04 - Mushrooms, Mazatec, and Shamanic Tourism with Chris Casuse

Shifting the Paradigm

This episode is brought to you by my homework! I wrote a paper on Shamanic Drug Tourism in Latin America, and had the opportunity to chat with Chris Casuse on this topic. Chris has done work with indigenous communities in Peru, and recently in Huautla de Jimenez in Oaxaca. Working to empower these indigenous communities, Chris is working on a Mazatec historical archive project, looking to become the most comprehensive of the Mazatec culture. He's done work in Peru in helping to build a community centre and ceremonial space for people of the region. Though the medicalization of psychedelic substances is really important in the treatment of many issues plaguing the world right now like addiction, depression, PTSD, anxiety and more; we need to ensure that the indigenous communities who have brought awareness of these substances to the western mind are given benefit. Often tourism can be destructive to these regions and cultures, so new ways to engage in this kind of tourism is needed.