Luis Eduardo Luna (born 1947 in Florencia, Colombia) is a Colombian anthropologist renowned for his research on the entheogenic brew ayahuasca and its cultural, religious, and neurological aspects.
Early life and education
Luna entered a seminary in Bogotá at age 13 and, at 18, continued his studies in theology and philosophy in Spain, attending monasteries in northern Spain and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He earned a doctorate in 1989 from the Institute of Comparative Religion at Stockholm University and received an honorary doctorate from Saint Lawrence University (New York) in 2000.
Academic career
Luna has held teaching positions, including language instruction at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. He is the director of the Wasiwaska Research Centre, located in Brazil, which focuses on the study of psychointegrator plants, visionary art, and consciousness.
Research focus
Luna’s work concentrates on ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea traditionally used by Indigenous peoples of the Amazon. His investigations address:
- Traditional Indigenous practices and cosmology surrounding ayahuasca use.
- Contemporary syncretic ayahuasca churches, such as Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal.
- Neurological effects of ayahuasca ingestion on the central nervous system.
Publications
Selected works include:
- Vegetalismo: Shamanism Among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon (1986).
- Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (1991), co‑authored with painter Pablo Amaringo.
- Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (2008), co‑authored with Rick Strassman, Slawek Wojtowicz, and Ede Frecska.
Professional affiliations
Luna is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Impact
Through his interdisciplinary approach—combining anthropology, comparative religion, and neuroscience—Luna has contributed significantly to the scholarly understanding of ayahuasca’s role in both Indigenous traditions and modern religious movements.