No need to be defensive. I didn’t say it was all misappropriation -just that this seems to be an issue that I’ve read and heard quite a bit about. I’m not knocking these practices out of hand, simply commenting on possibilities for misuse and making clear that it comes not from my personal experiences, but from what I’ve read and heard.

The focus of your story commented, “From the moment the foreigners arrived, the holy children lost their purity. They lost their force. They ruined them.” I was simply speaking to that.

Cultural Appropriation and Misuse of Ancestral Yagé Medicine

Great Shamanic Deception: Using Ayahuasca as a Conduit for Sexual Fulfilment

Shamanism, Racism & Cultural Appropriation in a Multicultural World