{"id":72580,"date":"2025-06-23T00:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jun\/22\/amazon-indigenous-peoples-can-benefit-from-ayahuasca-tourism"},"modified":"2025-06-23T00:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:50:09","slug":"amazon-indigenous-peoples-can-benefit-from-ayahuasca-tourism-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=72580","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Indigenous peoples can benefit from \u2018ayahuasca tourism\u2019 | Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Visitors staying at \u2018healing retreats\u2019 bring vital income to the diverse cultures of the region, writes <strong>Enrico Malatesta<\/strong>, while<strong> Emily Webster <\/strong>says there is no need to leave the UK to find shamanic healing. Plus, a letter by <strong>John Lowrie<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Your article (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/jun\/17\/ayahuasca-tourism-indigenous-peoples-environment-pyschedelics-biodiversity-ecuador\">\u2018Ayahuasca tourism\u2019 is a blight on Indigenous peoples and our environment, 17 June<\/a>) brings up important concerns but it looks at a complicated issue too narrowly. It is worth remembering that the word \u201cayahuasca\u201d itself is not a modern invention, but a Quechua term meaning \u201cvine of the soul\u201d. It is just one of many names used for the ceremonial medicine across different Indigenous cultures \u2013 others include yag\u00e9, kamarampi, caapi, oasca and daime. Suggesting that only \u201chayakwaska\u201d is \u201ccorrect\u201d erases the diversity of ancestral traditions across the Amazon basin.<\/p>\n<p>The claim that ayahuasca is marketed as a \u201cmystical shortcut\u201d overlooks the reality: real work with this medicine is neither quick nor easy. True healing through ayahuasca involves deep inner effort, often accompanied by discomfort, surrender and courage \u2013 whether one is Indigenous or not.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jun\/22\/amazon-indigenous-peoples-can-benefit-from-ayahuasca-tourism\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visitors staying at \u2018healing retreats\u2019 bring vital income to the diverse cultures of the region, writes Enrico Malatesta, while Emily Webster says there is no need to leave the UK to find shamanic healing. Plus, a letter by John LowrieYour article (\u2018Ay&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[246,361,1652,372,990,464,346,503,744,1674,3350,527,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas","category-cambodia","category-colombia","category-drugs","category-ecuador","category-endangered-species","category-health","category-indigenous-peoples","category-mental-health","category-plants","category-south-america-holidays","category-travel","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72581,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72580\/revisions\/72581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}