Bio
Brian Porzak is a healing facilitator, not only of people, but companies and brands, as well. He has studied with healers and shamans in North, South and Latin America, as well as Western Europe. As a filmmaker, Brian has written/directed commercials, documentaries, TV pilots, festival shorts and is, presently, working on a feature film. He is, also, the author of several screenplays of varied genres, plus novels based on 3 of them. Brian was a Senior Fellow in Film at Dartmouth College.
title
"Is Western Posthumanism Amazonian Prehumanism?"
abstract
Based on travels to Northern Peru where I spent time with Shipibo Tribe shamans in the Amazon Jungle, I realized that their working with medicinal plants was part of what I considered a Posthuman ethic. However, this association dates back more than 2000 years. That would make them Posthumans before Western Civilization even developed Humanism. My talk considers the similarities and differences between Posthuman Philosophers and Amazonian shamans, the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku, the work of a Nobel Prize winning American scientist and my own experiences with plant medicine.