Ayahuasca

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Ayahuasca (Quechua, pronounced [a.ja.ˈwa.ska]) is any of various psychoactive infusions prepared from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, native to the Amazon rainforest (which is also called ayahuasca). The resulting drinks are pharmacologically complex and used for shamanic, folk-medicinal,and religious purposes.

Preparation

Sections of vine are macerated and boiled alone or with leaves from any of a large number of other plants, including Psychotria viridis (chakruna in Quechua) or Diplopterys cabrerana (also known as chacropanga). The resulting brew contains MAO inhibiting harmala alkaloids and the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloid N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic which is active orally only when combined with an MAOI. Harmala alkaloids in Banisteriopsis caapi serve as MAOIs in Ayahuasca. Western brews sometimes substitute plant sources such as Syrian Rue or other harmala containing plants in lieu of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, but the vine itself is always central to traditional usage.

Ayahuasca being prepared in the Napo region of Ecuador.

Brews are also made with no DMT-containing plants; sometimes they are made with plants such as Justicia pectoralis, Brugmansia and sometimes made with no plants other than the ayahuasca vine itself. Tobacco is a common additive in traditional brews. The potency of this brew varies radically from one batch to the next, both in strength and psychoactive effect, based mainly on the skill of the shaman or brewer, as well as other admixtures sometimes added. Natural variations in plant alkaloid content and profiles also affect the final concentration of alkaloids in the brew, and the physical act of cooking may also serve to modify the alkaloid profile of harmala alkaloids.

Individual polymorphisms in the cytochrome P450-2D6 enzyme affects the ability of individuals to metabolize harmine. Some natural tolerance to the regular use of Ayahuasca (e.g. once weekly) may be seen as an upregulation of the serotonergic system. A phase 1 pharmacokinetic study on Ayahuasca (as Hoasca) with 15 volunteers was conducted in 1993, during the Hoasca Project. A review of the Hoasca Project has been published.

Names

• "caapi", "cipó," "hoasca" or "daime" in Brazil
• "yagé" or "yajé" (both pronounced [ja.'he]) in Colombia; popularized in English by the beat generation writers William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg in The Yage Letters.
• "ayahuasca" or "ayawaska" in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, also to a lesser extent in Brazil ("vine of the dead" or "vine of souls": in Quechua, aya means "spirit," "ancestor," or "dead person," while waska means "vine" or "rope"). The name is properly that of the plant B. caapi, one of the primary sources of beta-carbolines for the brew.
• "natem" amongst the indigenous Shuar people of Peru.

Urarina shaman, 1988

It should be noted that the spelling ayahuasca is the hispanicized version of the name; many Quechua or Aymara speakers would prefer the spelling ayawaska. In the central andeans of Perú Ayacwasca means :"Ayac" (spirit or dead) and "Wasca" (vine, cord or rope)

Usage

Ayahuasca is used largely as a religious sacrament, no matter which culture it is associated with. Those whose usage of ayahuasca is performed in non-traditional contexts often align themselves with the philosophies and cosmolgies associated with ayahuasca shamanism, as practiced among indigenous peoples like the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia.

While non-native users know of the spiritual applications of ayahuasca, a less well-known traditional usage focuses on the medicinal properties of ayahuasca. Its purgative properties are highly important (many refer to it as la Purga, "the purge"). The intense vomiting and occasional diarrhea it induces can clear the body of worms and other tropical parasites, and harmala alkaloids themselves have been shown to be anthelmintic. Thus, this action is twofold; a direct action on the parasites by these harmala alkaloids (particularly harmine in ayahuasca) works to kill the parasites, and parasites are expelled through the increased intestinal motility that is caused by these alkaloids.

Ayahuasca cooking in the Napo region of Ecuador.

Dietary taboos are almost always associated with the use of Ayahuasca; in the rainforest, these tend towards the purification of one's self- abstaining from spicy and heavily seasoned foods, fat, salt, caffeine, acidic foods (such as citrus) and sex before, after, or both before and after a ceremony. A diet low in foods containing tyramine is recommended, as the interaction of tyramine and MAOIs can lead to a hypertensive crisis. This extreme dietary specificity is largely a modern one, as most tyramine is produced as food ages, and is therefore not usually a problem in traditional South American cultures. These dietary restrictions have developed as a means of making ayahuasca ingestion easier on the body, as well as having strong traditional and spiritual significance.

Today, the name 'ayahuasca' can mean a variety of botanical concoctions containing one or more MAOIs and DMT or one of its chemical analogues. The synthetic pharmahuasca is sometimes called ayahuasca as well. In this usage, the DMT is generally considered the main psychoactive active ingredient, while the MAOI merely activates orally ingested DMT. However, most ayahuasqueros and others working with the brew claim the B. caapi vine to be the defining ingredient; according to them, it is not ayahuasca unless B. caapi is in the brew. The vine is considered to be the "spirit" of ayahuasca, the gatekeeper and guide to the otherworldly realms.

In some areas, it is even said that the chakruna or chaliponga admixtures are added only to make the brew taste sweeter. This is a strong indicator of the often wildly divergent intentions and cultural differences between the native ayahuasca-using cultures and psychedelics enthusiasts in other countries.

In modern Europe and North America, ayahuasca analogues are often prepared using non-traditional plants which contain the same alkaloids. For example, seeds of the Syrian rue plant are often used as a substitute for the ayawaska vine, and the DMT-rich Mimosa hostilis is used in place of chakruna. Australia has several indigenous plants which are popular among modern ayahuasqueros there, such as various DMT-rich species of Acacia.

In modern Western culture, entheogen users sometimes base concoctions off of Ayahuasca. When doing so, most often Rue or B. caapi are used with an alternative form of the DMT molecule, such as psilocin, or a non-DMT based hallucinogen such as mescaline. Nicknames such as Psilohuasca, Mush-rue-asca, or 'Shroom-a-huasca, for mushroom based mixtures, or Pedrohuasca (from the San Pedro Cactus, which contains mescaline) are often given to such brews. Such nicknames are by many considered inappropriate and culturally insensitive seeing as "huasca" means "vine" and none of the above are vines, nor do the psychedelic experimentalist trappings of such concoctions bear any resemblance to the medicinal use of Ayahuasca in its original cultural context. This is usually only done by experienced entheogen users who are more familiar with the chemicals and plants being used, as the uninformed combination of various neuro-chemicals can be dangerous.

It seems unlikely that Ayahuasca could ever emerge as a "street-drug", given the difficulty of making the tea and the intense experience it provides. Most Western users employ it almost exclusively for spiritual purposes, in line with both traditional, animist usage and organized churches such as the União do Vegetal (or UDV). A diet is almost always followed before use, including a day of fasting, to rid the body of tyramines and other contraindicated chemicals; a "dieta" is often followed as well, to spiritually cleanse the body before and after the experience. Most recreational drug users have never even heard of Ayahuasca, DMT or MAOIs, or the possibility of alterations to the shamanic brew.

Introduction to the West

Ayahuasca is mentioned in the writings of some of the earliest missionaries to South America, but it wasn't for some time that it became commonly known in the West. The early missionary reports generally claim it as demonic, and great efforts were made by the Roman Catholic Church to stamp it out.

When originally researched in the 20th century, the active chemical constituent of B. caapi was called telepathine, but it was found to be identical to a chemical already isolated from Peganum harmala and given the name harmaline.

William Burroughs sought yagé (still considered to be "telepathine") in the 1950s while traveling through South America, in the hopes that it could relieve or cure opiate addiction. The Yage Letters, written between Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg were probably the first major introduction of Ayahuasca to the West.

Ayahuasca was made more widely known by Terence and Dennis McKenna's experiences with Amazonian tribes as detailed in the book Invisible Landscape, which they co-authored. Their journey to the rainforest to search for Ayahuasca was spurred by their reading of Burroughs and Ginsberg. Dennis later extensively studied the pharmacology, botany, and chemistry of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, which were the subjects of his master's thesis.

In Brazil, a number of modern religious movements based on the use of ayahuasca have emerged, the most famous of them being Santo Daime and the União do Vegetal (or UDV), usually in an animistic context that may be shamanistic or, more often (as with Santo Daime and the UDV), integrated with Christian. Both Santo Daime and União do Vegetal now have members and churches throughout the world.

Similarly, the US and Europe have started to see new religious groups born of experiences with ayahuasca. In the US a Wiccan group, PaDeva, has become the first incorporated legal church which holds the use of ayahuasca central in their beliefs.

Several notable celebrities have publicly discussed their use of ayahuasca, including Sting, Tori Amos, and Paul Simon (who wrote the song Spirit Voices about his experience with the brew in the Amazon).

Some "Westerners" have teamed up with "shamans" in the Amazon rainforest regions and forming Ayahuasca "healing retreats" claiming that it can cure mental and physical illness and allow communication with the spirit world. This is not to say that all organizations catering to ayahuasca tourists are inherently bad, but one should be cautious. Though both anecdotal reporting and scientific studies affirm that ritualized use of ayahuasca can lead to the betterment of human mental and physical health, see research by Doctor John Halpbern as seen in a New Scientist article, the monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) component of the brew is a powerful compound that interacts with many foods that some Westerners would not consider dangerous, from liver to Vegemite.

Therefore, when it comes to taking ayahuasca, it's always of paramount importance the observation of strict dietary restrictions. Indeed, to honor the truth, not all "Westerns" who have teamed up with Amazonian shamans, fell under the somehow misleading and negative category of "ayahuasca tourists", or else, cater for services directed specifically to Western "ayahuasca tourists". It doesn't pay justice to the genuine pilgrims that come for ayahuasca healing sessions from places as far away from the "Western" world as Colombia, and - to a lesser extent - Argentina, or Mexico, for instance. But even if this phenomenon would be restricted to Westerns & Western world alone, and that is not the case, there would be ground for more to say.

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Arguably, a Western "dietero" or "dietera" (i.e. a male or female apprentice-shaman learning the way of the teacher plants through a rigourous initiation, in solitude) spending a year (when not more) in the middle of the jungle, can hardly be called an "ayahuasca tourist". This would be - in fact, at close-range examination - pure nonsense. Plunged into endless pitch-black jungle nights, without electricity or home comforts whatsoever, challenged - more often than not - by an extreme weather, heavy rains, a fiersome sun, lightnening, thunderstorms, mosquitos, insects, solitude, sexual abstinence, and in the middle of all this, taking "the Vine of the Dead" up to hundreds of times is not tourist endeaveour.

This is not to count the many explorers of consciousness, writers, researchers, medical doctors, journalists, amateur anthropologists and ethno botanists, alongside the vast majority of vision quest seekers, and seekers-of-knowledge who do take part to ayahuasca retreats, who could hardly be assimilated to the common - and at the same time gross and rather derogatory - category of "ayhuasca tourists". And that does not pay justice either to all those - the vast majority - who openly seek the encounter with ayahuasca as an opportunity to re-balance and re-centre their lives, to clear emotional blocks, to find themselves and their place on earth. This has nothing to do with tourism. It has to do with healing and evolution. So, cleared the way from common misconceptions about "ayahuasca tourists" and "ayahuasca healing", time has may be come to widen our horizons and call things with their names, as long as we have a vocabulary to address things for what they are.

"Westerns" and Amazonian shamans have teamed up to create something which is better described as "cross-cultural insemination", a contemporary breed - bearing ayahuasca as essential part of its "genetic heritage" - that has many different facets, and is altogether different from native Amazonian, traditional tribal use as much as it is from Western way of life and "Western" psychonautic approach to ayahuasca. In between these two extremes, we may find a place for "ayahuasca tourism", which may be perhaps better described as a contained element in itself - one among many others - inside this larger "cross-cultural" container. This may be - or possibly already is - the shape of things to come. Time will tell.

In his book One River Wade Davis (most notably accredited with the writing of The Serpent and The Rainbow) wrote of traditional ayahuasca use by indigenous jungle tribes of the Amazon Basin: "The smell and acrid taste was that of the entire jungle ground up and mixed with bile." [p.194]

To date, the only comprehensive article to appear in the mainstream press about ayahuasca is "Hell and Back", written by writer Kira Salak for National Geographic Adventure magazine in the March 2006 issue. It describes her personal experiences with ayahuasca (including how it cured her of depression), as well as providing detailed background information about the brew. Here is an excerpt from the article about some of ayahuasca's documented beneficial effects:

"The taking of ayahuasca has been associated with a long list of documented cures: the disappearance of everything from metastasized colorectal cancer to cocaine addiction, even after just a ceremony or two. It has been medically proven to be nonaddictive and safe to ingest. Yet Western scientists have all but ignored it for decades, reluctant to risk their careers by researching a substance containing the outlawed DMT. Only in the past decade, and then only by a handful of researchers, has ayahuasca begun to be studied. At the vanguard of this research is Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLA’s School of Medicine. In 1993 Dr. Grob launched the Hoasca Project, the first in-depth study of the physical and psychological effects of ayahuasca on humans. His team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. The studies found that all the ayahuasca-using UDV members had experienced remission without recurrence of their addictions, depression, or anxiety disorders. Unlike most common anti-depressants, which Grob says can create such high levels of serotonin that cells may actually compensate by losing many of their serotonin receptors, the Hoasca Project showed that ayahuasca strongly enhances the body’s ability to absorb the serotonin that’s naturally there. 'Ayahuasca is perhaps a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs],' Grob concludes, adding that the use of SSRIs is 'a rather crude way' of doing it. And ayahuasca, he insists, has great potential as a long-term solution."

In All the Trouble in the World, P.J. O'Rourke described his experience with Ayahuasca thusly:

Our tour company had a third jungle camp near the canopy walkway, and as soon as we got there, Michael, Tom, and especially I began looking for more bootleg rum. This time we turned up something called haya huasca instead. It came in an old Coke bottle with a wooden plug in the top and was made from herbs and bark and such. Michael said that, as best he could translate, it was supposed to "make us throw up and see the future."

We didn't get sick and we certainly didn't see the future, or I would have kept my eye on yen fluctuations and would be rich. It was a mild drug, producing just a few sparks of light and some glowing auras at the edges of the field of vision and delivering a minor inner bliss, a little psychic wet kiss. That is, I thought it was a mild drug until Susan and I began urgin everyone to climb back to the top of the canopy walkway and "dig the sunset."

Plant constituents

Traditional

Traditional Ayahuasca brews are always made with Banisteriopsis caapi as an MAOI, although DMT sources and other admixtures vary from region to region. There are several varieties of caapi, often known as different "colors", with varying effects, potencies, and uses.

DMT admixtures:

• Psychotria viridis (Chakruna) - leaves
• Diplopterys cabrerana (Chaliponga, Banisteriopsis rusbyana) - leaves
• Psychotria carthagensis (Amyruca) - leaves

Other common admixtures:

• Justicia pectoralis
• Brugmansia (Toé)
• Nicotiana rustica (Mapacho, variety of tobacco)
• Ilex guayusa, a relative of yerba mate

Western

Although traditional plant materials are often used, sources with similar chemical constituents are often substituted for the traditional ingredients.

MAOI:

• Harmal (Peganum harmala, Syrian Rue) - seeds
• Passion flower

DMT admixture sources:

• Acacia maidenii (Maiden's Wattle), Acacia phlebophylla, and other Acacias, most commonly employed in Australia - bark
• Anadenanthera peregrina, A. colubrina, A. excelsa, A. macrocarpa
• Mimosa hostilis (Jurema) - root bark - not traditionally employed with ayahuasca by any existing cultures, though likely it was in the past. Popular in Europe and North America.

Legal status

Internationally, DMT is a Schedule I drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The Commentary on the Convention on Psychotropic Substances notes, however, that the plant itself is excluded from international control[1]:

The cultivation of plants from which psychotropic substances are obtained is not controlled by the Vienna Convention. . . . Neither the crown (fruit, mescal button) of the Peyote cactus nor the roots of the plant Mimosa hostilis nor Psilocybe mushrooms themselves are included in Schedule 1, but only their respective principles, mescaline, DMT and psilocin.

A fax from the Secretary of the International Narcotics Control Board to the Netherlands Ministry of Public Health sent in 2001 goes on to state that "Consequently, preparations (e.g.decoctions) made of these plants, including ayahuasca are not under international control and, therefore, not subject to any of the articles of the 1971 Convention." [2]

The legal status of these plants in the United States is somewhat questionable. Ayahuasca plants and preparations are legal as they contain no scheduled chemicals. However, brews made using DMT containing plants are illegal since DMT is a Schedule I drug. That said, some people are challenging this, using arguments similar to those used by peyotist religious sects, such as the Native American Church. A court case allowing União do Vegetal to use the tea for religious purposes in the United States, Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal, was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on November 1, 2005; the decision, released February 21, 2006, allows the UDV to use the tea in its ceremonies persuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Religious use in Brazil was legalized after two official inquiries into the tea in the mid-1980s, which concluded that ayahuasca is not a recreational drug and has valid spiritual uses. (More on the legal status of ayahuasca can be found in the Erowid vault on the legality of ayahuasca.)

In France, Santo Daime won a court case allowing them to use the tea in early 2005; however, they were not allowed an exception for religious purposes, but rather for the simple reason that they did not perform chemical extractions to end up with pure DMT and harmala and the plants used were not scheduled. Four months after the court victory, the common ingredients of Ayahuasca as well as harmala were declared stupéfiants, or narcotic schedule I substances, making the tea and its ingredients illegal to use or possess. See [3] and [4] (French)

for more information.

External links

Ayahuasca churches

• Centro Cultural Wanamey
• Natureza Divina(English)

• Fatimiya Sufi Order
• PaDeva Church
• Friends of Santo Daime Australia
• Santo Daime (Dutch)

• Santo Daime (English)

• Santo Daime (hinarios and text) (Portuguese)

• Soga del Alma
• União do Vegetal (English)

Law

• Ayahuasca Church Permitted Usage
• Justices Take Issue With Ban Of Religious Tea
• Supreme Court Opinion in Gonzales v. UDV (2006) (PDF)
• Supreme Court Sides With Church in Ayahuasca Case
• Tea Case Could Cause Religious Liberty Tempest (backgrounder w/sources)

Other

• General resource for ayahuasca and many other psychotropic substances (erowid.org)
• National Geographic Adventure article on ayahuasca
• Traditional Preparation Methods (Plot55.com)
• Growing Psychotria viridis (Plot55.com)
• Ayahuayra: How Ayahuasca is used to heal
• Ayahuasca and other "plant teachers"—educational potential?
• The Ayahuasca Forum
• Lila : Shamanism and Ayahuasca Library
• Biopark : An introduction to an extraordinary healing plant and her companions
• El Mundo Magico - Ayahuasca: The Magical Brew of Amazonian Shamans

Books

• Burroughs, William S. & Ginsberg, Allen. The Yage Letters. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1963. ISBN 0-87286-004-3
• De Rios, Marlene Dobkin. Visionary Vine: Hallucinogenic Healing in the Peruvian Amazon, (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1984. ISBN 0-88133-093-0
• Hancock, Graham Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind. London: Century, 2005. ISBN-10: 1844136817
• Heaven, Ross. Charing, Howard G 'Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul'. Vermont: Destiny Books, 2006. ISBN 1-59477-118-9
• Lamb, F. Bruce. Rio Tigre and Beyond: The Amazon Jungle Medicine of Manuel Córdova. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1985. ISBN 0-938190-59-8
• Luna, Luis Eduardo. Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1986. ISBN 91-22-00819-5
• Luna, Luis Eduardo & Amaringo, Pablo. Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of A Peruvian Shaman. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 1999. ISBN 1-55643-311-5
• Luna, Luis Eduardo & White, Stephen F., eds. Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine. Santa Fe, NM: Synergetic, 2000. ISBN 0-907791-32-8
• Matteson Langdon, E. Jean & Baer, Gerhard, eds. Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8263-1345-0
• McKenna, Terence. Food of the Gods.
• Metzner, Ralph, ed. Ayahuasca: Hallucinogens, Consciousness, and the Spirit of Nature. New York: Thunder's Mouth, 1999. ISBN 1-56025-160-3
• Narby, Jeremy. The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998. ISBN 0-87477-911-1
• O'Rourke, P.J. "All the Trouble in the World". New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994. ISBN 0-87113-611-2
• Ott, Jonathan. Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangæan Entheogens. Kennewick, Wash.: Natural Products, 1994. ISBN 0-9614234-5-5
• Perkins, John. The World Is As You Dream It: Shamanic Teachings from the Amazon and Andes. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street, 1994. ISBN 0-89281-459-4[5]
• Pinchbeck, Daniel. Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism. New York: Broadway, 2002. ISBN 0-7679-0743-4[6]
• Polari de Alverga, Alex. Forest of Visions: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Spirituality, and the Santo Daime Tradition. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street, 1999. ISBN 0-89281-716-X
• Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs Among the Indians of Colombia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1975. ISBN 0-87722-038-7
• Schultes, Richard Evans & Raffauf, Robert F. Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia. Oracle, AZ: Synergetic, 1992. ISBN 0-907791-24-7
• Shanon, Benny. The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-925293-9
• Stafford, Peter G. Heavenly Highs: Ayahuasca, Kava-Kava, Dmt, and Other Plants of the Gods. Berkeley: Ronin, 2004. ISBN 1-57951-069-8
• Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street, 2001. ISBN 0-89281-927-8
• Taussig, Michael. Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. ISBN 0-226-79012-6
• Wilcox, Joan Parisi (2003). Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul. Rochester, Vt.: Park Street. ISBN 0-89281-131-5

Filmography

• Dean Jefferys; Shamans of the Amazon doc 52 min. Australia 2001
• Jan Kounen, Blueberry l'expérience secrète film
• Jan Kounen, Autres mondes doc
• Glenn Switkes, The night of the liana doc 45 min. Brazil 2003

Fiction

• Balfour, Bruce. Prometeus Road. ISBN 0-441-01221-3