Pubdate: Wed, 08 Apr 2009
Source: Time Magazine (US)
Copyright: 2009 Time Inc
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Website: http://www.time.com/time/magazine
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/451
Author: John Otis

DOWN THE AMAZON IN SEARCH OF AYAHUASCA

Although his parents urged him to study medicine, Jimmy Weiskopf
dropped out of college and in the 1970s moved to Colombia, where he
eventually began to focus on a different kind of elixir.

The New York City native became an early advocate for the
hallucinogenic plant mixture ayahuasca.

For centuries, Amazonian Indians have been drinking ayahuasca, also
known as yaje -- a combination of the ayahuasca vine, tree bark and
other plants -- to achieve a trancelike state that they believe
cleanses body and mind and enables communication with spirits.
Weiskopf, who has published a 688-page tome about ayahuasca, was once
among a tiny coterie of foreigners using the potion, but these days
he has lots of company. (Read "Colombia's Drug Extraditions: Are They
Worth It?")

Word of ayahuasca's healing properties has brought a growing number
of New Age tourists from the U.S. and Europe, some of whom pay
thousands of dollars to stay at jungle lodges where Indian medicine
men guide them through all-night ayahuasca rituals.
Sting and Tori Amos have admitted sampling it in Latin America, where
it is legal, as has Paul Simon, who chronicled the experience in his
song "Spirit Voices." "It heals the body and the spirit," says
Eustacio Payaguaje, 51, a Cofan Indian shaman who regularly treks to
Bogota to lead weekend ayahuasca ceremonies in the city. "It is
medicine for the soul." (Read "The Year in Medicine 2008: From A to Z.")

But as the subtitle of Weiskopf's 2004 book, Yaje: The New Purgatory,
suggests, ayahuasca is not for the faint of heart -- or stomach.
Drinking a few ounces of the sludgy brown liquid usually leads to a
violent purge from both ends of the body. Beat Generation novelist
William Burroughs, seeking to get high on Colombian ayahuasca in the
early 1960s, described hurling himself against a tree and barfing six
times. At a recent ceremony on the outskirts of Bogota, most of the
40 participants packed sleeping bags, water bottles -- and rolls of
toilet paper. Sting, in a Rolling Stone interview, made clear that
ayahuasca is no party drug. "There's a certain amount of dread
attached to taking it," the singer said. "You have a hallucinogenic
trip that deals with death and your mortality.

So it's quite an ordeal.

It's not something you're going to score and have a great time on."

Although the hallucinations induced by the substance can be pleasant,
some people experience nightmarish visions that last for hours.

The agony, Weiskopf says, is part of the allure. "You get these near
death experiences," he says. "And once you see life from the
perspective of death, you become a bit more philosophical and have a
better sense of what's important and what's not."

Because it contains the hallucinogenic alkaloid dimethyltryptamine,
or DMT, drinking ayahuasca in the U.S. is illegal.

But traditional use of the plant potion is permitted in much of South
America. Its mecca is the Peruvian city of Iquitos, which hosts the
annual International Amazonian Shamanism Conference and is home to
about a dozen lodges that cater to curious foreigners. At first,
local residents feared that a flood of stoned beatniks would turn
Iquitos into an unruly rain-forest Woodstock. "I thought they'd be
from the hippie graveyard, with tattoos and sunken faces," says
Gerald Mayeaux, a Houston native who runs The Yellow Rose of Texas
restaurant in Iquitos. "But these are doctors and lawyers. These are
professional people."

One of the most popular lodges, Blue Morpho, is run by Hamilton
Souther, a California native who moved to Peru in 2001 to learn about
medicinal plants from local Indians. After receiving the title of
master shaman, Souther set up Blue Morpho, a collection of charming
thatch-roofed huts and nature trails with a ceremonial roundhouse
where Souther offers ayahuasca sessions for a mostly U.S. crowd.

As the only full-fledged gringo shaman in the Peruvian Amazon,
Souther is a natural interpreter for tourists navigating the
mysteries of traditional Indian culture and its sacred plants. "These
are people who are interested in their own spiritual growth and
development," Souther says. "For me, it's an expression of their
courage to come all the way down to the Amazon on the hope that
[ayahuasca] may be able to help them."

Many of Souther's guests shun alcohol and recreational drugs.

Some experiment with ayahuasca to address emotional, physical or
psychological problems that Western medicine has failed to alleviate.
Others hope to time-travel in order to confront childhood traumas.

Some even view ayahuasca as a way to kick their addiction to
prescription drugs.

Although traditional-medicine practices had been waning in some
Indian communities in Latin America, ayahuasca tourism has helped
spark a revival, as guiding foreigners through the ceremonies can
provide a decent income for shamans.

The business has become so popular that at the airports in Iquitos
and the Colombian Amazon city of Leticia, locals trying to drum up
clients for freelance medicine men stand outside the terminals
shouting "Ayahuasca! Ayahuasca!"

Outsiders, however, are advised to proceed with caution.

Even among devotees, there's a consensus that people with heart
ailments, high blood pressure or mental disorders should steer clear
of ayahuasca. And, Souther says, mixed with certain foods or
recreational drugs like cocaine, ayahuasca can be toxic, even fatal.

Despite these provisos, Weiskopf, who says he has taken the tonic
hundreds of times "with everyone from guerrillas to government
ministers," remains a passionate advocate for ayahuasca.

A growing flock of travelers are heading to Latin America to explore
the experience for themselves.
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