Shamanism vs. Capitalism: The Politics of Ayahuasca

Over the years, since 1998, The Prophets Conference/Great Rethinking organization has been facilitating journeys into the Peruvian Amazon and mountain highlands with Peter Gorman and his native curanderos and teacher collaborators. These expeditions have taken many pilgrims into vast realms of Expansive Being utilizing the old and proven paths provided by the native plant teachers. The medicine, the mystery, the Amazon and the Andes: Add them all together and it’s a recipe for a life-changing, life-affirming trip.

There are only a couple of places remaining for the June 2009 Gorman trip. If interested in joining, you will find full information linked at www.greatmystery.org/events/peru.html.

Shamans preside over an ayahuasca ceremony in the Peruvian Amazon.
Photo credit: National Geographic Magazine

Vision Quest
Shamanism vs. Capitalism: The Politics of Ayahuasca
by
Martin A. Lee
WANDER long enough through the bustling passageways of any crowded village marketplace in the northwest Amazon and you'll come upon herbalist stands with dried plants, hanging animal parts, and lots of bottled medicines. Among the local offerings you'll inevitably find "ayahuasca," a fearsome, foul-tasting, jungle brew sold by the liter.

Pronounced "ah-yah-waska," the word is from the Quechua language; it means "vine of the soul," "vine of the dead," or "the vision vine." Known by various names among 72 native ayahuasca-ingesting cultures in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, this legendary, industrial-strength hallucinogen is used by curanderos, or witch doctors, to heal the sick and communicate with spirits. Many rainforest shamans simply refer to ayahuasca as el remedio, "the remedy."

Revered by indigenous people as a sacred medicine, a master cure for all diseases, it is without a doubt the most celebrated hallucinogenic plant concoction of the Amazon. But it's also under threat from both anti-narcotics agencies and corporations that want to patent it and corner the market on its use.

Plant Teachers
Long ago, South American Indian medicine men and medicine women became adept at manipulating an array of ingredients that were mixed and boiled into ayahuasca, or "yagé," as it is often called. An elaborate set of rituals governed every step of the process, from gathering leaves, roots, and bark to cooking and administering the intoxicant.

Ayahuasca is unique in that its powerful psychopharmacological effect is dependent on a synergistic combination of active alkaloids from at least two plants--the Banisteriopsis caapi vine containing the crucial harmala alkaloids, along with the leafy plant Psychotria viridis or some other hallucinogenic admixture that contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT) alkaloids.

Most curious is the fact that when taken orally, DMT is metabolized and deactivated by a particular gastric enzyme. But certain chemicals in the yagé vine counter the action of this stomach enzyme, thereby allowing the DMT to circulate through the bloodstream and into the brain, where it triggers intense visions and supernatural experiences.

Contemporary researchers marvel at what chemist J. C. Callaway describes as "one of the most sophisticated drug delivery systems in existence." Just how the Amazon Indians managed to figure out this amazing bit of synergistic alchemy is one of the many mysteries of yagé.

The ayahuasqueros, the native healers who use yagé, will tell you that their knowledge comes directly from "the plant teachers" themselves. Hallucinogenic botanicals are viewed as the embodiments of intelligent beings who become visible only in special states of consciousness and who function as spirit guides and sources of healing power and knowledge.

According to indigenous folklore, ayahuasca is the fount of all understanding, the ultimate medium that reveals the mythological origins of life. To drink yagé, anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff once wrote, is to return to the cosmic uterus, the primordial womb of existence, "where the individual 'sees' the tribal divinities, the creation of the universe and humanity, the first couple, the creation of the animals, and the establishment of the social order."

Continue reading — PART 2