In many ways these sacred songs, or icaros, are
attempts to recreate the voice and tone of the pharmacological
interaction at various stages of the psychedelic experience. The voice of
the shamanic medicine is not human in the typical sense, the
psychedelic voice is described more in terms of the repetitive bleeping
and blooping of machine code; a biological thrumming; an electronic or
alien pulsation; a guttural river of slurping and squelching sounds; the
great wheeze of a mystical reed organ; the chirping of crickets; the
croaking of frogs; or the fast-clicking communication of an insect
intelligence.
All of these colorful metaphors are the same in that they
perfectly describe a resonant standing wave in the alpha to gamma
range driving amplitude along multisensory perceptual bands. As the
hallucinogenic voice grows in strength, the resonance of the standing
wave then couples with and drives the amplitude of all internal
physiological processes.
By examining the wave properties of ayahuasca icaros, is it possible
to construct an experiential rendering of the synesthetic hallucinogenic
effects. A shaman may make gurgling or retching noises to amplify
modulatory interruption of 5-HT receptors in the gut to drive
purgation. A fast rustling or shushing noise, like a snake rattle or wind
through tree branches, evokes alpha-range relaxation and mental
fluidity, and may also create goose-bumps and a salient sense of
supernatural mystery. A droning drum beat or chant drives theta-band
trance and hypnagogic states. A whistling or high pitched melody drives
beta and gamma coherence, creating sharp multisensory synesthesia of
rising eidetic images. A guttural croaking or a resonant bass line
amplifies the saturated attack and decay of stacking hallucinogenic
frames.
A shaman may employ one or all of these techniques at various
stages of ceremony, and may use them repetitively or cyclically, like a
winding stem that moves through deeper and deeper layers of
hallucinogenic immersion. The shamanic technique of lulling and
evoking mystical hallucination can be compared to the frenetic qualities
of modern trance music, where the goal is to entrain and sustain a high
energy visual state that unfolds and recourses for extended periods of
time.
The wave analysis of both
modern trance music and traditional icaros indicates that these are not
merely forms of artistic expression, but are also formal technologies for
mediating and navigating various levels of stability in chaotic
psychedelic hallucination.
PIT 120-128
