Theartre and the Technologies of Appearances: The spirit of apprehensions

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Notes

1 It is important to note here that by vision or visionary I do not necessarily mean visual. The word ‘visionary’, although it contains the visual root, so to speak, also suggests the theoretical, the theatrical and the performative, as well as the speculative, and creative agency in general.

2 It seems that whenever the shamanic/magical approach to art is invoked, one is obliged to name works which either exemplify it or negate it. I do not wish to do that here: whereas Schechner may see an ‘authentic’ shamanism in certain modes of performance (Anna Deavere Smith [!]), but deny its presence within the classical canon, for example, I choose to think of the shamanic as culturally specific to the degree that it is often precisely in the canon (understood in its widest sense) one can find the impulses to shamanic, pharmakeic, mind. By the same token, inasmuch as shamanism is generally thought of as a more marginal type of spirituality than religion, one can also find its impulses in the most marginal and underground types of art and performance. The Pharmakeus is performance specific.

3 For a compelling account of this period, and the elision of post-acid culture with the rise of Silicon-Valley techno capitalism, see Eric Davis’ TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998) .

4 All overshadowed by the unfortunate and ego-driven media-man Timothy Leary.

5 The somewhat predictable objections of cultural exploitation have arisen as more and more Westerners go to the Amazon for visionary healing. The fact seems to be, however, that the influx of money, far from ruining the indigenous culture, has revitalized it, and has brought increasing attention and respect to the shamanic traditions of the Amazon Basin.

6 The current rise in the domestic popularity of the medicine is somewhat curious—it is in no way recreational, nor is it uniformly or even generally pleasant. The use of the medicine will, I suspect, self-select the users who come to it.

7 Both translations of the Quechua word ayahuasca are accurate.

8 Narby, Jeremy (1998) The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, NewYork: Tarcher/Penguin.

9 Heidegger, Martin (2001) Poetry, Language, Thought, New York: Harper's.

10 ‘Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist.’ Schroedinger, Erwin (1969) What is Life? And Mind and Matter, London: CUP, p. 137.