Speaker:
Alex K. Gearin, Assistant Professor, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, HKUMed
Discussants:
Teresa Kuan, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK
Gordon Mathews, Emeritus Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK
Moderator:
Alvin K. Wong, Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU
Date: Monday, January 19, 2026
Time: 4:00 pm Hong Kong Time
Venue: Room 436, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, HKU
Wonder is naturally elusive. Part thought, part emotion, it unsettles our understanding. While scientists frame “psychedelic wonder” as a universal therapeutic mechanism, the experiences these substances inspire are neither culturally uniform nor universally understood as healing. Drawing on his book Global Ayahuasca (Stanford University Press, 2024), Alex K. Gearin challenges the romanticized view of ayahuasca as simply an Indigenous remedy for modern life. Instead, fieldwork reveals that its wonder is mobilized for diverse ends, from strengthening decolonial identity and facilitating urbanization in the Peruvian Amazon to improving entrepreneurial mastery in metropolitan China. These variations suggest that for many, the mystery of psychedelic wonder lies not in a critical escape from modernity but in a greater mastery over it.
Alex K. Gearin is a medical anthropologist specializing in the intersections of mental health, cultural beliefs, and psychedelic medicine. He serves as Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong.
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