Global Ayahuasca

Ceremonies of drinking the psychoactive brew ayahuasca have flourished across the planet in recent decades. Emerging from Indigenous roots in the Amazon rainforest, the brew is now envisaged by many as the spiritual gateway to archaic and primordial worlds, with reports of healing, spiritual insight, and awe-inspiring visions placing ayahuasca among the burgeoning field of psychedelic medicines. Astonished and allured by descriptions of ayahuasca experiences, researchers in psychology, anthropology, and philosophy have attempted to define the shared properties of the visions. In this book, Alex Gearin challenges the simplified obsession with universal or primordial truth that has pervaded inquiries into ayahuasca experiences, and explores the practices of contemporary ayahuasca drinkers to reveal how the brew has conjured contradictory visions across the globe. These range from urban disenchantment and capitalist mastery to competitive sorcery and ecological harmony, wherein the plant-induced visions embody different attitudes towards capitalist modernity.

Based upon ethnographic research among Shipibo healers in remote Peru, alternative medicine groups in urban Australia, and enterprising individuals in mainland China, Global Ayahuasca examines how the wondrous visions of ayahuasca are entangled within the social and economic realities that they illuminate, revealing tensions, fears, and hopes of everyday modern life.

"Ayahuasca drinking is generally a focus of bemused curiosity or earnest fascination and desire, but not proper anthropological understanding of its actual patterns and contextual conditions. This book will be the definitive social scientific work on the contemporary global ayahuasca scene"
—Rupert Stasch, University of Cambridge "In this fascinating ethnographic study that follows ayahuasca into unexpected spaces, Alex Gearin takes readers on an engaging voyage from Indigenous Amazonia to corporate China. He is an expert guide through the surprising philosophical machinations of this new chapter in ayahuasca's globalizing story."
—Erika Dyck, author of Psychedelics: A Visual Odyssey "In the psychedelic renaissance, Gearin's superb ethnography Global Ayahuasca makes a powerful counterpoint to the scientific pursuit of universal knowledge of mind-altering drugs and the mystical quest for unitive experiences. Gearin challenges the ubiquitous interpretation of visions in terms of trauma by attending to Indigenous futurism. The book reveals the rich tapestry of human experience shaped by this wondrous tea."
—Nicolas Langlitz, author of Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain "Global Ayahuasca is a significant contribution to religious studies, anthropology, and psychedelic research. Gearin's interdisciplinary analysis and emphasis on the socio-cultural dynamics of ayahuasca use make this book an essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in the globalization of Indigenous practices, the ethics of spiritual commodification, and the evolving role of psychedelics in modern society."
—Elena Popov, Religious Studies Review "Diverting from previous anthropological studies that attempt to universalize or use medical analyses about ayahuasca experiences, [Gearin] uses an intimate, grounded approach to portray participation and arrive at visionary meaningfulness.... Recommended."
—G. R. Campbell, CHOICE "This book takes you on a cross-cultural journey to the far borderlands of consciousness (and the subconscious) under the influence of ayahuasca. In place of the conventional quest for universals or archetypes, it immerses you in widely differing cultural contexts: shamanic healing rituals in Amazonia, New Age (or "neoshamanic") sessions in Australia, executive retreats in China (to improve success at business). The details will dazzle you, and the insights into the cultural formation of the senses (including the sense of self) will amaze you. Alex Gearin's book exemplifies the practice of ethnography and the comparative study of cultures at their very best. It is suffused with all manner of revelations. It is wonder full."
—David Howes, author of The Sensory Studies Manifesto

Alex K. Gearin is Assistant Professor at the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, The University of Hong Kong. He is the co-editor of The World Ayahuasca Diaspora: Controversies and Reinventions.

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