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I work with a couple of rather novel/unconventional treatments/“medicines” (kambo and ayahuasca). I find myself biting my lip hard at this topic because most fo

I work with a couple of rather novel/unconventional treatments/“medicines” (kambo and ayahuasca). I find myself biting my lip hard at this topic because most folks have never heard of them and demand some kind of research backing the wild anecdotes surrounding them. They’re both incredibly potent and can treat a wide range of maladies, but are very demanding ordeals to actually go through. I’ve come to terms with not giving advice, and tell myself that he/she must want to be healed and they will ask if/when they want it. Often I simply want to bring them up, just to raise awareness, but even that very difficult considering just how “out there” they are (usually getting dismissed or raised eyebrows). Any suggestions for how to talk about these unconventional things without offending sensibilities?

athriren 6y ago
I think close family relations and friends, you should ask if they want advice. For this type of recommendation, I (personally) would want to know the person so I could guess at what their reaction would be. This is also more unconventional than typical, no one ever recommended I take ayahuasca, so for me personally it would be novel enough that it wouldn’t be frustrating to get recommended it by an acquaintance. This is my perspective. I would caution against the mindset in the middle of your paragraph though (“they must want to be healed”). I wanted nothing more to be healed, it’s just after 36 months of being poked and prodded by medical professionals it always struck me as a little haughty that someone else I didn’t know at all would presume to know enough about my situation to think their advice would be useful. But this is just my experience, and I only ever got useful unsolicited advice a couple times. I just think people need to be emotionally in tune with their conversation partners, and if you don’t know them well enough to read them then you probably don’t need to be giving them advice anyway.

athriren 6y ago

I think close family relations and friends, you should ask if they want advice. For this type of recommendation, I (personally) would want to know the person so I could guess at what their reaction would be. This is also more unconventional than typical, no one ever recommended I take ayahuasca, so for me personally it would be novel enough that it wouldn’t be frustrating to get recommended it by an acquaintance. This is my perspective. I would caution against the mindset in the middle of your paragraph though (“they must want to be healed”). I wanted nothing more to be healed, it’s just after 36 months of being poked and prodded by medical professionals it always struck me as a little haughty that someone else I didn’t know at all would presume to know enough about my situation to think their advice would be useful. But this is just my experience, and I only ever got useful unsolicited advice a couple times. I just think people need to be emotionally in tune with their conversation partners, and if you don’t know them well enough to read them then you probably don’t need to be giving them advice anyway.