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Preparation for the Ayahuasca Experience

admin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:09:36 +0000

by Howard G Charing

Eagle’s Wing

General Information about Ayahuasca

After being virtually ignored by Western civilization for centuries, there has been a huge surge of interest in Ayahuasca recently. There is a growing belief that it is a kind of ‘medicine for our times’, giving hope to people with ‘incurable’ diseases like cancer and HIV, drug addictions and inspiring answers to the big ecological problems of modern civilization.

Spirituality is at the centre of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in a shamanic ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery and transformation. This process can continue indefinitely even if one never drinks Ayahuasca again. One thing is sure, and that is that every person gets a unique experience. We believe that by seriously looking at the way Ayahuasca is used we can improve our life experience and benefit more from this medicine.

Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two make a potent medicine, which takes one into the visionary world. The vine is an inhibitor, which contains harmala and harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf contains vision-inducing alkaloids. As with all natural medicines, it is a mixture of many alkaloids that makes their unique properties. For example, Peyote, the cactus used by the North Native Americans, is said to contain 32 active alkaloids, so when one of those alkaloids, mescaline (LSD) is synthesised in a laboratory, contrary to popular opinion, the result is not at all the same.

The oldest know object related to the use of ayahuasca is a ceremonial cup, hewn out of stone, with engraved ornamentation, which was found in the
Pastaza culture of the Ecuadorian Amazon from 500 B.C. to 50 A.D. It is deposited in the collection of the Ethnological Museum of the Central
University (Quito, Ecuador). This indicates that ayahuasca potions were known and used at least 2,500 years ago.

Ayahuasca is a name derived from two Quechua words: aya means spirit, ancestor, deceased person, and huasca means vine or rope, hence it is known as vine of the dead or vine of the soul. It is also known by many other local names including yaje, caapi, natema, pinde, daime, mihi, & dapa. It plays a central role in the spiritual, religious and cultural traditions of the Indigenous and Mestizo (mixed blood) peoples of the upper Amazon, Orinoco plains and the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador.

The plants are collected from the rainforest in a sacred way and it is said that a shaman can find plentiful sources of the vine by listening for the ‘drumbeat’ that emanates from them. The mixture is prepared by cutting the vines to cookable lengths, scraping and cleaning them, pounding them into a pulp. Meanwhile the Chacruna leaves and picked and cleaned.

So what, perhaps, is the advantage of ayahuasca over other disciplines? In the words of Padrino Alex Polari de Alverga of the Santo Daime Community in Brazil, “Daime (ayahuasca) is basically a shortcut, it’s as if we had been travelling down the same highway as the rest of humanity, but then, in order to arrive at our destination more quickly we took a side road. When taking such a shortcut, however, we must be very careful and clear-minded. It is a shortcut that leads us to truth, but only if we follow in the footsteps of the Masters who have preceded us.”

Medicines like ayahuasca can help us along our path but we still have to do the work ourselves. My experience is that these kind of allies can help us open the doors of perception, but what we do when we get there is entirely our own challenge.

To understand ayahuasca in the local context, one cannot avoid taking a look at the ecological environment, such as the forest, cultural environment and indigenous cultures. This has structured the cultural content of ayahuasca.

There are many legends and myths about ayahuasca, one the more romantic is from the Shipibo people who live up the river in the heart of the jungle in the Peruvian Amazon.

This tale is centered around women, more so than men, as they look after the children and their health, whilst the men are out hunting and fishing. Men are more interested in plants that aid their inner spirits whilst hunting. Women are more interested in plants that will allow their children to grow.

There was one particular woman who was very interested in plants, who liked to pick the leaves of different plants. She would then crush the leaves into a pot and soak them in water over night. She would then take a bath every morning before sunrise (the way to find out about various plants and their effects is to bathe in them). She bathed in them every morning until she had a dream. In her dream a woman came and said, “why are you bathing every day?”

She answered, “I am doing this as I want you to teach me.” The other woman said, “You must seek out my uncle, his name is Kamarampi. I will show you where to find him”. The woman led the other woman to her uncle. The uncle showed her how to mix the leaves of the chacruna, which was a bush she had taken leaves from to bathe in. He showed her how to prepare the brew of Ayahuasca, he told her to go and tell the people the knowledge of how to use the brew. The Indigenous people past and present have taken Ayahuasca to enable them to focus on other dimensions. One example: – To enable them to be more successful on a hunting trip they would contact the Mother spirit of certain species, through the Ayahuasca. The hunt would be more successful.

One of the many mysteries surrounding Ayahuasca is how the vine became to be used with the Chacruna leaves as although they both come from the same soil but always grow apart otherwise the ayahuasca winds around the Chacruna and kills it. No one knows this but we get a clue from how the shamans interact with the plant. Javier Arevalo a shaman from the Peruvian Amazon told us “ in the old days his grandfather and uncles used to sit around after taking ayahuasca and he said that ayahuasca was originally taken alone and in the visions they saw that Chacruna was missing. Ayahuasca would say I am the doctor that gives the vision. His grandfather responded, how can we find this plant? The response in the vision was, you can find it by turning two corners. So they went around two corners and found a bush which attracted them which was Chacruna i.e. the ayahuasca showed them.

This is a fundamental principle, in the visions it is the spirit doctor of ayahuasca which tells them what is wrong with their patient, what medicine they need, or who has caused the illness or malaise.

The Icaros

Integral to the ceremony are the chants that the shaman sings. These are known as Icaros, and the chant will direct the nature of the ceremony or visionary experience for the group and for individuals as the shaman during the ceremony will chant specific Icaros for that person’s needs.

The words of the chants are symbolic stories telling of the ability of nature to heal itself. For example the crystalline waters from a stream wash the unwell person, while coloured flowers attract the hummingbirds whose delicate wings fan healing energies etc. You might see such things in your visions but the essence which cures you is perhaps more likely to be the understanding of what is happening in your life, allowing inner feelings to unblock so that bitterness and anger con change to ecstasy and love. To awaken from the ‘illusion of being alive’ is to experience life itself.

There are several different kinds of Icaros, at the beginning of the session. Their purpose is to provoke the mareacion or effects, and, in the words of Javier Arevalo, ‘to render the mind susceptible for visions to penetrate, then the curtains can open for the start of the theatre’.

Other Icaros call the spirit of Ayahuasca to open visions ‘as though exposing the optic nerve to light’. Alternatively, if the visions are too strong, the same spirit can be made to fly away in order to bring the person back to normality.

There are Icaros for calling the ‘doctors’, or plant spirits, for healing, while other Icaros call animal spirits, which protect and rid patients of spells.

Healing Icaros may be for specific conditions like manchare, which a child may suffer when it gets a fright. The spirit of a child is not so fixed in its body as that of an adult, therefore a small fall can easily cause it to fly. Manchare is a common reason for taking children to ayahuasca sessions.

Preparation for the Ayahuasca Experience

In the West there are lots of stories like ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ reminding us that plants have spirit power, Alice in Wonderland explored this world too. There is a large body of knowledge of power plants even if the form has been adapted to fairy tales and ‘domesticated’, not to under rate the richness of Grimms’ tales.

When a person drinks Ayahuasca, especially with a trusted shaman, there is a chance to learn and trust the plant. You discover that it works in its own way. It is a great moment getting to this point. Then there is the question of whether the plant trusts us, because it can be abused and used for getting the wrong kind of personal power. Without intention, vision, preparation, and a shaman, it is a drug not a healing medicine.

A major difficulty for Westerners is the diet and the living conditions in the rainforest. There is also the care clients need afterwards, as one is extremely vulnerable after drinking Ayahuasca. Also some of our attitudes need to change, for example some people find vomiting unpleasant.

In the Ayahuasca ceremony purgative cleansing of the physical body is an essential preparation for the new level of emerging consciousness. Vomiting and occasionally brief diarrhoea are common effects during the initial sessions.

The Shaman’s Diet

An integral element of this preparation is to undertake a diet intended to reduce excessive sugar, salt, oils, pork, fat, and spicy food in the body in
preparation to be in communion with the spirit of Ayahuasca. Reduction of these should commence as soon as one commits to the experience.

Pork in particular is considered to be impure and is studiously avoided by Ayahuasca practitioners. Complete abstinence from pork and lard for at least two weeks prior to the first ceremony is recommended to participants to reduce the impact of the purge. It is also recommended that this abstinence continue for at least two weeks after the final ceremony.

In the initiatory diet for those seeking personal cleansing and healing, chicken, fish, wild game meat, fruits, and vegetables may be eaten but with little if any salt, sugar, oils or spices. The cleansing effect and strength of the visionary experience can be greatly enriched by one’s commitment to these preparations.

Sexual abstinence also forms part of the diet and is a traditional requirement of Ayahuasca cleansing and healing. We recommend abstinence from sexual activity for a few days prior to the ceremony, and to continue a day or two after the last ceremony.

As all Amazonian shamans will tell you, and in the words of Dona Cotrina
“ Sex is bad. The ‘mother plant’ loves you and if you make love to another person, you are being unfaithful to her”. For this reason it is often said that Ayahuasca is jealous, and if you do not respect her, she makes you ill instead of healing you. You will also not be able to see any visions. The ill effects from not respecting the diet are called cutipa and range from a sense of trauma and stress to skin problems.

Menstrual cycle.

This is a complex issue in the Amazonian tradition. Basically women in their menstrual cycle are not permitted by Amazonian shamans and curanderos to be present in the preparation of the brew, drink Ayahuasca or attend the ceremonies. This is an ancient tradition rooted mainly in safety considerations rather than sexism, as female shamans in the Amazon also follow these prohibitions.

Some shamans say the presence of a woman in menstrual flow prevents them from “seeing” the causes of illness among those present in the ceremony, thus obstructing their ability to make diagnoses and facilitate healing.

Although Eagle’s Wing are unable to make any exception as this rule is observed by shamans in the Ayahuasca tradition, our experience is that shamans have a degree of flexibility and can perform a special chacapa session with participants to address this.

Medical Precautions

It is important to know that, in some cases, the consumption of Ayahuasca in combination with some groups of prescription & non-prescription medicines can bear health risks.

1. Prescription Medicines
If you are taking prescription medication (including antibiotics), are subject to high blood pressure, have a heart condition, or are under treatment for any health condition), please consult your GP.

1.1 Anti-depressants
Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis Caapi) contains MAOI’s (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) generally in the form of harmine and harmaline therefore Medical consultation is essential if you are taking Prozac or other antidepressants affecting serotonin levels, i.e. serotonin selective re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI).

SSRI’s block the reuptake of serotonin in the brain and because MAOI’s inhibit breakdown of serotonin, the combination of MAOI’s and SSRI’s can lead to too high levels of serotonin in the brain. SSRI’s are much more common than MAOI’s which are found in some anti-depressants. Consult your GP about the use of temporary monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI).

These medications generally require a period of six to eight weeks to completely clear the system and must be reduced gradually.

2. Non-Prescription Medicines
Non-prescription medications such as antihistamines, dietary aids, amphetamines and derivatives, and some natural herbal medicines, i.e. those
containing ephedrine, high levels of caffeine, or other stimulants, may also cause adverse reactions. We recommend that you discontinue all such medications, drugs, and herbs for at least one week prior to and following work with Ayahuasca.

3. Recreational Drugs
Avoid all recreational drugs, in particular MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, heroin. Also do not drink alcohol on the day of the ceremony.

4. Herbal Remedies
Use of herbal remedies for depression such as St John’s Wort (which also influence the serotonin levels) need to be discontinued as per 2 above.

Article Source: Preparation for the Ayahuasca Experience

A Neurobiological Theory of ‘The Fall’

Dennis McKenna — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:08:12 +0000

The foreword of the book ‘Left in The Dark‘, edited for Ayahuasca.com

The progress of science, and indeed, of human knowledge, requires a dynamic tension between the mere accumulation of observations and “dusty facts” and a synthetic process in which the accumulated results of scientific observation and inquiry are woven together into frameworks that, in the ideal case, create revolutionary paradigms that enhance human understanding of apparently discrete and unrelated aspects of nature.

The history of science and intellectual inquiry teach us that, as is so often the case with truly novel syntheses, established scientific and intellectual institutions are too ossified, and too invested in the conventionally accepted worldview, to allow the introduction of a new paradigm without putting up considerable resistance. One is reminded of the famous observation of philosopher Arthur Schopanhauer: All truth, he said, passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; third, it is accepted as being self-evident. We should be wary of rejecting out of hand the premises of a hypothesis that may one day seem self-evident.

Evolutionary biologists have long been puzzled by what is perhaps the chief mystery of human origins: the explosive and rapid expansion of the human brain in size and complexity over a vanishingly small span of evolutionary time. There is also the mystery of hemispheric lateralization and the apparent de-integration of the right- and left-hemispheric functions that we humans suffer. In the book ‘Left In the Dark’, a culmination of over fifteen years of independent research into human evolution, the authors postulate that it was not always so; the universal myth of a pre-historic Golden Age, they maintain, is a racial memory that reflects our primate evolution in an arboreal, rainforest environment in which humans possessed mental and psychic abilities that have since become lost or atrophied in the profane ages that followed.

Changes in the dietary patterns that were forced on the population by this migration put an end to the rapid evolution of the human brain and triggered its devolution, ultimately resulting in the damaged human neural architecture that we suffer from today

That rainforest environment favored a frugivorous diet rich in flavonoids, MAO inhibitors, and neurotransmitter precursors, and relatively low in steroid containing or inducing elements. This dietary regime both mimicked and fostered a state, reinforced by positive feedback loops, in which pineal functions, including neocortical expansion and hemispheric integration, were potentiated; moreover, these neurochemical feedback loops were amplified in succeeding generations via the regulation of gene expression in the developing foetus, independent of conventional evolutionary mechanisms of mutation and natural selection.

Climate changes or other environmental catastrophes forced several lineages of hominids as well as archaic/early humans out of their forest-dwelling ancestral home into much harsher savannah or grassland environments. As a consequence dietary regimens shifted toward roots, tubers, grass seed and a greater proportion of animal protein, triggering a reversal of the positive feedback loops that had sustained pineal potentiation and hemispheric integration in the paradisiacal, forest-dwelling Golden Age. Pineal dominance was disrupted by steroid-mediated, testosterone-driven functions primarily due to the reduced consumption of flavonoids and other steroid-inhibitory dietary factors.

Changes in the dietary patterns that were forced on the population by this migration put an end to the rapid evolution of the human brain and triggered its devolution, ultimately resulting in the damaged human neural architecture that we suffer from today, and the myriad mental and physical deficits that are the legacy of our biological ‘fall from grace’.

What is alluded to here is only the barest outline of an elegant hypothesis that plausibly elucidates many baffling aspects of human evolution, brain science, and physiology into a coherent explanatory framework. Ecologists have realized for several decades that the complex interrelations of plants and insects are largely mediated through plant chemistry, and that the interactive dynamics we can observe in these processes is a reflection of millions of years of plant-insect co-evolution. Evolutionary biologists have long suspected that similar co-evolutionary processes, mediated by interactions with plant secondary products, have influenced the evolution of vertebrates, including primates. The hypotheses presented in this book are incomplete, and are even now being refined and developed; however, even in their present form they present a credible foundation on which to build a better understanding of who we are, and how our puzzling human species got to be the way it is.

http://leftinthedark.org.uk/

What is a dieta?

Ayahuasca dot com — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:17:22 +0000

by Morgan Brent

Dieta is a Spanish word that means – simply enough – “diet.”

However, when used in Amazonian herbalist traditions that deal with the more powerful and often reality-altering and visionary varieties of plants known as plantas maestras or teacher-plants, the word comes to mean much more than that. It then describes dietary and behavioral regimens that allow one to move most safely and effectively into working relationships with such plants. These relationships can bring about profound transformations, and the dietas are designed to best facilitate them.

The dietas originated as a plant-based practice for developing attunement to the currents of spirit that underlie the material world. Traditionally, this has been applied to such skills as hunting, divination, ancestral consultations, healing, leadership, and so on. The dietas are part of broader systems of human-plant relationships (food taboos, garden magic, and so on) that characterize many of the indigenous people of Amazonia. As the Amazon basin is populated by a high concentration of plants whose chemical behaviors are complex and ‘active’ enough to be used medicinally, and humans have been interacting with them for 1000’s of years, the dieta tradition is well developed.

An individual undergoing a dieta retreats into isolation for a period of time (from days to months or even years) during which s/he is fed a ritually prepared and symbolically significant diet of foods such as plantain, manioc (cassava), and certain fish and jungle animals. In modern times this list often includes rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and chicken. Sugar, salt, chilies, certain meats (especially pork), acidic fruits, fermented foods, alcohol, and stimulants are avoided, as well as excessive exposure to sun, rain, fire, and unpleasant smells. Social interactions that involve ill individuals, sexual activity, and speaking of outside concerns, are likewise eschewed. In this way the dietas loosen the hold of human cultural traits – the understanding being that by doing so humans are more open to guidance and power from the natural world. In addition, its ritualized structure values and inspires self-discipline. Such traits are shared with vision quests, and the dietas can be approached in this way.

When one undergoes a dieta the focus is often on a particular plant best suited to the needs of the individual. “The chosen plant depends upon the personality structure of the patient and the goals of the therapists: some plants are indicated for connecting with emotions and childhood memories, others to strengthen a proper attitude, still others to break some resistances” (Mabit et al 1996). Such plants can include bobinsana/Calliandra angustifolia; toe/Brugmansia sp.; chiric sanango/Brunsfelsia sp.; oje/Ficus anthelmintica; tangarana/Triplaris sp., and the “king of brews,” aya-huasca/Banisteriopsis Caapi, along with its usual admixture chacruna/Psychotria viridis.

The simple explanation of the therapeutic value of dietas is as follows:

1. They modify states of consciousness and purify the body,

2. They allow one to more easily deal with the strong emetic, cathartic, and visionary effects commonly associated with the plantas maestras. The resulting changes need to be carefully protected, as rearrangements in body biochemistries and identity patterns leave the patient or initiate for a time sensitive and vulnerable. In this way dietas can be typified as preparation and recovery technologies that attend this sort of phyto-spiritual “surgery”.

3. They stimulate the body’s innate ability to self-heal.

According to Schultes and Winkelman (1996), “Diet is viewed as a tool helping to maintain the altered state of consciousness (ASC) which permits the plant teacher to instruct, provide knowledge, and enable the initiate to acquire power. The diet is viewed as a means of making the mind operate differently, providing access to wisdom and lucid dreams. These regimens provide strength . . . .” In Luna’s studies of aya-huasca shamanism in Peru, he likewise says that the “necessity of diet — which includes sexual segregation — to learn from the plants was stressed by every vegetalista I met” (1991).

It is said that the dietas are prescribed by the plants themselves, each a little different, depending on the character (species) of the plant. To understand plants as capable of communicating the conditions by which we can best relate to them is a . . . leap . . for many of us. However, in order to grasp the rationales of the dietas and the entire therapeutic process in which they are involved, it is important to cultivate a view of the natural world as highly aware, intelligent, infinitely helpful (if approached with respect) and ultimately ~~ Enchanted.

To this end, it helps to explore what we might call “indigenous consciousness.” When a person or people actively recognize the nourishment exchange between themselves and the land, and connect the quality of their lives to the health and fertility of their environment, then ecological relations become an intimate experience. Such an awareness is available to anyone who walks the ways of the earth.

“Indigenous consciousness” therefore defines the word “indigenous” in a relational sense, not in the sense of whoever arrived at a place first. Relational indigeneity is a birthright of everyone, and is up to everyone to claim. To cultivate one’s indigeneity is to root one’s sense of identity, of belonging, deeply into the earth. One then reaches into the nourishing groundwaters of Spirit. The deeper one drinks, the more one perceives the common origin and destiny of the great society of Nature. All plants, animals, minerals, forces of weather, elements, and so on are recognized to be a vast interwoven, co-evolving, and mutually transformative community. Natural ecosystems are then understood to be the surface manifestations of an underlying culture of spiritual relations.

In this way a rain forest can be understood as a kind of “city,” a cosmopolitan center of terrestrial life. It is a gathering place of diverse life forms with high population density and a limited resource base. Its inhabitants traffic in fertility and vitality, and there exists a sophisticated culture to work the philosophies of reciprocity, the art forms of diversity, and the languages of interspecies dialogue, all necessary to maintain a fine-tuned ecological balance.

As humans have evolved as part of this sylvan cosmos, which in its various ecological expressions are found all over the planet, and actually ARE the planet, we have had to internalize this culture within our own to maintain equilibrium with it. To the degree we have done so, we are indigenous to our environment, prosper as a species, and flourish. To the degree we have become unaware of this culture through our own inattention, greed, separative ideologies, or whatever, and replaced it with the many variations of human chauvinism, we suffer the ill effects

.Of this we are best cured by a thorough re-indigenization, a re-membering and active practicing of co-creative relationships with the tribes of creation.

What we call medicinal plants are among the primary agents by which erring humans are brought back into the ecosystemic fold. They can help bring our own disordered ecologies of body, mind, will, emotions, and social relations into entrainment with their own internal ecologies (their constituents or energetic architecture), which resonate with successively larger and more organized eco-systems. Plants can thereby pull us into harmonic relations with the metabolic functionings of the planet. The planet thereby teaches via the conditions of its healthy functioning. This dharma upwells through the plants and into the understandings and practices of those who are “listening.” It has inspired and guided the world’s great herbalist traditions. Herbalism in its most perennial forms has internalized this dharma and applied it to the microcosm of the human body to understand states of well-being and to treat illness.

In this way herbalism is ecological medicine, the blueprint for all “sustainable” medicines. Its most general prescriptions for health and flourishment can be understood as follows:

1. The importance of dialogue (responsive communication) between all beings. This includes cross-species and cross-dimensional communications between inhabitants of the “horizontal” world of physical existence and “vertical” world of spirit.

2. The accommodation and promotion of diversity, essential to the creative potential of any community.

3. The acknowledgment of the existence of vitality, or life force as fundamental to animate existence.

4. The recognition that reciprocity must be effected between those accessing this vitality or “fertility circuit,” in order to equitably share in, manage, and conserve its use.

5. The importance of respect, and taken further, reverence, in dealing with all members of the natural world. This applies most specifically to humans and acts as governor to the excesses of self-reflective consciousness and ego. The development of this trait reveals the presence and well-being of “others” as self-evident to a healthy existence. It is the basis of relational indigeneity, fundamental to spiritual ecology, and the root of perennial herbalism. All these traits promote flow of energy (change) and balance in this flow (homeostasis). Both are necessary for any organism to grow and maintain itself.

Ecological medicine is inseparable from spiritual healing. Both describe a strengthening and clarity of relationships, an opportunity to immerse oneself in the interconnectedness of all life. A world imbued with spirit cannot be separated into the sacred and profane, the spirited and the spiritless.

It is only by creating an indirect dependence on the land (e.g. modern city life) that nature is easily perceived as “less than” the humans that manipulate it. The world split into the religious and secular is a world judged to have constituents of moral and ethical value (religious) and those of dross (secular), the pure and the impure, the worthy and the worthless. This world view projected onto plants also sees them as having constituents of value (active) and those of dross (inactive). For purposes of utility this can be a useful distinction. But when utilitarianism is raised to a guiding social ethic, an approach to all of the natural world, it cuts off spiritual relations with it.

This can be understood as a “great forgetting” – one of the defining pathologies of highly rationalist cultures. Medicinal plants are specialists in helping humans re-awaken from this amnesia. Some “speak” louder than others; vision plants urge a deep ecological message of change that runs so contrary to the guiding myths of industrial-growth cultures that they are often made illegal. When the medicines are outlawed, then the healers become outlaws. It’s a sign of the times.

However. The wisdoms of human partnership with the tribes of Nature may have been colonized, missionized, industrialized, and consumerized into the earth, and may have been bulldozed and burned at the stake and poisoned and buried under concrete. But to the earth they have gone, and from the earth they will arise. And they are arising now, like sprouts through the cracks in the road of progress. Through many people, and the numbers are growing as world problems brought on by selfish, disassociative cultural scripts become more critical and the changes necessary for their solution more obvious.

People are suffering, the world is suffering, and relief is being asked for, cried for, prayed for. Another human story exists to replace the self-destructive mythic addictions of modernity. A story of human lifeways repatterned onto principles of organismic growth and evolution, healthy ecological relations, and recognition of the worlds of spirit and vitality. This story comes from an in-place wisdom native to this earth, and it is breaking like a wave upon this planet. The knowledge that runs this story is now growing like mycelium through the cultural deadwood of the colonizers. It is coming out of the forests and deserts and mountains, out of the many earth-based cultures whose wisdoms are spreading through the air (and electronic) currents of world. It is working through people in the West who are returning home to the community of life, who are engaged in healing themselves and others of the chronic homesickness that manifests in so many of the ills of modernity. This is what the world-wide renaissance in the way of the plants is about. This is why herbalist Rosemary Gladstar calls plants “the umbilical cords to the planet.”

“The earth is calling us to remember” (Buhner 1997).

With all this said, it should be obvious that individual healing is ultimately inseparable from planetary healing. The plants teach awareness, and one is commonly faced with heightened realizations of the enormity of the planetary crisis, along with the obviousness and urgency of the solutions. These understandings demand action. Mucho trabajo! How one accommodates these revelations and integrates them into one’s life is never easy. However, it is integral to healing, to growth into a life of authenticity, of truthfulness.

A further challenge is that during a dieta ones understandings become primarily felt. The greater the problems revealed, the more one must open to feel them. One must thaw the feeling body to feel pain to its core. Only by feeling pain to its depths does one acknowledge it, know it, transmute it, and release it, simultaneously freeing oneself. The more expansive the sense of the self, the more pervasive the feeling, the more one’s Spirit is enlivened, and the greater the healing.

A visionary perspective on this is that the earth is raising its spiritual vibration as a way to transition itself out of the current crisis. This is another way of saying that the earth is sending out strong intentions to heal, a Gaian version of prayer. As the earth moves through this change it simultaneously brings along and is brought along by those humans sensitive to this rising wave, attracted to this swelling invigoration. There are those who persist in feeding off dwindling energy from a dying era with contracted vehicles conditioned, i.e. normalized to limited conductivity. And there are those that are recognizing a higher frequency of “juice,” of life force, of info-energy, of understandings – and are doing their best to reconfigure themselves to accommodate it; to run it, work it, and become it. A new human operating system is forming, and this is what catalyzes the changes, the “roll-over” effect. This energy has to maximize and manifest itself through human one at a time, to then snowball thru the human collective. The biggest blocks to this happening is the feeling narcosis and culture of fear, denial, and avoidance still strongly remnant on the planet.

This is the paradox of healing revealed by the plants. Only by facing fear is one released from its stranglehold. Only by dying is one freed from the fear of dying, and only then can one be fully alive. It may mean a head-on collision with oneself, but out of the wreckage will appear the glimmers of the soul glyph, designs of one’s original incarnational purposes.

This is why dietas are a lot of work and not necessarily “fun”. Healing can be smooth or messy (usually both); this simply reflects the reality of what is being addressed. In a medicine circle, all that is authentic is redeemed and ultimately appreciated. The benefits in engaging this process include a purified, strengthened, and renewed spiritual self. From spirit comes the deepest source of well-being, a self-confidence arising from engagement with the real and the truthful. This is felt as a bliss beyond the usual pleasure-button pushing/pain avoidance strategies of hedonism, and certainly well beyond the Puritan denial of the body’s urge towards physical pleasure. It is a spiritual law that one gets what one pays for. The harder the work, the sweeter the ecstasy. The universe rewards courage (and punishes stupidity). The plants teach the evolution Game, and how to play it successfully. It is a wisdom of transfomation, a gift to humanity, and it is here for the asking.

Reprinted with permission

What foods and drugs need to be avoided?

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:02:27 +0000

What foods need to be avoided?

Basically foods that are aged, preserved, dried, fermented, pickled, cured (meats), rancid, old, outdated, overripe, or even slightly spoiled.

The following foods are recommended to be avoided with MAOIs:

Meat that is not fresh, especially unfresh liver (fresh meat and fresh liver are safe)
Smoked, fermented, pickled (herring) and otherwise aged or dried fish, lox; any fish that is not fresh
Sausage, bologna, pepperoni, salami, corned beef
Aged cheeses (cottage cheese and cream cheese are safe)
Protein extracts
Liquid and powdered protein dietary supplements
Brewer’s yeast, yeast vitamin supplements, or yeast extracts
Fermented tofu, fermented bean curd, fermented soybean paste, soy sauce
Canned soups, or soups made with protein extracts or bouillon
Miso soup (contains fermented bean curd)
Shrimp paste
Sauerkraut
Fruits that are bruised or even slightly overripe, especially bananas and apples; raisins and other dried fruits, fig newtons, etc (banana peels also should be avoided — as though you’d eat them anyway)
Avocados, if ripe or overripe (slightly underripe avocados are fine in moderation). Guacamole should be avoided.
Red wine, especially Chianti; sherry, vermouth, champagne, brandy; beers and ales, including nonalcoholic; whiskey and liqueurs such as Drambuie and Chartreuse
Dairy products that are close to the expiration date or that have been unrefrigerated (fresh yogurt is safe)
Aspartame (Nutrasweet)
Fava beans, especially if overripe
Peanuts – in large quantities
Raspberries – in large quantities
Spinach, New Zealand prickly or hot weather – in large quantities
Chocolate – in large quantities
Caffeine in large quantities (note: in a few rare individuals, there may be a severe interaction with even small amounts of caffeine)

How long do they need to be avoided?

24 hours before and after drinking Ayahuasca should be sufficient.

Is it really important to avoid those foods?

The warnings about tyramine interaction sound very serious, because they are adapted from warnings about interactions with pharmaceutical MAOIs.
However, food interaction with Ayahuasca is frankly not as serious a matter as it is with pharmaceutical MAOIs.

http://forums.ayahuasca.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=12275

However, while there are no reports of fatalities from food interactions with Ayahuasca, food interactions could conceivably be life-threatening for a person with severe high blood pressure or serious heart disease. People with these conditions, therefore, should follow the MAOI safety diet very strictly when taking Ayahuasca.

Please note: Peganum harmala (Syrian rue) is a stronger MAOI than Banisteriopsis (Ayahuasca vine) and has potentially more serious interactions.

What can I eat?

In terms of the MAOI safety diet, basically foods that are as fresh as possible and not overripe, preserved, or spoiled in any way.

Drugs and Medications

Is it really dangerous to combine some pharmaceutical drugs with Ayahuasca?

YES. Unlike food interactions, whose consequences are unlikely to be serious, interaction with pharmaceutical drugs and meds (including some over-the-counter drugs and certain herbs) can be potentially life-threatening..

Which drugs are dangerous with Ayahuasca?

A list of meds to be careful of with MAOIs:

other MAOIs
SSRI’s (any selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor)
amphetamines (meth-, dex-, amphetamine)
antihypertensives (high blood pressure medicine)
appetite suppressants (diet pills)
medicine for asthma, bronchitis, or other breathing problems
antihistamines, medicines for colds, sinus problems, hay fever, or allergies (Actifed DM, Benadryl, Benylin, Chlor-Trimeton, Compoz, etc.)
CNS (central nervous system) depressants
antipsychotics
alcohol

Some specific drugs that should not be combined with MAOIs:

Actifed
Amantadine hydrochloride (Symmetrel)
Amoxapine (Asendin)
Benadryl
Benylin
Bupropion (Wellbutrin)
Buspirone (BuSpar)
Carbamazepine (Tegretol, Epitol)
Chlor-Trimeton
Clomipramine (Anafranil)
Cocaine
Cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril)
Cyclizine (Marezine)
Desipramine (Pertofrane)
Dextromethorphan (DXM)
Disopyramide (Norpace)
Doxepin (Sinequan)
Ephedrine
Flavoxate Hydrochloride (Urispas)
Fluoxetine (Prozac)
Imipramine (Tofranil)
Isocarboxazid (Marplan)
Levodopa (Dopar, Larodopa)
Loratadine (Claritin)
Maprotiline (Ludiomil)
Meperidine (Demerol)
Methylphenidate (Ritalin)
Nortriptyline (Aventyl)
Oxybutynin chloride (Ditropan)
Orphenadrine (Norflex)
Parnate
Paroxetine (Paxil)
Phenergen
Phenelzine (Nardil)
Procainamide (Pronestyl)
Protriptyline (Vivactil)
Pseudoephedrine
Quinidine (Quinidex)
Salbutemol
Salmeterol
Selegiline (Eldepryl)
Sertraline (Zoloft)
Tegretol
Temaril
Tranylcypromine (Parnate)
Tricyclic antidepressants (Amitriptyline, Elavil)
Trimipramine (Surmontil)
Yohimbine

Also avoid the following herbs:

St. Johns Wort
Kava
Ephedra
Ginseng
Yohimbe
Sinicuichi

Using Tricyclic antidepressants within two weeks of taking MAOIs may cause serious side effects including sudden fever, extremely high blood pressure, convulsions, and death.

Using Fluoxetine (Prozac) within five weeks of taking MAOIs may cause high fever, rigidity, high blood pressure, mental changes, confusion and hypomania.

Using Meperidine (Demerol) with pharmaceutical MAOIs has resulted in deaths from a single dose.

Using cocaine with MAOIs may cause a severe increase in blood pressure, increasing the chances for stroke and cerebral hemorrhage and making it possible to overdose on a relatively small amount of cocaine. (A fatality has been recorded involving combining Peganum harmala and cocaine.)

Using Bupropion (Wellbutrin) within two weeks of taking MAOIs may cause serious side effects such as seizures.

Using Buspirone (Buspar) with MAOIs may cause high blood pressure.

Using Carbamazepine (Tegretol) with MAOIs may increase seizures.

Using CNS depressants with MAOIs may increase the depressant effects.

Using Dextromethorphan with MAOIs may cause excitement, high blood pressure, and fever, or brief episodes of psychosis.

Using Tryptophan with MAOIs may cause disorientation, confusion, amnesia, delirium agitation, hypomanic signs, shivering.

Using alcohol with MAOIs may cause side effects like angina (chest pain) or headaches. The headache may mask or be mistaken for hypertensive crisis caused by MAOI interaction.

Using Kava with MAOIs may result in hypotensive crisis (severe blood pressure drop).

Using Temaril with MAOIs may increase chance of side effects.

Special note to diabetics: MAOIs may change the amount of insulin or oral antidiabetic medication that you need. Notes on Diabetes and Ayahuasca.

Threads discussing specific meds:

antibiotics
antihistamines
asthma inhalers
SSRIs
Acetominophen
Codeine
Diazepam
Elavil
Kava
Kava
Klonopin
Klonopin
Losartan (Cozaar)
Methadone
MDMA
Oxycodone
Paxil
Percocet
Prozac
Risperdal
Stratera
St Johns Wort
Vicodin
Wellbutrin
Zoloft

How long do you have to stay off them before and after an Ayahuasca ceremony?

Depends on the drug. May be 24 hours, may be six months. Two to six weeks is typical, but do not guess. Find out for sure from your doctor.

Questions about food or medication interactions may be posted in this thread http://forums.ayahuasca.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7088
Or you can create a new thread in the Information Forum with your safety question.