Daily Mail - ...died from drinking hallucinogenic herbal brew at spiritual retreat

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edgarshade

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Peruvian shaman confesses he buried body of U.S. teen who died from drinking hallucinogenic herbal brew at spiritual retreat
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By Snejana Farberov
PUBLISHED: 04:40, 13 September 2012

With reader comments

A Peruvian shaman admitted to police on Wednesday that he had buried the body of a U.S. teenager to cover up his death during a spiritual retreat in the Amazon last month. Shaman Jose Pineda Vargas, 58, told the authorities that 18-year-old Kyle Joseph Nolan, from northern California, died on August 22 from exceeding the dosage of a medicinal brew called Ayahuasca while staying at the Shimbre Shamanic Center. Vargas then buried Nolan’s body at his jungle retreat and said that the teenager disappeared. Nolan's mother began searching for him after he failed to return from Peru as scheduled August 27.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...sychedelic-herbal-brew-spiritual-retreat.html
 
Never heard of an Ayahuasca related death before. I wonder if there was anything abnormal in the brew or he had some sort of medical condition - maybe a heart weakness or something - that contributed to the death.
 
I saw a documentary program featuring Ayahuasca on Natgeo channel. I think it's called "Drugs Inc" but addicts went to a place like this to get off drugs.
It's supposed to purge your body and this one lady was vomiting so profusely, it was hard to watch. This is sad that the young man died, very wreckless way for these "shaman" to steal your money.
 
I don't think a teenager should be taking any drugs let alone a hardcore psychedelic. What do they mix with the Ayahuasca is it things other than dmt they get from it? If I was to try dmt I'd rather just have the extract.
 
I feel like 18 years old is a little young to experience something like ayahuasca. I'm only 19 so not so far from that age. I personally want to wait til I'm a bit older to experience it. I've heard from older folks as well as read online that as you age, you can gain more from psychedelics.

Besides that, I want to be completely clean from all drugs for a while when I experience it cause I'm fairly paranoid about the MAOI interacting with something I have in my system.

I've already gained a fair bit but I'm excited to see what I can learn when I have more wisdom and life experiences under my belt.
 
There's a risk of death just from vomiting if you are unlucky enough to inhale any of it. Plus being in the middle of a rain forest miles away from any serious medical aid doesn't help matters. That's what happens when hallucinogens are demonised and driven underground.
 
Ayahuasca is considered to be a pretty hardcore psychedelic (due to the unpredicatble nature of plant dosing, and the MAOI involved), why am I not suprised?

Stories of individuals purging their gut from both ends while enveloped in a web of hallucination do not sound particularly pleasant nor enlightening. It does not suprise me that there is a LD50 for aya and that it is acheivable in a teenager quite easily. These drugs deserve the utmost respect and if you are unprepared for the experience or exceed your limits you should expect the worst.

THis may of couse be less drug-related than you expect - perhaps the teen had a congentital heart or vascular condition, or simply aspirated vomit... it's hard to tell with only a Peruvian shaman's word to go on.
 
While I haven't seen it confirmed in the media, I've read that the "shaman" didn't prepare the brew, didn't drink it with the participants and is known for not offering any guidance (he basically left them alone in the jungle).

More importantly the brew allegedly contained toé (brugmansia, a datura relative) which can be dangerous.

It's very unlikely that "ayahuasca" is what killed him. A dangerous admixture plant, prescription drug interaction or asphyxiation seem much more plausible.
 
Thankfully this story seems to have not attracted much attention. Once again it all boils down to the fact that using psychedelics has been driven underground and there are no standards of service and of purity of the brew.
 
Sounds to me like a case of a very irresponsible shaman.
Western medicine has its place in establishing whether somebody is medically safe to use ayahuasca. I don't believe the brew in itself has a very dangerous LD-50 if proper diet and preparations are taken, etc. But the experience is quite hard on a person physically, and I would agree with other posters that he may have had a heart condition or another related illness, or was possibly on antidepressants.
If such was the case, responsibility should fall on the shaman to know the pharmacological action of aya, and make sure that the kid wasn't using any drugs that would have any sort of adverse reaction, and make sure he was physically fit to use this.

Too many of these spiritual retreats are just packing shamanic healing and transformative experiences into this easy little express version convenient for us impatient Americans and calling it the same thing, at a detriment to the usefulness of the experience (and in this case the health) of the patient.
Just another consequence of our drive-thru culture that wants everything quickly and easily without taking the time to develop a deep understanding of those things.

This just raises many questions. Where were the boy's parents? I understand he was 18, but that's a very young age to just go of to fucking Peru on some healing retreat. Why was this kid so seriously depressed that he felt the need to go there? Why would such an "experienced" shaman be so irresponsible?
 
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