Beatriz Caiuby Labate · Clancy Cavnar Editors Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science Cultural Perspectives Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science Beatriz Caiuby Labate • Clancy Cavnar Editors Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science Cultural Perspectives Editors Beatriz Caiuby Labate Clancy Cavnar East-West Psychology Program Psychiatric Alternatives California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) San Francisco, California, USA San Francisco, CA, USA Center for Research and Post Graduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) Guadalajara, Mexico ISBN 978-3-319-76719-2 ISBN 978-3-319-76720-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935154 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements We thank all the authors of this book for their contributions and Rick Doblin and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) for their support for this book. v Notes on Plant Medicines, Healing, and Scientists Conferences are often boring affairs. Very serious people, often in ill-fitting suits, talk to one another about things they generally agree about. If you are an insider, you know what will happen, because it has happened before, the same conversations repeated again and again, the only difference being the color of the carpeting in an otherwise unremarkable conference room, in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, wherever. Not so with Psychedelic Science 2017, promoted by MAPS and the Beckley Foundation, and held in April 2017 in Oakland, California, which provided the inspiration for this book. There have been a series of Psychedelic Science conferences in the past that acted principally as forums in which researchers—who had either hewn very close to the cutting edge or gone over it into a sort of cloak and dagger, one step ahead of the law, mix of research and practice—came together to discuss their findings in what might be called a safe space, under the watchful eye of the law, but emboldened by their numbers and safe inasmuch as they were talking, only talking. This time, though, MAPS introduced new elements to the event: bigger and more diverse than before, the researchers, writers, activists, and enthusiasts who gathered for the conference had a whole new set of aspirations. They gathered in a state that had just voted to legalize marijuana, at a time when many of the participants could report on legally sanctioned trials of psychedelic drugs being used in experiments, exploring their use in palliative care, with depression, and with PTSD, among other things. And they met in a context where another difficult issue overlay the entire discussion. Just as some scientists and drug enthusiasts saw in these substances cures for physical and existential ills, a growing chorus of voices was crying foul about the transformed and profane place that many of these “medicines” seemed to occupy in contemporary society. Plant medicines, and particularly substances like ayahuasca, peyote, Salvia divinorum, iboga, and psilocybin mushrooms, have long played a central role in the spiritual lives and curing repertoires of a number of indigenous cultures in the Americas and in Africa, and for many of those in these communities, the current psychedelic vogue smacked of some form of appropriation. vii viii Notes on Plant Medicines, Healing, and Scientists This tension, which at times boiled over into open conflict in Psychedelic Science 2017, gave rise to this book. For the first time in the history of the Psychedelic Sciences conferences cosponsored by MAPS, the 2017 conference included a Plant Medicine track, organized by Beatriz Labate, and meant as a setting where fruitful dialogues might take place over the role of these plants in both indigenous and nonindigenous settings. The chapters in this volume represent the intellectual work that lay at the heart of that dialogue. They are the product of moments in which their authors opened themselves up to voices that applauded, critiqued, rejected, and, at times, simply misunderstood their intentions. These rich responses were possible because it was anything but the traditional staid academic conference. Instead, it often had a cacophonous feel, as scholars, activists, drug enthusiasts, and traditional users of these substances confronted the complexities of one another’s views. Through these dialogues, a few core issues emerged. First and foremost was the challenge of taxonomy. The plant medicines discussed at Psychedelic Science 2017 (principally, iboga, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, kratom, cannabis, ayahuasca, and toé) mean such profoundly different things in different settings that it is sometimes difficult to even agree that we are talking about common substances. Some will insist that these are gods, and sacred medicines, while others are much more interested in the chemical makeup of what they consider to be a plant drug. Uses also vary immensely from one setting to another, and these differences came up time and time again at Psychedelic Science 2017. These substances do not seem to have uniform impacts on the bodies of those who consume them, but instead become meaningful based on a complex set of factors that can include patterns of nutrition, living habits, traditions of exposure, and the cultural milieu within which these substances are consumed. In some contexts, they also seem to have profoundly different social meanings, either contributing to what we might call communal reproduction or being implicated in very individualized journeys of introspection. At Psychedelic Science 2017, we did not even see a common understanding of how to classify these substances as a whole. Whereas some participants used the term “drug” to describe these “hallucinogens,” others chafed at the term and suggested that this did violence to a sacred plant: a deity, really. While some insisted that the appropriate term was “plant teacher,” others suggested terms such as “sacraments” or “traditional medicine.” One might be inclined to categorize these conflicts through the concept of “appropriation,” as indeed some attendees at Psychedelic Science 2017 suggested. In this way of seeing things, the plant medicines discussed at the conference were authentic to certain traditional indigenous settings, and those who sought to consume these substances outside of those settings (or who were themselves outsiders) had stolen Native patrimonies and were refashioning them in ways that were destructive of Native cultures. It is an argument that seems all the more salient given the ecological risk that the habitats for many of these plants face, and is one that has a long history in the Americas, where native plant medicines have faced prohibition largely because non-Natives have taken them up. Appropriation in this sense also relies on the claim that the meanings of these medicines have been transformed by consuming them out of context and that what was once a custom rooted in a Notes on Plant Medicines, Healing, and Scientists ix communal healing process had become a dangerous drug in the hands of outsiders, placing everyone at risk. And yet, even as these powerful arguments were being made, others at the conference were making similarly compelling arguments about the role that these plant medicines had played, and could potentially play, in healing processes outside of their traditional settings. These voices did not generally suggest that outsiders might replicate, or even understand, traditional Native uses, but relied on the claim—and on evidence that backed up that claim—that in certain carefully curated settings, psychedelic plant medicines could have a powerful healing effect that, while different in specific contexts, was nonetheless powerfully therapeutic. And all along, other advocates—especially the enthusiasts who simply believed that, in a free society, they should be entitled to consume substances that are not particularly dangerous and offer powerful mystical experiences—repeatedly made their voices heard. If they wanted to get high, whose business