Are the contents of the visions factually correct? As argued previously, assessing the truthfulness of an ayahuasca claim of knowledge appears to be a misconstruction of the phenomena at hand. The fact that the knowledge pertained is not comparable to a technical inquiry does not mean that the experience does not yield learning. Such is the case with The Doctor and Marisa, for instance, who appeared to have attained a sort of personal and interpersonal psychological insight, and Vegan, who despite being aware the content of his visions being unverifiable by nature, nevertheless appeared to have satisfied an intimate existential thirst for knowledge.
Without falling into perennialism, I would argue that there is a common human nature underlying the claims reviewed here. As discussed throughout the project, the content of the experiences is informed by the practitioner's cultural and historical context. Nonetheless, claiming to attain ultimate knowledge, or metaphysical understanding of some sort, after living through a non-ordinary state of consciousness appears to be a common human experience.
Furthermore, I would argue that enquiring about the nature of things, the self, and the existence is part of the same common human thirst.
becomes a space to re-think, re-approach, re-imagine, re-member, and re-signify intimate memories and angsts. Hence its therapeutic value.
The word gnosis points to a non-verifiable claim of knowledge that nonetheless appears to be significant. In that sense, the attainment of psychological or metaphysical insight seems to respond to personal anguishes or existential questions. Ayahuasca experiences can therefore, yield intuitive knowledge that is relevant for the practitioners' sense of self, identity, and metaphysical frameworks they choose to encompass their lives.
In this context, the quote by anthropologist Jean Langdon at the beginning of this work acquires sense. Langdon stated that, in a way, shamanism is a quest for knowledge. There are still things left to discover regarding other means by which people may attain knowledge outside of the structures of rational analytic thought and outside of the range of ordinary consciousness.
Psychedelic experiences are yet to be studied from a philosophical perspective, which considers the epistemological conundrum of a certain kind of knowledge attained by means of altered states of consciousness.
7 Epilogue
One afternoon, a friend of mine asked for my company to go to one of Amsterdam's famous smart shops. Being academically interested in psychedelics, I took it as a field trip. When we arrived, I looked around the colorful shop filled with oriental imagery and curious objects. I felt like Harry Potter entering Diagon Ally to buy his first wand.
On the counter, someone offered a brochure to scan the products available, and in there, I saw the ingredients to prepare ayahuasca: Banisteriopsis Caapi and Psychotria Viridis. The anthropologist in me immediately regressed to the amazon rainforest, walking around the trees alongside a young shaman. As we walked, he showed me every single medicinal species in the forest and related to the ritual use of ayahuasca; he showed me dozens of plants, except one:
the ayahuasca vine itself. When I asked to see it, he said that no woman could walk near the plant, as it was a taboo related to the menstrual cycle. Ideally, only the shaman should handle the harvest and concoction of the brew. Imagine my shock years later when I encountered the brew's ingredients sold so far away, as a commodity coveted for its psychedelic properties. I walked out of the shop confused.
Today, after long pondering, I have come to a conclusion:
Social phenomena and cultural exchange cannot be stopped. There is no pristine tradition that can be frozen in time as humans and societies are dynamic as time itself. The curious intersection between psychedelic plant medicines and spiritualities, on the contrary, promises to be a fertile and challenging field of inquiry for religious studies, as the disenchanted west discovers new methods to enchant itself and satisfy its thirst for knowledge. Academia and scholars can only be witnesses as social phenomena unfold, be critically aware of the
Acknowledgments
This project was done with the aid of the Amsterdam University Fund. I wish to thank Miss Natasha van der Woude and Mister Jan Nieuwenhuis for their kindness and timely support.
And the Foundation for the Future of Colombia, COLFUTURO, for supporting me with a grant that allowed me to be educated in one of the finest institutions in the world.
I wish to give special thanks to my supervisor Dr. Carolina Ivanescu for everything she did to help complete this project. Thank you for embarking on the task of supervising my ideas; I have no words to express my sincere appreciation. And Dr. Ulrike Popp-Baier for her timely feedback on my first draft, as it was the best roadmap to follow in order to improve my manuscript.
On a personal level, I wish to thank my supportive family in Colombia. I will be forever grateful to my mother, Laity, a scholar herself, in whose shoulders I stand, and who has supported me in pursuing my dreams even if they sounded a little bit psychedelic. Having my mom talk about set and setting is the utmost proof that mothers will love you no matter what you do. To my father, Jairo, who taught me how to interpret dreams and fed me the oddest ideas about what reality could be. And to my sister Ifi for her words of encouragement in times of need.
I am forever grateful to my dear Lua. Thank you for your vital support, your wise patience, and your long wait.
I wish to say thanks to Ana Maria for having her ears wide open to my stories and her insightful words to guide me in times of uncertainty. And to Tomás and Xué, for their pure, wordless love and never-ending patience.
I wish to thank the friends I made here, Lukas and Pascal, who showed me kindness beyond words. And to Luisa for her empathy in our shared turmoil. To the friends I left in Colombia, Camilo for being a witness of my growth as a young writer; Alejandra and Eduardo, for always picking up the phone to talk about dreams, tarot, life, and love, even if we were sitting at the other side of the globe.
To Amsterdam herself, for here, I discovered the new uncharted territories of my being.
Amsterdam showed me a kind heart filled with wind and bicycles, in which I could dream, wonder by, and be lost in endless canals and bridges. Thank you for showing me the seasons go by, as daunting as they are for a tropical being such as myself! Thank you for allowing me to witness the ever-transforming nature of the world in the simple but powerful, everlastingly changing colors of your trees. I will be forever grateful to you and your old cobblestones.
And finally, thank you, Palo, for being brave and traveling all the way across the ocean. I am stronger, older, and wiser because of it.
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