UPDATED: Canadian freed after British man killed at Peru drug ceremony
They were supposed to be on a healing journey. But instead, one man is dead and another is accused of killing him, after a bad ayahuasca trip.
[Violence] is pretty much as unlikely as a patient leaping up in the midst of heart surgery and attacking the doctors.- Robert Tindall, ayahuasca expert
Joshua Andrew Freeman Stevens, from Winnipeg, is accused of stabbing a British man to death after the two consumed the hallucinogenic tea at a spiritual retreat in the Peruvian Amazon. It's been reported the Canadian was acting in self defence.
Robert Tindall has attended hundreds of ayahuasca ceremonies and accompanies groups to the Peruvian Amazon to take the hallucinogen. He says this incident is highly unusual, but may be the result of the psychedelic being improperly administered.
"For something for this to happen in any reputable, responsible centre is pretty much as unlikely as a patient leaping up in the midst of heart surgery and attacking the doctors in a medical hospital in the United States," Tindall tells As It Happens host Carol Off.
"I've been involved in these medicinal practices for 15 years now," he says. "In all of this time, I've never heard of such an incident happening."
Tindall speculates that, if the victim, Unais Gomes, did indeed attack Stevens, as reported, he may have had a mental health condition that meant he should not have taken ayahuasca.
He says he's never heard of the centre where the violent incident happened, Phoenix Ayahuasca. But he says that there has been a boom in ayahuasca tourism in recent years and not everyone offering the hallucinogen is qualified to do so.
"People are setting up centres all over the place, they are not pre-screening people," Tindall says. "It has become a consumer product."
UPDATE (Dec. 21 2015): Authorities say Joshua Andrew Freeman Stevens, accused of stabbing a British man to death during a psychedelic ceremony in Peru, has been released from police custody.
Investigators say they released Stevens after it was determined he had stabbed and killed his friend, Unais Gomes, in self-defence.
CBC News reached Stevens in Peru via social media. He wrote the following: "I loved Unais. I'm quite sore ... and beat up bad ... filled with extreme sorrow. But I'm alive and thankful."
Stevens is waiting for police to return his wallet and personal belongings, and is hoping to return home to Winnipeg as soon as possible.