Pepe, the Last Shaman, says, in the old times it would take 10 years to be a shaman: Netflix Doc gets trashed

“The Last Shaman” strives for psychedelia through its schizophrenic aesthetics, which also include overlapping natural and artificial noises, narrated soundbites and traditional music.

So that's one Western review of the Leonardo DiCrapio produced doc on Ayahausca... it's an unsettling interpretation - to pit one Western prognosis with the nonwestern treatment of another diagnosis: depression.

 .. “In the old times it would take you 10 years to be a Shaman” – says Pepe who was forced to leave his village after the Aya-business took over.

 So reading several reviews - the main gripe is the style of the doc (again "schizoid") and then the supposed "last shaman" is

  merely the last one James encounters on his journey.)

https://nonfics.com/the-last-shaman-review-d755f9c3262e/

No - that's not the point of the film! As Pepe shares via google search - Pepe knows the last of the traditional training while the Westernization of Ayahausca healing has corrupted the whole tradition.

So the person who is the subject of the doc was also being "molded" by the documentary maker

, the film involves a willing subject who consents to whatever representation or misrepresentation the filmmaker is trying to convey.

 So the assumption is that the process of the film was itself a commodification of the spiritual training itself. And then people are left considering that his ayahausca and plant cleansing ("dieta") visions were simply "psychosomatic" as one reviewer states.

No, for those willing to investigate, the power of ayahausca is well documented to be a profound psycho-physiological transformation. And so when it is mentioned that the documentary subject had to wean himself of his "depression meds" or else it would be too dangerous - this was referring to Serotonin Syndrome - something any of the reviewers could learn about if they did some research. The MAOI combined with an SSDI could be fatal - and maybe that's why the one person died in the film - during the ayahausca ceremony.

So in the traditional training, as anthropologist Michael Taussig details - requires FIVE doses right in a row - and the subject of the film, despite his 3 month "dieta" fasting on plants - did not take those strong doses that at least I noticed. I'm sure that level of dosage would have been detailed.

A critique of colonialism and anthropology by Michael Tausig discusses ayahuasca.

So the film director's attempt to "recreate" a psychedelic ayahausca trip is then rejected by viewers as being "schizophrenic" when in fact schizophrenia is considered to be from dopamine receptor damage and Ayahausca instead increases the serotonin levels - NOT dopamine! So a rookie error to be sure - but that is the laxity of a film reviewer - they can just trash a piece at willy-nilly. Kind of like how I trashed DeCrapio's global warming doc when he was supposed to have gotten arrested or at least showed up to protest at STanding Rock, for the native indigenous water protection! Since I've been arrested 8 times, I figured DeCaprio could justify taking such a risk - although I certainly would not want to be submitted to a strip cavity search as all the arrested protesters were at Standing Rock. Such is the fascist nature of Western US imperial implosion now that I think it is STANDARD to now do strip cavity searches (at least according to a distance relative of mine who helped doing those searches for previous jail job).

Pepe and James should be honored for the heroic journey they made in the making of this documentary - despite it's flashy presentation. Sure I felt compelled to search the director's name to find out exactly how this film had been made. But the fact is that the film was made in linear time despite the visionary flash backs in the editing - and it is an amazing transformative healing adventure - despite the upper middle class rich background of the whole "spiritual tourism" side of things.

As someone recently commented to me about the suicide of Torgo - the star of the bomb film, "Manos: Hands of Fate" (lifted to cult status by Mystery Science Theater 3000),

Voidisyinyang Voidisyinyang post as many studies as you want, mate. He DIDN"T take painkillers, then dropped acid for weeks and weeks before shooting himself. No amount of studies you post will conflate that with painkillers. Go drop some more acid, my dude. Jesus f*** you sound like Joe Rogan and DMT.

So, the star of Manos, whom I reviewed recently, was the son of a military man, just as James of this doc was also a son of a military man. And so the daughter in the Manos film attributed the suicide of Torgo to both the film being a flop AND the pressure of his military father upbringing. So at least James was able to heal himself. But did the LSD kill Torgo? No - I just think the LSD was not as strong as the Ayahuasca healing that James did in the Last Shaman doc.