Ayahuasca in the Media
BBC - AMAZON
Ayahuasca has most recently been popularised by the intrepid TV presenter, Bruce Parry. In his documentary series ‘Amazon’ for the BBC, Parry embarked on his own journey with Grandmother Ayahuasca and conceded that “it is certainly one of the most profound experiences imaginable”.
Ayahuasca can heal though teaching. Bruce Parry noted that his own ego took a battering from La Madre Ayahuasca, teaching him a valuable lesson;
“Ayahuasca is not a recreational pastime but a medicine and a spiritual lesson... And my lesson was clear. It was: Bruce - stop thinking you know better than everyone. Yes, you’ve had some great life experiences and you have a respectable insight to some subjects, but you’ve got to deflate that ego of yours, stop thinking of the clever riposte before the other person has even finished talking. Be in the moment and listen, yes listen to others. It’s not about being better than other people and establishing your place in some invisible hierarchy, it’s about sharing this worldly space with others. Occasional experiences are beyond rational thought. They cannot be explained. We live in difficult times and we are in danger of losing our connection to the natural world. Some answers will only come from listening and experiencing the world in its natural state.”
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
In 2006, an article by the writer Kira Salak was published in the National Geographic about her Ayahuasca Ceremonies in Peru. Writing on her website about the experience and her journey to have the article published she says;
“... I participated in five ayahuasca ceremonies. The morning after my third ceremony, I immediately became aware of some uncanny results: the major depression I’d had my entire life, ever since I was a young child, was completely, unaccountably, gone:
“It was as if a water-logged wool overcoat had been removed from my shoulders. There was a tangible, visceral feeling of release. I noticed that the nature of my thoughts had completely changed. There were no more morbid, incessant desires to die. Gone was the “suicidal ideation” that had made joy seem impossible for me, and made my life feel like some kind of punishment. I actually woke up in that hut in the jungle of Peru desiring only to live. Wanting to live. Feeling hope for the first time in my life. It was, without a doubt, miraculous.
“That article, entitled “Hell and Back,” appeared in the March 2006 issue of National Geographic Adventure. It would go on to become the most popular article the magazine had ever published, bringing in “20 times more reader response mail” than any previous article. Maybe the West was ready to hear about ayahuasca after all?”
SUNDAY TIMES
Clover Stroud writing for the Sunday Times in September 2007 posed the question; “Are Shamans the new shrinks?” and went on to examine the rising interest in Ayahuasca Healing and its attraction to those of us in the West. The article recalls a trip to the Amazon by Lucy, a mother of three from the UK:
“It was as far removed from taking normal party drugs as you can imagine,” she says, eyes glittering. “It was frightening and extraordinary.” Lucy’s experience is symptomatic of a collective search for a complete wilderness experience as a panacea for our troubled souls. “I went to the Amazon because I felt my whole life needed shaking up, and I just didn’t know how to do that in England. I had everything I wanted, in terms of a stable marriage, lovely kids and a nice home, and although I knew I shouldn’t feel dissatisfied, I did. I wanted to reconnect with myself and the way I live before I got much older.”