Ayahuasca

Originating from the ancient shamanic cultures of the Amazon basin, the Quechua people call this most sacred medicine Ayawaska (aya: soul, waska: vine). The primary active ingredients are MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitor) and DMT (dimethyltryptamine). MAOI causes DMT to become orally active by preventing digestive enzymes from breaking it down. Orally active DMT provides a gradual transition into the experience and is sustained for hours, much longer than other methods of administration.

In this article I’ll provide some background on Ayahuasca and relay my personal experience using this medicine so if you’re considering it you will have some helpful guidance. I’ll also report my observations of a format for the ceremonial use of this medicine which works very well and is maximally supportive.

Mysterious Origins

Ayahuasca is not defined as a tea containing MAOI and DMT. Teas containing MAOI and DMT can be created from several plants. Traditional Ayahuasca is made by processing and combining Banisteriopsis caapi, commonly called Ayahuasca or caapi vine, with the leaves of Psychotria viridis, commonly called Chacruna leaves.

Ayahuasca ingredients should be well understood by those who drink it as experiences can vary widely when made with non-traditional plants.

We don’t know exactly how the ancient cultures of the Amazon discovered how to make the Ayahuasca brew. It’s theorized they used the caapi vine to make tea for a time before starting to combine it with other plants. The vine itself certainly has many medicinal properties reported by its users but the odds of successfully combining a DMT containing ingredient are still shocking with over 40,000 species available.

With over 40,000 plant species in the Amazon, the correct combination is one of 799,980,000 possibilities.

Purpose

From a western point-of-view, the most common pursuit of Ayahuasca is for the healing of psychological traumas. The medicine has its own intelligence and is dynamic. It can show many different truths in the most suitable forms of expression for each person. It is gentle but strict. You are guided, loved, and patiently waited upon for realization and healing.

Ayahuasca is the master plant healer of human trauma and teacher of inner truth. Your life will not be the same.

Finding Sustainable Medicine

This medicine is exceedingly difficult to acquire. It may not seem so for the highly motivated but, like anything in demand, it’s being harvested faster than it grows in many places. The vine takes about ten years to mature.

Many South American retreats are charging at least a thousand USD per person, which is extremely cheap for this in my opinion. However, in a developing country, that amount of money acts like a poison to the sacred treatment of these plants. That’s something to be very aware of when selecting a source. Ayahuascaros are commonly over harvesting their sacred sources and resorting to alternative ingredients informed by modern chemistry rather than shamanic wisdom.

Be an intelligent and cautious consumer if you choose to pursue the use of this medicine. Please ensure you partake from a sustainable and reverent treatment of these plants. Not everyone should pursue this but those meant for it will certainly not stop until they receive their education.

The idea of an Ayahuascaro over harvesting and breaching the sustainability threshold of sacred plants for profit is paradoxical and an immediate revocation of shamanic status. All who taste the fruit from such practices have this to forgive.

My Introduction to Ayahuasca

I first learned about Ayahuasca from my best friend. He introduced it to me after my time in the military when I was open to anything that could help me overcome all the pain I was in. The first time I drank the tea was after we spent two days making it over a fire in the middle of Texas on the oldest granite on Earth!

I’ve never visited any retreats and have only ever had medicine we make from sustainable sources not located anywhere in South America. I have a full understanding of every step in how the medicine is made. This is the only way I’m comfortable because I can ensure no harm is done. Each time it’s made, those who are connected to us that have needed it most were given the fruit of much effort without cost.

If you know anyone making medicine in this way, consider yourself extremely blessed to know them and have access to it. Only those who know this medicine understand this.

I am blessed to have experienced this medicine with the full knowledge of how it is made and without harm.

Preparation of Body and Mind

Physical preparation is more or less limited to fasting for most people. After you drink the tea digestion will be impaired by the enzyme inhibitors and you’ll be uncomfortable if you’ve eaten recently. It’s best to avoid food at least 12 hours prior and have plenty of water. Do not combine Ayahuasca with drugs or alcohol.

Mental preparation is likely your chief concern. Everyone comes into Ayahuasca from a different state of consciousness and understanding of Self. What you will experience will be based on a mixture of your intentions coming into the ceremony, the people you drink with, your personal history and lessons needed for your healing.

The best advice I have is to let go of expectations. Be ready to face anything that comes. Be courageous and honorable. Forgive yourself for the wrongs you’ve done and humble yourself to receive wisdom. There really is nothing to do to prepare. Relax into yourself and stay on the LOVE.

You can’t prepare for an unknown journey, yet life itself is an unknown journey. Trade your fears for trust.

Opening Ceremony

Every host (shaman) will administer a ceremony based on their experience and heritage. They can differ vastly. I feel you should have a good support structure during the ceremony. This means you should be able to communicate easily with your host and they should be experienced enough to properly hold space for you and help you with any dilemmas you might be facing and desire assistance with. They should care for you and you should feel loved. Most occasions I’ve sat for medicine have been like a group meditation. Peru is likely very different so speak with people that have experience there if needed.

The space should be very comfortable and loving. The use of incense, candles, soft meditation music, and sage is common. Many ceremonies use traditional songs and bless the space and the vibratory entities that are being healed or purged so that they may not cause harm to others.

As the ceremony is opened everything should feel good. Everyone should voice their intentions and purpose for drinking. Prayers should be said in whatever form desired. Your loving creator should be invited into the ceremony at this time. Then everyone should drink according to a dosage that is appropriate for their purpose. Everyone will sit until the medicine begins to take effect and it is very good to have some kind of calming sound, singing, drumming or the like.

Purging

Drinking Ayahuasca does not mean you will purge in any way but it is a very common process for many. It’s best to hold the medicine down and that is principally achieved by disciplined thought. At some point during your journey you may feel like some negative energy is captured in the stomach and that could immediately trigger a purging. You’ll have full understanding and awareness so don’t be anxious about this process before you sit for your ceremony. Nobody knows what will happen, simply be open to healing in the form it comes.

If you have a parasitic infection Ayahuasca is known to clear that out. In those cases you may experience purging in the form of runny stool. Typically, the amount of vine you must drink to induce a strong anti-parasitic affect is more than most people have available and would be your host’s focus for your dosage and drink mixture.

No matter what happens, remember the next morning you’ll feel the best you’ve ever felt. I think about breakfast.

Going Deeper

Hours later, you’ve either completed a purging process or kept the medicine down and it will start to level off. About 3 to 4 hours into the ceremony everyone should decide if they want to go deeper and drink a second round. This is the time when you can get most of the good work done and dig deep.

Your host, who is holding space for you, should feel your progress and have a conversation with you during this checkup period. This should inform the next most appropriate and supportive action to your healing process. Trust the medicine as most people who feel hesitation are appreciative the next morning for going deeper.

Closing Ceremony

After the sun comes up things should start leveling off and everyone will be feeling exceptional. I’ve never seen anything otherwise. No matter how hard a journey some folks go through the next morning brings a feeling of forgiveness and redemption. Many people even experience a death and rebirth of a kind and are resolved and empowered to become the person they always wanted.

My Lessons

My personal path with this medicine could be summarized by the following stages of growth:

1. Connectedness with Nature
2. Self-Judgement of Wrong Doing, Reconciliation, Death and Rebirth, Forgiveness, Redemption, aNew Beginning
3. Surrender, Bliss, Peace, Contentment, Self-love
4. Vibration, Thought, Negative Entities, Shared-mind, God
5. Holding Space for Others

Reflecting on my path, I can think of a single most important journey to report which changed my closest friend’s life.

The Presence of God

My most beloved and best friend Julie struggled against disempowering self-negative thoughts and suffered many emotional traumas. She saw the changes in me after years of medicine work and wanted to have an experience for herself. I finally organized a ceremony which took months of preparation and patience, finally coming together at the very last minute on the final night of our travels.

My close friend, Henry, honorably held space for me and Julie. Upon opening the ceremony Julie expressed her desire for a connection with God to give her Faith. I thought it courageous of her to ask God for proof to obtain true Faith in Him; to dig deep inside and ask for what you truly need is honorable, even if the need arises from a place of doubt. That is true acknowledgment and a way of healing.

A few hours later, all three of us were going through the thick of it. We all had several purging sessions but afterwards we went deeper and all tapped into a shared-mind experience which we held for several hours. This allowed us to triangulate our conscious attention on the negative thought forms any one of us would experience. Periodic vocalizations from Henry would validate he could see the personal experience I was having. It was like my mind was in a glass room for him to see. These validations fueled me and Julie to keep digging.

We continued to monitor negative thought forms that continuously attempted evasion and tried to distort our intentions and block Love. These forms were trying with considerable force to create physical and mental pain. Group attention turned to me as I was experiencing a barrage of assaults. Suddenly a loving presence entered our space and the negatives gave me room to breath. Julie popped up from her restful meditation and said “God is here isn’t he?”. Henry and I looked at each-other and we knew all three of us felt Him simultaneously and verbally confirmed for Julie. As the night continued, personal interactions between each of us and God carried on. We received an education for hours and hold these lessons to be the foundation of our internal work. These experiences are indescribable but I hope my reporting of these few moments might instill Faith to pursue this connection yourself, with or without medicine.

It is loving that Julie’s intended purpose for her ceremony was answered in a way that her conscious mind was unable to doubt. She experienced a massive healing that night as she obtained personal knowledge of the existence of her Creator and now carries that grain of infinite strength in the core of her being.

We don’t believe what is only in our minds. It is loving that this medicine teaches us in the ways we’ll accept. That is true compassion and forgiveness.

Conclusion

Ayahuasca is a sacred healing medicine that can only be truly appreciated and understood by its practitioners. The value this medicine has to my life can’t be measured. My state of well-being directly lays upon the medicine work I’ve done. It hasn’t been easy, or fast, but the rewards are real and long lasting. My experiences have taught me the truth of creation, shown me proof we’re able to connect with each-other in thought alone, and the existence of God.

Undesirably Necessary Disclaimer: I'm not pretending to be a doctor on the internet and you are ultimately responsible for your own decisions and health. This article is intended to provide a report of my personal experiences and observations so that it may help those who make a willing and independent decision to use this medicine. I'm not attempting to influence people to use Ayahuasca or advocating Ayahuasca as the solution for mental or physical health issues. I can only testify to my personal healing of emotional traumas using this medicine which is not evidence that all users are going to duplicate my results. I'm only providing the valuable guidance I wish I received when I initially committed to this path to those who've made their own decision to pursue a similar one.