Todays guest is Prof. Em. Marlene Dobkin de Rios author of (amongst many books and articles) A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced in Controversy, Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the United States. We discuss ayahuasca tourism, neo-shamanism, and the future of entheogenic studies. What impact do the tourists to South America in seek of ayahausca have on the cultures there? Are “drug tourists” hurting themselves and the indigenous cultures? What dangers do ayahuasca tourists place themselves in? Dr. Marlene Dobkin de Rios is a medical anthropologist and licensed psychotherapist. She has a BA in Psychology from Queens College of the City Universe of New York, a MA in Anthropology from New York University and a Ph.D. in medical anthropology from the University of California Riverside. She is Professor Emeritus of the Anthropology department at Cal State Fullerton. Her area of specialization as a researcher has been hallucinogens and culture. She is the author of several hundred scholarly articles and book chapters, including two recent works: “A Hallucinogenic Tea Laced with Controversy” (Praeger 2008) and a forthcoming autobiography, “The Hallucinogenic Journey of Dr. Marlene Dobkin de Rios. 45 Years with Shamans, Ayahuasqueros and Ethnobotanists,” Inner Traditions (to be published October 2009). Dr. de Rios conducted fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon and Coast and with the Uniao do Vegetal church in Brazil. She has worked with ayahuasca healers in urban Peru and intensively with one …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
You’ll need to contact someone who knows what they’re doing. Ayahuasca is very safe, but can have rare issues. Contact me directly through my website and I’ll send you some info on professionals who specialize in this specific area. You’re likely not permanently damaged, you just need some direction and the proper solutions. Go to my website and listen to my interview with Stanislav Grof regarding LSD – it’s on the podcast page
I am suffering from a mental breakdown as a result of attending an Ayahuasca ‘workshop’ in the Peruvian Amazon in a couple of years ago. In researching Dr. Dobkin de Rios, I came upon this video. I wish I would’ve read her book before deciding to drink Ayahuasca, as it would’ve definitely influenced me not to drink it. Unfortunately, I am left damaged while reading such accurate warnings about Ayahuasca only after the fact.
boring. Not as enlightening as I expected. 🙁
We are at least an exquisite synthesis of the Nature that comprises our environment. Nature is symphonic and avoids superfluousness. Hence, it follows that the various entheogens that evolved alongside human beings during our development are integral components to our existence.
Divorced from our inherent nature and divinity, humanity cannot thrive in a vacuum. Perhaps thoughtful reintegration of entheogens into a thoughtful society is crucial for our continued evolution and survival.
peace
Prohibition of entheogens seems concomitant with a society plagued by substance abuse, spiritual disconnect, moribund materialism, robotization, and pandemic mental illness.
Indeed, there is a diminishing of the inherent divinity of the human vehicle. In the end of this seemingly purposeful routing of humanity’s potential, the world may be populated by exquisitely programmable, soulless drones, bred specifically for an eternity of the most spirit-denigrating, mundane serfdom.
peace&power
A tea laced with consciousness.
It’s astounding that the Abrahamic religions, and I presume primarily the Judeo-Christian, now known to have been steeped and heavily influenced by entheogens, are the principal reason for the historical deletion of such knowledge and practices.
In fact, the entire goal seems nothing more than campaign against enlightenment and understanding.
A forced disconnect from the intrinsic harmony and naturalistic connection consciousness achieves through entheogens.
All for political gain. Sad.