Going Tribal?

I watched this show on TV last night that was really interesting. It's called "Going Tribal" and it's on the Discovery channel.

In the episode I watched, this guy goes to Gabon, Africa to meet the Babongo people and be initiated into their religion: Bwiti. The initiation ceremony involves taking the crushed leaves and roots of a certain tree that causes hallucinations and vomiting when ingested.

His trip went on for days. He lies on a mat in a little hut and vomits and hallucinates, while his adopted "father" feeds him more of the root, and helps him through it. The interesting thing about it was how he described his hallucinations as seeming like remembering incidents from his past in which he hurt another person, and seeing and feeling each incident from the perspective of that other person.

I got excited when I heard that because I have always imagined this is kind of what happens to us when we die, kind of like judgment day, only we are judged by our peers, and ultimately: ourselves.

He said the memories/visions were very detailed and seemed utterly real. He said he felt he gained insight into why the other people involved acted the way they did and understood how his actions affected them. He said it was a very humbling experience that brought him tremendous insight.

At the end of this trip he is taken to a place that looks kind of like a small creek and sort of baptized or reborn. The tribe builds a kind of large vulva shaped tunnel out of branches and he crawls through it in the water, while they squeeze his head with a basket and pour more water infused with leaves from the hallucinatory tree over his head. After that there is lots of singing, dancing and laughter. They carry him on their shoulders and say he is now a man.

There are a lot of issues about this show that are thought provoking. My first thought is: We are really missing out on some interesting shit in our culture. We watch this on TV, while for these people, it's normal everyday life.

Also, I think it's interesting that a plant could give a person such a spiritual experience. I do believe more and more that plants are sentient beings and have a lot to teach us. I am interested in herbal medicine, not only in how it can "cure" some sickness on a physical level, or what chemical components supposedly do this, but also, I want to meet the spirit of each plant. I think these beings are very profound.

But then I also think: making a spectacle/entertainment out of something so sacred and meaningful to this particular group of people, making it seem that any person from outside the culture could understand it in a few weeks (or just by watching a 1/2 hour TV show) seems like a way of trivialize them. Also, it's sort of like taking from them their own specific cultural experience and reinterpreting it to them through Western eyes.

Who knows how well it reflects their real rituals/beliefs?

I also can't help but think that even though these people were supposedly a "remote African tribe", they seemed to be pretty hip to Westernization already. It may only be a matter of time before this ritual is lost. At least there is a record of it. Which is good, I guess.

I don't know. But ever since I read those Carlos Castaneda books in high school, I've been fascinated with this kind of thing.

Here is some more information .