Will ayahuasca be a blessing? Or a curse like tobacco and cocaine?
Plus the importance of eating lesser-known grains for health, all from my visit to the TEDx conference in Ibiza this week
When ceremonial plants such as tobacco and cocaine are used outside the indigenous rituals they were designed to be taken in, they become a curse.
But if you transfer a plant such as the psychedelic ayahuasca from Amazonian tribes to the rest of the world, and drink it within the rituals it has evolved within, it could lead to us to having a healthy relationship with it, and get the best out of it.
That was the message from Jeronimo Mazarrasa of ICEERS (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research & Service) in a talk at *TEDx in Ibiza this week.
You may have heard about the Amazonian plant ayahuasca? Many a psychiatry office is buzzing with conversations on it (even if they are behind closed doors). You may know someone who has attended an ayahuasca ceremony to help heal trauma? Anyway, back to TEDx…
Mazarrasa has travelled the world observing the sacred rituals indigenous people employ when using ceremonial plants.