Ayahuasca Community Outreach: Distribution of the Guidelines for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse in Iquitos, Peru

Emily Sinclair

As part of our efforts to disseminate the Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual AbuseI traveled to Iquitos, Peru during the summer of 2019. Iquitos is an international mecca of ayahuasca shamanism and the hub of the “ayahuasca industry,” visited by thousands of ayahuasca seekers each year. I, too, was a novice ayahuasca seeker six years ago when I first drank ayahuasca at a retreat center as a volunteer. Since then, I have spent most of my time living in the region; first, running a small ayahuasca center with a local shaman in a community outside of Iquitos; later, as an anthropologist conducting doctoral fieldwork while assisting in another ayahuasca center; and, most recently, as an integrated and practicing member of the Iquitos medicine community, as researcher and representative for Chacruna’s Ayahuasca Community Committee. Chacruna created the committee to address key issues of concern for the global ayahuasca community and provide support and advice for participants and practitioners. The Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse was the committee’s first initiative... continue reading.