DOCSLIB.ORG

Ayahuasca Info Sheet

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ayahuasca Info Sheet Botany: Tropical liana of the family Malpighiaceae, native to the amazon basin. While possible to cultivate in heated spaces outside of the tropics, Ayahuasca cultivation is primarily limited to the Amazon basin and Hawaii. History: Ayahuasca has been in use in the amazon for at least 1000 years, but it is unclear how far back it dates. Ayahuasca is a integral part of several extremely complex systems of indigenous plant medicine systems as well as mestizo vegitalismo. At the base of Ayahuasca tradition is the basic of potion of pounded Banisteriopsis caapi vines mixed with a DMT containing plant, most commonly Psychotria viridis (chacruna), this combination sends the drinker into psychedelic trance similar to Peyote or psilocybin mushrooms. Ayahuasca is typically drunk in ceremonies that involve traditional healing songs called icaros. While Ayahuasca is a treatment itself, it is also used as a way to contact the spirit of Ayahuasca and other medicinal plants, which may lead to other plants being prescribed, these plants may be added to the Ayahuasca brew or taken separately. There are over 1,000 species of plants that have been documented as being used in Ayahuasca. Another common element of these systems is the dieta or diet, A period of restricted diet and intentional plant medicine use designed to heal a problem or increase the knowledge of a ayahuascero. The extensive knowledge of the ayahuascero is partially learned from their teacher, but is largely derived (at least according to them) from encounters with plant spirits during ayahuasca ceremonies and dietas. Through syncretic churches like the Santo Daime and traveling ayahuasceros, ayahuasca use has spread around the globe. Ayahuasca tourism has also boomed in recent years, especially in Peru. While this has brought a certain kind of healing to many people that wouldn't other wise be available, it also has aspects of commodification and cultural appropriation that are profoundly negative. Chemistry: the chemical effects of ayahuasca mainly come from DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine). DMT is produced by the human body (and other mammals), but it has yet to be discovered what endogenous DMT does in the human body, if anything. DMT is not normally orally active as it is denatured by the enzyme MAO, however Harmala alkaloids in Banisteriopsis caapi inhibit this enzyme and allow the DMT to pass into the blood where is remains active for a few hours, causing a intense visionary state. Other chemicals in the Banisteriopsis caapi are generally considered to cause the famous nauseating and emetic qualities of the brew. Both DMT and Harmaline alkaloids can be found in other plants, Jonathan Ott has a whole book of Ayahuasca analogs for people who would like to use this amazing synergy of herbal chemicals using locally produced plants, this also mitigates or removes many of issues of cultural appropriation and commodification. Because of the MAOI effect and the potential for Ayahuasca to be a complex brew of plant chemicals, interactions with pharmaceuticals are of great concern, if you are taking any pharmaceuticals be sure to consult with a healthcare provider before considering using Ayahuasca. It is generally considered inadvisable to use Ayahuasca outside a ceremonial or therapeutic context. Scientific Research: Several studies have shown that Ayahuasca used in a ceremonial context is physically and psychologically safe. Research on what conditions can be healed is ongoing, but preliminary evidence exists for many conditions including: Substance use disorder and alcohol dependence, Treatment- resistant depression, Recurrent depression, and Grief. For more information: https://www.iceers.org/ayahuasca-basic-info/.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Erowid Extracts — Number 13 / November 2007 Erowid Extracts Table of Contents Number 13, November 2007
    Erowid® Extracts D OCUMENTING THE C OMPLEX R ELATIONSHIP B ETWEEN H UMANS AN D P SYCHOACTIVES November 2007 Number 13 “The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one’s own tradition with reverence for different traditions.” — Abraham J. Heschel The Absinthe Enigma • Wormwood and Thujone • P. viridis vs. M. tenuiflora Varieties of Nicotine Experience • Khat Legal Challenges LETTERS & FEEDBACK Hi there Erowid staff, First of all, thank you for such Awesome website! A more thoughtfully a wonderful site. I’m not a serious compiled compendium of information I’m just writing to say how much I recreational user, but having some on the topic of psychoactives does appreciate your website. My father chronic pain issues, I tend to experiment not exist—at least not for the public showed it to me several years ago a little to find ways to alleviate the at large. Bravo. and it’s been fun to watch it grow pain (aside from standard Rx’s from in quality and content over the — ANOnymOus doctors). […] years. My dad adjunctly teaches a Letter to Erowid psychopharmacology class in town and Keep up the good work. Although always lists Erowid on his syllabus of some might look at Erowid negatively, recommended readings. I’m a college I look at it positively, in the sense that After looking up information on the student and am surprised, once I I’m smart enough to research things antitussive properties of DXM, how start talking to other kids, how many before I try them, and hopefully keep shocked I was to find your website, of them know about the information myself from an early demise.
    [Show full text]
  • JONATHAN OTT SPEAKS… PART TWO Interviewed by Will Beifuss and Jon Hanna at the 1998 BPC Salvia Divinorum Conference
    VOLUME VIII, NUMBER 2 SUMMER SOLSTICE 1999 JONATHAN OTT SPEAKS… PART TWO Interviewed by Will Beifuss and Jon Hanna at the 1998 BPC Salvia divinorum Conference Jon: Living in México, what do you think that the interest in at home and make tea.” But if I do that in the U.S. I know for entheogens is there, given in a sort of comparative percent- a fact that there are going to be at least a dozen people there age? that have done it more than I have, and perhaps can teach me a thing or two if I can just connect with them afterwards Jonathan: Of course we have, at best, only soft figures in any and share information. And so the U.S. is a real leader there, case. But I would say that it’s less than it is in the U.S., in and I would say in México it’s a great deal less. But on the terms of the kind of interest that we know about—basement other hand, there’s this schizophrenic thing; on the one hand shaman. In the U.S. there’s a great deal of sophistication in there’s racism against Indians and there’s this whole socio- the so-called amateur sector. And that doesn’t exist any- economic one-upmanship, but on the other hand, all of where else, not even in Europe. In Europe, the only people México’s glory lies in the pre-Colombian past, and it’s been that are at that level of sophistication are in the business as all downhill—and very steeply—politically and economi- shamanic-plant dealers, and they’re very few.
    [Show full text]
  • Chemical Composition of Traditional and Analog Ayahuasca
    Journal of Psychoactive Drugs ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujpd20 Chemical Composition of Traditional and Analog Ayahuasca Helle Kaasik , Rita C. Z. Souza , Flávia S. Zandonadi , Luís Fernando Tófoli & Alessandra Sussulini To cite this article: Helle Kaasik , Rita C. Z. Souza , Flávia S. Zandonadi , Luís Fernando Tófoli & Alessandra Sussulini (2020): Chemical Composition of Traditional and Analog Ayahuasca, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2020.1815911 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2020.1815911 View supplementary material Published online: 08 Sep 2020. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ujpd20 JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2020.1815911 Chemical Composition of Traditional and Analog Ayahuasca Helle Kaasik a, Rita C. Z. Souzab, Flávia S. Zandonadib, Luís Fernando Tófoli c, and Alessandra Sussulinib aSchool of Theology and Religious Studies; and Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia; bLaboratory of Bioanalytics and Integrated Omics (LaBIOmics), Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil; cInterdisciplinary Cooperation for Ayahuasca Research and Outreach (ICARO), School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Traditional ayahuasca can be defined as a brew made from Amazonian vine Banisteriopsis caapi and Received 17 April 2020 Amazonian admixture plants. Ayahuasca is used by indigenous groups in Amazonia, as a sacrament Accepted 6 July 2020 in syncretic Brazilian religions, and in healing and spiritual ceremonies internationally.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychedelic Gospels
    The Psychedelic Gospels The Psychedelic Gospels The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Jerry B. Brown, Ph.D., and Julie M. Brown, M.A. Park Street Press Rochester, Vermont • Toronto, Canada Park Street Press One Park Street Rochester, Vermont 05767 www.ParkStPress.com Park Street Press is a division of Inner Traditions International Copyright © 2016 by Jerry B. Brown and Julie M. Brown All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Note to the Reader: The information provided in this book is for educational, historical, and cultural interest only and should not be construed in any way as advocacy for the use of hallucinogens. Neither the authors nor the publishers assume any responsibility for physical, psychological, legal, or any other consequences arising from these substances. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data [cip to come] Printed and bound in XXXXX 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Text design and layout by Priscilla Baker This book was typeset in Garamond Premier Pro with Albertus and Myriad Pro used as display typefaces All Bible quotations are from the King James Bible Online. A portion of proceeds from the sale of this book will support the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Founded in 1986, MAPS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Supreme Court of the United States
    No. 04-1084 In the Supreme Court of the United States ALBERTO R. GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. O CENTRO ESPIRITA BENEFICIENTE UNIAO DO VEGETAL, ET AL. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT JOINT APPENDIX (VOLUME 1) PAUL D. CLEMENT NANCY HOLLANDER Solicitor General Freedman Boyd Daniels Department of Justice Hollander & Goldberg P.A. Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 20 First Plaza, Suite 700 (202) 514-2217 Albuquerque, NM 87102 (505) 842-9960 Counsel of Record Counsel of Record for Petitioners for Respondents PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI FILED: FEB. 10, 2005 CERTIORARI GRANTED: APR. 18, 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Court of appeals docket entries ........................................ 1 District court docket entries ............................................. 10 Plaintiffs’ original complaint (Nov. 21, 2000) .................. 17 Answer to plaintiffs’ original complaint (Feb. 1, 2001) ............................................................................... 37 Declaration of Jeffrey Bronfman (Nov. 17, 2000) (Plaintiffs’ Exh. A) ....................................................... 49 Human Psychopharmacology of Hoasca, etc. (Vol. 184, No. 3, 1996) (Plaintiffs’ Exh. G) ............... 75 District court order (May 31, 2001) .................................. 102 Index and mailing list of churches (Defendants’ Exh. D) ........................................................................... 105 Expert Report of Dr. Sander G. Genser (undated) (Defendants’ Exh. ZZ)
    [Show full text]
  • Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess and the Secrets of Eleusis
    In memory of Blaise Daniel Staples, my companion and soul mate. He is dearly missed. PREFACE by Huston Smith WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO PUBLISH Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, there were those who advised me not to do so, saying that it would destroy my reputation. Time has proved them wrong. As the religious significance of these substances comes to be increasingly accepted—the glaring exception being the Food and Drug Administration—the sales of that book (favorably reviewed from the beginning) continue to rise. As does my conviction of the importance of the issue, and I will say why. The great achievement of the linguist Noam Chomsky, who was my colleague during the fifteen years I taught at MIT, was to discover the universal grammar that every spoken language–– English, Chinese, French, whatever––must conform to, for it seems to be imprinted into the human brain. I, for my part, have worked out the universal grammar of religion to which authentic religions conform. Reduced to a single sentence, that grammar concludes that Reality is Perfect, and that human beings should do their best to conform their lives to that perfection. Reality’s perfection seems to be contradicted by perception of the world, but this is not surprising, for Reality is Infinite and our minds are not. Out minds must expand if they are to receive even glimpses of the Infinite Perfection. Thus the question is: how can they do this? Perfect Reality has provided a way. Through the entheogens, to be sure, but here we come to a point that has been under-noticed in the discussion of this important subject.
    [Show full text]
  • Mini Review on Psychedelic Drugs: Illumination on the Hidden Aspects of Mind
    Review Article Mini Review on Psychedelic Drugs: Illumination on the Hidden Aspects of Mind Lemlem Hussien Salih and Atul Kaushik* Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Asmara College of Health Sciences, Asmara, Eritrea ABSTRACT Psychedelics constitute a class of psychoactive drugs with unique effects on consciousness. Psychedelic means mind/soul "revealing" and refers to the ability of these drugs to illuminate normally hidden aspects of mind or psyche. Many psychedelic agents occur in nature; others are synthetically produced. Naturally occurring psychedelic drugs have been inhaled, ingested, worshiped, and reviled since Address for prehistory. The phenomenology of the hallucinogenic experience is Correspondence extremely complex, sensory, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual, levels. Most psychedelic drugs structurally resemble with Department of neurotransmitters: acetylcholine, two catecholamines (nor Medicinal Chemistry, epinephrine and dopamine), and serotonin. These structural School of Pharmacy, similarities lead to three classes for categorizing psychedelic drugs: Asmara College of anticholinergic, catecholamine-like, and serotonin-like. And also a Health Sciences, fourth class of psychedelic drugs can be included, the psychedelic Asmara, Eritrea anesthetics. This mini review focuses on pharmacological and Tel.- +291-1-186041 medicinal aspects of this class. E-mail: atul_kaushik29 Keywords: Psychedelic drugs, Pharmacological features of @rediffmail.com psychedelic drugs, SAR of psychedelic drugs. INTRODUCTION "Rational consciousness...is but one produced. Naturally occurring psychedelic special type of consciousness, whilst all drugs have been inhaled, ingested, about it, parted from it by the filmiest of worshiped, and reviled since prehistory. screens; there lie potential forms of Native American shamans consumed consciousness entirely different."-William psychedelic plants such as the peyote cactus James.
    [Show full text]
  • Salvia Divinorum: a Psychopharmacological Riddle and a Mind-Body Prospect José-Luis Díaz*
    Send Orders of Reprints at [email protected] Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 2013, 6, 43-53 43 Salvia divinorum: A Psychopharmacological Riddle and a Mind-Body Prospect José-Luis Díaz* Department of History and Philosophy of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), México Abstract: The multidisciplinary research on Salvia divinorum and its chemical principles is analyzed concerning whether the ethnobotany, phytochemistry, mental effects, and neuropharmacology of this sacred psychoactive plant and main principle clarify its experienced effects and divinatory uses. The scientific pursuit spans from the traditional practices, continues with the botanical identification, isolation of active molecules, characterization of mental and neural effects, possible therapeutic applications, and impinges upon the mind-body problem. The departure point is ethnopharmacology and therefore the traditional beliefs, ritual uses, and mental effects of this Mazatec sacred mint recorded during a 1973- 1983 field research project are described. A water potion of crushed leaves produced short-lasting light-headedness, dysphoria, tactile and proprioceptive sensations, a sense of depersonalization, amplified sound perception, and an increase visual and auditory imagery, but not actual hallucinations. Similar effects were described using questionnaires and are attributable to salvinorin A, but cannot be explained solely by its specific and potent brain kappa-opioid receptor agonist activity. Some requirements for a feasible
    [Show full text]
  • Mushroom Pioneers
    Mushroom Pioneers by John W. Allen © 2002 by John W. Allen original source: https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/mushroom_pioneers/mushroom_pioneers2.shtml Books by John W. Allen Magic Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest Magic Mushrooms of the Hawaiian Islands Teonanácatl: Ancient and Contemporary Shamanic Mushroom Names of Mesoamerica and Other Regions of the World Magic Mushrooms in Some Third World Countries,co-authored by Jochen Gartz, Ph.D. CD-ROMS Teonanácatl: A Bibliography of Entheogenic Mushrooms, co-authored by Jochen Gartz, Ph.D. Psilocybian Mushroom Cultivation, co-Authored by Jochen Gartz, Ph.D. Special Thanks Jonathan Ott, Larry Zoumas and Ken Thompkins soma rights re-served 1 since 23.11.2015 at http://www.en.psilosophy.info/ mushroom pioneers www.en.psilosophy.info/nhyafuitbfizbqcicpazbdjm Ethnomycological Journals Sacred Mushrooms Studies Volume V11 Copyright@ 2002 by John W. Allen Book Cover Design by John W. Allen http://mushroomjohn.com Mushroom Pioneers at MushroomJohn.com Printed in the United States Table of Contents: Information about Online Edition Dedication Endorsement Blurbs for Mushroom Pioneers Foreword Introduction The Spanish, The Aztecs and the Sacred Fungi Chapter 1. Modern Field Research on Teonanácatl 1915-1940 Chapter 2. Richard Evans Schultes Chapter 3. Rolf Singer and the Misidentification of Teonanácatl Chapter 4. The Rediscovery of Entheogenic Mushrooms Wasson's First Voyage Wasson Meets María Sabina CIA Mole James Moore - Spies on Wasson in the Search for Mind-Control Drugs Chapter 5. María Sabina Saint Mother of the Sacred Mushrooms Childhood The Coming of the Foreigners May the Force be With You Notes Chapter 6. Albert Hofmann and the Synthesis of Psilocybine and Psilocine Chapter 7.
    [Show full text]
  • Mad Thoughts on Mushrooms
    OC1802_05 11/21/07 12:12 PM Page 74 Mad Thoughts on Mushrooms: Discourse and Power in the Study of Psychedelic Consciousness1 andy letcher Andy Letcher is a freelance writer, researcher, and lecturer based in Oxford, UK. [email protected] abstract This paper addresses the question of what happens to consciousness under the influence of psychedelic drugs—specifically of psilocybin, or “magic” mushrooms— and performs a Foucauldian discourse analysis upon the answers that have been variously proposed. Predominant societally legitimated answers (the pathological, psychological, and prohibition discourses) are those that, in Foucault’s sense, are imposed from the outside as “scientific classifications,” that is, they are based upon observations of the effects of mushrooms on others. By contrast, a series of resistive discourses (the recreational, psychedelic, entheogenic, and animistic discourses) have been constructed in opposition, as a means of making sense of the subjective experience of taking mushrooms. When critiqued, only the animistic discourse— the belief that mushrooms occasion encounters with discarnate spirit entities, or animaphany—transgresses a fundamental societal boundary. In the West, to believe in the existence of spirits is to risk being labeled “mad,” and as such the phenomenon of mushroom-induced animaphany goes largely ignored. It nevertheless remains a phenomenon in need of further scholarly research. keywords: magic mushrooms, consciousness, Foucault, animaphany introduction What happens to consciousness under the influence of a psychedelic drug? Given the importance of psychoactives in both indigenous and modern cultures (whether culturally legitimated or not), this is a question that anthropologists are 74 OC1802_05 10/22/07 9:47 M Page 75 mad thoughts on mushrooms 75 increasingly being forced to confront.
    [Show full text]
  • Terence Mckenna's Jungian Psychedelic Ufology
    Inner Space/Outer Space: Terence McKenna’s Jungian Psychedelic Ufology ___________________________________________________________________ Christopher Partridge ABSTRACT: This article discusses the relationship between “inner space” (the mind/consciousness) and perceptions of “outer space” (the extraterrestrial) in Western psychedelic cultures. In particular, it analyses the writings and lectures of Terence McKenna, the most influential psychedelic thinker since the 1960s. Assimilating a broad range of ideas taken from esotericism, shamanism, and science fiction, McKenna became the principal architect of an occult theory of psychedelic experiences referred to here as “psychedelic ufology.” The article further argues that McKenna was formatively influenced by the ideas of Carl Jung and that, as such, subsequent psychedelic ufology tends to be Jungian. KEYWORDS: Terence McKenna, Carl Jung, psychedelic ufology, UFOs, hallucinogens, shamanism, gnosis During a lecture in Switzerland in 1995, the American psychedelic thinker Terence McKenna (1946-2000) claimed that if a person gave him “15 minutes of [their] life” (i.e. if he was given the time to administer an hallucinogen) he could guarantee “a 20% chance of meeting aliens—and the odds go up to maybe 40% if you increase the dose!”1 While this can be interpreted as a playful comment about induced hallucinations rather than anything more profound, this would be a mistake. For McKenna it was no coincidence that “UFO contact [was]… the motif most frequently mentioned by people who take psilocybin recreationally.”2 “At active levels, psilocybin induces visionary ideation of spacecraft, alien creatures, and alien information. There is a general futuristic, science fiction quality to the psilocybin experience that seems to originate from the same place as the modern myth of the UFO.”3 He is not alone in claiming this.
    [Show full text]
  • Ayahuasca Analogues, Pangaean Entheogens. Jonathan Ott
    Ayahuasca Analogues, Pangaean Entheogens. Jonathan Ott. KeJUlewick, Wash­ ington: Natural Products Co., 1994. Pp. iii; 128. $30.00 (hardcover), $15.00 (paperback). ISBN 0-9614234-4-7 (hardcover), 0-9614234-5-5 (paperback). (Available from: Jonathan Ott Books, Box 1251, Occidental, California 95465.) Jonathan Ott is one of the most knowledgeable scientists in various aspects of the use by native peoples in numerous parts of Amazonia of the sacred hallu­ cinogen, Banisteriopsis Caapi. He has produced in Ayahuasca Analogues, Pangaean Entheogens a beautifully published and highly authentic book which will un­ doubtedly be received gratefully by a wide circle of readers in a variety of disci­ plines. The reader is immediately struck with three impressions: the clarity of the language; the diversity of coverage; and the authority of treatment. The main part of the book is divided into four chapters follOWing an introduc­ tory-type Exordium: The Amazonian Amrta and the Entheogenic Reformation. The chapters cover a wide range of interesting material in a diverse disciplines: (1) Na­ tural History of Ayahuasca-a Pan-Amazonian Entheogen; (2) Pharmacognosy of 274 BCXJK REVIEWS Vol. 14, No. 2 Ayahuasca Plants and Potions; (3) Ayahuasca Analogues with Psychonautic Reports; (4) From Pan·Amazonian to Pan-Gaean Entheogen. There follow ten pages of highly useful notes and the Bibliography of383 items. The complete, eight­ page index provides easy access to the interdisciplinary information in this volume, much of which is difficult to find even in many of our large libraries. This first edition of AyWruasca Analogues consists of 5,000 copies, and it is this re­ viewer's opinion that it will soon be unavailable in view of the inexpensive price of this most usefuJ publication that will appeal to such an interdi.sci.plinary audience.
    [Show full text]