Ayahuasca: A Brief History
By: Nathalia D Regiani
Tags: Ayahuasca, Psychedelics, Hallucinogens, Dmt, Amazon Rainforest

Disclaimer: I do not encourage the use of any legal or illegal drugs as they can cause you permanent damage and make you face problems with the law.

SOURCE: Entheonation

There are thousands of religions in this gigantic flying globe that we live in called Earth, around 4,200 to be exact, and every single one of them is connecting with the otherworldly on their own way. Some dance, such as the Jewish, who perform their traditional dance called “horah” at weddings, others sing, such as the ancient Greeks who would perform “hymns”, their purpose being to praise the gods, and then finally, we have those who connect to the supernatural world through the consumption of Ayahuasca, as do various Amazonian indigenous groups. Which is exactly what this article will discuss: a relatively short story about Ayahuasca and its consumption.

Ayahuasca’s Origin and Uprising

Ayahuasca, also known as yagé, started to gain popularity around 2017 in Silicon Valley. Although it is highly consumed, you might not see people drinking it together with their morning coffee or at parties. Despite what some might think, due to the potency of the trip, Ayahuasca is not a recreational drug. It is usually consumed to gain personal or even professional insight.

Evidence of its use has been dated back to 1000 A.D. in a remote cave in southwestern Bolivia, although it was first documented when it was first encountered by Christian Spanish missionaries who came to where modern Peru and Ecuador is and described it as “the work of the devil”, which funny enough, means the complete opposite for the people of the Amazon, since they use it to connect with their gods.

“The 1,000-year-old ritual bundle discovered by researchers in a Bolivian cave. (Photos courtesy of Juan Albarracín-Jordán and José Capriles)” SOURCE: Fox News

What is Ayahuasca Exactly?

Since Ayahuasca is not highly researched due that one of its components contains a class I drug, at first there was some discrepancy of what it actually was—whether Ayahuasca refers to a specific plant or the brew overall, since some tribes refer to one of the ingredients as Ayahuasca while others do not—but today scientists have come together to establish that it is the concoction of two plants: a vine called B. caapi and the leaves of the plant P. viridis. Some tribes sometimes add other plants to it, such as B. rusbyana to add supposed potency and length to the trip.

B. caapi is a vine that grows natively by the Napo river, which rises in Ecuador. It chemically contains Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), which are antidepressants that have been in the past wrongly categorized as dangerous. They are used as a last resort by psychiatrists to treat patients with depression who did not have any result with other drugs. Also, B. caapi is used by the tribes to decorate religious rituals and for clothing.

There are different “strains” of B. caapi, around twenty-two, and each one of them is supposed to give a different feeling to the trip. The shamans, which are the tribe’s healers and sorcerers, categorize these strains by colors based on how each trip feels depending on the vine used. Then, the shamans trade the vines with other shamans, passing through the trade all the history and lineage previously documented of the plant, so every tribe understands how the “new” vine will work in the brew. Boyanhe, for example, causes visions of fishing, hunting, migrating, etc. and Sisi, another strain, causes visions of heaven and what some refer to as creatures of another world or simply aliens.

“W hen a [vine] is passed on in trade, so is its specific vision. A Siona cannot classify a plant without knowing its trading history. Every plant thus has a lineage that links it through all time to every other.” — Jorge Fuerbringer, German colonist who settled with the tribes.

Now, the fun stuff: P. viridis. It is a shrub which is also native from South America and its leaves are the ones that make the magic happen. They contain N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is the schedule I drug that I had previously mentioned. It is highly hallucinogenic and could be compared to taking abnormally high doses of LSD. It is said that DMT is already naturally produced in the body, but the truth is that it is not known for sure. Some hypotheses say that it is produced while dreaming and while others say it emerges during birth and death. Fun fact, the death hypothesis generated another hypothesis, which is that DMT is what causes some people to have mystical experiences when in near-death situations.

B. caapi and P. viridis SOURCE: Veronika Dharmawijaya

If P. viridis is the plant that contains the psychedelics, why do you need both in order to experience hallucinations? Well, that is because the MAOIs present in B. caapi work by blocking your enzymes—which, to put it simply, are substances in your body that absorb chemicals— that could potentially break down the DMT and prevent it from “activating”. In other words, without the MAOIs, eating P. viridis does nothing to our body—besides severe diarrhea. So Ayahuasca is just “orally active DMT”.

Even though it is the P. viridis that launches you off upon Ayahuasca consumption, indigenous tribes believe that the vines are actually the ones that make the trips significant. Gayle Highpine, editor and linguistic, spent a couple years in Ecuador with a tribe and that is where he learned that. He came to notice that in the ceremonies, from which he attended from two to four times a month since he lived with the tribe to help document and preserve their culture, sometimes they would put little to no leaves in the mixes. It is explained that the vine is like a “blurry vision” while the leaves are the “light” that allows you to see them more clearly. Shamans believe that you can gain more knowledge through blurry trips.

“The leaves were Ayahuasca’s “helpers,” I was told, and their purpose was to “brighten and clarify” the visions. The vine is like a cave, and the leaf is like a torch you use to see what is inside the cave. The vine is like a book, and the leaf is like the candle you use to read the book. The vine is like a snowy television set, and the leaf helps to tune in the picture. There was a subtle attitude that the need for strong leaf was the sign of a beginner: An experienced ayahuasquero could see the visions even in low light.” — Gayle Highpine

What a DMT Trip Feels Like

Just like any drug or substance, DMT affects everybody in a different way. As previously mentioned, Ayahuasca should not be taken as a recreational drug, since its effects are “punishing” and it is said that most trips are not considered pleasant. Things such as set and setting are very important, that being the reason why most people would rather do it in a controlled setting with an experienced shaman in what are called “ayahuasca retreats”. The trip can last from two to six hours, and the effects are usually felt within twenty minutes of consumption.

Some effects such as vomiting are quite common, that being another reason why once again it should be done in a controlled setting with a professional, at least for the first times. Most commonly these trips can cause a lot of anxiety, but they often lead to a positive and life changing comedown, that being the reason why people do it several times despite bad experiences.

Conclusion

Ayahuasca is not for the curious or the inexperienced. It should be respected and misusing it could cause serious damage such as PTSD. When used right though, it could unlock mental doors that could positively change your life forever, as it has been proven to change your brain chemistry for the better. The effects may vary from person to person, but at the end of the day, it is up to you to discover.