Reflections on crafting an ayahuasca community guide for the awareness of sexual abuse

The creation of guidelines to raise awareness of sexual abuse in ayahuasca settings faces the challenge of conveying that abuse is never the victim's fault while also informing about common scenarios that can lead to abuse. The globalization of ayahuasca use has broadened the contexts in which the psychedelic brew is consumed, increasing possibilities for sexual harassment and abuse. The article reflects on the conception and development of the Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse by the Chacruna Institute, focusing on the needs for such guidelines and the challenges in collaboratively creating them as an educational task.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article reflects upon the conception and development of a set of guidelines for the awareness of sexual abuse in ayahuasca settings, an assortment of scenarios that take place in local and global settings entailing the use of a psychedelic brew known for producing visionary and purgative effects composed of Amazonian Banisteriopsis caapi (ayahuasca vine) commonly combined with the leaves of Psychotria viridis (chacruna) or Diplopterys cabrerana (chaliponga). The globalization and diaspora of ayahuasca expertise, usage, and plant materials has broadened the diversity of individual and group interactions and geographical and social contexts in which this hallucinogenic concoction is ingested, and thus given rise to a range of possibilities, which also may, despondently, include possibilities for sexual harassment and abuse. The authors raise the key issues and processes that have led to formation, publication, and dissemination of the Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse of Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, focusing specifically on the needs for such guidelines, as well as the challenges faced in collaboratively creating them. The creation of guidelines as an educational task is wrought with concerns, as they must first and foremost convey the fact that abuse is never the victim/survivor’s fault, and yet they must also aim to inform individuals of potential common scenarios that can lead to abuse. In this sense, guidelines themselves are held up to scrutiny, and the process of collaboratively crafting the Chacruna Institute’s Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse has not been an exception.