The Internationalization of Peruvian Vegetalismo

‘Whatever you want to believe’: kaleidoscopic individualism and ayahuasca healing in Australia

“…Over the last ten years, ayahuasca use in Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil has germinated a burgeoning shamanic tourism industry (Davidov ; Fotiou ; Holman ). During the last twenty years the syncretic Brazilian ayahuasca religions became globalised to include parts of Europe, North America, Australasia, Southern Africa, and elsewhere (Labate and Jungaberle ). In parallel, the emergence of a decentralised network of neoshamanic and experimental ayahuasca groups that do not subscribe to specific religious doctrines has proliferated in Western societies (Tupper ; Labate and Jungaberle ) including in Australia .…”

“…During the last twenty years the syncretic Brazilian ayahuasca religions became globalised to include parts of Europe, North America, Australasia, Southern Africa, and elsewhere (Labate and Jungaberle ). In parallel, the emergence of a decentralised network of neoshamanic and experimental ayahuasca groups that do not subscribe to specific religious doctrines has proliferated in Western societies (Tupper ; Labate and Jungaberle ) including in Australia . It is this final, neoshamanic form of drinking ayahuasca in Western societies that is explored in this paper…”

A Single Dose Of Ayahuasca Modulates Salivary Cortisol In Treatment-Resistant Depression

“…A recent open label trial in treatment-resistant depression observed a reduction of up to 87% in depression severity, already at 24h after a single dosing session with ayahuasca (24, 23). Ayahuasca was originally used for medicinal purposes by indigenous populations groups in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, and later its ritualistic use became more popular by its presence in ceremonies of different syncretic churches in Brazil, which is currently spreading to other parts of the world (25).…”

An Amazonian shamanic brew in Australia: ayahuasca healing and individualism

“…Around the same period, the anthropologist Douglas Sharon and the psychologist Alberto Villoldo cooperated on tours in which Westerners travelled to Peru to participate in retreats conduced by the San Pedro (psychedelic cactus) shaman Eduardo Calderon (Joralemon 1994). While Calderon did not administer ayahuasca, the cosmological precepts and performances of indigenous shamanism in the retreats have a lot in common with contemporary practices of ayahuasca neoshamanism in Australia and in parts of the ayahuasca tourism networks of the Amazon (Davidov 2010;Fotiou 2010;Labate 2014). In a series of VHS video lessons that participants received when doing the shamanic tour, Villoldo explained to participants that participating in the tours involves serving "the earth in a fuller way" in order to serve the personal spiritual evolution of the self, and that participants undertake the tour to "learn to trust [their] inner visions and to begin to connect with Mother Earth" (Joralemon 1994:107).…”