Ayahuasca and Sustainability

like i said in the other thread, i feel like the most sustainable way for us northerners to take the medicine is to wait for it to come to us, or to utilize the other entheogens that our natural environment has produced for us... that way we're not wasting fuel to fly all the way down to SA.

this is a subject i have brought up repeatedly over and over again in the ayahausca community. with many mixed results i might add...
what i have learned personaly from drinking ayahausca with south amerrican hamans in the PNW west is not to drink ayahausca with shamans in the PNW... mostly because its not sustainable but also because it makes it difficult to establish ones own relationship as an animist when your focusing on plants and places that are some one else bioregion not your own...

that aside, i have looked at it from many differant points of view... i like what ayahuasca does, it think its amazing... the ayahausca effect either by ayahausca proper or an analog is just plain amazing... i personaly have found that that in the united states prairiehuasca ( pardon the funny name, its a bit inappropriate) is the closest thing to a sustainable ayahausca analog that we have that matches the effectiveness of traditional ayahuasca. it takes a bit to process but the interesting thing is that demanthus or illinios bundle weed grows and has been sown by the governments in massive quanties to feed grazing animals all through the interior of the united states it grows in areas where there is bad soil as well... also growing near and sometimes beneath these plants is tribulous terrestrious... or goats head as its some times called... goats head has enough harmaline and harmine in it to make it slightly effective as an maoi for ayahausca... another plant that has taken over and is invasive as well in the united states like tribulous is syrian rue... they produce massive seeds and a little goes along way, syrian rue as well as demanthus can be sustianably harvested ( indeed it should be due to the fact its invasive ie your doing the ecosystems a favor, there for aiding instead of harming the ecosystem) and produced into a local ayahuasca analog or can be traded between bioregions much as salmon was once traded to the great plains bioregion from the PNW, with minimal impact in comparision to the ecological foot print of ayahausca being imported from either Hawaii or the amazon.

people will argue that the impact is less then we think but is any impact nessecary at all to fullfill what ever needs ayahausca is to fullfill for you? do a cost benefit analysis including what your intentions are and what the social as well as ecological impact is... and see if what your getting from the experinces of drinking makes up for the damage done... and if you are getting something from this that worth the ecological and social harms of out sourcing and global trade, why not work with plants that can be either grown or wild crafted in your area or at least much much nearer to you.
there are many tryptamine producing plants and more harmine and harmaline producing plants then we susspected... both tribulous and syrian rue are noxious weeds and invasise species to the north american continent... and have medicinal effects that go beyond just being entheogenic as well.
not to mention that working with local entheogens and wildcrafting or growing your own intigrate you into your bioregion or life palce.
it has been shown that communities that out source thier food or other resources and depend on out sourcing fail to respect or take care of the place they love which mean there are both socail and ecological impacts in the place that is out sourcing and the place that is out sourced too...
this is an important point to look at... and to look at it honestly and from many different angles... regardless of how much your getting from your ayahausca drinking from the amazon your still out sourcing and there is an impact, the scary part of this is you cannot see the impact you create when you out source... that is the nature of out sourcing. the one who out sources cannot see the damage that they are doing and fails to see a connection between the out sourcing and the social and ecological ills in their own life place ie bioregion.

people argue however well i get so muchhealing and it does so much good for the world and me and my community... well is that really true... there are many unseen things that go along with this... you are essentially out sourcing a cultural healing practice, you are out sourcing a plant medicine as well... what are the actual impacts? jut like with food or any other thing that is out sourced like i said the effects are mostly unseen by the outsourcer... so the real question is how do you know that the impact your making by drinking ayahausca is good... what if it is one step forward two steps back by this outsourcing of ayahuasca? the fact is its such a complicated thing that to ask this question requires alot of knowledge as it is and its not an easy answer to come too... so most people dont even care to look at it...


Sustainability:
we can easily look at just the word sustainability. for something to be sustainable it has to be able to sustain itself perhaps forever unless conditions change that makes it difficult or impossible to do so... ( solar would work for ever as a sustainable renewable resource unless the sun was blocked out by dust from a asteroid striking the earth for example). for something to be unsustainable means that it cannot be sustained. currently we depend upon nonrenewable resources to import both shamans and medicinal plants from differrant places around the globe, we also rely upon nonrenewable resources to go to the places where these plants and shamans are as well... the use of nonrenewable resources has a tremendous ecological and social foot print no matter how you shake it, there is nothing good about it period in permaculture the use of nonrenewable resources is considered immoral even unless it is done just once to create a renewable system. this takes intelligence and planning and foresight to create the renewable sustainable system in the first place which very few people are actually doing when working with ayahusca either at home or in peru or where ever...

if one was to seek out working with ayahuasca for the actual purpose of creating a newrewable and sustianable healing system perhaps working with other plants that are local and have less of an ecological foot print or that they wished to learn ways of relating the practice of vegetalismo in their own life place in an adaptive strategy then much like in permaculture it would be permissible and nonneglegent in its intention.
the damage being done by drinking ayahausca in what ever capacity is not debatable at this point unless your totaly in denile... how deep the impact is can be debated however... the question is though is it nessesary and if so why? especially when there are alternatives and ayahausca analogs around the world that can be sustainably cultivated or harvested.
the effect of these harmine and tryptamine combinations are emensely important, and very good healers and teachers for many people... but you cannot turn a blind eye to the impact they make if not done sustianably.

my permaculture based recommendation:
if your going to work with ayahuasca or other out sourced plants or traditions of healing... do not become dependent upon the outsourcing... just like in permaculture when its acceptable to use a tractor or some other non-sustainable something or other do so with a plan. acknowledge that what your doing is not sustainable and include that knowledge into your intention for doing so, have a plan, look at what your doing and why in a sort of long term repercussion point of view, and be honest with your self and your motivations. think globally and act locally acknowledge your impact and plan around that, making it ok to work form that unsustainable action at least once so that you dont have to do it again...
if the drinking of ayahausca or the visiting of the amazing or of the amazon visiting you can be done in a way that is like the use of the tractor in permaculture design of a garden or a house it only needs to be done once and a new sustainable system must come forth from that action for it to be worth while to the impact it has created.



like i said this is likely to spark debates... however ive allready had many of these debates... do your home work look into this your self... look into the damage done by importing just bananas from south america for example, keep pulling the string until it all unravels... you can find your own ayahuasca drinking connected to the war in iraq for example... your going to have to include your part in this play... and rationalize it before making an arguement... because personally there is no arguement... the practices of drinking ayahuasca and going to peru to do so and bringing peru to us is not sustianable... it cannot be sustained and there for we cannot keep doing it forever... or much longer for that matter... so do it with a clear conscience with out denile of the impacts made, and do it with a sort of long term intelligent investment... yoru impacting the lives of people both human and other than human... entire ecosystems as well with out asking them if you could do so either... so do so intelligently and compassionately and wisely...