Scientific Name : banisteriopsis caapi
Common Names in the Amazon: ayahuasca; ayahuasca negro; ayahuasca blanco; ayahuasca trueno, cielo ayahuasca; yagé; bejuco; caapi; nucnu huasca; shimbaya huasca; ayawasca; nishi; oni; népe; xono; datém; kamarampi; pindé; natema; iona; mii; nixi; shillinto; nepi.

Over 70 different indigenous tribes in the Amazon Rainforest possess a detailed common knowledge of ayahuasca and its use. This number becomes even more impressive when one considers the fact that many of these tribes live thousands of miles apart and would appear to have never had contact with each other. Within the philosophy of each tribe, one point remains consistent through them all, which is that they originally learned about ayahuasca and the science of plant spirit medicine from the plants themselves.

Both the plant and the medicine prepared from it are called ‘ayahuasca’

An old Ayahuasca vine reaches for the Canopy

What is Ayahuasca?
The word “Ayahuasca” refers to a medicinal brew with the main ingredient being the ayahuasca vine (banisteriopsis caapi). The vine is cooked, usually in combination with a variety of other admixture plants, to produce a brown liquid that is consumed in healing ceremonies led by Amazon healers, called ayahuasqueros, (curanderos). The effects of the brew vary greatly depending on which admixture plants are used in its preparation and how the curandero runs the healing ceremony.

The admixture plants most often used are the leaves of chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and yagé; also known as chalipanga, chagraponga, and huambisa (Diplopterys cabrerana). Ayahuasca is known and used throughout Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, and western Brazil. The use of ayahuasca is rapidly gaining awareness and acceptance throughout the world thanks to retreat programs and organized religious movements such as Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal (UDV), who recently won a supreme court decision for the right of members to use the sacred medicine in ceremonies in the United States.

Ayahuasca has been used in the Peruvian Amazon for millenia, long before the Spanish came to Peru, before the Incan Empire was formed, before history. The oldest known object related to the use of ayahuasca is a ceremonial cup which dates to a culture that ended in the year 50 A.D. Hewn out of stone with engraved ornamentation, it was discovered in Ecuador and currently rests at the Ethnological Museum of the Central University (Quito, Ecuador). In the Peruvian Amazon, its use dates back much further.

The medicine usually contains both beta-carboline and tryptamine alkaloids.  However, some indigenous Amazonian cultures, like the Yahua, prepare their ceremonial brew using only the ayahuasca vine. The ayahuasca vine contains the beta-carbolines (harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine).  Harmine and harmaline are visionary at high levels, but at a modest dosage typically produce mainly tranquility and nausea.  Tetrahydroharmine is present in significant levels in ayahuasca, which may be responsible for some of its more profound effects.

The ratio of the harmala alkaloids in the ayahuasca vine varies greatly from one geographical area to another. Even though all ayahuasca vines are botanically classified as Banisteriopsis caapi, the curanderos classify them further, in reference to their effects. An example is cielo ayahuasca, which means sky or heaven ayahuasca, implying that its effect is of bringing one to celestial realms. Negra ayahuasca, or black ayahuasca, would be used to work specifically with black magic, and so on…

Harmala alkaloids have an the unique effect of temporarily reducing levels of monoamine oxidase in the body. Monoamine oxidase is an enzyme that normally breaks down tryptamine alkaloids, among others. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) thus make tryptamines orally active. Therefore, the ayahuasca plays an essential role in the brew, opening the door for a host of powerful alkoloids to reach the brain before eventually being broken down by other means.

The principal tryptamine found in ayahuasca is DiMethyltryptamine, or DMT. This naturally-occurring biochemical substance is secreted by the human brain in the pineal gland, especially when dreaming.  Rick Strassman, author of ‘DMT Spirit Molecule’ found that 49 days into the development of the human embryo, the pineal gland produces a much larger amount of DiMethyltriptamine than normal.  The only other time this occurs is at the moment of our death.  Therefore, Strassman concludes that the production of DMT is a chemical expression of a spiritual event, namely the entering and exiting of the spirit from the physical body.  DiMethyltriptamine can be found in countless plant and animal species throuhout the world.  It can produce very powerful visionary effects when smoked in its pure form or taken orally in Ayahuasca or with another MAOI.

While some scientists might describe the Ayahuasca experience as merely an oral DMT experience activated by a beta carboline MAO inhibitor, this description is not accurate, for the healing processes at work within the medicine are far more complex, unquestionably due to the ayahuasca vine which is responsible for the transformative power of the Ayahuasca experience. One could easily point to the name of the medicine to know that it is the vine that gives the brew its power, and this idea is supported by nearly every culture that uses ayahuasca in the Amazon Rainforest.  Another aspect of ayahuasca’s effects that is often overlooked is the role of the curandero, who uses his/her experience with the sacred medicine to increase, decrease, and guide the visionary effects.

Here is a quote from Richard Evans Shultes, one of the earliest pioneers in ayahuasca research, describing merely the effects of the vine alone:
“To this day, the natives of the north-west Amazon in Brazil and Colombia use the Banisteriopsis drink for prophetic and divinatory purposes and also to fortify the bravery of male adolescents about to undergo the severely painful yurupari ceremony for initiation into manhood. The narcosis amongst these peoples, with whom I have taken caapi on many occasions, is usually pleasant, characterized by visual hallucinations in color, which initially is very often a shade of blue or purple. In excessive doses, it is said to bring on frighteningly nightmarish visions and a feeling of extremely reckless abandon, although consciousness is not lost nor is use of the limbs unduly affected”.

EFFECTS OF AYAHUASCA
For millenia, a science of healing has been evolving in the Amazon, passed on orally from generation to generation, and through the plants themselves. The sacred medicine is primarily used to heal, and patients often feel the following effects:

HEALING THE BODY
Nearly everyone describes a physical cleansing or purification process, using involving vomiting or purging. Another name for the brew is ‘la purga’ because of its powerful purgative effects. It is not necessary to throw up, however, and the curandero rarely throws up when leading a ceremony.

HEALING THE MIND
It is not uncommon to experience a regression back to the situation or source of a problem or trauma. To relive the experience is to gain new understanding and insights enabling resolution or closure. Dream-like scenes where personal messages from spirits are received cause ceremony participants re-evaluate on their life course with a deeper understanding of why they are here, and what it is they need to do to fulfill their purpose.

HEALING THE SOUL
Most people who experience Ayahuasca report some sort of spiritual experience. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to describe the spiritual effects due to the lack of spirit in our language. Western culture is simply ignorant of the science of spirit that is still practiced today in the Amazon Rainforest.

The quintessential Ayahuasca experience cannot be fully realized outside the natural and cultural environment of the Amazon.  The reason is simple… all the inherently natural organic and cultural links are present. Here the spiritual connection between the plants and human culture which brought the unique brew into existence is strongest and most profound. That the Amazonian plants exist in a spiritual dimension in their natural habitat is evident to those who have experienced ayahuasca both in and out of the Amazon rainforest.  This is not to say, of course, that highly beneficial personal results cannot be achieved using Ayahuasca in other areas of the world.

don Lucho healing a patient in an ayahuasca ceremony

The curandero then pours him/herself a cup of the sacred medicine. The curanderos that work with the Ayahuasca Foundation have each drank ayahuasca over 4,000 times. Their experience with the spiritual dimension is so extensive, yet they still maintain a student’s humility. After everyone has drank their cups of ayahuasca, there is usually a brief time of silence as everyone waits for the effects to set in.

The ceremony begins when the lights are extinguished and the curandero starts to sing.  The songs are an important part of ayahuasca ceremonies, as they are the method by which curanderos communicate with the spirits, asking them for help in healing the patients.  Ayahuasca cleans out the system of all toxins, and while it may seem unpleasant to vomit, and while it is not necessary for each person to throw up, it is accepted as positive.  The beginning of a ceremony is often an unsettling time, as people often purge themselves physically, and move from one dimension to another.

The healing songs sung by curanderos are called ‘icaros.’  Each icaro has a specific purpose and they play an intricate role in the healing process. Curanderos often sing the same icaros to open every ceremony. They immediately create an environment of compassion and love. The curandero sings throughout the ceremony as the patients navigate their own visions in the spiritual dimensions.  The singing is a way for the curanderos to hold space for the patients to go further in their visions and the curanderos can raise and lower the visions to further assist this process.

Listen to an icaro: don Lucho Icaro – doña Othelia Icaro – don Enrique Icaro

The visions ceremony participants have often become very vivid and dreamlike. Sometimes more than one person shares the same vision. It is within this visionary dream state that the curandero communicates with spirits and performs healings.  It is also how everyone learns from the spirits anything from healing their afflictions, making changes in their lifestyle, altering their perspective on past traumas, preparing plant remedies, understanding their destinies, to seeing the past or future or visiting other planets and exploring the universe.

Eventually, the curandero will begin doing healings for the patients.  There are many different styles of healings done in the ceremonies, but usually they involve sitting across from the patient and singing an icaro specific to that patient and his/her affliction. Sometimes, people have pain bothering them right at that moment and the curandero will address that, using the hands to pull negative energy from a part of the body and blowing it away with a quick breath. The breath and the hands, along with mapachos and the chakapa, are the tools of the curandero.

Mapachos are cigarettes used during ceremonies to soplay a patient with smoke. This process uses the breath, strengthened with tobacco smoke, to cleanse the spirit of the patient. It is also used to cleanse a space or a room, the chacapa, the drinking cup, or the brew itself.

A chacapa is a tool made from binding dried leaves from a plant of the same name. It resembles a small broom, and simulates the cleansing experience with physical sensation. The curandero taps the body of each participant lightly with the chakapa, dusting off their spiritual bodies, removing anything that may have clung to them. The chakapa is also used to enhance the rhythm and dynamics of the icaros.

The ceremony ends with an icaro to close the healing circle.  The curandero makes sure that the patients are protected so that they can leave the ceremony without any spiritual vulnerability.  Once the ceremony has ended, the lights are lit and a brief discussion takes place before people leave to go to sleep.

The first three ceremonies are typically cleanses of the three levels of self. Each ceremony goes deeper and deeper, cleansing from the outside in. The belief is that while we can see our physical bodies, we also possess an emotional body and a spiritual body. Our emotional body, when healthy, allows us to feel beyond our physical body, and a healthy spiritual body allows us to feel even further beyond that. To begin healing all of these bodies, we must first clean them thoroughly. Wounds must be clean to heal. Otherwise, even a small cut can turn into a dangerous ailment.

The physical self is usually cleansed in the first ceremony. It is necessary to purge the physical body in order to cleanse the deeper levels. Vomiting once or several times and sometimes diarrhea are common effects. Some people have intense visions during their first ceremony, but most receive only fleeting glimpses, patterns, and colored lights. Some people experience no visionary effects at all the first time they drink ayahuasca, but feel tremendous connections to the spiritual dimension.

The willingness to let go becomes a necessity, at many levels. From a physical point of view, one must be willing to expel the toxins that have accumulated in the body. For more healing to take place, one needs to be willing to let go of emotional attachments, feelings of guilt or resentment, everything that has been causing any sorrow or pain. Let go…

The second ceremony is often a cleanse of the emotional self. This is a deeper cleanse. It is still common to vomit, but usually it is just once. Working with the spirits called by the curandero, each participant will typically experience vivid, highly detailed memories of events from their past, powerful moments that influenced their emotional state of being, sometimes causing illness. These life experiences can be viewed with your current wisdom and understood in a whole new way.

Flashes of color and light and dreamlike visions are common. An emerging comprehension of one’s place and purpose in life arises. One begins to realize “the meaning of life”, their family, the community, society, the earth, the universe. One begins to understand the past and the present, to know the self completely.
The healing has begun.

It is during the third ceremony that the spiritual realm is discovered by most people. The purpose of one’s life is clearly understood and the feeling of being “complete” is often accompanied by visions as real as a dream. Often these visions convey messages that have great personal significance.

After three ceremonies, the entire body has often been fully cleansed. The body, mind, and spirit are now ready to heal. Sometimes just cleaning a wound is enough for it to heal on its own, but deeper wounds require more attention, beyond the necessary cleansing. For many people, a fourth ceremony is needed to further stimulate the healing process towards complete and total health. The more ceremonies done without returning to the ‘real world’ increase the amount of learning and healing possible.

A Pablo Amaringo painting depicting an ayahuasca ceremony