PREVIEW

Since the very beginning and in all the parts of the planet, man has always tried to chan- ge the states of consciousness that is to say to lessen his rationalism, in order to communi- cate with the spiritual world of his religion, of his gods of his dead.

In order to reach this state, half way bet- ween conscience and the unknown of incon- science, he has used different technics : the fast, isolation, meditation, dance and absor- ption of hallucinogenic plants also called main plants by the traditional societies. For a long time occidental social sciences have regarded these primitive cultures with a non-deserved contempt, contempt which justified the needs of colonialism. All that did not look like its cultural pattern was rejected as being barbarian and savage. Which leads Ethnologist Pierre Clastres to say "We did not do Ethnology but Egology.

                                         EVILS OF CIVILIZATION

  Nowadays, whereas in Occident, human concentrations in big cities have rea- ched a dramatic state in the fight for a vital space, that the needs of industrial progress pollute the environment to satisfy the ever growing demand of the consumption society, the appearance of diseases known as "civilization" going from headache to serious neurosis, takes the alarming form of an epidemic.

Over the last 20 years for instance the use of medicines such as valium or other substances of the family of  benzodiazepins which can produce disorders of the memory, of the balance, asthenia, somnolensce and muscular hypotony with the syndrome of weaning when the treatment comes to an end...and so on...has come to the first rank of pharmaceutical sales.

  In 1992, the consumption in France was of 2,752 billions of pills and capsules sold !  The Figures coming from the sickness insurance speak for themselves.

So in 2004 the French people have bought 51,1 million boxes of sleeping pills and 55,6 million boxes of tranquillizers (more than 2003). The very same year more than 10 million French people have had a prescription of anxiolytics and more than 5 million of hypnotics.

The list of the evils of civilization becomes endless and largely exceeds the means of official medicine which, in most cases, can only calm but is unable to cure. Only in USA, 30 million people take sleeping pills regularly.

Occidental society forces the whole planet to accept its repressive policy, and in spite of this it is probably the most drug addict of all.

Over the last 10 years we have witnessed a renewed interest for indigenous. Consequently the World Health Organization has salutarily decided to support all the researches aiming at enlightening and bringing bach the positive aspects of the traditional medicine within the framework of a program called " Health For All By The Year 2000".

                            A MEDICINE AS OLD AS THE WORLD

  Louis Lewin, famous German toxicologist said "Since we know man, we know that the consumes substances which have no nutritive values, just in order to provide for a certain time, a feeling of harmony, peace and well being".

Carlos alberto Seguin, president of the Psychiatric Society of Latin America said "we have a lot to learn from our colleagues the healers not only concerning pharmacotherapy, the use of plants but also in the field that psychiatry is disco- vering nowadays: group dynamic, collective psychotherapy as well as handling community problems which are still new for us and that they control in a perfect way".

  Claude Solié, psychiatrist in his books "at the origin of psychotherapy" affirms, after a comparative study of myths in the primitive cultures that "all the religions are only a great therapeutic system".

The need of a collaboration between psychiatry, sociology, medicine and of the human sciences find in the work healers a very favourable ground of meeting.

                                THE REVIVAL OF SHAMANISM

   If shamanism is so widely spread in what we called the New World, it has wo-  lling to do with hazard, in Latin America, the number of hallucinogenous plants is more than 1 hundred, whereas in Europe and  Asia they are not more than 20 species.

   74% of drugs of vegetal origin used in the modern pharmacopeia have first been discovered by traditional societies.

In this fabulous trade of drugs, the real original precursors ( it's say the natives) have never been paid.

   At the "Summit of Rio" the authorities have stated the importance of the knowledge of indigenous populations, the governments of the world have signed agreements affirming their will to remunerate this knowledge equitably. But nothing has changed since then.

   The contributions of this "barbarian" medicine to Sciences in general would be impossible to calculate. This lead us to the realization of several documentaries beginning with Latin America, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Cuba have been chosen to represent this part of the planet.