At Chacruna: Can People Really Die From Drinking Ayahuasca, as Announced in the Media?

Emily Sinclair, Ph.D. (C)The ayahuasca tourism industry has been built on and propelled by ayahuasca’s increasing popularity as a spiritual and healing medicine worldwide. Despite thousands of positive experiences, it is the death of an ayahuasca tourist each year that reaches international media headlines. Media reports feed the still-widespread belief that ayahuasca is a dangerous drug. But is ayahuasca really to blame for fatalities? In this piece I will review the most recent ayahuasca tourism deaths announced in the media using first hand ethnographic information... continue reading.