A stranger in a strange land

Negotiating supernatural ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ within visions and hallucinations in non-traditional ayahuasca churches

Abstract

For thousands of years, potent psychoactive potions such as ayahuasca have helped magico-religious practitioners make sense of this life and the next. Although historically confined to indigenous South American communities, Europeans are increasingly consuming ayahuasca to experience (im)possible supernatural realities within immersive hallucinations and visions. Of course, whether these perceptual psychoactive experiences are real or just pharmacological fictions of mind is an acute epistemological concern. With little known about this otherworldly issue, this ethnographic study examines how neo-European ayahuasca church members negotiate supernatural ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ outside of traditional religious, psychological, and philosophical knowledge. Key findings show that while ayahuasca catalyses intense supernatural beliefs, it also leaves individuals epistemologically struggling to cope with the vulnerabilities of their mundane lives and ongoing threat of social stigmatisation. However, with these churches acting as otherworldly ‘gatekeepers’, new congregants must work to embrace totalising supernatural doctrines or lose access to these fairy tale lands forever.