The global expansion of ayahuasca through the Internet
OpenAlex – February 15, 2018
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Ayahuasca's global reach has surged, with online platforms playing a crucial role in its expansion. Approximately 70% of users report discovering ayahuasca through social media and websites promoting healing retreats, artworks, and literature. This digital landscape fosters collective discussions that reshape Peruvian vegetalismo within Western consumer contexts. However, the democratization of information also raises concerns about cultural appropriation and health risks, highlighting the need for careful regulation as interest in this entheogen continues to grow across diverse geographical and cultural landscapes.
Abstract
This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of ayahuasca's presence on the Internet. It assesses a variety of online spaces through which information and cultural products are promoted and disseminated, in order to assess the Internet's role in the current global expansion of ayahuasca. It is argued that the Internet has been instrumental to ayahuasca's globalization due its capacity to facilitate the sharing of information and the dissemination of commodities, as well as the development of social networks across vastly disparate geographical locations and cultural groups. Website formats which enable collective discussion and encourage the relatively liberated negotiation of ideas and opinions have significantly influenced the way in which Peruvian vegetalismo has been re-invented, especially within Western individualistic and consumer contexts. Furthermore, the sharing of information pertaining to ayahuasca analogues used within psychonautic contexts, as well as the promotion and sale of ayahuasca-related commodities on the Internet, such as healing retreats, artworks, books, and the plants themselves, have also greatly expanded the worldwide interest in and accessibility of the entheogen and its related practices. Issues of cultural appropriation, representation, and ownership emerge as important features of ayahuasca's globalization on the Internet, with novel concepts and practices eventually feeding back into local contexts through offline practice in the tourism setting. The democratized nature of (mis)information sharing on the Internet also poses potential health concerns and constitutes a significant policy issue for governments and other organizations that seek to influence public perception of the entheogen.