What is Ayahuasca?

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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 at least one other admixture plant, to produce a brown liquid that is consumed in healing ceremonies led by Amazonian healers, called ayahuasqueros (curanderos). The effects of the brew vary greatly depending on which admixture plants are used in its preparation, how the curandero runs the healing ceremony, and a number of more complex aspects that are a bit of a mystery.

The admixture plants most often used are the leaves of chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and yagé; also known as chaliponga, 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), which 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 millennia, long before the Spanish came to Peru, before the Incan Empire was formed, and 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.

Chemically speaking, 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 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 at significant levels in ayahuasca, which may be responsible for some of its more profound effects.

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. Ayahuasca Negra, or Black Ayahuasca, would be used to work specifically with darker energies, shadow selves, or black magic.

Harmala alkaloids have 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, ayahuasca plays an essential role in the brew, opening the door for a host of powerful alkaloids 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 believed to be secreted by the human brain in the pineal gland, especially when dreaming.  Rick Strassman, author of ‘DMT Spirit Molecule’ theorized that 49 days into the development of the human embryo, the pineal gland produces a much larger amount of dimethyltryptamine than normal.  The only other time this occurs naturally is at the moment of our death.  Therefore, Strassman concluded that the production of DMT is a chemical expression of a spiritual event, namely the entering and exiting of the spirit into and from the physical body.  dimethyltryptamine can be found in countless plants and animal species throughout the world.

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. The dynamics of the ayahuasca experience are far more complex, due at least in part to the ayahuasca vine itself which is often said to lend ‘wisdom’ to the experience. This idea is supported by nearly every culture that uses ayahuasca in the Amazon Rainforest.  The truth is that ayahuasca forms part of a complex healing phenomenon that is multifaceted and mysterious and which defies reductive, chemical, or scientific over-simplifications. Ayahuasca is not just a ‘drug’ or ‘medicine’ that acts on a passive recipient; it is a relationship involving many factors, including the intention of the drinker, and the role of the curandero, who uses his/her experience and relationship with the spirit of ayahuasca (as well as other plants) to increase, decrease, and guide the depth of the healing.

Here is a quote from Richard Evans Schultes, one of the earliest pioneers in ayahuasca research, describing the effects of drinking a brew made only from the vine without any admixture plant:
 

“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 people, 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 the use of the limbs unduly affected”.

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