Abstract-

I originally began this blog to document my travels in Peru and experiences with the plant medicines. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore these traditions, my own consciousness, heal my physical body, and do field work for my Master's thesis. I received my degree in Sustainable Communities from Northern Arizona University in May of this year. I have taken the past five months to decompress from the incredible energetic and mental push of completing this project, and I am now ready to share. I hope that it is easily readable in the Blog format. I delineated each chapter through a separate entry. If I learned one thing in school it was to skim the intro and conclusion, and see if from here I wanted to read all the chapters. I encourage you to do the same if you so desire. I would love any feedback or thoughts you have. I have plans for future qualitative research into the entheogenic experience. The data I collected is a good jumping off point. But more on that later.... I hope you enjoy reading this! Many Blessings and Much Love- Robin

Abstract-

ENTHEOGENIC SOUL EVOLUTIONS:

AN EXPLORATION OF THE CEREMONIAL USAGE OF

AYAHUASCA AND HUACHUMA BY WESTERNERS

Robin C. Flynn



This thesis explores the intercultural phenomena of the ceremonial ingestion of two South American indigenous plant medicines, Ayahuasca and Huachuma (also known as San Pedro.) The core research questions have been: why are individuals from all over the world are choosing to seek out experiences with the indigenous knowledge systems associated with these plant medicines, and does this have implications to the creation of good and sustainable communities?

Each plant-spirit medicine is introduced through a chapter, which discusses the biochemical make-up of the plant, and how it interacts in the body, as well as its history, current use, and some of the controversy surrounding each medicine. This project is based on field research undertaken in Peru and the secondary literature available. This research project includes qualitative analysis based on data given in an online questionnaire by people who have participated in these healing ceremonies, participant-observations, and reflections on my own experiences with these healing traditions. I present and discuss the core and emergent themes of the collected data focusing on the qualitative impact participating in these ceremonies have had on the lives of the individuals. My analytical and personal conclusions are presented in the final chapter.









Acknowledgments-

On this radical journey of healing, growing, and learning I have been blessed with remarkable support. I wish to thank my mother, Lindy Flynn, for her endless and unconditional love and cheerleading. Without her encouragement on all levels I would not have been able to complete this piece. As well as my father, Martin Flynn, for instilling in me a love of paradoxical realities and guiding me towards the multi-disciplinary path of the Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities. I wish to thank Dr. Sandra Lubarsky for directing this process and helping me hone the strength of my analytical mind. I send my deepest gratitude to Dr. Bill Burke for being an amazing and challenging editor, as well as to each of the members of my thesis committee who took the time and energy to support this project. To my partner in adventure, exploration, and life, Darcy Kopas, it has been an awesome and beautiful journey so far- the best is yet to come! And to the Great Mystery whose unending beauty and grace weaves the tapestry of all life. How grateful I am to be here.

Chapter One: Introduction

At this time on the planet millions of people from all walks of life are eagerly and earnestly seeking alternative approaches to the dominant materialist paradigm. They see that the path of the current American cultural trajectory (which is a guiding force in the world) is leading to planetary destruction and the possible extinction of life as we know it on the planet. Many are looking for solutions to our environmental issues, which continue to unfold in mind bending complexity, illuminating the underlying interconnectivity of all life. Many are heart-broken and disgusted by the current fear-driven paradigm that fuels and feeds war mongering corporate-states all around the world while needlessly killing millions, destroying beautiful eco-systems, and consuming an inordinate amount of un-renewable resources. The true colors of many politicians and corporations are being shown to be self-serving and with seeming disregard for the health, happiness, and peace of the planet and all her species. We, the people, have been have been commodified from citizens into consumers, and the consumer culture is leaving us feeling soulless. 700 people own more wealth than half the population of the planet.
Many in developing nations are sick and poor, and many in affluent nations are sick and poor. In the United States one in four people have some form of mental illness, and of the top ten prescription drugs nine are for anti-anxiety, anti-depression, or sleeplessness, with the tenth being viagra. Addiction is rampant; the signs of this are everywhere. The sacred plants of the Americas have been adulterated, genetically modified, raped of the active constituents from their natural form and turned into addictive killing machines. Corn, which has always been the food of the People, has been turned into high fructose corn syrup that leads directly to insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity. Tobacco, which is sacred through out the Americas, whose smoke carried the prayers of the People to the Creator, is now covered with over 200 poisonous toxic chemicals and pushed as the same plant. Coca, which is a tonic and powerful medicine, whose nutrient dense leaves will sustain a person, save lives of those afflicted with altitude sickness, and are left as offerings to the Apus (mountain spirits), has been drenched in chemicals and beaten down until only a little white powder remains.
On top of all of this it has now been shown that the largest cause of death in the United States is actually the medical industry. The recent research undertaken by a group of five doctors evidenced in the article Death By Medicine reviewed all of the statistical data on the actual impact of the medical industry on people’s health and well being. The impact of this peer-reviewed paper profound:
"This fully referenced report shows the number of people having in-hospital, adverse reactions to prescribed drugs to be 2.2 million per year. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is 20 million per year. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million per year. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million per year. The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US. (By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.5) (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.htm)"

These issues are all deeply interconnected. The search for and application of sustainable approaches to living is being done globally in all fields and sectors of society. People are beginning to realize that inherent in environmental issues are social justice issues, and at the root of both of these often lay spiritual crises- guilt, fear, pain, disconnection, apathy, and despair. A global movement has been emerging in the past twenty years. This movement is the greatest the world has ever seen. It is non-hierarchical and is comprised of millions of groups and individuals dedicated to honoring all of life, the diversity and complexity of nature, and social justice (Hawken 2007: 14.) It is a movement without a name. This movement and new global wisdom is saturated in and informed by indigenous knowledge systems from around the world. These wisdom systems are not caught in the trance and anesthesia of the modern post-industrial dream. This thesis is an exploration of the indigenous wisdom systems associated with the ceremonial ingestion of two healing plants of South America.
I came to the exploration of the ceremonial use of Ayahuasca and Huachuma (commonly known as San Pedro I will refer to it by both names) through my own search for health and sustainable approaches to living. Ayahuasca is the term used for an entheogenic decoction made by South American shamans. Entheogen literally means, “That which gives rise to inner divinity” a term given to the application of natural or synthetic mind-altering substances for spiritual use (Huntbadiner/Grey 2002: 61.) This decoction is derived from the Ayahuasca vine and leaves from the Chacruna tree. Often other medicinal plants and tree barks will be added, although these two are the typical base brew. San Pedro is a cactus of the Trichocereus genus and its scientific name is Trichocereus pachanoi and Trichocereus peruvianus. It also is an entheogen whose alkaloids are usually extracted through a decoction process. Indigenous peoples of South America have used each of these substances for thousands of years. I have yet to find an exact date for Ayahuasca but the shamans themselves say that it has been used since time memorable. The use of San Pedro has been dated to 1500 BCE with the Chavin culture and is used by the Andean and coastal cultures of Peru to this day (http://www.globalheritagefund.org/where/chavin.html).
I began to hear and read about plant-spirit shamanism in the early 2000’s. Over time information began to surface about how people were having life altering experiences by working with shamans and the ceremonial use of certain plants. I heard reports of people recovering from life long battles with depression, addiction, childhood trauma, and even such disparate physical ailments as eczema, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. The stories that I heard were deeply compelling to me since I had been dealing with complex health issues for which the Western medical system had unsatisfactory solutions. I speak of this more in depth in a following chapter. For me, the study of sustainability became interwoven with my own pursuit of health. I saw that in order to live a sustainable life, I must learn how to have a healthy “sustainable” relationship to my body as well as to the planet. I found that many of the people reflecting on their entheogenic experiences were coming from a place of deep concern for the state of the world, and were pursuing these altered states of consciousness not from a place of self-indulgent yearning, but for the pursuit of information that could benefit the good of all.
I was deeply compelled by what I heard and I knew that in order for my curiosity to be satisfied I would have to go to Peru to experience this for myself. In the spring of 2007 I traveled to Peru to participate in Ayahuasca and San Pedro ceremonies. This thesis is an account of my own experiences working with these two plant medicines; an exploration in to the history, biochemical make-up, current use and legality of each; and a qualitative research project that I have performed through an online questionnaire in order to gain a greater understanding of who is seeking out these experiences and how these medicines are effecting their lives.
In writing this thesis I substantiate the ceremonial use of Ayahuasca and San Pedro as a burgeoning intercultural phenomenon that offers rich possibilities in the creation of good and sustainable communities- healing the collective through healing the individual. The data collected for this work shows that the indigenous healing systems of Ayahuasca and San Pedro have relevance beyond indigenous populations. Some healers from the Amazon jungle and Andes of Peru are willing to work with Westerns who sincerely seek to learn, who come to them in humility and respect. While there are concerns about, and conversations that must happen, in regards to the “cultural appropriation” of these traditional healing practices that is not the focus of this work (and I have not found any substantive data on the topic.)
It is my great privilege to have the honor to write about these powerful medicines and their healing role on the planet.


"The human brain shares an affinity with hallucinogens. Our neural chemistry contains some of the most powerful psychotropic compounds in the worlds, such as tryptamines and seratonin, which are identical to those found in many teacher plants. It is part of our design, our biological blueprint, to be able to move into expanded awareness or deep trance almost at will, and this may be no accident of evolution… For at least a million and a half years, we have been hard wired for the sacred, even though many of us are largely denied today. (Heaven/Charing 2006: 80-81)"

Chapter Two: An Introduction to Ayahuasca

The plant-spirit medicine known as Ayahuasca is a decoction made from Banisteriopsis Caapi, commonly called the Ayahuasca vine, and the leaves of the Psychotria Viridis, a member of the coffee family, commonly known in the Amazon as the Chacruna tree. Chacruna is a Quechua (an indigenous Amazonian and Andean language of Incan origins) word meaning to “bring light to visions.” While the vine, in Quechua, is called mariri meaning strength. The two, when paired, work in tandem chemically manifesting hallucinogenic altered states of consciousness, vomiting, diarrhea, and other non-ordinary states of being. This brew has been used since antiquity and is renowned by peoples of the Amazon to be a powerful healer for virtually all ailments. In this chapter I will discuss the biochemical make-up of Ayahuasca and how it interacts in the body, as well as its history, current use, and some of the controversy surrounding plant-spirit medicines.

The Active Chemistry of Ayahuasca



"Understanding the pharmacological effects (of plant-spirit medicines) helps to illuminate their central role in many cultures as a source of religious and spiritual inspiration, shamanic ecstasy, and visionary experience. The effects of the pyschointergrators (entheogens) upon brain processes, perception, emotion, and cognition derive from their similarity to neurotransmitters, and from their ability to evoke experiences derived from the underlying neurophenomenological structures of the human brain/mind. The close physical similarity of psychointegrators to natural neurotransmitters enable them to have powerful effects upon the mental and psychological function and reveal the natural structures of the human mind as structured by the physiology of the brain."
(Winkleman 1996: 9)


The physical and psychological effects of the Ayahuasca brew are the result of the complex chemistries of the combined Ayahuasca vine and Chacruna leaves. Ayahuasca tea is a complex mixture of bio-chemicals that work together in the body to promote healing and produce visions. To understand how this complex binary drug delivery system works, we must understand how the individual bio-chemicals provided by the different plants work in the human body. Let me take each of these in order.
In the nineteenth century chemists were able to first isolate natural products from plants. Alkaloids are basic nitrogen containing organic compounds usually found in plants, although they can be found in animals and fungi as well. They are a large and diverse group of plant metabolites that are medically important (Hanson 2005:83). They are bitter in flavor and are present in many of the medicinal plants from throughout the world. Alkaloids are also larger than other bio-chemicals making them easier to identify and separate. The first alkaloid isolated was morphine from the Opium poppy. This discovery revolutionized Western medicine for its pain relieving quality, and ignited zeal among scientists to breakdown the chemical structure of plants in order to isolate individual constituents, which could then be synthesized. Alkaloids make up a large percentage of pharmaceutical medications, and plants from rainforests have higher percentages of alkaloids, which often help the plant be more resistant to insects (Shaman’s Apprentice DVD 2005.) This is why ethnobotnists and western drug makers search the rainforests for medicines, and with the help of native medicine people have found an abundance of life saving chemical compounds.
Boiling the pounded vines of the liana (large jungle vine) and leaves of the Chacruna tree in water makes the Ayahuasca brew. The vine contains the beta-carbolines harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine (THH) these are the harmala alkaloids that act as monoamino oxide inhibitors (MAOi) (Metzner 1999: 101.) MAO enzymes live in the stomach and liver and serve the very important function of deactivating the neurotransmitter seratonin. Seratonin deficiency has been linked to depression, anxiety, irritability, violence and insomnia (Metzner 1999: 28). Serotonin is created throughout the gastrointestinal system and brain. This is important to note because:
Serotonin's major function is basically one of inhibition within the complex neuro-chemical pathways of the central nervous system (CNS), as if to screen out spurious bits of data to allow one to better focus on the task at hand. Modifying the action of serotonergic functions within a living organism typically results in observable changes in behavior. Many psychotropic substances, whether purified synthetic powders or crude natural products, affect at least some aspect of serotonergic activity. (Callaway/Metzner 1999: 98.)

When Ayahuasca is ingested seratonin levels within the brain elevate, over stimulating the vagus nerve the result of which is often vomiting and diarrhea. It is important to note that “Both MAO inhibition and seratonin uptake inhibition work together through Ayahuasca to safely increase levels of seratonin by simultaneously inhibiting both its metabolism and neuronal reuptake, respectively.”(Callaway/Metzner: 102)
The MAO enzymes also deactivate N,N-Dimethltryptamine (DMT) when orally ingested. In the Ayahuasca brew the Chacruna leaves are a rich source of DMT. This is a naturally occurring chemical compound found in abundance throughout nature. Humans have DMT throughout their entire body, with the greatest concentration residing in the brain. It is hypothesized that the pineal gland produces DMT, along with Melatonin and beta-carbolines because it contains the largest concentration of the biochemical within the body. The pineal gland is a pinecone shaped organ that resides deep within the brain. DMT also closely resembles seratonin. It is an endogenous compound whose role in the body is still shrouded in mystery.
When DMT was first isolated and synthesized in 1931 its mind-altering effects were not recognized. R. Manske, a Canadian researcher, made this discovery, while chemically modifying tryptamine, and did not investigate DMT further. It was not until 1946 that DMT was isolated in the mind-altering snuffs of South America by O. Goncalves, and it was not until 1955 that the Hungarian chemist and psychologist Stephen Szara discovered that alone it is orally inactive (Strassman 2002: 44). Szara, experimenting on himself, was the first to take DMT through injection into the blood stream, and in doing so discovered the most potent hallucinogenic known to man. This is what shamans of South America have known for innumerable generations, and why the DMT rich Chacruna leaves are combined with the beta-carboline rich Ayahuasca or taken as a snuff which quickly passes through the blood-brain barrier effectively side stepping the digestive system altogether. DMT, along with LSD and other consciousness expanding substances was made a highly restricted schedule one substance by the United States Congress in 1970. The schedule one classification is for drugs that the government deems has a high potential for abuse, no known medicinal value, and a lack of safety for the use of it under medical supervision (www.erowid.com.) Since each of our bodies naturally make DMT our entire lives, as do many other plant and animal species, we are all continuously breaking this law.
In 1990, Dr. Rick Strassman, preformed an exhaustive study of the effects of intravenous DMT on consciousness, and reported his findings in the book DMT: The Spirit Molecule. He was able to undergo this study after a lengthy and complicated process of obtaining government approval and finding a source of synthetic pure human grade DMT. After doing hundreds of intravenous administrations of DMT to human volunteers he wrote:
"The most general hypothesis is that the pineal gland produces psychedelic amounts of DMT at extraordinary times in our lives. Pineal DMT production is the physical representation of non-material or energetic processes. It provides us with the vehicle to consciously experience the movement of life force in its most extreme manifestations. Specific examples for this phenomenon are the following: When our individual life force enters our fetal body, the movement in which we become truly human, it passes through the pineal and triggers the first primordial flood of DMT. Later, at birth, the pineal releases more DMT. In some of us, pineal DMT mediates the pivotal experiences of deep meditation, psychosis, and near-death experiences. As we die, the life-force leaves the body through the pineal gland, releasing another flood of this psychedelic spirit molecule (Strassman 68-69.)"

Western science still does not have a definitive conclusion for what role DMT plays within the body. Strassman’s hypothesis is intriguing and backed by his data; it also parallels the traditional belief that Ayahuasca opens one’s consciousness to metaphysical realities, and is why it is called both “the vine of spirits” and the “vine of death.” It is interesting to note that the pineal gland forms in the womb 49 days after conception- the day when the fetus’ sex becomes fixed. Forty-nine, is also the number of days it takes a soul to reincarnate after leaving the body according to the Tibetan Buddhist Book of the Dead (Strassman 2002: 81).
Synthetic DMT is an isolated chemical, which can be injected or smoked, the effects of which last only 5-20 minutes and is from subjective reports incredibly intense, with told journeys to other worlds, encounters with angles and aliens, and complete out of body experiences. The experiences are often so quick and powerful that they lack the “teachings” that occur with a longer duration experience that a marriage of beta-carbolines and DMT provide. This has still not prohibited people from having profound occurrences. I am not a proponent of synthetic drugs, mind altering or not, because when any bio-chemical of a plant is isolated and synthesized, the rich structure that it naturally occurs within is removed. This structure is built of other nutrients, some active and others inactive, which aid in the safe breakdown and assimilation of the medicine.
The paradigm of Western medicine is rooted in reductionism, which isolates individual nutrients and synthesizes these bio-chemicals that are then manufactured into drugs unto themselves. This process creates a standardized product, which can be reproduced in mass, in the form of pharmaceutical drugs. It is difficult for a scientist to research the effects of a chemical without doing this, because there can be variability within a natural substance. So in these cases, like the research Dr. Strassman performed, it is the ideal to have a standard pure substance. Our bodies however did not evolve to assimilate nutrients in an isolated form. This is why pharmaceutical drugs usually have a long list of serious counter-indications. Even synthetic vitamins have been shown to have long-term negative impacts on the body (food derived organic vitamins are an exception to this since they are essentially super-concentrated whole foods.) I have personally found the side effects of these drugs to often be harder to live with than the original ailment. There are many holistic alternative approaches to health practices that have been clinically proven to be effective without damaging the system in any way. A few of these are Chinese medicine, homeopathy, fasting, herbal medicines, detoxification, and a whole foods diet.
With this said the beta-carbolines of the Ayahuasca vine allow for DMT to be orally active until other metabolic processes of the body breakdown and remove the substance from the system, this usually takes 4-6 hours depending on the individual’s metabolism and if any additional plants are added to the brew which may contain mind altering effects. Tsononga, a South American tree bark, for example, prolongs the effects of the “medicine”. Some people have reported being in “the medicine” for 24 hours or longer. My longest experience lasted about 12 hours in an altered state of consciousness, with an additional 6 hours of euphoria and elation.
Ralph Metzner edited Sacred Vine of the Spirits: Ayahuasca, which is a compilation of writings on the history, phytochemistry, neuropharmacology, and personal accounts of use. One of the articles presented was written by J.C. Callaway Ph.D. who, after giving a detailed explanation of how the Amazonian brew works in the body, at least to the extent that is now known said, “ It is, without a doubt, one of the most sophisticated and complex drug delivery systems in existence.”(Callaway/Metzner: 100) and “If Ayahuasca is not the most complex binary drug delivery system in existence, what is? It certainly must be the oldest. Exactly how the technology was devised to locate and combine certain plants to enable the oral activity of DMT remains a mystery.” (Callaway/Metzner: 113)


Preparation for Ingesting Ayahuasca

The chemical structure of the Ayahuasca brew is exceptionally complex, and requires the initiate to follow a strict diet before and after ingestion to ensure safe consumption. In Shamanic traditions it is quite common for the initiate to go through a purification process prior to a ceremony. Each lineage of Ayahuasca shamanism has its own specific requirements for this process. The most common elements of this “dieta” as it is called are: abstinence from all sweet tasting things (no fruit, sugar, or artificial sweeteners) for three days before and three days after drinking; sexual abstinence for three days before and after drinking; no alcohol for three days before and seven days after; no pork for one week before and one month after drinking; and abstinence from prescription drugs, time varies depending on what type, anti-depressants should be ended two months prior, and others two weeks to a month after. The indigenous healers have behind them generations of trial and error, and are masters of medicinal botanical knowledge. Their knowledge is gained from personal experience testing the plants on themselves (Metzner 1999: 30.)

If the diet is broken the initiate will suffer the consequences. One man in the group that I drank with ate a piece of gum the day after the second ceremony. This gum was artificially sweetened. After a few moments he spat it out, realizing that he unwittingly broke the diet rules. After an hour or so he began to feel waves of nausea and stomach cramps. He spent the next 36 hours in horrible pain and when I next saw him and asked him how he was doing he said, with more humor than I could have mustered, “Lesson learned.” There were many other stories we heard of people breaking the diet in one way or another, and none of them we very pretty. Ayahuasca is a strict teacher.

History of Ayahuasca Usage

Entheogens containing DMT have been used in the snuff form for thousands of years. Archeological records date snuff pipes and trays to 3,000-4,000 b.c.e. There has yet to be found any objects of antiquity dating how long Ayahuasca been used, there are however an abundance of indigenous stories about its origin, and how humans discovered this unique plant combination. What is most perplexing to scientists is how out of an estimated 80,000-150,000 plants in the Amazon jungle, Ayahuasca and Chacruna came to be paired, especially since they are not found growing next to one another. It is a statistically improbable event.
There is much lore around Ayahuasca within cultures that have traditionally used it. According to the Igano Indians of Puerto Limon there are seven different kinds of Banisteriopsis caapi. Wade Davis in One River reported that they say in order to tell them apart one must: “Prepare the plant at the right time of the month. Then, once you come under its influence, you can distinguish the variety based on the tone of the songs that each one sings to you on the night of the full moon” (Davis 1996: 176.) While the Sinoa Indians reported eighteen varieties which they could distinguish at a distance within the jungle, and were differentiated on the trading history, authority and lineage of the shaman, and strength of the brew (Davis 1996: 218.) These examples communicate the mythical reverence given to this plant by the peoples who have used it for millennia.
All accounts I have read and heard given by Ayahuasqueros say that the plants themselves told the people how to use and combine them. In creation stories Ayahuasca is always a product of intervention from the spirit world, either given to the people by God or spirit helpers. It is “ perceived as a magic intoxicant, of divine origin, which facilitates release of the soul from its corporeal confinement, allowing it to wander free and return to the body at will, carrying with it information of vital import” (McKenna/Metzner 1999: 69.) The Shamans report that they do communicate to the spirits of these plants, and it is the spirits of these plants that they can call on for help in healing. This is important to note in looking at plant-spirit medicine- the rational mind cannot grasp the unseen realms that these people are referring to. The western rational-minded perspective led to the historical anthropological discrediting of the Shaman as mentally deranged or insane due to their often-unorthodox appearance and actions. This view began to change in the latter half of the twentieth century and the Shaman was seen in a new light as the bringer of order (Narby 1998: 15.)
"The academic analysis of shamanism will always be the rational study of the non-rational- in other words, a self-contradictory proposition or cul-de-sac. Perhaps the most revealing example in this respect is provided by Luis Eduardo Luna, the author of an excellent study of the shamanism of mestizo Ayahuasqueros in the Peruvian Amazon, who practice what they call vegetalismo, a form of popular medicine based on hallucinogenic plants, singing, and dieting. Luna focuses on the techniques of these Shamans and reports their opinions without interpreting them. He writes: “They say that Ayahuasca is a doctor. It possesses a strong spirit and it is considered an intelligent being with which it is possible to establish rapport, and from which it is possible to acquire knowledge and power if the diet and other prescriptions are followed.” However, Luna writes in a rational language for a rational public (“us”), and it is not rational to claim that certain plants are intelligent beings capable of communication. Luna, who explores the question of “plant-teachers” over several pages, ends up concluding: “Nothing can be said… until we have some kind of understanding as to what these people are really talking about, when they say that the plants themselves reveal their properties.” One cannot consider that what they say is real, because, in reality as “we” know it, plants do not communicate. There is the blind spot. (Narby 1998: 18)"



South America, being one of the many areas around the world captured by European explorers and colonists, the Amazon and her peoples, were the focus of centuries of exploitation, religious persecution, and disenfranchisement. The Spanish and Portuguese occupiers condemned the uses of indigenous entheogenic sacraments, as well as all forms of aboriginal religion.
Condemned by the Holy Inquisition in 1616, the ceremonial use of plant hallucinogens by aboriginal peoples of the New World survived only by going deeply underground, remaining hidden from the hostile and rapacious European-imposed dominant culture. (McKenna/Metzner 1999: 67)

Plant hallucinogens, as well as the healing herbs and healers of Europe, had already been condemned and eradicated by the church. This brutal system of culture destruction, based in religious domination, held all world views which differed from its own as evil, and was used to justify the many exploits of European colonial countries all around the world. The obliteration of indigenous knowledge systems was justified by the church’s view that these practices were diabolical and evil. It was convenient that these practices were also economically beneficial to the church and state.
The Ayahuasca traditions went underground when Europeans arrived in the Amazon and what remains must be only a fraction of the original customs. The mother of the “War on Drugs” was the Holy Inquisition, that same entity that burned millions of women and men in Europe for being witches and tortured countless souls throughout the world. The Inquisition knew that by violently condemning pagan practices that its agenda of religious homogeneity could proliferate. Mind-altering substances within the container of spiritual ceremonies ran counter to this dominator culture and still do. As Graham Hancock has said “If I am not sovereign over my own consciousness, I am sovereign over nothing”, this is as true today as it was in 1616.
Westerners outside of the church first began reporting encounters with Ayahuasca users in 1851. Richard Spruce, an English botanist, was the first Westerner to document the use of mind-altering snuffs known as yopo, vilca, epena, and jurema, as well as the Ayahuasca brew in South America. He documented use of Ayahuasca by the Tukano Indians of the Rio Uapes in Brazil. After collecting samples he named the unknown species Banisteria caapi after the Tukano word for the vine- caapi. This was later changed to Banisteriopsis caapi (Davis 1996: 392-393.) In the next decade Spruce came across its use throughout the Amazon and into the Andes of Peru. An Ecuadorian geographer Manuel Villavicencio published the first written account of ingestion in 1858, and although it was an exotic description there was very little academic interest in it until the 1950’s. Villavicencio’s experience:
"This beverage is narcotic, as one might suppose, and in a few moments it began to produce the most rare phenomena. Its action appears to excite the nervous system; all the senses liven up and all the faculties awaken; they feel vertigo and spinning in the head, then a sensation of being lifted into the air and beginning an aerial journey; the possessed beings in the first moments to see the most delicious apparitions, in conformity with his ideas and knowledge: the savages (apparently the Zaparo of eastern Ecuador) say that they see gorgeous lakes, forests covered with fruit, the prettiest birds who communicate to them the nicest and most favorable things they want to hear, and other beautiful things relating to their savage life. When this instant passes they begin to see terrible horrors out to devour them, their forest flight ceases and then descend to earth to combat the terrors that communicate to them all adversities and misfortunes awaiting them. As for myself I can say for a fact that when I’ve taken Ayahuasca I’ve experienced dizziness, then an aerial journey in which I recall perceiving the most gorgeous views, great cities, lofty towers, beautiful parks, and other extremely attractive objects; then I imagined myself to be alone in a forest and assaulted by a number of terrible beings from which I defended myself; thereafter I had the strong sensations of sleep….(as quoted by Harner 1973: 155-156.)"

It was the prolific work of professor Richard Evan Schultes that brought greater interest and understanding to the medicines and entheogens of central and South America. In the 1940’s-1950’s he spent twelve years traveling through the Amazon jungle collecting over 20,000 plant specimens and living with two-dozen Indian tribes. He became the worlds leading authority on jungle medicines and an icon of the psychedelic revolution of the 1960’s. Information on Ayahuasca came to be known by the counter-culture from the writings of academics such as Richard Evan Schultes and later Michael Harner. Anthropologist Michael Harner published his personal account of participating in an Ayahuasca ceremony, which directed him to undergo a personal path of Shamanism. Shamanism began to surface as a field of healing and spirituality in the 1970’s-1980 with many new age spiritual seekers turning to indigenous spirituality. Sometimes they were welcomed and sometimes not.
William Burroughs also wrote about Ayahuasca, when he traveled throughout South America in 1953 looking for a cure to his copious drug addictions. He wrote a letter to Alan Ginsberg in which he summarized his experiences and this aroused the interest of many a pyschonaut. "Yage (Ayahuasca) is space time travel, the blood and substance of many races.... A place where the unknown past and the emergent future meet in a vibrating soundless hum" (Lee 2001: online article.)

Current Status of Ayahuasca Study and Use

From the 1950’s-1980’s information about Ayahuasca slowly but steadily increased as accounts of ethnobotnists, anthropologists, and adventures reported their experiences with this enigmatic and mysterious substance. As more information surfaced, more Westerners sought out such experiences. With the advent of the World Wide Web information spread between people at an unprecedented rate, this was and is especially true for information on practices condemned by the dominant culture, such as personal experimentation with consciousness and alternative healing practices. Conversations began happening via the World Wide Web, which involved personal accounts, and testimonials of Ayahuasca use, brewing techniques, sources, analogues (alternative plant sources that provide the same chemical combination of MAOi’s and DMT), and legality. There are now thousands of sites with intelligent information that discuss the safe consumption of Ayahuasca, as well as, other mind-altering substances.
In addition to being used by peoples throughout the Amazon, Ayahuasca is the sacrament of three-syncretic religions- Sainto Daime, Uniao do Vegetal, and Barqini. All three of these religions have sprung up in the twentieth century from mestizo origins.
The two largest of these church movements - Santo Daime and Uniao de Vegetal - utilized yage in their religious services without interference by the Brazilian government until the mid 1980s, when U.S. officials pressured Brazil's Federal Council on Narcotics to put the Banisteriopsis caapi vine on a list of controlled substances. The Ayahuasca churches protested and a government committee was appointed to investigate the matter. After examining the churches' use of yage and testing it on themselves, the members of this committee recommended that the ban on Ayahuasca be lifted. The Brazilian government acted upon this recommendation and legalized the sacramental use of yage in 1987, much to the dismay of the U.S. embassy. The revival of Shamanic rituals found a fertile ground particularly in areas where wealthy plantation owners and multinational corporations displaced peasants from the land. For these poor and desperate people, Ayahuasca was a gift that helped them cope with the expansion of the market economy into the frontier. As their subsistence society unraveled, so, too, did their sense of sanity and well being. Consequently, a growing number of mentally ill individuals and uprooted wage-laborers sought out curanderos, who were forced into a new role. In addition to curing the sick and communicating with the spirit world, many witch doctors began using Ayahuasca to mediate class conflict. As one Putumayo medicine man told Taussig, "I have been teaching people revolution through my work with plants" (Lee 2001: article.)
Ayahuasca was the subject of U.S. governmental persecution when a small church community of Uniao does Vegetal in New Mexico was charged with possession of a class one restricted substance. Uniao do Vegetal is Portuguese for “union of the plants”, and fundamental to its teachings are that humans are a part of nature and nature is sacred. This case was eventually taken to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Uniao do Vegetal stating that the government could not prove that Ayahuasca was in this case harmful. The court stated:
"Before this Court, the Government's central submission is that it has a compelling interest in the uniform application of the Controlled Substances Act, such that no exception to the ban on use of the hallucinogen can be made to accommodate the sect's sincere religious practice. We conclude that the Government has not carried the burden expressly placed on it by Congress in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and affirm the grant of the preliminary injunction. [Gonzales v. UDV, 2006]"

This was quite a victory for religious freedom all around the world since the United States leads the “fight” on the international war on drugs. This “war on drugs” has done little to end usage of hard narcotics like cocaine, heroine, and methamphetamines, while demonizing medicinal plants that have been used for thousands of years. The war on drugs is also the third leading cause of global deforestation according to the National Academy of Science. According to the United Nations every year seven million gallons of toxic chemicals are dumped onto land in just Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil alone (Stewart/Nadelmann/Harpignies 2007: 188). This not only kills the forests, but violently pollutes the water ways and leads to severe toxicity in of the local inhabitants “Millions and millions of acres of remote areas are being cleared of forests and ultimately made toxic so that people cannot grow crops that we, in our culture, primarily the United States, have declared illegal: marijuana, opium poppies, coca.” (Stewart/Nadelmann/Harpignies 2007: 190)
The United States also spends over 75 billion dollars a year on this “war on drugs.” Much of this money is spent on incarceration. In the U.S. there are 2.2 million people in jail, more than any other country in the world, and 500,000 of these are there on drug charges.
"One of the consequences of the privatization of prisons in the last two decades is that there is now a large and influential private business whose commodity is incarcerated human life. Like any other business, it wants to be a growth industry and, with violent crimes on the decline, non-violent, non-dangerous drug users are a key to the steady flow of bodies to incarcerate. So the pressure to keep locking up more and more people in the name of protecting our society from dangerous drugs is very high. And while there certainly are some substances that are dangerous, clearly the way to heal society from their use is not through the massive incarceration of non-violent users. For substances that are not dangerous at all, or, like the ones we use in our religious practice, that are actually of potential benefit to individual health and consciousness, it is particularly insane. (Brofman/Harpignies 2007: 177)"

This is a political and economic war that has caused far more harm than it has prevented. There are great discrepancies in our government’s view of dangerous substances. How is it that known carcinogens such as aspartame, formaldehyde, and pesticides (to name just a few out of thousands) are allowed in and on our food and body care products, when non-toxic plants like marijuana (which has been used for millennia as a medicine) are demonized.
"The outstanding characteristic of the plants and substances that are banned by the drug laws is their powerful effectiveness. They are some of the best medicines ever discovered by humans. They are not inert junk, like the medicines that are shoved over the counter by humans. They are potent, in other words they are effective. Opium is the best pain medication in the world. Hemp is probably the best anti-depressive, coca the only true tonic. But who makes money off healthy people- off the underlings who heal themselves with plants from their backyard or balcony gardens, the people who don’t want to sacrifice their hard-earned money to doctors or pharmacists? Ineffective medicine is a more certain source of income, as is medicine such as Valium or Rohypnol, all of which pass the test of culturally acceptable addictions. Those who look into the question of whom the drug laws benefit will not believe their eyes, for it is the same people who want to withhold the enjoyment of sacred plants. (Muller-Ebeling/Ratsch/Storl 1998: 207-208)"

In 1996 the International Plant Medicine Corporation tried to patent Ayahuasca. This was the first time Ayahuasca was brought to court in the United States. This case debated the practices of large pharmaceutical companies’ actions in the rainforest and world wide in regard to genetic property rights. Many companies employ tactics of using the indigenous wisdom of aboriginal people to locate medicinal plants, and then patent it, and synthesize the plants’ active constituents with out compensating the people for their knowledge or engaging in a dialogue about the ethics of such a practice. Although this has been done throughout the history of the world by colonizers and corporations, governments of the new world such as Brazil and Ecuador, ethnobotnists and concerned citizens, and the indigenous people themselves our fighting this. This process of profiteering is also known as bio-piracy.
"Loren Miller of the International Plant Medicine Corporation tried to obtain a patent for Banisteriopsis caapi, which would have given her exclusive rights to create and sell new varieties for profit. Miller had pulled out a yage’ plant from the garden of an Ecuadorian family without asking permission, hurried back to the United States with the vine, and then applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Upon learning what had transpired, the Ecuador-based Coordinating Committee of Native Organizations of the Amazon Basin denounced Miller and her company as "enemies of the native peoples" and proclaimed they were unwelcome in indigenous territories. Because of this scandal, the Ecuadorian government refused to sign a bilateral agreement on intellectual property rights with the United States in 1996, which would have made U.S. patent law applicable in Ecuador. Washington countered by threatening Ecuador with economic sanctions.(Lee 2001: article)"
If patent 5751, which was rejected in 1999, went through it would have made it illegal for the tribes of the Amazon who have been using Ayahuasca for the whole of their cultural memory to continue this practice. They would have had to purchase a license for a fee from this greedy, rapacious, and unethical company. In a letter to President Clinton, chiefs representing their four hundred Amazonian tribes, railed at this. Their speaker Valerio Grefa said “To patent our medicine which we have inherited over many generations is an attack on the culture of our people and the entire humanity.”(Mueller-Ebeling/Ratsch/Storl 1998: 207)
In the past thirty years people from all around the world, in order to gain a greater understanding of how and why it has and is viewed by its users as a “cure-all” medicine, have studied Ayahuasca. One of the most intriguing researchers is Jacques Mabit, a French medical doctor, who discovered while working in Peru that many of the indigenous herbs used by local healers were highly effective. Due to shortages of western medical resources Mabit began to investigate the ways certain plant and plant combinations were used to treat common illnesses as well as addiction. This led him to explore not just the effects of the plants for healing but the practices and rituals of local curanderos (healers). Mabit found many of their techniques to be very effective in treating a wide range of ailments from the physical to the psychological to the spiritual. The curanderos applied use of altered states of consciousness (with and without the use of plant-spirit medicines), and had a much higher rate of efficacy in treating addiction than any of their Western doctor counterparts. Mabit noted especially the use of a process oriented group therapy approach married with the ceremonial use of Ayahuasca was effective in treating PCB addiction (coca paste- a bi-product of the production of cocaine). And he found the use of the San Pedro cactus effective in treating alcohol addiction.
"My research has led me to conclude that humans have an instinctive psychological need to seek altered states of consciousness because those states naturally can engender a renewed sense of meaning, thereby providing therapeutic healing and integration. I have come to see drug use often as an attempt- albeit clumsy and sometimes dangerous- to break through and transcend the limitations of an uninspired and devitalized lifestyle. Unfortunately, because the use of psychotropic drugs has been criminalized in Western cultures, they are often used outside of controlled settings, under chaotic conditions that tend to produce confused, counterproductive experiences. (Mabit 2006: article)"

Over a decade of research led to the creation of the Takawasi retreat center where Mabit and a highly trained staff of Shamans, western psychologists and staff use a three step approach to healing addiction, which could be used as a model for other such retreat centers around the world. Takawasi integrates plant medicines, psychotherapy, and community life, a holistic approach to ending addiction and creating healthy patterns of community interaction. "By encouraging the patient to return to a true path of initiation and to explore alternative states of consciousness with respect, we believe that it is possible to rekindle his awareness of and relationship with the Mystery of Life” (Mabit Article: 31.)
Entheogenic substances, such as Ayahuasca and Huachuma, have also been referred to as “pyschointergrators” by Michael Winkelman. He is a modern-day researcher who is at the forefront of the convergence of academic research and the indigenous knowledge systems associate with plant-spirit medicines. His research shows that plant-spirit medicines, also known as sacred plants, have played a vital role in many cultures through out time and continue to do so. He has documented their importance through ethnographic research on cross-cultural patterns of use; clinical observations of their therapeutic effects and properties; neurophysiological laboratory studies on their roles as neurotransmitters; and consciousness studies and theory (Winkelman 1996: 9.) From his exhaustive research he believes that these plant-spirit medicines can play a vital role in the health of the individual and community. He believes that through cultivating a greater understanding of the pharmacological effects of these plants we can have a more profound appreciation for their true emotional, spiritual, and physiological benefits- individually and collectively.
"Pyschointergrators and other altered states of consciousness induction procedures have systemic effects upon the autonomic nervous system, limbic system discharge patterns inducing interhemispheric synchronization and coherence and limbic-cortex integration. This integrates brain functioning from neurophysiological to cognitive levels in ways which permit the manifestation of specific human potentials. These potentials of concurrence are reflected in the transpersonal psychologies and contemplative traditions of thought and practice (e.g. Buddhism.) Cross-cultural use of psychointegrator plants also stimulate these potentials and served as one of the original sources of altered-states of consciousness based healing and religions on humans (Winkelman 1996: 9.)"

The Hoasca Project was a collaborative and multi-disciplinary study undertaken by the Uniao Do Vegetal church of Brazil and researchers Charles Grob, Dennis McKenna and J.C. Callaway in the early 1990’s. The main intention of this study was to substantiate the use of Ayahuasca as a beneficial sacrament, as well as to generate scientific data on how the brew affects the human physiology.
The preliminary results suggest that the apparent impact of Ayahuasca on the subjects in the study appears to be positive and therapeutic, in both self-reported and objective testing. The psychiatric diagnostic assessments of the Ayahuasca-using subjects showed that a large proportion had alcohol, depressive or anxiety disorders prior to their initiation into the UDV but "all disorders had remitted without recurrence after entry into the UDV" (4). Eleven of the subjects had either heavy or moderate patterns of alcohol consumption before joining the UDV but achieved complete abstinence shortly after affiliating. The members were also "quite emphatic that they had undergone radical transformations of their behavior, attitudes toward others and outlook on life. They are convinced that they had been able to eliminate their chronic anger, resentment, aggression and alienation, as well as acquire greater self-control, responsibility to family and community and personal fulfillment through their participation in the hoasca (Ayahuasca) ceremonies of the UDV (www.csp.org.)

The work done by the Hoasca Project and Mabit, as well, as many other doctors, psychologists, and healers have opened the door for informed treatments using plant-spirit medicines for conditions plaguing the Western world. This work is extremely important at a time when over 50% of Americans take some form of prescription medication, and 28 million Americans are on some form of anti-depressant (http://www.healthtransformations.net/depression.htm.) This situation is proving even direr with the recent findings of the counter-indications of these drugs. According to warnings by the FDA the following anti-depressants actually can lead to greater depression and higher rates of suicide especially in children and teenagers: Prozac (fluoxetine); Zoloft (sertraline); Paxil (paroxetine); Luvox (fluvoxamine); Celexa (citalopram); Lexapro (escitalopram); Wellbutrin (bupropion); Effexor (venlafaxine); Serzone (nefazodone); and Remeron (mirtazapine). (http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/2004-03-22-FDA-SSRI-warning.htm.) The pharmaceutical drugs that the medical industry is prescribing often lead to death. In fact 106,000 people die per year from wrongly prescribed medications, and 2.2 million-hospital patients experience adverse drug reactions (this does not take into account anyone experiencing adverse drug reactions outside of hospitals) (Null/Dean/Feldman 2007: article.)
Taking this into consideration one sees that alternative and integrative approaches are needed and necessary in dealing with modern epidemics. There are many who have tried and given up on allopathic medicine. For those who are interested in alternatives to the Western health paradigm the ceremonial use of Ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus offer two such approaches.

Chapter Three: A Sojourn to Rebirth-

I sat under the conical roof of the ceremonial jungle hut. My pad was comfortable and I was supplied with a blanket, pillow, and a blue plastic puke bowl. I along with twenty-three other guests faced the shamans and apprentices, who all sat in chairs. One of the challenges of an Ayahuasca apprentice is to remain upright the entire ceremony, which is a remarkable challenge indeed. Like the slow incline to the apex of a roller coaster I felt the moment of truth edging nearer. As everyone settled, and quieted the Shamans and apprentices cleansed, purified, and spiritually protected them selves by blowing mapacho (jungle tobacco) smoke on their legs, torsos, and arms, as well as using perfume, and tinctured extracts of various indigenous plants, garlic, and onion. As they did this they told jokes in Spanish, getting ready, until the moment Hamilton and Don Alberto (the two Maestro Shamans) began to sing icaros into the bottles of Ayahuasca. Icaro in Quechua means “to blow smoke” these are invocations they said were taught to them by the plant spirits themselves. The icaros are prayers for healing and protection of the ceremonial space, they sound like songs but are; from what the Shaman’s say vibrational keys that unlock the power of spiritual realms. Before each ceremony began, Hamilton would welcome the group, and remind us to focus on positive thoughts - much stronger than negative ones, and to remember to ask for help if we needed it.
Earlier in the day there was an hour long de-briefing given by the apprentices. This was a run down of some of the more common experiences and how to bring ourselves back if we got caught up in darkness or heaviness. Much of it was simple and yet, in the midst of a crazy ceremony it is the simple techniques that help the most. Focus on breath, call in light, and ask for help from spirit, the shamans, your highest self, and whatever else you can think of. One of my favorite lines, given to us from Hamilton, was "a Shaman is only as strong as the help they can ask for."
My intention with Ayahuasca was to heal. I was ready to get to the root of my physical ailments, which I saw residing in my womb area and endocrine system. I was ready to be healthy, and on a deep intuitive level felt that I could not move into the next phase of my development without this healing. After nine and a half years of digging deep into my psyche, doing intensive personal growth work, searching for the source of my ailments on a thought based level, I felt at a stalemate. Everything in me told me that it would take Ayahuasca to shed light into areas that my ordinary awareness was not yet able to reach. I was ready to do the work, what ever that meant, and move forward.
What creature bleeds for eight years and does not die? How strong and mysterious is this flame of life within. At the age of fourteen my body began acting strange. Barely accustomed to the rapid changes of adolescence that left my sense of reality and self- reeling, I was absolutely unprepared for it to be doing things out of the ordinary. I started to get really long menstruations from a week to a month, with a short amount of time in-between, bleeding again. At first I did not pay it much attention, having only begun menstruating two years prior, the entire process, was still as new and alien as having breasts and surfing the waves of pubescent drama. After a year the bleeding became not only increasingly irregular, but heavy as well. I would feel a thick flow draining my womb, and although I felt ashamed for somehow having this strange affliction rising in my sexual center, I talked with my mom, and we went to see the family doctor.
In the next 9 years I would go to over 15 doctors, gynecologists, naturopaths, and nurses, searching for respite from the blood leeching from my body. The bleeding would ebb at times and for a week or two, my body would regenerate itself, and I would hope dearly that it would even out, that my cycles would truly become cycles, and yet each time the bleeding would return. I could find no other cases like mine. I did not get a diagnosis for what was causing this until I was 22. For eight years I lived with an un-diagnosed chronic condition.
When I was finally diagnosed, with polycystic ovarian syndrome it was because I had large polyps growing in my uterus. The polyps were a result of the copious thickening and shedding of my uterine lining over the years. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is an ailment that is rapidly affecting a large amount of the young women of developed nations. It is a direct result of environmental toxins that mimic estrogen, this then throws off the hormonal system, and makes it so that eggs released by the ovaries are not caught by the fallopian tubes and brought to the uterus as nature intended, but instead get stuck on the outside of the ovaries and turn into cysts which grow and rupture causing intense pain. I found it an irony that I was continually overlooked as having one of the most common causes of infertility, cramping, and irregular periods because I did not fit the outward appearance usually attributed to this- obesity, facial hair growth, and depression. I could have potentially been relieved of the constant bleeding years earlier if only I had not looked fit, beardless, and relatively happy. And yet the polyps were a blessing in disguise.
Having the surgery and going on bio-identical hormone therapy relieved me finally of the constant bleeding and I began for the first time in my life to have regular cycles. Once diagnosed, I could apply all my self-directed learning of herbs, nutrition, and detoxification to help my body remove the pollutants. It was a deeply heartening experience to feel my body move into a state of health that I had often feared would never come. While the bleeding regulated the cysts kept forming on my ovaries, this led to pain ranging from a weak ache to disabling cramps lasting anywhere from a few moments to weeks, which I decided to live with instead of going back on conventional hormones which are toxic. The near constant pain was preferable to the havoc wreaking that birth control pills and other like substances had caused me in the past.
For the next year and a half I felt that I was at a cross roads, physically and spiritually. One path was accepting the Western allopathic medicine health paradigm, which would involve being on some type of prescription hormone medication indefinitely; taking other pharmaceutical drugs (all of which have a long list of counter-indications and toxic side effects) to become fertile if I ever did want to become pregnant; and constantly being monitored for the development of cancerous growths. This path could keep me healthy enough, with a reasonable quality of life, but with no assurance of ever being drug free. I understood that virtually all of the pharmaceutical drugs being offered to me by allopathic physicians as the only option they knew of had side-effects that could range from depression, candida (which many doctors still to this day won't acknowledge exists), cancer, obesity, and well the list goes on. It was an endless path of doctors, examinations, and medications, with an attack-based paradigm to deal with the "dis-ease" in my body. All of the visits and medications would be paid out of pocket, if I ever did find medical insurance, because it would be a preexisting medical condition.
After dealing with a multitude of doctors, specialists, even naturopaths, I felt like this approach was equal to accepting death. More intrinsically- accepting it meant that I am just a finite being fulfilling an entropy-ridden destiny who there for must rely on "experts" to make this small life bearable. This, more than any other aspect, made the typical Western approach unacceptable to me. In the marrow of my bones I knew that I could not accept this perspective on existence. I feel that I am an infinite being, in an infinite universe, and this more than any other factor pushed me towards the other fork in the road.
This path was one that was shrouded in darkness, but gave me hope. It was a non-linear approach to owning the full responsibility of my state of being-my health and happiness, my eternal beingness. This path required constant vigilance, self-education, and courage. It required honoring my intuition and intelligence over that of medical experts. It required asking over and over what chemicals comprised medications and researching what these chemicals did in the body, while advocating for myself. It was the path of self-love, and although it offered no clear assurance that I would survive or be rid of the constant pain in my body, it did stoke the fires of will within me. It was not a path that I could walk alone, and with the support of my parents, friends, authors, the internet, and spirit, I had thus far become healthier and healthier. I knew that with the radical self-assurance that I had been cultivating I could advocate for myself within the “expert”-egotism of the medical industry, and yet I saw no solutions with in it for this small fierce body that lived through eight years of a wound that would not heal. So I chose to go to Peru to take Ayahuasca and see if she could heal me.


After all present including the Shamans drank, Hamilton called in the beings of the four directions with a resounding blow of a conch shell, and gave additional thanks and recognition to the recently deceased Maestro shaman, Don Julio who had taught him and Don Alberto. The oil lamps were then turned off, and the ceremony began. I drank and I focused my intention into the old teacup that held the brown luminescent liquid, and asked for healing. I asked to be shown what I had not been able to see before. I asked for growth, empowerment, strength, and courage. Ayahuasca is called both the “vine of spirits” and the “vine of death”, for undergoing this radical of a change in perception blossoms one’s consciousness into metaphysical realities that require the initiate to reorient their conception of self. Taking this action was metaphorically laying myself on the altar of Truth. As I prepared myself to drink I felt willing in the moment to die to the past, die to sickness, die to all that felt unworthy within, to die for the love of truth. To purge from me all that was heavy, dark, and sick.
Little did I know what I was asking for.

This night was total darkness. No moon to paint the world silver. The indescribable taste of Ayahuasca lingered. My mouth salivated profusely, and I could feel thick alkaloidal tendrils wrapping through my intestines. The room was vibrating and reverberating, building a coagulated intensity with the unified voice of the Shamans and apprentices. The shaking of their leaf rattles fanned the air, which blew across my face, while the sweet voiced icaros filled the air until the round ceremonial hut was the only place in the universe to be. I was waiting, breathing, repeating my mantra - this was medicine and I would heal. Meditating on the sound of the icaros and mentally noting all of the sensations and subtle changes in my consciousness. My stomach began to feel sharp stabs of pain coupled with intense waves of nausea. After a half an hour I could not sit up, so I lay on my back, knees up, and stomach swollen. Physically it was the most pain I could remember. I felt as though a hard ball of steel was in my womb, and it was too big to push out or puke out. All I could do was breathe. I felt like I was giving birth, but nothing was moving. At one point I asked for help from Mimi, one of the apprentices, and she told me that sometimes it just takes a while, to focus on breathing, and ask spirit for help. So, I tried, and was suddenly lost in total confusion. I was without a body, without an identity, in a soup of limitless struggle. This incoherent void wanted to consume all of me. All I could do to fight it was repeat over and over "No, no, no, no...." and "Robin, Robin, Robin." I was struggling not to drown in this eternal confusion and suffering, and I could only peek my head up long enough to remember where I was, who I was, and that I was healing, and that this darkness would leave, that I would make it leave or die trying, because once you drink you are committed. I had no option at this time but to do the work, to release any and all negativity over and over. This was my re-birth. There was no retreat.
I lay on my back and side for hours panting, while energetically re-living all the levels of the evolution of consciousness, and how this being I self identify with as "me" is an energetic pulse that has constantly pushed forward, that has fought to be conscious for all of eternity. That has sought greater and greater coherence. This struggle took the embodied form, from amoeba to human, always striving towards the light, towards awakened oneness. And here I was at the final point, where if I did not persist and persevere I would once again be lost in the sea of endless confusion. If this sounds dramatic, it was! All of my life had been in preparation for this opportunity. This was the time when I had to choose the true light or the true dark. I had to prove over and over to spirit and myself that I wanted enlightenment, I wanted healing, and I was willing to work for awakened oneness, for without health all else is naught. This panting fight lasted until the oil lamps were re-lit (a sign that the ceremony is formally over, even though many of the participants will be in the medicine much longer.) At this point, I was still deep in birthing canal, and had yet to purge, which was all I desired to do. I wanted this hard, gross, ball of negativity out, but it took everything I had to not lose my mind. In the light I could see that my abdomen was distended. My skin stretched taut over what was a silver grey ball of energy that was so heavy I was pinned to the ground and too large to vomit or shit out. I needed to purge and I needed help to do so, this was larger than I knew what to do with.
At one point, when I felt lucid enough to communicate with Mimi I asked if I could drink some water to help me purge. She checked in with Hamilton who said I could, although this is an unusual thing to do. I felt like I was burning up from the inside. I gulped a full glass and asked for more. After two and half full glasses of water I curled up in a fetal position around the distended bowl of my belly. I was six hours into the journey, with no end in sight.
So I lay and breathed through it. My breathing reminded me of that of women giving birth; short breaths followed by one longer one. I was a wreck, completely and utterly disheveled, crying from frustration and pain, sweating, shaking, and surviving. Each second was a wide desert plain of interminable effort, and yet this effort, this work was an opportunity, the richest of gifts. At one point I heard Daniel (one of the apprentices) and Hamilton talking about me. I could hear that they were watching my process, and helping as much as they could. I wanted to reassure them that I was OK, and that I felt confident that I could persist. So, without consciously realizing that I did so, I sat up out of my body and walked over to where they were. At this point they stopped talking. My spirit form told them that I was OK, and that I was very grateful for all their help. I started sending waves of gratitude towards them, and they then said, "She's almost there," and left the conversation. Before returning to my body, I saw it lying on the blue mat and felt in love. Love for its strength and persistence, it steadfastness and kindness. Always doing the best it could with what it was given. Breathe out darkness, breathe in light, breathe out darkness, breath in light.
And then I started dry heaving, over and over, with wrenching spasms. I felt that the force with which my body was trying to rid itself would loosen all my organs and empty me of everything, but the wracking hurls just kept coming. My bones felt bruised, ribs aching as if they were grinding together. Each effort left me light headed, black pinpoints flicking through my vision, along with rainbow spectrum of swirling energy filaments that danced in the air. Only a handful of us remained in the ceremonial house, but I could feel the support and camaraderie of each of the other participants. I heaved and heaved, until I felt my energetic body contract, tight around me so I could barely breathe, and then suddenly lift. This happened over and over for close to an hour. At one point Mimi came and lay on the pad next to me, and in doing so somehow helped me get out the very last of it (for that session at least.)
All of a sudden I could see how my fighting and resisting were no longer necessary, and Mimi was helping me out of a slimy shell of energy goo. I peeled off dark green ooze that had held me before like a thick cocoon. This was happening in another dimension. In a white field of totality she was double checking me to see if any of the last shreds of goo remained, and guided me to my feet. I heard a voice saying "Congratulations you made it." In this field of whiteness, other Mimis and Daniels were also assisting some of the other participants.
One of the things that are learned in apprenticeship is the ability to bi-locate and eventually to be in many places at once. Mimi said that often guests tell her of the help she gave them. And although she was sending energy and psychically checking up on them, people perceive this in their own way. It is as though our consciousness feels the energy of others, and this filters through, especially on Ayahuasca or in altered states of consciousness, in a symbolic image based form. So, she was helping my process by sending the energy of love, strength, peace, release and my consciousness felt this and responded by creating a relationship that I perceived as her helping me to my feet and removing the last of the gooey shell of confusion. I felt free, and was. In this beautiful crystalline reality of awakened mind, others and I practiced exercises of mindfulness. I felt radiantly full of joy and love. I was creating orbs of light and color through my intention to do so. I was teleporting my self from one side of the room to the other, while my body lay resting from its ordeal. When I would get distracted or have a thought that was not in the light (i.e. fearful or egoic) the scene I was working on would flutter and disappear, but when I consciously released the thought and the energy connected to it, the scene would reappear and I could continue building my strength through honing the ability of my psychic skills.
After quite a while working in this zone, by myself and with the spirit of others in the group, I sat up and joined a small group smoking mapachos. I was not able to speak due to the high level of information coming in. So I communicated energetically sending thoughts, images and emotions to the others. This was quite effective. One interesting note is that I did not throw-up which is a common experience, but in the bottom of the puke bowl that I had dry heaved into, was black phlegm, gobs of nasty goo. Pretty sick looking, and when I asked Daniel what this stuff was he said "Black goo. We don't know exactly what it is, but it is the stuff we carry inside us that we come here to get out."
The night was long and beautiful, and the soft shades of morning came while I lay in bed meeting the spirit world. I saw spirits but not just through my eyes (it was as though the images materialized both inside my head and in the room). Later as the ceremonies progressed, my third eye opened more and the spirit world looked almost as concrete as this 3-dimensional one. As I lay in my bed, gently and slowly massaging my lower abdomen, images of what I was releasing flowed through my consciousness. Much of these were demonic, yet wearing my face. I released each of these as they came, sending them to the light, to source, where they could be cleansed and have other opportunities to grow and evolve. In the top left hand corner of my vision was a portal that opened to source energy. I realized in this process that many things I had in the past identified as being a part of me, weren't: low-self esteem, self-hate, rejection of my body, thoughts that said over and over "you are not good enough to be loved, you are not good enough to be well," weird sexual energy of a sexually unhealthy culture. What dawned on me through this process of release is that the sources of all negative thoughts (especially self-deprecating ones) are not me. They are energies and consciousnesses that feed off of us. My essence, at its core, is love and light. The best way to describe what I consistently purged is dark grossness. Purging is a physical process as well as an energetic one. The psychological effects of throwing up and defecating are very effective. We all accumulate trauma, pain, and heaviness. Ayahuasca helps us to rid our selves of this- some of the ways she does this is vomiting, defecating, shaking, crying, screaming, laughing, and singing. This is no easy concept for the Western mind to wrap around, nor to translate from personal experience.
Taking Ayahausca was in every respect being birthed into a new way of being, seeing, and doing. As I type this a year later the pain I went to heal is completely gone, my body is as healthy, strong, and nourished. It took the first five Ayahuasca ceremonies to break-up the frozen dark energy in my womb and the next five to begin cleaning out my endocrine system and energetic field. This first session lasted close to twelve hours, and I have never been the same since. It was quite an introduction.

Chapter Four- An Introduction to “The Cactus of the Four Winds”

San Pedro is the Christianized name given to the psychoactive cacti within the Trichocereus genus. This family of columnar cacti is native to the dry eastern mountains of the Andes. Of this genus Trichocereus pachanoi or Trichocereus peruvianus are used as plant-spirit medicines. These are known by the indigenous names Huachuma (Andean), Achuma (Bolivia), Aguacolla and Giganton (Ecuador). There is a wealth of lore around this ancient and magical plant. It is said to be the “Cactus of the Four Winds,” the cactus of vision that opens the gateway to heaven. This night blooming cactus is the most ancient and revered of plant teachers in Northern Peru and is referred to by Andean people of today as the “maestro of maestros” which “enables the shaman to open a portal between the invisible and visible worlds for his or her people… Its Quechua name is punku, which means “doorway” (Heaven/Charing 2006: 92.) In this chapter I will discuss the known bio-chemical structure of Huachuma, its history, current use, and some of the lore and controversy surrounding the plant.

The Active Chemistry of Huachuma

Huachuma is usually prepared for ingestion through a decoction process. The photosyntheic outer layer of the cactus contains most of the active bio-chemical constituents. Once the spikes are removed the cactus is sliced down each of the ribs (ranging from 4-9). The white pulpy interior is discarded, used in topical politices or made into soap, and the inch thick green skin is cubed and boiled for 3-12 hours. This thick, dark green viscous tea is then drunk at the beginning of a ceremony. The effects of the Huachuma tea can last anywhere from 10-15 hours. The nausea and purging associated with Peyote (another entheogenic cactus) is mild or non-existent. Purging is rare but does happen. The flavor of the brew, like that of Ayahuasca, is tolerable the first few sessions and then becomes more and more disagreeable. Although I have read some reports from individuals online who have eaten the cactus raw, this seems most unpleasant and sure to produce nausea. A plant preparation called contrachisa is made from the outer skin and used to induce purging by some maestros in order to clean out spiritual toxins and “make room for San Pedro so the visions will come” before the tea is given (Heaven/Charing 2005: 94.)
San Pedro contains a number of alkaloids, including mescaline (0.21 - 1.8%), anhalonidine, anhalinine, hordenine, tyramine, 3-methoxytyramine, and a number of phenethylamines (3,4-dimethoxyphenethylamine, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenethylamine, 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine.) Although it is not known what the precise role of every one of these is within the consciousness altering effects and medicinely beneficial qualities of the cacti, the effect of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For San Pedro is a true medicine that gains its power from a rich diversification within its bio-chemical structure.
As mentioned, one of the synergistic alkaloids found in the Huachuma cactus is mescaline. In 1897 mescaline was first isolated and identified by Arthur Heftner, and synthesized by Ernest Spath in 1919 (www.erowid.org.) This is the main alkaloid responsible for the visual and consciousness expanding effects of San Pedro. Mescaline is identified with increasing acuteness of the senses. Colors become brighter and more vivid; textures sing out in newfound gradation. There is a visual alteration that comes in the form of patterned imagery. I have seen honeycomb grids, much like the actual structure of the molecule, sweep through my vision, living things seeming to emit bio-photonic light in undulating waves. All things breathe. Communication occurs across time and space. A sense of complete oneness with creation and others in the ceremony is married with a deep sense of empathy for inanimate and living things.
Found in San Pedro, phenethylamines are both a naturally occurring compound found in both the animal and plant kingdoms, are produced in the deep tissues of the human brain, and can be sythsized. Phenethylamines are quite a famous family of chemicals in the counter-culture of our times. Alexander Shulgin, a chemist and pharmacist, developed hundreds of combinations of synthetic phenethylamines. Among the most famous of these is MDMA (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxy-A) also known as “Ecstasy.” Less well known combinations one hears rattled off by “experienced travelers” include MDA and 2C-B. In the book PIHKAL- A Chemical Love Story, co-authored by Alexander and Ann Shulgin, there is an extensive listing of all the phenethylamines explored by Shuglin. Only one of San Pedro’s constituents is mentioned in this book, 3,4-dimethoxyphenethylamine, and it was found to have an insignificant effect on consciousness. Perhaps this was due to 3,4-dimethoxyphenethylamine being studied in isolation rather than in combination with other alkaloids found in San Pedro.
Another one of these alkaloids in San Pedro is anhalonidine, which produces low levels of sedation and sleepiness without sleep (Shulgin 1972: lecture.) Another, hordenine suppresses the appetite through stimulating a release of norepinephrine. This is an excitatory hormone that stimulates the nervous system, and helps the body burn fat (Schweitzer/Wright 1938: article.) This could be the element responsible for the usual lack of hunger for the first 6-8 hrs after drinking Huachuma. Hordenine has also been shown to inhibit the growth of several strains of staphylococcus bacteria that are resistant to penicillin. This bacterium causes an infection commonly known as Staph, which is a serious, potentially fatal condition that preys on individuals with weak immune systems. It is most often contracted in hospitals after surgery. More research needs to be done on the application of San Pedro in helping the body fight of this malicious infection.
This is the information found by western science through the process of studying the isolated constituents of the cacti. The shamans of South America have used it for centuries to help diagnose and treat illness, heal a myriad of health issues: alcoholism, mental disorders, fungal infections, fevers, regulating blood pressure, urinary track infections, as well as removing witchcraft. Poultices of the stem are used externally to treat skin infections of all types and dandruff because it is anti-microbial. It also helps to reduce scarring.
My own observations have shown Huachuma to be a diuretic, cleansing the blood by a rapid detoxification of the kidneys through the urine, as well as soothing and balancing the nervous system. Therefore it is important while under the effects of the plant; to maintain a good balance of electrolytes, blood salts like magnesium, potassium and calcium. When participants do not adequately hydrate themselves while on Huachuma, they can experience the effects of dehydration at the end of a ceremony, this can include headaches and muscle cramps. The shaman that I worked with in Peru made a point to always have us drink lots of limeade and water throughout the day, as well as eat chocolate, nature’s most abundant source of magnesium. Fresh limejuice enhances water, giving it vitality through living enzymes, vitamin C, and trace mineral nutrients which aide in detoxification.
I noticed that taking San Pedro while staying hydrated and eating proper nutrients helped balance unfriendly yeast bacteria in my system. Candida had been an issue for me since taking pharmaceutical antibiotics and birth control in my teens. I also lost the desire to drink alcohol after my first five sessions.

Preparation for Ingesting Huachuma

In contrast to Ayahuasca, Huachuma has relatively few preparatory restrictions prior to ingestion. Pork is to be avoided at least a week prior to ingestion and as long after as possible (as with Ayahuasca.) This meat, according to a maestro I worked with in Peru, is spiritually dirty and the plant-spirits dislike it. It contains heavy, toxic energy that makes the medicine less effective. Pigs eat just about everything, including their feces and the dead remains of there own kind. Pork, as all meat, transports parasites and the environmental toxins that the animals were raised in directly into the body, as well as all of the stress hormones the animal produced during slaughtering. In Shamanism there is no differentiation between the physical toxicity of a substance and its spiritual toxicity.
The day of the ceremony one should eat a light breakfast, if anything at all. The timing of ingestion is dependent on the lineage of the shaman. Within the lineage of the shaman I worked with the ceremony is started mid-day, so that one experiences the balance of light and dark, and the transition between the two at sunset. The work of Douglas Sharon and Wade Davis indicates that the shamans of the sacred lagoons at Huancabamba hold exclusively night ceremonies (Davis 1998: 8.)
The ceremony is opened and closed at the curing altar or “Mesa.” The Mesa consists of a cloth placed on the ground upon which the shaman places objects of power and significance. The composition of each mesa is as individual as the shaman, and the arrangement of these items differs from ceremony to ceremony (Trout 2005: 114.) The totem items placed on the cloth guide and aide the shaman in healing and are called artes. Carved staffs, crystals, and rocks from specific Apus (mountain spirits) or holy sites, feathers, bones, carved figurines, and any other object of great personal or symbolic power can be an artes. Maestro shaman Juan Narvarro said:
"The artes bring magical qualities to the ceremony where, under the visionary influence of San Pedro, their invisible powers may be seen and experienced. The maestro’s mesa, on which these artes sit, is a representation of the forces of nature and the cosmos. Through the mesa the shaman is able to work with and influence these forces to diagnose and heal disease. (Heaven/Charing 2005: 93)"




History of Huachuma Usage


This is a plant-spirit medicine that has been in unbroken use in Peru since at least 1400 b.c.e. (some say the site is as old as 3500 b.c.e.) when it was used as the main sacrament at the Andean site of Chavin. This peaceful, artisan culture produced masterpieces of carved art portraying anthropomorphic beings, especially animal-human hybrids, holding Huachuma. Its depiction is found in cultural iconography spanning thousands of years and miles.
"Shrouded in mystery, the cult of Chavin arose from an oracular shrine, a temple of stone which cradled and then brought forth a new belief, a spiritual conviction of unknown character but of such immense authority and power that within a century its worship had spread north and south, encompassing all the central Andes and reaching west as far as the sea. (Davis 1998: 5)"

The Nazca culture (300 b.c.e. - 800 b.c.e.) and Paracas culture (750 b.c.e.- 100 b.c.e.) both highly developed coastal cultures, decorated their ceremonial and burial ceramic vessels with its spined image. The famous Nazca mummies were buried with Huachuma coming out of their shoulders; “symbols that the deceased would be born again out of darkness, just as the cactus blossom emerges in the early hours before dawn” (Davis 1998: 7.) Huachuma was used by the Lambayeque culture (800 b.c.e. - 1200 b.c.e.) in lunar rites and still to this day is harvested in some parts of Peru by women during the full moon (Trout 2005: 106 & 110.) The Moche culture also referred to as the Mochica, of Northern Peru, used Huachuma in elaborate ceremonies involving hundreds to thousands of people. From the profusion of its depiction we can assume that it was exceptionally culturally significant to virtually all-coastal cultures of northwestern South America. I refer to my experiences at some of these sites and go into greater depth on their history in the following chapter, which documents my own experiences with the plant-spirit medicine.
The Catholic conquistadors and their priests condemned Huachuma, like Ayahuasca and virtually all-indigenous entheogens, as a product of the devil. Its perceived diabolical nature once again justified the “god-given” right of the oppressors to force Christianity on the natives, steal their land, and persecute any individual or group that did not conform. It is interesting though that the few written accounts by Europeans of the use of Huachuma by Indians briefly note its medicinal qualities while calling it a product of evil. The 1653 account of Father Benrabe Cobe shows the bias against the cactus:

"This is the plant with which the devil deceived the Indians of Peru in their paganism, using it for their lies and superstitions. Having drunk the juice of it, those who drink lose consciousness and remain as if dead; and it has been seen that some have died because of great frigidity to the brain. Transported by this drink, the Indians dreamed a thousand absurdities and believed them as if they were true…. One can use its juice against fevers…(Trout 2005: 108)"

An ecclesiastical report from Spanish arrivals in Peru said:

"That the shamans “drink a beverage they call Achuma which is a water they make from the sap of some thick and smooth cacti…as it is very strong after they drink it they remain deprived of their senses, and they see visions that the devil represents to them. (Shultes/Hoffman/Ratsch 1992: 166)"

Another Christian missionary had this to say about the brew:

"It is a plant with whose aid the devil is able to strengthen the Indians in their idolatry; those who drink its juice lose their senses and are as if dead; they are almost carried away by the drink and dream a thousand unusual things and believe that they are true. The juice is good against burning of the kidneys and, in small amounts, is also good against high fever, hepatitis, and burning in the bladder.
(Attributed to Christian Ratsch by www.mescaline.com)"

I imagine that there had to be a few inquisitive and adventurous Old World individuals who participated in these indigenous ceremonies and had positive experiences. These accounts were obviously not recorded for they would be proof of idolatry and thus justification for torture and possibly death under the inquisitional Catholic overlords.
The research I have undertaken so far suggests that as an entheogen Huachuma is unique in the way that the indigenous people of Peru have merged its spiritual qualities with those of the catholic figure St. Peter or San Pedro who holds the keys to heaven. This is no doubt a response by the indigenous people to the violent suppression by the Church of anyone even suspected of not completely embracing its doctrine. I found this creative response by the people to be indicative of the deep importance this plant-teacher played in the lives of Andean people.
Even in the present Christianized mythology of this area, there is a legend told that God hid the keys to Heaven in a secret place and that San Pedro (St. Peter) used the magical powers of a cactus to find this place so the people of the world could share in paradise. The cactus was named after him out of respect from his Promethean intervention on the behalf of men. (Heaven/Charing 2006: 92)

The modern use of San Pedro (as well as Ayahuasca by mestizos) among South Americans is an amalgamation of pagan and Christian elements. A wide pantheon of deities is often invoked within ceremonies. I observed this as a motto of “the more help the better.”
Huachuma is called the “Cactus of the Four Winds”. The number four is very sacred to the indigenous cosmology of the Andes, as well as to many people and cultures all around the world. It is associated with the four directions, the winds or spirits that each direction houses, and that are always called upon during ceremony. The Incan empire was also divided into four regions of earth. From Cusco, a sacred city and the heart of the empire, a road departed in each direction (http://www.ayahuasca-shamanism.co.uk/Huachuma-SanPedro.htm). The four-ribbed Huachuma is seen as the most sacred and magical of the cacti. These are very rare, and finding one is an auspicious act.
The San Pedro shaman Juan Navarro said in an interview with Heaven and Charing in Plant-Spirit Shamanism:

"San Pedro helps the maestro see what the problem is with his patient before any of the healing begins. The cactus is a powerful teacher plant. It has a certain mystery to it and the healer must also be compatible with it. It won’t work for everybody, but the maestro has a special relationship with its spirit. When it is taken by a patient it circulates in his body and where is finds abnormality it enables the shaman to detect it. It lets him know the pain the patient feels and wherein his body it is. So it is the link between the patient and the maestro. It also purifies the blood of the person who drinks it and balances the nervous system so people lose their fears and are charged with positive energy. (Heaven/Charing 2006: 94)"



Current Status of Huachuma Study and Use
Due to its beautiful white night blooming flowers, whimsical green columns, and ability to grown in colder climates, San Pedro, is often grown as an ornamental cactus. One can find various members of the Trichocereus genus at home and garden stores all across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Mescaline, like DMT, is illegal and classified as a schedule one substance under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. It is not, however, illegal to grow or sell mescaline-containing cacti. If the plant is in a dried or powdered form it could potentially be illegal if police could prove that the intent of the owner is to ingest it. This is a gray area of the law. So far there have been no cases brought to court against Huachuma use.
I find it important to note at this time that San Pedro, as well as Ayahuasca and Peyote, have never been linked to a verifiable death. Even the use of synthetic mescaline in large doses, up to 8 grams, has shown no harm to normal people. "Mescaline containing cacti poses NO risk (other than legal), either in terms of health or psychiatric well being to any normal, or even half way sane, individual who uses them knowingly and voluntarily. (Original Italics)(Trout 2005: 26)" Mind-altering substances such as mescaline and LSD were used in experiments by psychiatrists and the US government on institutionalized mentally ill people, as well as by Nazi doctors in German concentration camps (www.erowid.org.) This unethical use of mind-altering substances often produced great fear and anxiety in the test subjects. I have met people who were unwittingly “dosed” at parties with LSD or marijuana and all remarked on the extreme sense of vulnerability, fear, and dislocation that came with the experience. This is where set and setting become of great importance to the overall experience of anyone entering any altered state. If one does not take into account factors such as mental state and environment (people, place, and weather) there is a higher likelihood of having an unproductive experience.
The ceremonial use of Huachuma as a plant-spirit medicine offers great potential to people who are seeking help with a variety of emotional and physical ailments. The most important of these in my mind is addiction recovery. Huachuma has been used in Peru to overcome alcoholism and drug addiction (Mabit 2006: article). A close friend of mine reported that after two ceremonies she no longer desired cocaine, a substance that she had been addicted to for 3 years and the use of which was severely harming her relationships. She has been cocaine free for over six months at this point.
In a culture where addiction is rampant (to alcohol, food, food additives, cigarettes, TV, shopping, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs) we in the west are sorely in need of solutions. These solutions do not just have an effect on individual lives by improving health and relationships, but on the planet, for they are connected to our consumption patterns, stagnant lifestyles, and disabling apathy that are enabling governments and big business to rape the earth and rob the inheritance of future generations. The potential of engaging this plant in a ceremonial context to help heal the Western mind is huge.
I will end this chapter with a short anecdote. While in Peru I met a woman from South Africa who owned a guesthouse and restaurant in Cusco. We became acquainted while I stayed at her hostel. She was an abundant source of information about local shamans and had been training with a Huachuma shaman in the area for over a decade. She had a wealth of knowledge about how to brew, grow, and travel with the cactus. An experience she shared about Huachuma opened my heart and eyes to the wild possibilities that this plant-spirit medicine holds. I will paraphrase her story. One of her twin sons had been diagnosed with a severe form of cancer. He was not open or interested in non-traditional approaches. After a couple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, the cancer still thrived. This was a process that happened over a couple years and by the time she insisted that he come to Peru and see what the shamans could do, he was willing to try anything. After just one Huachuma ceremony he began feeling better and when he to the doctor a month later there was no sign of the cancer- none! In telling this she was very sincere and believes that it was the spirit of this cactus that saved her son’s life.