I don’t just mean the mystery as to how indigenous people of the Amazon figured out how to combine two plants (out of 40,000) whose very unique and specific phytochemistry produces such a profound neurochemical and experiential effect. Nor do I mean the incredibly rich subjective terrain ayahuasca takes us through. Nor do I just mean the mystery behinds the massive rise in worldwide ayahuasca use.
I mean all of these things as well as the environmental and economic impact of overharvesting ayahuasca to feed a world market; the rampant presence of dangerous charlatans, pretending to be shamans, targetting travelers looking for the brew; and the hundreds of years of genocide, ethnocide, and resource extraction the modern ayahuasca phenomenon sits upon.
Furthermore, I also mean to associate ayahuasca’s complexity with the complex nature of the mind and the personal mind’s enmeshment within the society in which and by which that mind was forged. Combine all these things with the vast use of ayahuasca as an agent of healing mental illness, and we have ourselves quite a complex phenomenon to explore. One that we explore in this episode of Adventures Through The Mind, with our guest, Samantha Retrosi.
A former Olympic athlete, Samantha Retrosi is now a PhD student investigating the sociology of culture, structural inequality, gender politics, and political economy at George Mason University Department of Sociology and is writing her dissertation based on qualitative social research conducted over a five-month period at the Ayahuasca retreat center Temple of the Way of Light in Peru.
She is on the show to talk to us about healing with ayahuasca –what that means, how it happens – and the importance of understanding that healing and illness go well beyond the individual and extend into relationships, society, and politics.
We start out exploring her journey from the Olympics into severe bulimia and eventually into working with ayahuasca before we dive into the sociological factors informing the multiple of civilizational crisis we are facing in the modern world and the role ayahuasca might play in a positive healing process.
Featured Image is “Sacrament For The Sacred Dreamers”, courtesy and copyright of Cameron Gray. Check out more of his art here!
Also, hey, wanna see me in Alberta in June 2019? Details here
*** Big thanks to my patrons on Pateron for helping keep this podcast alive! Especially, Thomas & Melanie H, Clea S, Steven B, James R, Dean H, Joe A, Andy D, Stephen B, Angela & James J, Ian C, David W, Don J, Yvett FC, Marshall, & Cornelius Phlegmbottom
A former Olympic athlete, Samantha Retrosi is now a PhD student investigating the sociology of culture, structural inequality, gender politics, and political economy at George Mason University Department of Sociology and is writing her dissertation based on qualitative social research conducted over a five-month period at the Ayahuasca retreat center Temple of the Way of Light in Peru.
