Back

Selected ressource details

-
Back

The Ayahuasca Industry and Global Healing in an Experience Economy


Pages: 38 - 41

Abstract

The existence of an ayahuasca industry has the potential to be a forward-moving, transformational reclamation of our innate desire and ability to connect and heal with plants, and to experience ourselves as part of nature. Particularly when we allow ourselves to be guided and inspired by deeper understandings of our interconnectedness, we can thoughtfully envision a new paradigm for our economy, an economy where commercialization does not emphasize profitability at the expense of quality but instead represents the availability and preference for experience over “stuff ”: a New Economy beyond the New Economy1—the Experience Economy. And, in this paradigm, the ayahuasca experience feels like a natural fit. The bell has been rung, and people across the planet are hearing the call of ayahuasca. As this happens, the global ayahuasca community needs to ask itself some serious questions: What do we want to preserve and amplify for future generations regarding ayahuasca? Whatever that is, do our actions now support this? How can we honor ayahuasca culture and tradition and safely, lovingly steward the inevitable changes that come from the globalization of ayahuasca? Is drinking ayahuasca outside the Amazon, in our native communities, the answer to reducing our carbon footprint? How can we utilize our tourism dollars to support local Amazonian businesses and services that engage in sound ecological practices? What do we demand, require, or encourage of the transportation, lodging, and tourism sectors? How do we, as seekers and participants, or pasajeros as we are referred to at Peruvian ayahuasca centers, do our part to insure that we are safe?