15 VOLUME 8 |ISSUE 2 |2017
as peyote, ayahuasca, and mescaline during alleged religious
ceremonies.
Laura has had a difficult recovery for a host of reasons, not
the least of which was having been poisoned at least twice by
Amanita muscaria, a mushroom she was encouraged to ingest in
some of Gonzalez’s intensives. The Amanita (the classic fairytale,
red mushroom with white spots on the cap) was used ritually by
ancient shamans in Siberia. The Amanita was one suggestion for
the entheogen Soma in the Rigveda of Hindu tradition, though
most scholars reject it.14 Back in the early 1970s, after some
research on its use and effects, I ingested Amanitas twice, once
in a small dose (one small mushroom) from which I got a kind of
buzz for a few hours. The second time, an artist friend and I ate
two or three each. We were poisoned with blurred vision, severe
nausea, and distortion in thought processes for many hours.
We had a distinct sense that we might die. We did not know
at the time that the toxins in Amanita can cause liver damage.
We stood under a very cold waterfall for some time, and that
seemed to help. I could not stomach any kind of mushroom for
more than a year after that. Laura reported that her last Amanita
intensive with EPU left her with panic attacks, a ministroke,
memory loss, poor comprehension skills, and a severe arthritic
condition. When Laura reached out to a nurse associated with
EPU to complain about panic attacks, she reports that the nurse
said, “It was just the medicine working.”15
Shamanic healing with or without drugs and herbs led to
what we call the medicine man in Native tradition. Shamans
were governed by tradition and generally under the authority
of a chief or tribe leader. But medicine in an unregulated
neoshaman’s hands could be anything, including high-demand
encounter groups in isolated places, peyote parties, LSD, long
days of lectures, chanting, drumming, fasting, hypnotic
trance inductions, frog venom, Datura, ayahuasca, mescaline,
and sleepless nights. Datura was made famous as a powerful
hallucinogen by Carlos Castaneda in his early novels. Some Haida
leaders cautioned tribal members. Tom Greene, Jr., who ran for
council, wrote, “Our ancestors did not use peyote, ayahuasca,
frog venom, or amanita to become spiritual.”16
Entheogens, including LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and
mescaline have a varied impact on users. Deep insights tend
to fade with repeated use, and potential for harm increases.
The great scholar of world religions Huston Smith observed,
in his significant study of entheogens, Cleansing the Doors of
Perception (2001), that these drugs have a “half-life” (p. 63) in
terms of effective therapeutic value, if any.17 I agree. Things can
go very badly.18 Sometime in ancient India, the Vedic culture
stopped Soma19 use and turned to nondrug meditation and
yoga to seek inner bliss in a safer, more measured, and enduring
manner.
Overall, mass therapies can be big moneymakers for leaders
while customers hope for promised breakthrough advances
in oneness, inner peace, and good fortune. Neoshamans add
a new twist by claiming that drugs can help bring one back
to the authentic self, the healed self, and the ancient tribal
consciousness that once guided people—in the Garden. All
you need to do is sign the waiver, like the one Gonzalez hands
out that states he accepts NO responsibility for what happens
to you during the “self-transformational journey.” Moreover, the
“ceremonial guidelines” state that
Tata Erick is our guide and we need to trust and follow
any instructions he may give. One should not make
assumptions that the way it has been done in the past
or the way it has been done in other ceremonies, is the
way it will be done this time. Trust the spiritual leader
and the process.20
Erick, in other words, is the final word on what your experience
will be. And he will collect the profits. There is no reliable
tradition.
Dutheil noted that she was getting worse emotionally and
physically after more than a decade of participation in so-
called healing and medicine groups. She recalled that the
leaders never took responsibility for bad effects but blamed the
participant, shaming her for not getting it or for resisting the
process: The process is always right, the drug is sacred even if it
is nontraditional frog venom and amanita, and the neoshaman
is a messenger of sacred tradition, whether he is or not. Modern
tribal people have lost the sacred path, and the neoshaman will
help them gain it back—so goes the pitch from new versions
of metaphysical snake-oil salesmen. The process has divided
the tribe and families who promote Gonzalez from those who
do not. A classic us-versus-them cult mentality emerges among
followers who feel persecuted when criticized.
There is nothing indigenous about neoshamanic workshops.
In every case, I find that advertisements to heal the self and to
connect with the universe through some kind of special scheme
are centered on the purported power and insight of the leader.
The neoshaman becomes an entrepreneur in the spiritual-seeker
industries—no better than Scientology, the old est, or gurus
from India ready to bottle sacred water from the Ganges and sell
it for $1,000 a pop.
…medicine in an unregulated
neoshaman’s hands could be
anything, including high-demand
encounter groups in
isolated places, …
ayahuasca, mescaline,
and sleepless nights.
as peyote, ayahuasca, and mescaline during alleged religious
ceremonies.
Laura has had a difficult recovery for a host of reasons, not
the least of which was having been poisoned at least twice by
Amanita muscaria, a mushroom she was encouraged to ingest in
some of Gonzalez’s intensives. The Amanita (the classic fairytale,
red mushroom with white spots on the cap) was used ritually by
ancient shamans in Siberia. The Amanita was one suggestion for
the entheogen Soma in the Rigveda of Hindu tradition, though
most scholars reject it.14 Back in the early 1970s, after some
research on its use and effects, I ingested Amanitas twice, once
in a small dose (one small mushroom) from which I got a kind of
buzz for a few hours. The second time, an artist friend and I ate
two or three each. We were poisoned with blurred vision, severe
nausea, and distortion in thought processes for many hours.
We had a distinct sense that we might die. We did not know
at the time that the toxins in Amanita can cause liver damage.
We stood under a very cold waterfall for some time, and that
seemed to help. I could not stomach any kind of mushroom for
more than a year after that. Laura reported that her last Amanita
intensive with EPU left her with panic attacks, a ministroke,
memory loss, poor comprehension skills, and a severe arthritic
condition. When Laura reached out to a nurse associated with
EPU to complain about panic attacks, she reports that the nurse
said, “It was just the medicine working.”15
Shamanic healing with or without drugs and herbs led to
what we call the medicine man in Native tradition. Shamans
were governed by tradition and generally under the authority
of a chief or tribe leader. But medicine in an unregulated
neoshaman’s hands could be anything, including high-demand
encounter groups in isolated places, peyote parties, LSD, long
days of lectures, chanting, drumming, fasting, hypnotic
trance inductions, frog venom, Datura, ayahuasca, mescaline,
and sleepless nights. Datura was made famous as a powerful
hallucinogen by Carlos Castaneda in his early novels. Some Haida
leaders cautioned tribal members. Tom Greene, Jr., who ran for
council, wrote, “Our ancestors did not use peyote, ayahuasca,
frog venom, or amanita to become spiritual.”16
Entheogens, including LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and
mescaline have a varied impact on users. Deep insights tend
to fade with repeated use, and potential for harm increases.
The great scholar of world religions Huston Smith observed,
in his significant study of entheogens, Cleansing the Doors of
Perception (2001), that these drugs have a “half-life” (p. 63) in
terms of effective therapeutic value, if any.17 I agree. Things can
go very badly.18 Sometime in ancient India, the Vedic culture
stopped Soma19 use and turned to nondrug meditation and
yoga to seek inner bliss in a safer, more measured, and enduring
manner.
Overall, mass therapies can be big moneymakers for leaders
while customers hope for promised breakthrough advances
in oneness, inner peace, and good fortune. Neoshamans add
a new twist by claiming that drugs can help bring one back
to the authentic self, the healed self, and the ancient tribal
consciousness that once guided people—in the Garden. All
you need to do is sign the waiver, like the one Gonzalez hands
out that states he accepts NO responsibility for what happens
to you during the “self-transformational journey.” Moreover, the
“ceremonial guidelines” state that
Tata Erick is our guide and we need to trust and follow
any instructions he may give. One should not make
assumptions that the way it has been done in the past
or the way it has been done in other ceremonies, is the
way it will be done this time. Trust the spiritual leader
and the process.20
Erick, in other words, is the final word on what your experience
will be. And he will collect the profits. There is no reliable
tradition.
Dutheil noted that she was getting worse emotionally and
physically after more than a decade of participation in so-
called healing and medicine groups. She recalled that the
leaders never took responsibility for bad effects but blamed the
participant, shaming her for not getting it or for resisting the
process: The process is always right, the drug is sacred even if it
is nontraditional frog venom and amanita, and the neoshaman
is a messenger of sacred tradition, whether he is or not. Modern
tribal people have lost the sacred path, and the neoshaman will
help them gain it back—so goes the pitch from new versions
of metaphysical snake-oil salesmen. The process has divided
the tribe and families who promote Gonzalez from those who
do not. A classic us-versus-them cult mentality emerges among
followers who feel persecuted when criticized.
There is nothing indigenous about neoshamanic workshops.
In every case, I find that advertisements to heal the self and to
connect with the universe through some kind of special scheme
are centered on the purported power and insight of the leader.
The neoshaman becomes an entrepreneur in the spiritual-seeker
industries—no better than Scientology, the old est, or gurus
from India ready to bottle sacred water from the Ganges and sell
it for $1,000 a pop.
…medicine in an unregulated
neoshaman’s hands could be
anything, including high-demand
encounter groups in
isolated places, …
ayahuasca, mescaline,
and sleepless nights.
