Ayahuasca is an Amazonian plant mixture. It is used for a variety of reasons and has become popular in Silicon Valley and Brooklyn societies for its ability to bring a heightened sense of consciousness.
Western society reportedly first encountered ayahuasca in 1851. It is a combination of various plants and commonly consumed as a tea. It had a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s and is once again coming into vogue, despite being an illegal substance.
Ayahuasca creates a psychedelic, visionary state of mind and is traditionally used by shaman and medicine men to help diagnose patients and to commune with nature. More recently, psychotherapy academics have become interested in using ayahuasca to treat health issues. And there are also people that use ayahuasca recreationally, to help discover a deeper meaning.
The potent blend of herbs is not without side effects. It causes diarrhea and vomiting, which is commonly known as “the purge,” amongst fans. Despite the side effects and unpleasant trips, ayahuasca remains popular amongst those that use it as they seek to experience new things with each visit.
In cities ranging from Hawaii to New York to California and others around the world, ayahuasca ceremonies are commonly held as group activities known as circles. The way that the ayahuasca rituals and experiences are described frequently rely on modern language and even technological terms as people strive to let go of unwanted emotions like anger.
Many circles include filling out a health questionnaire ahead of time as certain health conditions, including high blood pressure or taking antidepressants, means that ayahuasca.
Circles and ceremonies are closely monitored by experienced facilitators as some people become violent with the blend and there have been incidents of women being molested and others physically harmed or killed while under the influence.
WHY ARE PEOPLE USING AYAHUASCA?
Ayahuasca induces a psychedelic, visionary state of mind and this effect is employed by various people for various reasons.
Shamans or medicine men take ayahuasca to communicate with nature or to see what is causing a patient’s illness on a spiritual level. In Brazil several religions can be found that pivot around gatherings where ayahuasca is taken by all participants. Drinking ayahuasca and singing together takes them into a healing and inspiring kind of trance.
In the past few decades ayahuasca is slowly gaining interest from Western society as well. Not only academic researchers in the field of psychotherapy have shown an increased interest. Psychonauts, i.e. people who practice responsible and conscious use of mind-altering substances, use ayahuasca to confront themselves with the richness of the mind, the infinity of the universe, and their deepest fears, so as to experience ecstasy resulting from facing and overcoming these fears.
One effect of ayahuasca is that it makes a lot of people vomit and many drinkers get diarrhea. One tribe calls ayahuasca ‘kamarampi’, which stems from ‘kamarank’: to vomit. It is also called ‘la purga’, as it purges the body through this physical effect, and purifies the mind through the meaningful psychological experiences or visions. You usually feel totally refreshed and reborn after a strong experience.
WHAT MAKES AYAHUASCA SO INTERESTING?
Although not unique to ayahuasca, there are many fascinating reports about people who have been healed from comprehensive problems, like addiction or depression, during one or more sessions. This, however, can also be achieved using LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, iboga, other psychedelics or various breathing and meditation techniques, and always involves heavy psychological work.
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.
What is more unique about ayahuasca, is that the effects rely on a specific combination of two plants: Banisteriopsis caapi and chacruna (or chagropanga, depending on the region). How and when exactly the discovery of combining these two plants was made by native Americans remains unclear, although many tribes and shamans have their own mythical tales explaining this event.
Second, the primary ingredient of chacruna and chagropanga is also a neurotransmitter found in all human beings and plays a key role in all kinds of extraordinary states of awareness. This neurotransmitter is called dimethyltryptamine, or DMT for short, and is found in the brain, blood, lungs and other parts of the human body. There is strong evidence pointing towards the pineal gland (“the third eye” in esoteric traditions), located in the center of the brain, as the main factory of human DMT. Apart from human beings, DMT can be found in every mammal and in a variety of plants.
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