Experiences of Encounters with Ayahuasca – “the Vine of the Soul”

This qualitative study (n=25) examined retrospectively reported experiences of western ayahuasca use and identified common structures of their reports, which entailed transcendent experiences that facilitated shifts in worldview and a new orientation to their life.

Abstract

“Introduction: Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew used by the indigenous populations of the Amazon. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain insight into the experiences of western users of ayahuasca, as well as to ascertain the experienced meaning that participants felt by their participation.

Methods: Twenty-five people from Northern Europe with experiences of group sessions with ayahuasca wrote anonymous descriptions of their experiences. The Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method was used for this analysis.

Results: The analysis resulted in 33 categories which were assembled into six general themes: (a) motivation and aim, (b) contractile frightening state (c) sudden transformation of the experience, (d) limitless expansive states with transcendental experiences, (f) reflections, and (g) changed worldview and new orientation to life.

Discussion: These themes provided a new structure, called the transcendental circle. Participants reported many positive psychological and physical improvements that indicate that ayahuasca could be of potential interest in the development of new medicines and therapies.”

Authors: Anette Kjellgren, Anders Eriksson & Torsten Norlander

Summary

Experiences of Encounters with Ayahuasca—”the Vine of the Soul”

Research on psychoactive substances has been far from mainstream since the 1960s, but there is renewed interest in the treatment of terminal cancer patients.

Ayahuasca is a shamanistic indigenous poptilation of the Amazon basin that contains the hallucinogen dime thy ltryptamine (DMT) and a monoaminoxidase (MAO) inhibitor. The MAO inhibitor prevents the gastro-intestinal enzymes from metabolizing the DMT, so no psychoactive effect results.

Ayahuasca is used as a legal psychoactive sacrament in Brazil within the religious organizations of Santo Daime, Uniäo do Vegetal, and Barquinha. Studies have shown that ayahuasca has no negative effects among the users.

Ayahuasca has become popular in the USA and Europe for religious and spiritual purposes, and has even attracted Brazilian ayahuasca churches to North America and Europe.

Ayahuasca is taken during group ceremonies, which are usually led by an experienced person in the field or a shaman. The experience usually begins with a peculiar feeling in the body, followed by vomiting and intense diarrhea, followed by a sense of euphoria, wonder and deep peace.

Ayahuasca has a bitter taste and side effects of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. There is little risk of physiological or psychological damage.

Westerners who have participated in group ceremonies with ayahuasca have reported having had various experiences, including vomiting and frequently residual diarrhea. The aim of this qualitative study is to gain certain insights into these experiences and to ascertain the meaning that these participants have derived.

Participants were recruited through three contact people with knowledge of persons who had participated in ayahuasca sessions. They filled in a questionnaire asking about their experiences and background data, and the average lapse of time since last participation in a session was 310.21 days.

A questionnaire was constructed to elicit background data and answers to three questions about ayahuasca experiences. Participants were guaranteed full anonymity.

Through a previous network of contacts, 30 questionnaires were distributed to people who participated at least once in an ayahuasca group session. 25 were returned by post within two weeks.

The text was divided into 468 meaning units in the second step, based upon the content the researcher discovered and at places where a suitable shift in meaning occurred.

Each MU was transformed from the language of the respondent to the language of the researcher. This made the implicit and underlying meaning of a phenomenon visible and explicit.

In the fourth step, the transformed MUs were synthesized into categories. These categories were developed during processing, whereby repeated consultations of raw data continued in a hermeneutic manner.

The authors organized the synopses into general themes, which were then agreed upon. The themes included motivation and aim, sudden transformation of the experience, and changed worldview and new orientation to life.

To monitor the reliability of the study results, the Norlander Credibility Test (NCT) was used. Two independent assessors put twenty MUs into five different categories and the overall agreement was 83%.

Six themes emerged during the study: moti’aionandaim, contractile frightening state, sudden transformation of the experience, limitless expansive states with transpersonal experiences, reflections, and changed world view.

Participants reported various aspects of participation as well as motives for participating in ayahuasca sessions, such as seeking knowledge, examining both outer and inner worlds and realities, and wanting to be transported in time to facilitate the acquisition of information from the past or even the future.

The second theme summarizes various frightening and threatening experiences during the first half of the session. Participants reported feeling vulnerable and easily influenced, as well as being thrown back into traumatic childhood memories.

The third theme describes a sudden shift in the character of the experience, from a disturbing, frightening state to an experience that is instead limitless, omnipotent, and indescribable.

The fourth theme deals with transpersonal phenomena in the experience world, such as encounters with animal spirits and encounters with the spirits of plant life. In some cases, participants have described overwhelming experiences of direct personal contact with God.

Participants experienced changes in time and space dimensions, the insight that “all is one”, and deep peace, bliss, and ecstasy. These states have been interpreted as a loving primal state of origin.

Ayahuasca is sometimes called the “vine of death” and participants in the present study described experiencing a process involving their own death, and in certain cases, of what happens thereafter.

Participants’ reflections on their experiences were based on psychological interpretations of their own life struggles and fears. Some participants were unwilling to attempt description of their experiences because they felt it was impossible to put into words an indescribable experience.

Participants reported that their lives have been fundamentally changed, in terms of worldview, personal development, interests, and healing effects. They described becoming more loving and learning to love themselves, others, and life more.

The participants reported increased creativity and new interests, improved cognitive abilities, and a sense of knowing the world from within. Their worldviews were changed by expanding to embrace more nonmaterial asjjects.

Analysis of the material and six described themes revealed that participation in ayahuasca ceremonies has become a process that can be described as a transcendental circle. The circle was completed when new motivation and aims surfaced in advance of the next ayahuasca session.

The current study has several limitations, such as the fact that participants were completely anonymous, and the impossibility of asking supplemental or in-depth questions. However, the respondents’ experiences are in line with previous reports, and further research is needed.