Pablo Amaringo: A special state of Consciousness

ablo Amaringo was an artistic genius, but he was also so much more than thata phenomenon, a force of spirit and of nature, a seeker after mystery, and an inspiration to others. While I was researching my book, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, I came across a copy of Pablos book, Ayahuasca Visions, and was immediatelyand forcefullystruck by the correspondences between his stunningly beautiful and enigmatic paintings and the prehistoric rock and cave art of Europe, North America, and South Africa that was then the focus of my research. How could it be, I asked myself, that this Peruvian shaman living and working in the Amazon in the early twenty-first century could be portrayingadmittedly in his own absolutely unique and special waythe same themes,

Graham Hancock
patterns, supernatural entities, and symbols that are so evident in, for example, the art of Chauvet Cave in France, dated to thirty-two thousand years ago, or the art of the San in the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa, dated to eight thousand years ago? None of these artists, Pablo included, could possibly have known each other or been comparing notes. Far from itthey were separated by thousands of years of time and thousands of miles of geography. And yet they all seemed to have tapped into the same mysterious source of inspiration and been transported by it into the same strange and exciting otherworlds. I found the answer when I read the text of Ayahuasca Visions, written by the anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna. The source of Pablos inspiration lay in experiences unleashed by drinking the powerful visionary

pablo in his art school with his paintings and peter cloudsley

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brew known in the Amazon as ayahuascathe vine of souls or the vine of the dead. Like all shamans everywhere, past and present, Pablos access to the spirit worlds depicted in his art was not attained in the normal, alert, problem-solving state of consciousness that we use to deal with day-to-day life in the physical realm, but in a deeply altered state of consciousness, a pellucid, trancelike, visionary state. In Pablos case that special state of consciousness was induced by the consumption of ayahuasca, and I soon discovered that the best archaeological work on prehistoric cave and rock art all around the world, from all periods of history and prehistory, had concluded that those ancient artists had been shamans also, and that their art also was an art of altered states of consciousness. Here, then, were the common factors underlying all the great visionary art of the worldaltered states of consciousness, shamanism, and direct experience of non-ordinary realms. From the moment this became clear to me, the direction of my own research also became clear. I determined that I must travel to the Amazon and experience ayahuasca myself. It was the beginning of a long journey, far longer, richer, and more creatively fulfilling than I could ever have imagineda journey that still continues for me today. Without Pablos extraordinary, transformative art to guide me, I would have been lost and bewildered at first, but with it I was more quickly able to find my feet and sense of direction, and more confidently able to negotiate with and, above all, learn from the enti-

ties I encounteredentities from non-ordinary realities, whom I truly believe are the ancient teachers of mankind. For those who have not yet had the experience of ayahuasca and the benefit of her love and guidance for ayahuasca is a spirit, she is love, she is a teacher, and she is femalePablos art can play a vital introductory role. He stands at the leading edge of a lineage stretching back thousands of years to those shamans who took the first daring steps in the night of prehistory and who launched themselves on the great adventure that would make us truly human. Look on his art in wonder, remember its venerable heritage, and learn the lessons it has to teach. It is truly a window on the unseen realities just beyond the reach of our everyday senses, which surround us all the time and are deeply and intimately connected to us and to everything we think and do.

GraHam H anCoCK is the author of the bestsellers The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heavens Mirror, and Supernatural. His books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-seven languages. His public lectures and broadcasts have further established his reputation as an unconventional thinker who raises controversial questions about humanitys past. His first work of fiction, Entangled: The Eater of Souls, is a fantasy-adventure novel that tells the story of a battle of good aganst evil played out against the frame of time. It was inspired by and features ayahuasca.

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