2025-09-12
49 分钟This is The Guardian.
The rise and fall of the world's first ayahuasca multinational by Sam Edwards, read by Sid Segar.
Some names and identifying details have been changed.
The first time Dahlia took ayahuasca, nothing happened.
The second time it changed her life.
It was 2017 and she had joined a dozen strangers in a chalet outside Barcelona.
Everyone was searching for something.
For many, it was a way out of misery.
An escape from years of addiction were a last-ditch attempt to survive crippling depression.
Darlia, a therapist in her early 30s,
hoped Ayahuasca would help her process the recent death of her mother.
I felt completely alone at that time, she said.
And I think in some form, that's how everyone there felt.
The retreat, run by a wellness company called Inner Mastery,
began with the two dozen participants talking about their expectations before imbibing ayahuasca.
The Amazonian plantbrew, which contains dimethyltryptamine, DMT,
a powerful naturally occurring psychoactive, induces an altered sense of self and reality.
Users often report revisiting past trauma or repressed experiences.
Within an hour of her first dose, Dahlia began to yawn uncontrollably.
Then she felt cries escaping from her mouth.