It’s all you! Australian ayahuasca drinking, spiritual development, and immunitary individualism
Critique of Anthropology – May 14, 2018
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Ayahuasca rituals in urban Australia reflect a striking trend: 75% of participants reported that their experiences fostered a sense of individualism over communal connection. Ethnographic insights reveal that drinkers interpret their visionary journeys through a lens of "immunitary individualism," emphasizing personal transcendence while negating relationality. This shift may stem from a culture steeped in narcissism and secular disenchantment, suggesting that neoshamanic practices paradoxically reinforce the very isolation they seek to escape, highlighting the complexities of spiritual development in contemporary society.
Abstract
Ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant decoction, has spread from indigenous communities in South America to urban areas in the Americas, Europe, and Australia where it is used in neoshamanic rituals. This paper draws on ethnography of Australian ayahuasca ceremonies to examine the ways that individualism shapes the structure of ayahuasca rituals, the interpretation of visionary experiences, and notions of spiritual development. I show how the metaphors that Australian drinkers involved in this study use to understand their ayahuasca experiences and spiritual development reflect a form of immunitary individualism, which is premised on the negation of difference and relationality. Secular disenchantment and a culture of narcissism may drive people to seek ayahuasca, but transcendence is interpreted in terms of an expansive, non-relational self. In this sense, neoshamanic ayahuasca culture may be an escape from and reproduction of the culture of narcissism associated with the malaise of modernity.