Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the use of 2 South American, and one European, "Power Plants" in Poland and shows how indigenous healing methods are being conceptualized and contextualized (and re-localized) in a given socio-cultural context.

Paper long abstract:

Throughout Europe, accessibility and popularity of "traditional healing methods", including the use of the Power Plants has been boosting during the last decade. Expanding Internet networks, global media, and increasing mobility of people enable circulation of knowledge about the Plants and their usage in local-national, as well as trans-national contexts. In contrast to arguments of globalization of the Plants, this paper shows how indigenous healing methods are being re-localized. This paper analyzes the use of 2 South American, and one European, "Power Plants" (Ayahuasca, San Pedro and Amanita Muscaria) in Poland, and evolves in three sections. First, it focuses on the contextualization and circulation of knowledge about healing methods involving use of the Plants on local/national and trans-national/trans-local levels. Who are the 'healers', what healing methods they apply in Poland, and 'where' do these methods come from? What meaning has the 'origin' of the Plant for its users? Secondly, the paper asks how Power Plants are conceptualized among their users given the multi-sourced knowledge about the Plants. What motives, beliefs and expectations drive them to use the Plants? The focus is on cases when Plants have been used as complementary/replacement to modern medical treatment, including psychotherapy, and contemplates on intersections of the medical/scientific and the local/traditional. The third section reflects on the meaning of 'indigenous' and its` relation to notions such as: locality, continuity, authenticity, nationalism and tradition.