Ayahuasca Workshop - Shamanism
Medicina Amazon of Perú - Shamans Shamanic - Cusco
Ayahuasca
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The use of ayahuasca pervive like knowing still goes back to 5000 years and magical - religious and therapeutic
- Preparation of the Ayahuasca
- Banisteriopsis Caapi
- Workshop Ayahuasca in the Forest
- Diet of the Ayahuasca
- Shamanism Ayahuasca
- Ayahuasca Ceremony
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Ayahuasca Shamanic Amazon Perú - Cusco
Ayahuasca (Quechua, pronounced a.ja.wa.ska) is any of various psychoactive infusions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, native to the Amazon rainforest (which is also called ayahuasca). The resulting drinks are pharmacologically complex and used for shamanic, folk-medicinal, and religious purposes.
Preparation
Sections of vine are macerated and boiled alone or with leaves from any of a large number of other plants, including Psychotria viridis (chakruna in Quechua) or Diplopterys cabrerana (also known as chacropanga). The resulting brew contains MAO inhibiting harmala alkaloids and the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloid N,N dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic which is active orally only when combined with an MAOI. Harmala alkaloids in Banisteriopsis caapi serve as MAOIs in Ayahuasca. Western brews sometimes substitute plant sources such as Syrian Rue or other harmala containing plants in lieu of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, but the vine itself is always central to traditional usage.
Ayahuasca being prepared in the Napo region of Ecuador.Brews are also made with no DMT-containing plants; sometimes they are made with plants such as Justicia pectoralis, Brugmansia and sometimes made with no plants other than the ayahuasca vine itself. Tobacco is a common additive in traditional brews. The potency of this brew varies radically from one batch to the next, both in strength and psychoactive effect, based mainly on the skill of the shaman or brewer, as well as other admixtures sometimes added. Natural variations in plant alkaloid content and profiles also affect the final concentration of alkaloids in the brew, and the physical act of cooking may also serve to modify the alkaloid profile of harmala alkaloids.
Individual polymorphisms in the cytochrome P450-2D6 enzyme affects the ability of individuals to metabolize harmine. Some natural tolerance to the regular use of Ayahuasca (say, once weekly) may be seen as an upregulation of the serotonergic system. A phase 1 pharmacokinetic study on Ayahuasca (as Hoasca) with 15 volunteers was conducted in 1993, during the Hoasca Project. A review of the Hoasca Project has been published.
Names
"caapi", "cipó," "hoasca" or "daime" in Brazil
"yagé" or "yajé" (both pronounced ) in Colombia; popularized in English by the beat generation writers William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg in The Yage Letters.
"ayahuasca" or "ayawaska" in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, also to a lesser extent in Brazil ("vine of the dead" or "vine of souls": in Quechua, aya means "spirit," "ancestor," or "dead person," while waska means "vine" or "rope"). The name is properly that of the plant B. caapi, one of the primary sources of beta-carbolines for the brew.
"natem" amongst the indigenous Shuar people of Peru.
Urarina shaman, 1988It should be noted that the spelling ayahuasca is the hispanicized version of the name; many Quechua or Aymara speakers would prefer the spelling ayawaska. In the central andeans of Perú Ayacwasca means :"Ayac" (spirit or dead) and "Wasca" (vine, cord or rope)
Usage
Ayahuasca is used largely as a religious sacrament, no matter which culture it is associated with. Those whose usage of ayahuasca is performed in non-traditional contexts often align themselves with the philosophies and cosmolgies associated with ayahuasca shamanism, as practiced among indigenous peoples like the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia.
While non-native users know of the spiritual applications of ayahuasca, a less well-known traditional usage focuses on the medicinal properties of ayahuasca. Its purgative properties are highly important (many refer to it as la Purga, "the purge"). The intense vomiting and occasional diarrhea it induces can clear the body of worms and other tropical parasites, and harmala alkaloids themselves have been shown to be anthelmintic. Thus, this action is twofold; a direct action on the parasites by these harmala alkaloids (particularly harmine in ayahuasca) works to kill the parasites, and parasites are expelled through the increased intestinal motility that is caused by these alkaloids.
Ayahuasca cooking in the Napo region of Ecuador.Dietary taboos are almost always associated with the use of Ayahuasca; in the rainforest, these tend towards the purification of one's self- abstaining from spicy and heavily seasoned foods, fat, salt, caffeine, acidic foods (such as citrus) and sex before, after, or both before and after a ceremony. A diet low in foods containing tyramine is recommended, as the interaction of tyramine and MAOIs can lead to a hypertensive crisis. This extreme dietary specificity is largely a modern one, as most tyramine is produced as food ages, and is therefore not usually a problem in traditional South American cultures. These dietary restrictions have developed as a means of making ayahuasca ingestion easier on the body, as well as having strong traditional and spiritual significance.