Clients and former employees of the 17-year-old school say its ‘initiation course’ has become dangerously unsafe, and Foundation owner Carlos Tanner is not heeding their concerns
Full support. I see initiates from this group grandstanding with their Mapacho pipes on Instagram feeds, becoming advice columnists of sorts—much of their “advice” harmful—gaslighting people into thinking that the issues they’re having with toxic spaceholders are simply mirrored reflections of work they need to do on themselves. It leaves no room for feedback or accountability, and those who lead can find themselves in an ivory tower of their own making.
I have so much more to say. Much of the medicine world has become a business with little care for safety. I’m still in my own process as I sort through what I encountered with this lineage, thankful that I left and have started to form my own root system.
How I see it is that our world at large, whether in medicine community or not, is what many eco-philosophers or psychologists have termed as a psychological stage of pathological adolescence.
In the Clinical counseling world, we have the legacy of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. This emotional immaturity is passed down from generation to generation. In Native American spirituality, this illness is referred to as Wetiko.
We as a human species are emotionally immature. And from what I have seen, not many humans have progressed into a healthy state of adolescence. And yet, there is such a huge need for the hurting human psyche. And perhaps not enough people who have worked through their shadows/wounds to offer a clean and contained healing space. So, what we see is the blind leading the blind.
This isn't just true in the plant medicine world. This is true of the most regulated mental health state hospitals or group practice clinics, which are enacting harm against humanity every day. And yet, they can get away with it because of informed consent, as well as excessive paperwork and legal jargon. Mad In America and all its horror stories of the over-regulated mental health system tell the tales.
It's sad.
Hopefully, more of us will keep doing our own work and grow up so we can hold an abundance of spaces that are truly healing.
Not sure “we as a human species” are emotionally immature but certainly “we in the West” transfigured and made child like by 600 years of violent extractive capitalism are!
And, from my historical reading, the rise of dominator and patriarchal culture began thousands of years ago before capitalism. And is not solely stemmed from western peoples, although our current western paradigm is yes, leading us toward ecocide and is emotionally immature.
dressing people in indigenous robes, putting pipes in their hands, making them mimic external gestures of curanderismo like blowing agua florida and memorising someone elses icaros not unlike students of some Koranic school is all a parody of true learning, satisfying insecure egos and need of lost young people desperate for being someone, and then washing hands by saying "they will do what they want". Why is there even opportunity for flirting, why there is socializing in shamanic training that should happen in intimate relationship with plants, in isolation and not in "class" of cultural crossdressing. It is not just cheesy and fake as Bora tribe tourist shows outside of Iquitos, because these tourists at least wont gamble with other people lives afterwards.
22 ceremonies in 2 months is insane! I am often told I take psychedelics too much and I only do one aya ceremony a month, max, plus one other trip at home. I always leave a 2 week gap (except for cannabis oil to aid sleep which I take extremely infrequently as I am a good sleeper.).
This course and school has also trained the most competent non-indigenous ayahuasqueros I have ever met in over a decade of my own studies. And clearly more accountability and better systems are needed. The bridge between indigenous medicine and cosmology and the wider world is a delicate one, not easily crossed. Shamanic initiation is not “safe” it never has been but there is a lot more which can be done to ensure that the human side of things is held with integrity.
This reads like a season recap of some comi-tragic reality show—Love Island: Healing Edition. The fact that phrases like “the plant spirits told me we’re destined to fuck” are considered normal in this subculture says a lot. The level of delusion and manipulation at play here is wild—and somehow still gets framed as sacred medicine.
Jules, genuine question: how much longer can this bubble hold before more people start calling it what it is—a profit-driven grift dressed up in a wildly appropriated veneer of ancient wisdom? At what point do the empty promises, spiritual coercion, and outright negligence finally pop the illusion?
well, i think one needs to think about the demand - what drives people to go to the amazon jungle, what do they get from it? the people i meet and interview, including for this story, often say their lives were radically improved by ayahuasca. often they had serious mental or physical (eg autoimmune) illnesses which western healthcare had failed to cure. or perhaps they felt a lack of meaning and enchantment. And ayahuasca seems to have given them healing, sometimes or even often, along with a sense of meaning and re-enchantment, as well as a community. i dont see those drivers going away, so I think people will keep looking to ayahuasca and other psychedelics for these things outside of western healthcare, which brings both new opportunities for healing and new risks. can western culture develop safer containers? i hope so, though its extremely slow work and sometimes it feels there isnt much progress at all. and it gets more complicated still when you’re talking about the intersection of amazon tribal cultures with wealthy spiritually hungry western spiritual seekers. i do think there could be a more honest dialogue with the indigenous cultures caught up in this global industry - a two way dialogue thats not just about putting the shamans on a pedestal and westerners feeling guilty for being westerners, but also an honest dialogue about the exploitations, misunderstandings and harms that can occur on both sides.
If you want to honestly go beyond bad gringo - good noble shaman, and it seems you strive for objectivity, you may enquire about Enrique drunk driving killing mother and child in Iquitos and getting away with this. This is not fault of ayahuasca and not fault of tourism even - but lack of morals.
I recently had a horrific experience at a transformative weekend event (sans psychedelics) and I’m now much more aware now of how transformative and spiritual settings can be hotbeds for abuse and malpractice. Thank you so much for this article.
Thanks. Sorry to hear that, if you feel like talking about it let me know , I’m interested in the entire personal growth / transformative experiences field
Full support. I see initiates from this group grandstanding with their Mapacho pipes on Instagram feeds, becoming advice columnists of sorts—much of their “advice” harmful—gaslighting people into thinking that the issues they’re having with toxic spaceholders are simply mirrored reflections of work they need to do on themselves. It leaves no room for feedback or accountability, and those who lead can find themselves in an ivory tower of their own making.
I have so much more to say. Much of the medicine world has become a business with little care for safety. I’m still in my own process as I sort through what I encountered with this lineage, thankful that I left and have started to form my own root system.
As always Jules, thank you for shining light on our shadow and offering an opportunity to integrate it.
How I see it is that our world at large, whether in medicine community or not, is what many eco-philosophers or psychologists have termed as a psychological stage of pathological adolescence.
In the Clinical counseling world, we have the legacy of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. This emotional immaturity is passed down from generation to generation. In Native American spirituality, this illness is referred to as Wetiko.
We as a human species are emotionally immature. And from what I have seen, not many humans have progressed into a healthy state of adolescence. And yet, there is such a huge need for the hurting human psyche. And perhaps not enough people who have worked through their shadows/wounds to offer a clean and contained healing space. So, what we see is the blind leading the blind.
This isn't just true in the plant medicine world. This is true of the most regulated mental health state hospitals or group practice clinics, which are enacting harm against humanity every day. And yet, they can get away with it because of informed consent, as well as excessive paperwork and legal jargon. Mad In America and all its horror stories of the over-regulated mental health system tell the tales.
It's sad.
Hopefully, more of us will keep doing our own work and grow up so we can hold an abundance of spaces that are truly healing.
Not sure “we as a human species” are emotionally immature but certainly “we in the West” transfigured and made child like by 600 years of violent extractive capitalism are!
For sure we in the west.
And, from my historical reading, the rise of dominator and patriarchal culture began thousands of years ago before capitalism. And is not solely stemmed from western peoples, although our current western paradigm is yes, leading us toward ecocide and is emotionally immature.
Jesus… when will enough be enough.
dressing people in indigenous robes, putting pipes in their hands, making them mimic external gestures of curanderismo like blowing agua florida and memorising someone elses icaros not unlike students of some Koranic school is all a parody of true learning, satisfying insecure egos and need of lost young people desperate for being someone, and then washing hands by saying "they will do what they want". Why is there even opportunity for flirting, why there is socializing in shamanic training that should happen in intimate relationship with plants, in isolation and not in "class" of cultural crossdressing. It is not just cheesy and fake as Bora tribe tourist shows outside of Iquitos, because these tourists at least wont gamble with other people lives afterwards.
22 ceremonies in 2 months is insane! I am often told I take psychedelics too much and I only do one aya ceremony a month, max, plus one other trip at home. I always leave a 2 week gap (except for cannabis oil to aid sleep which I take extremely infrequently as I am a good sleeper.).
sigh.
This course and school has also trained the most competent non-indigenous ayahuasqueros I have ever met in over a decade of my own studies. And clearly more accountability and better systems are needed. The bridge between indigenous medicine and cosmology and the wider world is a delicate one, not easily crossed. Shamanic initiation is not “safe” it never has been but there is a lot more which can be done to ensure that the human side of things is held with integrity.
This reads like a season recap of some comi-tragic reality show—Love Island: Healing Edition. The fact that phrases like “the plant spirits told me we’re destined to fuck” are considered normal in this subculture says a lot. The level of delusion and manipulation at play here is wild—and somehow still gets framed as sacred medicine.
Jules, genuine question: how much longer can this bubble hold before more people start calling it what it is—a profit-driven grift dressed up in a wildly appropriated veneer of ancient wisdom? At what point do the empty promises, spiritual coercion, and outright negligence finally pop the illusion?
well, i think one needs to think about the demand - what drives people to go to the amazon jungle, what do they get from it? the people i meet and interview, including for this story, often say their lives were radically improved by ayahuasca. often they had serious mental or physical (eg autoimmune) illnesses which western healthcare had failed to cure. or perhaps they felt a lack of meaning and enchantment. And ayahuasca seems to have given them healing, sometimes or even often, along with a sense of meaning and re-enchantment, as well as a community. i dont see those drivers going away, so I think people will keep looking to ayahuasca and other psychedelics for these things outside of western healthcare, which brings both new opportunities for healing and new risks. can western culture develop safer containers? i hope so, though its extremely slow work and sometimes it feels there isnt much progress at all. and it gets more complicated still when you’re talking about the intersection of amazon tribal cultures with wealthy spiritually hungry western spiritual seekers. i do think there could be a more honest dialogue with the indigenous cultures caught up in this global industry - a two way dialogue thats not just about putting the shamans on a pedestal and westerners feeling guilty for being westerners, but also an honest dialogue about the exploitations, misunderstandings and harms that can occur on both sides.
If you want to honestly go beyond bad gringo - good noble shaman, and it seems you strive for objectivity, you may enquire about Enrique drunk driving killing mother and child in Iquitos and getting away with this. This is not fault of ayahuasca and not fault of tourism even - but lack of morals.
I did hear about that , I didn’t get enough facts to be able to report on what exactly happened
I recently had a horrific experience at a transformative weekend event (sans psychedelics) and I’m now much more aware now of how transformative and spiritual settings can be hotbeds for abuse and malpractice. Thank you so much for this article.
Thanks. Sorry to hear that, if you feel like talking about it let me know , I’m interested in the entire personal growth / transformative experiences field
Thanks, yeah, I’m open to talk. Are your DMs open?
yes
Very sad.