Ayahuasca – Vine of Spirits II

If we inquire into the basic model of reality that is revealed and implied by the visions and experiences of Westerners with ayahuasca (as well as other plant entheogens), we find they have developed (often implicitly) a worldview radically different from the prevailing Western paradigm of scientific modernism. A recognition of the spiritual essences inherent in nature is basic to the worldview of indigenous peoples, as it was for our own ancestors in pre-industrial societies. By contrast, our modern materialist worldview, obsessively focused on technological progress and on the control and exploitation of what are arrogantly called "natural resources", has become more or less completely dissociated from such a spiritual awareness of nature.
What does it mean that people in large numbers are now returning to these ancient traditions of spiritual and healing practice in our world of multinational industrial corporations, of computers and electronic networks?
There exists a vast gulf in common understanding between what we regard as sacred and what we regard as natural. And yet, out of the experiences of millions of individuals in the Western world with visionary plant sacraments, as well as other shamanic practices, we are seeing the re-emergence of the ancient integrative worldview in which all of life is a vast interdependent web of relationships that needs to be carefully protected and preserved. It is tempting to speculate that the introduction of powerful mind-expanding agents, both drug and plant, into the culture, might somehow relate, at some deeper cosmic-karmic level, to the mounting crisis in world civilization.
The rituals of the Brazilian ayahuasca churches, such as the Santo Daime and the Uniao de Vegetal, express a respectful and spiritual attitude toward the use of the visionary plant medicines, and a strong feeling of connection to their indigenous roots in shamanic healing practices. These groups, which along with the Native American Church (with peyote) and the African Bwiti cult (with iboga), can be considered genuine religious revitalization movements. During the 1980s and 90s, the ayahuasca-using churches spread from Brazil to centers in North America and Europe, and are attracting thousands of people. The US branch of the UDV in New Mexico won the legal right to use its hoasca sacrament in a case decided by the Supreme Court in 2004. On the face of it, ayahuasca, with its powerful emetic action and sometimes shattering self-revelations, would seem to be an unlikely candidate for a religious sacrament. But it has become just that and has acquired a near-legendary reputation for its healing and empowering attributes. I have myself seen remarkable transformations of personality in people who have become involved in one or another of these churches.
What is happening here? Could these churches become widely popular religions in the 21st century? Two thousand years ago, three monotheistic religions arose in the desert borderlands of the Middle East. As the ecologist Paul Shepard has argued the often harsh and unforgiving environment may have contributed to the idealization of transcendence found in monotheism, as well to its "authoritarian, masculinist and ascetic ideology" that has come to dominate the world stage. In the Brazilian hoasca churches, as well as the Amazonian shamanic traditions from which they originally, though indirectly, derived, the underlying ethos and imagery is very different. Here the essential imagery is of flowing waters and growing plants. The river flows, the inebriating vision-drink flows, the purging vomit flows, the feelings of joy and sadness flow; plant and animal life grows in the luxuriant green abundance of the richest rainforest on Earth. The ultimate theology of these churches is very different. There are hymns, prayers and invocations of Biblical figures, but also the spirits of the forest and the sea, the sun, moon and stars, and various indigenous deities. This is polytheistic, animistic nature religion, bringing about a re-unification of the sacred and the natural.
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An even more radical set of questions arises from the perspective of evolutionary and ecological biology. Why do these plants carry psychoactive tryptamines and other chemicals that are capable of producing profound consciousness-transforming perceptions in human beings, opening them up to the deepest mysteries of life and death? On one level this confirms the basic unity of all life on Earth, the oneness of the molecular genetic code. But the standard Darwinian view is that nothing evolves by chance – natural selection works to favor those structures and capabilities that are adaptive in some way. So how is it adaptive for plants to produce alkaloids that seemingly serve no other particular function, and yet provide profound healing or insight in the human? Some kind of strange symbiosis seems to be going on.
So with these "plant teachers", as ayahuasqueros call them, there must also be an exchange. We humans get knowledge, insight, psychic or physical healing from the plant teachers. In exchange, we should be giving something back. Individuals who have found themselves at this juncture may at first not know how or what to give back. If they then ask the plant teachers, or ask themselves, how do we give back, how do we repay what appears to be a gift of astounding generosity from the plant teachers, the answers are remarkably consistent. They have to do, as one might expect, with practices that reduce our adverse impact on the ecosystems, and with the preservation of wilderness and the essential diversity of life. That's why so many people who have experienced ayahuasca (as well as other etheogens, and other shamanic practices), become deeply involved in ecological preservation and sustainability projects, as well as in efforts to preserve the culture of indigenous peoples.
There may be a profound and mysterious shift occurring in the balance of life on this planet. The dominant and dominating role of the human in relation to the natural world has brought about unparalleled ecological disaster, degradation of habitats and loss of species. Could it be that the profound consciousness-raising and compassion-deepening effects of the visionary plant brews and tinctures are signaling an evolutionary initiative coming from other, non-human, intelligences on this planet? Those who have experienced ayahuasca and other entheogens are more likely to find themselves humbled and awed by the mysterious powers of nature, and strive to live in a simpler way that minimizes environmental harm and celebrates the astonishing diversity and beauty of life. The following poem came out of an ayahuasca experience I had in Manaus, Brazil a couple of years ago.

Omens for Our Planetary Future

For one hundred years now wise teachers and elders have urged,
“We must bring together the spirituality of the East,
With the energy and material mastery of the West.”

The Tibetan Oracle said: “When the iron horse flies,
The dharma will come to the Land of the Red Man.”
This prophecy has come to pass.

And behold, a new vision arises, for a new century:
The people of the Northern nations
Will relate with respect and justice,
Not violence and greed,
To the uncounted millions of the Southern countries,
And the land, the forests and riches of the earth.

The prophet seers of the Incas say:
“The Condor of the South and Eagle of the North
Will fly together, in freedom.”

The visionary serpent vine says:
“The Bear and the Wolf of the North,
And the Jaguar and Lion of the South
Will track together and hunt together,
For vibrant life and healing knowledge.

The great Serpent of the Amazon forest,
The wise Turtle of the California desert,
Will share their ancient secrets again,
With humans humble enough to want to learn
To live in balance with one another,
And with the Earth, Great Goddess Mother of All the Living,
Embracing and nourishing all her children.

Ayahuasca – The Vine of Spirits I

Ayahuasca is an hallucinogenic Amazonian plant concoction, that has been used by native Indian and mestizo shamans in South America for healing and divination for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Western trained physicians and psychologists have acknowledged that psychedelic or entheogenic substances like ayahuasca can afford access to non-ordinary, spiritual or transpersonal dimensions of consciousness. In the Brazilian churches using ayahuasca, which by now have thousands of followers, including in North America and Europe, we have seen the development of an authentic folk religious movement that incorporate the hallucinogenic plant extract as a sacrament - developing both syncretic and highly original forms of religious ceremony.
In the context of Amazonian traditional healing practice the drinking of ayahuasca, combined with a highly restrictive diet, is something like a master cure for all illnesses, both physical and psychological. Not that the medicine itself is a panacea, but that it functions as a guide or teacher or instrument for the healer, pointing him or her to other herbs that might be needed, allowing him to counteract sorcery or extract poisonous infections. Clearly such practices presume a completely different understanding of illness and medicine than what we are accustomed to in the West.
Even from the point of view of Western medicine and psychotherapy it is clear from the literature that remarkable physical healings and resolutions of psychological difficulties can occur with this medicine. There have been ancedotal accounts of the complete remission of some cancers after one or two sessions with ayahuasca. Since these occurred in the context of traditional healing ceremonies, it is impossible to separate out the pharmacological effect from the psychosocial and shamanic elements.
On the psychological level also, there is intriguing evidence of positive therapeutic changes being induced by the ritualistic ingestion of ayahuasca. The research with the Brazilian hoasca church known as UDV showed that long-term users of hoasca reported making positive changes in their behavior (less drinking and drug use, more responsibility) as a result of their participation in the ceremonies. Many of the stories recounted in my book on ayahuasca – Sacred Vine of Spirits - and elsewhere, support the notion that under the influence of ayahuasca people are able to see and understand themselves better, to think more clearly about their relationships, the nature of the cosmos and their own place in it.
The combination of physical and psychic purging that occurs quite regularly with ayahuasca has lead me and others to suggest that potentially the most useful application of this medicine in Western society may be in the treatment of addiction and alcoholism. The Brazilian hoasca project with long-term members of the UDV reported a marked decline in alcoholism and drug addiction among church members. Similarly, among members of the peyote-using Native American Church in the United States, it has regularly been reported there is a significant decline in the alcoholism that is otherwise so devastating to the Native American population. Looking back at the history of Western research with psychedelic drugs, the most widespread therapeutic applications of LSD was found in the treatment of alcoholism. At one point during the late 1960s, there were about five or six hospitals in North America with an LSD alcoholism treatment program; the efficacy rate was on average about comparable to other forms of treatment.
Since the psychedelic (entheogenic, hallucinogenic) drugs and plants as consciousness-expanding, heightening awareness and providing self-insight, they are the logical and natural antidotes to the consciousness-contracting, fixating, narcotizing effect of addictive drugs and alcohol. And because of the purging effect (found in peyote and ayahuasca) there is reason to believe that such plant combined emetic-hallucinogens may be even more effective in treating alcoholism and addiction than LSD. The addict needs to purge not only the toxic residues of alcohol and other drugs from their system, but also the mental, emotional and perceptual reaction-patterns and habits. I believe there is a strong possibility that an alcoholism and addiction treatment program using ayahuasca in the context of a holistic approach that also uses nutrition, exercise, and psychospiritual group therapy can be established some time in the next ten years; if not in the United States, then perhaps in Mexico or Canada, where anti-drug political hysteria is less intense.
In the Amazonian shamanistic cultures, there is a deep association between the ayahuasca medicine and the serpents. Visions of giant or multiple serpents, in and around the body, as well as in the environment, are often reported – and portrayed in the tribal art. The shamans say that the power and knowledge to heal comes through the vine, but comes from the serpent – the serpent is the mother of ayahuasca. Jeremy Narby, in his fascinating book The Cosmic Serpent has made a powerful case for the idea that when the shaman-healers take ayahuasca, their perceptions are attuned to the cellular and molecular level, like a virtual electron microscope, where they can see the double helix forms of DNA – the basic evolutionary code of all life on Earth, coiled into the nucleus of every one of the trillions of cells of our body. The following poem describes a vision I was shown when I participated in an ayahuasca ceremony in Manaus, Brazil, a few years ago.

Ayahuasca Serpent Vision

I pray to the serpent vine of visions:
Help me heal the ancient wounds.
Slowly, the glittering snakes glide and slide,
Insinuating intimately into my deepest roots.
I’m inside the Serpent Mother now,
Coiling, writhing, turning, squirming,
Our bodies merged – one skin, one spine.

The space within expands to spaciousness,
Our little band of travellers on the spirit boat,
Are in the house, on the river, in the snake,
Sailing serenely along the darkening stream.

The Great Serpent’s body expands once more,
Encompassing now the River of Time,
The barque of human civilizations:
Whole villages & towns, I see, temples & palaces,
Pyramids & towers, kingdoms & nations:
Egypt, Rome, India, America,
Carried by the currents of collective fate,
Through the millenia, one great stream, one great Snake.

Now – continents & oceans, cloud montains, I see,
Vast deserts, rain forests, river deltas,
Are only the shimmering body of Diamond Rainbow Serpent,
Mother of All Organic Life on Earth.

And now – the great Earth with all her sibling planets,
Companion worlds, Moon, Mercury and Mars,
Spinning and whirling in stately serpentine orbits,
Around Primordial Mother-Father Sun.

The barque of hundreds of millions of years sails on,
Great Cosmic Star Sun Serpent,
Wheeling majestically around the Milky Way
Galactic Center, Dark Source of All Radiance.