Articles

In this essay, we squeeze into the back seat of McKenna’s “Archaic Revival” tour, his first and only visit to the country. Encouraged by a small community of plant medicine enthusiasts and facilitated by promoter Dillon Hicks, for a brief moment, McKenna served as alien frontman for the Australian experimental music underground. 

This article is adapted from the book Global Ayahuasca: Wondrous Visions and Modern Worlds (Stanford University Press, 2024) by anthropologist Alex K. Gearin.   When I...

In this article, I will share some key insights into the notable varieties of Amazonia’s enigmatic visionary vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, specifically related to the Indigenous...

A recent invitation I received to write an essay about yajé (or ayahuasca) for an academic-type anthology on the “the power of psychedelics for...

Why does one write, if not to put one’s pieces together? From the moment we enter school or church, education chops us into pieces:...

Musicians, painters, dancers, designers, and other artists all have the urge to externalize inspiration through a given means. They all have access to something...

Long confined to indigenous societies of the Amazon rainforest, the ayahuasca tea is being researched by scientists as a potential medicine for depression. An article published...

White people in the Amazon, drinking a sacred indigenous brew, under a thatched roof, while a ceremonial leader in a feather crown and indigenous...

In a shaman's world view, everything is energy, and for them the word spirit and energy have the exact same meaning. Indigenous knowledge often...

I have discussed the idea, widely held in the Upper Amazon, that human beings in general, and shamans in particular, have powerful urges to...