cultures. Wilber considers these nostalgias to be instancesof the pre/trans fallacy (i.e., to mistake regression towardpre-personal developmental levels for growth towardtranspersonal stages). Thus, from his “evolutionary” pointof view, the Traditionalist School within perennialphilosophy also looks back to less evolved cultures tosolve problems of a relatively more evolved culture, andWilber asserts it is no help to attempt a return to a culturewhere myth reigns, no matter how it might be symbolic-ally reinterpreted today.

As one step toward the healing of modernity’s dissocia-tive consciousness, Wilber advocates a marriage of scienceand religion. But he means religion denuded of all themyths, dogmas and rituals that fail the truth tests ofempiricism. He proposes a “perennial religion” comprisedof essential truths held in common by the world’s religioustraditions. Traditionalists would point out that Wilber’s“perennial religion” is limited by its dependence on anempirical search for common beliefs, doctrines, and trans-formative practices. They would doubt that it could suc-ceed in the absence of discernment that proceeds fromintellect and must inform any comparison amongtraditions that will properly value the distinctive impor-tance of their myths, doctrines and rituals. Traditionalistsare convinced that the return to orthodoxy and its esotericpaths is a necessary if not sufficient condition forattaining the level of consciousness at which humanbehavior could and would change with respect to natureand ecology.

Wilber, who rejects the myths and dogmas of ortho-doxies as obstacles to the evolution of consciousnessbeyond modernity, claims that human consciousnessmust evolve beyond modernity in the same way that allevolution happens, by transcending and including theprior stages. To transcend modernity would be to includethe best of modernity while healing the dissociations. Hebelieves that can happen if humanity is guided by anadequate reality-map, which he claims to provide, andwill use tools from traditional paths, which may nolonger function as a whole for those who can no longerinhabit a traditional religious worldview, but neverthelesscan serve as tools for transformation without the mythic,dogmatic accessories. Tools from transpersonal theory aswell as a whole host of therapeutic modalities can beintegrated in such a way as to replace the traditionalpaths that were so interwoven with the metanarratives ofthe traditions.

Some environmental activists criticize mysticalapproaches to the environmental crisis as other-worldlyand useless, but they have yet to respond to the claim ofperennial philosophers that every form of activism isbased on metaphysical assumptions and that if theassumptions are inadequate, then the activism will beinadequate. For perennial philosophy, participation on apath of spiritual evolution is an absolute prerequisite to

having access to the intellective vision that can enablediscernment of the spiritual dimension and significance ofthe planet.

Shaya IsenbergGene Thursby

Further ReadingBryant, M. Darroll. Huston Smith: Essays on World

Religion. New York: Paragon House, 1992.Ferrer, Jorge N. Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Par-

ticipatory Vision of Human Spirituality. Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press, 2002.

Hahn, Lewis Edwin, Randall E. Auxter and Lucian W.Stone, Jr., eds. The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr.Chicago: Open Court, 2001.

Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy. New York:Harper & Row, 1945.

Isenberg, S.R. and G.R. Thursby. “Esoteric Anthropology:‘Devolutionary’ and ‘Evolutionary’ Orientations inPerennial Philosophy.” Religious Traditions 7–9(1984–1986), 177–226.

Loemker, Leroy E. “Perennial Philosophy.” Dictionary ofthe History of Ideas; Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas.Philip P. Weiner, ed. New York: Charles Scribner’sSons, 1973:3: 457–63.

Wilber, Ken. The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, 8 vols.Boston: Shambhala, 1999–2000.

See also: California Institute of Integral Studies; Huxley,Aldous; Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Transpersonal Psychology;Wilber, Ken.

Permaculture – See The Farm; Findhorn Foundation/Community (Scotland); Genesis Farm; Paganism inAustralia; Radical Environmentalism; Re-Earthing; Steiner,Rudolf – and Anthroposophy; Urban Reinhabitation.

Peyote

When the Spanish conquistadors first arrived in what isnow Mexico, they discovered that the native inhabitantsattributed sacred qualities to three plants: a mushroom(Teoanacatl); a vine belonging to the Morning Gloryfamily (Ololuqui); and a small, spineless cactus (peyotl orLophorora williamsii). The Aztecs referred to the last ofthese, peyotl or peyote, as “the flesh of the gods.” Thiscarrot-looking cactus produces small “buttons” that con-tain at least nine alkaloids known to have psychoactiveproperties when ingested by humans in either their greenor dried state. Together, these alkaloids (of which mesca-line appears to have the most profound effects) induce analtered state typically characterized by initial nausea,

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general stimulation, inability to fix attention, and visualhallucinations – particularly kaleidoscopic displays ofcolor.

Peyote has historically been ingested in structured,ceremonial settings. Although the precise meaning of pey-ote ceremonies varies from culture to culture, peyotism(the ritual ingestion of peyote) is thought to bring personsin touch with power – both natural and supernatural. Firstand foremost, peyote is regarded as a potent medicine.Tribal shamans use the power of peyote to divine thecauses of illness. Shamans frequently have their patientsingest peyote to bring them the power necessary to effect acure. Peyote has also been used to obtain visions and thesupernatural power that comes from close connection withguardian spirits. Peyote-induced visions are also helpfulfor various forms of divination such as determining aprey’s location, predicting the outcome of a battle, or find-ing lost objects. And, too, peyote is used to induce a trancethat facilitates tribal dancing rites. Although the powerobtained through peyote ceremonies can be put to manyuses, it invariably reinforces social understandings of theideal relationships between humans and both the naturaland supernatural orders of life.

Peyote use has continued in many parts of Mexico up tothe present day, most notably among the Huichol who livein the central Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango,and Zacatecas. The Huichol’s ceremonial use of peyotebegins with the “peyote hunt” for suitable plants. This isan annual pilgrimage under the strict direction of anexperienced mar’aakame, or shaman, who has special rela-tions with Hikuri, the Peyote-god. Rituals of confessionand purification prepare pilgrims for the hunt. Throughouttheir quest they must be celibate and form a cohesive andclassless community. Pilgrims must renounce all ego,pride, resentment, or hostility. The arduous trek (though inmore recent times pilgrims travel in cars) to the ancestralregions where peyote is bountiful further prepares partici-pants for their quest to forge closer relations with the spiritworld. Under the mar’aakame’s direction, pilgrims collectpeyote buttons and ritually ingest them in a fire-litceremony. The peyote elicits beautiful lights, vivid colors,and visions of peculiar animals. The meaning of thesesensations is provided by the mar’aakame who integratesthem into the layers of belief that comprise the Huicholworldview. The peyote experience is said to effect a totalunification at every level, to kindle communal love, tobond persons to the way of their ancestors, and to giveparticipants a direct experience of a spiritual realm thatsurrounds the everyday world. In this way Huichol peyoteceremonies structure a return to a mythic past of purityand spiritual power.

Peyote was rarely used north of the Rio Grande prior to1890. But the forced segregation of Native Americans ontogovernment reservations strained tribal cultures in a waythat fostered the rapid spread of peyotism in the United

States. Between 1890 and 1920 the use of peyote becamemore prevalent in the United States, but its meaningvaried depending on the tribal context. In the Southwest,with the Mescalero Apache being the prime instance,peyotism remained fairly close to its Mexican roots.Shamans assumed responsibility for directing partici-pants’ experience with the powers unleashed through theceremonial ingestion of peyote. Peyote ceremonies wereprincipally used for ceremonial doctoring, although theymight occasionally be used for divination purposes suchas locating an enemy, predicting the outcome of someundertaking, or finding lost objects.

Plains Indians in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, SouthDakota, and Wisconsin gradually altered the peyote cere-mony in such a way as to shift the focus from the shamanto every participant’s quest for power. The peyote cere-monies that continue to this day throughout the westernUnited States typically follow this pattern and seek to helppersons establish harmony with supernatural power. Theseall-night ceremonies are held in a traditional tipi, withthe door facing east. Preparation for the ceremony beginswith rituals pertaining to the acquisition of peyote, eitherby sending individuals to Mexico or, in more recent times,by purchase and delivery through the U.S. Postal Service.Once acquired, the peyote is blessed through prayer andconsecrated for use in bringing health to all who willingest it. Any member of the peyote cult may rise to theposition of ritual leader, often known as the “roadman.”The leader is assisted by a drummer, a fireman, and a cedarman.

The precise order and content of the ceremony variesby tribe and the idiosyncratic preferences of the leader,but invariably begins with the leader’s prayer to the powerof peyote. The other participants follow the leader’s leadand begin praying silently to the “earth-creator” or “earth-lord.” Following these initial prayers, participants begin toeat the dried buttons of the peyote plant, followed bydrumming and singing. The leader’s initial song, chantedin a high nasal tone, implores “may the gods bless me, helpme, and give me power and understanding.” Throughoutthe night more peyote buttons are eaten (while mostmembers eat about twelve buttons throughout the night,some may consume as many as thirty) and prayer intensi-fies. Ceremonial dancing is usually an integral part ofthe ceremony, particularly in Mexico and the AmericanSouthwest. Quiet meditation, prayer, and the quest forpersonal visions predominate in the Plains.

The principal purpose of the peyote ritual is to obtainpower. The use of peyote thus overlaps considerably withother traditional methods of obtaining power such as themedicine dance or the vision quest. The power generatedby ingesting peyote is therefore often understood to becapable of curing illness. Typically the leader will offerprayers that petition God to cure participants in need ofhealing. Cures of almost every kind have been attributed

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to the power generated in peyote ceremonies. Other par-ticipants seek to use the power of peyote to procure apersonal vision. Still others eat peyote to increase theirpowers of concentration and introspection.

Peyote rituals also emphasize preaching and moralinstruction. Moral lectures are commonplace. Participantsadmonish one another to forgo vices, particularly inregard to abstaining from alcoholic beverages. Weston LaBarre observed that it is typical for participants to

pray aloud, with affecting sincerity, often with tearsrunning down their cheeks, their voices choked withemotion, and their bodies swaying with earnestnessas they gesture and stretch out their arms to invokethe aid of Peyote. The tone is of a poor and pitifulperson humbly asking the aid and pity of a greatpower, and absolutely no shame whatever is felt byanyone when a grown man breaks down into loudsobbing, during his prayer (1975: 48).

This emphasis upon preaching and moral repentanceescalated when Christian elements were incorporated intothe peyote ceremony in some tribal settings (particularlyamong Plains groups). The Bible was introduced to theliturgical format of the peyote “singing” as early as the1890s. Prayers once made to Indian spirits were redirectedto the Christian God. Although most of the formal charac-teristics of the peyote ceremony persisted, their meaningchanged in ways reflecting Native American cultures’ pro-gressive accommodation to white Christian culture: thefire in the peyote tipi became associated with the Light ofChrist; the water drunk at midnight became associatedwith Christ’s alleged midnight birth; the roadman’s ges-tures to the four directions became a way of announcingthe birth of Christ to all the world; and the meal eaten inthe early morning became a sacrament for all those whoare saved in Christ. In essence, the Christianized peyoterituals synthesized the religious heritages of NativeAmericans and Europeans. Peyotism thereby fostered thebelief that the Great Spirit and the God of Christianity areone and the same. This Great Spirit created the universeand controls the destiny of every person and all events.The Great Spirit put some of his supernatural power intopeyote which can have the same redemptive or sacra-mental power that other Christians avail themselves ofwhen consuming bread and wine. In this way peyotismsustains fundamental Indian concepts about powers,visions, and native modes of doctoring while yet permit-ting eclectic appropriation of Christian teachings. To besure, however, many versions of peyotism have eschewedany connection with Christianity. For example, peyote useamong the Mesalero Apache has led to an intensificationof native values and traditions. And, as many NativeAmericans have in recent years become more concernedwith preserving their cultural heritage, the appeal of

Christianized versions of peyotism has weakenedsomewhat.

Peyotism never lacked for critics. The most persistentopposition came from white officials who viewed it ascontrary to the goal of assimilating Native Americans intowhite, middle-class culture. One major line of argumentagainst peyote use was that it was allegedly injurious.Despite evidence to the contrary, peyote was said to beboth physically and morally debilitating. A more impor-tant objection was more political in nature. The rapidspread of peyotism reinforced traditional culture andamplified nativistic tendencies among American Indianpopulations. Both Christian missionaries and officials inthe Bureau of Indian Affairs were disturbed by the culturalthreat posed by this overt continuation of native tradition(and the pan-Indian solidarity that it celebrated andfostered). By 1907 BIA officials began orchestratedattempts to pass anti-peyote legislation. Native Americansresponded by organizing small religious organizationsthat claimed peyote use should be tolerated as part ofAmerica’s time-honored commitment to protect the free-dom of religious practice. In 1918, the “Native AmericanChurch” was incorporated in Oklahoma and soondeveloped into an intertribal peyote church that stretchedthroughout the western and central United States. Sub-sequently reorganized as the “Native American Church ofNorth America,” this group has been largely successful atinfluencing state courts to respect their legal right to usepeyote in religious ceremonies.

The Native American Church eventually obtainedreligious exemption from drug laws in 27 states. In1990, however, the United States Supreme Court ruledagainst the exemption of peyote from the government’s“war on drugs.” By a narrow 5–4 margin, the Courtemphasized the need to safeguard society from the chaosthat could conceivably erupt if individuals are free toact however they please simply by claiming that theseactions are part of their personal religion. Writing forthe four dissenting members of the Court, JusticeBlackmun noted that there is no evidence that thereligious use of peyote has ever harmed anyone. Henoted that the Native American Church’s use of peyoteis so ritually structured that there is no real concern forhealth and safety. In sum, Blackmun maintained that“peyote simply is not a popular drug; its distribution foruse in religious rituals has nothing to do with the vastand violent traffic in illegal narcotics that plagues thiscountry.”

In a series of legislative acts including the ReligiousFreedom Restoration Act of 1993, the federal govern-ment has put statues in place that specifically permit theNative American Church to use peyote in its religiousceremonies. This legal protection is not, however, affordedto non-Indian groups. Many Anglo-Americans havesought to emulate Native American spirituality and have

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consequently come to believe peyote is essential to theirspirituality since it helps them establish harmony withnature. The Peyote Way Church of God is an example of agroup of approximately eighty (and largely non-NativeAmerican) persons who pursue experiences of the HolySpirit through the sacramental use of peyote. State andfederal courts have ruled against such groups, maintainingthat their use of peyote does not qualify for an exemptionfrom the government’s drug-enforcement laws.

In more recent years, peyotism has been instrumentalin reinforcing commitment to environmental activism.Peyotism is a sacrament. The ceremony thus heightensawareness of the spiritual beauty residing within natureand consequently fosters a commitment to protectingnature from human defilement. Furthermore, peyote itselfis an endangered species. The popularity of peyotism,particularly among white, Euro-Americans who haveharvested large quantities of the cactus, has threatenedboth Huichol culture in Mexico and the cactus speciesitself. While there is considerable irony in the fact that asacrament resulting in greater connection to nature hascreated an environmental threat, it remains a fact thatpeyotists are acutely aware of the plant kingdom’s pre-carious situation. It should also be pointed out that whileNative American peyotists speak of their sense of connec-tion to nature, they now generally receive their peyotefrom the United States government. The traditional ritualof gathering peyote has thus been thoroughly severedfrom the ceremony in which it is ingested. Many NativeAmerican peyotists have therefore lost some of theirtraditional Earth connection. It is thus not uncommon forwhite, Euro-American “converts” to peyotism to evidencemore environmental concern than their Native Americancounterparts.

In sum, peyotism has performed a variety of religious,cultural, and environmental functions over the past hun-dred or more years. Religiously, peyotism helped sustainnative ritual traditions amidst the encroachments of whiteChristianity. The peyote cult offered to heal and to protectits members through the worship of a supreme “earth-creator” who for all intents and purposes is identical withthe God of Christianity. The peyote button – like sacra-mental bread and wine – provided a material vehicle foravailing oneself of regenerating power. Peyote is under-stood as a “medicine,” a “power,” a “protector,” and a“teacher.” The peyote ceremony deepens subjective feel-ings of personal relationship to a sacred power, yet does soin a carefully orchestrated ritual that ultimately assistsindividuals to subordinate their personal desires to groupgoals and values. And although peyote is combined withalmost as many theologies as it has users, it has almostuniversally fostered such culturally valued ethical traitsas love, hope, charity, ambition, and honesty. And, finally,peyotism is frequently a catalyst for intensified concernfor the environment. The entire peyote ceremony

reinforces a sacramental view of nature, leading partici-pants to care for the healing of Earth.

Robert C. Fuller

Further ReadingAberle, David and Stewart Omer. Peyotism in the West.

Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1984.Fuller, Robert. Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American

Religious History. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000.La Barre, Weston. The Peyote Cult. New York: Anchor

Books, 1975.Meyerhoff, Barbara. Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of

the Huichol Indians. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,1974.

Schaefer, Stacy B. and Peter T. Furst, eds. People of thePeyote. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,1996.

Shonle, Ruth. “Peyote: The Giver of Visions.” AmericanAnthropologist 27 (1925): 53–75.

Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion: A History. Norman: Uni-versity of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

See also: Ayahuasca; Castanada, Carlos; Entheogens;Ethnobotany; Ethnoecology; Psychonauts; Yoeme (Yaqui)Ritual.

The Philippines

There are at least seventy traditional culturo-linguisticgroups in the Philippines Islands. Their languages belongto the Malayo-Polynesian group of languages, which havespread from the Indian Ocean right across the PacificOcean. Extensive religious change has occurred duringmodern times in lowland regions, and although the popu-lations there fall into large groupings with customary andlanguage distinctiveness (Tagalong, Cebuanos, Ilocanos,Illongros, etc.), these are now overwhelmingly CatholicChristian (and accepting the label Filipino).

There is a sizable Muslim population in Mindanaocomposed of three major ethnolinguistic groups – theMaranao in Lanao, the Magindanao in Cotabato and theTausug in Jolo. The current Christian–Muslim conflictgoes right back to the beginning of the Spanish coloniza-tion of the Philippines: when Lopez de Legazpi undertookthe conquest of Luzon in 1570 his chief opponent then wasRajah Soliman who had settled in Manila.

Mountain peoples apart from the Maranao in Mindanaowere little impacted by either the process of Islamizationor Christianization. The reason is fairly simple; they livedin inaccessible places both in Northern Luzon and in theforested highlands of Mindanao. Over almost three and ahalf centuries of conquest Spanish rule was never estab-lished in these areas.

Today these tribal people (or lumads) usually live in

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