WHAT IS AYAHUASCA? PSYCHEDELIC DRUG USED BY ANCIENT RELIGIONS IS TRENDY BUT COULD HAVE SERIOUS BENEF
WHAT IS AYAHUASCA? PSYCHEDELIC DRUG USED BY ANCIENT RELIGIONS IS TRENDY BUT COULD HAVE SERIOUS BENEFITS
BY JOSEPH FRANKEL ON 11/29/17 AT 2:23 PM
The psychedelic substance ayahuasca has been part of indigenous rituals in South America for centuries. In recent years, it has come into vogue as a treatment or psychological tool by visitors from other countries. This centuries-old brew is now attracting attention for capabilities that ancient religions have long espoused.
The newfound fascination with ayahuasca—which blends a vine called Banisteriopsis caapi with other plants—in the U.S. has been reflected in the media. In 2016, the New Yorker described an ayahuasca "boom" in Silicon Valley and Brooklyn: one scientist estimated that “on any given night in Manhattan, there are a hundred ayahuasca ‘circles’ going on.” Ayahuasca "churches" and "retreats" have taken root elsewhere in the U.S.
On Thursday, Salon resurfaced an earlier report about a program in Brazil to give prisoners ayahuasca to assist with rehabilitation. That report summarized a 2015 New York Times article detailing a Brazilian program in which inmates convicted of violent crimes are included in ayahuasca ceremonies. The Times report details how as recently as 2015, prisoners convicted of violent crime were being offered ayahuasca as part of an alternative rehabilitative treatment.
More recently, Newsweek wrote about a reportedly flawed scientific study from Brazil in which researchers attempted, with little success, to examine ayahuasca’s effects by administering psychedelic chemicals to cerebral organoids, or mini-brains grown in lab. The brew has also been investigated as a treatment for depression and alcoholism.
More:
http://www.newsweek.com/what-ayahuasca-psychedelic-drug-used-ancient-religions-trendy-millennials-and-725625?piano_t=1
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