Ayahuasca ceremony: what it is, how it is performed, and risks to consider

A summary of what the ayahuasca ceremony performed by shamans consists of, and its risks.

Ayahuasca is a concoction that has been gaining fame in recent decades for its mysteriousness. This substance is credited with being able to recall and confront our most traumatic past, overcoming it on a plane of consciousness difficult to reach by conventional means.

Ayahuasca ceremonies have been gaining popularity despite the fact that their celebration is a legally scabrous subject.. In them, a shaman administers this drug, which is attributed with therapeutic properties, to his visitors, carrying out a ritual typical of the ancestral cultures of America.

Today we are going to find out a little about how ayahuasca ceremonies take place, the phenomena that occur during them and also some of the risks involved in carrying them out.

What are ayahuasca ceremonies?

The ayahuasca ceremony is the name given to an ancestral practice of the native peoples of the Amazon. It is a a ritual practiced by healers and shamans of pre-Hispanic native cultures and is considered part of the traditional medicine of these peoples.. Those who practice it claim that it serves to heal the body, mind and soul, even helping people with mental disorders and contributing to the development of the consciousness of its practitioners.

Originally, the consumption of ayahuasca among Amerindian peoples was part of various rituals practiced to ask the gods to satisfy the needs and desires of their believers. Ayahuasca was present in rituals in honor of the gods, in rituals of passage to adulthood, to go to war or to go hunting.. Also, and very related to what is used today, this substance was consumed in rituals to heal from diseases that, according to the beliefs of the natives of the Amazon and other regions of America, were the product of evil spells, black magic, envy and revenge.

In today's ayahuasca ceremonies, according to its proponents, it is possible to experience a non-ordinary state of consciousness that allows us to connect with our inner wisdom and experience a process of self-healing and self-knowledge. With it, we experience intense catharsis, physical and mental purges that allow us to release emotional, psychological and spiritual blockages.

What is ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is a concoction that is made from the decoction of a liana that grows in the jungle, the ayahuasca plant (Banisteriopsis caapi), together with the leaves of another plant, the chacruna (Diplopterys cabrerana). The result is a potion with powerful psychoactive effects and that, for those who consume it and defend its use, has healing powers. When drunk, it causes alterations in perception and cognition or, in the opinion of those who take it, opens doors that the mind had closed as a self-defense mechanism.

The shamans in charge of ayahuasca ceremonies are based on the idea that, throughout the the idea that, throughout our lives, we accumulate various traumas and conflicts.. Far from solving them in a rational and effective way, what our conscious part does is to hide them as if they had never existed. Thus, the problems do not cause conscious pain, but continue in one way or another to affect us as they are still unresolved. They are still there, unknowingly conditioning many aspects of our life, our relationship with others and with ourselves.

Consuming ayahuasca would make those conflicts come to the surface, usually through clear visions. It would make the hidden memories stop blocking us silently and, by being aware of them, we would be able to resolve them actively and effectively.

For example: imagine that when you were a child on a mountain hike you fell and hurt yourself. This was a traumatic experience for a small child, which remained hidden somewhere in your unconscious. Ayahuasca users would argue that, in this particular case, taking ayahuasca could clearly show you that memory and, now that your mind is adult and mature, it is able to put it in its place. This infantile trauma would be judged by our adult thinking.I was thinking that it was not so bad and that this would be the explanation why today you do not like nature or heights at all.

However, what often happens is that the memory that emerges is not so simple. After taking ayahuasca, intense episodes of all kinds of memories, experiences, sensations and emotions appear, which help us to see what is the cause of our vital problems, what is wrong with our partner or if we were victims of some kind of abuse in our early childhood.

It is not a drug for fun or pleasant taste. In the ayahuasca ceremonies there are unpleasant sensations, because the trip that is made with them in many occasions is not pleasant at all. However, those who use it claim that it is a very powerful tool to reconnect with oneself, to get rid of those repressed emotions, thoughts and memories that prevent us from being happy and to know a plane of existence that cannot be accessed from the earthly plane.

How is the ceremony done?

Each shaman has his own method. Nevertheless, in most of the ayahuasca ceremonies we can see a series of common steps that facilitate, according to their that facilitate, according to its practitioners, the introspection and liberation of traumas and memories stuck in the depths of their mind.

As many people as you want can participate in these ceremonies, but the ideal is to do it in small groups. There are shamans who do the sessions with seven people and others with up to 25. It all depends on your experience and ability to manage any problems that arise while your visitors manifest the effects of ayahuasca.

The ritual is usually held in closed spaces, ideal in case of any inconvenience.. These spaces must be set up to be pleasant, clean and spacious. In the room there are musical instruments, pieces of ayahuasca vine and any tool that the shaman considers necessary to carry out the ceremony. Participants should wear comfortable clothing, usually offered by the shaman or the retreat leaders in charge of the ayahuasca ceremonies.

Each participant will be placed on a mattress, mat or carpet, sitting in lotus position and waiting for the ritual to begin. It is essential to give each attendee a roll of toilet paper and a plastic bucket or basin, because there are many things that can be expelled from the human body after ingesting ayahuasca.

1. Beginning of the ceremony

The shaman stands in the middle of the room and prepares for the beginning of the ritual, not before explaining in a very concrete way what is going to happen.. The participants should know from the beginning that they are preparing for a very emotionally intense situation, in which they will release many things. This is both literally and figuratively, because with the brew not only emotions are released.

The ayahuasca plant has very intense effects on the human body. Shamans attribute purifying powers to it and, not surprisingly, by taking it, the body purges itself: excessive sweating, tearing, excessive urination and excretion and vomiting, a lot of vomiting. It is mainly for this reason that a bucket is placed next to each attendee, so that they can releaseThe effects of ayahuasca make people see clearly what it is that they are expelling, their traumas or blockages, that they are getting rid of and that they are releasing.

The effects of ayahuasca make people see clearly what they are expelling, their traumas or blockages, which they are getting rid of and leaving with their vomit and tears. One may see in their vomit the metaphorical brick that represents their repression, another that their tears represent all the suffering that they have kept quiet during years of mistreatment. This step is unpleasant, but shamans assure that relief comes immediately.

Before starting the ceremony, the shamans recommend that no one be frightened if their journey gets out of control.. This is rare, but still a possibility. The good shamans who are experts in ayahuasca ceremonies have, or so they say, the tools to re-center anyone who is too sick. However, they also warn that in order to feel better than ever, it is first necessary to have a very uncomfortable time, facing one's own fears. It is necessary to let the medicine work, something that is never easy nor comfortable.

2. Harmal and the God molecule

Curiously, the first thing that is taken in the ayahuasca ceremony is not that concoction, but a bit of another drink that has as its base the harmal or alharma plant (Peganum harmala). It is drunk because it it acts as an inhibitor of an enzyme in the human body that blocks dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the component of ayahuasca.the component of ayahuasca that causes hallucinations and which many call "the molecule of God".

The shaman gives each attendee a little bit of this harmal drink. In principle, this concoction has no physical effect, apart from getting the DMT from ayahuasca to take effect. It does not taste good. Some say that it serves to relax a little before getting to the intense part of the ceremony. This concoction takes about ten minutes to take effect.It takes about ten minutes to take effect, being that the time needed to start with the ceremony itself.

3. First ayahuasca intake

What the shamans do from this point on is to turn off the lights and light candles. With the bottle of ayahuasca in his hand, the shaman lights a cigarette made from a tobacco plant and blows the smoke into the mouth of the bottle.. He stands up and pronounces prayers facing the four cardinal points. The prayers are very varied, depending on the culture of the shaman and the religious current he follows. The themes can be about the spirits of mother nature, fire and water, the protection of the golden hummingbird or the power of the jaguar.

It is normal that when the effects of the drug begin to wear off, after thirty minutes or so, each participant rests on his or her mat and engages in introspection. While the attendees curl up in their blankets and try to feel safe, at this point the shaman who leads the ceremony begins to sing the ícaros, sacred compositions with a very repetitive rhythm that constantly allude to ayahuasca and other sacred and medicinal plants of the Amazon. Animals, spirits and the healing power of the ritual are also mentioned. They help to relax.

But relaxation is interrupted by the effects of the potent ayahuasca.. It is at this moment when the first vomiting, cold sweats and an extreme need to go to the bathroom begin. The attendees greatly need to empty their bowels, so it is time to use the bucket. This is normal within the context of the ayahuasca ceremony and the shaman on duty will not stop in his chanting while the attendees are purging both in body and spirit.

4. Second ayahuasca intake

After an hour, it is time to take ayahuasca for the second time. After this second intake the shaman can play instruments to generate a greater atmosphere of solemnity and self-reflection in the participants.. There can be emotions of all kinds: fear, anxiety, sadness, euphoria... The images that pass through the minds of ayahuasca users are of all kinds of form and content.

The experiences during the ayahuasca session can be very varied. Feeling that you are the character of a video game, recalling an argument with your late husband, remembering how you fell off your bike when you were 5 years old, re-experiencing the abuse of a school teacher... all with a greater or lesser degree of realism, flashy colors, almost otherworldly experiences.

After all these emotional experiences, comes the calm and the end of the ceremony. The effects after this episode are usually mild, no greater than those of a common alcohol hangover. In fact, the degree of lucidity and physical and emotional well-being of the attendees is so high that they often talk about what they have experienced. they often talk about what they have experienced during the ceremony.. The ritual is concluded when the participants are all calm with themselves.

Ayahuasca is not for everyone.

Although the experiences of many ayahuasca users seem to be positive, helping them to reconcile with a part of themselves and helping them to overcome past problems that they do not even remember, we must not forget that it is a drug. However natural it may be, its consumption is not more advisable than going to psychotherapy and opting for real psychological treatments.

But for the time being its consumption cannot be recommended because of its real risks, which outweigh its therapeutic powers.which outweigh the apparent therapeutic powers. Ayahuasca is not suitable for everyone. It is known to cause severe and irreversible psychotic symptoms, mostly in people with a history of psychopathology such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

The intake of ayahuasca is incompatible with the intake of psychotropic drugs, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics.It is not advisable to take ayahuasca in combination with any pharmacy medication.

This recommendation does not mean that ayahuasca does not have real therapeutic effects, but there is still not enough scientific information available to make a safe therapeutic use of it. Its research is promising because, as with the cannabis plant, if its therapeutic active principles can be extracted, it could be used to manufacture drugs useful in combating mental disorders and psychological problems such as depression, anxiety or addictions.