In the Peruvian Amazon city of Pucallpa, healers called videntes (seers) use the plant hallucinogen ayahuasca to divine the future and treat magical illness. Fieldwork in 1977 and 1979 focused on an urban healer, don Hilde, who drew on a long shamanic tradition. Patients drink ayahuasca in rainforest clearings, believing the plant's spirit enters them. Don Hilde also joined a mystical-philosophical organization to enhance his personal power and access altered states of consciousness. The healer's reputation as a seer is continually reaffirmed through daily interactions with patients, for whom access to the supernatural realm is central to healing.
In Danish intensive care units, clinicians interpret patients' responses to monitoring and sensory assessments as 'signs of consciousness' when those responses seem contextually relevant. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the article traces how the clinical concept of potential shapes the interpretation of these signs, treating consciousness as a vital indicator of what makes a life worth living. The analysis frames the potential for recovery as an emergent biosocial practice, contributing to medical anthropology discussions about moral landscapes at the borders of clinical and experimental care.