(Texto en Inglés y castellano)
Ayahuasca Track Opening Speech at the 2013 Psychedelic Science Conference.
Beatriz Caiuby Labate (*).
April 19th, 2013, Oakland.
I am very pleased to be here today. I want to thank the conference organizers for their openness to the topic of ayahuasca, and the participants of the Ayahuasca Track for accepting my invitation to join our gathering. I also would like to thank my University, CIDE (Center for Economic Research and Education), in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and thank you all for coming.
I am happy to stand here and see this big audience, more than 275 years after a Jesuit missionary first reported on ayahuasca use in Peru, more then 150 years after botanist Richard Spruce identified Banisteriopsis use among the Indians of the Northwest Amazon, 90 years after its active principles were isolated, 80 years after DMT was synthetized in a laboratory for the first time, 50 years after Burroughs and Ginsberg published their classic book Yagé Letters, 37 years after Terence McKenna and Kat Harrison – who is present here today, and who was in her mid twenties then – took off for their trip to Peru, and 28 years after the Americanists conference in Bogotá, which held a pioneering symposium on ayahuasca. All this happened at a time when it was not possible to type ‘ayahuasca’ into Google on your computer.
Ever since the Europeans colonized the New World and “discovered” the Amazon, the jungle and indigenous populations have been fascinating us. Ayahuasca or yagé seems to derive its power, as anthropologist Michael Taussig puts it, from the Amazon forest and its populations. The Amazon is fertile, mysterious, creative, and powerful; but also dangerous, hostile, chaotic and demonic. Colonial imagination attributed special magical abilities to the inhabitants of the forest, the tropical Indians. Their supposed wildness, mirrored in the wilderness of the forest, could heal the White man and colonial wounds.
After a long journey of persecution and banishment by colonizers, followed by prohibitionist drug policies, we can observe the spread of ayahuasca rituals throughout Europe and North America, and along with this, a huge expansion in the scientific study of ayahuasca. This vine has definitely become an interest of the academic world, and seems to be here to stay.
In the words of Brazilian historian Henrique Carneiro, as telescopes are to astronomy and microscopes to biology, psychedelic drugs represent the primary techno-scientific tool of knowledge of the mind. I think it is safe to say that we are co-protagonists in the largest event ever about ayahuasca. There will be one community forum, five films, and more than 30 presentations. The Track is also going to launch the book Ayahuasca and Health.
Our Track is multidisciplinary. It includes perspectives from the disciplines of neuroscience, neurobiology, psychiatry, pharmacology, ethnopharmacology, ethnobotany, psychology, public health, epidemiology, anthropology, law, and education. Presenters have come from Brazil, the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Peru, and Mexico.
The main focus of the Ayahuasca Track is on the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca. Presentations will explore the ritual and clinical uses of this substance in the treatment and management of various diseases and ailments, especially its role in psychological well being, quality of life, and in shaping identity. They will particularly address ayahuasca’s promising potentials as an adjunct to psychotherapy for substance dependence, and in some cases for depression and PTSD. The biomedical and psychological research presented in the track ranges from neurophysiological aspects of visions to the use of neuroscience tools to compare dream states and psychedelic states; from the psychological evaluation of ayahuasca drinkers to investigation of long term effects on mental health, potential side effects, toxicity, and interaction with antidepressants and mental disorders. Health, illness, and curing are analyzed through the lens of anthropology as well, particularly in religious and shamanic settings. The track investigates the boundaries between shamanism, religion, and medicine, examining hybridization across the diverse knowledge bases of ayahuasca practices. Our collaborators do not avoid controversial topics, such as the role of economics, cultural and ritual translations, ayahuasca tourism, sexual abuse, ethics, legal pluralism and religious freedom.
We hope that the Ayahuasca Track helps to legitimize the scientific study of ayahuasca, and encourages more researchers to study this topic. We have contracted with Springer Publishing to produce a book out of this conference, “The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca.”
In sum, it is a true joy to unite the top experts of the world on this topic with the global ayahuasca-drinking community in a congenial California atmosphere. Welcome to our world of researchers, friends, kin, enemies, active principles, ancestors, non-humans, plantspirits, and molecules. I hope you will come join us in the Ayahuasca Track to discuss the nature of this hallucinogen-religious sacrament-medicinal plant-magical potion and its incredible potential to shed light onto the nature of the mind, body, and spirit.
(*) Visiting Professor at the Drug Policy Program of the Center for Economic Research and
Education (CIDE), Research Associate at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg
University, and co-founder of the Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives
(NEIP). See: http://www.neip.info and http://bialabate.net
Ayahuasca Track Opening Speech at the 2013 Psychedelic Science Conference.
Beatriz Caiuby Labate (*).
April 19th, 2013, Oakland.
I am very pleased to be here today. I want to thank the conference organizers for their openness to the topic of ayahuasca, and the participants of the Ayahuasca Track for accepting my invitation to join our gathering. I also would like to thank my University, CIDE (Center for Economic Research and Education), in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and thank you all for coming.
I am happy to stand here and see this big audience, more than 275 years after a Jesuit missionary first reported on ayahuasca use in Peru, more then 150 years after botanist Richard Spruce identified Banisteriopsis use among the Indians of the Northwest Amazon, 90 years after its active principles were isolated, 80 years after DMT was synthetized in a laboratory for the first time, 50 years after Burroughs and Ginsberg published their classic book Yagé Letters, 37 years after Terence McKenna and Kat Harrison – who is present here today, and who was in her mid twenties then – took off for their trip to Peru, and 28 years after the Americanists conference in Bogotá, which held a pioneering symposium on ayahuasca. All this happened at a time when it was not possible to type ‘ayahuasca’ into Google on your computer.
Ever since the Europeans colonized the New World and “discovered” the Amazon, the jungle and indigenous populations have been fascinating us. Ayahuasca or yagé seems to derive its power, as anthropologist Michael Taussig puts it, from the Amazon forest and its populations. The Amazon is fertile, mysterious, creative, and powerful; but also dangerous, hostile, chaotic and demonic. Colonial imagination attributed special magical abilities to the inhabitants of the forest, the tropical Indians. Their supposed wildness, mirrored in the wilderness of the forest, could heal the White man and colonial wounds.
After a long journey of persecution and banishment by colonizers, followed by prohibitionist drug policies, we can observe the spread of ayahuasca rituals throughout Europe and North America, and along with this, a huge expansion in the scientific study of ayahuasca. This vine has definitely become an interest of the academic world, and seems to be here to stay.
In the words of Brazilian historian Henrique Carneiro, as telescopes are to astronomy and microscopes to biology, psychedelic drugs represent the primary techno-scientific tool of knowledge of the mind. I think it is safe to say that we are co-protagonists in the largest event ever about ayahuasca. There will be one community forum, five films, and more than 30 presentations. The Track is also going to launch the book Ayahuasca and Health.
Our Track is multidisciplinary. It includes perspectives from the disciplines of neuroscience, neurobiology, psychiatry, pharmacology, ethnopharmacology, ethnobotany, psychology, public health, epidemiology, anthropology, law, and education. Presenters have come from Brazil, the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Peru, and Mexico.
The main focus of the Ayahuasca Track is on the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca. Presentations will explore the ritual and clinical uses of this substance in the treatment and management of various diseases and ailments, especially its role in psychological well being, quality of life, and in shaping identity. They will particularly address ayahuasca’s promising potentials as an adjunct to psychotherapy for substance dependence, and in some cases for depression and PTSD. The biomedical and psychological research presented in the track ranges from neurophysiological aspects of visions to the use of neuroscience tools to compare dream states and psychedelic states; from the psychological evaluation of ayahuasca drinkers to investigation of long term effects on mental health, potential side effects, toxicity, and interaction with antidepressants and mental disorders. Health, illness, and curing are analyzed through the lens of anthropology as well, particularly in religious and shamanic settings. The track investigates the boundaries between shamanism, religion, and medicine, examining hybridization across the diverse knowledge bases of ayahuasca practices. Our collaborators do not avoid controversial topics, such as the role of economics, cultural and ritual translations, ayahuasca tourism, sexual abuse, ethics, legal pluralism and religious freedom.
We hope that the Ayahuasca Track helps to legitimize the scientific study of ayahuasca, and encourages more researchers to study this topic. We have contracted with Springer Publishing to produce a book out of this conference, “The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca.”
In sum, it is a true joy to unite the top experts of the world on this topic with the global ayahuasca-drinking community in a congenial California atmosphere. Welcome to our world of researchers, friends, kin, enemies, active principles, ancestors, non-humans, plantspirits, and molecules. I hope you will come join us in the Ayahuasca Track to discuss the nature of this hallucinogen-religious sacrament-medicinal plant-magical potion and its incredible potential to shed light onto the nature of the mind, body, and spirit.
(*) Visiting Professor at the Drug Policy Program of the Center for Economic Research and
Education (CIDE), Research Associate at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg
University, and co-founder of the Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives
(NEIP). See: http://www.neip.info and http://bialabate.net
“Trayectoria de la Ayahuasca”, discurso de apertura de la Conferencia de Ciencia Psicodélica, 2013.
Beatriz Caiuby Labate (*)
19 de abril de 2013, Oakland.
Estoy muy contenta de estar aquí hoy. Quiero agradecer a los organizadores de la conferencia por su apertura al tema de la ayahuasca, y a los participantes por aceptar mi invitación para unirse a esta reunión. También me gustaría agradecer a mi Universidad, CIDE (Centro de Investigación Económica y Educación), en Aguascalientes, México, y gracias a todos por venir.
Estoy feliz de estar aquí y ver esta gran audiencia, más de 275 años después de que un misionero jesuita fuera el primero en informar sobre el uso de ayahuasca en el Perú, más de 150 años después de que el botánico Richard Spruce identifique el uso de Banisteriopsis entre los indios del noroeste del Amazonas, 90 años después de que sus principios activos se aislaron, 80 años después de que el DMT se sintetizara en un laboratorio por primera vez, 50 años después de que Burroughs y Ginsberg publicaran su clásico libro “Yagé Letters2 (Cartas del Yagé), 37 años después de que Terence McKenna y Kat Harrison -que están presenten aquí hoy y que aquel entonces tenían veinticinco años- iniciaran su viaje al Perú, y 28 años después de la conferencia de Americanistas en Bogotá, que celebró un simposio pionero sobre ayahuasca. Todo esto ocurrió en un momento en que no era posible escribir 'ayahuasca' en el Google de vuestra computadora.
Desde que los europeos colonizaron el Nuevo Mundo y "descubrieron" la Amazonía, la selva y las poblaciones indígenas han sido fascinantes para nosotros. La Ayahuasca o yagé parece recibir su energía, como el antropólogo Michael Taussig dijo, de la selva amazónica y sus pobladores. El Amazonas es fértil, misterioso, creativo y poderoso, pero también es peligroso, hostil, caótico y demoníaco. La imaginación colonial le atribuyó poderes mágicos especiales a los habitantes de la selva tropical, los indios. Su supuesto salvajismo, reflejado en la selva salvaje, podía sanar al hombre blanco y sus heridas coloniales.
Después de un largo viaje de persecución y destierro por los colonizadores, seguido de políticas de drogas prohibicionistas, podemos observar la propagación de los rituales de ayahuasca en toda Europa y América del Norte, y junto con esto, una enorme expansión en el estudio científico de la ayahuasca. Este "vino" se ha convertido, sin duda, en interés del mundo académico, y parece
haber llegado para quedarse.
En palabras del historiador brasileño Henrique Carneiro, como telescopio a la astronomía y microscopio a la biología, las drogas psicodélicas representan la herramienta técnico-científica principal de conocimiento de la mente. Creo que es acertado decir que somos co-protagonistas del evento más grande nunca antes visto sobre la ayahuasca. En este habrá un foro, cinco películas, y más de 30 presentaciones. Este evento también lanzará el libro “Ayahuasca y Salud”.
La “Trayectoria de la Ayahuasca” es un evento multidisciplinario. Incluye las perspectivas de la neurociencia, la neurobiología, psiquiatría, farmacología, etnofarmacología, etnobotánica, la psicología, la salud pública, la epidemiología, la antropología, el derecho y la educación. Los presentadores provienen de Brasil, EE.UU., Canadá, Alemania, España, Perú y México.
El objetivo principal de este evento está avizorar el potencial terapéutico de la ayahuasca. Las presentaciones explorarán el ritual y usos clínicos de esta sustancia en el tratamiento y manejo de diversas enfermedades y dolencias, especialmente su papel en el bienestar psicológico, la calidad de vida y en la configuración de la identidad. Las presentaciones estarán particularmente centradas en los prometedores y potenciales usos de la ayahuasca como complemento en la psicoterapia de los farmacodependientes, y en algunos casos para la depresión y el trastorno de estrés postraumático.
La investigación biomédica y psicológica presentada en esta “Trayectoria de la Ayahuasca” va desde
los aspectos neurofisiológicos de las visiones hasta el uso de herramientas de la neurociencia para comparar estados de sueño y estados psicodélicos; desde la evaluación psicológica de los bebedores de ayahuasca a la investigación de los efectos a largo plazo sobre la salud mental, los posibles efectos secundarios, la toxicidad y la interacción con los antidepresivos y los trastornos mentales. Salud, enfermedad y curación se analizan desde la perspectiva de la antropología, especialmente al interior de entornos religiosos y chamánicos. La "Trayectoria" investiga los límites entre chamanismo, religión y medicina, examinando su hibridación a través de la diversidad de conocimientos basados en las prácticas de ayahuasca. Nuestros colaboradores no evitan temas polémicos, como el papel económico, las versiones culturales y rituales, el turismo con ayahuasca, el abuso sexual, la ética, el pluralismo jurídico y la libertad religiosa.
Esperamos que este evento ayude a legitimar el estudio científico de la ayahuasca, y aliente más a los investigadores a estudiar este tema. Hemos contratado a Springer Publishing para producir un libro de esta conferencia, "El uso terapéutico de la Ayahuasca".
En suma, se trata de una verdadera alegría unir a los mejores expertos del mundo en este tema con la comunidad global de bebedores de ayahuasca en el ambiente agradable de California. Bienvenidos a nuestro mundo de investigadores, amigos, parientes, enemigos, principios activos, antepasados, no-humanos, espíritus de las plantes y moléculas. Espero que se unan a nosotros en "la Trayectoria de la Ayahuasca" para discutir la naturaleza de esta poción, planta mágica, alucinógena-religiosa, sagrada-medicinal y su increíble potencial de arrojar luz sobre la naturaleza de la mente, el cuerpo y el espíritu.
(*) Profesora visitante en el Programa de Políticas de Drogas del Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Educativas (CIDE); investigadora asociada en el Instituto de Psicología Médica, Universidad de Heidelberg y co-fundadora del Núcleo de Estudios Interdisciplinarios de Psicoactivos
(NEIP). Ver: http://www.neip.info y http://bialabate.net
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