Non-Native Ayahuasca Use A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at George Mason University By Danylo Kosovych Bachelor of Science University of Mary Washington, 2005 Director: Linda J. Seligmann, Professor Sociology & Anthropology Fall Semester 2010 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright: 2010 DANYLO KOSOVYCH All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Meghan for the opportunity and Linda for her guidance. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables ................................................................................................................... v Abstract ........................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 : Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 : The Fieldsite ................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 3 : Shamans Through Time .............................................................................. 28 Chapter 4 : Motivations for Non-Native Ayahuasca Use .............................................. 60 Chapter 5 : Effects of Non-Native Ayahuasca Use ....................................................... 72 Chapter 6 : Motivations of the Ayahuasca users in Magdalena ................................... 91 Chapter 7 : The Effects of Ayahuasca on the Participants of Soul Vine ..................... 102 Chapter 8 : Conclusion ................................................................................................. 134 Works Cited ................................................................................................................. 136 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1: Principal Motivators ........................................................................................ 70 Table 2: Informant Motivations ..................................................................................... 92 v ABSTRACT NON-NATIVE AYAHUASCA USE Danylo Kosovych, MA George Mason University, 2011 Thesis Director: Linda J. Seligmann, Ph.D. This thesis explores the use of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant concoction from the Amazon, by people from the English speaking world. This thesis argues that there is no “original” or “typical” use of ayahuasca; it is a dynamic practice that has undergone massive change. In order to show this change, this thesis describes the different roles that shamans have had as a result of colonialism and modernization. Fieldwork was carried out at a healing center in the Peruvian Amazon. The motivations of informants and the effects ayahuasca had on them are compared with previous research on non-native ayahuasca use. The motivations of non-natives for taking ayahuasca are different from native motivations. The two main reasons are a desire for an end to alienation and a resolution of emotional trauma. Nearly all participants reported positive experiences from taking ayahuasca. The ayahuasca intoxication produces a liminal period, in which participants are able to reflect upon the issues affecting them. CHAPTER 1: Introduction This thesis will focus on non-native ayahuasca use, sometimes known as “ayahuasca tourism” (de Rios & Rumrrill 2008), through an analysis of one business in Peru, Soul Vine. English-speaking people from all over the world travel to Soul Vine to participate in ayahuasca healing ceremonies in exchange for payment. Some consider this practice “as decontextualized as an indigenous basket on a suburban wall” (Beyer 2009, 352), while others consider it an “evil and exploitive enterprise” that “does harm to participants” (de Rios & Rumrrill 2008, 70-1). This thesis argues that non-native ayahuasca use does have a context in “radical modernity” (Johnson 2003), that rather than being a form of empty self-gratification it can serve to alleviate the problems caused by the modern condition (Pinchbeck 2003). Rather than doing harm to participants, the results of this study agree with those of Winkelman (2005) & Schmid et al (2010), that ayahuasca has the capacity to heal patients both emotionally and physically. The people attending Soul Vine are almost all white. They range in age from 15 to 60 years. Children sometimes accompany their parents. The professions of the patients vary from construction worker to doctor. An almost equal number of men and women were represented. People come for the minimum ten day package which costs $1000. Eight of the days are spent in Magdalena and two of those days are spent traveling back and forth from Iquitos. Participants take ayahuasca five times over a period of eight days. 1 They take it two for two consecutive nights and rest one night in between ending on a single ceremony. Half of the participants were long term guests. They participate in consecutive eight day “groups.” Following an eight-day group, the guests and the staff take a week long break and travel to Iquitos. The staff uses this time to buy foodstuffs and ayahuasca vine. They rest for a few days and come back at the end of the week with the new guests for the following group. While at the lodge, people spend most of their time relaxing, chatting, smoking cigarettes and recovering from the effects of ayahuasca from the night before. People discuss their experiences from the previous night in a common language. “Purge” is used to describe any sort of release, physical or emotional, tied to an issue that one is dealing with. Although the word spirit is used, issues are conceptualized mainly from a psychological point of view. Spirits are purged, but the spirit is tied to a traumatic event or emotional issue that one is trying to deal with. This differs greatly from the native concept of ayahuasca healing where one seeks an ayahuasca healer to rid oneself of the curse placed on oneself by another. The guests of Soul Vine frame their healing within a personal context focusing on psychological issues that have debilitated them in their lives. Fieldwork I arrived in the middle of a tumultuous eight day group the morning after one of the guests spent the whole night screaming and talking in tongues. Allison, the owner of Soul Vine, thought it best that I did not participate that evening in the ceremony as it 2 would “throw off the energy of the group.” This made good sense, especially since I had just arrived and wanted to settle in a bit before taking the world’s most powerful hallucinogen. Allison said it would be best to start fresh with the next group. Although I spent time eating and chatting with the guests at Soul Vine, initially, I spent more time with the town residents than I did with the lodge guests. In turn, the first half of my research was more influenced by the opinions and actions of the townspeople. I developed an outsider’s view of the practices of Soul Vine before I delved in and came to see the insider’s view. I arrived on a Thursday, did not participate in the ceremony on Friday, observed the local discotheques and sampled the local beer that Saturday, experienced a hangover on Sunday, and therefore did not participate in the ceremony that night. The guests and staff of Soul Vine left that Tuesday for Iquitos. It was a week before I saw them again. In the meantime, I got to know better the townspeople’s points of view. I interviewed many people about ayahuasca use and their opinion of Soul Vine (SV). I began to form my own opinion of it as well. I spent a couple days in the jungle in order to observe the local natural environment. I went into the jungle with one of the men from town and two guides from the community of Nuevo Progresso, located a half an hour down river. We spent three days in the jungle together at a lagoon a half a day’s walk and a half a day’s travel up river. I felt like an outsider among them. The two guides had grown up together and shared many experiences. While my friend from town did not grow up with them, he was from the same area. Together the three of them shared an understanding that I did not. When the 3 three of them would talk together I could not relate to what they were talking about. They would laugh and I would not get the joke. When I returned to town I went to the river with two of the people from SV, an Australian and an American. Despite all my experience traveling and my ability to speak Spanish, I could relate to my fellow gringos on a much deeper level. Nonetheless, I still retained an outsider view of the practices of SV. It wasn’t until my first ayahuasca ceremony that I began to understand why they did what they did. I participated in four out of the five ceremonies that week. The second ceremony I did not participate in because of how powerful the first one was. Those eight days were spent mostly with the people from SV. While I did not sleep and eat there, the rest of my time was spent with them. Sharing experiences with the subjects in the ceremony brought me closer to them. I never conducted a formal interview but had many conversations about their reasons for going to Peru, how the ayahuasca affected them and their personal lives at home. I have maintained contact by electronic means with many of the guests of SV, especially those who had been there for a long period of time. Methods I spent one month in the town of Magdalena in a rented room at the town’s most visited guest house, apart from the Soul Vine lodge. While I might have gained a deeper perspective into the everyday