Western tourists who seek genuine fairy tale experiences of magic, transformation, and enchantment through South American ayahuasca tourism often feel abandoned by their spirit guides and disconnected from an enchanted universe upon returning home. The vision-based spirit sensegivers help individuals exorcise inner demons and see themselves as spiritual beings, but the potion's effects quickly wear off. Combined with reluctance to re-experience intense inner tensions from stepping in and out of a fairy tale, further tourism is rejected. Ayahuasca tourism thus becomes a 'forgotten' fairy tale, rarely told.
Five indigenous South American shamans who sell and lead ayahuasca ceremonies engage in magico-spiritual identity work to counter stigma from their local communities, who view them as demonic witch doctors, and from Westerners, who see them as drug dealers. Their supernatural identity is well suited to mitigating this stigma and helps them dominate the spiritual marketplace. The otherworldly foundation of the shaman identity allows them to be seen as arbiters of all knowledge, unchallengeable by other knowledge systems.