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

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.

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.

World Insights: America's looming national debt crunch could spell disaster for world

DEAR U$A; YOUR BANK IS CALLING YOU

A man walks past the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., the United States, March 16, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

The swelling national debt number, edging closer to the 31.4-trillion-dollar statutory ceiling the U.S. Congress placed on the government's borrowing ability, has raised concerns about U.S. fiscal sustainability and its negative spillover effects on global financial markets.

by Xinhua writer Guo Yage

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 33 years ago, a billboard-sized running total display was installed a block away from Times Square in New York City to remind passersby how much money the U.S. federal government has borrowed from the public and has yet to pay back.

However, this tally, well-known as the National Debt Clock, did not seem to bother successive U.S. governments, including the current administration. It read 31.1 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time on Oct. 3, and is still ticking away madly.

The swelling national debt number, edging closer to the 31.4-trillion-dollar statutory ceiling the U.S. Congress placed on the government's borrowing ability, has raised concerns about U.S. fiscal sustainability and its negative spillover effects on global financial markets.



A woman walks on the street after shopping at a supermarket in Washington, D.C., the United States, on June 14, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

DISGRACEFUL RECORD

The total public debt outstanding reached 31.1 trillion dollars on Oct. 3, including 24.3 trillion dollars in debt held by the public and 6.8 trillion in intergovernmental holdings, said the U.S. Treasury Department's daily treasury statement released on Oct. 4.

In fact, real-time data released by the official website of the National Debt Clock showed that the debt number, having so far well surpassed 31.1 trillion, amounts to more than 93,400 dollars of debt per American citizen, and nearly 250,000 dollars of debt per taxpayer.

Given the new record, the ratio of the U.S. federal debt to the GDP has risen to roughly 126 percent, the data showed.

An estimate by British financial media outlet Finbold showed that in 2022 alone, the U.S. national debt grows by almost 6 billion dollars every day.

The number is more than the value of the economies of China, Japan, Germany and Britain combined, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation (PGPF) noted in an article published last week.

If every U.S. household paid 1,000 dollars a month, it would still take 19 years for the debt to be paid off, noted the article.

"This is a new record no one should be proud of," said Maya MacGuineas, president of budget watch group the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

About eight months ago, the total U.S. public debt outstanding exceeded 30 trillion dollars, hitting a fiscal milestone. In an attempt to avert a looming debt default, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in December to raise the debt limit to the current 31.4 trillion dollars. The hike, however, failed to stop the U.S. national debt from reaching nosebleed levels.

"While much of that new borrowing was necessary to combat COVID, we are now past the most severe challenges of the pandemic, and it is time to budget responsibly -- yet we are still borrowing," MacGuineas said.





DEBT ADDICT

"The coronavirus pandemic rapidly accelerated our fiscal challenges, but we were already on an unsustainable path, with structural drivers that existed long before the pandemic," the PGPF said.

As the foundation noted, the United States has enjoyed a borrowing binge over the past decades, with its gross debt increasing from 3.2 trillion dollars in 1990 to 5.62 trillion in 2000, and then to 13.56 trillion in 2010. The country's gross debt hit 27.72 trillion dollars in 2020, and surpassed 30 trillion dollars in late January.

A significant share of the overall federal spending went to the U.S. national defense budget. An article released by the PGPF in early May showed the U.S. defense spending accounted for more than 10 percent of all federal spending, and has remained No. 1 in the world for years.

Up to Us, a U.S. non-profit aimed at creating national debt awareness on college campuses, noted in an article published in 2020 that the country's national debt hit the 1 trillion mark for the first time in history by 1982 after the Vietnam War and the Cold War.

"By the 21st century, the national debt got to 20 trillion dollars after major events such as the War on Terror," it said.

Adding to the federal government's big spending on endless wars are its massive stimulus packages, rounds of tax cuts as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve's sudden reversal of its monetary strategy from a years-long "quantitative easing" policy to a tighter one, which, noted the U.S. Bank National Association in an article in late September, "will likely result in weakening the job market as businesses slow activity in the wake of higher borrowing costs."

In December 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump signed off a 2.3-trillion-dollar spending package. In 2022 alone, the U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden have approved a combined 1.9 trillion dollars in new borrowing, and Biden has approved 4.9 trillion dollars in new deficits since taking office.

To prevent the government from defaulting on its legal obligations, the U.S. Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit ever since 1960, noted the Treasury Department.

"We are addicted to debt," said MacGuineas, adding that for decades, U.S. lawmakers have chosen to "pass politically easy policies" rather than face the challenges of true governing.

"Basically, Washington has engaged in a long-term debt spree," said a New York Times article published on Oct. 4.



Photo taken on Aug. 4, 2022 shows the White House and a stop sign in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

TIME BOMB

"If we don't cut spending, disaster WILL come," American TV reporter John Stossel tweeted two days after the U.S. national debt reached the new record. Just as he wrote, the galloping U.S. borrowing, if not properly managed, would be nightmares for both the United States and the larger world.

As it stands, the United States is set to breach the 50-trillion-dollar mark in debt by 2030, Forbes estimated in September 2020.

In a report released in May, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned that such a debt path would push up borrowing costs for the private sector, which would result in lower business investment and slow the growth of economic output over time.

To make things worse, as the Fed is determined to keep hiking interest rates to tame inflation, the U.S. government will have to pay more for its huge borrowing. The PGPF noted in an article published in September that "interest payments would total around 66 trillion dollars over the next 30 years and would take up nearly 40 percent of all federal revenues by 2052. Interest costs would also become the largest 'program' over the next few decades."

"Interest on the national debt is exploding and heading toward what economists refer to as a 'doom loop' -- the vicious circle in which the government's borrowing to pay interests generates yet more interest and yet more borrowing," a Wall Street Journal opinion noted in late September.

"The risk would rise of investors' losing confidence in the U.S. government's ability to service and repay its debt, causing interest rates to increase abruptly and inflation to spiral upward, or other disruptions," the CBO said in May, warning of the likelihood of a fiscal crisis in the United States.

Meanwhile, if the U.S. government defaults on its bills and shuts down amid bitter partisan wrangles, it would "detonate a bomb in the middle of the global financial system," Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told the Voice of America (VOA) last year.

The VOA article went on to elaborate that a U.S. debt default would echo through the global economy by reducing global trade, make dollarized economies suffer, affect business contracts, erode the dollar's global reserve currency status, among others.

Back in 2011, the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis sparked the most volatile week for financial markets since 2008, with the stock market trending significantly downward. It also resulted in the country's first credit downgrade in history. Last year, when the government risked defaulting on debt again, Moody's Analytics estimated that stock prices would likely plunge 33 percent, setting off a downturn that would rival the Great Recession.

A U.S. default on its financial obligations "would very likely lead to a global financial meltdown," said an editorial published Sunday by Missouri-based newspaper St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Even talking about that is the height of political irresponsibility." Enditem

(Xinhua reporters Xiong Maoling in Washington, and Su Liang, Deng Qian and Fu Yunwei in Beijing also contributed to the story.)■