As the West has gained increasing interest in the healing potential of psilocybin and the mushrooms that contain it, there has been growing criticism of this movement from an Indigenous perspective. Mushroom healing traditions have existed all over the world for tens of thousands of years. However, with the rise of colonialism and the puritanical Christian ethic that came with it, nearly all of these traditions were wiped out long before any American became interested in these ceremonies. The specific tradition that did survive and went on to inspire the “psychedelic renaissance” more broadly, was practiced by the Mazatec—an Indigenous group who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca. Now the oppressive attitude of the West towards these sacred ceremonies has shifted towards something closer to fetishization. Westerners can feel the corrosiveness of their own culture and are grasping at other Indigenous cultures for help. This has led to a slew of different issues including biopiracy and cultural appropriation.
I have been an American psychedelic guide for many years and now work as an above-ground psychedelic-assisted therapist. I have long wondered what my role should be in the burgeoning psychedelic movement that is gaining so much traction in the West. Is there a way to be a part of the larger commercialization of psychedelic medicines while minimizing the damage being done to Indigenous communities as a result? By attending this Chacruna class on the roots of shamanism, I intended to learn more about the Indigenous roots of the practices I participate in and what might be done to exist in this space more ethically.
The Story of María Sabina
I am particularly interested, for the scope of this article, in the discursive role that María Sabina’s story and image play in the modern psychedelic therapy movement. María Sabina was a Mazatec healer (called a Chjota Chijne) who utilized, among other plants, psilocybin-containing mushrooms as part of her practice. She was well-regarded by her community and was selected by a village elder to show ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson and his wife, Valentina Pavlovna, her sacred mushroom ceremony (a velada). Sabina, initially hesitant, agreed to share her knowledge with the Wassons, guiding them through a transformative experience. The Wassons’ subsequent publications, including articles in Life magazine, brought international attention to the Mazatec mushroom rituals and Sabina herself (Romero, 2021).
As the story goes, Wasson then widely publicized María’s ceremonial practices (without her full consent). The result was a massive influx of Westerners to her village looking for a similar experience. These events had many negative effects on Sabina’s community. It led to the commercialization and commodification of a sacred practice that was traditionally private and meant for specific purposes within the community. The constant influx of tourists turned the veladas into a spectacle, diluting their spiritual significance. The attention brought on by Westerners led to significant disruption within the community that was widely disliked by many of its members. Ultimately, Sabina suffered greatly for introducing Wasson to the velada – she received legal backlash and was ultimately expelled from her own community (Bragognolo, 2023).
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Exploiting the “Original Sin” of the Psychedelic Movement
This story highlights the strained relationship between Indigenous healing practices and their growing popularity in the West. The colonized mind of the West does not understand what it means for something to be sacred. Westerners co-opt, modify, and commercially exploit whatever they think may have benefits for other Westerners. In a real way, all modern psilocybin practices extend from Wasson’s exploitation of Sabina—it is an “original sin” of the modern psychedelic movement.
In a real way, all modern psilocybin practices extend from Wasson’s exploitation of Sabina—it is an “original sin” of the modern psychedelic movement.
Many participants in the modern psychedelic movement are aware of this story and wish to cleanse themselves of this sin while still participating in the wider commercialization of psychedelics. As a result, this story is told often and images of María Sabina are erected and placed in clinical offices and on the altars of American psychedelic guides. The hope is that by telling her story and honoring her image, we can ameliorate the cultural appropriation that is taking place—in effect, “decolonizing” our own Western psychedelic ceremonies. While this is a well-meaning gesture, the discursive role of this honoring of Sabina is to purify Western psychedelic guides and distance them from the sins of our colonial past. In doing so, I argue that this honoring of Sabina and telling of her story actually enables many of the more harmful aspects of colonialism to persist in the modern psychedelic movement.
Firstly, only a thin slice of María Sabina’s story is ever told. The narrative depicts her exclusively as a powerful healer and repository of “archaic knowledges and traditions” (Abse, 2016). She is placed into a “noble savage” archetype. This archetype has been used to both romanticize and exoticize Indigenous cultures. While it may seem positive, it can also be problematic. By portraying Indigenous people as inherently good and pure, it can obscure their complex histories, struggles, and diversity. It can also perpetuate harmful stereotypes and reinforce colonial power dynamics. In the case of María Sabina, she is rarely depicted as a whole person, with her own history and life lived. Sabina’s story is far more than her interactions with Wasson and the subsequent influx of Westerners to her village. Rarely is any effort made to understand María Sabina within her own history and cultural context. The result is that Sabina is essentialized into a tragic victim of modern colonialism and little else.
Second, the healing traditions of the Mazetec are fetishized and approached with a “folkloristic attitude”—they are regarded as archaic rituals of the past rather than legitimate healing practices containing many generations of wisdom inside of a collective cultural heritage (Press, 2023). There may be intense interest in how the Mazatec conduct their veladas, but largely the intention of this interest is to copy aspects of those traditions so that Western practitioners can appear to be more “decolonized” or “authentic” in their own commercial practices. In effect, this is allowing them to benefit from the fetishization of Indigenous culture in the West without having to take on much of the actual stigma that comes with being Indigenous in this country.
Third, the narrow focus on María Sabina’s story obscures the complex truth about the Chjota Chijne and their healing practices. Sabina was only one of many well-regarded healers in her community. These Mazatec healing traditions are only one part of a much larger cultural heritage. A cultural heritage that has survived over 500 years of colonization. The reduction of these practices to a specific cultural moment—when María Sabina first divulged some of her culture’s traditions to Gordon Wasson—hides the full truth of this history. Wasson wasn’t even the first Westerner to have awareness around the velada—several ethnographers and mycologists had already learned of them going as far back as 1930. What was different about Wasson was the way he publicized the practice, which created an ideal moment for fetishization and commercial interest in the Western mind.
Fourthly, the discursive role of telling Sabina’s story and displaying her image is to cleanse Western practitioners of the original sin of their industry—the exploitation of María Sabina. A strongly influential product of the puritanical Christianity wedded to modern colonialism is a cultural desire for purity. Upon realizing that the modern psychedelic movement is steeped in examples of biopiracy, exploitation, and cultural appropriation, many Western practitioners are looking for what they can do to cleanse themselves of these sins. They want concrete actions they could take which would put them on the side of good while participating in the commercialization of psychedelic ceremonies, nonetheless. Sabina’s story and image have largely served this purpose among psychedelic practitioners. If you talk about Sabina with clients—even briefly—and place her image on your altar, then you’re one of the good ones.
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What If There Is No Absolution?
In effect, these practices enable practitioners to absolve themselves of the colonial “past” of psilocybin-assisted therapy while bypassing this complex history and the colonial present that they are participating in. They present her image without serious thought into whether María Sabina would even approve of what they are doing. They pay lip-service to one of the specific healing traditions of the Mazatec without making any real effort to understand the complex relationships that modern Mazatec communities have with the Western expansion of psychedelic medicine.
The question then becomes, what should Western practitioners do differently? If talking about María Sabina and the colonial past of psilocybin mushroom healing is insufficient, what should be done instead? In recent years, as more awareness around these problems have emerged in the Western consciousness, many potential ways that we could act more ethically have been suggested. Profit sharing with Indigenous communities, using respectfully sourced and sustainable plant medicines, and requiring more training programs that discuss the historical context of psychedelics, power dynamics, and cultural sensitivity in psychedelic use. All of these options are important and have merit, but they are all also incomplete. None of these actions alone will significantly ameliorate the past and present harms which have come from the extraction and commercialization of medicines from Indigenous traditions.
What if there is no absolution for us? … I believe that one of the most important lessons we can learn is that we need to sit in the uncomfortable truth about the impact we’re having on the world and the terrible history that has gotten us to where we are.
Any proposed single solution also runs the real risk of creating an “easy out” for modern Western psychedelic practitioners. When listening to Indigenous communities speak on the harms associated with the psychedelic renaissance in the West, practitioners are generally looking for an actionable step they can take to resolve the guilt or shame that they feel. Once we’ve taken that step, we feel absolved. We feel that we’ve checked off the box and can now move forward with our work with a free conscience.
What if there is no absolution for us? What if it were true that we should profit share and source sustainably and spread cultural awareness around our colonial past, but that none of these actually cleanse us of our sins and the sins of our forebears? I believe that one of the most important lessons we can learn is that we need to sit in the uncomfortable truth about the impact we’re having on the world and the terrible history that has gotten us to where we are. Indigenous communities have to live with the discomfort of the injustices that have been done to them and are continuing to occur. Many in the global South have no choice around existing in the poverty and degraded environment that colonialism has left for them. I think we should all be trying our best to make a better future for the world, and I also think that we should take responsibility for the harms and injustices of the past as well as the ones that are still pervasive today.
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References
Abse, E. (2016). A History and Critique of Previous Studies of Mazatec Shamanism (pp. 427–457) [Review of A History and Critique of Previous Studies of Mazatec Shamanism].
Bragognolo, C. (2023, March 8). María Sabina – The Story of the Priestess of Mushrooms [Review of María Sabina – The Story of the Priestess of Mushrooms]. Women on Psychedelics. https://www.womenonpsychedelics.com/post/maria-sabina-the-story-of-the-priestess-of-mushrooms
Press, S. (2023, July 17). Mazatec Perspectives on the Globalization of Psilocybin Mushrooms. Synergetic Press. https://synergeticpress.com/blog/consciousness-and-psychedelics/mazatec-perspectives-on-the-globalization-of-psilocybin-mushrooms/
Romero, O. S. G. (2021, May 27). María Sabina, Mushrooms, and Colonial Extractivism. Chacruna. https://chacruna.net/maria-sabina-mushrooms-and-colonial-extractivism/
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