2013
An experiential journalist ventures into the Amazon Jungle to discover the mysteries of a powerful visionary plant medicine and the shamans who work with it.
101 min
CLEAR ALL
I drank ayahuasca in 1999, in a ceremony led by two scholars with expertise in ayahuasca. What follows is an edited version of what I wrote about the experience in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism.
It’s impossible to be truly prepared for a psychedelic which hauls you through the doors of perception and unceremoniously throws your sense of self and reality off the edge of the world.
What the psychedelic drug ayahuasca showed me about my life.
Ayahuasca is a DMT/MAOI Amazonian brew that is used by shamans to connect with higher planes of existence, and to heal people.
Every day, more people around the world are hearing about ayahuasca and awakening to transform their lives. What about you? Are you drinking ayahuasca, or thinking of drinking? Your first ceremony may be confusing, exciting, nauseating, surprising, scary, boring, or joyous.
Ayahuasca is a powerful tool for transformation, that more and more Westerners are flocking to drink in a quest for greater self-knowledge, healing and reconnection with the natural world. This formerly esoteric, little-known brew is now a growth industry.
Rachel Harris, PhD, a psychologist, is author of Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addictions, PTSD, and Anxiety. Here she discusses some of the potential hazards and dangers associated with the ritual use of ayahuasca.