Motivational structure of ayahuasca drinkers in social networks

Abstract

The international distribution and commodification of ayahuasca has created virtual communicative realms in the Internet in which members intensively exchange personal narratives, advertisements, and beliefs about ayahuasca and its reputed native background. Common consumption standards and beliefs about ayahuasca have developed among western ayahuasca drinkers who are often only loosely connected to the local practice of ayahuasca-shamanism in regions of the upper Amazonas that are not yet influenced by ayahuasca tourism. Those new standards of the ayahuasca tourism are reflected in the Internet. Motivation and expectation of interested ayahuasca tourists gets shaped in Internet forums. Previous studies about the motivation of western ayahuasca drinkers have mainly used heuristic qualitative methods. This study characterizes ayahuasca Internet activists and examines statistically their motivational structure to drink ayahuasca. Methods: Using online data collection and quantitative analysis methods, 40 participants were studied who were active in closed Facebook groups about ayahuasca in the year 2015. Results: The average active members of ayahuasca Facebook groups in this sample seem to be 28–50 years old (±1 SD), higher education degree holders, preexperienced with other psychedelic drugs and other psychospiritual methods, preexperienced with ayahuasca and motivated to drink again, and tend toward the intake within organized events such as shamanic healing ceremonies and retreat seminars. The results suggest that the motivation of Internet activists for ayahuasca consists in majority of four main elements: self-exploration, spiritual purposes, physical health issues, and sensation seeking. Self-exploration and spiritual purposes appear to be the main reasons for drinking ayahuasca. Physical health issues and sensation seeking are minor reasons among this subgroup of western ayahuasca drinkers but may play a larger role in some participants. Conclusions: The motivation of members of social ayahuasca networks in the Internet seems not to be monodimensional but a composite of different aspects of which a subconglomerate of psychospiritual reasons and individual self-development seems to be the most dominant. The findings support motivational differences to local ayahuasca shaman clients in the upper Amazonas region that have been previously described in the ethnologic literature.