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Many Americans have been looking for healing in ancient traditions and reaching out for psychedelics. The latest to draw them is an Andean cactus, huachuma, better known as San Pedro.
Used for centuries in healing and spiritual ceremonies in South America, the plant contains mescaline, a psychoactive compound that alters perception and amplifies feelings of empathy and connection.
Pardis Mahdavi, a medical anthropologist who conducts research on psychedelics, interviewed hundreds of seekers over three years, from Arizona to Mexico to Costa Rica. As she writes, “Many came to huachuma after trying nearly everything else: talk therapy, antidepressants, silent retreats, other psychedelics.”
She cautions about both its safety and the ethics of its use, which include respecting the traditions and lineages surrounding huachuma. “The shamans I have interviewed hold clear, consistent beliefs about how to serve huachuma ethically, and for them the work begins long before anyone drinks,” she writes.
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