Observations placeholder
Unspecified hallucinogen - Anthropologist becomes a tiger
Identifier
004606
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
It is worth adding here the comments of Eliade regarding the transformation many shamans undergo when they 'become' tigers
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
The evocation of the tiger is performed for the purpose of summoning and securing the incarnation of the mythical ancestor, the first Great Shaman. The pawing observed by Skeat did in effect turn himself into a tiger; he ran on all fours, roared and licked the patient’s body for a long time as a tigress licks her cubs.
Describing the report of an American anthropologist who took hallucinogens…
A description of the experience
Hans Peter Duerr - Dreamtime
At about this same instant I found myself before a full length mirror and looking into it, was confronted by a huge, magnificent specimen of a tiger. Simultaneously I think, with my perception of this image, I became aware of my tiger’s body …. I was in this body, and felt this body as I never have been in or felt my own. Yet even with what seemed my complete immersion in my tigerness, I did retain some infinitesimal human awareness