Spirituality, drugs, and tourism: tourists’ and shamans’ experiences of ayahuasca in Iquitos, Peru

ABSTRACT

This study critically evaluates the complex inter space of spirituality, drugs, and tourism through tourists’ and shamans’ accounts of ayahuasca tourism in Iquitos, Peru. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage traditionally consumed for spiritual and health purposes. Using micro-ethnography, one of the researchers was immersed for one month in the tourism experience of ayahuasca. The findings reveal the ambivalent nature of tourists’ experiences and the changing meaning and practices of ayahuasca. Tourists’ encounters with ayahuasca were perceived as spiritual due to better understanding and perception of ‘self’ and ‘others’. Shamans’ encounters with tourists were mostly positive but negative consequences on their practices were evident. The study highlights issues of fluidity, positionality, and self-identification of roles in tourism.

KEYWORDS:

• Spirituality
• drugs
• ayahuasca
• binary thinking
• tourism impacts
• Peru

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Girish Prayag is a Senior Lecturer in marketing in the Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the University of Canterbury. His research interests are related to tourist behaviour, including emotions, tourism impacts, and place attachment. He is method and practice editor for Current Issues in Tourism.

Paolo Mura is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Programme Director of the Postgraduate Programmes at the Graduate School of Hospitality and Tourism, Taylor’s University, Malaysia. His research interests include tourist behaviour, gender, young tourists, deviance on holiday, and ethnographic approaches to research.

Colin Michael Hall is a Professor in Marketing in the Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the University of Canterbury. He is Co-editor of Current Issues in Tourism and has published widely in areas of tourism, gastronomy, and environmental history and change.

Julien Fontaine is a former graduate student of the M.Sc. Strategic Tourism and Event Management at SKEMA Business School. His research interests include spirituality and tourism.