Ayahuasca and Entrepreneurship
Ayahuasca is the Spirit Vine
Scientific Name : banisteriopsis caapi
Ayahuasca may also be known as yagé or yaje among many other names depending on the region and tribe of the Amazon.
Dozens of indigenous tribes in the Amazon Rainforest use ayahuasca as a traditional healing medicine. There are many examples of tribes using ayahuasca that live in different regions and have had not contact to share the medicine.
What is Ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca is a traditional plant medicine derived from the Banisteriopsis caapi plant. This plant and ayahuasca use is native to the Amazon region and specifically to indigenous tribes inhabiting the Amazon.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive drug the creates powerfully altered states of consciousness that deliver the user to a place of transcendence in almost every case. That said, everyone’s experience tends to be unique to their own constitution and to the particular situation in which they drink the medicine. At times, the experience can be merely stimulating, while many times it can elicit extraordinary visions and transcendent states of consciousness.
Ayahuasca is drank as a tea made from the plants and is also known as “vine of the soul.” Ayahuasca also contains the chacruna plant, which contains DMT.
How does Ayahuasca make you feel?
Ayahuasca can have a variety of tastes from sweet, to pungent, to metallic and more. For some, just drinking the medicine can be a test, while for others, it’s nothing. The impact of drinking the medicine can carry over to the experience itself because if it’s not received smoothly, a person may wretch or even purge fairly soon after drinking, preventing the medicine from entering fully into the system and taking effect.
The experience of ayahuasca depends a lot on the individual, their own constitution, their intention, and ultimately, their ability to “surrender” to the medicine and the journey. Many people begin the path with some level of anxiety or nerves as the experience is relatively unknown in the sense that even those who have drank before understand that every journey can be different.
Ayahuasca seems to carry a highly intelligent frequency within it that tends to provide the experience that the person needs at any given time or on any given journey.
After drinking ayahuasca, one may feel stomach discomfort and nausea, or nothing at all. It seems like anytime people are talking about ayahuasca, the subject of “purging” is a main topic. Some people think that everyone purges, but that is not true. In my own experience, I’ve never purged while drinking ayahuasca after sitting 10 times with the medicine, each time experiencing extremely powerful journeys.
There was one time I purged profusely on ayahuasca, but it was because I was served another even more powerful medicine called “yopo” which is what actually caused the purge, but that’s a whole other story.
In my own ayahuasca experiences, I’ve experienced extraordinary states of bliss, direct connection to God consciousness, relived past lifetimes, received petabytes of informational upgrades directly from the ancestors, been given powerful messages, and progressed through rites of passage.
In truth, there’s nothing like it. The intelligence of this medicine and the healing it can provide is incomparable for those intrepid souls who come to sit with it, with pure intention, mind, and heart.
Using Ayahuasca With Intention
Drinking Ayahuasca with intention means approaching the entire experience with a clear and specific purpose with reverence and ceremony. Whether your desire is to heal from past trauma, gain insights into your blindspots and relationships, or to connect with a higher power, the ancestors, or yourself. Having a strong intention can be critical in guiding the experience and increasing the lessons and takeaways of the Ayahuasca ceremony.
Because Ayahuasca is no joke and can be a potentially dangerous substance and should not be taken lightly or in an environment where you do not feel safe. As Timothy Leary said, “set and setting” is key. In this context, “set” is your mindset, and “setting” is the environment you’re in. Both are critical to protecting your psyche during profound explorations common on ayahuasca journeys.
I also highly recommended doing lots of research, meeting as many people in the community as possible, and working with an experienced facilitator or shaman who is knowledgeable about aya and its effects. An experienced shaman with integrity should have the capacity to hold space and lead participants through traumas during ceremony through their own facilitation techniques.
Along with great intention, it is important to carefully consider your own mental and physical health and to feel the call, trust your intuition, and proceed with caution.
My Journey With Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca has a long history of use as a medicine by indigenous peoples in the Amazon region, where it is often used in a ceremonial context for spiritual and physical healing. In recent years, interest in Ayahuasca as a medicine has grown in the Western world, and some researchers are investigating its potential therapeutic benefits for a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction. I’ve also used hapé with ayahuasca as a means to deeper my relationship with the medicine and my experience in ceremony.
Predictably, despite the lack of harm and proven benefits, Ayahuasca is not currently an approved medicine by regulatory agencies such as the FDA in the United States. Ayahuasca does have risks and potential serious side effects if not taken with great intention and great guidance. Hallucinations, confusion, and elevated heart rate and blood pressure, are form of energetic and transmutations of trauma, that IS the medicine.
Because ayahuasca is mostly only available through underground or unregulated sources in countries where it is not legal without a religious exemption, it’s critical to ensure its quality and safety.
There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that Ayahuasca has therapeutic benefits, and more research is needed to determine its safety and efficacy for different types of people and their specific issues.