christian said:
Endlessness, you obviously haven't properly understood what Alan Shoemaker was trying to explain, and have missed the bit about the "support" offered from whole extracted goodies, rather than isolates, like he was TRYING to explain. Perhaps you are being overly defensive here!
Ive read it, and I think his reasoning is flawed. You are not answering the questions I asked, and I think they are important. Who defines where are the spirits, and when do they leave the plant?
Also you are again ignoring the fact that there's no such thing as "whole extract", some extracts may have more things than others, but they are still just that, extracts, and you ARE throwing away the bark (and a bunch of substances together) after boiling, and you ARE changing the alkaloid content by boiling, so how comes the spirits come up to that point and are ok but they dont go further?
christian said:
AHH, what a load of tosh!..I'm not bothered about if it's tradition or not either. The fact is this that Ayahuasca is about working with plant spirits, and if you don't agree with that then i dunno why you even bother with having an "interest" in it, because it's steeped in tradition
.
You have clearly contradicted yourself there. You say you dont care, but then you claim the purpose of ayahuasca is X, and you base this on what you think traditional use is ? How about, "ayahuasca is used for a variety of reasons, and what matters is that your use is being beneficial to you in any of the number of important areas of human existence, and not hurting anybody else" ?
christian said:
Of course the African shamen, Maria, etc, have already gotten the benefits from their chosen plant spirits and can use chemically synthesysed compounds to make them work again for them
No thats not it, Maria didnt say "she was getting benefits" from it, she directly said the spirits were there! (not that she's right or that I care, but its just an example of a famous shaman that thinks the opposite of one shaman you chose to quote)
Also, you are saying that if one has already had contact with the traditional way, he can use the synthetic way afterwards? That opens up a whole can of worms and contradictions with previous ideas posted in this thread.
christian said:
it's like you are saying that only science is valid and spirituality is utter rubbish!.
LOL what?? Where did this come from? Where did I ever said spirituality is utter bulshit, where did I ever said only science is valid?
Im just questioning that BELIEFS = TRUTH. You are free to have your own beliefs, I dont care, I have my own suspicions on how things might or might not work existentially, but you wont see me passing off my suspicions or beliefs as facts, which is what this whole "your extract has no spirits but mine has them all" kind of argument is.