The return of psychedelics to academic and medical acceptability is the outcome of decades of work, and may signal a coming revolution for psychiatry. But as is often noted, similarly plant-based and consciousness altering substances have most likely been in use for thousands of years in a variety of Indigenous contexts. Uses in such contexts include (but are not limited to) medical applications, although the understandings and treatments of illnesses also connect with broader social frameworks and shamanic modes of relating to the world. These shamanic modalities tend to incorporate not only the classically known entheogens, but a range of other plants along with bodily techniques for altering consciousness. Dr O’Shaughnessy will explore and present some of these based on his research experience with Amazonian medicine—in particular ayahuasca healing practices.

Dr David O’Shaughnessy is an anthropologist and currently a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley, where he works on a project concerning the effects of culture on the acquisition of number and mathematics (via fieldwork with the Tsimane’ of Bolivia). His doctoral work also took place in South America (Peru), where he examined the addiction treatment program run by the Takiwasi Centre, who employ a novel combination of Western and Amazonian medicine (including ayahuasca).