Canadian dies after drinking healing tea
Saskatoon • A Saskatoon woman who died in the Peruvian jungle after drinking a nicotine-based tea during a spiritual ceremony was “a seeker” who had travelled extensively on a spiritual quest, her mother said.
Jennifer Joy Logan, 32, died Jan. 17 at a retreat in the rainforest about two hours outside of Puerto Maldonado in southeastern Peru.
According to the Canto Luz’s website, the retreat offers ceremonies using ayahuasca, which Wikipedia describes as “a psychedelic brew made out of Banisteriopsis caapi vine in combination with various plants” and which is used for “divinatory and healing purposes by the native peoples of Amazonian Peru.” Participants purge before consuming the brew.
Ms. Logan’s mother, Berdeena Logan, said she and Jennifer’s sister, Amy, went to Puerto Maldonado and met with people from the Canto Luz centre who were present during the incident. They are devastated, she said.
The shaman assistants she spoke with said they performed CPR, but they were two hours away from medical help. They used a motorcycle to transport her daughter but she died en route to Puerto Maldonado.
“This has never happened to them,” she said. “They were good people but something terrible, terribly went wrong.” An autopsy found Jennifer died from a pulmonary edema.
Berdeena Logan’s nephew, who speaks Spanish, joined her and Amy in Peru for three days. The family had difficulty obtaining permission to bring Jennifer’s remains back to Canada. Because police have not concluded their investigation, authorities wanted to keep the body in Peru for a year and then exhume her if necessary, Ms. Logan said.
“It was a very intense experience … We just had countless hurdles. And then the embassy stepped in at that point and really came through for us so we could bring her ashes home.”
Jennifer graduated from Aden Bowman high school and held a bachelor’s degree in geography and international studies from the University of Winnipeg and a master’s degree in geography from York University.
According to her obituary, she travelled and worked with trafficked women and girls in Nepal, worked on housing issues while attending university and, as chairwoman of World University Services of Canada, worked to provide scholarships for people in refugee camps.
She had travelled in Canada, Tibet, Thailand, Europe, India and Saudi Arabia.
“She was a seeker and a searcher always. She was so committed to making a difference. This [centre] offered indigenous plants; you could go in the jungle and [there was] naturopathic healing. This was just in pursuit of knowledge, natural,” said Ms. Logan.