AYAHUASCA

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AYAHUASCA Vine of the Souls
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Outline

• What is Ayahuasca
• Components
• Active agents
• Two forms of Ayahuasca ceremonies
• Iqunito (Peru)
• Ceu Do Mapia (Brazil)

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• (a ya- was-ka)
• Describes the plant, brew and rainforest in
  which ritual healing and spiritual ceremonies
  take place.
• A psychoactive drink used throughout Amazonian
  Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Bolivia, Western Brazil
• Used in the Amazon for millennia, but rapidly
  expanding in South America

http//rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_map.
html
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Ayahuasca

• gt 42 indigenous names for the preparation
• gt 72 indigenous tribes of Amazonia have common
  knowledge of it.
• Medicinal, magical drink that incorporates 2 or
  more plants
• Brewed together and consumed in a ceremonial
  setting

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Banisteriopsis caapiAka Ayahuasca, Cappi or Yage

• Kingdom Plantae
• Phylum Magnoliopphyta
• Class Magnoliopsida
• Family Malphighiales
• Genus Banisteriopsis
• Species caapi

http//www.divinorum.org/banisteriopsis_caapi18.jp
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Active ingredients

• Harmala alkaloids (harmine, harmaline and
  tetrahydroharmine)
• MAOI
• Stimulate metabolism of serotonin and other
  monoamines
• Concentration (0.31-8.43) in Banisteriopsis.
• Synthetic MAOI are used as antidepressants

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• Banisteriopsis spp are mixed with many other
  potential plants
• DMT (Dimethyltryptamine)
• Psychotria viridis (chacruna)
• Diplopterys cabrerana (chaliponga).
• Increases amounts absorbed by the body
• MAOI reduce the breakdown of DMT
• Psychoactive effects

http//www.theshiwiarsproject.org/uploaded_images/
ayahuasca-779066.jpg
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Types of Banisteriopsis

• Peru
• Yellow caapi (Gentle, typical for initiation)
• Black caapi (Witchcraft, very experienced)
• Thunder caapi (intense perge, overwhelming)
• Indian (not cultivated, earlier history)
• White (often used in magic)
• Red (Strong, healing)
• Rattle (most potent)

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• Ecuador
• Ayahuasca de las Mujeres (Women, flowers)
• Ayahuasca de los hombres (Men, boas)
• Ayahuasca para Ver fantasmas (seeing the sprits)

http//www.hiddentrails.com/america-south/ecuador/
images/ecuador-map.jpg
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Belen (Iquitos, Peru)

• Poor, middle class men and women
• Healing sessions
• Ceremony would allow them to have visions of the
  spirits/beings that made them sick
• Clearings in the rainforest
• Ayahuasquero would distribute the potion
• Boiled ayahuasca plant with other plant parts
• Blow tobacco smoke on the bodies of patients
• Whistle specific songs (Quechua)

http//www.botany.org/plantsciencebulletin/images/
1972-18-4-finished_Picture1.jpg
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The Ceremony

• Drug brings on a state of immobility and in
  coordination of movement, nausea, heavy vomiting,
  diarrhea.
• Believe that the purge acts as a cleansing
  agent the helps restore sick person to health.
• The first step before magic or remedies can be
  introduced
• Visions of snakes (Boa) ? The mother Spirit of
  the vine
• special dietary restrictions are followed a day
  before usage restriction on lards, salts and
  sweets

http//www.bluemorphotours.com/image/picture/ayahu
asca_pot.jpg
http//www.erowid.org/plants/banisteriopsis/images
/banisteriopsis_summary1.jpg
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http//www.wits.ac.za/izangoma/images/25_big.jpg
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Ceu Do Mapia (Brazil)

• Western Brazil
• 500 people
• Catholic sect based on regular consumption of the
  hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca
• Banisteriopsis caapi with leaves of Chacruna
  plant (Psychotria viridis)
• Very modern looking rituals in the heart of the
  rainforest.
• Religion deemed Santo Daime

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Daime

• Dai-me means "give me" in Portuguese, as in
  "daime força, daime amor" (give me strength, give
  me love)
• Altered state of Daime creates a spirit world.
  The path to happiness and self knowledge is
  through the work done in the spiritual realm.
• The church service represented the early 20th
  century culture of rural north eastern brazil,
  but perfectly preserved in the rainforest

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Conclusion

• Ayahuasca is used all over South America
• 1000s of recepies (depending on use)
• Spiritual Beliefs
• Very different standards

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References

• Bellos. A. (2006) Sects and Drugs. New Statesman.
  13548-49
• Dobkin de Rios. M. (1970) A Note on the use of
  Ayahuasca amoung Urban mestizo Populations in the
  Peruvian Amazon. American Anthropologist.
  72(6)1419-1422
• Katz. F and Dobkin de Rios. M (1971)
  Hallucinogenic Music An Analysis of the role of
  Whistling in Peruvian Ayahuasca Healing sessions.
  Journal of American Folklore. 84(333)320-327