The Spiritual Dimension of Yage Shamanism in Colombia
Religions July 21, 2020 Carlos Miguel Gómez Rincón 3 citations
Yagé shamanism in Colombia, rooted in the ritual use of a plant medicine, has been central to the medical, spiritual, and cultural systems of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon piedmont of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru for centuries. Since the 1990s, this practice has expanded into urban areas of Colombia and other countries. The article interprets the sense of the sacred in this practice through three stages: exploring origin narratives that present yagé as a source of knowledge and foundational to Indigenous cultures; a phenomenological analysis of yagé shamanic experience as a form of spiritual experience; and a brief discussion of whether this form of experience is valid.