Rebekah Senanayake is a cultural psychologist and Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Anthropology, specializing in traditional Amazonian knowledge systems. With extensive fieldwork in the Amazon Rainforest, she examines how Indigenous practices inform modern understandings of altered states of consciousness. Rebekah is the founder of the Student Association of Psychedelic Investigation and a key advocate for integrating traditional and scientific perspectives in psychedelic research.

Ritual, Master Plants, and inter-species communication: Altered states of consciousness in Amazonia

Altered states of consciousness through the consumption of plant matter is believed to provide wisdom, healing, and teachings crucial to human evolution. Often accessed in a tightly constructed ritual setting, Master Plants require the human subject to undergo a series of purification rites to ‘neutralise humanness’, allowing for inter-species communication to take place.  I will explore the process of facilitating inter-species communication known as dieta. The process provides crucial insights into the nature of inter-species interaction and ritual more broadly. The paper situates inter-species communication within the wider ontological landscape of Amazonia, to push beyond boundaries of anthropocentrism and cognocentrism.