Peruvian paganism proves fatal for Canadian woman

For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. II Timothy 3:6-7

As reported by Betty Ann Adam of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, February 5, 2015:

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 centre in the rainforest about two hours outside of Puerto Maldonado in southeastern Peru, said her mother, Berdeena Logan.

According to the Canto Luz centre's website, it offers retreats and 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 that brew.

Police have not concluded their investigation.

Berdeena Logan said she and Jennifer's sister, Amy Logan, went to Puerto Maldonado and met with people from the Canto Luz centre who were present during the incident and who are devastated, Berdeena said.

"She had a drink and it was a nicotine-based tea for purging for a spiritual ceremony. She was vomiting, which was to be expected, and then she started convulsing and went unconscious," she said.

The shaman assistants she spoke to said they performed CPR, but they were two hours away from medical help. They used a motorcycle to transport her but she died en route to Puerto Maldonado, Logan said.

"This has never happened to them. They were good people but something terrible, terribly went wrong." An autopsy found Jennifer died from a pulmonary edema.

Berdeena'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. Authorities wanted to keep the body in Peru for a year as physical proof in a murder investigation and then exhume her if necessary, 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. We did what we had to do and we brought her 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 chair of World University Services of Canada, worked to provide scholarships for people in refugee camps and then befriended and mentored them when they arrived in Canada.

She travelled in Canada, Tibet, Thailand, Europe, India and Saudi Arabia. "She had done a lot of things. She had been in India for a couple of years and she had been in ashrams in silent meditation and had taken yoga for several weeks up in the mountains in India," her mother said.

"She was a seeker and a searcher always. She was so committed to making a difference. This offered indigenous plants, you could go in the jungle and (there was) naturopathic healing. But she was a very healthy person. This was just in pursuit of knowledge, natural."

Her father, Fraser Logan said, "She liked to investigate things like that, just had no prejudices, formed her own opinions as she went along."

When I read this article, it reminds me of my favourite episode of the television series Dragnet '67, The LSD Story. Near the end, Joe Friday enters a crash pad and finds two male hippies. One of them is sitting against a wall, and his friend says, "He's been like that all day; he kept saying he wanted to further and further out." Sgt. Friday replies, "He made it; he's dead." (Dum-da-dum-dum)

Unfortunately, this young woman's spiritual quest led her to look for the truth everywhere except the only real source of truth, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6