© Chris KilhamStrange brew: Ayahuasca is the latest traditional shamanic rite to be monetized and marketed to the spiritually starved.
The mother of a man who drowned while using a shamanic hallucinogenic drug has filed a lawsuit against the New Age spiritual retreat where the incident occurred.
Garth Dickson, according to his mother, was under the influence of an
herbal mixture known as ayahuasca (pronounced eye-uh-WAH-skuh) when he walked into Shasta Lake and drowned in 2012 while at a retreat called the White Flame Institute, according to
a lawsuit filed last week in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The White Flame Institute for Consciousness and Liberation offers "transformational life classes" and a "shamanic certification program" along with classes on healing and personal growth, according to the institute's website. Mrs. Dickson accuses the institute and its leader, Bonnie Serratore, of negligence and encouraging the use of ayahuasca as part of the treatments. [
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This is, of course, not the first time that people have died in New Age services: In February 2010, guru and motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was charged with three counts of manslaughter for his role in staging
a sweat lodge ceremony in Sedona, Arizona, according to CNN. After an hour inside the small, steam-filled tent,
some participants collapsed and others began vomiting. People tried to leave because they were getting sick, but
Ray allegedly encouraged them to stay and endure the discomfort, which he said was a form of cleansing that would make them stronger.
Three people died in the sweat lodge, 18 were hospitalized, and more were sickened; Ray was eventually convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to two years in prison.
Comment: Drug-induced experiences should not be confused with spiritual development; they are a cheap substitute, a state of experience, not a station of Being. But people these days are so starved of spiritually meaningful experience and spiritual instruction that they will turn to any new fad for fulfillment.