AN AYAHUASCA EXPERIENCE

AN AYAHUASCA EXPERIENCE

The following experience took place in this cocamera.
"The shaman put down a groundsheet, which we sat on. He then lit a pungently smelling cigarette, absolutely horrible, and then breathed the smoke into the liquid we were going to drink. He then started chanting in Quechua, beating time on a paper bag, and after a few minutes he gave me about a third of a cup of the fairly thick liquid to drink, then followed by Jorge and himself. The 'cocamera' was only lit at that stage by a single 'lámpara', so it was quite dark.
"The shaman had said that I wouldn't need to go to the toilet, but would feel like vomiting - or would vomit - and that it would begin to work after about twenty minutes. So we waited. I felt the same but could see what appeared to be a film or a TV programme aimed at children, sometimes with real characters, sometimes cartoon characters, going up and down on theme park rides, then traffic. It was all emerging to turn left, with some overtaking on the right to turn left. Then it switched to the open road, with a black Jaguar police car following the traffic. Normally the traffic was driving on the left, but sometimes on the right. Then there were animals that seemed to elongate, but if I opened my eyes they disappeared.
"By this time I was lying on my back, as I had begun to feel dizzy and very tired, but I still wasn't feeling sick. Then my fingers began to twitch, and then my arms, but I still didn't feel sick.
"All the time, the shaman was continuing to chant, asking for my stomach to be healed, as I had mentioned that I had IBS. 'Is anything happening?' he asked. 'Not much,' was the reply. He wanted to know when we saw the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
"Then, at last, I began to feel sick, but not very. However, over the next hour or so, as the hallucinations continued - in the same vein as before - I began to feel worse and, in the end, had to go outside. But the twitching was continuing and I could hardly stand. The first time, I collapsed back onto the groundsheet. However, the next time, I managed to stagger outside, but I was hardly sick at all, so I stayed there for about a quarter-of-an-hour just in case.
"Settled back on the groundsheet, I lapsed back into the same hallucinations, which gradually diminished until, finally, a traditional picture of the Virgin Mary, followed by a picture of Jesus.
"I felt immensely tired and desperately needed to go to the toilet, which I did with Jorge's help. As I reached the toilet, I thought I could see lots of little animals running around in the torchlight, but as soon as I switched it off they disappeared, so I realised that it was another effect of the Ayahuasca.
"For some time I felt it was a bit of an anticlimax, but looking back at it now it was an interesting experience and I shall definitely repeat it. It didn't give me a purge, but I realise now that I need to take more if I want that to happen."

Ayahuasca is a medicinal tea prepared fromBanisteriopsis Caapi, a jungle vine, found in the tropical regions of South America, often combined with other plants, commonlyChacruna/Rainha (Queen); Psychotria Viridis.

Ayahuasca has a rich legacy of associated traditions, myths, therapies, rituals and aesthetics, spanning from the primordial roots of the indigenous tribes of South America, to diverse syncretic spiritual movements emerging across the planet.