“Why is it that individuals report these life changing experiences…”
Dr. Charles Grob – Ayahuasca & Hallucinogens: Clinical Studies
“There is no recreations use of ayahuasca that has emerged. It’s always used within ceremony.”
In this 47 minute plus video Dr. Grob, researcher on ayahuasca, begins by talking about a trip he made in 1993 to Manaus, the capital of Amazonia in, Brazil; there, he reflects, that he was invited to do a study and have as subjects — individuals from a syncretic church that uses ayahuasca in their religious ceremonies.
Dennis McKenna and other researchers were with Dr. Grob during this 1993 research journey.
They randomly selected 15 members from the UDV who had been using ayahuasca for over 10 years.
The team did baseline studies of the UDV ayahuasca drinking group and a control group that had never done ayahuasca. The research team also had an experimental ayahuasca session with the ayahuasca drinking UDV study subjects while they were under the influence of ayahuasca to study the acute medical effects of ayahuasca along with more subjective parts of the experience via surveys.
The research study found that subjects that used ayahuasca under the UDV, they were healthy and even free of certain socio- and psychological or addictive problems some may have had in the past, for example alcoholism…
It is a great mystery why it worked: a tremendous psycho-spiritual epiphany…
Many study subjects had stories of visions experienced while under the influence of ayahuasca — they interpreted to having their lives out of control and that they needed to change.
They joined the UDV and went from quite dysfunctional to great responsible members of society — their standards of conduct improved tremendously.
The DMT in ayahuasca is very similar structurally to serotonin and it affect the serotonin receptors and it is believed that this is why DMT creates visionary experiences.
“I was present at baptisms where little babies are baptized with an eye dropper full of of ayahuasca.” –around 14 minute mark
Within the UDV, women when they are pregnant will participate in the ayahuasca ceremony — they feel the ayahuasca has very healthy…or salutary effects.
“Ayahuasca is this fascinating ancient substance used for millennia in the Amazon Basin in South America but only recently has it come to the attention of modern western science… Although we have conducted some research… Still we are just scratching the surface — we know many good questions but we don’t know the answers at this point.”
Some of them describe taking ayahuasca during child birth itself.
Others topics of the video include:
- hallucinogens
- autism,
- bipolar disorder
- patients with terminal cancer
- alcoholism
- drug dependencies
- tribes experiences
- coca
- indigenous wisdom
- occidental science
- nature
- Amazon
- human emotions
- psilocybin and cancer
Alter sensorium and gamma coherence is the phenomena that has been described, relating the ayahuasca state, that is also common to some very high level meditators such as those found in Tibet.
“There have been no approved studies in the US… In the United States it has not been possible to do ayahuasca research.”