<story><title>The Hacker Who Drank Ayahuasca</title><url>https://medium.com/@Grayfox/the-hacker-who-drank-ayahuasca-517148aa1ed4</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jzelinskie</author><text>There are also stories of people dying and the locals dumping their bodies elsewhere so that they don&amp;#x27;t ruin others experiences or stop people from coming to try the &amp;#x27;Medicine&amp;#x27;. IIRC, the primary drug in Ayahuasca is DMT, which can be acquired other ways (that are less likely to make you puke) than drinking their jungle juice.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rosser</author><text>Yeah, that happened. There&amp;#x27;s another center in the jungle I know of that changes its name every time they have a guest die. And I&amp;#x27;ve heard stories of &amp;quot;shamans&amp;quot; who add a paralytic to the dose they give attractive young female guests...&lt;p&gt;But you know what? Those are the exceptions. I&amp;#x27;ve taken ayahuasca dozens of times, and am booked for another trip to Peru next month. I&amp;#x27;ve been fortunate only to work with reputable people, and have consistently only met others in my travels that have also worked with reputable people.&lt;p&gt;Please don&amp;#x27;t judge a tradition that&amp;#x27;s thousands of years old, and actually remarkably safe — with a few caveats, that the reputable folks will screen for — on the basis of a couple of cretins who look at the plants and the gringo tourists and just see dollar signs.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Hacker Who Drank Ayahuasca</title><url>https://medium.com/@Grayfox/the-hacker-who-drank-ayahuasca-517148aa1ed4</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jzelinskie</author><text>There are also stories of people dying and the locals dumping their bodies elsewhere so that they don&amp;#x27;t ruin others experiences or stop people from coming to try the &amp;#x27;Medicine&amp;#x27;. IIRC, the primary drug in Ayahuasca is DMT, which can be acquired other ways (that are less likely to make you puke) than drinking their jungle juice.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vinceguidry</author><text>&amp;gt; IIRC, the primary drug in Ayahuasca is DMT, which can be acquired other ways (that are less likely to make you puke) than drinking their jungle juice.&lt;p&gt;I strongly suspect that with psychedelics, the context in which they are taken is far more influential on the kind of experience you have than the actual neurochemical effects. A sugar pill given to you by a man in a white coat and a soothing bedside manner is going to have a bigger effect than the same pill given to you by your next-door neighbor the handyman.&lt;p&gt;The service these fake shamans are providing can be of value even though the shamans are fake.</text></comment>