Biography/Memoir

In 2016, the ‘First Legal Ayahuasca Church’ got shut down. Was it a scam…?

The [‘Church’]… distinguished itself quickly as the most brazen and ambitious ayahuasca outfit of its kind. Most organizations serving ayahuasca work quietly. Few require as substantial a financial commitment as Ayahuasca Healings was asking—a donation of as much as $1,997 for a four-day retreat… They started pitching Ayahuasca Healings online, towards the end of 2015, news…

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Anthropology

Confessions of a White Vampire

Several times during my stay in the [ayahuasca drinking] community, different men took me aside and confided that they knew of nearby gold deposits that they would be willing to show me. They said this as if to test my interest. I would reply with indifference to these propositions, much to my interlocutors’ surprise. A…

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Spirituality

Two Montreal, Canada religious groups can now legally import ayahuasca

The two-year exemptions, first granted in June 2017, are renewable. Health Canada refused to provide VICE with the quantities allowed, claiming the information is confidential. “These exemptions were for religious purposes only.” Canadian followers of these religions have fought for more than 15 years to obtain an exemption from the Canadian federal government. Jeffrey Bronfman,…

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Spirituality

Messed up after ayahuasca ceremony?

I’m a massive advocate for being ridiculously picky about who you join in ceremony … Sometimes we have to visit the darkest corners of our consciousness to let go of what ails us; if that’s the case, you really want to be with someone who has done the same work on themselves.​ I work both…

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Spirituality

Florida’s ayahuasca church wants to go legal

In the letter, the US Drug Enforcement Agency asked Young and his cohort to apply for exemption status, which would allow them to provide ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic Amazonian tea, legally. It would also make Soul Quest the first homegrown psychedelic healing center in the US, permanently altering the way the government views the intersection of…

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Science

Of molecules and minds: the science of ayahuasca

We’ve talked about serotonin receptors like they’re all mostly the same and broadly, that’s true (they’re all looking for serotonin, after all). But that doesn’t make them identical, and scientists have found enough differences to classify serotonin receptors into seven types, which are then broken down into 17 subtypes with a wide variety of functions.…

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Anthropology

Ayahuasca in the heart of Europe

In recent years, the topic of ayahuasca has also been publicly discussed in the Czech Republic due to the disclosure of prevalent use of ayahuasca by the Czech Psychedelic Society and other organizations aiming to raise awareness about its preparation, use, integration, spirituality, and therapeutic potential. Ayahuasca is utilized in so-called autonomous zones: situations and…

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