[Marshal McLuhan to Timothy Leary]“The problem is tricky,” I said.
“The opposition beat us to the punch. The psychiatrists and police propagandists have already stressed the negative, which can be dangerous when the mind is re-imprinting under....“Exactly,” agreed McLuhan. “That’s why your advertising must stress the religious. Find the god within. This is all frightfully interesting. Your competitors are
naturally denouncing the brain as an instrument of the devil. Priceless!"
Native revivalism remarketed to the public...
In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia, Prof. Neil Whitehead and Dr. Robin Wright provide this warning:
"Shamanism is a burgeoning obsession for the middle classes around the globe. It's presentation in popular books, TV
specials and on the internet is dominated by the presumed psychic and physical benefits that "shamanic techniques" can bring. This heightened interest has required a persistent purification of the ritual practices of those who inspire
the feverish quest for personal meaning and fulfillment. Ironically,[…] given the self-improvement motivations that have brought so many into popular understanding of shamanism, two defining aspects of shamanism in Amazonia: blood, ie violence, and tobacco, have simply been erased from such representations. Such erasure is not only a vein self-deception, but more important it is a re capitulation of colonial ways of knowing through both the denial of radical cultural difference and refusal to think through its consequences.”