Beatriz Caiuby Labate Clancy Cavnar Editors Ayahuasca Healing and Science Ayahuasca Healing and Science Beatriz Caiuby Labate • Clancy Cavnar Editors Ayahuasca Healing and Science Editors Beatriz Caiuby Labate Clancy Cavnar Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines Medicines San Francisco, CA, USA San Francisco, CA, USA ISBN 978-3-030-55687-7 ISBN 978-3-030-55688-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55688-4 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface The book you are now reading, Ayahuasca Healing and Science, is both timely and far-reaching. It covers the range of aspects of ayahuasca’s legendary healing capac- ity, looking at the ways psychological healing is realized from consumption of a drink. Teasing apart the factors that constitute “healing” is the job of science. Here, we give deep consideration to the micro as well as the macro; from asking what the molecules in ayahuasca are and how do they change the way we think and feel, to looking at the protocols and reasons for ayahuasca-based treatment of multiple mental health disorders. This book presents research projects where scientists use neuroimaging tech- niques to explore the neural correlates underlying ayahuasca’s healing of problem- atic patterns of thought and are able to measure its ability to enhance meta-cognition and address broad patterns of dysfunction. It is not just the emotions and neurons that are affected by treatment with ayahuasca; we also take a look at the way thoughts themselves are transformed. Cognitive behavioral therapy is successful because it confronts the distorted thoughts that lead to anxiety and depression; research is revealing that ayahuasca also interferes with problematic cognitions. Its effects reveal a complex interplay between the chemical world of molecules, the world of emotions, and the world of thought, visions, and insights. The use of this powerful agent in psychotherapy must take into account its sometimes- overwhelming and unsettling effect, especially on survivors of trauma who might not be emotionally prepared for the diffcult visions and painful insights ayahuasca can provide. These considerations are important in respect to the patients who are in most need of the sublime power of ayahuasca. The problems of treating delicate emotional conditions with the sometimes-caustic cleanser that is ayahuasca are addressed herein. The use of ayahuasca as an antidepressant, an anti-addictive agent, and as a treat- ment for PTSD, eating disorders, and childhood trauma points to the wide range of applications for this magical drink. Has there ever been such a multifaceted sub- stance with such a helpful profle? Among the issues covered in this volume, we can read about ayahuasca resolving distressing mental health symptoms by weakening egocentrism, enhancing cognitive adaptability and the capacity to regulate emotions, v vi Preface improving mindfulness, and enhancing connection to nature. This book addresses ayahuasca’s healing potential for addictions in particular, with three chapters focus- ing on this topic. We conclude the volume with an interview with a Shipibo healer on his perspectives on ayahuasca healing, a return to the indigenous view from whence all ayahuasca cures originate. This book adds to the growing collection of data on this hallucinogen-religious sacrament-medicinal plant-magical potion, and we hope it encourages others to take seriously the rumors and legends circulating about the power of ayahuasca, not as a naïve believer in myths, but as a logical and discerning student of science who demands proof for such remarkable claims. The body of knowledge on this drink is expanding and we are beginning to see connections that were not apparent before, as anthropology, psychology, and the medical and biological sciences contribute their viewpoints. Why has ayahuasca’s use expanded so fast globally? What does it offer in com- parison to other medicines? Why is this so popular now? Did ayahuasca come to heal us? Is it here by pure chance? Can it reveal a deeper structure to reality? For now, we may rely on the researchers and scientists who provide proof that, at the very least, ayahuasca is a potent medicine with broad applications for what ails humanity. San Francisco, CA, USA Clancy Cavnar Beatriz Caiuby Labate Foreword: Will the Queen Save Us? It is of no small signifcance that Ayahuasca Healing and Science, edited by the indefatigable scholars Beatriz Labate and Clancy Cavnar, will be published in 2020: the year of the pandemic, when predatory capitalism, White male supremacy, police brutality, and other aspects of patriarchy fnally meet a crisis of their own making that is big enough to drown all of it. As the process unravels archaic forms of social organization, the attrition leaves behind a trail of traumas; emotional scars that reverberate psychic distress, pain, and despair. We live through an epidemic of depression and suicide. People of all walks of life need healing, and this is why this book is so timely. Ayahuasca is a sacred Amerindian medicine whose use is spreading internation- ally across cultures and beliefs. In the past decade, the therapeutic use of ayahuasca received scientifc support from the experts listed below, including the hardcore pioneer Jordi Riba. The plurality of views was ensured by the choice of a very diverse set of authors from a wide range of felds and countries, from neuroscience to anthropology, from psychiatry to clinical psychology, from biochemistry to holis- tic psychotherapy. While the solid therapeutic effects of ayahuasca are well represented in the book, such as in the work of Brazilian researchers on the potent antidepressant effects of ayahuasca, there is a clear effort in several chapters to chart the risks and constraints of ayahuasca use. There is also a proactive determination to map the several blind spots and unknowns of this feld, which include molecular, physiological, psychiat- ric, and cross-cultural gaps. In the coming years, many of the important questions raised in this book shall be answered by qualitative and quantitative research. It will be performed by the growing cohort of scientists dedicated to the study of this won- derful medicine, many of them authors of chapters in this book. Ayahuasca has an exceedingly special place in the pharmacopeia of the reborn (and increasingly free) use of psychedelics for healing in Western medicine. Its head-to-head comparison with psilocybin and ketamine has yet to be performed, but it is clear that ayahuasca is a major contestant for the most potent psychedelic anti- depressant. The main chemical components present in the brew, harmine and N,N- dimethyltryptamine (N,N-DMT), as well as the related compound 5-MeO DMT, vii viii Foreword: Will the Queen Save Us? present in the secretion of the toad Bufo alvarius and in the yopo plant snuff, have been demonstrated to induce several cellular changes related to the formation of new synapses and even new neurons entirely, as shown by the research groups of Stevens Rehen (Dakic et al., 2016; Dakic et al., 2017), Richardson Leão (Lima da Cruz et al., 2018), and David Olson (Ly et al. 2018). Congruent results were recently seen for d-LSD by a consortium of my laboratory with those of Stevens Rehen, Draulio de Araujo, Luis Fernando Tófoli, and Daniel Martins-de-Souza, with sup- port from the Beckley Foundation (Cini et al., 2019). The powerful synergistic effects of mixing two or more molecules able to pro- mote synaptogenetic and neurogenetic effects, as is the case of ayahuasca, likely leads to a potent “entourage effect” that may prove as dramatic as that originally proposed by the great Raphael Mechoulam and colleagues concerning the coopera- tive effects of the multiple cannabinoids, which may increase clinical effcacy (Ben- Shabat et al., 1998). It is important to note, however, that the fact that ayahuasca represents concrete hope for those in need of major neural reorganization is not only related to its bio- logical effects. The interaction of psychedelic substances with set and setting repre- sents a wide range of therapeutic possibilities. In this regard, ayahuasca also occupies a distinguished and strategic place due to the richness and sophistication of the Amerindian and syncretic rituals that make ayahuasca a true queen among the sacred organisms required to mitigate the ongoing mental health crisis that charac- terizes the twenty-frst century. Sidarta Ribeiro, Ph.D. References Ben-Shabat, S., Fride, E., Sheskin, T., Tamiri, T., Rhee, M. H., Vogel, Z., Bisogno, T., De Petrocellis, L., Di Marzo, V., & Mechoulam, R.