Ayahuasca, 'source of knowledge' in the heart of the Amazon

Hervé BAR
Fri, 24 February 2023


In the heart of the Ecuadoran Amazon live the Cofan Avie, masters of ayahuasca -- the powerful hallucinogenic concoction said to open the door to the "spirit" world.

Here, they call it "yage" and consume it for health and wisdom.

"God once lived here on this planet", recounts Isidro Lucitante, the patriarch and shaman of nine Indigenous Cofan Avie families spread over 55,000 hectares of river and jungle along the border with Colombia.

This god "pulled out one of his hairs and planted it on the Earth. Thus was born the yage, source of knowledge and wisdom," the 63-year-old, his face painted in striking animal motifs, told AFP.

Extracted from the "Banisteriopsis caapi" vine that has grown in the Amazon for thousands of years, ayahuasca has also gained a reputation in the outside world.

In neighboring Peru, and to a lesser extent also Ecuador, a tourist industry has taken root around the vine that is now also available for sale -- in capsules or as an infusion -- online.

For the Cofan Avie, yage is not a business but an umbilical cord that connects them to one other and to long-dead ancestors.

"Yage is not a drug. On the contrary, it is a remedy that makes us better," said Lucitante, who insists he is, above all, a healer, and dead set against the commercialization of yage.

"My grandfather drank yage every week, he lived to 115! We are all healthy!"

Becoming increasingly fashionable and even punted as a treatment for drug addiction, ayahuasca can be dangerous for people who take antidepressants or suffer from heart or psychotic problems, epilepsy or asthma, according to medical experts.

Its active ingredient dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is illegal in the United States, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and in other countries.

Back in Bermejo, in the jungle, friends and neighbors gather every weekend in a wooden hut decorated with painted parrots, snakes and panthers, settle down in hammocks and imbibe some of the brown, bitter beverage.

Sometimes a visitor joins in.

Under the supervision of shaman Lucitante and his assistants, songs are addressed to the "spirits" as the concoction -- crushed, mixed with water and boiled for hours -- starts to kick in.

- 'Rebalance the world' -

The Cofan Avie are known in Ecuador for a legal victory over the mining industry in 2018 that led to the scrapping of 52 gold mining concessions granted by the State.

Last year, Lucitante's son, Alex, was a co-recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize for his contribution to that triumph. He had been responsible for setting up an Indigenous guard to conduct patrols to collect evidence of intrusions by gold prospectors.

Today, he acts as an assistant at his father's yage ceremonies, which he also accompanies with guitar song.

"It was a long and difficult struggle to protect our territory and Nature," the 30-year-old told AFP, wearing a necklace of animal teeth, a feather stuck through his nose.

"We were inspired by the wisdom of the ancients and the knowledge of yage" which he started drinking at the age of five, said Alex Lucitante.

"The plant is everything to us, just like our territory. We could not live without it. It is through yage medicine that we can connect to the spirits and... rebalance the world."

The ritual is a grueling one that starts for most people with violent vomiting as part of a purge of the body.

"It’s like a great cleansing," explained shaman Lucitante.

Only then "can the visions come. First colors. Then, if you concentrate, the jungle appears. Then the animals: the boa master of rivers, the catfish, or the jaguar master of the hunt. And finally people and spirits... but not everyone can see them."

In the hammocks, everyone prepares for their "journey" -- novices in an apprehensive silence and regulars chatting away.

Lucitante invites each in turn to take a drink. Then orders AFP's cameras to be turned off.

hba/mlr/caw

‘Authentic’ ayahuasca rituals sought by tourists often ignore Indigenous practices and spiritual grounding

The psychotropic allure of the ayahuasca plant for hundreds of thousands of non-Indigenous consciousness seekers is raising many concerns.

A healer conducts an ayahuasca drinking ceremony in Avie village,

 in Ecuador, on Jan.14, 2023. 

Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty images

June 28, 2024
By Pardis Mahdavi
(The Conversation) 

— Ayahuasca, a sacred drink made from the stem and leaves of a tree vine, has many names: psychedelic brew, hallucinogenic tea, mood medicine and more. It is even known as a teacher or a healer for its reported ability to help a person turn inward and come into alignment with past traumas.

The plant and the rituals associated with it have deep roots in South American shamanic traditions. But in the past few decades, stories about the spiritually enhancing magic of ayahuasca have made their way to Europe and North America.

Lauded for its transcendent healing powers by celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, athletes such as Aaron Rodgers and successful businessmen such as Elon Musk, the psychotropic allure of the plant now calls to hundreds of thousands of non-Indigenous consciousness-seekers globally. More and more ayahuasca retreats are popping up around the world.

Indigenous peoples in South America – primarily in Peru, Brazil and other parts of what is considered the Upper Amazon – have been using ayahuasca for medicinal and religious purposes since at least 900 B.C.E. Hieroglyphic paintings depict the use of the sacred brew in a ceremony from the period of 900-250 B.C.E. Western interest in ayahuasca, however, has created some challenges for local Indigenous communities.

As a medical anthropologist, I have spent the past quarter century studying the ways in which culture affects how people view and make decisions about their bodies.
Through researching the connections between sexuality, drugs and cultures, I have come to understand the role of plant medicines like ayahuasca for individuals and communities.
Dying to awaken

Anthropologist of shamanism Michael Winkelman describes ayahuasca as a “psychoindicator,” a substance that integrates emotion and thought processes.

According to Western scientific interpretations, the primary function of the substance allows a stripping away of a person’s egocentric, conscious understanding of the world. Seekers “die unto themselves,” is what a shaman told me.

In an altered state of consciousness, it is believed that the person can tap into their true wants and experiences and begin the process of deeper healing, awakening or spiritual cleansing.

Traditionally, anthropologists note that ayahuasca has been used in South America to unlock information coming from unseen realms. Specifically, it was often called upon for divination, artistic inspiration, strategic insights, healing and shamanic journeys.

Plant medicine

While thousands of tourists flock to South America from all over the world each year in search of an “authentic” ayahuasca ritual, the exact tenets of the ritual today are somewhat under debate, though a few common themes do emerge.

Most scholars and Indigenous and non-Indigenous healers agree that the plant should be cared for and treated by a plant expert called an “ayahuascero,” who after a lengthy eight- to 10-hour brewing process prepares a mudlike tea for consumption.

The medicine is brought to the seekers during a ceremony, typically held in the evening around a sacred fire. A healer called a “curandero” calls to the spirit worlds for protection at the start of the ceremony. The healer then faces the four directions of north, east, south and west and uses a branch of the vine along with a rattle made of the ayahuasca tree to sing the “icaros,” or healing songs.

Healers of the Indigenous Siekopai ethnic group take part in an ayahuasca drinking ceremony in Peru.
Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

Typically, purging begins after 20 minutes to an hour. For some people, this purging takes the form of vomiting or bowel voiding. The purging of energy that some experience physically, others experience emotionally in the form of laughter, crying, shaking or screaming into the wind. This is then sometimes followed by a movement into hallucination or a connection with the inner self where the outer world starts to fall away.

And while each person describes slightly different experiences, recurring themes include ego death – wherein people see themselves without attachment to material things or status – visions of past selves and lives, waves of healing energy, and painful moments of reckoning with past wounds.

Cultural quagmire

In the spring of 2018, a double murder in the Peruvian Amazon rocked the ayahuasca shamanic community and cast a dark shadow on the hallucinogenic brew. Olivia Arevalo, a beloved 95-year-old curandero, was killed by a Canadian ayahuasca tourist named Sebastian Woodroffe. The death of Arevalo, heralded as the grandmother of the Shipibo-Kobibo tribe, caused outrage among the community, and Woodroffe was lynched by a mob.

These incidents sparked widespread debates about non-Indigenous tourists flocking to the Amazon to imbibe the psychedelic tea: Spiritual seekers don’t always respect boundaries and processes set by local healers – the above incident being an extreme example.

Namely, as anthropologist Veronica Davidov points out, as the use of ayahuasca increases among non-Indigenous individuals, the creation of “entheogen tourism” – travel for the purposes of spiritual awakenings – raises questions about the importance of spiritual contexts in these ceremonies.

As Peruvian archaeologist and healer Ruben Orellana argues, ayahuasca rituals were developed within particular cultural contexts for Indigenous peoples. Without context, non-Indigenous seekers can veer into the territory of cultural appropriation at best, while also exposing themselves to the mental and physical health risks of the psychedelic brew.

Spiritual tourism critics also note that many of the lodges are not owned by locals and that the influx of tourists has had a negative effect on the ecosystem. Local economies don’t always benefit from the capital flowing into the area when outsiders become the middle man, even while local resources are being consumed.

Not only are the intricacies of the cultural experience not always respected or appreciated, but the ecosystem suffers from this entheogen tourism when demand for the plant results in overharvesting of the Banisteriopisis caapi vines of the ayahuasca trees.

Harmonizing and healing

While worries about cultural appropriation are not necessarily misplaced, scholars such as Mark Hay note that none of this means that Westerners need to avoid the plant medicine altogether.

Hay and others note that the mental health benefits of the plant are many and can be combined with Western approaches to illnesses such as treatment-resistant depression. Similarly, the healing powers of ayahuasca can be harmonized with Western approaches to mental health treatment and spirituality.

This harmonization is not unlike the many urban Catholic Brazilians who combined Indigenous rituals with Christianity. In the early 20th century, at least three new and distinct ayahuasca religions were born in Brazil: The Santo Daime, the Barquinha and the Uniao do Vegetal came to areas where shamans had been practicing ayahuasca rituals for hundreds of years before Christianity arrived. These religions fused Christianity with earth-based spirituality as they emphasized the role of the Holy Trinity in giving humans healing plants.

Church leaders also emphasized that the plants allowed them to get closer to God, noting that Christ spoke to them through the psychedelic brew. As a result, the practices took root with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities living in South America.

These adaptations can provide a road map to approach ayahuasca with the appropriate reverence for its cultural and spiritual grounding.

(Pardis Mahdavi, President, University of La Verne. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Carlos Castaneda – All Books In One PDF 

( PDFDrive )by Carlos Castaneda

Publication date 1968-05-06

Topics Shamanism, Shamanic, Shaman

Collection opensource

Language English

Carlos Castaneda was an American author. Starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that describe his training in shamanism, particularly with a group whose lineage descended from the Toltecs.

Pdfcoffee.compdfcoffee.com/download/burroughs-william-s-yage-letters-city-lights-1975-pdf-free.html

THE YAGE LETTERS - pdfcoffee.com

Burroughs' 1960 letter was in Floating Bear No. 5. "I am Dying,. Meester?" was in City Lights Journal No. 1. A 1953 letter was in Black Mountain. Review No. 7 .....

Core.ac.ukcore.ac.uk/download/pdf/30695323.pdf

The yagé aesthetic of William Burroughs - CORE

publish The Yage Letters in 1963,49 taking material previously published in Big Table,. 47 'From Burroughs' March 1956 “Yagé Article” manuscript' in The Yage ...

Wordpress.comcolectivotijeras.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/burroughs-william-s-queer.pdf

burroughs-william-s-queer.pdf - Colectivo Tijeras

Not so different from the Lee of the later Yage Letters, except for the phantom presence of Allerton. So I had written Junky, and the motivation for that was ...

Ucl.ac.ukdiscovery.ucl.ac.uk/1571570/1/Lees_William_Burroughs_Sailor.pdf

William Burroughs - UCL Discovery

imported vast quantities of Yage for experiments on slave labor' (Burroughs 2006). On his arrival in the Colombian caital Burroughs took a tram to the.

(2013) ‘The map is not the territory’: Cartography and Language in William S. Burroughs’ The Yage Letters

Claire Mohamed-Petit

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Colombia’s countercultures: the Beat Generation’s bad trip


William S. Burroughs in southern Colombia

by Adriaan Alsema March 15, 2021

Counterculture icon William S. Burroughs traveled to Colombia in 1953 to try ayahuasca, a drug that disappointed the writer almost as much as the capital Bogota.

Most of Burroughs’ experiences were published in his 1963 novel The Yage Letters, a collection of correspondence between the legendary late writer and his former boyfriend and late poet Allen Ginsberg.

Additional snippets of information were left by late botanist Paul Holliday, who joined Burroughs and biologist Richard Evan Shultes on their quest to the southern Putumayo province in early 1953.

Burroughs’ had traveled to Bogota in 1951 already, hoping he would find the “final fix” in Ecuador but failed to try ayahuasca as he fell out with his travel partner, Lewis Marker.

Burroughs, determined to try the relatively unknown drug, returned to Colombia in January 1953 and left the country less than two months later determined never to return.

I remember an army officer in Puerto Leguizamo telling me: “Ninety percent of the people who come to Colombia never leave.” Let’s assume he meant that they fell for the charms of the place. I belong to the ten percent who will never return.

William S. Burroughs

“Bogota, horrible as always”

In “The Yage Letters,” the beat generation icon was explicit about his dislike of Bogota during the most oppressive years of the Conservative Party, which was at war with the Liberal Party at the time.

When Burroughs arrived in the capital, the author found himself in a virtual dictatorship that was strongly influenced by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

In Bogota, more than in any other city I have visited in Latin America, you feel the dead weight of Spain, somber and oppressive. Everything official carried the “Made in Spain” seal.
William S. Burroughs

Burroughs had been deeply involved in creating one of the United States’ most influential countercultures of the 20th century, but Bogota’s youth wouldn’t be introduced to youth culture until after the author’s visit.

Colombia’s countercultures: Bogota’s rock and roll gangs

In his letters to Ginsberg, the author did little to hide his disdain for the culture in Bogota, whose culture Burroughs seemed to perceive as mediocre and pretentious.

Bogota is essentially a small town, everybody worried about what they are wearing and trying to look as if they hold a position of responsibility.
William S. Burroughs

The violent animosity between the two parties did not go unnoticed to the writer.

One night I was hiding in a liberal café when three conservative thugs in civilian clothes came in shouting “Long live the conservatives” hoping to provoke someone and kill him.
William S. Burroughs

Burroughs’ rejection of Bogota’s contemporary culture would be echoed in 1958 by a group of Medellin artists who began the “Nadaism” movement, Colombia’s first own counterculture.

Colombia’s countercultures: From nothing to nadaism

“Depressing” Putumayo

The writer traveled to Putumayo via Cali, Popayan and Pasto after Shultes had told Burroughs that ayahuasca was most easily found in the southern province where native Colombians used the drug in rituals.

On the road, Burroughs would have his first run-ins the National Police and their “annoying and pointless” searches.

Putumayo was by far the most depressing, according to the author as locals desperately seemed to hope that the Texas Oil Company would return “like the second coming of Christ,” according to Burroughs.

The author found the southern province in a depression caused by a collapsed rubber boom, a rot that was killing cocoa harvests and poor soil that make agriculture barely worthwhile.

Several times, when I was drunk, I told some people: “Look. There is no oil here. That’s why Texas quit. It’s never coming back. Do you understand?” But they couldn’t believe it.
William S. Burroughs

The American biologist who would later become a main character in the film “Embrace of the Serpant” of Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra introduced Burroughs to his two shaman.

Ayahuasca

Holliday would later remember that the author’s first ayahuasca trip was near Mocoa and prepared by a 70-year-old shaman.

According to Burroughs, the shaman was getting drunk off the aguardiente the writer had brought. Both accounts agreed the writer spent most the evening vomiting.

A shaman near Puerto Asis prepared ayahuasca following native Colombian traditions from the southeastern Vaupes province, which Burroughs describes as a considerably more pleasant experience.

Burroughs ended up traveling all the way to Puerto Leguizamo where he got stuck while tensions between the locals and the foreign visitors rose to the point they were close to sparking violence.

Puerto Leguizamo is named after a soldier who distinguished himself in the war with Peru in 1940. I asked one of the Colombians about it and he nodded: “Yes, Leguizamo was a soldier who did something in the war. “What did he do?” “Well, he did something.”
William S. Burroughs

To make matters worse, Burroughs was arrested and thrown in jail because of a visa irregularity and wasn’t released until he got malaria.

The author was ultimately able to get on a flight to Villavicencio and return to Bogota ill, he wrote Ginsberg.

Burroughs swore never to return to Colombia but did convince Ginsberg, who traveled to Putumayo to try ayahuasca in 1960.

By then, the Beat Generation was beginning to gain fame, mainly because of the poet’s epic poem “Howl,” and the now-classic novels “On the Road” by their friend Jack Kerouac and Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch.”

Aaron Rodgers details experiences with psychedelic drug ayahuasca: 'It's unlocked a lot of my heart'

Aaron Rodgers had himself a unique offseason. The reigning NFL MVP inked the biggest contract in the league, underwent a 12-day Panchakarma cleanse and dressed like Nicolas Cage in Con Air ahead of the first day of Packers training camp.

© Provided by Sporting NewsAaron Rodgers details experiences with psychedelic drug ayahuasca: 'It's unlocked a lot of my heart'

Nestled in between those events, Rodgers revealed that he went on an "ayahuasca journey" this summer, traveling to Peru to ingest the plant-based psychedelic.

In a recent appearance on the "Aubrey Marcus Podcast", Rodgers compared his experience with the drug to "feeling 100 different on my body, of love and forgiveness for myself, and gratitude for this life."

MORE: What is ayahuasca? (YAGE)

He offered a few more details of his trip when talking to NBC Sports' Peter King:

We sat three different nights with the medicine. I came in with an intention of doing a lot of healing of other relationships and bringing in certain people to have conversations with. Most of the work was around myself and figuring out what unconditional love of myself looks like of myself. In doing that, allowing me to understand how to unconditionally love other people but first realizing it’s gotta start with myself. I’ve got to be a little more gentle with myself and compassionate and forgiving because I’ve had some negative voices, negative self-talk, for a long time. A lot of healing went on.

Related video: Aaron Rodgers says psychedelic drug led to best season of his career
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Rodgers explained that he used the substance as a vehicle to discover himself and what makes him tick. For the four-time MVP winner, the trip was a successful one, allowing him to come to grips with some of the strife in his personal life — mainly in regards to relationships with others and himself.

I think it’s unlocked a lot of my heart. Being able to fully give my heart to my teammates, my loved ones, relationships because I can fully embrace unconditionally myself. ... When you figure out a better way to love yourself, I think you can love people better because you’re not casting the same judgment you cast on yourself on other people. I’m really thankful for that.

Poetic stuff from Rodgers, truly. The 38-year-old acknowledged that he still had a lot of work to do to reconcile relationships with those he had backed away from years ago. However, he feels he has the tools to make sense of the wave of emotions that crash into each other amid the day-to-day churn the NFL schedule.

MORE: Where Rodgers ranks among the NFL's top quarterbacks for 2022

Rodgers also noted that the experience, in conjunction with therapy and meditation, helped him fall back in love with football all over again. Rodgers never didn't love the game. But he wasn't certain if he was "in love" with football.

Now, he knows.

I think I just football in love with it a little bit deeper. Again, I think a lot of that is due to the work that I’ve done on myself. It hasn’t all been just the ayahuasca journey. It’s been therapy. It’s been meditation. It’s been changing habits that weren’t giving me any type of joy. Eating better. Taking care of myself a little bit better. Being more gentle with myself. All those things have allowed me to look at each day with a little more joy.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YAGE 

THE SAGE THAT USES YAGE
Des Moines church fights IRS over 'religious' use of hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca
Clark Kauffman, Iowa Captial Dispatch
October 27, 2021

Geometry of the Soul series two. Background design of human profile and abstract elements on the subject of spirituality, science, creativity and the mind (Shutterstock)

A Des Moines-based church that uses a hallucinogenic drug in religious ceremonies is challenging the Internal Revenue Service's decision to deny it tax-exempt status.

According to the lawsuit, filed recently in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Iowaska Church of Healing was formed in Iowa as a non-profit corporation in September 2018.

Corporate records indicate the church is run by Admir Dado Kantarevic, along with Billy Benskin and Merzuk Ramic, and its official location is Kantarevic's home, located at 4114 27th St., Des Moines. The lawsuit makes references to the church having 20 members at one point in time.

The church's teachings are built around the use of ayahuasca, which is brewed from the leaves of the shrubs and vines found in the Amazon. Elements of those plants have powerful hallucinogenic properties, which the church says can be used to awaken “the Third Eye" of its followers.

The Third Eye is described by the church on its website as “an organ that no one speaks about at school or in private" and which is “secretly protected in the geometric center of your skull."

In court filings, the church says that in January 2019 it filed an application with the IRS seeking tax-exempt status and was denied. With the assistance of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley's office, the lawsuit alleges, the appeals process at the IRS was expedited and an appeal conference was held in April of this year.

A final determination letter denying tax-exempt status was issued in June of this year, stating that the church's use of the “Sacrament of Ayahuasca" in its religious practices was illegal, the lawsuit claims.


In court filings, the church acknowledges that under the federal Controlled Substances Act, an ingredient of ayahuasca called dimethyltryptamine or DMT, is a Schedule I drug and a hallucinogenic alkaloid, and that there is no statutory exemption allowing for its use in religious ceremonies.

According to the church, however, the IRS decision to withhold tax-exempt status “directly contradicts" a past U.S. Supreme Court ruling and also violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

The case that was heard by the Supreme Court involves a different church whose members received communion by drinking ayahuasca in the form of a tea brewed from plants found in the Amazon rainforest. After U.S. Customs seized a shipment of ayahuasca that was being shipped to the church, federal authorities threatened criminal prosecution and the church filed a lawsuit for injunctive relief.

The government conceded that while the sacramental use of ayahuasca was an exercise of religion, te sacramental use of the substance was still prohibited by law. The Supreme Court ruled the government's actions violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and it affirmed a lower court's preliminary injunction in favor of the church.

According to the lawsuit, the IRS has stated the Des Moines church has been formed for an illegal purpose – the distribution of a controlled substance.

The Iowaska Church of Healing disputes that and says its mission is to help individuals “attain healing of the mind, body and spirit through the sacred Sacrament of Ayahuasca under the guidelines of North and South American indigenous traditions and cultural values."'

Church leader convicted in high-profile drug case

The lawsuit states that ayahuasca is consumed in the form of a tea during the church's religious ceremonies and that its services also “involve prayers, smudging and spiritual music." The basis of its doctrine emanates from the Ayahuasca Manifesto, a document that details the role of ayahuasca in the expansion of consciousness, the church says.

In February 2019, the church filed a request with the Drug Enforcement Administration, seeking a religious exemption from the Controlled Substance Act. To date, the church alleges, the DEA has delivered no “substantive response" to the request, despite repeated follow-up inquiries, including one sent by Grassley's office.

The IRS has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.

Court records indicate that in December 2005, Kantarevic, then a personal trainer, was convicted of possession of anabolic steroids and sentenced to one year of probation. He was charged in connection with a federal investigation into the illegal importation of steroids for bodybuilders.

In his written guilty plea, Kantarevic acknowledged having received more than 3,500 grams of anabolic steroids through the mail in Des Moines, from both Thailand and California, with the intent of keeping some of the drug and mailing the rest to others.

As part of his plea, he acknowledged that it was his understanding the drugs came from Milos Sarcev and were to be paid for by Dennis James.

At the time, Sarcev and James were internationally known, competitive bodybuilders. Sarcev was a two-time holder of the title Mr. Yugoslavia, and James was a top competitor in the 2004 Mr. Universe contest.

Both men later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess anabolic steroids.

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