Ayahuasca: the healers potions and the spirit world

[Maïwa]

Shamanic Healing consists of a varied body of practices performed by the shaman or practitioner to help or heal another person. This is a fundamental principle of shamanism wherever it is practiced.

The methods, tools, symbology, and medicines will vary from culture to culture and region to region but primarily the healing is a three-way connection between the client, shaman and the universe or spirit.

The shaman acts as the mediator or interpreter for the universal field of consciousness of which we are all a part of.

The many plants and cultures are diverse but these points stay always.
Let us embark on the shamanic healings of the Ayahuasca.

Ayahuasca, Salvia divinorum and other shamanic teacher plants have been used for thousands of years by shamans to heal physical, emotional, and psychological conditions. In contemporary times, spiritual seekers are turning to the ancient wisdom embedded in these plants to reconnect with aspects of their inner selves, to gain insight and deeper understanding about the nature of reality, and for soul healing and transcendence. These experiences, which can be powerful as well as therapeutic, also enable individuals to go past self-imposed limitations and reclaim their lost inner power.

The social and psychotherapeutic functions of healing rituals with ayahuasca among Amazonian groups are examined, and their healing effectiveness is explained in terms of Western scientific and sociopsychotherapeutic perspectives. Note that the healing activites provide the entire community access to transcendental experiences, which clearly have integrative and cohesive social functions. Ethnopsychology provides important insights into the functions of archaic healing rituals, and can be used to illustrate the transcendental experiences and pathologic use of drugs in modern societies.

Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis spp.) is a natural hallucinogenic drug used in healing rituals among various ethnic groups of the upper Amazon area in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. A number of anthropological studies of this hallucinogenic plant are found, including symbolic studies for the Tukano Indians of Colombia (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1978, 1975, 1972,1971), shamanism and drug experiences for the Siena (Langdon 1979), for the Yagua Indians (Chaumeil 1979), for the Jivaro Indians (Harner 1962), for the Cashinaua (Kensinger 1973), for the Machigenga (Beer 1979), for the Shipibo-Conibo Indians (Gebhardt-Sayer 1985), for the Zaparo Indians (Reinburg 1965), and for Peruvian urban Mestizos (Dobkin do Rios 1972). The complexity of the ayahuasca-related rituals and their corresponding symbolism varies greasy among these ethnic groups depending on the degree to which the particular group may have been influenced by Western industrial culture.

The training and initiation of the shaman follows the general initiation pattern, which was described by Eliade (1961) as a series of experiences of rebirth and the slap-by step introduction to the spiritual world. After a certain number of ayahuasca experiences, the new ayahuasquero has incestuous relations with the jaguar mother and is reborn as her son. For the shaman, this initiation process is itself a ritual of symbolic healing (Dow 1986). It is a step by-step symbolic regression within his chronological career. These unconscious materials are symbolized by preexistent cultural motifs that the teacher explains to the ayahuasquero justly the psychoanalyst interprets personal associations to his/her clients.

Naranjo (1969) has identified 18 different species of Banisteriopsis spp. in Peru, out of a total of 100 in the Amazon area. The hallucinogenic alkaloid from ayahuasca was first called yageine (after yaje, the word used in Columbia for the plant) or telepathine for its suggested properties of telepathic perception. Lewin (1929) extracted an alkaloid that he called banisterine and used it successfully in the treatment of different kinds of paralysis. Only in 1957 were the alkaloids harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine identified as the main psychoactive substances.
Among the Piro, the ayahuasqueros (ayahuasca healers) have their own ethnobotanical classifications that mirror the psychoactive properties of the vine. Felipe knows five types (white, half-white, yellow, colored, black) and the Shipibo-Conibo four (camaramti, chahua, true ayahuasca, and misha). Without other ingredients present, ayahuasca works only as a purgative (la purga, la limpia) without any other hallucinogenic effects. Depending on the purpose of an ayahuasca session, various plant additives generally called brushy are used. The ayahuasqueros distinguish between substances that "make you travel," that "make you see" or that "teach you to heal." The synergistic effects of the combined plants are described by healers as "the plants know each other" or "they fit together" (McKenna, Luna & Towers 1986). Piro Indians use ayahuasca in a sophisticated and functional way, showing their understanding of the psychopharmaceutical indications and purposes of the different species

We are to all keep the spirit of these etheogens alive, by gratitutde and good intent.

Cheers white shadow


images and some inf o from:Sociopsychotherapeutic Functions of Ayahuasca Healing in Amazonia
by Walter Andritzky
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