This Week Behind the Paywall

Berlin is a sinners’ city. But what does the future of sin look like?

VICE writer Megan Wallace shrugged off a hangover hard-earned in a techno sex club the night before, to drop in at this year’s SXTech Festival and Conference. Held in the former headquarters of East Germany’s Communist government, the event gave us a decent glimpse of how sex and tech might combine to power us into the future. Megan met with sexbot salesmen desperate to pass off their wares as “emotional support devices,” the designer of an artisanal waterproof blanket for people who squirt, and lots of weird, annoying pornstar stans. 

Given she put herself through all that while in the throes of a throbbing katzenjammer, there’s a strong moral argument that you have an obligation to read her story.

This Peruvian Shaman Popstar Is Accused of Sexual Abuse and Leading a ‘Cult’

Writer Mattha Busby is really carving out a strange niche, one that could only exist in today’s colossally deranged and absurd world. He is fast becoming VICE’s resident ‘Shamanhunter,’ with a growing portfolio of stories that expose the most damaging and lurid transgressions of charismatic charlatans who promise their followers transcendence and peace, but deliver chaos, mental illness, and sexual abuse.

The latest rogue to stumble into Mattha’s crosshairs is Roger Bardales, a Peruvian ayahuasca shaman accused by multiple women interviewed by VICE of manipulative impropriety. Simply put, Bardales’ operation is giving off big “cult” vibes (their words, not ours) and in many ways it’s a tale as old as time: man abuses power and spirituality to gain money and sex.

But there is a fascinating hypermodern dynamic at play here also, one best summed up by the following paragraph, taken from the article, which also includes the word “dynamic”:

“What many Westerners fail to grasp is that, in the Amazon, being a shaman hasn’t always been an honorable profession. Historically, many shamans have eked out at least part of their living by getting involved in feuds, and there can be darker aspects to the practice: some have told anthropologists that they practice brujeria, otherwise known as black magic. The uptick in affluent Western interest in ayahuasca has created an interesting dynamic: today, a global bourgeois class of frequent ayahuasca drinkers are throwing millions of dollars at these formerly marginalized men, who are now earning far more than anyone in their villages could ever hope to.”

It’s a great story, so why not…

Thanks for reading,

Kevin Lee Kharas
Editor, VICE magazine