Horticultural Society exposed as front for ayahuasca ceremonies, committee insists minutes ‘strictly for members’
For eleven years the Haddenham & District Horticultural Society has presented itself, in its own newsletter, as “a friendly space for people who enjoy soil.” A four-month undercover investigation by this newspaper can now reveal that the Society's monthly “Advanced Composting Workshop” is, in fact, a shamanic ayahuasca ceremony, conducted in the scout hut, regularly attended by upward of twenty-two members, at least three of whom sit on the parish council.
The evening reportedly proceeds exactly as advertised on the agenda circulated by email: “AOB, tea, and Brenda's flapjacks,” before moving, at approximately 8:15pm, into what one attendee described as “quite a serious amount of drumming.” The Society's own minutes, seen by this newspaper, list the transition simply as “Item 6: Spiritual Business,” followed by “Item 7: Car Parking (unchanged).”
Members reportedly remove their clothing for the ceremony itself, a requirement the Society's constitution addresses only as “appropriate ceremonial dress, see appendix,” the appendix in question being, per a copy obtained by the Herald, entirely blank. Several attendees, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the resulting state, in their own words, as “tripping absolute balls,” while stressing that a designated non-drinking, non-drumming “sober committee member” remains present throughout, “for insurance purposes, and to watch the urn.”
“It's been genuinely life-changing,” said one long-standing member, seventy-four, who asked to be identified only as a “keen grower.” “I've made peace with my father, I've made peace with the slugs, and I've made peace with the fact that the car park at the Parkway is never getting any bigger. You come out of it with real clarity. Also Brenda's flapjacks are much better than people give her credit for.”
The Society's chair, reached by telephone, declined to confirm or deny any of the Herald's findings, stating only that the Society “remains a registered charity in good standing,” that “what happens after the raffle is a private matter for members,” and that the newspaper could expect to hear from the Society's solicitor, who, the chair confirmed, is also a member. The raffle, it was stressed twice, would be going ahead regardless.
A rival group, the Haddenham Alternative Growers, has applied to join the Society on four separate occasions and been rejected each time, ostensibly over “pot size concerns.” Its founder described the Horticultural Society as “a clique,” and said he had “always suspected Item 6 was something,” without, he admitted, ever quite working out what.
This reporter attended two sessions in the course of researching this article, in the interests of thoroughness. The Herald is not able to confirm or deny whether tea was accepted, on the advice of the paper's solicitor, who is not a member of the Society, and who has asked that this be stated clearly and often.