Ayahuasca Beyond the Amazon: the Benefits and Risks of a Spreading Tradition

This commentary (2010) examines how to integrate these spiritual healing rituals into contemporary Western concepts of psychological health and ethical conduct, and calls for an enforcement mechanism of accountability for monitoring the reputations of different ritual leaders to protect the community from predatory practices.

Abstract

“Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant brew from the Amazon basin used as part of healing ceremonies by the region’s indigenous people for centuries, is now consumed by growing numbers of people throughout the world. Ayahuasca consumption has moved from strictly being part of indigenous shamanic healing ceremonies, to being a key component of the Brazilian syncretic churches formed in the last century, to most recently being part of “New Age” rituals conducted throughout the Western world. The discovery of ayahuasca by the Westerners, has resulted in a growing body of research suggesting that participants who take part in ayahuasca ceremonies experience significant spiritual and psychotherapeutic effects. Along with these potential benefits, however, the adoption of indigenous practices into Western cultures brings simultaneous challenges. As participation in ayahuasca ritual spreads into Western cultures, it becomes necessary to examine how to integrate these spiritual healing rituals into contemporary Western concepts of psychological health and ethical conduct.”

Author: Stephen Trichter

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Modern psychiatry and psychotherapy create space for patients’ psychological growth and self-exploration, but individuals often desire to have their spiritual beliefs and values integrated into clinical settings.

Ayahuasca, a plant brew used in indigenous Amazonian cultures for centuries, has found use in modern spiritual contexts and communities seeking connection with the divine.

Ayahuasca changed my life. I was an atheist before my encounter with the brew, and I am no longer one.

The increasing popularity of ayahuasca among Western spiritual seekers has created a necessity to examine how to integrate this spiritual healing ritual into Western concepts of psychological health and ethical conduct.

AYAHUASCA BASICS

Ayahuasca, an entheogen, is a psychoactive drink made from the pulverized bark of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the leaves of another plant. It can have profoundly positive effects upon individuals.

Ayahuasca, a compound word from the Quechua language meaning ”vine of the spirits”, has been used in South America for centuries as a healing tool and purportedly to communicate with plant and animal spirits.

There are several ayahuasca churches in Brazil that combine indigenous traditional beliefs and practices with Christian and African-Brazilian elements. These churches use ayahuasca at least twice monthly in ceremonial use and provide food and shelter for women and children.

Over the past few decades, ayahuasca ceremonies have developed in both Europe and North America that use techniques borrowed from both the more traditional and the contemporary expressions of ayahuasca usage.

Spiritual Benefits

Over the past two decades, increasing evidence has emerged that drinking ayahuasca in a ritualized context has benefits that are felt to be ”spiritual” in nature by practitioners.

Those who seek spiritual insight through ayahuasca tend to find it, and may experience visions reminiscent of those reported in the mystical traditions of different cultures throughout the ages.

Investigators found that participants in ayahuasca ceremonies experience peak spiritual experiences that shape their ongoing spirituality.

Psychotherapeutic Benefits

Using entheogens such as ayahuasca in psychotherapy has great promise, as the work takes place on a different level, and the user can integrate what the substance reveals into his/her whole pattern of behavior and system of knowledge.

Ayahuasca ceremony participants reported experiencing sadness, anger, and joy, as well as personal reflections and insights. These experiences can produce the desired affective expression that patients seek in psychotherapy.

Doering-Silveira et al. (2005) found that ayahuasca-drinking adolescents had comparable mental health to those in a control group, but that the ayahuasca group members were more confident, optimistic, outgoing energetic, persistent, reflective, and scored higher than control measures of social desirability and emotional maturity.

In a study on adolescents and ayahuasca, Dobkin de Rios et al. (2005) found that the ayahuasca-drinking group was more responsible, respectful, and concerned about the welfare of others.

A clinical psychological examination of long-term ayahuasca-using adult participants revealed that all disorders had remitted without recurrence after entry into an ayahuasca church, and that participants had undergone radical transformations of their behavior, attitudes toward others, and outlook on life beyond their decrease in alcohol use.

Doering-Silveira et al. (2005) found that ayahuasca-using adolescents did not differ significantly from those in the control group on neurological tests. They concluded that there was no evidence that ayahuasca has injurious effects on adolescents.

In other research, Hoffmann, Keppel-Hesselink, & da Silveira Barbosa (2001) examined the psychological effects of ayahuasca consumption on participants’ EEG results.

Those who drink ayahuasca on just one occasion tend to have positive spiritual experiences during ceremonies and afterwards, and then take these positive experiences and integrate them into their daily lives.

AYAHUASCA’S RISKS AND CHALLENGES

Given the many research findings related to the use of ayahuasca, and the extensive anecdotal reports of healing and transformation, there is concern that Westerners may be harmed by its use.

Ayahuasca rituals have thrived in Amazonian indigenous cultures and syncretic Brazilian churches, but they are likely to require adaptation and evolution when applied to new settings.

Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill (2008) pointed out that ayahuasca tourism is unregulated and that many shamanistic practitioners lack the experience, appropriate personality, and requisite training for this traditional healing work. They also stated that many women are seduced, raped, and discarded after their novelty to the healer wears off.

Although their work and similar findings contain important contributions to the literature, I take the position that ayahuasca-based rituals in Western contexts are at risk of harm, even with well intentioned and trained ceremony leaders.

Psychiatric and Medical Risks

The increased consumption of ayahuasca in the West puts people at risk for decompensation and the potential for mental and emotional stress. The experience can bring up past traumas or can bring about new traumatic experiences that may not be able to be worked through.

Ayahuasca can induce a rush of fear and paranoia, and psychotic states can result. Only healthy people should participate in an ayahuasca ceremony.

Spiritual Risk

In a time of postmodern and New Age hodgepodge spirituality, in which Westerners often reject their Judeo-Christian past and pick and choose from different religious and mystical traditions to create an idiosyncratic spirituality, it is important to examine the implications of introducing such a powerful shamanic tool into the West.

Welwood’s concern about spiritual bypass expresses the sentiment that those who blindly rush towards the potential spiritual and psychological benefits of ayahuasca rituals may merely push their pain into the unconscious while donning a shiny new spiritual practice veneer.

Ayahuasca ceremonies can result in profound insights, but without ongoing treatment or continuity of care, patients may find it difficult to integrate these insights into their life.

Through my clinical work, I have discovered that many Western participants in ayahuasca ceremonies seek out weekend long spiritual retreats typical in the West for similar reasons that Fotiou (2010) has found in shamanic tourism. These participants often find themselves coming back for more insights, connection with alleged spirits, and spiritual healing.

In my clinical practice, I have observed some ayahuasca ceremony participants who have a sense of spiritual narcissism, where they do not have compassion for others who do not share the ideology of the community.

Ethical and Legal Challenges

The movement of ayahuasca culture to the West creates challenges because it is rooted in psychoactive substances and shamanic community leaders. This can lead to participants idealizing the shaman and falling in love with him or her.

The interpersonal dynamics and energy between ayahuasca ritual leaders and participants can cause significant harm to the participant if not handled appropriately. Some ritual leaders have been known to project erotic fantasies into their work with participants.

Ayahuasca ritual leaders can project their feelings of anger, disappointment, shame, or guilt onto participants, and clients can idealize the leaders, losing their original intention for participating in the ritual.

Ayahuasca leaders often don’t understand how their own personal reactions can be harmful to those they attempt to heal.

Ayahuasca rituals have been shown to have healing potential, but it is questionable whether this healing is generated through self-exploration or merely imposed on the participants during a trance state by the ritual leader.

The Western framework of psychological healing uses countertransference issues to keep idiosyncratic or impulsive feelings from entering the room. Ayahuasca ceremony leaders need to have a well-developed theory regarding how they relate to participants.

The use of ayahuasca in the Western world is not clear, as it remains a Schedule I substance in the United States.

Regardless of legal status, there is no current protocol for how ayahuasca ceremonies should be safely and effectively conducted, nor any ethical guidelines for how ayahuasca ceremony leaders should work with their participants.

CONCLUSIONS

Ayahuasca ritual participants should take the following precautions to insure their safety as this indigenous shamanic tradition makes its way into the Western world.

Education

The public needs to be educated about the traditional use of ayahuasca in church and indigenous settings, and the medical risks involved in contraindicated medicines and foods.

By educating those interested in participating in ayahuasca rituals, the use of the brew as spiritual recreation would decrease, and seriousness, reverence, structure, and cohesive community support would increase.

Psychotherapeutic Integration

Combining ayahuasca rituals with Western psychotherapeutic models can promote a healthy psychospiritual healing practice. This can be done by safeguarding the psychological health of participants and exploring potential spiritual bypass and investigating shame or guilt that may have come up in transferencecountertransference issues.

Licensed and experienced mental health professionals can work with clients during ayahuasca ceremonies to prepare for potential crisis intervention, work with emerging traumas, and assist with post-ceremony integration.

To achieve the greatest benefit from an ayahuasca ceremony, the client should have participated in therapy for some time. The client can prepare for the ceremony by setting an intention to further explore themes that have come up during therapy.

A well-trained clinician is valuable to have on hand during an ayahuasca ritual to assist participants who are overwhelmed, agitated, or unstable. This clinician can use relaxation techniques, empathic listening, and simply being present to alleviate some of the stressors that occur during these crises.

The sense of connection that participants feel with ayahuasca could be supplemented with psychotherapeutic techniques to create a more sustainable impact on contemporary Western psyche.

Ayahuasca ceremony integration into a framework of ongoing psychotherapy would allow the client to explore a situation that often brings up fear, feel fully prepared, and share his or her experiences with the therapist post-ceremony.

A trained clinician should work with the participants of an ayahuasca ceremony afterwards in order to help them use the material to interface with their intentions, spiritual growth, interpersonal connections, and psychological development. When clients participate in an ayahuasca ceremony, psychotherapy creates an opportunity to explore whether the breakthroughs that occurred during the ceremony are founded in fantasy or reality. This allows clients to take the lessons from the ceremony and integrate them into their daily life.

Ethical Guidelines

Ayahuasca ritual communities need to create ethical guidelines for the proper use of the sacrament, and must build collaborative relationships with Western communities and mental health professionals to ensure proper dissemination of educational materials and medical and psychological screening standards.

Ayahuasca ritual leaders in the Western setting need to be held accountable for their actions because they can take advantage of and abuse ritual participants. By setting up intra and intercommunity dialogue around ethics and monitoring the reputations of different ritual leaders the community can be protected from predators.

Setting up ethics for ayahuasca communities and ritual leaders would be beneficial so that powerful temptations of power, sex, and money could be discussed transparently and leaders held accountable.

Some groups have already begun exploring the idea of using Santo Daime plant medicine for healing, and the UDV has a 50 year tradition of monitoring the ethical conducts of their leaders.

Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill (2008) make a strong case for the dangers involved in working with inexperienced or charlatan neo-shamans, and for the need to examine well established and respected ayahuasqueros and other ayahuasca ritual leaders.

In this global age, healing with ayahuasca requires looking at all of the challenges involved, and taking action to protect yourself and your community.

Stephen Trichter is a psychologist who works with patients and teaches psychology at Alliant University. He is interested in meditative dream states.