I'd like to add more about ayahuasca, especially as it relates to cultism.
Ayahuasca is different from recreational drugs and drugs of abuse, including alcohol, in that those normally make one feel good when one is under the effects, and then one feels bad afterward. Ayahuasca, on the other hand, is at best an unpleasant experience. It can be a physical and mental ordeal. You have to have courage and maybe a touch of masochism to do it.
But on the other side of the ordeal is the euphoric afterglow. This comes from both physiological reasons and psychological reasons (facing and purging inner demons, etc). For clinically depressed people, it can be the only time that they have experienced joy and happiness since they can remember. While this afterglow doesn't last more than a few days, just having the experience to help their brain remember what joy actually feels like can be a miracle for a clinically depressed person.
In this afterglow, which is most intense immediately after the ceremony, you feel in love with the whole world and with everyone you see. You love and trust everyone. In this open state, you could be extremely susceptible to cultist brainwashing (as long as it is all washed down with hugs and smiles and love-love-love). It's scary, to me, to think of ayahuasca being in the hands of cult leaders.
This, I feel, is the danger here, the real safety issue. But, as I am sure that everyone here knows, the law has nothing to say about cultism. The First Amendment prohibits any legal discrimination based on religious beliefs.
So the only safety issue that can be brought up to the DEA is the issue of unqualified leaders who are unequipped to handle crises that can come up and who can even make people's problems worse. Which is indeed a genuine problem. People do -- rarely -- get traumatized in badly run ceremonies.
But between me and the cult forum, I don't feel that is the most important danger. The real danger would be to let cult leaders get hold of this medicine. That is a very scary thought to me.
Ayahuasca is different from recreational drugs and drugs of abuse, including alcohol, in that those normally make one feel good when one is under the effects, and then one feels bad afterward. Ayahuasca, on the other hand, is at best an unpleasant experience. It can be a physical and mental ordeal. You have to have courage and maybe a touch of masochism to do it.
But on the other side of the ordeal is the euphoric afterglow. This comes from both physiological reasons and psychological reasons (facing and purging inner demons, etc). For clinically depressed people, it can be the only time that they have experienced joy and happiness since they can remember. While this afterglow doesn't last more than a few days, just having the experience to help their brain remember what joy actually feels like can be a miracle for a clinically depressed person.
In this afterglow, which is most intense immediately after the ceremony, you feel in love with the whole world and with everyone you see. You love and trust everyone. In this open state, you could be extremely susceptible to cultist brainwashing (as long as it is all washed down with hugs and smiles and love-love-love). It's scary, to me, to think of ayahuasca being in the hands of cult leaders.
This, I feel, is the danger here, the real safety issue. But, as I am sure that everyone here knows, the law has nothing to say about cultism. The First Amendment prohibits any legal discrimination based on religious beliefs.
So the only safety issue that can be brought up to the DEA is the issue of unqualified leaders who are unequipped to handle crises that can come up and who can even make people's problems worse. Which is indeed a genuine problem. People do -- rarely -- get traumatized in badly run ceremonies.
But between me and the cult forum, I don't feel that is the most important danger. The real danger would be to let cult leaders get hold of this medicine. That is a very scary thought to me.