Lily Kay Ross

Lily Kay Ross

Lily Kay Ross abandoned psychedelic research in 2015 to pursue a PhD in Gender Studies, focusing on everyday responses to sexual violence. Her inspiration was the failure of many in the psychedelic community to withhold victim blame following her experience of rape and abuse by a murderous ayahuasca shaman in the Amazon - which you can read about in NY Magazine. Her experience prompted her to explore how well-meaning and intelligent people can get it so wrong. She is also interested in the dominance of traditional gender norms in psychedelic spaces and ideologies, articulated in concepts like the divine feminine and masculine, in light of feminist critiques of these and related constructs.

I Survived Sexual Abuse In The Amazon And Victim Blame At Home

November 20, 2018

The controlled narrative goes something like this: ayahuasca is good, and we need to control how people perceive it because this is a controlled substance we want to see legalized, a medicine we want to see legitimated. And if we have to sacrifice a few women who get themselves raped to keep ayahuasca’s name clean, so be it.