"Name changing helps the pilgrims envision entering a new world. The pilgrims also underwent a public confession around midnight, during which each person listed all their past and present sexual relationships. The names were then publicly read around the bonfire; the intention was to let go of the past.
Each of the relationships was tied as a knot on individual palm branches. The branches were then burned in the fire."
From "Inside a Peyote Pilgrimage/Drug tourists, mining companies and farming encroachment are threatening the Wixárika people’s annual hunt for the psychedelic plant in the Mexican desert" (NYT).
From the comments:
The premise of the article is that drug tourists are threatening the abundance and stability of this fragile ecosystem and the indigenous sacred practices that belong there. Got it. So the NYTimes sends a writer and photographer who microdose and tell the reader exactly where the peyote fields are. Cue the stampede for the Burning Man crowd. I’m just wondering if there were any discussions in the editorial office about the ethics of this piece?
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Lloyd writes:
"A group of boomers, maybe 10, with a certain amount of luggage, travel the world, reaching the most remote outposts, and finally climb a mountain on the top of which, they have been told, they can find the wisest man in the world. They have tried not to be too environmentally intrusive in their travels, but, you know. One or two have died along the way, and there is less mourning than you might expect. They have one question for the guru: do you have any good drugs up here? He thinks for a moment and wisely replies "get the fuck out of here."
"A real life version, with people older than the boomers. Tim Leary was briefly married to Uma Thurman's mom, "Nena" von Schlebrügge --a super-model of the day, although that term may not have been used yet. The couple enjoyed some combination of LSD trips and sex before marriage; sadly it seems possible there was no actual consummation during the short-lived marriage--a difficult honeymoon, etc. Nena was determined to go to India and learn about Tantric sex. They travelled here and there, asked around, and finally reached an appropriate guru. Said guru literally said something like: Tantric sex, Tantric sex, that's all you Westerners care about."
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