From fragmentation to communion: Western dis-integration and indigenous ecosophies

Abstract Background and aims In contemporary psychedelic science, integration is a central construct for describing how individuals process psychedelic experiences and translate insights into their lives (Bathje et al., 2022; Smith et al. 2024). Yet this term emerges from Western therapeutic paradigms and may not resonate with Indigenous peoples who have stewarded what has been called “psychedelic medicines” for generations. Starting from the question “Is there integration in Indigenous contexts?”, this article examines why integration is largely a foreign concept among Amazonian Indigenous peoples and what this reveals about different ontologies of self, healing, care and world.

Methods: The analysis draws on a decade of collaborative ethnographic work with Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon, particularly the Yawanawá and Huni Kuin. Methods include collaboration in different initiatives, observation, dieting, ceremonial participation, and dialogues with Indigenous spiritual leaders and non-Indigenous participants, interpreted alongside literature on psychedelic integration, Gregory Bateson's “ecologies of mind,” Félix Guattari's “ecosophy”, and relational-ontological anthropology.

Results: Among the Yawanawá and Huni Kuin there is no emic equivalent to Western integration. Ritual life is organised around community, extended “family” (including more-than-human beings), mesenai (care and respect), dreams, chants, art and embodied practices. Mind, body, spirit, and nature form a communion ecology; imbalance among them causes illness. Indigenous medicines such as ayahuasca ( uni and nixi pae in Yawanawá and Huni Kuin cultural nominations respectively) are teachers, and healing is relational rather than primarily intrapsychic.

Conclusions: Integration is needed mainly in Western contexts that are marked by dualisms and social and ecological disconnection. Rather than exporting integration to Indigenous worlds, psychedelic science should learn from Indigenous relational ontologies, ecosophical configurations, and care practices, developing pluriversal integration frameworks that emphasise responsibility, reparation, embodiment, and ecological reciprocity.