Peruvian hallucinogen ayahuasca draws tourists seeking transforming experience

[n2doc]

Saturday, August 21, 2010
IQUITOS, PERU -- Kevin Simmons, a 28-year-old Chicago native, said he "was stuck" -- depressed, locked away in his home and taking more than a year to even open his e-mail.

The road to recovery, he said, came deep in the Peruvian jungle, in the form of a sludgelike concoction the Indians call "the sacred vine of the soul."

The potion is ayahuasca, and increasingly, it is becoming an elixir for foreigners grappling with everything from depression to childhood trauma. Coming from the United States and as far away as Australia, they arrive in a jungle city of faded glory to participate in ayahuasca rituals offered by a range of healing centers.

Ayahuasca may taste like ground-up earth, but many leave here praising the brew in reverential terms for having purged them of demons and shown them a clarity about life that they never thought possible.

more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082002908.html

[leveymg]

1. Sounds like soma, mescaline, or another alkyline psychotropic.

Now, watch them make it illegal. No transformative experiences without a prescription.

[formercia]

2. The PTB don't want people finding out the 'System' is a sham.

Serfs cannot have access to anything that might help them see clearly.

[vogonity]

4. It contains N,N-DMT...

Which is made active orally with a MAOI of some kind. N,N-DMT is often smoked for a very intense but short lived experience. DMT is some seriously powerful shit.

[whatchamacallit]

3. Take a hit of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40FiMy-ak0k

[JoeyT]

5. Cue our drug warriors freaking the hell out and trying to make sure it's illegal here.

Doesn't matter if it's addictive, dangerous, or if it even gets you high or not. The very idea that someone might try to get high on something is enough to make them freak out. Ban first, invent the research to justify it later.

(It's actually sort of-kind of illegal already in the US, but not exactly. It's complicated.)

[nilram]

6. "Ayahuasca also induces a severe gastrointestinal reaction, leaving users retching and ...

discharging from both ends."

Um, no thank you. I'll take my miserable, uninspired life right now. Maybe later.