Anyone read cosmic serpent by James Narby? Wondering how you think it intersects with idealism

[Damien17]

Thank you

[Soul_of_Shu]

I did read The Cosmic Serpent, but it was quite a while ago, and much of it has faded from memory, but what I do recall I'm confident would not necessarily be incompatible with the primacy of consciousness. I also recall there was some mention of Jeremy Narby in the old MS forum, where a search of his name turned up these results, which may be pertinent.

Perhaps also of interest, this presentation by Narby on Intelligence in Nature surely seems reconcilable with the primacy of consciousness, but is worth checking out just to appreciate his humorous take on human hubris in this regard ...

[Lou Gold]

My read of Narby was also long ago. I recall him asking a shaman how plants "talked to him" and being told to watch for similar images like a heart-shaped leaf possibly possessing good heart medicine. If I remember correctly, Narby carries forth this idea speculatively toward comparing the coiled snakes often seen in ayahuasca visions, the Caduceus symbol associated with medicine and snake-like coils of dna. He speculates that these are symbolic representations of something deeper. a code of life perhaps. This seems to me as quite consistent with the Idealist notion that the appearances we see are symbols of something real but beyond our perceptual limits.