What’s wrong with ayahuasca tourism?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

The psychedelic powers of a traditional Amazonian plant medicine called ayahuasca are attracting more and more tourists. It’s becoming big business in countries such as Peru where backpackers and travellers, as well as rich Silicon Valley types are spending weeks and sometimes thousands of dollars to drink an indigenous cocktail. It makes them vomit and hallucinate, but is said to bring spiritual enlightenment and help with addiction, depression and trauma. But a string of allegations suggests there's a darker side to the ayahuasca scene. In this episode we speak to BBC journalists Simon Maybin and Josephine Casserly who travelled to the Amazon to investigate. Listen to Simon Maybin and Josephine Casserly's documentary Ayahuasca: Fear and Healing in the Amazon on BBC Sounds. Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Duncan Barber and Katie Gunning Mixed by Emma Crowe Editor: Philly Beaumont

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:06.2	Hello, I'm Matthew Price.
0:07.8	This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4, a space to ask one big question about one big story.
0:14.0	Today, what's wrong with Iowa
0:20.0	today what's wrong with Iowasca tourism? For centuries it was used as a psychological medicine by indigenous.
0:40.0	For centuries it was used as a psychological medicine by indigenous people in Latin America
0:47.0	and now Iowasca retreats are popping up in Europe and the US. It's becoming big business in countries like Peru.
0:56.2	You've got backpackers and travellers, but also rich Silicon Valley types who are seeking self-improvement,
1:05.0	spending weeks and sometimes thousands of dollars heading into the Peruvian jungle.
1:10.0	To drink an indigenous cocktail that makes them puke, gives them the shits, and they also say
1:18.4	it can address and expel their inner fears and anxieties. But alongside the promised therapeutic value of I.O-ASCA, there's also
1:26.1	something dark going on in the jungle. And that's where Joe and Simon come in. Simon
1:31.4	Mabin and Joe Casselli, two BBC reporters who've been investigating this for the BBC.
1:38.8	I first heard about Iowasca when a friend of mine who will remain nameless had gone to an iowa retreat and
1:44.9	taken it and he came back and had this quite crazy anecdote where he was talking about
1:50.4	how he'd been vomiting a lot and everyone else in the room had and he'd had these
1:55.1	really really dark visions and I was like well it sounds awful I mean do you regret it and he was like
2:00.8	no it was the best week of my life.
2:04.0	So it's this kind of crazy juxtaposition
2:06.2	between what seems like quite a horrible experience,
2:09.1	but actually for some people is really, I don't know, enlightening, gives them a lot.
2:14.7	And so I started looking into it and then another friend of mine had been to Peru and told
	...

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