Alas! the forbidden fruits were eaten,
And thereby the warm life of reason congealed.
A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam,
Like as the Dragon's tail dulls the brightness of the moon.
— Rumi: Masnavi I Ma'navi
A tree and a leaf are one; that is, they depend on and define one another. A leaf exists because a tree exists and vice versa. To the non-dual mind and to themselves, the tree and the leaf transcend distinction. As autumn approaches, the leaf begins to quiver, darken and eventually falls to the ground, separating from the tree. This detachment resembles entering the dual world where the tree and leaf exist as two separate entities, no longer defining one another. According to Dogen, precisely at this moment when the distinctions are realized, the tree and leaf understand the pervasive emptiness that encompasses them both. Only by falling into the realm of duality can they feel the sense of oneness they once manifested. The leaf does not fear the world of distinctions because it falls into the net of oneness that catches and sustains all things.
Infinity is everything that surrounds us: the spirit, the dark sea of awareness. It is something that exists out there and rules our lives.
My steps and yours are guided by infinity. The circumstances that seem to be ruled by chance are in essence ruled by the active side of infinity: intent. What put you and me together was the intent of infinity. It is impossible to determine what this intent of infinity is, yet it is there, as palpable as you and I are.
Carlos Castaneda
What is Shamanism?
Over tens of thousands of years, our ancient ancestors all over the world discovered how to maximize human abilities of mind and spirit for healing and problem-solving. The remarkable system of methods they developed is today known as "shamanism," a term that comes from a Siberian tribal word for its practitioners: "shaman" (pronounced SHAH-mahn). Shamans are a type of medicine man or woman especially distinguished by the use of journeys to hidden worlds otherwise mainly known through myth, dream, and near-death experiences.
Through our education in the scientific worldview of the Enlightenment, we have become alienated from the earth and have forgotten that the earth is also a heavenly body. We have ceased to take into consideration the powers of the forces and the knowledge of the cycles that govern our lives. We hardly ever give a second thought to gravity, for example, without which we would all be floating off into space, and we certainly never think about the real magnetic force of the North and South poles. We also take for granted the amount of light and dark we experience each day. But what if an that were to change? What if we were suddenly plunged into a world in which the sun never set or never rose? What if we were to go to live at the magnetic North Pole? Then we would begin to experience syndromes similar to jet lag, and we would take seriously the implications of the revolutions of the earth on its axis around the sun. In Samiland during most of the fall and winter, the sun sets very early in the morning. During the summer, the sun doesn't set until well after midnight. The rituals women have begun to perform in the feminist spirituality (Goddess) movement have begun to put us back in touch with an awareness of the solstices, the equinoxes, and the lunar cycles. But how does this all relate to ecofeminist ethics and to Shamanism? Because of our geo-cosmic ignorance and amnesia, we fail to take into consideration the fact that certain powers can only be obtained and put into practice in certain places on the earth and at certain times during the year or during the larger cosmic cycles. It is interesting that when it comes to sacred herbs, we recognize that they grow in certain places and that people who cannot obtain certain herbs cannot experience their effects. However, herbs are portable, and this suits our purposes, for we can transport the products of the Amazon jungle to California via plane. However, we can never transport the magnetism of the North Pole to California. Nor can we manifest the effects of the Arctic midnight sun in Los Angeles. When I travelled to Samiland, I became aware of the effect that the magnetic North Pole was having upon me. It was causing me to enter a deep trance state when I slept, and it was when I was in such a deep trance that I was able to hear the voices of the ancestral spirits. As I ate Sami food, I noticed that my hair and skin began to take on other characteristics. This might have been due to the purity of the air, the water, and the food, as well as to the intensity of the earth's magnetic field in which the food was grown. We have noted that people are sensitive to light deprivation and that they become depressed when they do not receive enough light. Have we thought about what an overabundance of light might do to a person or how light might affect one's consciousness? In Samiland in the summer, when the sun sets well after midnight, sometimes as late as 3:00 Am., one enters altered states, highs, and expansive states of consciousness.
We must begin to return the various shamanic practices to their specific cultures. We must not be reductive, but must see the complexities posed by the diversity of shamanic practices around the world. This will be enriching to our understanding of what Shamanism is, in the long run. Then we must set about creating a shamanic practice that is indigenous to our part of the world and our culture. However, we must revise many of our own cultural assumptions from an ecofeminist perspective. White Westerners must cease to project their white Western fantasies of the exotic, the glamorous, and the romantic onto other cultures. We must always assume diversity, and not make assumptions about being the same all over the world just because some aspects of them may appear similar to us. We must also resist thinking in a dualistic manner. We must remember that in Shamanism, spirit resides in matter, and all that exists is sacred. We must also resist thinking in hierarchies, privileging the spirit world and its entities over the material world and its inhabitants. Nor must we engage in elitist assumptions about whose visions have the most wisdom. We must respect the folk of every culture, remembering that their experience contains wisdom, and we must seek out women teachers whenever possible, for they have generally been the guardians of earth wisdom (because of women's socially constructed roles, and not because of any inherent or "essential" characteristics). We must also learn the folklore of the cultures we visit and remember that what we consider to be "lore" and "legend" may have actually taken place in that culture and that these stories often contain real lessons for us that we would do well to heed. We must remember to seek spiritual protection, and we must become aware of the risks involved in shamanic practices, as well as the dangers incurred when working with people of power. They are also very human, and like non-Shamans, they may be tempted to abuse their power. Above all, we must cease to trivialize the spirit world. We must begin to take seriously the reality of spirit-especially those of us who engage in spirituality rituals. We should practice these rituals believing that the rituals we engage in are real events that do communicate with the spirit world. As we are taught in anthropology and folklore courses, we must not exploit the sacred ways or appropriate the sacred objects of other people-especially not for commercial purposes. One of the first things I was taught was that you must replace everything you take. Rather than stripping a foreign culture of its material and spiritual possessions, we should begin to contribute to its survival. We must begin to set standards for the practice of Shamanism, in order to protect the population from charlatans and new age dilettantes who know nothing about the spirit world and less about human consciousness and psychology. New agers do not necessarily revere the earth (they pillage the earth for crystals for their new age enterprises); nor do they necessarily respect women, either. A new age neo-Shaman might easily jettison an ardent Shaman student into a state of severe mental or physical injury, simply due to the kind of ignorance, arrogance, and lack of responsibility that typifies much of the dabbling that takes place in this movement. We must remember that Shamanism is just as serious as surgery. Would we like to have our brains operated on by someone who had not been trained in medical school? From the ecofeminist perspective on ethics, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is the misogyny and dualism at the root of white Western civilization that have caused the exploitation of both women and nature. On the other hand, we must not guilt-trip ourselves to the point of endangering our lives. Somehow we must come up with a balance in which we honor both non-Western cultures and ourselves for all that is beneficent, while constantly maintaining a critical position toward all forms of abuse of power. If we take the lessons of Shamanism seriously, and if we revise our cosmology in time, if we practice ecofeminist ethics while honoring both the material and the spiritual realms, then, I believe, there is real hope for us to heal the earth, our homeland, now. more
Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices similar to Animism that claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout the world since prehistoric times.
Some anthropologists and religion scholars define a shaman as an intermediary between the natural and spiritual world, who travels between worlds in a trance state. Once in the spirit world, the shaman would commune with the spirits for assistance in healing, hunting or weather management.
Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living. In contrast to animism and animatism, which any and usually all members of a society practice, shamanism requires specialized knowledge or abilities. It could be said that shamans are the experts employed by animists or animist communities. Shamans are not, however, often organized into full-time ritual or spiritual associations, as are priests.
Shaman originally referred to the traditional healers of Turkic-Mongol areas such as Northern Asia (Siberia) and Mongolia, a "shaman" being the Turkic-Tungus word for such a practitioner and literally meaning "he (or she) who knows". In Turkic shamans were called mostly Kam and sometimes Baksi.
The Tungusic word šamán is from Chinese sha men "Buddhist monk," borrowed from Pali samana, ultimately from Sanskrit sramana "ascetic", from sramati "he fatigues" . The word passed through Russian and German before it was adopted into English.
Another explanation analyzes this Tungusic word as containing root “sa-”, this means “to know”. “Shaman” is “he/she who knows” : a person who is an expert in keeping together the multiple codes through which this complex belief system appears, and has a comprehensive view on it in his/her mind with certainty of knowledge . The shaman uses (and the audience understands) multiple codes: he/she expresses meanings in many ways (in musical, verbal, choreographic forms, and meanings are manifested also in objects, e.g. amulets). The shaman knows the culture of the community (he/she lives in) well, and acts accordingly. Thus his/her audience knows the used symbols and meanings — that's why shamanism can be efficient: people (in the community) trust it . Such belief system can appear to its members with certainty of knowledge — this explains the above described etymology for the word “shaman” . Hoppál mentions such semiotic approaches to shamanism also in , and at the bottom of the same writing, he refers to Juha Pentikäinen's “grammar of mind” approach, or also mentions it shortly: “Juha Pentikäinen, in his introduction to Shamanism and Northern Ecology, explains how the Sámi drum embodies Sámi worldviews. He considers shamanism to be a ‘grammar of mind’ , because shamans need to be experts in the folklore of their cultures. Another interesting concept mentioned in the conclusion part of is “ethnohermeneutics”.
Accordingly, the only proper plural form of the word is shamans and not shamen, as it is unrelated to the English word "man".
In its common usage, it has replaced the older English language term witch doctor, a term which unites the two stereotypical functions of the shaman: knowledge of magical and other lore, and the ability to cure a person and mend a situation. However, this term is generally considered to be pejorative and anthropologically inaccurate. Objections to the use of shaman as a generic term have been raised as well, by both academics and traditional healers themselves, given that the word comes from a specific place, people, and set of practices.
Criticism of the term "Shaman"
Certain anthropologists, most notably Alice Kehoe in her book "Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking", are highly critical of the term. Part of this criticism involves the notion of cultural appropriation. This includes criticism of New Age and modern Western forms of Shamanism, which may not only misrepresent or 'dilute' genuine indigenous practices but do so in a way that, according to Kehoe, reinforces subtly racist ideas such as the Noble Savage.
Kehoe is highly critical of Mircea Eliade's work. Eliade, being a historian rather than an anthropologist, had never done any field work or made any direct contact with 'shamans' or cultures practicing 'shamanism'. According to Kehoe, Eliade's 'shamanism' is an invention synthesized from various sources unsupported by more direct research. To Kehoe, what Eliade and other scholars of shamanism treat as being definitive of shamanism, most notably drumming, trance, chanting, entheogens and hallucinogenics, spirit communication and healing, are practices that
* exist outside of what is defined as
shamanism and play similar roles even in non-shamanic cultures (such as the
role of chanting in Judeo-Christian rituals)
* in their expression is unique to each culture that uses them and cannot
be generalized easily, accurately or usefully into a global ‘religion’
such as shamanism.
Because of this, Kehoe is also highly critical of the notion that shamanism is an ancient, unchanged, and surviving religion from the Paleolithic.
Also Hoppál discusses, whether the term “shamanism” is appropriate. He recommends using term “shamanhood” for stressing the diversity, the specific features of the discussed cultures. This is a term used in old Russian and German ethnographic reports at the beginning of the 20th century . This term may suggest generalizations less and stress the local variations more. He mentions similar thoughts on ISSR, 2001 Summer, he conjectures also a contemporary paradigm shift.
The shaman may fulfill multiple functions in his/her community , e.g.
* healing
* leading a sacrifice,
* telling fortune
* acting as psychopompos : accompanying the coming soul of the newborn or
vice versa, that of the dead,
* keeping the tradition e.g. by memorizing long songs and tales.
These various functions may seem as rather distinct tasks, but some important underlying concepts join them.
Soul concept:
E.g. healing may be based closely on soul concepts of the belief system ,
online available): retrieving lost soul of the ill person ; see also dual
soul concept .
Spirits:
E.g. story-telling, or acting as a singer is also related to the belief system:
a person who is able to memorize long texts or songs (and play an instrument)
may be regarded as having achieved his/her ability by standing in contact
with spirits describing an example observed at Khanty people).
Shaman acts as a mediator in his/her culture, in multiple sense ), he/she is thought to do for his/her comunity the following “conveying”, “mediating”, “transmitting” functions: e.g. accompanying the soul or communicating with the dead, keeping myths of the past for recent times, interacting with spirits etc.
In some cultures, this mediator function
complex of the shaman may be illustrated well by some of his/her objects and
symbols, e.g.:
* At the Selkups, a report mentions a water fowl species as spirit-animal:
ducks are capable of both flying and diving, thus they are regarded belonging
to both the upper world and the world underneath.
* “Shaman's tree” is another symbol used at several cultures (Yakuts,
Dolgans, Evenks). Also it is a good symbol for modelling mediation: tree is
a being whose roots belong tho the world underneath, but its trunk belongs
to the middle, human-inhabited word, and its top is related to the upper world
.
In some cultures, there may be more type of shamans: they may be specialised
* according to their functions (e.g.
at Nanai people, a distinct kind of shaman to act as psychopompos),
* or according to other classifications, e.g. distinct shaman for spirits
of the upper word etc., see examples of Nenets, Enets, Selkup
History
Shamanistic practices are sometimes claimed to predate all organized religions, and certainly date back to the Neolithic period. Aspects of shamanism are encountered in later, organized religions, generally in their mystic and symbolic practices. Greek paganism was influenced by shamanism, as reflected in the stories of Tantalus, Prometheus, Medea, and Calypso among others, as well as in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and other mysteries. Some of the shamanic practices of the Greek religion later merged into the Roman religion.
The shamanic practices of many cultures were marginalized with the spread of monotheism in Europe and the Middle East. In Europe, starting around 400, the Catholic Church was instrumental in the collapse of the Greek and Roman religions. Temples were systematically destroyed and key ceremonies were outlawed or appropriated. The Early Modern witch trials may have further eliminated lingering remnants of European shamanism (if in fact "shamanism" can even be used to accurately describe the beliefs and practices of those cultures).
The repression of shamanism continued as Catholic influence spread with Spanish colonization. In the Caribbean, and Central and South America, Catholic priests followed in the footsteps of the Conquistadors and were instrumental in the destruction of the local traditions, denouncing practitioners as "devil worshippers" and having them executed. In North America, the English Puritans conducted periodic campaigns against individuals perceived as witches. More recently, attackson shamanic practitioners have been carried out at the hands of Christian missionaries to third world countries. As recently as the nineteen seventies, historic petroglyphs were being defaced by missionaries in the Amazon. A similarly destructive story can be told of the encounter between Buddhists and shamans, e.g., in Mongolia .
Today, shamanism survives primarily among indigenous peoples. Shamanic practice continues today in the tundras, jungles, deserts, and other rural areas, and also in cities, towns, suburbs, and shantytowns all over the world. This is especially widespread in Africa as well as South America, where "mestizo shamanism" is widespread.
In Native American groups, only the shaman had the power to commune with the spirits, to mediate between them and ordinary mortals, to talk with the souls on behalf of the living. The shaman, man or woman, was often an extraordinary character, both in physical appearance and in acting talents. He would be a mystic, poet, sage, healer of the sick, guardian of the tribe, and the repository of stories. Those who did not possess the full range of the shamanistic attributes became simply "medicine men", and functioned as respected healers. Healing was one of the most important roles of the shaman, and he or she was expected to learn herbal healing methods, as well as spiritual ones. To become a shaman, a person had to "receive the call", to suffer a religious experience, and would then be initiated into the mysteries of the art. By symbolic death and resurrection, he acquired a new mode of being; his physical and mental frame underwent a thorough change. During this period of initiation, the novice would see the spirits of the universe and leave his body like a spirit, soaring through the heavens and underworld. There he would be introduced to the different spirits and taught which to address in future trances. According to Mircea Eliade's book "Shamanism", during the initiation, spirits would take the shaman's old bones and replace them with new ones. Since sickness was thought to be caused by an evil spirit entering the victim's body, the shaman would call it out in order to affect a cure. He would do so by a special ritual, beating a rhythm on his drum, swaying and chanting steadily increasing the sound and interspersing it with long drawn out sighs, groans, and hysterical laughter.
In the world's Shamanic cultures, the shaman plays a priest-like role; however, there is an essential difference between the two, as Joseph Campbell describes:
"The priest is the socially initiated, ceremonially inducted member of a recognized religious organization, where he holds a certain rank and functions as the tenant of an office that was held by others before him, while the shaman is one who, as a consequence of a personal psychological crisis, has gained a certain power of his own."
A shaman may be initiated via a serious illness, by being struck by lightning and dream of thunder and become a Heyoka, or by a near-death experience (e.g., the shaman Black Elk), or one might follow a "calling" to become a shaman. There is usually a set of cultural imagery expected to be experienced during shamanic initiation regardless of the method of induction. According to Mircea Eliade, such imagery often includes being transported to the spirit world and interacting with the beings inhabiting the distant the world of spirits, meeting a spiritual guide, being devoured by some being and emerging transformed, and/or being "dismantled" and "reassembled" again, often with implanted amulets such as magical crystals. The imagery of initiation generally speaks of transformation and the granting powers to transcend death and rebirth.
In some societies shamanic powers are considered to be inherited, whereas in others places of the world shamans are considered to have been "called" and require lengthy training. Among the Siberian Chukchis one may behave in ways that "Western" bio-medical clinicians would perhaps characterize as psychotic, but which Siberian peoples may interpret as possession by a spirit who demands that one assume the shamanic vocation. Among the South American Tapirape shamans are called in their dreams. In other societies shamans choose their career. In North America, First Nations peoples would seek communion with spirits through a "vision quest"; whereas South American Shuar, seeking the power to defend their family against enemies, apprentice themselves to accomplished shamans. Similarly the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia have an elaborate cosomoligcal system predicated on the ritual consumption of ayahuasca. Coupled with milleanrian impulses, Urarina ayahuasca shamanism is a key feature of this poorly documented society.
Putatively customary shamanic "traditions" can also be noted among indigenous Kuna peoples of Panama, who rely on shamanic powers and sacred talismans to heal. As such, they enjoy a popular postition among local peoples.
The shaman plays the role of healer in shamanic societies; shamans gain knowledge and power by traversing the axis mundi and bringing back knowledge from the heavens. Even in western society, this ancient practice of healing is referenced by the use of the caduceus as the symbol of medicine. Oftentimes the shaman has, or acquires, one or more familiar helping entities in the spirit world; these are often spirits in animal form, spirits of healing plants, or (sometimes) those of departed shamans. In many shamanic societies, magic, magical force, and knowledge are all denoted by one word, such as the Quechua term "yachay".
While the causes of disease are considered to lie in the spiritual realm, being effected by malicious spirits or witchcraft, both spiritual and physical methods are used to heal. Commonly, a shaman will "enter the body" of the patient to confront the spirit making the patient sick, and heal the patient by banishing the infectious spirit. Many shamans have expert knowledge of the plant life in their area, and an herbal regimen is often prescribed as treatment. In many places shamans claim to learn directly from the plants, and to be capable of harnessing their effects and healing properties only after obtaining permission from its abiding or patron spirit. In South America, individual spirits are summoned by the singing of songs called icaros; before a spirit can be summoned the spirit must teach the shaman its song. The use of totem items such as rocks is common; these items are believed to have special powers and an animating spirit. Such practices are presumably very ancient; in about 368 BCE, Plato wrote in the Phaedrus that the "first prophecies were the words of an oak", and that everyone who lived at that time found it rewarding enough to "listen to an oak or a stone, so long as it was telling the truth".
The belief in witchcraft and sorcery, known as brujeria in South America, is prevalent in many shamanic societies. Some societies distinguish shamans who cure from sorcerers who harm; others believe that all shamans have the power to both cure and kill; that is, shamans are in some societies also thought of as being capable of harm. The shaman usually enjoys great power and prestige in the community, and is renowned for their powers and knowledge; but they may also be suspected of harming others and thus feared.
By engaging in this work, the shaman exposes himself to significant personal risk, from the spirit world, from any enemy shamans, as well as from the means employed to alter his state of consciousness. Certain of the plant materials used can be fatal, and the failure to return from an out-of-body journey can lead to physical death. Spells are commonly used to protect against these dangers, and the use of more dangerous plants is usually very highly ritualized.
Most shamans are men, but there are societies in which women may be shamans. In some societies, shamans exhibit a two-spirit identity, assuming the dress and attributes of the opposite sex from a young age, for example, a man taking on the role of a wife in an otherwise ordinary marriage. This practice is common, and found among the Chukchi, Sea Dyak, Patagonians, Araucanians, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Navajo, Pawnee, Lakota, and Ute, as well as many other Native American tribes. Indeed, these two spirited shamans were so widespread as to suggest a very ancient origin of the practice. See, for example, Joseph Campbell's map in his The Historical Atlas of World Mythology: Such two-spirit shamans are thought to be especially powerful, and Shamanism so important to ancestral populations that it may have contributed to the maintenance of genes for transgenered individuals in breeding populations over evolutionary time through the mechanism of "kin selection." They are highly respected and sought out in their tribes, as they will bring high status to their mates.
In Korea, almost all of the shamans are female.
Duality and bisexuality are also found in the shamans of the Dogon people of Mali (Africa). References to this can be found in several works of Malidoma Some, a writer who was born and initiated there.
The New Age movement has appropriated some ideas from shamanism as well as from Eastern religions. As in other such imports, the original users of these ideas frequently condemn New Age use as misunderstood superficially understood and/or applied.
At the same time, there is an endeavor in occult and esoteric circles to reinvent shamanism in a modern form, drawing from core shamanism, a set of beliefs and practices synthesized by Michael Harner and often revolving around the use of ritual drumming and dance; various indigenous forms of shamanism, occasionally focusing on the ritual use of entheogens; as well as chaos magic. Much of this is focused upon Europe, where ancient shamanic traditions were suppressed by the Christian church and where people compelled to be shamans often find it improper to use shamanic systems rooted in other parts of the earth. Various traditional shamans express respect for this endeavor, sharply distinguishing it from "light (weight)" New Age shamanism. Some anthropologists and practitioners have discussed the impact of such "neoshamanism" as 'giving extra pay' to indigenous shamanisms, particularly as many pagan- or heathen-'shamanic practitioners' call themselves by specific names derived from older European traditions - the völva or seidkona (seid-woman) of the sagas being an example
Sometimes, however, people from Western cultures claim atually to be shamans, often associated with either the New Age or Neopagan movements. This is considered offensive by many indigenous practitioners, who view these New Age, Western "shamans" as hucksters out for money or affirmation of self. Many shamanistic cultures feel there is a danger that their voices will be drowned out by self-styled "shamans," citing, for example, the fact that Lynn Andrews has sold more books than all Native American authors put together. Often too, these New Age Shamans (sometimes called Plastic shamans), make up elaborate ceremonies that are often completely fraudulent (such as certain Sweat lodge ceremonies, or Chuluaqui-Quodoushka). Others may be based on real traditional ceremonies but reproduced in a way that distorts, or commercializes, their meaning.
Throughout human history our species has depended on plants for survival. Clothing, food, medicine, shelter, literally hundreds of thousands of products are made from plants. Yet, many of us, seem to have forgotten that our very existence depends on our photosynthetic cohabitors of this biosphere. It is important for us to cultivate our plant allies and develop relationships with these organisms for the benefit of our planet.
The Rainforest as a Source For New Pharmaceuticals
Until the early 1970's, there was a strong interest in looking at plants as sources of new pharmaceutical agents. In fact, many modern pharmaceutical companies can trace their origins to products originating from plants. However, advances in molecular biology, genetic engineering, and computational chemistry in the late 1970's and 1980's and, even more recently, advances in combinatorial chemistry(7,8) created much promise within the pharmaceutical industry without the need to explore nature's chemical diversity.
Natural product chemists and phytochemists recognize that plant species contain a bewildering diversity of secondary metabolites. Individual plant species often contain over 1,000 unique chemical entities (or the enzymatic machinery needed to produce compounds upon the proper stimulus). One of the most compelling explanations for this vast array of chemical diversity, which resides within the biological diversity of tropical plant species, is the science of chemical ecology. Plants living in tropical forest habitats have had to develop and survive under intense competition for resources and nutrients. They have also had to develop an extraordinary array of defenses, most of them chemical, to protect themselves from viral diseases, fungal pathogens, insects and mammalian predators. The biodiversity of tropical forest plant species, coupled with the chemical diversity found within each plant, leads one to the conclusion that tropical plants are perhaps the most valuable source of new bioactive chemical entities.
The enormous chemical diversity of the tropical rain forest can be best appreciated if one considers the relative abundance and diversity of plants on earth. It is estimated that there are roughly 500,000 higher flowering plant species occupying terrestrial habitats. Of these 500,000 species, many await discovery description by scientists. A large number of species has only been very superficially examined for their pharmacological and medical application. Less than 1% of these species has been thoroughly investigated for their potential use as novel therapeutic agents.
The development of robotics for high-throughput, random screening in the 1980's and an ability to handle large numbers of samples, coupled with the need to find new bioactive chemical entities has renewed interest in looking once again at novel tropical plant species, and has stimulated a long overdue renaissance of activities in the areas of plant natural product chemistry, pharmacognosy, and ethnomedical research. One approach that this renewed interest in plant natural product chemistry has taken involves a return to the classic random collection of plants that are incorporated into high throughput screening programs with a variety of mechanism-based assays with specific applications to numerous therapeutic areas. This methodology is well-suited to the infrastructure and philosophical approach to drug discovery of traditional yet highly successful pharmaceutical firms.
A more integrated approach involves a highly-focused collective program for medicinal plants with a primary emphasis on the use of plants by indigenous people in the tropical regions of the world. This latter methodology is the one utilized by Shaman Pharmaceuticals since its inception, and the approach has been highly effective. As depicted in Figure 1, the ethnomedically driven approach to drug discovery differs from other drug discovery processes by beginning and ending in humans.
Shaman relies extensively and intensively on the primary fieldwork of internationally recognized ethnobotanists who work closely with their indigenous colleagues and shamans (traditional doctors in cultures) in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This approach requires a great deal of research well before any plant material is collected and brought into the company for investigation, and involves examining all the known information regarding the use of plants by people in any given tropical forest habitats to treat a variety of illnesses. Before any research expedition is undertaken, we prepare a full regional study on the epidemiology, traditional medicine, culture and ecology of the people and the environment in which they live. Information on the plants known to be utilized in any given area is assembled by searching several international databases on ethnomedicine, medicinal activities of plants and any known chemistry of plants with such activity. We also search for data from international and national hospitals in remote areas and treatment programs that work with local and native people. All of this information is synthesized and integrated into our field research program.
Shaman Pharmaceutical's field research teams are then sent to selected tropical regions to collect indigenous information and witness first-hand the use of plant medicines to treat various illnesses. These field research teams are comprised of ethnobotanists, western trained medical doctors, local botanical collaborators and indigenous healers and herbalists. This combination of expertise allows for a highly focused selection of plant candidates for screening and subsequent development.
Since all of the tropical plant species collected by Shaman have a history of ethnomedical use in humans (Figure 1), the need to screen tens of thousands of plant species and plant species extracts is unnecessary. In essence, the rainforest, its associated ethnomedical history, and the field research prioritization serves as the initial biological screen. Instead, the in vivo laboratory screening serves as a confirmatory screen. The most promising plant leads are then subjected to fractionation campaigns, whereby natural product chemists use state-of-the-art chemical separation techniques to separate the chemical entity responsible for the observed activity from its inactive components. Modern spectroscopic techniques are then used to elucidate the chemical structure of the active compound.
Shaman Pharmaceutical's operations began in 1990. Utilizing the ethnobotanical/ethnomedical approach to collecting tropical medicinal plant species, Shaman has been successful in bringing two products into clinical trials within 24 months of that time. This focused approach (Figure 1) is currently being used in Shaman's antidiabetic discovery program. Since the inception of the diabetes program two years ago, Shaman has discovered multiple new chemical leads from plant sources and, to date, patents have been filed on five of them. Each of these chemical leads is currently undergoing preclinical evaluation.
The Rainforest as a Source For Medicinal Chemistry Leads
Three years ago, Shaman decided to augment its drug discovery effort using medicinal chemistry. One of medicinal chemistry's missions is to provide synthetic support for natural product leads in the event that the isolated natural product is available in a low yield and/or the plant source is not amenable to sustainable harvesting. In this situation, when feasible, a synthetic approach to the natural product is considered. An equally important medicinal chemistry mission is to use the isolated natural product as a template for further structural modification to reduce toxicity and/or improve potency. As a result of this process, new chemical leads can be generated from the initial orally active natural product lead. The medicinal chemistry program has been highly successful: Two total syntheses originating from an antifungal natural product isolated from Irlbachia alata and Anthocleista djalonensis were completed and have been published,(9,10) and a structural modification study originating from a natural product isolated from Ambrosia chamissonis resulted in four patents and has recently been published.(11) More recently in the antidiabetic discovery area, the advantage of the Shaman Pharmaceutical process -- beginning with an orally active natural product lead as the template -- has led, through further synthetic modification, to the discovery of two new orally active synthetic leads. A patent has been filed on one of these with the second patent soon to follow, and both are currently undergoing preclinical evaluation.
Shaman's Reciprocity Strategies
The idea of compensating indigenous people for the use of knowledge about biological diversity is one based on fairness and equity. A logical means of compensating indigenous peoples for their role in a drug discovery process would be to accord them a share of the profits from the drug, once it is commercialized. However, because of the long period of time needed for commercial drug discovery and development, often ten years or more, such a mechanism for reciprocity requires a long waiting period before any benefit is realized by the indigenous peoples. Furthermore, in most instances, the indigenous knowledge gathered would not lead to a commercial product and thus, no benefit of any kind would come to the local people.
From its inception, Shaman has been committed to the concept of reciprocal benefits: to developing new therapeutic agents by working with indigenous and local peoples of the tropical rainforests and, in the process, contributing to the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, or "biocultural diversity".(12-14) The kind and type of reciprocity is driven by the expressed needs of the people themselves. We place a high value on the knowledge that we receive from our collaborators, and for this reason, feel it absolutely necessary to reciprocate the contribution to our drug development process. Inherent in our commitment is a direct acknowledgment, in both ethical and financial terms, of the intellectual property rights of the indigenous people with whom we work. In our opinion, their traditional knowledge is an irreplaceable cultural resource. Thus, we believe that our company has the dual obligation to provide compensation for that knowledge and to help our collaborators maintain it.
The needs of the indigenous people with whom we work are often immediate. Shaman considers it unacceptable to delay compensation to the indigenous peoples until a product is developed and generating a profit on the market. Our approach to appropriate reciprocity was developed in part to address the needs of the indigenous peoples and to address a potential conflict between our company's recognized obligations and the nature of the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, Shaman's approach to reciprocity instead involves three timeframes -- immediate, medium-term, and long-term. A number of articles describing specific aspects of our biocultural diversity and reciprocity programs has been published, and those interested should consult these articles.(15,16) Here, only a brief overview of our reciprocity program is offered.
Short-term reciprocity can take many forms, but the underlying theme is that it addresses the immediate needs of the community. While short-term reciprocity is a novel concept amongst the pharmaceutical industry, it really is quite simple. We ask the local people with whom we collaborate to identify compensation options. Some examples of short-term compensation have included building an airstrip extension in the Ecuadorian Amazon, organizing community-based public health workshops and forest conservation workshops, and offering direct medical care to our partner communities. One example of the latter involved a request by the Yanomami Indians in the Northern Brazilian Amazon. Their people were dying from a chloroquinine-resistant strain of malaria which was introduced by the gold miners. Shaman subsequently contacted Hoffman LaRoche, Inc., the manufacturer of Lariam, a synthetic compound which is effective against chloroquinine-resistant malaria. Hoffman LaRoche responded with a donation of Lariam. We forwarded the medication to the Commission for the Creation of a Yanomami Preserve in São Paulo, which delivered it to the Yanomami for use among the most critical cases. A second example involved a Papua New Guinea collaborator who had been poked in the eye with a thorn while doing his field botanical work six months prior to our visit. Subsequently, the man had developed a cataract which made him blind. Upon our medical evaluation of this man, we determined that his sight could be restored with routine cataract surgery and an intraocular lens implant. Since this man did not have the money to pay for the surgery, Shaman paid for all of his surgery and travel fees. Shaman has also provided and completed two clean drinking water systems to communities in Ecuador and Indonesia.
Medium-term reciprocity focuses on providing benefits that may not be immediately apparent, but that will nonetheless provide benefit to the community before profit sharing might. One method used is to enhance the communities scientific and research capability. Specific examples of this have included providing chemical reagents, high pressure liquid chromatography equipment, scientific software, books, and other resources used for training the local country scientists. Another method used has been to provide scholarships and fellowships to scientists working on traditional medicine. Shaman also has an ongoing exchange program, whereby local scientists have come to Shaman for a period of 1-9 months to learn new scientific technology. Another form of medium-term reciprocity has included the commissioning of sustainable harvesting studies of plant species that are important for local traditional medicine and also are of interest to Shaman.
The long-term reciprocity involves returning a portion of the profits to the indigenous communities once a commercial product is realized. However, Shaman does not advocate only compensating the community or communities directly responsible for the commercial product. Instead, Shaman will provide a portion of the profits of any and all products to all of the communities and countries in which we have worked.
An important aspect of this long-term strategy is the mechanism that will be used to distribute the compensation. At the same time that Shaman was incorporated as a for-profit company, it founded the Healing Forest Conservancy as a nonprofit organization with an independent board of directors and advisors. The Healing Forest Conservancy is dedicated to conserve cultural and biological diversity and to sustain the development and management of the natural and biocultural resources that are a part of the heritage of native populations. The Conservancy was founded because no governmental organization existed to provide a formal and consistent process to compensate countries and communities for ethnobotanical leads which subsequently are developed into commercial product. The Conservancy ensures a mechanism for the species-rich tropical countries and the small-scale indigenous communities in tropical forests to be equitably compensated for their participation in the development of therapeutic agents. A number of pilot programs have been initiated and described in recent publications.
Conclusion
It is a fact that the tropical rainforest regions of the world are disappearing due to a multitude of commercial interests. With this destruction comes the loss of cultural habitat and indigenous knowledge which has been gained and utilized for millennia. As part of our drug discovery effort, we work with indigenous cultures to provide alternative income-generating activities, such as sustainable harvesting and extraction industries, to large-scale logging or clearing of the land for livestock.(14) Such sustainable harvesting activities can contribute to the conservation of the biological and cultural diversity of the region. Our novel reciprocity programs demonstrate the value we place on indigenous knowledge. To preserve the rainforest without preservation of shamanic knowledge of the plants in the forest would be to cut ourselves off from the cures for present and future diseases. In order to preserve that knowledge, we must ensure that it is passed on from generation to generation by promoting cultural diversity. In contrast to most pharmaceutical drug discovery efforts, Shaman has developed a pioneering technology platform, integrating the sciences of ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, medicine, modern separation science, medicinal chemistry, and primary in vivo screening. The process has led to the discovery of multiple orally active antihyperglycemic leads in our diabetes drug discovery program that are currently undergoing preclinical evaluation. We are currently entering Phase II clinical trials with ProvirTM, an oral product for the treatment of secretory diarrhea, beginning a pivotal Phase III clinical study on Virend®, a topical antiviral for the treatment of herpes, and plan to file in 1996 an Investigational New Drug application (IND) to begin Phase I testing on Nikkomycin Z, an oral antifungal for the treatment of endemic mycoses.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Lisa Conte, Shaman's Scientific Strategy Team, outside investigators and the entire research, development and administration teams of Shaman Pharmaceuticals. Special thanks are due to all of the indigenous and local scientists with whom we work in the tropics of Asia, Africa and Latin America, especially Coweña, Huepe, Coba, Tiro, Coba and César Gualinga.
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