Rebekah Senanayake
PhD (C), MSc, BSc (Hons)Anthropologist & Cultural Psychologist
Founder and President, Student Association of Psychedelic InvestigationMy fascination with traditional knowledge began at age 10, when I first heard about the Amazon rainforest from my uncle who was doing work in the jungle. He spoke of different plants that could cure the variants of snake venom, and from that moment on my curiousity was ignited. Many years later, I had the opportunity to visit South America, and quickly booked my first trip to the Amazon. The rest, as they say, is history.
To the desk
Returning from my year in the Amazon, I resumed daily life in the Western world, but something inside me had changed. I observed how my relationships with others and myself had grown stronger, more vulnerable, and more rewarding. My intuition had also grown sharper, and I knew it was time to return to study. Michael Pollan’s infamous book How to change your mind: The science of psychedelics had just been released, and I started to see how I could study the thing that kept my heart beating.
Fast forward a (few) years and I have graduated with my Bachelor of Science (First-class Honours) majoring in Psychology and Cultural Anthropology, Masters in Cross-cultural Psychology and am in the final months of my PhD in Cultural Anthropology. In 2019, I was formally invited to pursue an apprenticeship in traditional knowledge by my Amazon collaborators. I became the first woman apprentice of my maestro. I noticed the enhancing effects of my training in anthropology and psychology in my field work. The world became laced with symbolism and meaning; a perspective that is compatible with Amazonian traditional knowledge.
Expertise
The present day
From the field
Upon arrival, I was immediately curious about the Amazonian traditional knowledge system. Firstly for the potent medicines, secondly the ritual proficency used by expert-level practitioners to navigate these states of consciousness safely, and thirdly the worldview that allowed for such practices to be successfully integrated.
One month in the Amazon was not enough, and I was thirsty for more. I returned home, packed my bags, and returned for a year where I travelled through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, participating in traditional medicine ceremonies with 11 different practitioners from the Bora, Kamentsa, Mestizo, Shipibo-Konibo, and Lamista traditions.
I have spent 27 months in the field to date, cultivating relationships of trust and reciprocity with my collaborators, some of whom I have been working with for the past decade. My apprenticeship has lead me to diet some of the strongest plants in the Amazon jungle, and equipped me with a strong foundation in ritual both practically and theoretically. To synthesise my years of training, I embarked on a doctorate degree requiring a year in the field. As part of my fieldwork, I undertook several dietas with some of the strongest plants in the Amazon jungle which took me to the depths of the Amazon traditional knowledge system, my reality, and the which took me to the depths of the Amazon and beyond the boundaries of myself, and what I understand to be human existence. To integrate my understandings of traditional knowledge, I am writing a 100,000 word thesis which is due for completion in 2025.
My research has been generously supported by Victoria University of Wellington and Education New Zealand.
My areas of expertise are: hallucinogens, traditional knowledge, ontology, ethnobotany, ethnography, and ritual. My training has equipped me with precise quantitative and qualitative analytical skills. I have co-authored peer-review journal articles on indigenous religious belief and ontology, have lectured, been invited on podcasts, and presented my work at academic conferences and music festivals. I also developed a scale to assess phenomenological experiences of ego-dissolution occasioned by classical psychedelics (pending publication).
In 2024, I founded the Student Association of Psychedelic Investigation (SAPI), which I also lead. SAPI is an interdisciplinary research association that investigates altered states of consciousness across cultures, their neurological and physiological effects, and their role in human evolution - past, present, and hypothetical futures.
Read more of my work on my blog; Tales of the Field.
I am passionate about unlocking human potential, and deepening our understanding of the nature of reality. If this sounds like a good fit for you or your organisation, get in touch and let’s see how we can work together for a better world.