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Jeremy Narby Quotes

Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.

Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.

Jeremy Narby
Mystery, Contemplation, Investigation
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.124, Penguin

This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.

Jeremy Narby
Believe, Important, Sometimes
Jeremy Narby (2016). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.105, Hachette UK

If one stretches out the DNA contained in the nucleus of a human cell, one obtains a two-yard-long thread that is only ten atoms wide. This thread is a billion times longer than its own width. Relatively speaking, it is as if your little finger stretched from Paris to Los Angeles.

Jeremy Narby
Dna, Cells, Two
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.71, Penguin

The global network of DNA-based life emits ultra-weak radio waves, which are currently at the limit of measurement, but which we can nonetheless perceive...in hallucinations and dreams.

Jeremy Narby
Dream, Dna, Radio Waves
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.95, Penguin

According to Eliade, the shamanic ladder is the earliest version of the idea of an axis of the world, which connects the different levels of the cosmos, and is found in numerous creation myths in the form of a tree.

Jeremy Narby
Axes, Ideas, Tree
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.50, Penguin

In truth, ayahuasca is the television of the forest.

Jeremy Narby
Ayahuasca, Forests, Television
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.11, Penguin

An indigenous culture with sufficient territory, and bilingual and intercultural education, is in a better position to maintain and cultivate its mythology and shamanism. Conversely, the confiscation of their lands and imposition of foreign education, which turns their young people into amnesiacs, threatens the survival not only of these people, but of an entire way of knowing. It is as if one were burning down the oldest universities in the world and their libraries, one after another — thereby sacrificing the knowledge of the world's future generations.

Jeremy Narby
Sacrifice, Land, Knowing
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.119, Penguin

What if it were true that nature speaks in signs and that the secret to understanding its language consists in noticing similarities in shape or in form?

Jeremy Narby
Understanding, What If, Secret
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.37, Penguin

.....there are approximately 125 billion miles of DNA in a human body -- your personal DNA is long enough to wrap around the earth 5 million times.

Jeremy Narby
Dna, Long, Body
Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.73, Penguin

The rational approach start from the idea that everything is explainable and that mystery is in some sense the enemy. This means that it prefers pejorative, and even wrong, answers to admitting its own lack of understanding.

Jeremy Narby
Mean, Ideas, Understanding
Jeremy Narby (2016). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.104, Hachette UK

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