International Journal of Drug Policy
October 18, 2016
Ismael Apud, Oriol Romaní
40 citations
Ayahuasca, a psychoactive beverage from the Amazon traditionally used by indigenous and mestizo populations, has seen widespread international use since the 1990s in both secular and religious contexts. This article analyzes these networks as health care systems, focusing on Spain and Catalonia, describing group emergence and participants' therapeutic itineraries. Using a medical anthropology perspective, it reflects on the relationship between medicine and religion and problematizes tensions between medicalization and medical pluralism. It also analyzes prohibitionist drug policies and their conflicts with ritual and health care uses of ayahuasca. The paper concludes by reflecting on the difficulty of separating ayahuasca as 'medicine' from its religious connections.
Anthropology of Consciousness
March 1, 2015
Ismael Apud
36 citations
Ayahuasca, a psychoactive substance from the Amazon, has spread globally through spirituality and religious markets. In Uruguay, four groups introduced it; one holistic therapy center blends Peruvian shamanic traditions into its ceremonies. The paper proposes a 'distributed cognition' model to understand ayahuasca rituals as a system of activity, explaining how cognition is shared across people, tools, and environment during the ritual.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
May 4, 2022
Ismael Apud, Juan Scuro, Ignacio Carrera et al.
14 citations
Participants in ayahuasca rituals at a substance-use-disorder treatment center in Uruguay scored higher than a control group on Impulsive Sensation Seeking, Boredom Susceptibility, and Social Warmth scales of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire. Qualitative analysis of their experiences revealed five categories: emotional experiences (including love and empathy), corporal experiences, spiritual/transcendental experiences, personal experiences, and visions. The findings suggest that the combination of social interactions and ayahuasca's pharmacological action may facilitate social emotions during rituals and contribute to long-term increases in empathic and social aspects of personality.
Salud colectiva
August 19, 2020
David Pere Martínez Oró, Ismael Apud, Juan Scuro et al.
12 citations
Prohibitionist drug policies present their political-moral agenda as ideologically neutral science. This article examines cannabis and psychedelics to show that prohibitionism selectively uses only scientific findings that support its predetermined conclusions while ignoring contradictory evidence. The authors argue that drug policies should instead be grounded in scientific evidence and core values—public health, social cohesion, and human rights. They advocate analyzing the power relations that shape the contradictory relationship between science and drug policy.
Zygon®
February 12, 2017
Ismael Apud
9 citations
The boundary between science and religion is not fixed but arises from how consciousness, intentionality, and spirituality relate to each other. Tracing this from the dawn of modern science through the nineteenth century and into the 1960s counterculture, new schools in psychology and anthropology emerged that reshaped the divide. The psychoactive Amazonian brew ayahuasca serves as a case study: first within the broader academic field of ayahuasca studies, then through three specific cases in Spain. The author argues that science is permeable to spiritual ontologies, drawing on social and cognitive sciences to show that the demarcation problem is historically contingent and interdisciplinary.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
September 2, 2022
Ismael Apud, Juan Scuro, Ignacio Carrera et al.
6 citations
Ayahuasca's psychological and subjective effects differ between two neoshamanic groups in Uruguay: a psychospiritual holistic center and a center treating substance use disorders. A mixed-methods study using the Hallucinogen Rating Scale and in-depth interviews found significant medium-sized differences in affect, cognition, and perception between groups. The group with higher scores reported more frequent and complex emotional, cognitive, and perceptive experiences. No significant quantitative differences emerged for intensity or somaesthetic domains, yet qualitative reports described the experience as “soft” in one group and noted bodily effects like purging. Stronger subjective effects may relate to differences in dosage and setting.
Interdisciplinaria Revista de Psicología y Ciencias Afines
June 1, 2019
Ismael Apud
6 citations
Ayahuasca, a psychoactive Amazonian substance traditionally used for spiritual, medical, and religious purposes, gained popularity in the 1990s through international spirituality networks and the psychedelic research renaissance. This article describes and analyzes the healing processes of four addiction cases treated at the Institute of Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology (IDEAA), a center treating Spanish patients brought to the Brazilian Amazon. Using a qualitative biographical methodology integrating cognitive and cultural approaches, the study describes the intervention process and patients' biographical narratives.
January 1, 2021
Ismael Apud
5 citations
Ayahuasca shows promise in enhancing cognition and aiding addiction recovery, with qualitative insights from 30 participants revealing transformative narratives. Participants reported a 70% improvement in psychological well-being post-ceremony, highlighting shifts in social identity and self-representation. Psychotherapists noted significant changes in clients' perspectives on addiction, attributing these to the psychedelic experience. Biochemical analysis and sensing techniques further support these findings, suggesting ayahuasca's potential in therapeutic settings. As interest grows, understanding its psychological impact becomes crucial for future drug studies.
Journal of psychoactive drugs
January 1, 2023
Ismael Apud, Juan Scuro, Luisina Rodríguez et al.
4 citations
People who use ayahuasca in a neo-shamanic group and a Santo Daime church in Uruguay differ in personality and acute psychological effects. Santo Daime members scored lower on Neuroticism-Anxiety, Dependence, Low Self-Esteem, Anger, and Restlessness, possibly due to the protective effects of a structured church religion or because some neo-shamanic participants were undergoing treatment. During rituals, the neo-shamanic group reported stronger somesthesia and perception, linked to their high-arousal setting. Chemical analysis found typical alkaloids with no adulterants; the neo-shamanic sample had a higher β-carbolines-to-DMT ratio, which may explain the stronger somesthetic effects. Personality and acute effects correlated only in the neo-shamanic group, suggesting a more individualistic tradition.
Anthropology of Consciousness
November 10, 2024
Juan Scuro, Ismael Apud, Víctor T. Pérez Martínez
3 citations
Three former patients with substance use disorders recovered after participating in ayahuasca rituals at a neo-shamanic center in Uruguay, run by a psychologist trained in the Peruvian vegetalismo tradition. In-depth interviews collected their narratives, analyzed from a medical anthropology perspective focusing on biographical, substance use, spiritual, and entheogenic trajectories. The impact of the rituals is attributed not only to ayahuasca's psychedelic properties but to its role as a psychotherapeutic tool embedded in a social, cultural, and spiritual setting designed to treat substance use disorders.
Studies in Psychology Estudios de Psicología
January 2, 2023
Ismael Apud
1 citation
A systematic review and meta-analysis of six cross-sectional studies found that long-term participants in ayahuasca rituals, compared to controls, scored significantly lower on Harm Avoidance, Anticipatory Worry, Fear of Uncertainty, Shyness with strangers, Fatigability, and Purposefulness, and significantly higher on Reward Dependence, Attachment, Helpfulness, Self-Transcendence, Transpersonal Identification, and Spiritual Acceptance. These results suggest a 'social' and 'spiritual' personality profile among long-term ayahuasca participants, aligning with evidence from other psychedelic studies.
February 27, 2023
Juan Scuro, Ismael Apud, Sebastián Torterola
Ayahuasca arrived in Uruguay in the 1990s via Santo Daime church and neo-shamanic and holistic centers, sparking legal cases and public debates where drug policies and religious rights intersect. This chapter describes recent cases: the confiscation of 30 liters of ayahuasca from Santo Daime, analyzed under Uruguayan drug law; a father's denunciation after his son, a former ayahuasca user and spiritual seeker, committed suicide; and controversies around Ayahuasca International's arrival. The discussion highlights tensions between religious freedom, concerns about dangerous sects, public health, and drug policy in contemporary Uruguay.