A persistent question is whether psychedelic substances can inspire awe of nature and prevent an ecological crisis. In the era of COP30, where a new comedy of errors has unfolded since 1992, it is worth dispelling the notion that forest chemicals have the power to awaken consciences and defuse the climate bomb.
The following discussion was sparked by an interview with anthropologist Justin Quijada and journalist Sheila Love. His conversation about animism and psychedelic shamanism was published in the Microdose Newsletter on Monday (10th).
There is a certain symbolism in the fact that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in Marvelous City in Rio 92 and ended 33 years later in Belém do Para, the gateway to the world’s largest tropical forest, now on the brink of collapse in the fires of global warming.
In addition to being a huge carbon sink, the Amazon forest is home to 200 indigenous tribes. According to the MapBiomas consortium, its land is the best conserved in Brazil, with only 1% deforested since 1985, compared to 20% on private land.
Some, perhaps most, of these peoples use psychedelic-containing plants in drink or powder form. Chakrona and malili vine, or jagbe, make up ayahuasca tea. Yekoana snuff is made from virola resin, and yopo is obtained from anguiko seeds.
The cosmology of the primitive peoples attributes everything in the world to soul, spirit, personality, a clumsy translation of concepts that are incompatible with our materialism. Landscape elements such as plants, animals, mountains, rivers, and waterfalls are social entities, not just living humans and their ancestors.
These substances are tools to facilitate communication and often negotiation with these powerful beings. Generally, it is shamans who travel between these societies, although psychedelic concoctions may also be used by others in certain situations.
Later, among non-indigenous peoples fascinated by the so-called power plants, a direct link was forged with a change in consciousness and the values of conservation of flora and fauna. It is a somewhat romantic vision of a noble savage stoned in harmony with nature.
Quijada warns that this concept says more about Western spirituality in its materialistic discomfort than it does about indigenous ways of being in the world. What we think of as separate nature and culture will be to them a common territory inhabited by people who are not necessarily human.
An entity that is not always friendly and can bring epidemics, starvation, and miners. Dealing with them in a psychedelic trance does not necessarily lead to an encounter of peace and love. This is a concept spoiled by white people who rediscover parts of nature and conclude that such a sense of belonging leads to ancestral wisdom based on harmony, in contrast to the inhumanity of their own culture.
Mentioning psychedelic champions such as Robert Kennedy Jr., Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk is enough to understand that such compounds are not necessarily vehicles for environmentalism, pacifism, or altruistic beliefs. Not all shamanism is good, as shown by the outrage of horned QAnon shaman Jake Angeli during the 2021 Capitol breach.
Among Messias Bolsonaro’s most ardent supporters were the leaders of the ayahuasque religion União do Vegetal. Santo Daime’s godfather, psychedelic researcher, and shaman have also been implicated in cases of sexual or psychological abuse, whether indigenous or not.
Deforestation landowners can sanctify ayahuasca and snuff and continue to believe that they are working, however exceptionally, to feed Brazil’s future and the world. Only self-interest in monetizing carbon credits by abandoning deforestation can turn carbon credits into an environmental problem.
Although deforestation in the Amazon has decreased, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is working to expand oil exploration. The Earth remains dependent on fossil fuels. Carbon emissions remain high and 2025 is set to be the second-hottest year on record, with or without COP30.
No, psychedelics do not qualify as a panacea for extreme events like the cyclone that caused the tornadoes in Paraná state. In 10 years, 250 million people (70,000 people per day) left their homes destroyed by climate impacts.
Nature, attacked by the culture of unsustainable development of capitalism, witnesses an artificial hell with the release of forces with which not all shamans of the world can negotiate, including the diplomats and even the environmentalists gathered in Belém.
The sky falls on our heads. To the epidemic of destruction, hallucinogens will be little more than a placebo, the chloroquine of the climate crisis.
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