Author’s note: This story was composed using an in-depth collection of interviews and surveys of the experience from those who attended an ayahuasca ceremony as part of an observational research study.
In an airy room overlooking the mountains, soft voices and the smell of sage surround an altar with carefully placed crystals, candles, instruments, and sacred herbs. The pale sun is low on the horizon, casting long shadows as each attendant is cleansed with sage and invited to take their place in the circle. Pillows, blankets, and mats encircle the room, reminiscent of an inviting childhood slumber party. The individuals seated in the circle are mostly Arabic-speaking women from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), including immigrants and refugees of various backgrounds originating from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates.
Those seated in the circle wear white to unify this space as sacred and allow for their movements to be seen in the growing darkness. As the circle forms, hushed voices become quieter and settle into silence. This circle represents the culmination of months of preparation, and participants are instructed to adhere to a range of other practices leading up to the ceremony, including psychospiritual preparation, dietary modifications, education about the plant medicine, the practice of intention setting, and cessation of many types of activites (e.g., limiting dairy, meats, alcohol, sugar, medication, and sexual activity). Dietary restrictions are particularly critical, as the monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibiting effect which allows the psychoactive properties of ayahuasca to take effect also
allows other potentially harmful chemicals present in food to enter the bloodstream, sometimes resulting in illness. These preparations have led to an unmistakable atmosphere of apprehension and excitement, which grows as the fruits of this labor draw closer.
Preparing the Ayahuasca Ceremony
The Amazonian psychedelic brew prepared by boiling the stems of the
Banisteriopsis caapi vine with the leaves of the
Psychotria viridis or
Diplopterys cabrerana plant goes by many names, including
ayahuasca in Peru, yagé in Colombia and Ecuador, and caapi in Brazil, among others. In the Quechua language, ayahuasca translates to vine of the soul, and has been used by indigenous communities for over 5,000 years. It is a traditional medicine to approximately one
hundred indigenous groups across the Amazon Basin, and has remained a central part of indigenous culture in
medicine, religious ceremonies, and rite of passage. Different indigenous groups have developed complex variations of this medicine to modify or potentiate its effects, infusing up to
90 different plants into the brew.
The stunning silence of the ceremony is briefly lifted when several helpers begin placing purging buckets at the foot of each mat, producing sideways glances and nervous laughter. Malek Asfeer, an
award winning Saudi Arabian script writer and filmmaker and the organizer of this ceremony, sits cross-legged amongst the group, quietly reassuring.
“My first experience with ayahuasca allowed me to meet a part of myself that I didn’t know existed.” Asfeer says of his own journey with ayahuasca. “I was able to access emotions I never thought I had, like joy and happiness. Those emotions were absent and strange to me. I had to teach myself to mimic how joy or happiness would look like until my first ayahuasca experience. Now, I can finally experience joy and happiness.”
A Revolutionary Study on Ayahuasca for Refugee Trauma
Asfeer approached
Unlimited Sciences, a Colorado-based psychedelic research nonprofit focused on education and awareness of psychedelic use, to
observe and study this ceremony in the hope that their story would be shared with a broader audience. Research on ayahuasca is severely limited, in part due to
the Controlled Substances Act of 1971, which halted research on psychedelic substances, classifying them under Schedule I as having
“no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
When asked why this ceremony was organized, Asfeer answered, “There are a few reasons, but the most prominent reason is that we have a community that is abused from different sides, but no one is actually providing these people with ways to heal in processing their trauma. Instead they are asked to share their trauma to advance political agendas. It was really important to study this retreat because we want to have more informed decisions in the future of how to serve the broader community.”
This study will take place over the course of four months and has been reviewed and approved by an independent institutional review board (IRB). Under FDA regulations, an IRB
is group that has been formally designated to review and monitor research involving human subjects. The study is led by the Director of Research for Unlimited Sciences, Matthew X. Lowe, Ph.D., and in collaboration with Robin Carhart-Harris, Ph.D., the Founding Director of The Neuroscape Psychedelics Division and newly endowed Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. It will be an evidence-based evaluation investigating positive and/or negative outcomes of ayahuasca in this community. As a nonprofit organization,
Unlimited Sciences relies on donations and fundraising to cover the costs associated with research.
“There are over 27 million refugees,” Asfeer continues, “and no one is stopping to see if these people are healing. When we look at the bigger picture, one day people are in their homes, living their lives, taking care of their family, and the next day they don’t have any of those basic human rights. They never chose that. They never decided to go to war or wanted to be part of war. When they lose their homes, they are losing everything. There is no ground for them to stand on.”
Unpacking Immigrant and Refugee Trauma
High numbers of refugees and immigrants experience
complex and multilayered forms of trauma, including physical and sexual violence, persecution, experiences of war and torture, life threatening situations, and traumatic migration journeys prior to and during the process of migration. These experiences can have lasting and severe long-term mental health consequences, yet few studies have examined the impact of trauma experiences after migration.
“We come from a culture that is based on community, and when we come to this capitalistic world in the West, we lose that connection,” Asfeer says of why community-based healing has been an important part of this event. “Ayahuasca is the perfect medium because it’s community based. The whole idea of healing, for me, with this community, is about creating a safe space that people can come to despite their background, whether they’re artists, journalists, activists, or anyone else, to feel safe and heal and process trauma in an environment that feels familiar with other people that share their cultural background.”
Many of the individuals attending this ayahuasca ceremony bring with them the hope that this experience will help them heal. The majority (80%) of the community indicated that they had been or were currently experiencing mental health challenges, including an anxiety (67%) or mood (53%) disorder. Taking this into consideration, the ceremony itself has been organized with profound consideration for the safety of those participating, engaging a licensed therapist experienced with psychedelic therapy and several helpers sensitive to the unique needs of those in attendance.
Setting the Space for the Ceremony
As the sun touches the surrounding mountains, the guide takes her place at the altar and breaks the silence by welcoming the circle. In traditional ayahuasca ceremonies, facilitators, often called shamans, curandero, or medicine carriers, play a crucial role by guiding individuals through the various stages of an ayahuasca journey. Their burden of responsibility is heavy, encompassing preparation of the plant medicine, ensuring honesty, respect, safety, readiness and willingness of those present, guiding individuals through their ayahuasca journey, and facilitating the process of integration (integrating the insights of a psychedelic experience into daily life). She invites each member of the circle to introduce themselves and write down the name of a person or persons of love to be sung into the ceremony with gratitude.
“By singing, we sing in the medicine of life,” she says of the ceremony. “Some of these songs that we will sing have been sung for hundreds of years with the energy of love. Open your ears and listen to the love inside of the songs.”
Many of these traditional ceremonial practices haven’t been recorded in writing, but rather
passed down from centuries of knowledge and generations of teachers. The guide explains that these songs are sung in many languages, including the Quechua language, “but mostly it’s with the language of the heart.”
During the ceremony, a sacred space is opened and blessed through the invocation of prayer, often through song. These traditions are varied, but the purpose of these songs are often to invite positive energies to call for healing and express gratitude.
As the guide unpacks and reveals the ayahuasca to the circle, which is a viscous liquid contained in dark glass bottles, she explains the history of this medicine. “This medicine is from the heart of Pachamama,” she says, referring to the goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes as an Earth mother. “This is a medicine of gratitude, a medicine of life, a medicine of nature, and a medicine of ourselves.”
The guide invites and encourages each member of the circle to sing together during the ceremony in a celebration of life, reciting a mantra to the group, “I am another you. You are another me. Your healing is my healing. My healing is your healing. Your tears are my tears. My tears are your tears. Your laughter is my laughter. My laughter is your laughter. Your purge is my purge. My purge is your purge.”
The Ayahuasca Ceremony Begins
The sun has now disappeared behind the peaks of the nearby mountains, and darkness begins to settle over the room. “In many ways, these ceremonies are for ourselves and for all our relations,” she continues. “We are co-creating this ceremony. Thank you for creating this ceremony with me.”
The circle stands to honor the medicine and the “exquisite tapestry of creation” which is always around us, offering gratitude to the grandmother, Pachamama, in the East, South, North, West, from above, from below, and from within. Following
breathwork to calm and center the circle, participants are asked to share their intentions, an important step in guiding the experience to come. It has been well documented that set and setting significantly influence the response to psychedelic substances (“set” is an individual’s mindset and “setting” refers to their physical and social environment), and setting an intention is an integral part of this process. The intentions of those participating are varied, but include self-exploration (87%), creativity (60%), mental health (53%), physical health (33%), therapy (27%), productivity (27%), and recreation (13%) amongst others. These intentions included words such as clarity, purpose, love, God, connection, learning, spirituality, and healing.
One by one, each member of the circle approaches the altar to receive the medicine, a brown molasses-like liquid, bitter and earthy with a sweet aftertaste. Each recipient chooses how much medicine they wish to receive, ranging from approximately a half ounce to two ounces of ayahuasca. The guide pours and anoints the medicine, offering the cup forward. “Salud!” the guide exclaims, and the sentiment is echoed across the room.
There is a nervous, yet jovial, energy as some drink the medicine silently, while others try to stifle an involuntary gag as the medicine passes their lips, rushing back to their seats to closely clutch their purging bucket.
The Medicine Starts to Work
With darkness now embracing the room, the guide explains that purging can occur in a variety of ways, all of which are normal and part of the medicine’s effect, including “vomiting, convulsing, crying, sweating, and diarrhea.” While not everyone will vomit after ingesting ayahuasca, most individuals share in this experience because of
ayahuasca’s effect on the postrema, a part of the brainstem that controls the urge to vomit. ”For some,” the guide cautions, “the medicine is immediate, but for others it could take hours. You will know when the medicine takes you.” She advises members of the circle to embrace the effects of the medicine. “You may go away, but you will come back.” Surrendering to the medicine and embracing what follows is believed to be critical for this experience.
“My mind was fighting with the medicine,” says one participant after the medicine took hold. “I got a rollercoaster trip inside my body at the beginning, and then I gave the medicine the permission to do its work.”
Over the next few hours, the circle expands and contracts like a living heart beating to an orchestra conducted by the guide. Displaying her multifaceted talents and explemlifying the importance of her role, the guide moves from one instrument to the next, offering support to those who need it, and singing a variety of songs, some ancient and rehearsed and others improvised from the heart. Shadows dance in the deep darkness of the room, lit only by softly flickering candlelight, and quickly the room erupts into a frenzy of activity with ecstatic and joyful dancing, hysterical laughter, painful screaming, uncontrollable sobbing, professions of love, and singing.
These experiences are often a reaction to the intense visual and auditory hallucinations produced by the powerful psychoactive brew. Ayahuasca contains the psychoactive compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which can induce brief but intense psychoactive effects, including visual hallucinations. DMT acts on specific serotonin receptors in the brain that are widely distributed in the central nervous system and play a key role in the regulation of cortical function and cognition, including learning and memory. Agonists of these receptors mediate hallucinogenic activity, and may produce
antipsychotic, antidepressant, and anxiolytic effects.