Catherine Björksten, author of You Are Loved: Essential Spirit Guides And Guardians, believes many are too eager to “drink the kool aid” of shamanism: “A lot of clients don’t see what someone more trained would.” Traditionally, she adds, “You’d know the person holding space for you.” Without this careful guidance, any sort of shamanic ritual can be “dangerous”, especially if the person is already in a vulnerable moment in their life.

The damage can be financial (a shamanic plant ceremony can range from £150 to £1,000 a night in the UK), emotional, mental and long-lasting. “A practitioner who doesn’t know what they’re doing is like a person firing a gun blindfolded,” says Elsey. One woman, whose shaman offered sexual “therapy” after she’d signed up for ayahuasca to heal her chronic fatigue (she declined), tells me she subsequently suffered a six-month mental health crisis requiring counselling: “That this is happening in the UK without any consequences – with a man like this taking people’s money and fucking with their heads – is awful.”

So how to experience shamanism safely? The best protection is your due diligence. “Ask them where and when they trained, in what, and for how long,” says Elsey. “Ask everything you’d ask anyone about to do serious work on you.” The Sacred Trust has a directory of its graduates, who, says Buxton, “have had to jump through various hoops” to prove their track record, including providing 50 named case studies, and at least three whose malady dramatically improved.

Given society’s increased awareness around mental wellbeing in recent years, the rise of spiritual questing in the UK is not surprising. Shamanism in its true, traditional form has been tried and tested over millennia, and, if done properly, is believed to be an effective form of healing. Ultimately, it’s about doing your homework and asking around for credible practitioners. “My first three shamans were useless, then I found a good one and was able to put myself back together,” says Elsey. “You have to find the gold.”

Images: Getty

“The ayahuasca blew me to pieces”: what happens when the search for spirituality goes wrong?