During the Map the System Competition at Johns Hopkins University, Pukar Lund, alongside teammates Samarth Sethi, Annie Yuan, Unnati Jian, and Anna Kim, explored a growing issue within the global psychedelic wellness industry: what happens to Indigenous communities when their land, cultural practices, and traditional knowledge become the foundation of a rapidly expanding commercial market?
Their presentation, From Extraction to Regeneration: Reconfiguring the Psychedelic Wellness Economy in the Peruvian Amazon, examined how the increasing global interest in psychedelic healing has created systems that often extract economic, cultural, and ecological value from Indigenous communities without returning meaningful control or long-term benefit to them. The team argued that while outside organizations, retreat operators, and researchers continue to profit from the industry, Indigenous communities are frequently left without decision-making power over the practices and resources that originated within their own cultures.
What made the presentation especially compelling was its focus on the deeper structural and cultural forces driving the problem. Pukar explained that the issue is not solely financial, although economic inequality remains a major component. At the center of the system is a shift in perception: Indigenous healing practices are increasingly reframed as consumable wellness products rather than relational, community-centered traditions rooted in culture, spirituality, and reciprocity. Once these practices become commodified for outside consumption, extraction becomes normalized within the system itself. The team demonstrated how this reframing reinforces cycles of exploitation while eroding Indigenous sovereignty over both land and knowledge.
The presentation consistently emphasized that meaningful change requires moving beyond awareness and toward structural accountability. Rather than offering broad or abstract solutions, the team proposed a concrete framework centered on Indigenous-led ownership and governance. They argued that any psychedelic retreat, research initiative, or commercialization effort should include revenue-sharing structures and decision-making power that remain within the communities whose knowledge and land make the industry possible in the first place. Their next steps involve working directly with Indigenous leaders and ethical stakeholders to co-develop governance models that translate their systems analysis into community-led action.
What stayed with me most from Pukar’s presentation was the clarity and intentionality of the framework he brought to the discussion. He described the ayahuasca paradigm in the Amazon as “a beautiful example of how interdisciplinary collaboration can help society and the globe, when done in a way that is NOT extractive.” The emphasis on that final phrase felt central to the team’s message. Their work challenged the audience to reconsider what ethical collaboration truly looks like and reinforced the idea that sustainability, healing, and innovation cannot exist without reciprocity, shared power, and respect for the communities at the center of the system.
Special thanks to Mahima Singh for sharing insights that helped shape this article.
