Who is authorized to be a Shaman in Colombia?

Reflections after Deaths in a Hybrid Ayahuasca Ceremony

Leonardo Rodrguez Prez (1) Written specially to this site. The following text reports two deaths recently announced in the Colombian press. This note has been built using national and local information released by the press, information from the web and interviews with Ayahuasca drinkers in Colombia during August 2011. After an Ayahuasca ceremony organized by the Foundation Luz de Mara y Jess (Light of Mary and Jesus, in the rural area of Piedecuesta, Santander, near Bucaramanga city, 380 kms from Bogot) on August 14, 2011, two men died. The head of the ceremony, named Pedro Elias Corts, called himself master. This man was a former Ayahuasca drinker under the supervision of Robert Ramos, a mestizo taita who holds a healing center called Corona de Plumas (Feather Crown) in Piedecuesta. According to information collected, he asked Robert Ramos to be adopted as ayudante (assistant) in his ceremonies. However, Ramos did not accept, as Pedro Corts allegedly could not handle the psychedelic experience well. As I deduced from the website, Pedro Corts decided to move ahead and create his religious foundation around 2008. This branch is difficult to classify, as it combined biblical preach, spiritualistic practices, environmental speech and Ayahuasca. Looking in the website, it appears to be a variation of what is known as Catholic Charismatic Renovation. This line promotes practices of liberation of demons/evil through exorcism and healing, speaking on other languages and so forth. Perhaps it is most famous for its practice of incorporation of the Espritu Santo (Holy Spirit) the Holy Spirit gets inside the body of the follower and produces a kind of sleep of trance of mystical rapture.

Surprisingly, the ceremonies also included the presence of Alfredo Vesga, bishop of Guadalupe Church in Bucaramanga city, who officiated a mass before the Ayahuasca consumption. Alongside with these variations of contemporary form of Christianism, the Fundacin Luz de Mara y Jess adopted also an indigenous aesthetics, using the chumbe, a kind of long ribbon clothed traditionally by indigenous women from the south of Colombia (e.g. inga women) on the waist. It is important to note that in the Santander department where the Foundation had its headquarters there are not Indians anymore, the guanes Indians disappeared during colonization. In the last decade there has been a project of ethical revival which finally never took place. Other indigenous peoples in Santander disappeared with the development of oil industry. Maybe Elias Corts copied an indigenous aesthetics following the example of mestizo taita Robert Ramos, who adopted elements from Coreguaje indigenous people in the Colombian Amazon. As it is reported, although Elias Corts offered Ayahuasca, he did not make the brew but bought Yag (the name Ayahuasca receives in Colombia) from cookers in the Putumayo region. During the ceremonies, it is said, he did not drink himself. In this context, psychedelic experiences were imbued with images related to hell, purgatory, martyrdom, punishment, the devil, witches, salvation, the virgin, heaven, as we can read in the testimonials posted on the Foundation website. After the ceremony held on 14 August the autopsies of dead men were carried out with delay, as relatives hoped men were still in trance and their souls would return to their bodies. It seems that Elias Cortes have moved to Venezuela in order to escape from Colombian justice. The debate this terrible incident has generated in the Colombian public opinion, and particularly within Ayahuasca networks, have led Taita Querubin Queta, traditional authority of the Cofan indigenous people in the ColombianEcuadorian Amazon, to propose the elaboration of a list of authorized taitas in

conjunction with other traditional authorities. This initiative takes up the proposal made by UMIYAC (Unin de Mdicos Yageceros de la Amazona Colombiana) in 2008, which gives Indian authorities the task of validating who can give Ayahuasca in the country. Considering the cases of Peru, Brazil, USA, Netherlands and other European countries where non-indigenous people lead successful Ayahuasca ceremonies, as it happens with mestizo taitas in Colombia, it does not seem to be appropriate or realistic to attribute exclusively to indigenous authorities the role to legitimize who can lead Ayahuasca ceremonies in Colombia. In any case, obviously, taking in account the national context, the indigenous authorities must have a very important place in this debate. At the end, perhaps the best way to avoid incidents like the one reported with the Foundation Luz de Mara y Jess is to inform the public opinion about what Ayahuasca is through spreading academic works on the subject, which fortunately seam to begin to flourish. Sources La transferencia de rituales indgenas donde se consume Yag ha causado varias muertes http://www.radionacionaldecolombia.gov.co/index.php? option=com_topcontent&view=article&id=20417%3Ala-transferencia-derituales-indigenas-donde-se-consume-yage-ha-causado-variasmuertes&catid=1%3Anoticias Newspapers from Santander Dos personas murieron tras un ritual con yag http://www.vanguardia.com/judicial/117420-dos-personas-murieron-tras-unritual-con-yage Confirman muerte de dos personas por yag http://www.vanguardia.com/judicial/117610-confirman-muerte-de-dos-personaspor-yage En 7 das se sabr qu caus la muerte de dos personas que bebieron Yag

http://www.vanguardia.com/judicial/117630-en-7-dias-se-sabra-que-causo-lamuerte-de-dos-personas-que-bebieron-yage Familiares por fin aceptaron la autopsia http://www.elfrente.com.co/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=19526:familiares-por-fin-aceptaron-laautopsia&catid=666:justicia&Itemid=60 Colombian National Newspapers Dos muertos tras consumir yag en Santander http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/articulo-292147-dos-muertostras-consumir-yage-santander Mal uso del yag puede llevarlo hasta la muerte http://www.eltiempo.com/vida-de-hoy/salud/ARTICULO-WEBNEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-8399381.html Por qu el uso de yag puede ser letal? http://www.eltiempo.com/vida-de-hoy/salud/yage-peligros-de-suconsumo_10207228-4 Dos personas murieron tras un ritual con yag en Bucaramanga http://www.eluniversal.com.co/cartagena/nacional/dos-personas-murieron-trasun-ritual-con-yage-en-bucaramanga-38456 Websites Fundacin luz de Mara y Jsus Piedecuesta Santander, Colombia http://fundeluzmariayjesus.com/index.html Corona de plumas www.coronadeplumas.com Interviews Sergio Leonardo Ramos (long time Ayahuasca drinker with taita Robert Ramos). Alejandro Cardona (Ayahuasca cooker in Mocoa Putumayo, Shaman assistant). Hector Ral Gonzales (Shaman assistant from Bucaramanga, Santander). Electronic communication

Horacio Serrano Suma Pinta (Organizer of Ayahuasca ceremonies near Bogot). (1) Leonardo is an associate researcher from the Pierre du Bois Foundation

for Current History, Geneva Switzerland; PhD candidate from The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland; M.A. in History from Universit Paris I Panthon-Sorbonne, France; M.A. in Social Sciences from Universit de Limoges, France; B.A. in History from Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga Santander, Colombia. e-Mail: perez.rodriguez@graduateinstitute.ch