What is Ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian plant mixture that is capable of inducing altered states of consciousness, usually lasting between 4 to 8 hours after ingestion. Ranging from mildly stimulating to extremely visionary, ayahuasca is used primarily as a medicine and as a shamanic means of communication, typically in a ceremonial session under the guidance of an experienced drinker.
The term Ayahuasca is derived from the Quechua words “aya ” meaning soul or spirit and “huasca” meaning rope or vine. This is translated as the cord of the dead or the vine of the soul and is considered to be a drink used by the initiated ones to communicate with the world of the spirits. This brew is considered to be the foundation of the magical-spiritual connection of more than 75 ethnic groups of the Upper and Lower Amazonia.
The main ingredient of this jungle tea is a vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, which like the tea itself is also called ayahuasca (which means ‘vine of the soul’ or ‘vine with a soul’). The secondary ingredient is either chacruna (Psychotria viridis) or chagropanga (Diplopterys cabrerana), plants that contain a relatively high amount of the psychedelic substance DMT.
The psychoactive effects of Ayahuasca can be attributed to Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a substance that is produced by our own body and is responsible for our nocturnal dreams. According to the healers Chacruna is in charge of “painting the visions” whereas the cap vine plant is the one teaching beyond those visions.
A series of scientific investigations have been carried out in the last years, which have contributed some important conclusions. Based on these diverse investigations we can affirm the following about the physiological effect of Ayahuasca on the human body: the lack of any hepato-toxicity of this vegetable compound.
The consumption of Ayahuasca within a controlled context shows no side-effects, it is not addictive and it does not produce any withdrawal syndrome, that is to say that people do not show any symptom of abstinence when they stop consuming it.
Concerning the healing process, Ayahuasca is not a miracle cure in the sense that you drink the brew and all your troubles have vanished within a couple of hours. It is a miracle cure though, in the sense that it brings unconscious and seemingly other-worldly processes to surface, which enables you to work with it while the effects last.
Although it contains a psychoactive component, Ayahuasca cannot be considered and condemned as a classic drug of addictive and negative effects. On the contrary, we must ensure that its consumption never happens within a recreational or playful context. The norm of its use places it within a ritual controlled context of sacred, spiritual and therapeutic characteristics that lead us to a process of deep introspection revealing both agreeable and suppressed experiences, for which the use within a recreational, playful or compulsive context is inadmissible.
The vast majority of persons who consume it, indigenous settlers, shamans, healers, psychologists, therapists, drug-addicted patients, spiritual searchers, religious people and interested ones in general, do not consider this plant to be a drug, but a tool for introspection, meditation, therapy, inner cleansing, auto-exploration or a sacrament.
This brew has been used for more than 5,000 years by the shamans of the Amazon as a way to reach amplified states of consciousness.
I am ****** from the Netherlands living in the North part of the Netherlands in a spiritual farmhouse between two bird reservates connected with elements of nature around me. Water, air, earth, fire and the universe, the deer and the gooses. Both my neighbours living 3 km next from here. It is a very sacral and beautiful place. I feel I am here on a chakra point of the world. The power of my high ...Continue Reading
Cosmologist
I use Ayahuasca since about 6 years. I am now 40 years old and Ayahuasca helps me to put my attention in the really important things, like Love, satisfaction and peace in my soul so that I can found my destination in this virtual reality which most of the people think that is real. But in my Ayahuasca journeys I can see the true Reality. I am God and I have the responsibility for everything ...Continue Reading
I can see the true Reality
So I will say what I have to say and then stop, hoping you consider it sufficient. I am now 53 and am aware of a deep spiritual hunger which has been partially but not completely fulfilled by my spiritual experience so far. Here is a brief history of my spiritual practice and experience to date: 1) From childhood to about 18, regular attendance at a methodist church. This did very little (actually nothing) to ...Continue Reading
Being eternal
Through divine grace ayahuasca is growing on earth as a gift to humanity, to assist in our personal & collective healing. Via natural law we are on a journey of karmic clearing, & are ultimately destined to awaken to the truth of All One Love. In my first meeting with Ayahuasca she whispered; “I am your destiny. In this life you incarnated to work with me.” For 8 yrs I have been devoted to the healing’s & ...Continue Reading
Madre ayahuasca is blessed sacrament
June 16, 2012 “Wake up now! “A voice said to me, after living through a major crisis at work, which had waves of effect on my family. Well, now, I thank God for my falls, because I have learned a lot from them, and was led to receive the tea of inner prayer. As I lost all sense of time and space during my first work with Ayahuasca, I perceived that Gaia, the spiritual mother, ...Continue Reading
Divine Being present
When I drank the medicine the first time and all the times after that my intention was to “re find myself” and what I was “shown” was as you say beauty, strength, endless caring love and oneness with all there is. It showed me Life, Death and how all is connected, there is no separation, there are infinite levels, enchanting wonderment and a magnificence that cannot be put in words. I was shown the Halls ...Continue Reading
From the Heart
My spiritual journey is a simple one…I use the plant as a teacher….. How this has opened my heart is and allowed me to see inside of myself as well as the whole universe is absolutely incredible. My life’s work has just begun,ayahuasca is not the answer just the teacher. My intent is a righteous one for knowledge , harmony, and love. It truly is an incredible tool.….not only has it helped me on a ...Continue Reading
Righteous one for knowledge
Ayahuasca is a Central and crucial sacrament in my spiritual life. I have quit drugs, alcohol and smoking with this as a medicine and sacrament and with its guidance. I have grown in consciousness, health, kindness and connection through my spiritual practice connected with ayahuasca. I have found and built community that leads to healing, consciousness, connection and positive growth. I see this as a sacred, awesome, intense spiritual medicine and most correctly integrated in ...Continue Reading
I have quit drugs, alcohol and smoking
The first time I drank the medicine was 2006 in London, and have been in many circles since then. The second time I drank I became fully aware of God and the truth, my divine path and what I was placed on Earth to do, and that it is where you spend eternity that really matters. The first and only time I purged all evil from my system was the second time I drank. Since ...Continue Reading
I became fully aware of God and the truth
First of all, I thank you for allowing me to send you my statement of intent in this manner. For me the use of Ayahuasca is a profound experience and it is with the greatest respect for this divine force that I undertake this endeavor. I came across Ayahuasca almost unintentionally. A friend of mine who have ingested the brew before had spoken to me about the powers of Ayahuasca and suggested that I attended ...Continue Reading
Almost unintentionally
My efforts are: to create freedom of the mind, the body and the soul. I am what I am. I am very glad I found you. Thank you!!!!!!!! Note: I have enhanced existentialism for a long time (dressed in black) With the coming of the house music (I tell you this plain, it went into white.) For me, when I give my sessions, with a full respect, it is not necessary to dress in white. The most ...Continue Reading
I am what I am
A brief history of “my story,” though this story of the small self is illusory and not our higher Self, which is God, then I shall begin. When I was in my 20’s in college in the Midwest, I was introduced to the peyote medicine through reading the then popular Carlos Castaneda series of books. This drastically changed my secular outlook in life, which eventually lead me to 3 years living at Satchitananda Ashram (yogaville) ...Continue Reading
Buddhist Vipassana
I write this letter to advise I have been on a spiritual journey for over 30 years. First I started studying for the priest hood but found only emptiness. Then start doing yoga and meditation for the last 20 years. Over the past ten years I have worked with several Masters to bring up Kundalini and feel I am making strong progress. My reason for trying Ayahusca is to awaken to a Higher State of ...Continue Reading
Light and Love
I was raised Roman Catholic but over the years became more disillusioned with organized religion and especially Christianity. It seems more wrong has been done over the years in the name of God than right. Such atrocities have sickened me and moved me away from organized practice which forced me to develop my own way of communicating with GOD. This process started years ago with meditation which I still practice regularly, but I felt meditation ...Continue Reading
Would like to use the Ayahuasca to blow that door wide open
I have been helping people with mental illness incorporate back into society and live with depression since 1991. I have helped drug addicts as well as homeless people, and dual-diagnose to name a few. My work had been very nerve racking, upsetting and disappointing at times to the point where I could not compete with the pharmeseuticals anylonger. The individauls would almost always relapse into seclusion and detach from being a productive, responsible member of ...Continue Reading
I read everything about Ayahuasca
É com imenso prazer que começo a escrever sobre o meu contato com a Ayahuasca. Fazem cerca de um ano e oito meses que tive minha primeira experiência com essa bebida “mágica”. Há muito vinha em busca de um contato mais imanente e ao mesmo tempo transcendente com o meu Eu interior e ainda sim estabelecer um contato mais intimo com o Universo. A minha busca por um estado de relaxamento profundo, estado alterado de ...Continue Reading
Minha primeira experiência com essa bebida “mágica”
I first drank ayahuasca in February 2008 and it changed my life. I got to experience god love energy in a way that unified my experience of myself. I had felt that god and love had long since abandoned me so the experience of feeling it within myself was the most redeeming experience ever. As I say on my webpage…that my parents gave my body life but the shamans who provided the setting and energetics ...Continue Reading
Unified my experience of myself
“The first time I took the tea was for the celebration of Easter day. We were a group of 33 people. Even if I practice meditation regularly, I´d have rarely felt love as strong as I felt it with the influence of the tea. I discovered the importance of the group (I have a strong individuality) in helping me to feel God inside me and though every people. I am an artist painter and musician ...Continue Reading
I am an artist painter and musician