Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jun 2013
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Adrian Chamberlain

PSYCHEDELIC TALE TAKES CENTRE STAGE

What: T.J. Dawe's Medicine

When: Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. (also tonight at the Nanaimo Art 
Gallery, 150 Commercial St.)

Where: Metro Studio, 1411 Quadra St.

Tickets: $20 advance ($25 door) www.eventbrite.ca

For Vancouver actor/writer T.J. Dawe, it's been one long, strange trip indeed.

The University of Victoria theatre grad brings his latest one-man 
show, Medicine, to the Metro Studio this weekend. The 
autobiographical piece details his experiences with a psychedelic 
concoction known as ayahuasca.

Dawe took ayahuasca twice during a 2011 retreat near Victoria. 
Traditionally, the drug has been used by the natives of South America 
to induce trances for spiritual and religious purposes. The retreat 
was led by Vancouver physician and writer Gabor Mate, who specializes 
in the treatment of addictions.

At the time, Mate used ayahuasca in liquid form as part of a 
therapeutic treatment to help addicts and others. He stopped 
dispensing the drug in Canada in November 2011 after Health Canada 
threatened to pursue criminal prosecution.

In Medicine, Dawe tells of meeting Mate following one of his theatre 
performances and subsequently attending his retreat in March 2011. 
The performer said he was interested in trying ayahuasca as therapy 
to deal with feelings of emotional and spiritual alienation.

"I had chronic feelings of separateness from others, even people I'm 
close to," Dawe said from Vancouver this week.

During the retreat, he and other participants spent five days in a 
yurt in a farming area on the outskirts of Victoria. After a group 
therapy session, Dawe drank ayahuasca for the first time. The results 
were disappointing. He belched frequently, experienced dry heaves and 
felt more cut off from society than ever.

"It was one of the worst experiences of my life," he said.

Dawe tried ayahuasca again two days later - and the results were positive.

"It was," he said, "one of the most transcendent, cathartic 
experiences I've ever had."

Under the drug's influence, Dawe says he relived childhood 
experiences - including a traumatic event that occurred when he was 
three years old (he asked it not be revealed so as not to ruin the 
surprise element of his show).

Ayahuasca-induced revelations led to a change in his personality. 
Dawe said he has gone from being a solo artist who tended to avoid 
the company of others to being a more outgoing person who seeks 
collaborative theatre projects. These include a stage show based on 
the website PostSecret and a film adaptation of a play he co-wrote. 
(The latter, starring Daniel Radcliffe, is titled The F Word and is 
directed by Michael Dowse, who also directed FUBAR).

Dawe said after his ayahuasca experience he also discontinued his 
habit of eating marijuana cookies.

"I didn't need to; I felt so good and so present and so much a part 
of things," he said.

The Victoria performances of Medicine are fundraisers for the 
Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies Canada. 
Victoria's Philippe Lucas, a board member of MAPS Canada, will join 
Dawe on Friday night for a panel discussion following the show.

Lucas is a researcher with the Centre for Addictions Research of 
B.C., based at the University of Victoria. He contributed to the 
paper Ayahuasca-Assisted Therapy for Addiction: Results from a 
Preliminary Observational Study in Canada, published online recently 
by the journal Current Drug Abuse Reviews.

The paper is an observational study of people in an unnamed First 
Nations community living on B.C.'s coastal mainland. They took 
ayahuasca as part of therapy for "problematic substance abuse and 
stress." The paper concludes the conditions of those who undertook 
the therapy improved.

Lucas said in an interview the study's authors noted a "significant 
reduction" in the use of cocaine, alcohol and tobacco following 
ayahuasca therapy.

He said ayahuasca helps participants delve into the roots of 
addiction, which often are linked to past sexual, psychological or 
physical trauma.

Dawe, meanwhile, hasn't ruled out the possibly of taking more 
ayahuasca in the future for therapeutic purposes.

"I'm quite sure there will be a day when I feel the need to do more 
exploring of that kind," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom