames and Hudson. Jones, P. (2016). Architecture and Ritual. 1st ed. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. Lovelock, J. (2019). Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence. 1st ed. Penguin Book: London, UK. Luke, D. (2017). Otherworlds : psychedelics and
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exceptional human experience. 1st ed. London: Muswell Hill, pp.1-36.
Videos
Nagel, T. (1979). What is it like to be a bat? 1st ed. New York, US: Cambridge Press.
Green frontier (Ep 2): The Psychedelic Experience of Ayahuasca. (2017). [video] Directed by M. Stevens. https://wwwNetfflix.com/ watch?v=U3lWVLuc6CE&t=616s: Netliz
Niño-Murcia, C. (2015). Territorio Chamánico. 1st ed. Bogotá, Colombia: ICANH, pp.321-388. Skrbina, D. (2017). Panpsychism in the West. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA, US: The MIT Press. Weiskopf, J. (2002). Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio. 1st ed. Bogotá, Colombia: Villegas Editores. Articles Carbonaro, Theresa M.; Gatch, Michael B. (September 2016). “Neuropharmacology of N,Ndimethyltryptamine”. Brain Research Bulletin. 126 (Pt. 1): 74–88. Blakemore, E. (2020). Ancient hallucinogens. [online] National Geographic. Available at: https://www. nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/05/ancienthallucinogens-oldest-ayahuasca-found-shamanpouch/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019].
Mind Field S2 (Ep 2): The Psychedelic Experience of Ayahuasca. (2017). [video] Directed by M. Stevens. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=U3lWVLuc6CE&t=616s: YouTube. [Accessed 15 Oct. 2019]
Imges Img001 Ayahuasca-Vine-of-the-Soul The culture trip (n.d.). Ayahuasca: The Hallucinogenic Plant. [image] Available at: https://img. theculturetrip.com/1024x/smart/wp-content/ uploads/2017/07/9447327482_a137016b21_k.jpg [Accessed 24 Jul. 2019]. Img002 Chacruna Ethnolibrary (n.d.). Chacruna. [image] Available at: https://www.ethnolibrary.org/ [Accessed 16 Sep. 2019]. Im003 frontera-verde-netflix Netflix (2019). frontera-verde-netflix. [image] Available at: https://fueradeseries.com/critica-frontera-verdenetflix-amazonas-cf18fd6820f2 [Accessed 24 Sep. 2020]. Im004 ayahuasca ritual. (n.d.). [image] Available at: https:// chacruna.net/when-i-drank-ayahuasca-with-guaraniindians-brazil/2-2/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2019]. Img005 Guto de Lima (2020). Floresta Amazônica. [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ gutodelima/23457645373 [Accessed 23 Nov. 2019]. Img006 Noosphere.cl (n.d.). Maestro Ayahuasquero de Tamshiyacu, Iquitos, Perú.. [image] Available at: http://godo.noosphere.cl/valores-y-reserva/ [Accessed 29 Feb. 2020].
Img007 Cynthia Robinson (n.d.). Ceremony. [image] Available at: http://blog.numundo.org/2015/11/29/howto-create-sustainable-relationships-for-living-in-acommunity/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2019].
flickr.com/photos/eriagn/32811232976 [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019]. Img014 Img014. (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://kahpi.net/ category/culture-society/ [Accessed 20 Jan. 2020].
Img008 samaliusfoto/Shutterstock (2019). Altar. [image] Available at: https://www.roughguides.com/article/ ayahuasca-experience/ [Accessed 29 Feb. 2020]. Img009 An Ese’Ejja shaman and his daughter. (2018). [image] Available at: https://barubaron.ca/2018/09/07/ ayahuasca-and-baru/ [Accessed 19 Aug. 2019].
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Sharing knowledge Page 120
Between eachother Page 121
Appendix A
Virtual Reality Technology
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Test 1: Choosing a suitable space for the design & model space Defining the physical area through option development
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Downloading the suitable software and training to use it.
Unreal Engine 4
Creating a new porject in Unreal Engine
Creating a game Page 125
Selecting game engine
Opening a virtual reality
Organising project settings
It was important to understand the differences between the different VR options. For the level of interaction required for this project HMD + Motion Controller has been used.
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First initial investigations & tests within the modelling space
More views of the model space
Understanding how to interact with the model space using the hand controllers
It is possible to pick up objects for greater interaction. Elements of the thesis artefacts will be interacted using this motion
Becoming familiar with the controllers
Moving around the model without walking
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Test 2: Developing the design & model space
Working with the existing design, I have imported the models into UNREAL to start testing the Virtual Space into the Studio Space. The second test allowed me to find the limitations of the technology. The headseat and the software allows a limit of area for the experience, therefore. I Needed to reduce the scale of the design
Initial imports with the thesis artefacts and architectural elements
Initial imports with the thesis artefacts and architectural elements Page 128
Developing the design & model space
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Modeling components in Rhino 3D to import into the model space
Making a simplified route through the model
Example of some of architectural components in Unreal Engine
Plan view of the imported model Page 131
Architectural component imported with materials
Artefact from thesis
Working with the existing design, I have imported the models into UNREAL to start testing the Virtual Space into the Studio Space. The second test allowed me to find the limitations of the technology. The headseat and the software allows a limit of area for the experience, therefore. I Needed to reduce the scale of the design
Bringing objects into the space Page 132
Coding within unreal engine Page 133
Finding the limitations of tacking space
Settling on a safe zone. Space can only be a fragment of the architecture. Modelling in a smart way allowing the architectural space to be as large as possible. Walls and circulation route used to maximise the moments.
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Settling on a safe zone. Space can only be
VR L imit s (Sa fe
Stud
zone
)
io sp ace
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Test 3: Developing the final model in Rhino and Unreal Engine 4
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Entrance Extended circulation route
Walls to divide space
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Developing a landscape around the thesis objects
Bringing trees and context to the model
Example of how the model sits within its context
Bringing trees and context to the model further
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Developing tools needed to create fire
Using the same tools to create smoke
Developing waterfall for the water Maloka
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Appendix B
Ayawรกskha Environment Design Process
Final VR experience developed using Unnreel Engine 4v Program diagram for the VR experience The Ritual is interpreted into nature material to form environment: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
3
4
5
LANDSCAPE WATER MALOKA SMOKE MALOKA RITUAL FIRE NATURE MALOKA DEATH OF NATURE MALOKA
River
2
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1
6
SMOKE MALOKA
NATURE MALOKA
NATURE MALOKA
WATER STIMULATION MALOKA
RITUAL FIRE
DEATH OF NATURE MALOKA
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Appendix C
Abya Yala, Game Instructions
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Step 1 • Locate the game area • First Floor • Room 1019 (orange zone)
Stair
Crit Pit
Stair
Lift
Sto
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ck
l wel
Stre
et
Step 2
Thumbstick
• Pick up the headset
X Button
B Button
Start Button
A Button Y Button
Headset
Reserved Button
Hand controller 2
Hand controller 1
Hand Trigger Thumb Button
Index Trigger
Hand Trigger Thumb Button
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Step 3 • Turn on the headset (file pre loaded) • Sync the game area (if aplicable) • If area has not been sync then: • Draw the outline using the joystick and trigger button, guided by the markings on the floor. Note to the right the area that needs to be marked out.
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Step 4
Step 5
• Navigate to the main menu
• Stand in the start point market out
• Open library menu
• Follow the path
• Open file Abya_Yala
• Exiting the virtual area will end the simulation
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Start Point
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Virtual Boarder
Circulation & Activation Points
Virtual Architectural Form
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Special thanks to Claudia Paipilla, my mother, for always keeping me in connection with my indigenous roots; to Marcel Rojas-Paipilla, my sister, for her view on the matter from a phycological perspective and to make me curios about the human mind. To the Taitas for guided me in my first Ayawรกskha Ritual.