Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Claimed spiritual healing or mediumship Madre de Dios, Peru · 2012

Peru: shaman convicted of homicide after concealing an 18-year-old's death at his ayahuasca retreat

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

shaman operating a commercial ayahuasca retreat center, with ceremonial authority over participants during and after the ritual

Organization

Shimbre Shamanic Center

Spiritual nexus

Nolan was a first-time participant under the sole ceremonial authority of the shaman running the retreat; when he died during the ritual, that same authority was used to hide the death — burying the body, destroying his belongings and lying to his searching mother — rather than to seek help or answer for it.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment
  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · conviction and sentence

    Peru — Madre de Dios regional criminal court. Jose Manuel Pineda Vargas ('Master Mancoluto'), the shaman who led the ayahuasca ceremony at which 18-year-old Kyle Nolan died in August 2012, was arrested along with two accomplices after Peruvian police found the body he had buried and disposed of. He was convicted of homicide and of lying to authorities and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • sole shamanic authority over a first-time participant in an altered state, isolated at a remote jungle retreat center
  • concealment of the death from the victim's family and from police rather than reporting it
  • physical disposal of the body and destruction of belongings to prevent discovery

Primary record

Sources

high quality reporting investigative reporting CNN, "She lost her son to a psychedelic brew. Now she's on a mission," Oct. 24, 2014.

Reports the arrest of the shaman and accomplices, the concealment of Nolan's death and body, and the criminal proceedings against Pineda Vargas.

local newspaper court reporting contemporaneous reporting Press Democrat, contemporaneous report on Kyle Nolan's death at the Shimbre retreat.

Local paper-of-record account of the death, the family's search, and the discovery of the concealed burial.

Related record

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