News
June 25, 2009Erowid review: Ayahuasca Religions: A Comprehensive Bibliography & Critical Essays
Erowid has published a review of the book 'Ayahuasca Religions: A Comprehensive Bibliography & Critical Essays'.
June 22, 2009
Ayahuasca documentary Metamorphosis wins ‘Best Cinematography’ award
Filmmaker Keith Aronowitz has won the Best Cinematography award for his film ‘Metamorphosis’ at the Breckenridge Festival of Film.
The film will also exclusively screen at the 5th international amazonian shamanism conference, in Iquitos, Peru. Aronowitz will be doing a presentation as well.
The Metamorphosis DVD (2 Disc Edition) is now available for purchase on the Metamorphosis website.
june 17, 2009
Aya: a shamanic odyssey
Gonzo journalist Rak Razam recently came out with a new book. In 'Aya: a shamanic odyssey' Rak takes the reader to the tropical rainforests of Peru and explores and experiences both traditional and more commercially aimed Ayahuasca ceremonies. The author meets and interviews several ayahuasceros and Western seekers that have travelled there to experience the force of this intruiging forest plant medicine.
The book is available at Amazon
. Extensive background information, as well as photos and an excerpt can be found at ayathebook.com. For more ayahuasca related books, check out our book section.
June 5, 2009
'DMT: The Spirit Molecule' trailer online
The first trailer for this much anticipated film has been released. It can be found under 'Media' on the official website.
May 15, 2009
Independent film maker talks about his soon-to-be-released documentary
Keith Aronowitz, maker of Ayahuasca documentary ‘Metamorphosis’ wrote an interesting article about his project – it was published on livinginperu.com. Aronowitz is currently in the process of submitting his film to festivals and is working on self-distribution for the DVD release.
April 20, 2009
Down the Amazon in Search of Ayahuasca
TIME recently ran this piece on Ayahuasca: "Word of ayahuasca's healing properties has brought a growing number of New Age tourists from the U.S. and Europe, some of whom pay thousands of dollars to stay at jungle lodges where Indian medicine men guide them through all-night ayahuasca rituals. Sting and Tori Amos have admitted sampling it in Latin America, where it is legal, as has Paul Simon, who chronicled the experience in his song "Spirit Voices."
More in this article: Down the Amazon in Search of Ayahuasca
April 19, 2009
The Black Smoke of Ayahuasca
A battle with cancer led Margaret De Wys to Ecuador for traditional ayahuasca ceremonies. After miraculous healings Margaret started an apprenticeship and began a life-altering romantic relationship with the shaman who healed her. Adam Elenbaas interviewed author Margaret De Wys about her memoir: The Black Smoke of Ayahuasca: A Cancer Patient Finds a Cure and Love in Ecuador.
April 18, 2009
Ayahuasca, Panacea or Epidemic?
This week’s guest at Gnostic Media is Dr. Marlene Dobkin de Rios, a medical anthropologist and licensed psychotherapist. She conducted anthropological fieldwork on traditional folk healing in the Peruvian Amazon and coast, studying the plant hallucinogen, ayahuasca, in the treatment of emotional and psychological disorders. In this podcast she and author Jan Irvin discuss ayahuasca tourism, neo-shamanism, and the future of entheogenic studies. What impact do the tourists to South America in seek of ayahausca have on the cultures there? Are "drug tourists" hurting themselves and the indigenous cultures? What dangers do ayahuasca tourists place themselves in?
Gnostic Media Podcast #27 - Ayahuasca, Panacea or Epidemic? An Interview with Prof. Em. Marlene Dobkin de Rios (mp3)
March 24, 2009
The Spirit Molecule movie
The people working on the documentary, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, have uploaded 42 short clips from 42 different interviews. You can watch them here at Facebook or at YouTube (the videos at Facebook have a higher resolution). You'll hear Stan Grof, Dennis McKenna, Allyson and Alex Grey, Kathleen Harrison, Ralph Metzner, Dale Pendell, Charles Grob, several DMT volunteers and many others speak about their experiences.
March 20, 2009
Santo Daime Wins Court Decision
On March 18, 2009, a U.S. District Court judge, Owen Panner, found that the U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects the Santo Daime's use of DMT-containing ayahuasca as part of their sincere religious practices.
This U.S. District Court (the lowest type of U.S. federal court) based its decision on a U.S. Supreme Court decision from February 2006 in a case where the UDV (another ayahuasca-using church) sought a preliminary injunction to stop the DEA from seizing the ayahuasca they import into the United States. The Supreme Court granted that preliminary injunction in favor of the UDV.
Judge Panner writes, "Guided by the unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court in a very similar case, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao de Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006), I conclude that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42 U.S.C. 2000bb to 2000bb-4, requires that plaintiffs be allowed to import and drink Daime tea for their religious ceremonies, subject to reasonable restrictions."
"Plaintiffs have established their prima facie claim by more than a preponderance of the evidence. Plaintiffs have established that they are sincere in their religious beliefs, and that the ceremonial use of the Daime tea is essential to their religion. It is obvious that prohibiting the use of Daime tea would substantially burden the exercise of plaintiffs' religion."
"The government has failed to show that outright prohibition of the Daime tea is the least restrictive means of furthering its interests."
"Plaintiffs are entitled to relief under RFRA. Judgment will be entered for plaintiffs in accordance with this opinion."
Unless a higher court overturns this decision in the future, this ruling allows the Santo Daime church to legally import and use ayahuasca tea in their religious practices without being in violation of federal law.
Source: Erowid
March 10, 2009
Metamorphosis...a journey of transformation
Metamorphosis is a documentary that follows several westerners as they undergo five ayahuasca ceremonies and experience the gamut of emotions - from utter fear to outright ecstasy. It also explores the shamans who work with the medicine as well as all the key elements of an Ayahuasca ceremony.
The film also tells the story of Hamilton Souther, who earlier in life had no belief of and in spirit. After having a spiritual awakening, Hamilton is led to the amazon where he apprentices as an Ayahuascero, or person who practices medicine with Ayahuasca. Hamilton and Maestro Don Alberto (an indigenous master shaman for over thirty years that practices with Hamilton) take us through the ceremonies as well as explain the meaning behind them.
As the film progresses , we follow the journey that the participants take through the plant medicine. The difficulties of the experience are revealed as well as why each of the participants has come. Integral elements of the ceremony, such as the icaros (songs sung in ceremony) and the "purge" are explored further.
Finally, we get to see the transformations people have undergone, from physical to emotional to spiritual, after having spent more than a week with ayahuasca. They reflect on their experiences and share what they have learned, leaving changed from when they first arrived.
You can see some film clips and find additional information here: METAMORPHOSIS
March 3, 2009
"The Tiger Meets The Jaguar"
Psychoactivity will organize two seminars in Nepal. This year the theme is "The Tiger Meets The Jaguar", because it will be the first intercultural meeting of shamanic traditions from both the Himalayas and the Amazon Basin.
November 29 – December 5
December 8 - December 14
The seminars will take place in the Dhulikhel Mountain Resort, a first class hotel 34 kilometers east of Kathmandu. The seminar fee includes three meals daily.
Both seminar weeks are dedicated to the world-wide shamanic heritage. The colombian shaman Kajuyali Tsamani and his son will be representing the jaguar of the Amazon, exchanging sacred knowledge with the sherpa, kirati and tamang shamans from Nepal. All shamans will be joining in eachother's ceremonies. Among the presenters there will also be Christian Raetch, Claudia Mueller-Ebeling, Arno Adelaars, and Mohan Rai, the founder of the Shamanic Studies and Research Centre in Kathmandu.
Kajuyali Tsamani will conduct one Ayahuasca ceremony each seminar. He will also focus on his 30-year connection with the Kogi people from the Sierra Nevada. The message the Kogi have for the world resembles to a certain extent the viewpoint of Nepalese Shamans.
If you register before March 31 the fee for one seminar is 1500 euro. After that the registration fee will be 1800 euro. You can register here and find more information at www.psychoactivity.eu.
February 26, 2009
Oregon church wants Ayahuasca legalized
Oregon members of a Christian church based in Brazil are asking a federal judge to allow the use of a hallucinogenic tea during religious services.
They believe that the only way to have a direct experience with Jesus is through the use of Ayahuasca. They have taken their complaint to federal court, arguing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
In 1999 government investigators found and seized a large amount of the substance, and they claim that the amount found is more than the church could ever need for their small membership.
The entire article can be found here.
January 13, 2009
Spanish police seize 40,000 doses of ayahuasca
Spanish police have raided a house in a Madrid suburb, arrested two people and seized 40,000 doses of the psychoactive substance traditionally used by South American shamans. Investigators were alerted to its suspected distribution by an organization in the Las Rozas suburb, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Monday. Three minors were among 21 people taking part in a ceremony when police raided the house in late December. The agency said the estimated value of the seized drug was $1.63 million.
Read the entire article here.
January 6, 2009
Three new articles by Izmar Verhage
Recently Izmar, who wrote most of the material on Ayahuasca-info.com, published a couple of articles, including interviews he did with visionary painter Pablo Amaringo and filmmaker Jan Kounen. Pablo is a shaman from Peru whose amazing paintings have been published in Ayahuasca Visions. Jan Kounen is best known for his documentary Other Worlds, as well as the motion picture Blueberry. You can find these interviews in the lower left corner of his website www.izmarmusic.com.
November 15, 2008
Ayahuasca tourism?
In this short article Robert Tindall discusses some of the dangers and challenges created by the growing interest of westerners in ayahuasca and the Amazon basin. "I confess, when I first began my pilgrimages to the Amazon, the concept of an ayahuasca tourist hadn’t even occurred to me, nor did I know the truly damaging effect of this sham industry on indigenous culture," writes Tindall. "Yet when I became aware of the issue, I struggled over whether to publish The Jaguar at all. Did I want to open the floodgates of ayahuasca tourism further? I even began to wonder, had I been an unknowing participant in this form of psychedelic narcissism myself?"
Read the entire article on Robert's blog: Ayahuasca Pilgrimage?
October 27, 2008
New interview on www.ayahuasca-info.com!
We interviewed Robert Tindall, author of The Jaguar that Roams the Mind about his new book. You can read the interview here.
October 21, 2008
Proof of ancient entheogen usage
A new study led by North Carolina State University's Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick is the first to show physical evidence that the people who colonized the Caribbean from South America brought with them heirloom drug paraphernalia that had been passed down from generation to generation as the colonists traveled through the islands. Archeologists found plates and pipes with which primitive people inhaled psychedelic drugs such as Cohoba (a snuff made from Yopo, or Anadenathera peregrina), and the ayahuasca beverage source of DMT).
The research team dated the items to between roughly 400 and 100 B.C. These dates are well before Carriacou was colonized in approximately A.D. 400.
Heirlooms are portable objects that are inherited by family members and kept in circulation for generations, Fitzpatrick says, and are frequently part of important rituals. The objects tested for this study are ceramic inhaling bowls that were likely used for the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances. On the science website Eurekalert.com Fitzpatrick says that the artifacts "appear to have been transported to Carriacou when it was colonized – possibly hundreds of years after they were made."
It's not the first time researchers have found clues pointing towards prehistoric drug use. For example, at several European excavation sites cannabis seeds have been found, and numerous "trippy" paintings in caves also seemed to indicate that prehistoric man was quite familiar with the psychedelic experience. The recent findings in the Caribbean however provide physical evidence for this theory.
Source: Proof of ancient drug use
September 28, 2008
New book: "The Jaguar that Roams the Mind"
Dear friends and colleagues,
Robert and I are happy to announce that the long anticipated moment has arrived! His book, "The Jaguar that Roams the Mind" is available as of today on Amazon.com!
As the mid-October date for The Jaguar's release in bookstores rapidly approaches, we wish to request your help in the promotion of the book among your e-lists of interested people. Please spread the word by forwarding on this email to your like-minded contacts! We are now working on updating our website to post events such as book readings and radio programs happening in the next months. Check it out at www.roamingthemind.com
Many of you know that Robert worked for 4 years on this project about our year-long stay in the Peruvian jungle, spurred on by our love for the peoples of the rainforest and their vanishing tradition of curanderismo. Susana has also contributed an appendix on the healing power of the icaros.
Please, follow this link to the Inner Traditions' website to see the whole book description and Robert Tindall's bio.
Besides the poignant introduction, written by the acclaimed ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin from the Amazon Conservation Team, specialists on plant medicines comment on the book. Luis Eduardo Luna, author of Ayahuasca Visions, writes:"Like the twists and turns of ayahuasca, the sacred vine of the Amazon, this wonderful narrative of love and self-discovery connects vast inner worlds of dream and vision, power and magic, with a passionate pilgrimage in time and space. A joy to read." Dale Pendell, author of Pharmako/Gnosis, writes: "If you want to know what vegetalismo is really like, you could go to Amazon, or you could read this book."
Most of all, this book is an engaged attempt to bridge the depths and sacredness of the vegetalismo cosmology and practices to our Western minds. May the higher intention that made this book come to birth reach the minds and hearts of its readers in good ways, shed light in their own paths, and support the healing work of our elders in these times of transformation.
Thanks to you all, and "luz en el caminito"!
Susana and Robert
September 25, 2008
UK AYAHUASCA CEREMONY & WORKSHOP with SHIPIBO SHAMAN Guillermo Arevalo
Venue: The Compass Centre, Bunwell Road, Besthorpe, Attleborough , NR17 2NZ (2hrs from London)
Dates : There are two workshop opportunities: October 22nd-25th and October 25th-28th, 2008
Price: Please get in touch for pricing and further information
A true first in the UK, Shipibo shaman Guillermo Arevalo will perform and guide ayahuasca ceremonies at this idyllic Norfolk retreat, sharing the healing and visionary power of arguably the world's greatest teacher plant, Ayahuasca.
The Shipibo are revered throughout the Amazon as "the masters of ayahuasca" and Guillermo Arevalo is regarded by his peers as "the master's master": the highest authority on ayahuasca. Among his people, the Shipibo, he is known as Ketsembetsa, 'Echo of the Universe'. Filmmaker Jan Kounen's feature film Renegade/Blueberry and documentary 'Other Worlds' are inspired by Guillermo.
For more information and pricing please get in touch.
pr@voidfilm.net
September 23, 2008
We are organizing a seminar in Europe with the master healer Guillermo Arevalo Kestembetsa, who is the spiritual leader of the Shipibo people. Kestembetsa is probably one of the greatest contemporary masters accessible. His intent to spread the knowledge of his people brought him to build several centers in peru and to travel all over the world.
He will be holding healing ceremonies in several European cities this coming October. In this occasion we wonder if you can be so kind as to assist us to spread the word, or let us know if there is somewhere to post this message, so that as many people as possible will have the chance to come to the seminars. It would mean a great deal for us to share this with as many as possible.
If you wish to receive more information about our work and projects, please contact us at: metsavima@yahoo.it.
Thank you.
August 27, 2008
4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: FREE Mp3 downloads
For those of you who unfortunately could not attend the fourth annual Amazonian Shamanism Conference in Iquitos Peru this summer, we have some good news to share with you. A number of presentations were recorded and are available online. These include talks and presentations by many shamans & curanderos, Dennis McKenna, Robert Forte, Frank Echenhofer, Pablo Amaringo, Dr. Richard Grossman, Jimmy Weiskopf, and many other luminaries of this field. Enjoy!
Download the complete Mp3 collection (right click and save as):
4th_International_Amazonian_Shamanism_Conference_vbr_mp3.zip [1GB Zip file]
To download individual talks, go here.
July 21 2008
Peruvian government recognizes ayahuasca as national heritage
The Institute of National Culture has declared the knowledge and traditional uses of ayahuasca as national cultural heritage, in order to guarantee their cultural continuation within native Amazonian communities. This resolution was published on July 12 in the law bulletin of the national daily El Peruano. It states that ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) is a plant specimen with an extraordinary cultural history due to its psychotropic qualities that are to be experienced when combined in a brew containing the plant known as chacruna. B. caapi is in the indigenous world known as a 'master' plant which teaches to its initiates the very foundations of the world and its components.
Peruvian government declares ayahuasca as national heritage (English)
Cronicaviva (Español)
Altino Machado (Portuguese)
June 12, 2008
"The upcoming 'Convergence' in Peru will be a true retreat where we will create a community for nine days (July 10-18). Not only will we explore the teachings, use and practices of Ayahuasca and Master Teacher Plants, but we will learn more about entheogens, other visionary plants, non-ordinary states, shamanic practices from around the world and deep ecology."
Visit the Amazon Convergence website for details.
May 15, 2008
Visionairy artist Alex Grey talks about an ayahuasca experience he had in Brazil. Another video was uploaded by the Psychonaut Channel yesterday, featuring antropologist and author Jeremy Narby giving a short talk on the relationship between science and shamanism.
May 8, 2008
Another ayahuasca-themed lecture by Jeremy Narby, author of The cosmic serpent, is on YouTube. In his book Jeremy investigates the connections between shamanism and molecular biology. He hypothesizes that shamans may be able to access information at the molecular level through the ingestion of entheogens, specifically ayahuasca. He and three molecular biologists revisited the Peruvian Amazon to try to test the hypothesis, and their work was featured in the documentary film, Night of the Liana (2002).
Watch the lecture Ayahuasca and antropology, which was organized by Stichting Open in December 2007.
April 21, 2008
The Psychonaut Channel has uploaded a new lecture by Jonathan Ott on Ayahuasca Analogues. Jonathan describes his own experiences with different MAO-inhibitors and DMT-containing plants, in ayahuasca-like beverages and snuffs. Recorded March 23, 2008 at the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland.
April 14, 2008
Reality Sandwich, CoSM and Souldish proudly present... The 2nd Annual "Ayahuasca Monologues: Tales of the Spirit Vine"
"Following on last year's successful event, we are pleased to present five new visionary stories about ayahuasca, the renowned sacred brew of the Amazon. For centuries, shamans have drunk this powerful concoction to heal illness, obtain mystical insights, contact spirit guides, and explore magical worlds. Hear of experiences both miraculous and terrifying when Westerners access ayahuasca's incredible gifts. Music, dancing, and mingling will follow performance."
For more information visit Reality Sandwich
April 8, 2008
The Scientific Investigation of Ayahuasca - A Review of Past and Current Research
by Dennis McKenna, PhD
"With its complex botanical, chemical, and pharmacological characteristics, and its position of prime importance in the ethnomedical and magico-religious practices of indigenous Amazonian peoples, the investigation of ayahuasca in its many aspects has been an impetus to the furtherence of our scientific understanding of the brain/mind interface, and of the role that psychoactive plant alkaloids have played, and continue to play, in the quest of the human spirit to discover and to understand its own trancendent nature. Now, the process which has unfolded in Western culture since Richard Spruce first reported on ayahuasca use among the Indians of the Norwthwest Amazon in 1855 has reached a new stage. Ayahuasca has emerged from the Amazonian jungles where it has remained cloaked in obscurity for thousands of years, to become the sacramental vehicle for new syncretic religious movements that are now diffusing from their center of origin in Brasil to Europe, the United States, and throughout the world."
Read the entire article at www.ayahuasca.com
April 7, 2008
The Times published an article on the Santo Daime church: Santo Daime: the drug-fuelled religion
April 2, 2008
New video on the Psychonaut Channel
The Psychonaut Channel recorded over 20 hours of lectures and interviews at the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland. Among these were some extremely interesting talks on ayahuasca and DMT by Dennis McKenna, Kathleen Harrison, Jonathan Ott, Jeremy Narby and many others. Currently they are very busy editing and uploading the video's, but they have already managed to make nine video's available for us. The first gives a general impression of the symposium, and the second is a short talk by ethnobotanist and artist Kathleen Harrison on "Botanical Dimensions". The most recent video features etnobotanist Dennis McKenna talking about his experiences with ayahuasca.
March 21-24, 2008
The World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland: www.psychedelic.info
The World Psychedelic Forum with over 60 seminars, lectures, and panel discussions, presented by more than 50 experts, and some 30 young researchers from all over the world, with a rich audio-visual supporting program, and a variety of external events during 3 nights offers a unique Easter weekend in Basel for the young and the young at heart, for the interested lay persons, as well as the professional. Among the speakers shamans, anthropologists and researchers of ayahuasca, DMT and other psychedelics.
March 11, 2008
Announcement by Hannah Klautz from Amsterdam:
"Friday 21st of March we are making an ayahuasca-ceremony with Nanki Nantipia, medicine-man from the Shuar-people from Ecuador. He than just arrives from his home-country and he will bring fresh ayahuasca from the Amazon rainforest. I hope that you will understand that a ceremony in this Equinox vibration can be very powerful and can bring you many transformations and healing. Most important in this is your focused intention and your will to change. Things can manifest themselves than very smooth and easily into your reality.
Place: De Ruimte, Weesperzijde 79A te Amsterdam
Time: 19.30 til 09.00 in the morning
Price: 120 Euro
A week later on Saturday 29th of March we will have an ayahuasca-ceremony with the famous Peruvian shaman Don Pedro Guerra. His icaro’s (songs) are mindblowing and can bring you in a strong contact with the spirit-world. There are still a few places available. Place, time and price are the same as above."
March 4, 2008
Blog: Jaguar Medicine, by Alberto Villoldo
"During those years traipsing around the Amazon, inspired by McIntyre's discoveries, I came across the opportunity to study with many shamans and healers. Many of them were masters who worked with the ayahuasca vine, a plant with hallucinogenic qualities that is used ritualistically in their culture, which fascinated me. I remember observing one of these shamans, don Ramon, during his nighttime healing ceremonies, as he would load his pipe with jungle tobacco and turn to one of his patients and "sing his jaguar down from the tree."
February 6, 2008
News article: Ayahuasca: A Strange Brew, by Gina Piccalo for the L.A. Times
New York writer Daniel Pinchbeck brought ayahuasca to the attention of liberal thinkers, detailing his mind-blowing journeys with the brew (and numerous other hallucinogens) in a pair of books: 2002’s “Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey Into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism” and 2006’s “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.” “When I published my first book in 2002 and I spoke to audiences, 50% to 80% of the people hadn’t heard of ayahuasca,” Pinchbeck says. “Now everywhere I go, everyone is familiar with it.”