International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service

08/06/2026

¿Puede el silencio enseñarnos algo sobre la mente?

La neurociencia ha empezado a estudiar qué ocurre cuando la mente se aquieta, y encuentra ecos inesperados entre la meditación y el estudio de los estados no ordinarios de consciencia asociados a medicinas tradicionales como la ayahuasca. No son lo mismo, y conviene leerlo con cautela, pero el diálogo abre preguntas que van mucho más allá del laboratorio.

Lo exploramos en nuestro blog, con el II Encuentro Anual de Espiritualidad y Neurociencia («Paz y silencio», Gran Canaria, 26 y 27 de junio) como telón de fondo.

Lee el artículo:

¿Qué nos enseña el silencio sobre la mente? Meditación y neurociencia convergen en el estudio de la consciencia y los estados no ordinarios.

04/06/2026

Thank you The Psychedelic Society for this thoughtful article and for highlighting Aili Adelita's insights.

As ayahuasca continues to reach new audiences around the world, it is crucial to keep Indigenous perspectives at the center of the conversation. These are complex questions with no easy answers, which is why spaces for dialogue, reflection, and collaboration are so important.

We're looking forward to continuing these conversations at the World Ayahuasca Forum.

Once a sacred secret of the Amazon, ayahuasca is now a booming global industry - and Indigenous communities are paying the price. As Western demand surges, ancient traditions are being commodified, unqualified shamans are proliferating, and no one can agree on what ethical ayahuasca tourism actually

18/05/2026

¿Qué significa realmente integrar una experiencia psicodélica?

La integración no funciona como una receta universal. Cambia según la persona, el contexto, la historia emocional y el momento vital. A veces implica comprender. Otras veces sostener, reorganizar, escuchar, cuestionar o simplemente dar tiempo.

Hablar de integración de forma compleja no complica el proceso. Lo vuelve más honesto.

🗓️ Las inscripciones para AyaSafety cierran el 25 de mayo.

Comenta SEGURIDAD si quieres recibir más información sobre el curso.

14/05/2026

🇬🇧 EN

What actually changes in a person after an ayahuasca retreat — not days later, but a full year on?

A new study led by ICEERS researchers followed 264 Western participants for twelve months after attending Shipibo-led retreats at the Temple of the Way of Light in Peru. Results show sustained changes in personality, quality of life, and well-being, with minimal adverse effects.

One of the most striking findings: the percentage of participants with high neuroticism dropped from 39.8% to 28.6% over the course of a year. Four in ten people who arrived carrying a high negative emotional load had measurably reduced it twelve months later.

Read the full article at the link below 👇
https://www.iceers.org/en/news/research/psychological-effects-ayahuasca/

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ES 🇪🇸

¿Qué cambia en una persona tras un retiro de ayahuasca? No a los pocos días, sino un año después.

Un nuevo estudio liderado por investigadores de ICEERS siguió a 264 participantes occidentales durante doce meses después de asistir a retiros dirigidos por sanadores shipibo en el Temple of the Way of Light, en Perú. Los resultados muestran cambios sostenidos en personalidad, calidad de vida y bienestar, con efectos adversos mínimos.

Uno de los hallazgos más llamativos: el porcentaje de participantes con niveles altos de neuroticismo cayó del 39,8 % al 28,6 % en un año. Cuatro de cada diez personas que llegaron con alta carga emocional negativa la habían reducido de forma medible.

Lee el artículo completo en el enlace 👇
https://www.iceers.org/es/noticias/efectos-psicologicos-ayahuasca/

07/05/2026

Next Friday, May 15, ICEERS Executive Director Ben De Loenen and Claude Guislain of Nixiwaka Institute will be in New York City for a fireside conversation on the World Ayahuasca Forum.

This is not just an event — it's a window into a living process. The World Ayahuasca Forum (Girona, September 11–13) is co-organized by Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute, Nixiwaka Institute, and ICEERS, and will bring together ancestral knowledge holders from 30 Indigenous nations with people from across the fields of science, policy, healing, regeneration, and systems change. The mandate from the spiritual leaders is clear: join forces, build alliance, organize as a movement.

The event is hosted by The Psychedelic Assembly, a New York-based community organization cultivating connection and education at the edge of expanded consciousness.

If you're in New York and want to hear directly from the people building this — Friday, May 15, 7–9pm, 222 E 46th St.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-new-time-of-alliance-a-fireside-on-the-world-ayahuasca-forum-tickets-1988941603878

05/05/2026

The 1971 Convention is still the backbone of global legislation on access to traditional medicines. But a recent study, based on thousands of documents from the UN archives, lays bare something uncomfortable: the decision to classify DMT, psilocybin, or mescaline as some of the most dangerous substances in the world was not made on scientific grounds.

What proved decisive was something else: media-driven panic, Cold War geopolitical loyalties, and the absence of economic defenders. In the rooms where the fate of ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and the coca leaf was decided, there was no representation of the Amazonian, Mesoamerican, or Andean peoples who have safeguarded these medicines for centuries.
Five decades on, that original absence keeps producing very concrete consequences.

Article by Igor Domsac.

Read the full article: https://www.iceers.org/en/news/1971-convention-indigenous-peoples/

21/04/2026

Ten years ago, UNGASS introduced new language on human rights and drug policy. A decade later, that language remains largely untranslated into practice — especially for communities whose relationships with traditional plant medicines fall outside the categories the international control system was built to recognize.

New post on the ICEERS blog, by Igor Domsac and Jesus Alonso Olamendi.

Ten years after UNGASS, human rights commitments on drug policy and traditional plant medicines remain largely unimplemented.

15/04/2026

In this second installment of our series exploring the shape and spirit of the World Ayahuasca Forum — the first entirely Indigenous-led gathering of its kind, taking place September 11-13 in Girona, Spain — we turn to one of its most distinctive spaces: the Global Dialogues Hall.

As ayahuasca practices expand across the world, new questions surface about ethics, responsibility, and cultural context. Who holds authority over these traditions as they cross borders? How do legal frameworks developed far from their origins affect the communities that have carried them for generations? What responsibilities fall on researchers, practitioners, and institutions that engage with these medicines outside their original territories?

The Global Dialogues Hall addresses these questions directly. Designed as a space for intercultural encounter rather than institutional monologue, it brings together Indigenous leaders, researchers, policy experts, practitioners, and community representatives to examine the social, cultural, and legal implications of ayahuasca's growing global presence. The premise is straightforward: the challenges this expansion poses — from the erosion of cultural rights to questions of access and exploitation — require dialogue between all the actors involved, not parallel conversations that never meet.

Through shared reflection, this space seeks to explore how different communities and institutions can work together to navigate both the challenges and the opportunities that arise when ancestral traditions move across territories, cultures, and legal systems.

Learn more about the Global Dialogues Hall:
https://www.ayahuasca2026.com/spaces/global-dialogues/

If you missed our first installment, click here to read about the Plenary Hall:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/iceers_the-plenary-hall-roots-of-living-futures-activity-7437084091478552576-7-oP

31/03/2026

A powerful new investigation from Mongabay.com traces how the erosion of traditional forest governance in Peru enables "ghost permits" and timber laundering—revealing a quiet crisis where cultural loss, language disappearance, and the fragmentation of Indigenous authority are deeply intertwined with deforestation.

This is the reality Asháninka healer and knowledge holder Jacqueline Flores has spent her life working to counter—rebuilding language, ritual, and connection to territory after displacement.

We are honored that Jacqueline will be joining us at the World Ayahuasca Forum this September in Girona, where Indigenous spiritual leaders from across the Amazon and beyond will gather to center ancestral knowledge in conversations about biocultural rights, governance, and planetary healing.

The work of holding territory and culture is neither abstract nor romantic. It is happening now, often in the spaces between the cracks in the system.

Read the full article here:
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/

HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Insid...

26/03/2026

On April 7, join Maxi Cohen, Benjamin De Loenen, and Dr. Glauber Loures de Assis for a live Ask Me Anything exploring the vision behind the World Ayahuasca Forum.

This global gathering will bring together over 100 Indigenous leaders alongside researchers, practitioners, and policymakers — opening space for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and collective reflection.

Curious about what’s ahead? Bring your questions and be part of the conversation.

Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8COG7xMcT4Cfgt7F71TOWA #/registration