- Chacruna Survey Results on the Awareness of Sexual Abuse in Ayahuasca Settings - January 31, 2023
- Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas: A Respectful Path Forward for the Psychedelic Movement - April 23, 2022
- Creating Awareness on Sexual Abuse in Ayahuasca Communities: A Review of Chacruna’s Guidelines - February 8, 2022
- Breaking Convention Conference Lives Up to Its Psychedelic Reputation - May 31, 2023
- Creating Awareness on Sexual Abuse in Ayahuasca Communities: A Review of Chacruna’s Guidelines - February 8, 2022
- Iquitos, Capital of Ayahuasca, Struggles During COVID - October 19, 2020
- Eight Frequently Asked Questions About Ayahuasca Globalization - February 13, 2024
- Ten Tips for Standing in Solidarity with Indigenous People and Plant Medicines - January 18, 2024
- Genocide by Other Means: Indigenous Peoples and the War on Drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean - December 14, 2023
- Eight Frequently Asked Questions About Ayahuasca Globalization - February 13, 2024
- Ten Tips for Standing in Solidarity with Indigenous People and Plant Medicines - January 18, 2024
- Opening Remarks – Queering Psychedelics II - April 24, 2023
The creation of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines’ Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse aims to assist individuals within the psychedelic community to understand the common scenarios that can lead to abuse during ayahuasca consumption. Codes of conduct are typically and rightfully held up to scrutiny; the process of collaboratively crafting these guidelines for the awareness of sexual abuse in ayahuasca contexts has been no exception.
Ayahuasca has moved from the Amazonian forests to the global stage. In what was once a localized practice, ayahuasca is now part of a growing tourism market, and is being commodified in a process that has sparked an “entrepreneurial industry” (Peluso, 2006; Peluso, 2016, p. 203). Whether it is talked about on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, included in mainstream films, consumed at the sporadic rave, debated at global academic conferences, featured in the writings of psychonauts, or appearing as a key interest of the broader psychedelic community, ayahuasca has been in the spotlight. Part of this enormous growth in popularity has also led to problems: increased abuses of power, intercultural misunderstandings, the proliferation of inexperienced shamans, and vast power differentials that have fueled the unacceptable reality that ayahuasca ceremonies can become spaces where sexual abuse can occur (Peluso, 2014). As ayahuasca’s popularity is increasing, alarmingly so are incidents of the sexual abuse of women. Nonetheless, many participants seeking ayahuasca healing remain unaware of this potential risk and can unwittingly find themselves in a vulnerable situation.
“AS AYAHUASCA’S POPULARITY IS INCREASING, ALARMINGLY SO ARE INCIDENTS OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF WOMEN.”
The Chacruna Guidelines consist of an introduction outlining the problem and provide a set of pointers regarding the most common scenarios in which abuse occurs. Here, Chacruna aims to educate individuals about what might be expected during typical ceremonial practices, so they can be aware of any behaviors that could potentially lead to sexual transgressions. In this way, the guidelines aim to support individuals as they pursue interests in and experiences of ayahuasca, providing key information to enable smart choices. Our hope is that with greater knowledge and awareness of past incidents and the contexts that give rise to potential sexual abuse, individuals and groups can better begin to combat such occurrences in the present and the future.
The guidelines focus on women because the majority of such cases involve the abuse of female participants by male shamans. Nonetheless, the guidelines do address issues applicable across genders and are of value to all. Attempting to cover diverse social and cultural settings where ayahuasca healing takes place, they were created through a collaborative process with experienced individuals in a wide range of ayahuasca settings across different cultural contexts and continents. This shared process—which compiled data from various intensive feedback stages—has included Indigenous as well as Western victims and survivors of abuse, ayahuasca healers and ceremonial facilitators, and social scientists who, like ourselves, have conducted long-term fieldwork in lowland South America and have long-standing experience among diverse ayahuasca communities. The guidelines also aim to be relevant across the wide spectrum of potential abuse that can occur in ayahuasca settings, including verbal persuasion, invasive touching, “consensual” sex between healer and participant, and rape.
Sexual abuse of women in the ayahuasca community occurs across and within specific cultures and communities. Yet, research and experience indicate that the current increase in ayahuasca’s globalization further exacerbates the potential for abuse, whereby many Western people now attend ayahuasca ceremonies in South American contexts, and with South American healers travelling to the Global North (Peluso 2014, 2018). Mutual cross-cultural misunderstandings and misconceptions between healers and participants can create confusion at least, and can be brutally manipulated at worst. The Guidelines equip individuals with information about these culturally unfamiliar contexts where ayahuasca ceremonies often take place as a form of empowerment.
While the Guidelines may appear overly directive, risking the allegation that they tell individuals what to do with their own bodies, it would be disingenuous not to advise individuals who will be placing themselves in unfamiliar settings and inherently vulnerable contexts, of what the typical basic ground rules are and what some of the high-risk factors might be. With knowledge of the Guidelines in advance of ayahuasca events, individuals can be aware of common manipulative techniques that sexual abuse perpetrators typically employ.
“WITH KNOWLEDGE OF THE GUIDELINES IN ADVANCE OF AYAHUASCA EVENTS, INDIVIDUALS CAN BE AWARE OF COMMON MANIPULATIVE TECHNIQUES THAT SEXUAL ABUSE PERPETRATORS TYPICALLY EMPLOY.”
Mutual consent is a complex and critical issue that the Guidelines strive to raise as a significant point of consideration. Research, interviews, and personally related accounts suggest that some incidents of abuse occur in contexts that are described in precarious “consensual” terms. Consent, how it is understood and negotiated, is the basis for all respectful interactions. For consent to be effective, at minimum individuals need to engage in communication that is mutually intelligible so that meanings are shared and intentions are clarified, with an understanding that consent always occurs within specific socio-cultural-political contexts (Alexiades & Peluso, 2002). Indeed, consent and the policies surrounding consent are only as effective as peoples’ understanding and use of them (Borges, Banyard & Moynihan, 2008).
For these reasons, it can happen that at the time that one might grant “consent,” all things might appear to be equal; yet, retrospectively one may come to understand that the reality of such equality had been difficult to ascertain at the time that it was taking place. Furthermore, the healer is in a position of power and responsibility that creates an imbalance between the parties. While some healers may just take this for granted as a given inequality, some abuse these uneven power relations to manipulate women into having sex with them.
In some shamanic ayahuasca practices, there are techniques specifically employed to induce feelings of sexual attraction; these techniques are collapsed together with local cultural concepts of “hunting” as a compatible form of seduction (Peluso 2014). For instance, many women have reported that they were manipulated into sexual acts through the use of a variety “charm spells.”1 While such claims address intangible aspects of shamanic practices, they remain a unique feature compared to non-shamanic contexts of sexual assault, and are cited in numerous instances of reported sexual abuse among ayahuasca and shamanic healing circles. In such cases where ayahuasca participants are actively seduced or targeted by a healer or facilitator, they are often unaware that they are being manipulated or influenced by the power dynamics of the context in which they are situated, thus making the grounds for mutual consent shaky.
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Another common scenario in reported attempts or instances of sexual abuse is that some healers might suggest to a participant that having sex with them is a form of healing, or a way to gain spiritual power. They can also attempt to substantiate this by purporting that these extra-marital relations are morally approved by their own wives or partners. In cases where women might agree to relations with shamans, they might be given a special position in an ayahuasca ceremonial space in an attempt to make them feel special or gifted, thus encouraging them to continue to engage in sexual relations. When sexual abuse happens along these lines, following such incidents, women are often confused and ashamed and feel unable to speak up, often believing that they are limited in their ability to accuse or confront the shamans, religious leaders, and other perpetrators of abuse with whom the accountability actually lies. The Guidelines are aimed at empowering participants by describing the features of such deceptive scenarios so that they can make informed decisions and feel encouraged to speak out in cases where they might be doubtful whether an interaction was appropriate.
It is the healer or facilitator’s responsibility to resist entering into relationships with ceremonial participants within the healing space, even if women might approach them with this intention. This is an aspect that many shamans frequently have a hard time understanding, and in the future, we would like to find ways to better create and foster these intercultural conversations. The Guidelines do not deny that loving and sexual relationships can develop between ceremonial facilitators and participants in ayahuasca circles. However, as with doctors or therapists and patients, it is widely agreed that this is a harmful transgression in healing contexts, particularly when it occurs between two people not known to each other prior to taking ayahuasca together. However, unlike the health profession, there is no code of ethics, commonplace rules, or generally accepted guidance as to how long parties should wait after the healing context if they are considering initiating a relationship; indeed, this topic generates contentious disagreements within the ayahuasca community. Chacruna’s purpose with the Guidelines is to create a healthy conversation around these delicate issues, and to raise awareness about the complexities of “consensual” sex, so that individuals can be better informed and thus empowered by such knowledge, enabling them to make the best choices for themselves.
“CHACRUNA’S PURPOSE WITH THE GUIDELINES IS TO CREATE A HEALTHY CONVERSATION AROUND THESE DELICATE ISSUES, AND TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THE COMPLEXITIES OF ‘CONSENSUAL’ SEX, SO THAT INDIVIDUALS CAN BE BETTER INFORMED AND THUS EMPOWERED BY SUCH KNOWLEDGE, ENABLING THEM TO MAKE THE BEST CHOICES FOR THEMSELVES.”
Additionally, and of increased importance, is the question of whether consent, either willfully given or acted upon, can be properly granted under any circumstances in any ayahuasca setting. This question is open to much debate and raises broader contemplation about the validity of consent and the use of psychedelics at large. While renowned psychonauts such as Timothy Leary hailed such a combination, as did ayahuasca pioneer Terrance McKenna (1999)—who referred to the bringing together of sex and psychedelics as “the Mount Everest of the experience” the variable legal status of psychedelics means that consent is never legally grantable in any context in which an individual is affected by a classified drug. In this sense, it is important to note that the classification and status of ayahuasca as an illegal drug varies across jurisdictions, adding to the complexity of legal issues of consent.
Nonetheless, broader questions of whether consent can ever be granted in any circumstances in which one or more individuals are in an altered state of consciousness, regardless of a substance’s legality, need to be considered. Conventionally, following current parameters, sex and psychedelics are legally meant to remain separate. Clearly, the issue of consent regarding sex with the use of psychedelics needs a greater nuance of understanding and increased and ongoing discussions across ayahuasca and psychedelic circles.
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The Guidelines are currently available in fourteen languages and are downloadable without charge on Chacruna’s website. To complement the Guidelines, Chacruna has also researched and developed a Legal Resources Companion to the Guidelines for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse. The Legal Resources Companion, also available online free of charge, provides information about policies and laws in relation to sexual abuse on a country-by-country basis. It provides contacts and places where one can promptly seek information and support from trustworthy organizations should an incident of abuse occur. Importantly, the Guidelines encourage people to not be bystanders. The dissemination of the guidelines is also already exerting influence in local settings whereby shamans, facilitators, and participants are reading about sexual abuse in their own languages and thus making strides to better comprehend the experiences of tourists while also being encouraged to speak out against abuse. This seems especially important in countries where patriarchy and stereotypical gender roles often naturalize women’s behavior as being submissive to men. Such important incremental long-term changes are cumulative and will hopefully eliminate the need for the Legal Resource Companion as sexual abuse becomes viewed as more of a community responsibility rather than just an individual one. Until that day, the Guidelines will provide insights about potential signs and contexts for sexual abuse, and in doing so will equip newcomers and veterans alike, to be as informed as possible.
Of course, sexual abuse affects people beyond ayahuasca healing contexts. In fact, the abuse that transpires in ayahuasca circles is part of a global epidemic of violence against women and vulnerable others. Estimated worldwide figures state that 35% of women have experienced physical or sexual violence; national estimates are in some cases as high as 70% (UN Women, 2015). It is therefore vital to find ways to transform social norms to protect everyone against all forms of violence. The Guidelines, with their own humble yet focused approach, in communicating locally and internationally across borders, cultures, and languages, aim to provide individuals with knowledge while also building allies to unite against the abhorrent problem of sexual violence.
The authors wish to thank the Journal of Psychedelic Studies for permission to reprint excerpts of Peluso et al. (2020).
Notes
1 This is a translation of ‘pusangas” a set of pan-Amazonian practices, mostly involving plants that are believed to affect one’s will or motivation in ways that the maker of the concoction intends (Peluso 2003). They are popular enough to be experiences as culture-bound syndromes. Locally, however, it is common for new age psychedelic ayahuasca seekers to believe that they have experienced this.
References
Alexiades M., & Peluso, D. M. (2002). Prior informed consent: The politics of cross-cultural exchange. In S. A. Laird (Ed.), Biodiversity and traditional knowledge: Equitable partnerships in practice. London: Earthscan.
Borges, A. M., Banyard, V. L., & Moynihan, M. M. (2008). Clarifying consent: Primary prevention of sexual assault on a college campus. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 36(1–2), 75–88.
McKenna, T. (1999, September). Posthumous glory.Alchemical Arts Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii. Retrieved from http://www.matrixmasters.net/podcasts/TRANSCRIPTS/TMcK-PosthumousGlory.pdf.
Peluso, D.M., (2003). Ese Eja Epona: Woman’s social power in multiple and hybrid worlds (Doctoral dissertation). Columbia University.
Peluso, D. M. (2006). For ‘export only’: Ayahuasca tourism and hyper-traditionalism. IASTE 2006 Working Paper Series (Hyper-Traditions and “Real” Places), ed., Nezar AlSayyad. Volume 189:482-500.
Peluso, D. M. (2014).Ayahuasca’s attractions and distractions: Examining sexual seduction in shaman-participant interactions. In B. C. Labate & C. Cavnar (Eds.), Ayahuasca shamanism in the Amazon and beyond (pp. 231–255). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Peluso, D. M. (2016). Global ayahuasca: An entrepreneurial ecosystem. In B. C. Labate, C. Cavnar & A. K. Gearin (Eds.), The world ayahuasca diaspora: Reinventions and controversies (pp. 203–221). New York City, NY: Routledge.
Peluso, D. M. (2018, October 5). Ayahuasca’s attractions and distractions: Examining sexual seduction in shaman-participant interactions. Chacruna.net. Retrieved from https://chacruna.net/sexual-seduction-ayahuasca-shaman-participants-interactions/
Peluso, D., Sinclair, E., Labate, B. and Cavnar, C., 2020. Reflections on crafting an ayahuasca community guide for the awareness of sexual abuse. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 4(1):24-33.
UN Women. (2015). Facts and figures: Ending violence against women. Global database on violence against women. Retrieved from https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures#notes.
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