This workshop will focus on ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew (prepared from two plants indigenous to the Amazon) that is used in both traditional indigenous healing practices and modern syncretistic religious rituals. A panel of researchers and practitioners will discuss ayahuasca’s rapid globalization in the past decade and its various contemporary therapeutic and spiritual uses. Specific themes include an overview of the psychological and physiological effects of ayahuasca, the role of culture in mediating the ayahuasca experience (and issues of cross-cultural transferability), ethical issues pertaining to ayahuasca’s uptake in modern Western contexts, and policy challenges arising from the tea’s legal ambiguity in some countries. Ample time will be given for audience participation and discussion.

Panelists include:

- Kenneth Tupper, ­Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia

- Ronin Niwe , Vegetalista (plant healer)

- Ayasmina Flores, ­Researcher, Interpreter and Documentary Producer

- Cary Wright , M.A. Candidate, California Institute of Integral Studies

This seminar is a pre-symposium workshop, part of the Global Integrative Traditional Medicine Symposium, which is being hosted by the Canadian Research Institute of Spirituality and Healing (CRISH), a not-for-profit professional organization devoted to promoting multidisciplinary research and education in spirituality, culture, healing, and health care. CRISH is dedicated to creating a new vision of integrative compassionate health care.

Cost: $50 before August 24th (early bird rate); $75 after August 24th

For more information see: http://www.crish.org/international.html.