This course challenges the modern Western paradigm that views nature as a collection of inert objects, offering instead a deep dive into Animismโnot as a primitive religion, but as a sophisticated “relational epistemology.” Drawing on decades of anthropological fieldwork in the Amazon, personal experiences with Ayahuasca (Yagรฉ), and cutting-edge developments in evolutionary biology, this course explores the possibility that plants and animals are “non-human persons” possessing intelligence, volition, and soul.
Through a synthesis of indigenous wisdom and modern botany, students will examine how traditional societies utilize sacred plants (such as Ayahuasca, Peyote, and San Pedro) as tools for learning rather than mere hallucinations. The course argues that the ecological crisis facing humanity stems from a rupture in our relationship with the living world and proposes that a return to an animistic worldviewโsupported by new scientific findings on plant sensing and communicationโis essential for our survival.
What you will learn:
- How to redefine “Animism”: You will learn to view animism not as a primitive religion, but as a sophisticated, rational way of relating to the world where plants and animals are treated as “persons” with their own social structures.
- The indigenous science of plants: You will discover how Amazonian shamans use techniques like the dieta (diet) and isolation to “download” knowledge directly from plants, treating the forest as a university rather than just a resource.
- The biology of plant intelligence: You will explore cutting-edge science that supports ancient wisdom, including how plants possess senses (sight, hearing, touch), memory, and the ability to communicate and learn.
- The history of sacred medicines: You will gain a historical perspective on the use of Ayahuasca, Peyote, and Tobacco, understanding how they survived colonial persecution to remain central to indigenous identity and health.
- To shift your perspective on nature: You will learn to challenge “plant blindness” and Western “technocentrism,” gaining tools to perceive the natural world as a community of subjects rather than a collection of objects.
Who is this online course for?
This course is designed for a diverse audience, united by a curiosity to look “beyond the materialist worldview” and explore the profound intelligence of the natural world. You will find this course valuable if you are:
- Students of Anthropology, Ethnobotany, & Philosophy: Looking to deconstruct 19th-century definitions of Animism, explore the concept of “Relational Epistemology,” and understand how indigenous societies view the forest not as a resource, but as a society of non-human persons.
- Biologists, Botanists, & Evolutionary Ecologists: Wanting to challenge “Plant Blindness” by exploring cutting-edge science on plant signaling, memory (Mimosa pudica), and communication, while revisiting Darwinโs insights on evolutionary continuity and animal emotion.
- Psychologists, Therapists, & Psychedelic Researchers: Seeking to understand the traditional context of Ayahuasca and Yagรฉโnot merely as hallucinogens for vision-questing, but as sophisticated tools for “clarifying the mind,” dissolving the ego, and accessing interspecies knowledge.
- Environmentalists, Conservationists, & Activists: Aiming to critique modern “Technocentrism” and the mindset of the “Earth Eaters,” moving toward a biocentric ethic that recognizes the rights and volition of the forest itself.
- Indigenous Rights Advocates & Decolonial Thinkers: Interested in the history of the “War on Demonism” (the Inquisition against Peyote and Ayahuasca) and the struggle to validate indigenous ways of knowing as authoritative science rather than mere folklore.
- Individuals Working with Plant Medicines: Those wishing to honor the deep discipline of the dieta and understand the shamanic view of plants as “Doctores”โteachers possessing souls and specific knowledge to share with humans.
- Curious Minds & Truth Seekers: Anyone feeling the disconnect of the digital age who wishes to recover the ancestral ability to perceive nature as a living, communicating subject rather than an inert object.
Immerse yourself in a world-class educational experience, perfect for students and enthusiasts of anthropology, ethnobotany, evolutionary biology, and psychedelic science. Go beyond the limits of Western materialism to understand the sophisticated, relational connections that link humanity to the sacred ‘Plant Teachers’ of the Americas.
Enroll today to look beyond the material world and discover the profound intelligence of the living forest.
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Luis Eduardo Luna, has a Ph.D. from the Department of Comparative Religion Stockholm University (1989) and was named 2002 Doctor of Humane Letters by St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. He retired in 2011 from the Department of Modern Language and Communication at the Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. He was an Assistant Professor in Anthropology (1994-1998) at the Department of Anthropology of Santa Catarina Federal University (UFSC) in Florianรณpolis, Brazil. Dr. Luna is the author of Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon (1986), a co-author with Pablo Amaringo of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (1991), and co-author with Slawek Wojtowicz, Rick Strassman and Ede Frecska of Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys Through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (2008). He is also a co-editor with Steven White of Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazonโs Sacred Vine (2000, enlarged second edition 2016). Dr. Luna has been a curator of art exhibits in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. He is the Director of Wasiwaska, Research Center for the Study of Psychointegrator Plants, Visionary Art and Consciousness, Florianรณpolis, Brazil.
Luis Eduardo Luna, PhD
Course Price: $150
Level: Easy
Modules: 6
Length: 1hr 10m
Lessons: 18
