A video is now going viral around X (formerly Twitter) showing some Westerners on an “ayahuasca” journey. [1] It is going viral because it looks miserable. It shows several men and women rolling around, out of their minds, and puking on the muddy ground of a forest presumably in the South American rain forests.
This is one of the few times in recent years I have seen anything negative go viral about the use of psychedelics. The opposite has been much more common. It seems like between popular podcasters like Joe Rogan and Lex Friedman, newspaper coverage of these journeys, and celebrities like quarterback Aaron Rogers, there has been a consistent and widespread glamorization and glorification of these journeys. For example, the New York Post recently had this headline, “A-list stylist Micaela Erlanger finds peace at an ayahuasca retreat.” Oprah’s online magazine had a story on how an ayahuasca journey was, “The Most Unlikely Treatment for Eating Disorders”. And Boston Magazine online described these trips as the latest trend. To be fair, most of these accounts include some note of caution (e.g. ‘this isn’t for everyone’ or ‘doctors are still evaluating the risks and benefits’) but the theme is certainly a lot more glamor than warning.
But in this X viral video, we see the brutal reality. Regular people, in terrible conditions, going through awful experiences. But what is even more terrifying than the video itself is many of the comments that went along with it. Author Ashlee Vance, for example, wrote, “[A venture capitalist, VC] the other day told me, "We've lost several really good founders to ayahuasca. They came back and just didn't care about much anymore.” And countless others talked about people who left marriages, couldn’t continue on with regular jobs, fell into mental illness, fell into a life of crime, and etc after taking these drugs. There are so many dark and horrible stories that the comments are hard to even read.
And this is the real story that I have been trying to tell since the publication of “The Return of the Dragon”. These drugs are not a path to enlightenment. They are a path to darkness and destruction. The promise is always beautiful (otherwise who would do them?) but the result is dark. If not immediately, eventually. People are influenced in horrible ways. And I think it is more than just a physical influence. The spiritual impact cannot be ignored - and a dark spiritual experience is very bad (think, “the Exorcist”). So, before you go on an ayahuasca journey, watch that video. Read the comments. Recognize that you are risking not only your body but your soul.
Update: The X community is noting that this video may have been another substance, Kambo, also common to the Amazon region. I can’t confirm either way but it doesn’t affect my point (ayahuasca also often induces vomiting and involves people out of their mind in the forest) and the stories told on X were references to the effects ayahuasca.
Endnotes
[1] As far as I have been able to tell, X user, Autism Capital, was the original poster of the video but if you know otherwise let me know and I will edit this note.
Ayahuasca Journeys are Not Glamorous