2014 – The First World Ayahuasca Conference, Ibiza, Spain
During September of 2014, around 700 people congregated on the island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean for the first ever World Ayahuasca Conference. The event attracted scientists, healers, shamans, therapists, artists, policy-makers, and other professionals.
The event was organized by ICEERS (International Center for Entheogenic Education, Resource and Service). The conference included talks on many topics, including self-regulation and legal systems, neuroscience and the brain, cultural history and change, sustainability and safety, plus much more. Many of the presentations and panel discussions are available on the ICEERS YouTube channel.
Reflecting on the conference, writer Danny Nemu wrote for PsyPress:
“The rain in Spain fell heavily on the plane as it landed, and continued in thunderous bursts for the three days of the ICEERS Aya2014 conference in Ibiza. Ben De Loenen opened proceedings by thanking the Beckley Foundation and MAPS, and by outlining the increasingly restrictive pronouncements made on ayahuasca by the International Narcotics Control Board. He also shared his hope that bringing together 700 researchers and practitioners from various lineages and disciplines would generate strategies for self-regulation, so that the authorities need not regulate our favourite beverage from outside.”
Most of the talks and panel discussions from the event are available for viewing on the ICEERS YouTube channel.
There first World Ayahuasca Conference was followed by a second edition held in Acre, remote Brazil in 2016, and the a third conference edition in 2019 in Girona, Spain.
References
World Ayahuasca Conference website.
Nemu, Danny 2014. Aya2014: Joining Worlds for Bottom-up Self-regulation. PsyPress
