The cosmic serpent
Subtitle: DNA and the origins of knowledge
By: Jeremy Narby.
Edition: 1st Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam ed.
Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
Subjects: Indians of South America -- Drug use -- Peru; Shamanism -- Peru; Hallucinogenic drugs -- Peru; Knowledge, Theory of -- Miscellanea; Molecular biology; DNA; Ethnology -- Peru -- Field work; Ashaninca Indians -- Drug use; Ashaninca Indians -- Ethnobotany
Description: For ten years, Jeremy Narby explored the Amazonian rain forests, the libraries of Europe, and some of the world's most arcane scientific journals, following strange clues, unsuppressible intuitions, and extraordinary coincidences. He collected evidence and researched the seemingly impossible possibility that specific knowledge might somehow be transferred through DNA, the genetic information at the heart of every cell of every living thing, to a specially prepared consciousness.

Narby demonstrates that indigenous and ancient peoples have known for millennia - and have even drawn - the double helix structure, something Western science discovered only in 1953. He also suggests that DNA and the life it codes for at the cellular level are "minded."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-246) and indexes.