Psychedelic Shamanism - Ayahuasca Description

From the Amazonian rain forst comes one of the most powerful catalysts for expanded awareness yet discovered by humans. In Ecuador and Peru this drugs is sometimes known as Ayahuasca, a Quechua Indian word meaning, ironically, "vine of the dead." In Columbia and parts of Brazil, the Tupi Indian name Yage (claimed Ya-hay) is employed, and among Amazonia's proliferating mestizo relious cults it is known as Daime.

"Ayahuasca" as a hallucinogenic substance does not properly refer to one single plant, but to an anomalous mixture of two very different plan species, there is no such thing as an "ayahuasca plant," or a "yage plant," any more than there is a straightforward liquor simply called "Martini." Ayahuasca correctly refers to a psychedelic mixture of plants which varies in virility according to the talent of its maker.

While each shaman has his own secret formula for the mixture (with probably no 2 precisely alike), it's been established that true ayahuasca always contains both beta-carboline and tryptamine alkaloids, the former (harmine and harmaline) sometimes acquired from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, and the latter (N, N-dimethyl-tryptamine, or DMT) from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis bush. There may be adaptations among plant species, but the alkaloids are always consistent.

It's important to note that neither one of these plant substances by itself is typically psychoactive in oral doses . (Harmine/harmaline is said to effect hallucinosis at highly toxic levels, but in less heroic quantities it is at best a tranquilizer, at worst an emetic.) DMT, in any quantity, isn't orally active unless used in combination with a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor. This principle is precisely what makes ayahuasca effective ; the harmala alkaloids in the Banisteriopsis caapi vine are potent short term MAO inhibitors which synergize with the DMT-containing Psychotria viridis leaves to produce what has been described as one of the most profound of all psychedelic experiences.