Bat Dreams

by Nathaniel Horowitz

The second in the Nighttime Daydreams quadrilogy, Bat Dreams tells of the narrator's sojourns in Secoya territory in 1994 and 1995 to study with the local ayahuasca drinker. A travelogue, a coming of age story, a gritty philosophical reflection; a clear-eyed, passionate study of culture, nature, and the mind. With sex, drugs, violence, mental illness, big tasty rodents, collared peccaries, leaf-nosed bats, the language of hummingbirds, lazy pebbles, celestial spirits in the form of insects, and the armadillo that saved the world. “Blinking like a tipsy lightning bug in its haptic liminal space, Bat Dreams interrogates and transcends mystical commodity culture.” “Don't operate heavy machinery after consuming this literary psychedelic.” “This is why English majors shouldn’t author books. Just because something is grammatically correct, that doesn’t mean it should be written down.” “A coming-of-age story, a record of encounters with people and with nature, a diary of mystical experiences, a book-length prose poem.” “Kerouac meets Castaneda in the rainforest.” “Ginsberg does Joyce under a palm tree.” “In this second book, the plot thickens, like ayahuasca when it’s boiled for a long time.” “Wildly beautiful. Beautifully wild.”

177 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2019

Reviews

[Meredith McGhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume in the Nighttime Daydreams quadrilogy, Bat Dreams, opens with the author/narrator back in Ecuador to study with the Secoya shaman don Joaquin in October 1994, and his second trip on yage, classified as an entheogen (psychedelic drug leading to spiritual experiences) and used for centuries, perhaps even millennia, by indigenous shamans to experience other realities. The prose is immersive and detail-rich, and brings the reader into the trip and the setting. Memories, realizations, and metaphors crowd into Nathan’s brain on yage--new words in the Secoya language, reminders of myth and literature, pop culture references and healings of past traumas.

Western culture lacks initiation rituals for youth. It used to be that young men were initiated by their elders into adulthood, and into a community of men--brother and father figures, if not literal kin. (There were similar rituals for young women). Nathan’s first yage visions and the thoughts they spark speak to the loss in our culture of these ancient human rituals, as he grapples at the age of 26 with a deeply relatable desire for a healthy and functional relationship with his father or a surrogate, seeking it in don Joaquin.

After a large dose of yage, a profound healing occurs--he feels a great pain that leads to catharsis, then joy, a realization that death is nothing to fear (though fear’s role is protective), all while lying in a hammock in don Joaquin’s house. He sees dead American soldiers and honors them in song and it makes me wonder if ancient warrior bands practiced initiations like this, and if Nathan has tapped into something ancient and hardwired in the human experience.

Readers who have experienced moments of the numinous revealing itself, of lightning bolts of wisdom and self-insight, or inexplicable metaphysical happenings, may feel validated by some of the insights Nathan gains on his trips. I know I certainly did; they were quite parallel to my own at times. The only way to really describe such experiences is through imagistic, poetic lines and the author is very effective at this. Bat Dreams (and the first volume, Gateway Mexico) brought my own such experiences back to me, reminding me that I’m connected to other people at the ground of being, no matter how alienating Western culture is--not only other humans, but animals, plants, rocks, anything in this living system we call existence.

If more people were to experience this level of connection (as many psychonauts and spiritual seekers have opined) we might have a whole different orientation to stewardship of the earth, and see more commonalities and reasons for peace and compassion across cultural divides.

[Ian Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

More and more people are heading down to South America for quote-unquote ayahuasca tourism, many raving about their experiences with messianic fervor. Bat Dreams is different. Grounded. Intriguing and poetically written. Here is the self-aware journal of a young man embarking upon a shamanic apprenticeship with the Secoya tribe in Ecuador, with all the discomforts, confusion and very odd meals that entails. This is not an epic quest for the secrets of the universe but a day-to-day, oft-ordinary, stream of consciousness account of harvesting, ingesting, experiencing and interpreting the bewildering visions of "yage", Amazonia's so-called brew of souls. The feet of the sky people hovering overhead. The inescapable grip of a spiritual jaguar. According to the author, many Secoya youth are increasingly disinterested in shamanic healing practices which is why older shamans are increasingly taking gringos under their wings. It is not an easy apprenticeship, but it is a fascinating one. For those who like their travellogues astral, temporal and real, and/or are curious about ayahuasca in its natural setting, Bat Dreams is the ride for you.

[Sunmin Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever wondered what it feels like to take a journey through psychedelic Latin America without risking brain damage, flesh-eating mosquitos, dengue fever or leaving the comfort of your chair, read Gateway Mexico and Bat Dreams. Horowitz takes you on a mind-bending journey into an altered Universe with insight, humor and poetry. Reminds me of Jack Kerouac, Edward Abbey, Loren Eiseley and J.D. Salinger all rolled into one. Thoughtful. Sensual. Playful. Anyone searching for the meaning in life can find that satori is here in the infinite now and the only way to discover one’s truth is to wander lost. You will enjoy reading this book. It takes you back to that time when you were young and curious and on the edge of despair and everything wonderful.

[Steve Lefevre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really wonderful travelogue/memoir from a guy who went to the jungle to drink ayahuasca with Indigenous shamans. We get to see the personal travails he goes through while undertaking the arduous task of apprenticing with a shaman. The author also delves into some of the conflict of his American upbringing and background, and indigenous ideas and traditions.