The Australian Ayahuasca Dietero Networks: Culture,Community,and Practices

What is the “Dieta”?

Since the commencement of the “psychedelic renaissance” in the first years of the twenty-first century, there has been an increase in the popularity of diet-based retreats as an alternative healthcare modality (Labate & Cavnar, 2014; Mabit Bonicard & González Mariscal, 2013). One such practice is the ayahuasca dieta experience, whereby people seek healing but also meaning, community, culture, and practices. The term “dieta,” traceable to the Greek “diaita,” meaning “a way of life” (Waife, 1955), encompasses an ongoing discipline of dietary practice, ceremonial participation, relational ethics, ecological attunement, and plant relationships that extend far beyond any single ceremonial experience.

The dieta can last days, months, or even years (Politi et al., 2019). Dietary restrictions (salt, sugar, meat, alcohol, drugs, and sex) facilitate bodily cleansing. Rituals are conducted by traditional healers called shamans, curanderos, or ayahuasqueros, terms with nuanced meanings across different lineages, including mestizo, Shipibo, Asháninka, and vegetalista traditions (Luna, 1986; Petersen et al., 2022), who have undergone extensive training in practices such as singing icaros and divination to treat physical and spiritual ailments. Some lineages offer psychotherapy before, during, and after the dieta (Politi et al., 2019).

The Globalization of Ayahuasca: From Counterculture to Australian Healthcare Choices

The use of ayahuasca and its globalization have been extensively studied in a range of cultural contexts, including its use by Indigenous peoples in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru. In The World Ayahuasca Diaspora, Labate et al. (2018) showcase bodies of knowledge that have emerged across fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, religious, and legal studies. Research suggests that ayahuasca may have therapeutic potential for depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorders, and grief, with studies showing improvements in emotional regulation and personality traits (Argento et al., 2019; González et al., 2020; Zeifman et al., 2019). Emerging research suggests ayahuasca's therapeutic potential for various mental health conditions (Leger & Unterwald, 2022; van Oorsouw et al., 2022), raising questions about cognitive liberty, consciousness sovereignty, and the right to pursue alternative treatments (Reiff et al., 2020). These practices have sparked significant academic interest but remain illegal in many countries. They are often stigmatized, which limits their recognition and value in public health (George et al., 2020; Guan & Chen, 2012).

In Australia, ayahuasca, which contains DMT and the beta-carbolines, harmine and harmaline, is classified as a Schedule 9 substance under the Australian Poisons Standard (Therapeutic Goods Administration [TGA], 2026). It is deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no recognized medical uses in Australia. Elsewhere, the legality of ayahuasca is unclear. In Brazil, it has been allowed for ritual and religious use since 1987. In the United States, ayahuasca has been granted religious-use protections through federal litigation under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, providing a point of contrast with the Australian prohibition context.

Prior to the arrival of ayahuasca, Australia's rave subculture was heavily influenced by British and American underground trance scenes and neo-shamanism. Neo-shamanism represents a contemporary spiritual practice that adapts traditional shamanic techniques for modern, typically Western contexts, often incorporating elements from various Indigenous traditions while being accessible to practitioners outside those specific cultural lineages (Townsend, 2004). In 1997, Terence McKenna presented psychedelic talks at Byron Bay's “Beyond the Brain” event, igniting interest among psychonauts and catalyzing the emergence of neo-shamanic circles that embraced “New Age spiritualism” while rejecting mainstream materialism (Gearin, 2015a).

The emergence of neo-shamanic practices in Western contexts has attracted critical scrutiny. Hobson (1976) described “white shamanism” as the extraction of Indigenous healing practices from their cultural context for Western use, while Wallis (2003) noted that neo-shamanic movements selectively adopt and reframe Indigenous practices in ways that may obscure their relational and political dimensions. Scuro and Rodd (2015) situate these dynamics within globalization, noting that Indigenous healing methods are adopted and adapted in ways that reflect both spiritual seeking and structural inequalities. Unlike traditional shamanic lineages (see Singh, 2018), neo-shamanic practice can be adopted through short courses, workshops, and online learning, often without clear ethical codes or accountability (Townsend, 2004). These tensions remain relevant in the Australian context, where vegetalista diet practices are transmitted across cultural and geographic distances, requiring attention to cross-cultural exchange and cultural appropriation (George et al., 2020). In contrast, the dieteros in this study emphasized long-term relationships with curanderos, facilitators who are well trained, experienced, and working closely with the Vegetalista Indigenous lineage holder.

Gearin's ethnographic research from 2014 to 2022 found that ayahuasca circles shared similar ethos to New Age spiritualism and sought to find subversive ways to thrive in the underground against dominant legal systems. Interestingly, Gearin (2015a) contends that within the first decade of ayahuasca arriving in Australia, subgroups began to identify more strongly with natural ceremonial “plant medicine” culture as opposed to synthetic psychoactive compounds (p. 4). Gearin's (2015a) work on weekend ayahuasca retreats found that “medicine” is sought not for recreation but for deep healing that addresses fundamental questions of how to live. Australian ayahuasca consumption typically occurs in political neutrality as individuals privately navigate insights received from the “medicine” within a hidden landscape. The practice is stigmatized as deviant and risky by mainstream policy and health officials, exemplifying how marginalized communities develop healthcare practices outside biomedical frameworks when conventional treatments fail to meet their needs, as we show later in this paper. This tension between official discourse and lived experience underscores why participatory research approaches are essential for understanding alternative healing modalities. According to Gearin (2015a), the Australian ayahuasca community views ayahuasca not as a drug but as “plant medicine” that provides “moral empowerment…characterized by an economy of expressive wellbeing and visionary poetics” (Gearin, 2015a, p. 136).

Psychedelics (Including Ayahuasca) as Alternative Models of Healthcare in Australia

Many Australians embrace a diverse range of medical practices, including non-Western approaches to health, which traditionally emphasize natural and holistic care over drug-based treatments and technology. This now includes the use of psychoactive substances (Complementary Medicines Australia, 2021). The “psychedelic renaissance” has seen an increase in the utilization of various psychedelic substances (Carhart-Harris & Goodwin, 2017; Johnson, 2021; Schifano et al., 2015). In 2023, the Australian TGA rescheduled MDMA specifically for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder and psilocybin for treatment-resistant major depression (TGA, 2023), costing around AUD $15,000–$25,000 (USD $10,000–$16,000) for a course of treatment (Dorrigan, 2023). This makes them inaccessible to most people, and some of this unmet demand is being met through unregulated markets (Kopra et al., 2023).

Alternative healthcare encompasses healing practices that operate outside or alongside conventional biomedical frameworks, often drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous medicine systems worldwide, including Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Indigenous shamanic traditions, function as legitimate healthcare despite operating from different epistemological and ontological foundations than biomedicine. We argue that dieta should be understood primarily as an alternative healthcare system rather than merely a spiritual, recreational, or countercultural practice for several reasons. First, the stated motivations and health-seeking behaviors of dieta participants align with healthcare system engagement. Second, the practice exhibits systematic healthcare characteristics, including assessment, contraindications, harm reduction, and integration protocols. Third, it operates in parallel with, not in opposition to, biomedical care, with many participants consulting both systems.

Rationale for This Study

The vegetalista lineage is a distinctly Peruvian form of shamanism that developed among mixed-ethnic (mestizo) and Indigenous populations in urban and peri-urban spaces in western Amazonian regions, particularly in and around the cities of Iquitos, Tarapoto, Pucallpa, and Puerto Maldonado (Luna, 1986). Despite Gearin's extensive work on ayahuasca use in Australia (Gearin, 2015a, 2015b, 2016, 2017), the ayahuasca “dieta” process as a legitimate healthcare narrative remains unexplored. While the existing literature on Australian ayahuasca practices has provided a framework for understanding the ritual terms of “circles” and “holding space” during ceremonies and interpreting and sharing visionary knowledge (Gearin, 2015a), no research to date has explored how the vegetalista lineage is expressed within the Australian ethnobotanical context, which incorporates Peruvian “master plants” and Australian flora and fauna in the dieta process. Australian ayahuasca research has focused on weekend retreats. No study has explored longer dieta experiences or the nuances of ayahuasca and the dieteros’ relationship with Amazonian “master plant” allies. ¹ Engaging directly with Gearin and Labate (2018), in this study we examine how Peruvian vegetalista templates are being reworked in Australia, creating unique expressions that blend Amazonian master plants with Australian native flora.

Australian dieteros do not have a voice in the current Australian socio-political and health arena. Berlowitz et al. (2022) remind us that indigenous medicines precede clinical research trials for hundreds of years at least, and although they inspire foundational intellectual curiosity among academics, indigenous medicines remain illegal and stigmatized (George et al., 2020; Guan & Chen, 2012). This participatory research aims to facilitate co-learning between the community and the researchers, with the objective of advancing the democratization and decolonization of healthcare knowledge (Dev, 2018; Rodd, 2018).

Aim

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences and healthcare narratives of Australian ayahuasca dieteros in relation to their culture, community, and practices.

Study Design and Approach

There is a wide body of research seeking to co-produce information and resources with marginalized groups to inform public policy (Beresford et al., 2021). This may include people living with disabilities (French & Raman, 2021; Henni et al., 2022), members of the LGBTQIA + community (Lucassen et al., 2018), and people who engage in illegal drug use (Claborn et al., 2022). This co-production research paradigm is expanding to combine evidence-based research with ancient wisdom traditions and shamanistic technologies, which have been ignored and devalued because of the reliance on materialism and the dominance of capitalism in the West (Tuck & Yang, 2012).

This study employed a participatory action research (PAR) framework to explore the experiences, practices, and healthcare knowledge of Australian ayahuasca dieteros, within the paradigm of co-production. PAR was selected for its emphasis on collaboration, cyclical knowledge generation, and action-oriented outcomes, positioning participants as cocreators of knowledge whose insights shaped both the thematic findings and the development of a community-facing resource. This approach aligns with established PAR frameworks that “differ from most other approaches to public health research” by drawing “on the paradigms of critical theory and constructivism” rather than experimental paradigms (Baum et al., 2006, p. 854). By privileging dietero voices over experimental controls, PAR limits the capacity to make causal inferences; the absence of comparison groups, standardized measures, and prospective design means that findings reflect cultural practices and subjective experiences rather than evidence of effectiveness. Nevertheless, effective public health research, policy, and education require pluralistic processes. PAR situates knowledge as socially constructed and resists the notion that any single perspective, scientific, cultural, spiritual, or experiential, should hold a monopoly on truth. In doing so, it ensures diverse voices are both explored and legitimized within the research arena. PAR also recognizes that those most affected should play central roles in the research process, emphasizing the democratization of knowledge production and local expertise (Freire, 1970; Reason & Bradbury, 2008). This was particularly appropriate given the marginalized status of the ayahuasca community and the need to center their voices in academic discourse.

Although participants consistently used the term “community” to describe their social world, we adopt Hanegraaff's (2011) concept of “networks” as a looser analytic term that better captures the diversity of practices, lineages, and relationships within this field. This acknowledges that the boundaries of this social formation are more fluid and contested than the term “community” alone implies.

Procedure

Thirty-five members of Australian ayahuasca dietero networks participated between March 2023 and March 2024. Eligibility required participants to be aged 18 years or older, English-speaking, and to have undertaken at least one vegetalismo diet in Australia. Recruitment was peer-mediated and private because of the legal sensitivities surrounding ayahuasca use. Invitations were distributed through encrypted Signal messaging and snowball sampling within trusted networks. Recruitment through community networks likely excluded individuals who discontinued participation due to adverse experiences or lack of engagement with the community, representing a significant limitation in understanding the full spectrum of outcomes across diverse dieta lineage groups.

Data were generated through 65 h of audio from semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews. The interview guide was developed by the lead author, drawing on insider knowledge of the dietero community and clinical expertise. Questions were designed to invite reflection on lineage, preparation, integration, ethics, and harm reduction. Examples include: “How did you prepare for your first dieta, and were you sufficiently prepared for it?,” “What ethical guidelines do you believe are important in dietero practice?,” and “What insights regarding harm reduction would you like to share with someone about to undertake their first dieta?.” These prompts encouraged participants to articulate their lived experience, values, and practices, while leaving space for them to shape the dialog and raise new themes.

Data Analysis

Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021). Initial themes were generated inductively, followed by cycles of refinement and reflection. Consistent with PAR principles, the findings were fed back to participants in accessible summaries via Signal or follow-up discussions. Participants were invited to confirm, challenge, or expand on the interpretations. A second round of interactive engagement occurred through informal discussions, Signal messages, and the sharing of resources. In these exchanges, participants responded to the preliminary findings and contributed practices, tools, and resources that they considered valuable for preparation, integration, and harm reduction. The process involved not only gathering these contributions but also adapting and integrating them into a collective framework. Through cycles of informal dialog, message-based exchanges, and reflexive analysis, diverse perspectives were woven together, highlighting both convergences and divergences in practice. This ensured that the final outputs reflected plurality rather than a single authoritative view, consistent with PAR's commitment to inclusivity and respect for multiple knowledge systems.

Credibility was supported through prolonged engagement (12 months of iterative data collection), member feedback loops to ensure cultural resonance, reflexive memoing and positionality statements, and an audit trail of coding, theme development, and analytical decisions. Dependability was enhanced through co-author review, and thick description of community practices supported transferability.

Reflexivity and Ethics

Reflexivity requires examining how personal positioning shapes research processes and outcomes, confronting how beliefs, assumptions, and group membership influence what we see and ignore (Berger, 2015; Hamzeh & Oliver, 2010; Howell, 2013; Olmos-Vega et al., 2022). The positionality of the researcher is particularly important when researching a hidden population. For this study, the first author who conducted the interviews identifies as a member of the target population: she participates actively in the ayahuasca vegetalista dieta tradition, having trained with a Curandero lineage holder in Peru, and this insider positioning enabled her privileged access to this community (Griffiths et al., 1993). This insider status also creates tension in maintaining scientific objectivity while being personally invested in validating transformative practices. It has also been noted within psychedelic research specifically that acknowledgement of researcher relationship with psychedelic substances is important (Negrine et al., 2026; Nielson & Guss, 2018). Such acknowledgement helps readers understand the kinds of lived–living experience that the authors brought to the study, how such experiences helped facilitate the research, as well as how potential pitfalls were managed (Ross et al., 2020). As a non-Indigenous researcher, practitioner, and dietero, the lead researcher remained critically aware that proximity to Indigenous knowledge did not equate to ownership (Kovach, 2009). Reflexive thematic analysis, discussion of emerging findings with co-authors, member-checking, and data refinement with participants ensured a collaborative rather than solo interpretation. A fuller account of the researcher's position statement, including engagement with First Nations perspectives and Peruvian lineage holders, is provided by Roy (2024).

Although this paper and the overall study did not specifically investigate malpractice or abuse, the dietero networks coproduced a range of preparation, integration, and harm reduction psychoeducation resources to help reduce risk and promote personal safety and citizen responsibility for community members. We acknowledge that this is an important consideration in global psychedelic research (McNamee et al., 2023). Our participants did not report experiences of abuse within their specific Australian context, although this may reflect the particular community studied rather than universal safety. Ethical concerns and safety risks exist in global ayahuasca tourism and neo-shamanic contexts, and our findings should not be generalized to all ayahuasca or dieta settings.

This study was approved by the Swinburne University Human Research Ethics Committee (20236881-14212).

The Dietero Way of Life

Theme 1 primarily reflects the patient assessment and screening, preparation requirements, and lineage and apprenticeship domains outlined in Table 2, situating dieta as a way of life rather than a discrete therapeutic intervention. This theme describes an Australian ayahuasca dietero network that is deeply embedded in the cultural codes and sacred lineage practices of its traditions. These cultural codes include strict ethical frameworks around consent, safety, referral processes, and reverence for plant spirits, while the sacred lineage practices refer to the transmission of vegetalista traditions from Peruvian curanderos to Australian practitioners.

We use “dietero” as an analytic term rather than as a fixed identity category. Some participants we interviewed did not identify straightforwardly as “being a dietero,” but the term is useful because it captures the wider field of dieta practices better than substance-centered labels such as “ayahuasca drinker” or “psychedelic user,” which dominate within research on these practices. This aligns with Langlitz and Gearin's (2024) argument that psychedelic practices are not merely drug-centered interventions but “forms of life” shaped by specific values, norms, and ethical orientations. We highlight how dietero practices involve ongoing disciplines of fasting, preparation, ceremony, integration, relational ethics and care, ecological attunement, and community work. The term therefore supports our central argument that dieta is not simply a “drug experience” or “therapeutic episode” but a way of life.

Participants’ accounts of dieta as an “alternative” healing paradigm did not consistently position dieta in opposition to a single system; rather, their accounts reflected several distinct relational frames. For some, dieta was an alternative to biomedical treatment, particularly where diagnostic and pharmaceutical interventions failed to address underlying causes. For others, it was an alternative to mainstream mental health care and Western psychotherapeutic models, which participants perceived as symptom-focused rather than oriented toward existential, relational, or spiritual transformation. Most significantly, a substantial proportion of participants did not experience dieta as oppositional to any of these systems at all, but as part of a pluralistic healing ecology in which multiple frameworks–biomedical, psychotherapeutic, ceremonial, and plant-relational–can coexist and complement one another. This positioning aligns with the observation of the Australian Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Practitioners (AMAPP) that ceremonial and shamanic contexts involve “spiritual, communal, and cosmological dimensions” that operate alongside rather than in place of conventional care (AMAPP, 2025, p. 31).

Typically, adherents to the Australian vegetalista lineage undertake a diet for 10 days. The process involves spending four consecutive mornings in ceremony, each including a short time with the neo-curandero to receive a cup of ayahuasca brew, known among the dietero community as the “master plant.” The Australian facilitators studied are non-Indigenous practitioners trained in Peruvian vegetalista traditions, termed “neo-curanderos” to acknowledge the cultural translation occurring in the Australian context. Neo-curanderos pass on plant wisdom received from their own curanderos in Peru as a form of transmission (see Table 2, Quality Assurance), while guiding the dietero to cultivate their own personal relationship with the plant, free from external influences or imposed doctrines.

After receiving their “master plant” from the neo-curandero, who sings an icaro into the cup and briefly converses with the dietero, the dietero spends their mornings primarily in solitude, learning to sit with themselves and connect with the plants. Over the 10 days, there are five 24-h fasts, during which there is minimal talking, no touching, and hours of solo introspection. There are four ayahuasca ceremonies that occur every second night at 8 p.m. For the first phase of the evening, the dieteros drink the cup one by one and sit back in silence in the dark to absorb the neo-curandero's icaros; the drums, chacapa, ² and at times the yadaki ³ are utilized to open the dreaming. During this first phase, people typically purge in response to the emetic effects of the ayahuasca and reportedly traverse many plant and interdimensional landscapes (Shanon, 2003; Strassman, 1995).

After the first 1–2 h, the neo-curanderos open the “altar” (a specific “medicine” lineage and community) for further consumption of ayahuasca, and people may go outside for mapacho ⁴ (also see Rodd, 2018) by the fire in prayer and contemplation. During the second phase, the music shifts to lighter communal music where the dieteros can join in chorus; multiple instruments such as guitar, kalimba, drum, and handpan are played. As the night unfolds, dieteros are called on one by one to sing a prayer, recite a poem, or play a musical instrument. The evening closes between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. with a range of rituals to ground people back into their senses.

In interview, the dieteros shared varying, yet interconnected experiences of being called to drink ayahuasca driven by a longing for a more fulfilling, deeper experience of life, the world, and themselves. This search led them to find this “altar” in Australia, which specialized in vegetalista dietas and naturally progressed to trying this offering. The dieteros shared that they were called to “medicine work,” in what Moore (2005) and Campbell (1949) would frame as answering the dark night of the soul and embarking on the hero's journey home, respectively. However, despite feeling the call to engage in dieta and their need for alternative health care approaches, the dieteros emphasized that engaging in dieta was rarely a hasty decision.

Of the dieteros interviewed, the average time between the first drinking of ayahuasca and participation in their first dieta was 1.9 years (see Table 2, Patient Assessment and Screening). During the interviews, the dieteros reflected that this extended period represented a necessary time for preparation and careful consideration. Both the aspiring dietero and the curanderos needed adequate time to assess readiness, build mutual trust, and ensure proper spiritual and practical alignment before undertaking the profound commitment of a traditional plant dieta.

A theme that emerged was the unique cultural context of ayahuasca dietas in Australia and the cross-cultural lineage mentoring and lineage connection that extends from Peruvian curanderos to Australian practitioners.

We follow a lineage, individual to individual via ancestral lineages that maintain the purest forms…and some start to evolve or adapt it to match with our times. As long as people maintain the integrity of the lineage, a baseline…. (P25, 40, male, 2 years of dieta)

The dieteros reported that despite many attempts on their part to engage with the Western biomedical system, the treatments they received had failed to address core wounding and disease. The dieteros voiced the need for a greater sense of depth and connection and a longing to self-heal via direct experience of transpersonal states. Differences were noted regarding these medicines and practices being culturally accepted and embedded within local community, health, political and economic systems in Peru (Wolff, 2020) as opposed to being illegal, stigmatized and not seen as a valid form of healthcare by Australian mainstream society (Gearin, 2015b).

Traditional therapies don’t seem to break through for me personally. It [dieta] gets to the heart of the issues quickly. It feels self-directed and self-driven, which is important for me personally. I think people come to ayahuasca and diets because they are yearning for more than in the Western context and have not received the healing they need. (P5, 35, male, 7 years of dieta)

First Nations Australians and First Nations people from other countries share the experience of the Australian-specific dieta way of life being synergistic with their cultural practices. Indigenous health frameworks emphasize the importance of culturally appropriate healing practices that honor traditional knowledge systems (Dudgeon et al., 2020). A First Nations Australian shared their experience of the dieta, which involves sacred knowledge and healing passed down through elders and oral traditions, and it deeply resonated with their own cultural practices.

I guess relating that to my culture is just, with age…and through stories you gather knowledge and you pass that on…you only get that with being passed down from elders or passed down from family and that knowledge is so sacred and so important and that's why I feel like the same with medicine it's so sacred…being a dietero there is a sacredness that stays with you. (P33, 30, female, 7 years of dieta)

Interestingly, they also highlight that it does not necessarily have to be a First Nations person serving the medicine to experience those transmissions.

Several dieteros emphasized that dieta is not a recreational experience and that people should not underestimate its serious, sacred, and intense nature.

I think DMT extract does not really bring much connection……but the ayahuasca experience has the whole package, the person can identify and put their whole self into the meaning making…the self in the journey. There's a whole culture around you. (P26, 36, male, 2 years of dieta)

Furthermore, the dieteros challenge stigma, myths, and stereotypes about what this community looks like. The dieteros agreed that the ayahuasca dieta lineage should be protected in the context of decriminalization rather than legalization, with an emphasis on the importance of culture, context, lineage, and localized sovereignty, as opposed to being threatened, diluted, and colonized by capitalism, biopharma, and clinical scheduling processes. The dieteros' vision of how ayahuasca should be regulated aligned with Day and Grooff's (2026) communalization model, where ayahuasca/DMT use would not be prohibited and communities would manage their own systems of supply, harm reduction and care.

It is not a drug. It's sacred medicine. It is very sacred, and we are worried about mass production, big pharma, and corporate entities; it's not for the hospital…you can’t put that into a pill and give it to someone. The curandero helps hold the space and the reverence that comes from sitting in sacred ceremonies in the community. (P23, 32, female, 3 years of dieta)

Healing Technologies and Practices

Theme 2 maps onto the Treatment Protocol, Harm Reduction, and Safety Protocols domains of Table 2, showing how ceremonial practices function as structured healing technologies embedded within relational and cultural infrastructure. Dietero culture represents a distinct community-based healing system operating alongside rather than in opposition to biomedical care with its own assessment processes, community codes, and healing technologies: “plant doctors,” neo-curanderos, icaros, purging, somatic releasing, song, prayer, and community support. Participants simultaneously critiqued biomedical frameworks while employing medical terminology (“plant doctors,” “healing surgeries), suggesting that these communities developed hybrid conceptual frameworks that bridged Indigenous and Western epistemologies rather than completely rejecting medical discourse.

The dieteros shared various tools and processes, including purging, icaros, fasting, and no-touch practices, which clear and create space to access deeper truths and existential experiences. The dieteros articulated that these tools support emptying, remembering, and becoming, fostering personal transformation and new ways of being in the world. They noted that the dietero approaches to healthcare operate in stark contrast to the conventional medical and mainstream mental health systems. Dieteros report peak experiences, transpersonal, and spiritual phenomena which generate a rich tapestry of healthcare narratives that extend beyond the current scope of scientific measurement. The concept of “plant doctors” performing healing surgeries was a recurring theme throughout the data (see also Beyer, 2009; Luna, 1984; Tupper, 2008). Brabec de Mori (2021) argues that ayahuasca's healing efficacy emerges not solely from pharmacological properties but through social attribution and cultural meaning-making within ceremonial contexts. The lead researcher's personal and professional familiarity with these experiences enabled deep cultural access and interpretive richness, while potentially amplifying accounts of plant intelligence and healing entities. Readers are invited to treat these as situated cultural meaning-making (Brabec de Mori, 2021) rather than verified therapeutic claims.

Most of the participants experienced purging as a deep cleansing and healing experience. The dieteros reported “purging for a purpose” and shared a range of transpersonal experiences, such as purging for others, others purging through them, clearing out personal traumas, as well as archetypal, global, and ancestral pain. The dieteros highlighted that purging can come in the form of vomiting, yawning, laughing, crying, diarrhea, and somatic releases and found humor when they reflected on how this looks within traditional mainstream perspectives:

Purging is a necessary part of the experience; it is the cleansing element of ayahuasca. Purges can occur in different ways; I have purged for myself, and I have purged for others and for things that are not related to a person in particular. I don’t think I have ever chosen to purge or not to purge. But I often do. It is not a choice. (P26, 36, male, 2 years of dieta)

The dieteros reported varying responses to the dieta protocols, such as fasting, sitting in silence, and no-touch practices. For example, “fasting taught me discipline, it taught me to see discomfort and to really be able to tune into my organs and to really feel the subtleties and impacts of food” (P27, 44, male, 4 years of dieta).

There was agreement among the dieteros that the silence provided a deep container to be stripped back, become aware of internal processes, and drop into subtle plant realms.

For me, it's taking the medicine to a deeper level, doing deeper work, being alone with oneself in silence, time to let the medicine work. It is a process and a body of work. (P24, 42, male, 0.5 years of dieta)

Furthermore, the dieteros shared the importance of noble silence in the maloca ⁵ and how prayers and vibrational sounds can have a deeper resonation when silence is held. Many found the practice of silence and disconnecting from technology and family deeply confronting and challenging, which supports existing literature on other traditions (Valle, 2019).

Silence can be one of the most difficult practices to learn in dieta. Silence allows me to process…to feel. It allows me to connect to my master plant a lot deeper, to connect to myself and to be aware of the subtleties of the experience. (P27, 44, male, 4 years of dieta)

The dieteros voiced the importance of no-touch protocols leading into and during the process, and post-integration for several weeks (see Table 2, Preparation Requirements and Treatment Protocol). These practices support further deepening and listening to oneself in the wider field:

I came out of dieta and visited my friend who was dying in the hospital, and I obviously hugged him; he only had a couple of weeks to live. As soon as I did, heaviness came over me, and it stayed with me for six hours, and then, just like clicking my fingers, it left me. I really understand why we do not touch now; you are taking on people's energies, and I experienced that firsthand; I wasn’t just hearing about the practice, I actually experienced it, and it was quite profound. (P24, 42, male, 0.5 years of dieta)

Most dieteros described very visceral experiences of the icaros, ranging from being taken to the edges of insanity, terror, and pain to wonder, awe, and rich emotional and somatic depths. Gearin's (2024a) work explores awe and its complex relationship with fear and pain.

The dieteros described how, during the icaros, as they dissolved and surrendered to the unknown, they simultaneously confronted the intensity of their wounds, pain, fear, and awe. They spoke of profound “downloads” (experiential insights or revelations received during altered states), indigenous wisdom, and plant communications that emerged through the icaros and songlines (as described by First Nations Australians and in a metaphorical sense). Other dieteros reflected on their journeys of processing personal, archetypal, and transpersonal stories and maps of consciousness.

The dieteros often reflected that the icaro is a tool and an integral part of the dietero healthcare system and that the neo-curanderos have a specific alchemy in the room to direct the plants and icaros to each dietero individually and collectively as a group, which takes time for Westerners to grasp.

The icaros is the dance between the curandero and the medicine (see Table 2, Harm Reduction Strategies). The icaros is the language that you speak to the medicine; it calls the medicine and directs the medicine…In our culture it seems fantastical…the curandero sees things on the medicine, feels things that need to be worked on, doctored, cleaned, and moved on…the curandero can sing a particular plant that people are dieting on and those exact people will purge at the same time, the curandero is tweaking the room like bringing in Reniquilla to squeeze out the problems, really wring them out, doctoring them, it's an artwork, singing the medicine to direct it to where it needs to be in the room. It's a partnership with the curandero and the medicine. (P1, 50, male, 6 years of dieta)

Furthermore, the dieteros located icaros as a tool for healing rooted deeply in Indigenous wisdom and symbiosis with “plant medicines.” The dieteros acknowledged how intense and challenging the icaros can be and the level of mastery and direct symbiosis the neo-curandero needs to have with all the plants to be able to tweak, adjust, and fine-tune the energetics of each person in the room. They noted the chakapa instrument as a specific tool that facilitates the healing of icaros:

We often sit in silence for a long time at the start. Sometimes I’m really begging inside for them to use the chakapa, to shift the energy … the icaros are very visual. They are tough, they are not beautiful, and they are beautiful. but they are so demanding. They can be thick and have edges and be really sharp. (P7, 42, female, 9 years of dieta)

Seven out of the 35 dieteros had engaged in tincture dietas [concentrated herbal extracts] at home, or in a non-retreat context. The benefits ranged from being able to tune back in with the “master plants” and complete “unfinished business left over from dieta that has remained unintegrated” (P8, 61, male, 10 years of dieta). The dieteros reported enjoying tuning in with specific plants, especially during dietero weekends (where tinctures are provided outside of the diet context for two days).

The dieteros shared that it can be challenging and rewarding to sit with “master plant” tinctures around family, children, and during work, which can bring a new insight outside the safety and containment of the dieta context. Some dieteros noted that managing the energy of others while trying to maintain attunement and focus on the “master plant” tincture at home can be challenging.

It is important to mention the space where you do dieta you go away from your everyday life…you are isolated and then you come back and integrate the plants…doing a dieta at home is very different…you are dropping in and integrating at the same time…surrounded by your family, by your loved ones, by your everyday environment, integration does not happen post…it happens at the same time. There are lessons in both, going away and staying at home. (P4, 37, female, 7 years of dieta)

Community Ethics and Transformation

Theme 3 corresponds most strongly with the Ethical Framework and Post-Treatment Integration domains of Table 2, centering peer-based governance, moral and ethical accountability, and long-term relational care.

Gearin (2024a, p. 19) highlights that “ayahuasca is known globally for its therapeutic effects, awe-inspiring visions, and hedonic tones including its beautiful and grotesque sensory worlds but what is hardly acknowledged is its entanglement with moral life and moral knowledge.” Or, as he articulates, its awe-inspiring moral beauty. When participants were asked to describe the dietero networks, core tenets of this theme showcased a rich and diverse community, grounded in ethics, collective responsibility, and deep attunement to personal and collective safety. Dieteros represented a range of characteristics (age, profession, gender, race, religion, culture), and despite being diverse across many cross-sections of society, they presented a united spirit of seeking depth and connection to self and nature, as well as a commitment to self-development and compassion.

There are highly qualified doctors, firemen, therapists, police officers, consultants, hippies, the unemployed–it's all slices of society. All genders, races, and sexes. Everyone is equal; it doesn’t matter what color or tribe, what background, or job you come from; everyone is equal. It's a value I hold, I get to rub shoulders with people from all aspects of society, we are all equal in that space. (P1, 50, male, 6 years of dieta)

The dieteros emphasized the importance of referral, assessment processes, and strict relational codes, ethics, and collective responsibilities in maintaining community safety and the integrity of the plants. The strict code involves people with lived experience of the ayahuasca who attend the “altar,” and they are the only people allowed to refer (no strangers with no connections to others). The dieteros agreed that referrals are rare and reserved for people who “have the calling” and are demonstrating curiosity for healing, reverence for the plants, and respect for community codes. The dieteros are expected to explain “the codes” and vouch for and care for the person. The neo-curandero's use of discernment in assessing one's suitability for ayahuasca, the “master plant,” and the community is essential and comes from decades of practice in ceremonial work and close apprenticing with indigenous lineage holders and “master plant” allies.

Participants were recruited through trusted networks and were therefore likely to hold potentially more positive views of the “altar's” governance and community safety.

The absence of reported adverse events reflects this study's specific sample rather than universal safety claims of Ayahuasca dieta lineage work and subsequent communities.

People who first come to this community have a buddy (peer support; see Table 2, Safety Protocols), a first port of call. They have someone they love, trust, care about, and feel safe. Thus, they are not alone. It is important that the curanderos are very experienced and have the right number of supporters or helpers on the night. Maintaining each other's silence, not influencing each other's process; holding it. They run a tight ship. (P6, 44, male, 4 years of dieta)

They noted that ethical issues arising among dieteros attending the “altar” must be addressed in ways that maintain community safety and the integrity of the plants. This was reflected in the referral and assessment processes, strict relational codes, buddy support, and boundary protocols described throughout this theme. Although, it was noted that individual sexuality and identities are encouraged; there was no identified culture of repression and shame. Furthermore, non-conformity to gender norms is celebrated, and there are many LGBTQIA + members. They noted that behavioral and ethical conflicts with the “altar” must also be assessed for risk as there is a level of reputational damage that can occur if people refer recklessly and without integrity. The author's neo-curandero encourages dieteros not to share personal identifying information and details of what occurs in ceremony with the wider public as this community seeks to offer a private and contained space for healing.

Do not go out and tell people about the medicine, show them the medicine in your behavior and relationships…and when they notice…. when they ask how you how you have changed and healed?…that is the real opening…and the time to share. Neo-Curandero (private conversation with the lead investigator)

The dietero way of life transforms insights from altered states of consciousness into an integrated practice of ritual, culture, and character development, fostering ongoing dialog with consciousness, reality, and pain. Rather than promising an end to suffering, it reframes the relationship with pain as a pathway for deeper exploration, offering a different way of engaging that draws on community, diverse tools, technologies, and plant and elemental allies to explore the deeper mysteries of self and connection.

The majority of dieteros reported that they do not identify with the term “being a dietero” and have a sense of being beyond labels, identity, and form, yet paradoxically deeply connected to their humanness. As the dieteros matured on their path, most spoke of a way of life which extended beyond Australian vegetalista ayahuasca into many personal practices and embodied ways of seeing, being, and doing. They did report a strong sense of being connected to “the dietero way of life,” rooted deeply in community, ethics, and collective responsibility. The dietero way of life was conceptualized as “how we show up in the world” and connect with the plants, elements, land, relationships, and existential field in and around us:

I do not identify with it as an identity; however, participating in dietas for me signified a body of work that I will forever connect with for the rest of my life…. it is just a continuous stream of relationships with different plants, like a way of life as opposed to an identity. (P30, 39, female, 7 years of dieta)

The dietero way of life encompassed practical embodiment: “altar” work, “plant medicine,” tea ceremonies, permaculture practices, seasonal attunement, and conscious food consumption with reverence for food sources. This emphasizes relationality, as opposed to extraction and exchange, honoring the earth and our place within it. These practices represent the translation of visionary insights into tangible daily rituals that maintain a connection to plant teachings outside ceremonial contexts.

The majority of dieteros expressed deep gratitude for the process of being called on to sing, share a prayer, play instruments, and ultimately have a voice in the room despite the fear or feelings of inadequacy. The neo-curanderos state, “we are all medicine carriers” (P14, 35, female, 3 years of dieta) and that dieta can activate creative and healing potential in us all, which can ripple out from the maloca into our personal lives and wider community.

Many of the dieteros reported feeling terrified and lacking an initial sense of self-worth or confidence to participate in the ceremony. The dieteros reported a range of benefits from being able to contribute to healing and the shared field in the maloca.

In dieta, if it wasn’t for that process, I don’t think I would be a musician. It's almost like claiming myself and my truth…my light, my love, and being able to go through the dieta process, learn to sing, pray, sing to the plants, and almost give a voice to my soul. (P2, 39, male, 8 years of dieta)

Some dieteros reported that prayer, intention, music, and relationships with “master plants” resulted in permanent increases in confidence and self-belief. This has manifested in tangible improvements in relationship dynamics, workplace capacity, and a sense of purpose and embodied action.

My confidence…I have always been a shy person. The medicine showed me my little cuts along the way, embarrassing moments from childhood. things that compounded to create my shyness. Churick helped me to love myself and I felt Churick come on really strong in a form of confidence. It was like ripping through me in this confidence that I have never experienced before. I was able to start a new role which included public speaking, and I truly feel it helped me speak confidently in front of 100 people. (P24, 42, male, 0.5 years of dieta)

The dieta involves a personalized and interactive relationship with the plants, allowing for profound transformations that encompass emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. The experiences in the maloca create a microcosm of connection, co-creation of healing, music, support, and confidence-building experiences that dieteros report extending into real life. Empowering processes such as singing, playing musical instruments, and developing a voice for oneself, life, and the world, are integral to this experience. This data supports the work of Gearin (2024b), who developed the concept of “psychedelic atmospherics” to denote that the individual is influenced by a range of fluid atmospheric elements, such as the environment, artwork, natural, and urban surroundings, objects, and music, within the group setting. These elements amplify contextual collective sensitivities and processes, which are often co-created and shared, and not just confined to the individual.

Dieteros shared how they witnessed the transformation of severely mentally ill family members across relational, physical, and spiritual domains, which empowered them to embark on the dietero path.

My depression, it's like the big dark cloud has lifted … I’ve seen my bulimia, I really struggled with food stories and then going in and “the mother” showing me what my food stories were and why I had them…I’ve got one sister she just was in such a dark place. She came back she was completely different not this angry scary person I once knew. (P33, 30, female, 7 years of dieta)

One dietero shared how the empowering, plant-based path of vegetalismo helps them navigate their healing path of chronic pain, as well as the paradoxes of their religiosity and Judaism.

Diet….it's a pathway to freedom, well-being, and expression, and religion. Religion is founded on the idea that there are rules and restrictions. I am finding my peace with it; I am choosing certain restrictions based on a belief system, Judaism, that is ancient and has very deep roots. For some, it is the most ridiculous thing you could imagine following, and for others, it's their whole entire existence, where anything outside of that is blasphemy…I’m deeply honoring myself and the life path and its unfolding…I never sought out ayahuasca, it just came into my path. (P35, 33, male, 7 years of dieta)

The dieteros typically start out on the path of ayahuasca hoping for a cure for physical, emotional, social, or spiritual challenges. However, when they deepen on this path, they report developing a cyclic, relational, transpersonal, and nonlinear approach to healing and suffering.

I can’t describe it as anything other than profound healing. You don’t necessarily go away from dieta feeling healed. You see the healing unfold over weeks, months, and years. Your stories and experiences, the change is phenomenal. People often comment, ‘wow there's something really changed’. (P18, 62, male, 3 years of dieta)

They reported healing benefits ranging from physical ailments to emotional healing through pattern awareness and increased self-love, connection, and self-worth. These accounts represent participants’ subjective interpretations rather than verified medical outcomes. There was a consistent expression that the plants caused participants to face “fears,” “shadows,” “traumas,” and “masks” alone during the 10-day dieta process; however, this often seemed to result in the cultivation of a favorable sense of “inner strength,” “integrity,” “alignment,” “honesty,” “transcendence,” “humility,” and “presence.”

While skills such as critical reflection, emotional regulation, and cognitive flexibility have well-documented benefits across therapeutic contexts (Churchill & Murray, 2020), participants consistently attributed their development to the lineage structure, depth, and relational ethics of the dieta process. It should be noted that the lead researcher's position as a trusted community member may have shaped both what participants disclosed and how healing accounts were interpreted, with participants potentially emphasizing transformation narratives consistent with shared community values. Findings are specific to this vegetalista lineage and should not be generalized to other ayahuasca or Indigenous healing contexts (Kovach, 2009; Smith, 2021).

Different “master plants” were associated with healing different aspects of life and working in different ways, from confronting to comforting. Plants were experienced as healing through various means such as physical repair, for example “rewiring the brain” or “calming the nervous system” to illuminating new perspectives or becoming a source of strength to draw on after the dieta process.

I have seen people come to the ceremony distraught, anxious, and scared; I have then seen these people come to a place of deep understanding. (P12, 67, male, 2 years of dieta)

The benefits of the dietero healthcare system and ways of life are acquired via first person, wisdom and direct experience often described as coming from “the way of the heart, a deep remembering and coming home” (P7, 42, female, 9 years of dieta) and experienced as multisensorial, intuitive, somatic and vibrational healing wisdom. These findings are corroborated across the literature in various studies and anthropological accounts (Brown, 2007; Thompson & Szabo, 2020).

The dieteros highlighted how powerful it can be, from a healthcare perspective, to have access to a qualified therapist who is also a dietero and can share their lived experiences of overcoming fears and healing, reflecting broader discussions about the role of practitioner experience in psychedelic therapy (Nielson & Guss, 2018).

One of the things I was most nervous about going into dieta was something I worked through with my therapist beforehand. My therapist, who is also a dietero, shared some stories about their own experiences in dieta, like trying to share a song but not being able to play their guitar. This really helped me feel better about it. When I heard other people struggling with their instruments, I felt more connected. As the week went on, I felt so supported by the community. I found my voice. (P31, 40, female, 6 years of dieta)

Most of the participants spoke about the importance of engaging in a dialog with different aspects of their mind during preparation, dieta, integration, and day-to-day life. Some of the participants utilized words such as parts, structures, schemas, and aspects of personalities (related to an internal family systems (IFS) approach, as outlined further in the coproduced resource and future publications). Furthermore, the majority of the dieteros mentioned the experience of plant personalities, qualities, or aspects, or the experience of plant teachings and metaphors. These findings are aligned with Gearin's work (2024a, p. 594), who found that ayahuasca drinkers vary widely in their interpretive frameworks, ranging from literal to metaphorical interpretations of ayahuasca.

I think the master plants allow us to drop into the heart, this infinite intelligence which is within us. To break out of the limitations, we have of seeing through a single plane…to start moving in a somatic fundamental heart-focused way. From that extra sense. (P6, 44, male, 4 years of dieta)

The dieteros expressed that “medicine work” can be deeply transpersonal and spiritual, marked by paradoxes painful and joyous, illuminating and shadowy, and frightening and easeful. They agreed that these profound experiences, distinct from mainstream mental health treatments, serve as pivotal rites of passage. It was common knowledge by the dieteros that “in order to find yourself you must first lose your mind.” The dieteros affectionately named the brew a cup of courage or the great paradoxical humbling. These narratives echo those of psychedelic pioneers such as Humphrey Osmond, a psychiatrist who, in correspondence with the author Aldous Huxley, originally coined the term psychedelic: “To fathom hell or to soar angelic, take a pinch of psychedelic” (Osmond, 1957, cited in Tanne, 2004, p. 713). Similarly, Parsons (1969, p. 85) eloquently captures the essence of wonder, stating that it “would thus suggest a breach in the membrane of awareness, a sudden opening in a man's system of established and expected meanings, a blow as if one were struck or stunned. To be wonderstruck is to be wounded by the sword of strange events, and to be stabbed awake by the striking.” The dieteros echo these sentiments below.

I love after a massive slaughtering ⁶ in the room, you know…it's been really harrowing and then you hear the curandero say, ‘how good was that!’ and everyone laughs, and you feel like the flip in the room: people move from the depths of hell to joy. (P13, 33, male, 2 years of dieta)

Humor was expressed, almost unanimously, as an important and valued part of the dieta experience.

You’re sitting there, holding a bucket of purge, talking to higher realms of consciousness; it's hilarious and humbling. (P18, 62, male, 3 years of dieta)

The paradox of experiencing humor amidst an often “heavy,” “intense” or “torturous” experience was felt to bring a sense of “gentleness,” “playfulness” and “humility.” This is echoed in the literature where Taussig (1987, p. 406) shares that “taking yage [essentially the same potion made from similar plants as ayahuasca, however prepared differently] is awful, the shaking vomiting, the nausea, the shitting, the tension…yet is a wonderous thing, awful and unstoppable.”

Laughter is humbling; this work should not be too serious. What I love is the paradox - this is serious work, but don’t take it too seriously - that is the paradox. (P11, 47, female, 10 years of dieta)

While participants overwhelmingly reported positive experiences with their dietero practice, they also acknowledged significant challenges inherent to the dieta process. Several participants described the intense difficulty of the silence protocols.

The practice of living as a dietero extends ceremonial insights into daily life through ecological and healthcare approaches, seasonal awareness, and ongoing dialog with plant kin. However, it should be noted that contrasting positions within the dietero network exist, such as:

The dieta process is based on the integrity and skill levels of the curanderos. The altar creates the container; the safety, love, and grounding for that inner work to take place. (P2, 39, male, 8 years of dieta),

This contrast of dietero perspectives illuminates a tension regarding where the locus of healing agency is inherent in the curandero's trained skill, lineage, via the ayahuasca and dieta “master plants,” or is fundamentally enacted by the individual dietero. Examples like this have direct implications for potential dependency, power dynamics, and the risk of cult-like relational structures. These are concerns that the dietero community itself raised, and that the harm reduction and referral protocols documented in Theme 3 are, in part, designed to address. The coexistence of these positions within the same network reflects the type of internal diversity that Hanegraaff (2011) identifies as a characteristic of contemporary ayahuasca networks: loosely bounded, non-dogmatic, and tolerant of epistemological differences.

Limitations

There are several limitations to this study. First, recruitment through community networks resulted in a sample comprising only individuals who maintained active practice or ongoing community connections. This approach likely excluded participants who discontinued involvement following adverse experiences, representing a significant limitation in capturing the full spectrum of outcomes and potentially overlooking critical perspectives from those who disengaged after negative experiences. Second, the findings are limited to a single vegetalismo lineage tradition centered around two primary “altars” in Australia. This restricts transferability to other ayahuasca practices, including Santo Daime, União do Vegetal, or alternative neoshamanic variants (Labate et al., 2018). Future research should examine diverse lineages and practices to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the Australian ayahuasca landscape.

Implications

This research has several important implications for practice, policy, and future research. The cultural practices documented here provide a foundation for understanding how preparation and harm reduction operate within necessarily hidden networks due to the prohibition of both DMT and beta-carboline harmala alkaloids, informing evidence-based approaches to drug policy reform that recognize the inherent value of these compounds within culturally appropriate contexts (Labate & Cavnar, 2014; Winkelman, 2001). The co-learning between communities and researchers demonstrates practical applications for engaging people with lived experiences in policy reform and harm reduction initiatives (Dev, 2018; Rodd, 2018).

The illegal status in Australia and internationally of ayahuasca containing DMT and beta-carbolines raises questions about whether prohibited substances can constitute legitimate healthcare. We argue that legality is distinct from healthcare legitimacy. Historical precedent shows that many now-accepted treatments (such as cannabis and psychedelics in clinical trials) were once prohibited (Carhart-Harris & Goodwin, 2017). Indigenous peoples have used ayahuasca medicinally for centuries, predating Western regulatory frameworks (Luna & White, 2000). The healthcare function exists regardless of legal status; participants develop sophisticated safety protocols, contraindication screening, and harm reduction practices precisely because they cannot access legal oversight (Tupper, 2008).

This research also acknowledges that not all ayahuasca use occurs within structured ceremonial or retreat contexts. The non-formal and naturalistic settings, including self-directed home use and informal community gatherings, represent an important dimension of the Australian landscape that warrants dedicated future research, particularly regarding harm reduction in the absence of experienced facilitators (Tupper, 2008).

Future research should explore the relational aspects and potential benefits across different vegetalista and Australian “master plants” and tincture processes for health and well-being. Research could examine the therapeutic implications of “different ways of knowing” in relation to psychedelic substances and plant qualities (Wilson, 2008), investigating what therapeutic models and perspectives can best support preparation and integration processes (Churchill & Murray, 2020; Schwartz, 1995). Additionally, the dietero way of life warrants further research in the context of altered states, trait development, and embodied behavioral transformation in the broader context of psychedelics within the mainstream setting (Anderson, 2012; Gearin & Devenot, 2021). While our findings suggest potential benefits of ayahuasca dieta practices from participants’ perspectives, future studies should employ mixed methods approaches, comparison groups, and longitudinal designs focusing on safety profiles, contraindications, and objective health and well-being outcome measures to complement this participatory research.