Ayahuasca EN
Important information Ayahuasca
Perhaps you’ve heard about Ayahuasca from others and feel curious about your own origins and connection with yourself. You may have already tried meditation, therapy, or mindfulness techniques without achieving the desired results. In that case, Ayahuasca might be worth considering.
This powerful, consciousness-expanding plant promotes personal and spiritual growth but can also confront you with deep-rooted themes. This process can lead to valuable insights and a more conscious, healthier life.
Are you ready for self-development and inner growth? Then an Ayahuasca ceremony could be a meaningful experience for you. On this page, we share information about its safety, therapeutic benefits, and spiritual aspects.
Ayahuasca is one of the most transformative and healing sources of energy from nature.
Entheogene (plant) substances such as ayahuasca have been used for centuries in shamanic and spiritual traditions.
They encourage deep introspection, emotional healing, and spiritual transformation.
In an increasing number of therapeutic settings, they are recognized as effective therapeutic tools
in the treatment of trauma, depression, anxiety, and addiction, among others.
What is Ayahuasca made of?
What is Ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca is a plant brew typically made from two, sometimes three plants in the West. One plant contains an MAO inhibitor, and the other a high form of DMT (dimethyltryptamine).
In some Amazonian tribes, Ayahuasca can be made from seven or even more plants. Ayahuasca is a cocktail and can vary, although the basis for most lies in the use of two plants. Depending on culture and / or the personal relationship with the plant.
DMT is also known as the Spirit Molecule and is naturally present in our bodies.
Taking DMT allows you to experience a deeper connection with yourself. This connects us to an inner source of knowledge present in every human being. DMT often produces visions characterized by colorful patterns or geometric shapes.
When DMT is ingested orally, it is immediately broken down by our body’s enzymes. This natural breakdown process is slowed down by the MAO inhibitor. An MAO inhibitor plant is needed for the DMT to take effect.
The effects of Ayahuasca (depending on the strength) last around 2.5 to 3 hours, which is why it is usually drunk twice in one ritual. The entire process takes about 6 to 7 hours.
Quality Ayahuasca brew
Ayahuasca has a bitter, tangy, and earthy taste with a brown to (light) red color that you won’t easily forget after you’ve tasted it.
Every Ayahuasca ceremony is unique and influenced by various factors, including the strength of the Ayahuasca brew. This depends on:
– The brewer’s relationship with the plants, their own spirituality, and level of awareness.
– The cooking time and quality of the ingredients.
– The (group) energy of the participants and their level of awareness.
Everything is energy. Does the energy during an Ayahuasca ritual become higher, more loving, more powerful? Then participants often ‘hitch a ride’ in this flow.
However, if the group energy is “heavier or more melancholic,” this is also felt by the participants.
Which plants make up Ayahuasca?
Traditionally, Ayahuasca is made from two plants: the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine and the leaves of the Psychotria viridis plant. The Banisteriopsis Caapi vine contains MAO inhibitors, while the leaves of Psychotria viridis (Chacruna) or Chaliponga contain DMT.
The combination of these plants forms the Ayahuasca brew.
However, there are several plant combinations that include an MAO inhibitor and DMT, sometimes using seven or more plants. Despite varying opinions on this, I believe that any plant with an MAO inhibitor and DMT falls under the umbrella of Ayahuasca.
Other combinations may include:
– Peganum Harmala (Syrian rue) as an MAO inhibitor,
– Jurema (Mimosa Hostilis) as a DMT source,
– Acacia (Acacia Confusa) as a DMT source.
Note: Ensure that there is transparency about the Ayahuasca you will be consuming. It is essential that facilitator / plant worker / process therapist, or medicine person communicates openly about the composition of the Ayahuasca.
The benefits from an Ayahuasca ceremony
Ayahuasca heals emotionally, physically, and mentally. It connects you with your own spirituality and fosters both personal and spiritual growth.
Ayahuasca serves as a reflection; you become your own therapist. When you are willing to take responsibility and be honest with yourself, space for change opens up.
Learning to become aware and making peace with ourselves are important outcomes that drinking Ayahuasca can bring.
Drinking Ayahuasca can initiate profound transformation, helps with healing trauma, and simultaneously awaken your creativity and life purpose.
"I am the problem"
The cause must always be found within ourselves. Others are merely a reflection, a mirror.
How we experience the outside world is entirely related to our perception of our inner world (how we experience it internally). Our perspective on the world reveals everything about how we approach life.
Self-exploration enhances the Ayahuasca experience.
What may have happened in my family or what events have occurred in previous generations?
What is my ‘problem’?
What do I keep facing in my life?
Have I experienced impactful events?
What would I like to change?
Did any shocking experiences occur in my childhood?
What was the course of my pregnancy or my own birth?
What is my deepest motivation or desire to connect with Ayahuasca?
What am I curious about?
Why drinking Ayahuasca?
It is important to consider why you are considering drinking Ayahuasca and with whom you intend to do so.
It is essential to realize that unprocessed emotions require careful attention. Therefore, before you start drinking Ayahuasca, it is valuable to explore together with the process guide or therapist “where possibly” the cause of your problem originated, including the blockages you face in daily life.
Ayahuasca is not meant for ticking off a Bucket List or undergoing a trip.
Ayahuasca is absolutely wonderful, full of love, creativity and takes us beyond our minds, however; this comes with (therapeutic) deep healing.
Be aware that change and transformation can be initiated by connecting with Ayahuasca.
Everyone faces challenges and internal conflicts, although they vary in nature and intensity. If you’re seeking self-discovery and healing, it requires confronting yourself and addressing your traumas or challenges.
'What you seek is seeking you. Rumi'
Ayahuasca connects us with our higher and lower consciousness.
When one drinks Ayahuasca, one is invited to focus his attention on his inner world; an inner journey. In this state of consciousness, three themes are touched; Big Mind, Big Heart and our pain body (Pandora’s Box).
The Pain Body
Because Ayahuasca opens the gateway to our subconscious, we come into contact with our pain body—a place where both our emotional and physical pain is stored. These are issues we prefer to avoid because they are too painful, frightening, traumatic, or confrontational.
“What you don’t know doesn’t hurt you.”
In daily life our ego tries to control this by rationalizing, but in doing so, we distance ourselves further from our feelings. We suppress these feelings, yet we will continue to face triggers that press our pain buttons.
We try to fill this emptiness with external distractions. Such as; eating unhealthy, working, gaming, drugs, overconsumption, smoking, alcohol, etc. In other words, It’s like putting a bandage on a wound while it’s still bleeding.
Ayahuasca & our consciousness
Big Mind
This higher intelligent state of awareness provides us with insights into our past, present, and future, along with a collective supportive memory.
From this perspective, we stop judging ourselves. By setting aside our ego, we can experience events and recurring themes without judgment.
We recognize our patterns as deeply rooted conditioning and misleading beliefs.
This allows us to gain insights into how patterns from the past, as well as those from our parents and ancestors, are intertwined and continue to influence us.
Big Heart
The center of feeling. When our heart opens, we experience both our pain and our greatest love. All emotions flow freely. We’re opening up and become more sensitive. This is why music plays an important role during Ayahuasca ceremonies.
Big Mind (higher consciousness) and Big Heart serve as ‘gateways’ to the spiritual realm. Once in surrender, we step out of our pain body. This allows us to move beyond victimhood and observe our lives without judgment, enabling us to create positive change.
One often experiences a state of unity and completeness.
Common Ayahuasca experiences
You cannot die from a re-experience during Ayahuasca, even though it may feel ‘real’ as you relive a memory.
The fear of death is common, but Ayahuasca can help reduce or even eliminate this fear by encouraging acceptance of the circle of life.
Realize that the underlying theme is that unprocessed emotions and experiences seek to be processed, and this can include facing the process of dying in an Ayahuasca ceremony.
Dying, like birth, is a significant experience for many, often happening unconsciously through things like medication or accidents.
In the ceremony, ‘you may experience’ the death of a past life or someone emotionally close to you—such as a loved one.
However you can also experience symbolic dying, or ego death, involves releasing attachments to your identity and fears, this helps you connect with your true self and inner peace.
While this process may seem overwhelming, it is often humbling, grateful, and even loving. Remember, you are not dying—you are simply experiencing it as a body memory.
If panic arises, remember that experienced guidance in a safe environment can help
The birth process plays a crucial role in shaping our personality and can influence the possible development of various (mental) disorders as we age. A birth experience is therefore common in ayahuasca.
As humans, we all go through two intense experiences: birth and death. Birth is often accompanied by fear, marked by the overwhelming chaotic energy released during the emotional bond between baby and mother, where complications can frequently arise. Therefore, the birth experience is the most common trauma we all carry.
Of course, there are many shocking experiences, such as (sexual) abuse, accidents, the loss of loved ones, and illnesses that occur throughout our lives. However, not everyone has experienced these, but everyone has experienced birth.
Our bodies store these experiences in cellular memory, including those from conception and before. Due to its impact, the birth experience often surfaces during Ayahuasca ceremonies, seeking a way to process.
Knowing this beforehand, through a facilitator or therapist, helps you recognize and navigate this experience if it arises. This rebirth experience can lead to a significant boost in self-confidence and trust.
These are often unprocessed lives that want to be processed. During an Ayahuasca connection, these stories and images can come back into our consciousness quite clearly. Often they are images and stories that we have not experienced before in this life and therefore do not recognize.
Whether it was a past life of yours, from the collective, or from your family line, it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that it still plays a role in your life now, which is why it resurfaces in your consciousness.
There is often a common thread between a past life and the current one. You may encounter situations now that evoke certain behavior, fears, anger, or sadness, but you may not understand their connection.
Experiencing a past life may lead to recognition, deep insights or a meaningful message.
In a state of surrender and connection with oneself, spiritual experiences can occur during an Ayahuasca ceremony. These experiences vary from person to person and depend on one’s personal and spiritual development. Sometimes these experiences manifest themselves already in one ceremony, while for others it only takes place after several ceremonies.
The spiritual insights and messages come from gods, teachers, angels, light guides, or totem animals; various archetypes. Generally, they convey messages of safety, trust, and sometimes a profound sense of unity with the universe. They provide strength for the earthly life you’ve chosen and restore your connection with your spirituality.
Essence of Ayahuasca
‘The unprocessed wants to be processed’ whether it is one of your own experiences, carried from generations or past lives, there is no distinction. It is now a part of you and at some level forms a blockage to live freely.
The soul wants to heal and therefore triggers will keep coming as long as you have not yet processed (emotionally) these painful parts. Healing happens during the Ayahuasca session because the unprocessed parts of the subconscious come back into our consciousness mind. In this way the experience can be safely processed which gives liberation, resilience and transformation.
It is very common to come into conflict with oneself, which often occurs during a first Ayahuasca ceremony. The ego is strong and wants to keep suppressing and controlling.
During an Ayahuasca ceremony surrender will eventually take place. This facilitates (trauma) processing and fosters the personal growth and transformation.
Sometimes processing challenging themes happens immediately during a first Ayahuasca connection and sometimes it takes a little more time. It takes self-confidence which goes hand in hand with “sensing and getting to know Ayahuasca.
Every person has gone through a profound experience to some degree. Perhaps you personally have not had such an experience, but you carry it with you from family lines.
Ultimately, you cannot escape from confronting your painful emotions and themes, includes the shame and guilt which we all carry.
However, realize that the soul always seeks for healing and growth. If not achieved in this lifetime, these lessons may pass to future generations or might return in a future reincarnation.
History Ayahuasca
The tradition of ritually using Ayahuasca comes from South America. Ayahuasca is a native South American brew that has been used for centuries by indigenous tribes in the Amazon.
Its history dates back to ancient times as an important part of shamanism, an ancient spiritual tradition. In recent decades, it has gained worldwide attention because of interest in its spiritual and therapeutic properties.
Ayahuasca is originally an indigenous traditional ritual and is led by a shaman or healer. Participants gather in a special space where they drink the Ayahuasca (a concentrated brew) and are guided by the shaman.
Ayahuasca was used by peoples – living together in tribal groups – as a healing agent and to get in touch with the source (also called; Source, God, The Creator, Allah or Great Spirit).
The Santo Daime Church is a spiritual and religious movement (created in the 1930s) that originated in the Amazon region of Brazil. The Santo Daime church uses Ayahuasca as a sacred sacrament and is drunk in groups during religious services.
With psychedelics, like Ayahuasca, gaining more attention, we can affirm that the practice of self-inquiry and awareness is valuable for experiencing freedom, heal from fears and expand our potential.
‘ Drinking Ayahuasca requires focus & concentration '
Concentrating on the ability to feel.
Our thinking has become an important tool in everyday life. However, in an Ayahuasca ceremony, thinking blocks the experience you are in. The mind takes ‘the wheel’ when an experience becomes intense.
For example; ‘Ayahuasca puts you into an experience/emotion, things are heating up and intense, and then you are ‘tuning out.’ At that moment, you lose connection with your physical experience, and your mind takes over. It’s new and unfamiliar, sometimes flashing by like a circus. Approach it with curiosity and relaxation. Allow the experience to unfold fully. Your breath serves as an anchor throughout this process. To fully allow the experience of Ayahuasca seems simple and in fact it is.
The challenge lies only in the fact that for many people the mind is so strong, so far removed from their feelings.
It is logical that it takes practice to let go of continuous thinking, something that has had a function for a long time.
Learn to become aware. Meditation, mindfulness or some form of yoga is a great tool for this.
Focus on the experience
Undergoing an Ayahuasca session and understanding what experience you are in requires some practice (awareness). It is not a given that an inner journey with Ayahuasca will be clear and obvious.
Although it also happens that answers do not come to you directly, sometimes the come weeks or months later to the surface.
The challenge, and also valuable lesson, during the Ayahuasca experience is to keep on feeling and not try to understand through the thinking mind. The ultimate goal is being aware of the experience you’re in.
Memories can be shown in various ways during an Ayahuasca ceremony.
For example, with visuals, as if you were watching a movie. This is often clear.
However, during the Ayahuasca , memories can also popping up into our consciousness through the body; feelings. This one is more challenging and can sometimes be more confusing.
A physical experience comes into your consciousness, only often it is not yet clear what you are in or what it relates to.
This requires focus and receptivity. The process facilitator or therapist can prepare you in advance for this by informing.
