This survey (n=1630) collected responses from ayahuasca users to explore the qualitative aspects of post-ayahuasca integration The participants described integration experiences in three main ways: overall appraisal (easy, challenging, or long-term/ongoing), beneficial tools facilitating integration (connecting with a like-minded community, yoga, meditation, journaling), and integration challenges (feeling disconnected or reconciling new understandings with old life). The findings suggest that integration can be challenging and time-consuming, but addressing these challenges may facilitate positive growth. The study also challenges the dominance of individual psychotherapy as a primary integration tool in Western psychedelic therapy and proposes an expanded definition of psychedelic integration that includes communal and somatic elements.
Abstract of Life after Ayahuasca
“Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychoactive plant medicine being explored for its potential therapeutic uses in Western contexts. Preliminary studies link ayahuasca use with improvements across a range of mental health indicators, but studies have not yet explored qualitative aspects of the post-treatment process known in the psychedelic literature as “integration”. This includes how participants make sense of their ayahuasca experiences and minimise harm/maximise benefits after ayahuasca use. A global online survey, conducted between 2017 and 2019, collected responses from 1630 ayahuasca drinkers (50.4% male, mean age = 43 years) to an open-ended question about their integration experiences after consuming ayahuasca. Inductive codebook thematic analysis was used to identify themes in participants’ integration experiences. Participants described integration experiences in three main ways. First, was an overall appraisal of the integration experience (e.g., as easy, challenging, or long-term/ongoing). Second, was describing beneficial tools which facilitated integration (e.g., connecting with a like-minded community and ongoing practice of yoga, meditation, journaling, etc.). Third, was describing integration challenges (e.g., feeling disconnected, going back to “old life” with new understandings, etc.). These findings suggest that integrating ayahuasca experiences can be challenging and take considerable time, though working through integration challenges may facilitate positive growth. Findings also challenge the role of individual psychotherapy as the primary integration tool in Western psychedelic therapy, suggesting that communal and somatic elements may also be useful. An expanded definition of psychedelic integration is proposed which includes working with integration challenges and adjusting to life changes.”
Authors: Tessa Cowley-Court, Richard Chenhall, Jerome Sarris, José C. Bouso, Luís F. Tófoli, Emérita Sátiro Opaleye, Violeta Schubert & Daniel Perkins
Summary of Life after Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew that has been used in traditional medicine systems of the Amazon basin for centuries. It is now used in Western therapeutic contexts, but can cause mental and emotional challenges.
To contextualise the post-ayahuasca integration process, it is necessary to touch on the ayahuasca experience itself briefly. Participants have described profound insights, visions of colours, lights and geometric patterns, encounters with supernatural entities, and the re-visiting and re-framing of autobiographical memories.
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https://doi.org/10.3390/psychoactives2020014
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Cite this paper (APA)
Cowley-Court, T., Chenhall, R., Sarris, J., Bouso, J. C., Tófoli, L. F., Opaleye, E. S., ... & Perkins, D. (2023). Life after Ayahuasca: A Qualitative Analysis of the Psychedelic Integration Experiences of 1630 Ayahuasca Drinkers from a Global Survey. Psychoactives, 2(2), 201-221.