Yet another uncritical, cheerleading article about ayahuasca has appeared in the mainstream media, this time in the unlikeliest of venues, the website of Fox News. It contains this paragraph:

“For the person who has never participated in an ayahuasca ceremony, it is easy to assume that the brew causes the drinker to hallucinate, and that this explains . . . → Read More: Ayahuasca on Fox News]]> http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/01/05/ayahuasca-plant-healing-soul/

Yet another uncritical, cheerleading article about ayahuasca has appeared in the mainstream media, this time in the unlikeliest of venues, the website of Fox News. It contains this paragraph:

“For the person who has never participated in an ayahuasca ceremony, it is easy to assume that the brew causes the drinker to hallucinate, and that this explains the ayahuasca experience. But when you have engaged in ayahuasca ceremonies with highly trained shamans who make the brew correctly, such a simplistic explanation falls apart completely. The spirit landscape, in all its mystery, beauty, splendor, terror, majesty and strangeness, is its own world, and the ayahuasca lets you into that world.”

And then it concludes with two links to the websites of shamans in the Amazon.

How long before the healing powers of the vine are praised by Fox News on television as well? Maybe Glen Beck will direct viewers to his favorite shaman. It sounds far-fetched, but the inroads that ayahuasca has already made into the popular consciousness also seemed far-fetched before they happened, so at this point, I’m not ruling anything out.

November 22, 2010

Since this is my first report to Cottonwood, I’ll tell about what happened from the film project’s inception until now.

This spring, I returned from three months in the Amazon. I had . . . → Read More: Quarterly Report to the Cottonwood Research Foundation]]> Fulfilling my obligation to the Cottonwood Research Foundation for a quarterly report as described in our contract for fiscal sponsorship:

November 22, 2010

Since this is my first report to Cottonwood, I’ll tell about what happened from the film project’s inception until now.

Origin of the Film Idea

This spring, I returned from three months in the Amazon. I had stayed at Infinite Light Peru (http://infinitelightperu.com/) in the town of Jenaro Herrera, between Pucallpa and Iquitos, Peru. There, I had completed my 30th ayahuasca ceremony, plus a week-long diet of the non-psychoactive plant, sanango.  I had gone there seeking a cure my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which had not improved with conventional and alternative treatments in the United States. After all that ayahuasca, I indeed experienced dramatic improvements in my condition, but short of a complete cure. I contemplated going back for additional ceremonies, while noting that I no longer felt like a complete beginner with ayahuasca. I realized that my experiences, miniscule though they may be compared to the thousands of ceremonies that shamans have been through, still put me in a position to be able to guide and encourage beginners with helpful tips about the basics of finding a shaman and traveling to Peru.

I had seen many documentaries about ayahuasca prior to going to Peru, and while there, I watched a TV crew shooting a general-interest documentary for broadcast on cable television. Combining my desire to help others encounter ayahuasca for the first time, and knowing the power of the audio-visual medium to convey an immersive feeling of being there, making a documentary of my own became very appealing. I felt that there were already several fine films and TV shows introducing ayahuasca to people who had never heard of it before. The gears in my head began turning, and I wondered, what if there were a video that instead served the demographic group of people who were already interested in ayahuasca, but would like some practical advice about how to get started with it? I realized that at these ayahuasca centers in Peru (I had also visited another center called SpiritQuest Shamanic Sanctuary http://www.biopark.org/peru/ayahuasca-spiritquest.html ) had helpful shamans as well as some very talkative English-speaking apprentices, and that this was a tremendous resource that could be tapped just by pointing a camera at them, asking them a set of well-chosen questions, and turning their stream of wisdom into streaming video on YouTube that could reach the seekers I was trying to help.

During each of my ceremonies, I kept wishing that I could TiVo my visions so that I could share them with others. While that’s impossible, the next best thing was to try to recreate the visions using animation. I got more and more passionate about the idea of adding a large amount of animation to the documentary, so that it was more than just dry talking heads. I realized that each point made by a shaman or apprentice in an interview could be reinforced and brought to life by an animated segment depicting someone’s actual vision that is pertinent to the point being discussed.

I discovered Nina Paley’s animated film, Sita Sings the Blues, and realized that she had pioneered the perfect distribution model for a film like the one I was trying to make. She proved that you can give your movie away for free on the Internet, and still sell DVDs of the same movie. The power of the Internet, when unrestricted, allows the movie to reach ever-wider audiences, and some satisfied fans want to show their appreciation by donating to, or buying something from, the artist. The convinced me that using a Creative Commons Share Alike license instead of a conventional copyright was the way to go. It also felt right to not lock up wisdom about using the plants that was passed down through countless generations, and wisdom from the spirit world revealed in ceremonies.

Progress To Date

My first step was to set up a website to explain the project, http://destinationayahuasca.com. I bought some advertising on Facebook to get the word out. After spending $40, the fan base grew to 300, and then continued growing on its own without any additional advertising. As of this writing, the film has 470 fans on MySpace and 728 fans on Facebook. I expect to reach 1000 fans on Facebook by the end of the year.

Next, I bought a high-definition camcorder, lavalier microphones, and other equipment. I planned to travel to New York City to meet up with a small group of American ayahuasca shamanic apprentices who I befriended in Peru earlier this year, and interview them on camera. A bunch of them were unable to make it to New York for the get-together, so they called it off. I invited them to come to where I live on Labor Day weekend, and there was great enthusiasm among them at first, but again, their scheduling difficulties caused them to cancel.

On October 14, 2010, I signed the fiscal sponsorship contract with the Cottonwood Research Foundation.

Establishment of FunSmart Productions

On October 22, 2010, I registered FunSmart Productions. On October 28, 2010, I opened a bank account in the name of FunSmart Productions. My idea (to name it something other than Destination: Ayahuasca) was to leave open the possibility of creating more documentaries in the future, including other documentaries about psychedelic shamanism. With FunSmart Productions, I have in mind to eventually make Destination: Huachuma, about the shamanic use of the San Pedro cactus in the Peruvian Andes, Destination: Iboga, showing the West African Bwiti initiation ritual and use of ibogaine in clinical settings to treat addiction, and Destination: Ayahuasca 2: Beyond the Rainforest, documenting the ceremonial use of Ayahuasca in countries around the world where it is currently legal.

Since then, I stepped up my fundraising efforts and started getting donations.

Status of the Principle Photography, Editing, and Distribution of the Project

None to date.

Next Steps

• Formally contact ayahuasca centers in the vicinity of Iquitos and Pucallpa, Peru, describing the project and asking permission to film interviews there.
• Create a higher quality “pitch video” explaining the project, shot in high-definition.
• Create animated scenes depicting some of the visions I saw in ayahuasca ceremonies, to be added to the film later along with other people’s visions
• Improve the search engine optimization of the website http://destinationayahuasca.com
• Continue to promote the film and solicit donations on social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

Detailed Financial Analysis of the Costs and Revenues

attached in Microsoft Excel format.

My favorite line . . . → Read More: New York Times Article Means Increasing Acceptance of Ayahuasca]]> This recent New York Times article, with its favorable description of an ayahuasca ceremony experienced firsthand by the writer is, I believe, one further indication of the Western world’s growing acceptance of ayahuasca shamanism. This follows a similar article in the Washington Post and a segment on National Public Radio this past August.

My favorite line appears in the second paragraph of the article: “You will start to feel a reaction in about half an hour,” the shaman, Tsumpa, said, as my guide translated. “When the effects come, you must concentrate on what the medicine is trying to communicate.” Communication from the medicine is stated as matter-of-factly as communication on a cell phone, and the medicine is presented as medicine. Conspicuously absent, and also absent from the Washington Post and NPR, was any cynicism, put-downs, or paranoia about the dangers of mind-altering hallucinogenic drugs. Ayahuasca wasn’t censored out or distorted, exoticised or lampooned.

While stopping short of a raving endorsement, what we’re seeing here is a mini-trend in the mainstream media of at least acknowledgment and tacit acceptance of ayahuasca usage in its original context, and of people from the United States and elsewhere going there to drink it in ceremonies with curanderos. Frankly, it boggles my mind. I would even welcome other points of view on the matter in articles like these. I don’t think everyone has to agree that ayahuasca shamanism is a good idea, as long as the discussion is thoughtful, compassionate, and fact-based. My best guess is that ayahuasca is being treated by editors as a matter of religion, and that these media must have an editorial policy toward religious matters that prohibits criticism, lest anyone be offended.

This trend is also indicative of Western interest in ayahuasca crossing a threshold in popularity. It can no longer be ignored. A few decades ago, the only outsiders who had tried it were a handful of anthropologists and a few solitary weirdos like William Burroughs and Terence McKenna. Nowadays, hordes of travelers are going there specifically for the ceremonies, and new centers have been built to accommodate them. But since ayahuasca is being used very far away in the jungle, and it’s not hitting American streets or the nightclubs, and teenagers aren’t into it, it’s not regarded as any threat to the United States. Thus it’s safe to feature in travel articles.

This article also has a strong focus on the Amazon’s political/environmental/economic problems, a lot of which are caused by the involvement of corporations from the North. I think is vital for any would-be traveler to the region to have some understanding of the complicated context they’re stepping into. I hope that travelers from abroad seeking ayahuasca would, in exchange for receiving the benefits of the medicine, voluntarily choose to reciprocate by doing what they can to help the indigenous and poor mestizos survive and achieve self-determination culturally, environmentally, and economically.

Western interest in Amazonian ayahuasca ceremonies has now grown so large that the Gray Lady considers it “fit to print.” This underscores the timeliness of producing a movie like Destination: Ayahuasca, a video travel guide that can show, as well as tell, some of the best healing centers Peru has to offer.

The mission of this film is to demystify ayahuasca shamanism as much as possible, and present it as a normal method of healing and personal growth. This movie will help to raise awareness of ayahuasca’s power to heal and transform lives for the better when used responsibly in a shamanic context. Through raising consciousness about ayahuasca’s ability to raise consciousness, we’re enabling many viewers to finally resolve many troubling (or even life-threatening) psychological and physical problems that they hadn’t been able to fix with traditional psychiatry or mainstream medicine.

Specifically, this movie will give certain viewers, who may have already been considering ayahuasca, the direction and encouragement they need to actually seek out a shaman and actually begin their own work with the plants. I myself may not have ever gotten to my first ayahuasca ceremony if it had not been for friends who showed me the way and assured me that it was far easier than one may think to get to the jungle and drink the brew. Now, through getting this movie made and out there onto YouTube, I want to pass on the same favor to many others. The exponential positive ripples that emanate from each individual healed to every other person affected by their lives is incalculable.

Dr. Rick Strassman, author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule and star of the new movie The Spirit Molecule, has made it so that donations to the Destination: Ayahuasca documentary film project that go through his Cottonwood Research Foundation are now USA tax-deductible. Help make this film happen.

This article appeared in the Washington Post today, which marks the most mainstream exposure that ayahuasca has received to date (correct me if I’m wrong by commenting below.) Ayahuasca has appeared on some reality TV shows such as Extreme Celebrity Detox and Madventures, and bestselling writer on weird topics, Graham Hancock, has mentioned it, but I . . . → Read More: Ayahuasca Broke Into the Mainstream Today]]> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/08/20/ST2010082003412.html?sid=ST2010082003412

This article appeared in the Washington Post today, which marks the most mainstream exposure that ayahuasca has received to date (correct me if I’m wrong by commenting below.) Ayahuasca has appeared on some reality TV shows such as Extreme Celebrity Detox and Madventures, and bestselling writer on weird topics, Graham Hancock, has mentioned it, but I believe that its appearance in the Washington Post marks the crossing of a new threshold in public acceptance of the medicine. The article is about the best anyone could have hoped for: it focuses on healing (rather than hyping the exoticism or the hallucinations) and has its facts right. More notable is the absence of the cynical counter-opinions of naysayers that are typically added to offer a false sense of “balance” to articles on controversial topics. I think this is because the newspaper did not regard this subject as controversial. This is huge.  The newspaper of record for the capitol city of the United States of America does not regard the traditional ceremonial use of ayahuasca for the purposes of psychological healing and insight to be controversial. They were content to interview only people with something positive to say about the medicine, and to include lines like, “many leave here praising the brew in reverential terms for having purged them of demons and shown them a clarity about life that they never thought possible.” No contradiction was even hinted at.

That is a giant step closer to public acceptance, and an indication that this documentary is very well timed to coincide with increasing public interest in the healing power of the medicine.  As growing numbers of Americans and others from outside Peru start looking into the possibility of traveling to the Amazon for ayahuasca shamanism, they will be well-served when they are able to immediately view this film streaming over the Internet that will answer all their questions about how to get started and what to expect.

The first fundraising goal of $500 by July 31, 2010 is for the inexpensive backup camera and lavalier microphone I’ll be taking to Peru, and a trip to New York City to interview some ayahuasca shamanic apprentices. In case anything happens to the main camera, with the backup . . . → Read More: Crowdfunding]]> I just launched a new crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo.

The first fundraising goal of $500 by July 31, 2010 is for the inexpensive backup camera and lavalier microphone I’ll be taking to Peru, and a trip to New York City to interview some ayahuasca shamanic apprentices. In case anything happens to the main camera, with the backup camera in reserve, the show will go on. It’s a pocket HD camcorder with an external mic input. I will also use this camera to shoot a better pitch video. When the new HD pitch video shows some summer forest footage (to simulate the jungle for now) combined with some of the first animations I produce, we’ll start to get a real feel for what the final product will look like.