Sue Perkins underwent a soul-cleansing ritual with a shaman – using raspberry vodka administered suppository-style in a hot tub at a party.
“He said he was a shaman – he was called John and he was wearing a grass skirt,” begins Sue – naturally dubious in retrospect.
“The hot tub came after a lot of vodka. He said: ‘I can sense you’re unresolved.’
“I was really hammered by this point: ‘Yes John, I am unresolved.’ He said: ‘There are two things I can do in this situation, but I don’t have my eagle feather with me.’
“In many ways, I dodged a bullet.”
The former Bake Off host went along with the ritual, saying: “I don’t wish to be demeaning to other people’s beliefs.”
Shamanic healing is known to use alcohol, traditionally distilled from fermented milk - but for their impromptu 5am the ritual, the pair grabbed the nearest “sterile spirit” – the raspberry-flavored vodka.
The soul experience, to the shaman’s credit, had an immediate effect.
“There was an awakening,” Sue told the Off-Menu podcast. “So in many ways, he achieved the desired effect.”
Though now avoiding hot tubs in general, she adds: “I was not unresolved anymore, I was very resolved, to never be in a foaming hot tub ever again.
“We didn’t keep in touch, he was an absolutely charming man. He’s possibly still shamanising, possibly storming the Capitol building.”
