Biography

Jeremy Narby, Phd., grew up in Canada and Switzerland, studied history at the University of Canterbury, and received a doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University. Since 1989 he has been working for Swiss NGO Nouvelle Planete as Amazonian projects director. He is is the author of The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.

While doing work cataloging indigenous uses of rainforest resources to help combat ecological destruction, he asked one of his guides how they knew so much about the plants around them. Narby was informed that the plants themselves tell people how to use them, particularly through the drinking of ayahuasca, an indigenous hallucinogen.