Filmmaker and musician Metta Beshay approaches psychoactive plants from a citizen scientist perspective, with a strong interest in ethnobotany, history, culture, and how people actually use these plants.
After spending time with Shipibo communities in the Peruvian Amazon, Beshay joined Sam Believ on the Ayahuasca Podcast to discuss ayahuasca tourism, indigenous culture, icaros, jungle life, and the modern presentation of ancient traditions.
From YouTube Experiments to Ethnobotany
Beshay’s path into ethnobotany began through videos about unusual substances. After one video about legal highs attracted millions of views, he faced a choice: become known primarily for drug content or move toward the cultural and historical questions that had always interested him.
He chose ethnobotany. Inspired by explorers and researchers such as Richard Evans Schultes, he became fascinated by the relationships between plants and the cultures that have used them for generations. That interest eventually brought him to the Amazon.
Looking Beyond the “Gringo Experience”
One of Beshay’s strongest impressions was the difference between the image of indigenous Amazonian life presented to tourists and ordinary daily reality. He encountered people who might wear traditional clothing for visitors while also using smartphones and participating fully in the modern world.
Rather than seeing this as a contradiction, he became interested in how indigenous identity is packaged for tourism. He wanted to understand people as they actually lived rather than receive a staged version designed around foreign expectations.
He was equally fascinated by relationships between neighboring tribes. Different communities have their own stereotypes, rivalries, histories, and traditions. From the outside, Amazonian cultures can easily be treated as one category, but his experience revealed a far more complicated social landscape.
What Icaros Really Mean
As a musician, Beshay was particularly interested in icaros, the ceremonial songs associated with Shipibo ayahuasca traditions. At first, he assumed an icaro was simply a traditional song that could be learned like any other piece of music.
Over time, he came to understand it differently. In the tradition he encountered, an icaro could emerge in response to a particular person, ceremony, or experience. Different curanderos also had distinct musical approaches rather than following one universal scale or structure.
He was told that icaros can function as tools within the ceremonial worldview, helping guide someone away from difficult states or assisting with spiritual cleansing. Sam contrasted this with Colombian traditions, where icaros may appear at specific points in ceremony while guitars, flutes, and more structured medicine songs are used at other times.
Peruvian and Colombian Ayahuasca Traditions
The conversation also highlighted how misleading it can be to speak about a single “traditional ayahuasca ceremony.” Practices vary considerably between regions and indigenous groups.
In the Shipibo environment Beshay visited, plant diets and icaros were important elements. Sam described Colombian traditions as placing greater emphasis on purges, with different plants used for different purposes. The plants combined with the ayahuasca vine can also differ between Peru and Colombia.
Even the role of ayahuasca in everyday life may vary. Beshay described a family ceremony held before a young man traveled abroad for the first time. It was not presented as an intensive healing retreat, but as a meaningful family experience connected to an important life event.
The Jungle Without the Romantic Filter
The Amazon itself also challenged Beshay’s expectations. Popular culture often presents the jungle as a beautiful world of adventure and biodiversity. He found that description accurate—but incomplete.
Extreme rain, intense heat, insects, and especially mosquitoes can make daily life physically exhausting for someone who is not accustomed to the environment. Despite describing the jungle as uncomfortable and difficult, he remained fascinated by it and planned to return.
That contradiction captures much of his approach: appreciating the Amazon without romanticizing it.
Culture Cannot Be Learned in a Weekend
Perhaps the broader lesson from Beshay’s journey concerns cultural context. A visitor can learn plant names, participate in ceremonies, and study traditional practices, but that does not mean they fully understand the worldview surrounding them.
He compared it to moving into someone else’s hometown. Even after years, an outsider may understand only a fraction of the relationships, stories, assumptions, and cultural references that locals absorbed while growing up.
This becomes particularly important when outsiders quickly begin presenting themselves as shamans or authorities on Amazonian traditions. Both Beshay and Sam emphasized the depth of knowledge carried by people raised around these practices.
Ayahuasca tourism can create meaningful cultural exchange and bring economic opportunities to indigenous communities, but it can also encourage simplified or commercialized versions of traditions. Looking beyond the spectacle requires curiosity, humility, and a willingness to accept that the Amazon is far more complex than the experience packaged for visitors.
Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5g1Ps0xzviAiqr0TMs4ca9?si=a22d6d1759b24ff8