God hasn’t died, it has merely been encapsulated – Psilocybin and ayahuasca in the psychedelic renaissance: Intersections between religion, indigenous cosmologies, spirituality, and science

Academic publications on psilocybin are concentrated in medical and scientific fields, while those on ayahuasca come mainly from the humanities and social sciences. The use of both substances is undergoing secularization—moving away from traditional cultural roots—but to different degrees: psilocybin is more secularized and medicalized, whereas ayahuasca retains stronger ties to religious institutions and indigenous organizations. Ayahuasca also exhibits a form of 'guardianship,' with groups actively maintaining cultural authority over its practices. Clinical trials for psilocybin carefully attend to setting, but this does not necessarily emphasize traditional mushroom-use contexts.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article traces the trajectories of psilocybin and ayahuasca in the context of the psychedelic renaissance. The bibliometric analysis reveals that academic publications on psilocybin fall primarily into the medical and scientific areas, whereas those devoted to ayahuasca derive mainly from humanities and social sciences. Second, the article argues that psilocybin and ayahuasca use is undergoing a process of secularization, leading to psychedelic use that is increasingly removed from its traditional cultural roots. This secularization manifests itself differently in the two cases: Psilocybin exhibits a higher degree of secularization than ayahuasca. Ayahuasca maintains strong ties to religious institutions and indigenous organizations deeply involved in its global spread, and it has undergone less medicalization than psilocybin. While the careful attention to setting in psilocybin clinical trials is noteworthy, this doesn’t necessarily imply an emphasis on traditional mushroom use settings. On the other hand, a form of ‘ayahuasca guardianship’ persists, manifested in individuals and groups actively maintaining and asserting their cultural authority over the plant’s significance and associated practices.