These hidden spirits are literally ‘those who are hidden’ and are considered to be ancestors with whom one has kinship.

These indigenous people refer to these normally invisible beings as the maninkari, and we are informed that they are found in animals, plants, mountains, streams, lakes and certain crystals and these ‘beings’ are the source of all knowledge.

These spirits present themselves to the Ayahuasquero (shamans) when they drink their special plant brew.27 26 These hallucinations happen in a trance state during which, Narby found shamans talked of a ladder or vine, a rope, a spiral staircase, or a twisted rope ladder that connects heaven and earth which they use to gain access to the world of spirits. Whilst studying Ashaninca ecology, Narby discovered that these honest people living almost unheard of in the Amazon forest insisted that their extensive botanical knowledge came from plant induced hallucinations. “In Jeremy Narby’s excellent book “The Cosmic Serpent – DNA and the Origins of Knowledge” – he investigates shamanism and the indigenous peoples uncanny biochemical knowledge of the plant kingdom. APO/FPO, Afghanistan, Africa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, China, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Europe, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Georgia, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Martinique, Mexico, Middle East, Mongolia, Montserrat, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Oceania, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Reunion, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South America, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.More on the symbolism of the serpent in various forms (dragon, caduceus, kundalini) and its parallel to the DNA structure in “Shopping for Spirit: The Search for Truth” ():

Dna and the cosmic serpent