Forrest Galante's Shaman Drug Story | Joe Rogan

Okay, so I'm not like a big drug guy by any means, but I think you'll love this story. On this Amazon trip I told you about, we land in this airstrip and then this plan, we meet, we get into this village. And I'm like, cool, boats have made it here, it took the boats five days, we're going to head up river, right? And our translator's like, you can't do that yet. Like, what do you mean? We've spent months planning this. He's like, you have to have the shaman's blessing to go up river. And I'm like, okay, what does that mean? He's like, come to the Maloka, which is the spiritual house. So we go to the spiritual house, we sit around, we talk and we talk and we talk. And it's like hours of not like asking him to go, but just like, almost like idle conversation where he's almost like interviewing us like, well, what are you doing? Where are you going? Where are you from? And he doesn't really understand any of this, right? He's like, he's living in this community. Long story short, he goes, okay, you can go, but you have to take this blessing. And we're like, sure, well, whatever you need for us to go. So he pulls out the snail shell, I could show you a picture of it. It's a snail shell with a monkey bone in the top and a tube worm to close it. And in the snail shell is this green powder. And he's like, this is what you need for the blessing. So he goes around the circle and through a monkey bone pipe, he blows this green stuff in your nose. Is that called a kuhei? Not by that word that we heard. I couldn't tell the name of the pipe. No, no, the stuff they blow up your nose. Is it DMT? It's coca leaf. Oh, okay. Mixed with a bunch of a root and tobacco, I believe, like altogether. And anyway, so he goes, there's five of us in my crew. He goes around the circle and he hits three guys and they all go, whoa, my brain feels like I've got chlorine on the head, you know, whatever. He blows it into your nose. Yeah. So it gets really close. It's got this long tubular monkey bone pipe and he goes, and it just blows it up into your nose and hits three of my guys. And I'm watching a little bit nervous because like, I'm very like standoffish on drugs. Like I know things affect me very strangely. Anyway, hits three of my guys. They go, whoa, you know, eyes watering. And they're like, wow, it's actually a great feeling. Gets to my turn in the nose. All of a sudden, I feel like I've got acid on my brain, like chlorine in my head. I break into the sweat, my eyes explode, and I'm like wobbling like this. And 30 seconds later, I'm just curled over in the fetal position, just projectile vomiting, cannot hold it together. And Lorenzo, the tribal shaman goes, good, good. And we're like, why is this good? And he's like, he had a bad spirit in him. If he had gone up the river, he would have been killed. He's just got the bad spirit out. This is why I had to bless you. Now you can go. And I was the only one that it hit like that out of our five person crew. Everybody else was like, Oh, my brain sore, whatever. I was literally fetal position, feverish, puking, crate. And I've never done any drugs, like hard drugs. Like it's just not my thing. And this thing just hit me like a ton of bricks. After he said that, did you think, was there a, I mean, you're a scientist, you're a very smart guy, but was there a part of you that was like, man, is this guy right? Yes, that's what's so crazy. Because I'm a fucking scientist. I don't want to believe that I don't want to believe fucking jungle medicine made me not die. But this guy here I am, nobody else fucking affected. I'm sitting in the fetal position, puking my brains out and the guy's going good. Now you'll be safe. And the whole fucking trip, I've got that in the back of my mind going, maybe the whole reason nothing's going wrong is because I just had green fucking powder blowed up my nose. Whoa. Yeah, super weird. And I, nothing has ever affected me like that. I mean, curled up puking, shivering. What you trying to make logical sense out of this, we try it. Was there ever a thought where you're like, maybe in this extreme environment that's so utterly different than any other place in the world that these rules are different? Absolutely. I mean, I'm sitting there going, going into it. I'm like, cool. Yeah, I'll do the stupid powder if it means I can go on my expedition. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not like embracing it. I'm just like going through the motion to get my job done as a scientist. And then I had this experience and I'm not saying I was enlightened or awoken or anything like that. But all of a sudden I attributed my success and my safety in small part to this green fucking powder blown up my nose by a shaman through a monkey belt. And the thing about it is, even if that's not true, if you think it's true and then you wind up being okay and you have confidence that you're going to be okay and maybe you have less anxiety and make better critical decisions because you think that everything's going to work out. Exactly. Exactly. Totally. Because I was super focused on my mission. Right. We were very, very successful in what we set out to do. And I feel like because I had that crazy experience and here's this old little jungle Indian going, now you're going to be okay, I didn't have any anxiety going into the situation. And before that, I had no thought of it ever playing a part. Well, like the mind fuck of the placebo effect, right? Totally. We know that that's real. So there's some sort of a physical effect by believing that something works. Right. But is there a physical, is there a change in the way you interface with reality if you believe that you've experienced some sort of spiritual enriching and then some sort of a, some bad spirit has been released from your body? Is that possible? I think so. I think it changes your own reality because of your perception of the outside world. That is a freaky thing for a scientist to say. Right. Right. And this is like, I am a hardcore academic. I've never considered spirituality, religion, anything. And I had this just fucking 10 days ago, this crazy experience that is like changed my mindset on crazy jungle medicine and drugs and catching animals and everything because this one guy blew crap up my nose and I puked everywhere. Wow. Now has this made you want to experiment with other plant medicines? No. The only reason I did that is because it was a necessity to do what I was doing. It was coming from an expert, if you will, but a person who saw it as a necessity to do what I was doing. And I was under his guidance to go out and pick a mushroom and try it and have an experience is I don't see the benefit in that. But when someone who lives in that community embraces that wild jungle, says, this is my home and this is how you do it, I will absolutely do it. So you do it like out of respect. Absolutely. Yeah.