What is ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca (pronounced ‘eye-ah-WAH-ska’) is a plant-based psychedelic. Psychedelics affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions. They can cause a person to hallucinate—seeing or hearing things that do not exist or are distorted.
Ayahuasca is a decoction (concentrated liquid) made by prolonged heating or boiling of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub, although there can be a variety of other plants included in the decoction for different traditional purposes.1 The active chemical in ayahuasca is DMT (dimethyltryptamine).1 It also contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).2
It has been used for centuries by First Nations peoples from contemporary Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador for religious ritual and therapeutic purposes.1
What does it look like?
It is a brown-reddish drink with a strong taste and smell.3
Other names
Huasca, yagé, Kamarampi, Huni, brew, daime, the tea, la purga
Other types of psychedelics
How is it used?
Ayahuasca is drunk as a liquid.
Effects of ayahuasca
There is no safe level of drug use. Use of any drug always carries some risk. It’s important to be careful when taking any type of drug.
Ayahuasca affects everyone differently, based on:
- size, weight and health
- whether the person is used to taking it
- whether other drugs are taken around the same time
- the amount taken
- the strength of the decoction (varies from batch to batch)
- environment (where the drug is taken).
The effects of ayahuasca can last between 4- to 6-hours and may include:
- nausea and vomiting (induced by drinking the decoction)*
- diarrhoea*
- euphoria
- feelings of connection and unity
- introspection
- intense visual and auditory hallucinations
- experiencing powerful emotions
- anxiety
- panic and fear
- moderate increase in blood pressure and heart rate
- increased body temperature.1, 3
Be the first to review “Ayahuasca”