From the Rite of Incubation to Psychotherapy. A transcultural perspective

Abstract

Originally, in the West, medicine, which concerned the care of body, mind and soul, was a divinatory art. In the course of time, the term «divination» lost it’s original meaning in comparison to antiquity and especially to the archaic Greek world, where it had an enormous value. The art of Asclepius, like that of his father Apollo, is a divine art that requires a healing ritual. In this context, it should be remembered that historical anthropological research in many cultures of the shamanic type (South America, Siberia, India) records a very ancient therapeutic use of «master plants» or plants which, because of their characteristics, make it possible to reach «extraordinary states of consciousness». These states of consciousness can arise through various practices such as meditation, holotropic breathing, yoga, sensory deprivation or even spontaneously as with Christian mystics. The current experiences described by the researchers provide us with very encouraging data on the benefits of this kind of knowledge. Research developed in the USA and in Europe, Spain and Switzerland tends to follow research protocols in which the set (the current status, but also the clinical and biographical history of the patient), the setting (the environment in which the experience takes place) and the substance (type, dosage, quality and quantity) play a fundamental role. The challenges for the future in the psychotherapeutic field, through the therapeutic use of psychoactive substances, remain diverse, and a real possibility could be to revitalize the ritual use of substances by combining past and present, ancient knowledge and modern science in the service of care.