Cultural Biases and Psychedelic Experiences: Western Scientific Perspectives about Amazonian Mestizo Therapeutic Traditions
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine September 7, 2023 Alberto Dubbini
Western researchers' epistemic and ethical foundations, rooted in a culturally shared idea of therapy, can hinder their understanding of different cultural realities and their knowledge and practices. Examining cases in psychedelic therapy, this paper focuses on obstacles created by ethical and epistemic conflicts in researchers with Western scientific training, who struggle to explore situations induced by psychedelic substances when integrating their therapeutic know-how with that of a centuries-old spiritual tradition like Amazonian mestizo vegetalismo. These obstacles can increase awareness of cultural bias and limitations of the scientific gaze, highlighting the importance of contexts where declared independence, neutrality, and effectiveness of human alert thinking as undebatable values are under discussion.