Ayhuasca

BeatNikDub

Has anyone ever gone to Peru and drank ayhuasca tea?

I stumbled across an online video with Alastair Appleton where he visited South America to take this and had a life changing experience.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1547240899855868654

I have to say I think it is fascinating and has been something my mind has been going back to and reading more up on since i found out about it a few months back.

Basically a group of people visit a sanctuary ran by a psychologist. SOme have physical health problem sthat no medicine has cured, some have psycological problems, some are just curious.

Over a week the group drink the tea every second night and go through about 8 hours of hallucination, nausea and vomiting but what ultimately seems to be an experience that forces ones mind to face up to many memories and experiences and deal with them in condensed amount of time.

It seems to be quite an illuminating experience that restarts people lives with better mental and/or physical health and new fresher eyes on the world.

Having said that, you have to go through a lot to achieve it.

Would love to know others thoughts.

anti-venom

Yes, I have drank ayahuasca on numerous occasions in Both Peru and Brazil. I have to wonder why people refer to it as 'ayahuasca tea'?. Unlike tea, ayahuasca is the most foul tasteing, vomit inducing muck imaginable. It's taste really is that horrible. That aside, I will attempt to give you some inkling of the ayahuasca experience.

Firstly I think I should point out that I am an atheist and a skeptic. I don't place much weight in ayahuasca's supposed cruative effects on physical ailments and I definitely don't subscribe to any belief that ayahuasca is a gateway to metaphysical or otherworldly experiences. If you are predisposed to or open to these ideas then I suppose you will find that an ayahuasca experience could dovetail with your expectations of reaching other realms. I don't.

If you have any experience of hallucinogens then you might have some idea of what to expect. However, ayahuasca is quite unlike any other hallucinogen
I ever tried and I was very much unprepared. It's effects are far more powerful, overwhelming and can be very frightening. It really takes quite a lot of effort not to succumb to panic and screaming when you are in the depths of the trip. It's also a naturally potent emetic and laxative so you also have to contend with the danger of ****ting yourself. The vomiting and nausea is almost unavoidable.

The first ayahuasca experience is of little value really. It's an introduction to the effects. You cannot possibly be aware of what to expect so you spend most of your time battling the effects. The fear of going insane can be quite intense. There's no point on relying on reason and logic because these faculties are also distorted beyond 'recognition'. My first time I was terrified of not coming down and being stuck permanently in a state of hallucinogenic insanity. At the height of the trip I was quite unable to do reality checks. I was unable to remind myself that I was under the influence. The hallucinations seemed quite real at the time. I saw dead relatives of mine in the 'shape' of colours. I know it sounds quite daft but that's how I experienced it. It's almost inexplicable but I believe the imagination, when untethered, is capable of conjuring up the most fantastical of images. Your waking, sober mind would be very incapable of such extreme images. Reality and reason always sets limits on what is imaginable but under ayahuasca there's no such boundaries. For this alone the ayahuasca trip is a unique experience.

However, after that initial trip which left me somewhat drained I decided to give it another go. This time I was more equipped to deal with it. I didn't have quite the fear and I was able to explore more coherently the images and emotions than came up. For one thing I discovered that the giant anacondas that are almost ubiquitous in everyone's experience of ayahuasca were a trick of the light. It's almost as if the light your mind sees contracts and takes on a serpantine, elongated form which swirls around your head like a hulahoop. Again, it's so outside of everyday experience as to be almost impossible to explain in logical terms.

What was most interesting though was the sudden surge of old memories that came flooding into my mind. This was usually in the latter stages of the trip when the mind had become accustomed to the the drug. The logical part of the mind was able to reassert itself and examine the memories and emotions. I found myself examining in great detail a traumatic incident which occured when I was six years of age. I found myself able to fully confront the incident in my mind and I realised, to my surprise, that it wasn't quite as bad as I had recalled. Over the years I had built this incident up my mind to become something it wasn't. My memory was playing tricks on me and I realised I had built up a wall of false memories around this incident. I was free of something that had troubled me all my life and it was a very purgative and cathartic experience. To be honest I wouldn't have previously thought this possibe but it did happen just as I described.

I have to say though that I would not recommend ayahuasca to people. If you are interested in trying this then do plenty of research beforehand. No two accounts of ayahuasca experiences will be the same. For some it can be quite horrifying and all they leave with is this. Being an atheist I was aware that nothing I was about to 'see' was etheral in nature, however, there are those that believe they have expeirenced god, spirits and whatnot. Quite traumatic I would imagine. An American friend of mine tells that for months afterwards he was very disturbed by the images he confronted in his imagination. He would certainly try to disuade you against drinking ayahuasca.

If you do decide to do this then try to arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can. Don't just listen to the advocates of ayahuasca but also to the skeptics and those who have had unpleasent experiences. It might save you from doing something you regret.

BeatNikDub

Thanks so much for your lengthly reply.

So far I havent come across any negative experiences of ayhuasca so was good to know that there are quite a few out there and to widen my research.

I would mostly steer clear of any mind altering substances as I am a bit of a worrier and and get quite panicky but the fact that this person who did it (Alistair) had never taken drugs, was a tee total and was doing just for the experience, not to cure an illness or find himself, his experience just completely intrigued me.

Im not sure I would have the courage to go through with it but the idea of it really interests me.

Do you mind me asking why you did it? Was it just for the experience? Were you alone or did you do it in a group sanctuary with others?

I like the idea also of being able to go back to old childhood memories and work through them in a condensed amount of time. I have been going to counsellors for years and in the last year some memories my mind had obviously suppressed started coming through with hypno therapy.

Anyway, again, many thanks for your reply, an interesting read!

anti-venom

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Thanks so much for your lengthly reply.

So far I havent come across any negative experiences of ayhuasca so was good to know that there are quite a few out there and to widen my research.

I would mostly steer clear of any mind altering substances as I am a bit of a worrier and and get quite panicky but the fact that this person who did it (Alistair) had never taken drugs, was a tee total and was doing just for the experience, not to cure an illness or find himself, his experience just completely intrigued me.

Im not sure I would have the courage to go through with it but the idea of it really interests me.

Do you mind me asking why you did it? Was it just for the experience? Were you alone or did you do it in a group sanctuary with others?

I like the idea also of being able to go back to old childhood memories and work through them in a condensed amount of time. I have been going to counsellors for years and in the last year some memories my mind had obviously suppressed started coming through with hypno therapy.

Anyway, again, many thanks for your reply, an interesting read!

Why did I drink ayahuasca? Basically, just because I was curious. I wasn't looking for any enlightening or revelatory experiences. I always drank it in company under the supervision of a shaman. I certainly wouldn't try this alone. The supervision is vitally important. I do remember a shaman coming to me at one stage during a session when I was showing signs of distress. He blew tobacco smoke on me and in my addled state mind this smoke had the sensation of hitting me like a punch in the chest. Straight away after this an incredible feeling of calm came over me and the most serene, idylic vision I ever experienced came to me. I believed I was standing in the middle of an immense meadow surrounded by butterflies, beautifully coloured birds and insects. The vision was as clear in detail as the room I'm sitting in now. I remember the feel of the long grass in my hands and the details of the plumage of the birds. Also the most incredible sense of peace swept over me, quite unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life. After this beautiful period (I've no idea how long it lasted) I was back to the more usual confusing visual and auditory hallucinations.

If you approach ayahuasca with a worried mind you may find yourself in trouble. I imagine the ayahuasca would only serve to amplify your worries into an almost uncontrolable magnitude (while you are under the influence). You have to be calm and positive to garner the best experience possible. I would also caution against using ayahuasca as a form of therapeutic medicine. It is not a panacea. You may be one of the lucky ones who achieve positive therapeutic results but you also be one of the unlucky few who are left feeling bewildered and disappointed. Again, I would urge you to do plenty of research before deciding to do anything like this.

If you looking for a novel experience, then go to The Amazon sometime and seek out a shaman. Just don't raise your expectations of finding a restorative and therapeutic miracle in the Jungle. Just try to relax and enjoy it for what it is; a kaleidoscopic journey to the furthest reaches of the imagination.

anti-venom

By the way, right now I am listening to a cd called Yage pinta. It is a collection of shamanic songs which are sang during the Yage ceremonies. Yage is the common name for ayahuasca in Colombia. This cd alone is very relaxing and mildly trance inducing.

kjl

I have never drank Ayhuasca, but I have smoked DMT.

It took a good few attempts to finally break through, but the in was like my whole conscience was transported to another realm of existence. The really strange thing was that there were alien like entities talking to me but not through language, more like the could morph into various complex shapes but you could still recognise entities in them

The whole trip lasted about 8 min and when I came out of it I was shocked, I felt like I had just learned about something much more deeper then the physical, the only negative effect is that it was very dream like in that it was very hard to remember how it went, and literally by min 10 you are like, wait what happened again. You do spend the next 30 min or so being very euphoric.

I have heard that Ayhuasca is much smoother ride, but I wouldn't make the tea, I would simple get DMT and a MAO inhibitor, much easier way of taking it without the foul taste.

My next psychonautical adventure I am going to smoke it at the peek of an LSD trip, I have heard it make the experience last for hours and allows you to take a lot more out of the trip.

Oryx

A zombie thread anyway, but I dont like the trend of discussing the taking or effects of illegal drugs