anybody sees the HUUUUUGE pink elephant roaming the planes of the ayahuasca subculture?
how about the fact that the people from this story were involved in drinking ayahuasca. lots of ayahuasca.
spirituality, enlightenment, blah blah, blah blah, blah...
i was at a gathering of the local "ayahuasca community" (as they self title themselves, when i politely asked what exactly that means, the reply was "this!", so "this!" it is) in my city in canada on friday exclusively dedicated to this story. well, predictably, everybody carefully walked around the pink elephant in attendance. amusing? yes, somewhat, mildly.
well, the usual character archetypes were all present there. a goldmine of research material for any self respecting clinical psychiatrist.
but you know what made the greatest impression on me?
the iquitos connection guy. he fitted an archetype somewhere between a jungle soldier of fortune and a slums drug lord, modus operandi, garb, communication. fine specimen. could be instantly cast in a cheap chuck norris movie as such. perhaps he taught that all people present were way below him, him being involved in a "spiritual" business... but from another pov perhaps many were pottential paying customers, or is it that only certain personalities make for good customers, especially those that would would be easily hooked (or, overtly put, become addicted). i kid you not, i wish i was.
it never ceases to fascinate me how the ayahuasca subculture if one removes her pink glasses comes across as bona fide festering cesspit... unless, you want to PROFIT from it. then wishy washy new agey gobbledygook is the norm... how the whole ayahuasca subculture behind the thin veneer is sooooo deeply steeped in money smelling swamp goo, and how the emerging class of new conquistadors heading down to peru to make a quick buck grows steadily, their success unvariably celebrated by hordes of new agey folks... pass me the popcorn.
*donning my flame retardant suit*