Renowned ethnopharmacologist, Dr. Dennis McKenna, discusses the origins and the pharmacology behind the powerful South American hallucinogenic brew called ayahuasca.
He says that the pharmacology of the brew, and how it works, are well understood, but that Western scientists are baffled by the question of how the indigenous shamans, or curanderos, discovered the precise method for creating the decoction–where are the roots in history of ayahuasca origins?
In late 2010, two Australian scientists were invited by colleagues from Norway to experience “a real adventure” at an Ayahuasca center outside of Lima, Peru. They traveled together to the center, far from populated areas in the mountainous region, for a 4-day Ayahuasca experience with a Peruvian curandero.
The curandero is a traditional healer dedicated to curing both physical and spiritual illnesses, and may also play the role of psychiatrist along with that of doctor and healer.
The scientists participated in the Ayahuasca ceremony on the first night at the center, with decidedly mixed results.
Would the trained scientist stumble upon evidence that could be considered ayahuasca science?
Sitaramaya speaks to a packed house at the Los Angeles Ayahuasca Monologues: Tales of the Spirit Vine event.
In this video she talks about the benefits of Ayahuasca and her encounters with it while drinking with an Asháninka Shaman deep in the Peruvian Amazon.
She had taken Ayahuasca in other countries, mostly in Brazil–for Sitaramaya, ayahuasca called to her and that is why she went to the jungle.
From the Amazon in Peru, amidst the bugs, Taylor Marie explains how her last few months in Peru have been extremely different than all her past because of the way ayahuasca has transformed her life.
Ms. Marie looks-out for snakes as she speaks. She explains that the purpose of this video is to go along with the first video where she talked about her life changing experience with Ayahuasca. In this video we come to understand Ms. Marie’s perspective and the details about her ayahuasca journey that was so life changing.
“The Amazonian basin is home for 60,000 to 80,000 different plants, many still unknown for their medicinal potential. The medicine ayahuasca is said to heal both psychological and physiological problems, from heroin addiction to Parkinson’s disease. Now, try telling that to the medical industry.” (Source: Riku, Madventures)
In this part of a 2009 episode of Madventures III, the hosts, Riku and Tunna, enter the Amazonian jungle to meet with a local shaman and partake of the medicine brewed from the Amazonian Sacred Vine of the Spirits: AYAHUASCA.
Riku’s aim is to take part in a ritual which will force him to face and defeat his worst fears, by breaking through his own defenses; Tunna anticipates a purifying, cathartic experience that will show him “what his subconsciousness hides.”
For more than forty years, Steve Beyer has been motivated by the alter states of consciousness provided by visionary and entheogenic plants. He is an independent researcher in ethnobotany, shamanism, ethno-medicine, hallucinogenic plants and fungi. Steve Beyer has doctorate degrees in Religious Studies and Psychology and will be presenting at the Multidisciplinary Associations for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Psychedelic Science 2013 conference primarily as an Anthropologist.