NAFPS Forum

Hello, greetings to all.  My name here is Beija-flor.  I am of mixed-blood Ktunaxa descent and practice ancestral sacred ways, as best I can, but this is personal and not something I usually talk about.  But I deeply appreciate your efforts here to protect these ways.

I have been reading these boards on and off for quite a few years, but decided to join because I felt there were things I could contribute.

One thing is that I have spent years in South America (in the Andes and northwestern Amazon) and speak Quechua.  About twelve years ago, I became involved with Indians of the Ecuadorean Amazon in their struggle to save their lands from destruction by oil companies, and they introduced me to Ayahuasca. I ended up spending almost two years there, living with an Ayahuasca curandero's family, participating in all the ceremonies, and learning to speak their language (a northern dialect of Quechua).  I also participated in Ayahuasca ceremonies with other tribes.  So, since in recent years Ayahuasca has become an increasing focus of the New Age community, I thought that I might have something of value to offer if it comes up for discussion.

The other reason is connected to this.  Several years ago I joined the Santo Daime church.  On a recent browse through these forums, I noticed some recent discussion about the Santo Daime, and it seemed that there was a great lack of information about it.  I thought I could fill in this particular gap in information.  So that was what actually made me decide to finally join.

Hello, are you still promoting Ayahuasca tourism, and hooking up tourists with those who lead pay to pray ceremonies for cultural outsiders?

Don't you have concerns about how the medicines and ceremonies and cultures of the traditional people are being endangered by this tourism? A number of us here are friends with, and relatives of, traditional NDN spiritual leaders who have met with the traditional people in the areas where tourism is devastating their cultures. I'm not sure how you can claim to care about these ways while sending non-Natives down there to appropriate from the Indigenous people.

However, although I think you may possibly be confusing me with someone else, I will add some points about the current phenomenon of Ayahuasca tourism.

Tourism itself is very complex in its impact.  It can help or harm a community, depending on many things; in the Andes many communities want to increase tourism to increase the markets for their crafts, for example. But when the impact of tourism becomes too great and crafts are produced primarily for tourists, many valuable things can be lost.  That is one simple example of the impact of tourism.  It is very complex and difficult for an outsider to judge.

As far as Ayahuasca tourism is concerned, there are several important points.

First of all, almost all of the Ayahuasca tourism is, in fact, happening in mestizo and not indigenous communities.  Mestizo Ayahuasca practice is not a product of tourism but was already well-established in Peru long before Ayahuasca tourism began.  Its origins are similar to those of the Brazilian Ayahuasca churches -- through the contact of rubber tappers with indigenous people in the western Amazon during the Rubber Boom of the early twentieth century.  Rubber trees could only grow wild and were scattered around the forest, so rubber tappers basically worked alone, and if they had any health problems, they had no one to turn to but the Indians.  Some of these rubber tappers apprenticed to indigenous curanderos, and as the mestizo population grew and developed into towns, the mestizo curanderos were the only health practitioners available to them.  Over several generations, a distinct mestizo Ayahuasca healing tradition grew up, and it became an urban practice.

Ayahuasca is considered a healing practice, not a religious practice, by these mestizo curanderos.  It is treated as a business, they regard themselves as professionals. like doctors.  They are used to treating strangers. 

However, the foreigners who come have so much more money than local Peruvians that that has had an increasing impact.  It is creating more and more competition among curanderos for money, more focus upon the foreigners who can pay more than the locals who can pay little, and much more charlatanism. The Ayahuasca retreats being built in the jungle are being built by curanderos who formerly served their own people in the cities of Iquitos and Pucallpa.  Personally, the commercialization of Ayahuasca creates strong feelings in me.... but Ayahuasca tourism did not create that commercialization.  It only folded into it.  Urban Ayahuasca curanderismo was already a commercial business decades ago.   

I have my feelings about it, but it is not for me to judge.  Especially since I discovered that even among the indigenous groups untouched by tourism (like the people among whom I lived) it was normal, traditional practice to charge money for ceremonies.  That was hard for me to get used to, and there were many other things like that that were hard for me to get used to.  But it is their culture, and not for me to judge.

But back to the subject of Ayahuasca tourism, among the 100+ indigenous cultures that use Ayahuasca in the Amazon, only one -- the Shipibo -- has embraced Ayahuasca tourism and has actively become involved in it.  I don't feel that as an outsider I can judge them for that.  I don't know all the effects that this has on their culture, but I have been told that it has caused a revival of interest in Ayahuasca, where it had been being lost due to the missionaries.  Another effect that tourism has had is to bring female curanderas to the forefront.  There have been so many incidences of sexual molestation of female tourists by male curanderos that female Ayahuasca tourists are now increasingly going to the Shipibos because of their female curanderas, and this has greatly elevated the position of the women.  Again, as an outsider, I cannot judge the Shipibos or what is happening to them as a result of this situation.

One other point -- in a certain way, the word "tourism" has misleading connotations.  "Tourists" usually seek pleasant and diverting experiences.  Ayahuasca is not pleasant.  In fact, it can be an ordeal.  It can be the worst ordeal of your life.  That is why Ayahuasca will never be a recreational drug.  The "tourists" who go are going to seek healing.  Ayahuasca is a powerful healing spirit.  It is a being.

Although there was no Ayahuasca tourism where I lived, I was very surprised at how open the Indians were to sharing Ayahuasca with total strangers.  But after I knew Ayahuasca better I understood.  She doesn't need to be protected, she is very capable of protecting herself.  If someone comes to Ayahuasca with the wrong intent, she can take care of them herself.  But she wants to help people, if they come to her for help.  (Once upon a time I would have been reticent about talking about spirits in such an open way, but I got very used to openly discussing the Ayahuasca spirit when living with the indigenous people there.)

Among the 100+ indigenous groups

Ah... OK, I had thought you were also using the same screen name here as on your blog and forum. I looked again and see you are using three different screen names on various sites, but the same personal contact info for all three. We will not reveal your identity unless you try to mislead people. I'm not accusing you of lying (I haven't read all your posts yet) but we have had many ceremony-sellers and their defenders come here and try that, so I'm just putting that out there.

I am talking about when, on your blog, someone commented on one of your "shamanism" posts and asked if you could refer them to a shaman in Peru, because they wanted to travel there. You referred them to the "Connections & Events" section of the forum you co-moderate.

If you believe I have you confused with someone else who promotes Ayahuasca tourism, please clarify this in a PM or here. If I am wrong about this I apologize, but I have read the blog and forum and I think it's clear who you are.

Quote from: Beija-flor on November 22, 2012, 09:22:21 PMIt is very complex and difficult for an outsider to judge. ... I don't feel that as an outsider I can judge them for that. 

Yes, that's why I believe the authorities are the Indigenous leaders our North American Indigenous colleagues met with. These authorities think the tourism is endangering their culture and medicines. I am taking their word for it, not that of cultural outsiders who are making a profession or hobby out of promoting this appropriation.

Quote from: Beija-flor on November 22, 2012, 02:46:14 AMI ended up spending almost two years there, living with an Ayahuasca curandero's family, participating in all the ceremonies, and learning to speak their language (a northern dialect of Quechua).  I also participated in Ayahuasca ceremonies with other tribes.

Though you stayed there longer than the average tourist, the fact that you are a self-described outsider to the culture, and  spent less than two years participating in a way that takes Indigenous people a lifetime to master, I still see your experience as a variety of appropriative tourism.

I've heard a number of Indigenous people say the ceremonies protect themselves, and that bad things happen soon enough to those who offend the spirits. But in the case of Ayahuasca, there are physical medicines involved, and the people who have inherited the responsibility to care for these medicines say that the tourism is endangering the medicine and the spirit it embodies.

To facilitate more cultural outsiders invading the area is to endanger the medicine.

I don't have a blog, but I am a moderator at a forum.  I am not engaged in any promotion of any Ayahuasca tourism.  The section you refer to is only a discussion section of a forum.  There are promoters who post in that section, there are critics who post there, there are people who discuss their individual experiences and what to look out for, etc.  A lot of what is posted leaves me with mixed feelings, but the alternative to having a forum for open discussion of the subject would be to leave the whole field to web promoters only.

(Ah, wait, now I realize what you meant by "blog." That is actually someone else's page that reposted a few of my articles.)

You are welcome to look for any evidence that I have sold ceremonies, since I have never done so.  Nor do I defend anyone who does that.  But I cannot criticize the selling of Ayahuasca ceremonies either, since I know that that is part of the culture there, as hard as that was for me to get used to.  If I criticized that, I would be putting my own judgment on another culture.  So on the forum I have to be simply neutral about that.

Quote
Though you stayed there longer than the average tourist, the fact that you are a self-described outsider to the culture, and  spent less than two years participating in a way that takes Indigenous people a lifetime to master, I still see your experience as a variety of appropriative tourism.

I came at their invitation to help in ways that they asked me to.  I didn't come for Ayahuasca.  I was simply invited to freely participate in the ceremonies when they happened, and learned a little bit about it.

The curanderos who sell ceremonies to outsiders charge money. The traditional Indigenous people who have been entrusted with the guardianship and who maintain the ways for their people do not.  I am concerned about the traditional people who appealed to our friends and relatives for their help, and our help, in stopping the appropriation by the tourists. So in my view, anyone who is encouraging people from outside the tribes to consume the medicine and misappropriate ceremonies is acting against the people who are trying to preserve these ways for their people.  These ways belong to them, not to any outsider with the cash to fly down and pay a ceremony-seller.

You many not have initially gone there seeking Ayahuasca, but in my opinion you are now exploiting what those people trusted you with. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh to you, but I have looked over your forum and the site where your articles are published and I am quite frankly horrified.

You may not sell ceremony yourself (I don't know if you do or do not), but on that forum you are encouraging cultural outsiders to consume the medicine and you are providing a place for tourists to find access to those who will sell ceremony and medicine. If you don't agree with what is being done on the forum where you are a moderator, maybe you should try to make some changes there. 

What do the people you speak of say about the fact that Ayahuasca tourists go primarily to mestizo curanderos?  Do they feel that that affects the indigenous people?

Are you basing your statements mainly on the UMIYAC Declaration from Colombia, or on something else as well?

Anyone who harvests the medicine for sale is endangering the medicine.

Ayahuasca tourism, promoted by websites like the ones you post on, has made the demand for Ayahuasca by outsiders so high that unethical people are going into Indigenous territories and harvesting in an unsustainable manner. They are stealing and destroying the plants that belong to these people.

I haven't read any public statements on the matter. I am going on direct testimony and photographs from friends and relatives who are Indigenous spiritual and cultural leaders, who met with their Indigenous counterparts in the regions where Ayahuasca is used traditionally, and is now being abused. I have the words and tears of the women from the villages whose ways are threatened.

Given that this has diverged from just an intro thread, I am moving it to the discussion forum. I may merge it with one of the other Ayahuasca threads at some point. We have a number of threads on here that discuss Ayahuasca and Ayahuasca tourism, usually in the context of a specific shameon. Those threads can be found by searching from the main page on "Ayahuasca Tourism".

QuoteI haven't read any public statements on the matter. I am going on direct testimony and photographs from friends and relatives who are Indigenous spiritual and cultural leaders, who met with their Indigenous counterparts in the regions where Ayahuasca is used traditionally, and is now being abused. I have the words and tears of the women from the villages whose ways are threatened.

I would appreciate more details on this.

And I would just appreciate it if you didn't "merge" me with any individuals with whom I have no connection, thank you.

I would be glad to discuss the points that you have raised, but I am not sure that discussion is really what is actually desired here?

There's some excellent discussion of the Ayahuasca tourism problem, and the people who fall for it, in this thread: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=990.0

Kiwi Matthew Dawson-Clarke dies in Peru after tobacco purge

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/71864946/kiwi-matthew-dawsonclarke-dies-in-peru-after-tobacco-purge

A Kiwi man has died soon after taking part in a "tobacco purge" at a resort in Peru. Matthew Dawson-Clarke, 24, of Auckland participated in the ritual on the morning of September 4, dying from a cardiac arrest later that evening. The ritual involves drinking a tobacco tea, water, and subsequently vomiting. The same ritual recently claimed the life of Canadian Jennifer Logan. . .