AYHUASCA 7.1.09

FASTING AND FOOD PREPARATION FOR:

No Meat 3 days and no salt.

Onset #

Depending on how much and how recently one has eaten and individual variation, effects begin between 20 and 60 minutes after ingestion.

Duration #

With lower doses, effects last shorter, larger doses last longer, with the range being from 2-6 hours of peak effects with 1-8 hours after of lingering effects, depending on dosage and individual user variation.

Just as an Xmas present to y'all I am going to type in a bit about

Ginsberg's yage expedition in 1960. I will excerpt and paraphrase hunks

of "Dharma Lion" by Michael Schumacher, which, while quite long, is a fun

read even if you're not a fan of Ginsberg (I'm not), as long as you are

interested in beatniks, the '60's and such.

Ginsberg first used LSD in 1959. He received an invitation from Gregory

Bateson to experiment with it at Stanford's Mental Research Institute.

He wrote to his dad, "It was astonishing. I lay back, listening to music,

and went into a sort of trance state (somewhat similar to the high state

of Laughing Gas) and in a fantasy much like a Coleridge world of Kubla

Khan, saw a vision of that part of my consciousness which deemed to be

permanent and transcendent and identical with the origin of the universe -

a sort of identity common with everything - but a clear and coherent sight

of it."

He later (June 1959) wrote a poem, "Lysergic Acid," part of which goes like:

The image or energy which reproduces itself at the depths of

space from the very Beginning

in what might be an O or an Aum

and trailing variations made of the same Word circles round

itself in the same pattern as its original Appearance

creating a larger lineage of itself throughout depths of Time

outward circling thru bands of faroff Nebulae & vast Astrologies

contained, to be true to itself, in a Mandala painted on an

Elephant's hide,

or in a photograph of a painting on the side of an imaginary

Elephant which smiles, tho how the Elephant looks is an

irrelevant joke -

it might be a Sign held by a Flaming Demon, or Ogre of

Transcience,

or in a photograph of my own belly in the void...

In January 1960 he went to Santiago, Chile to a writers' conference. After

the conference he wandered around northern Argentina, then went

back to Santiago, and got some grant money and some unexpected money

from poetry sales that allowed him to pursue his plan to go to La Paz,

Bolivia. "According to his plan, he would stay in La Paz for two or

three weeks, sightseeing and waiting for his mail to arrive, and from there

he would proceed to Peru, where he would hook up with people who could

direct him to sources of yage."

He went to Lima, where William Burroughs had been exactly 7 years ago.

Burroughs had given Allen instructions on how and where to get yage.

He contacted a doctor who helped him get some ayahuasca, and he tried

it in his Lima hotel room on May 23. "He had received a jar of an

already-prepared solution that was nowhere near as potent as the

mixture made by the Amazonians Burroughs had written about, but

the experience was memorable nevertheless... `I drifted away in bed

in darkened hotel room and came to the gate of heaven and yelled in

my mind, `I am back home in the house of the splendid ancient Lord, and

I am the son of the Lord, in fact I am the lord himself come back home

and I want the gates open.' Got a minute of feeling near Union, but

the dose was too small & I was too amazed to get completely lost.'"

He then went to Pucallpa, a town on the edge of the Ucayali River that

Burroughs had recommended as a source of yage. It was a slow, rough

trip. Once he got there, he looked up a local authority on yage, who

put him in touch with a curandero willing to give him some ayahuasca.

"Known as Maestro, the curandero had studied under a witch doctor and

grew his own Banisteriopsis caape plants to use in his yage brew. The

ritual was held in the evening, and on a typical night there would be a

group of five to thrity people taking the drug. On his first night,

Allen was given a dose of older and slightly fermented yage that, though

still more powerful than the earlier dose he had taken in Lima, did not

produce the violent nausea and powerful visions that Burroughs had written

about from his experiences. About 45 minutes after drinking the liquid,

Allen had a sense of being in the presence of `the Great Being,' which

was manifest in the form of an eye staring from a great black hole

surrounded by hallucinatory apparitions of snakes, fish, butterflies,

birds, and other creatures symbolizing, as far as he could tell, the

entirety of creation. The feeling was pleasant.... The effects of the

drug lasted about three hours. Allen had no sooner returned to his normal

state when he began to look forward to his next experience."

Let's just recall that Burrough's experiences were indeed far more

intense. When Burroughs had taken the drug, he was violently nauseous,

dizzy, numb in the limbs, and chilled. He wrote, "Larval beings

passed before my eyes in a blue haze, each one giving an obscene, mocking

squawk," and had imagined himself to be alternately a man and a women in a

delirium that lasted for nearly four hours. So Ginsberg clearly knew

there could be more to the yage experience than a wimpy "Great Being"

vision. :-)

"However, it was different the next night, when he took a fresh and

therefore much stronger dose. Maestro served the yage ceremoniously,

blowing smoke over the enamel cup and humming a melancholy song before

he handed it to Allen. As he felt himself getting high, Allen lay

down on the ground waited, expecting the same kind of pleasant visions

as he had experienced the night before. Instead, as he reported to

Burroughs, `the whole fucking Cosmos broke loose around me': `I felt

faced by Death, my skull in my beard on pallet on porch rolling back

and forth and settling finally as if in reproduction of the last

physical move I make before settling into real death - got nauseous,

rushed out and began vomiting, all covered with snakes, like the Snake

Seraph, colored serpents in aureole all around my body. I felt like

a snake vomiting out the universe - or a Jivaro in head-dress with fangs

vomiting up in realization of the Murder of the Universe - my death to

come - everyone's death to come - all unready - I unready...'"

"Even as he was experimenting with drugs, he knew they were not the

answer. He wanted something pure, a higher consciousness attained without

the use of artificial means. Still, as long as he had reached the level

of consciousness he had under the influence of yage, he would not abandon

the drug. Since his childhood days and his Shrouded Stranger fantasies,

he had been terrified of facing death, God, or whatever supreme

consciousness was out there. Although, as he told Burrough, he was not

certain of the price he would pay for staring into the void, he would

continue his quest until he had answers for some of his questions."

"Night after night, he returned to Maestro for more yage, and each day

following, he would write about the experience in his journals...."

Later, wanting to try ayahuasca from other parts of Peru, he went to

Iquitos, a port on the western end of the Amazon. "As he suspected,

the yage brewed in the Amazonian region of Peru differed from that which

he had taken in Pucallpa. The mescla used as a catalyst in the mixture

was different. Allen was eager to try it, as well as bring home a sample

for later consumption. After a week in Iquitos, he located a man living

at the outskirts of the city who was willing to give him a dose. On June

24, he took three swallows of ayahuasca from a small gourd cup, and, while

the brujo sat nearby, tapping his foot and whistling a tune, Allen was

delivered to a multidimensional universe watched over by a serpent so

huge that ithe middle of its body and tail disappeared into the void.

The whistling sound became part of the vision - the sound the serpent

made to signal `its Eternal presence at all times and place.' The serpent,

for all its gigantic and powerful presence, was not entirely frightening.

It promised a resolution to death, the entrance into its spirit and

the understanding of this consciousness. The vision seemed to imply

that death, although unavoidable, was not as terrifying as Allen had

imagined it. Death, he reasoned, was the breakdown of a familiar

dimension."

"The next day, he was on a plane heading back to Lima...."

Ayahuasca Recipes

by Christian Rätsch

2005

Originally published in The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants

Citation: Rätsch C. Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. Park Street Press. 2005. pg. 703-08.

In the past, methods for preparing ayahuasca were well-protected secrets of the shamans. Only they knew the ingenious recipes. Only they knew which plants to use, where to find the lianas and herbs, which protective spirits needed to be invoked, and how to prepare the brew.

Banisteriopsis caapi stems are the basis for all ayahuasca recipes. To prepare ayahuasca, manageable-size stems of this liana must be boiled, after which chacruna leaves (Psychotria viridis) are added. The mixture is allowed to sit on the fire until a black, thick, horrible-tasting liquid results. The drink should never be prepared in aluminum pots, as it will corrode the aluminum and may in some cases produce inedible aluminum salts. Although cold-water extracts of Banesteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis will also produce the desired effects, they are only rarely made.

In the recipes of the Amazonian Indians, the liana itself is typically the main ingredient. Tests of different samples have found 20 to 40 mg, 144 to 158 mg, and even 401 mg of β-carbolines as well as 25 to 36 mg of N,N-DMT per dose. The ayahuasca prepared by the urban mestizos contains consistently higher concentrations of alkaloids (especially N,N-DMT) than are found in the Indian preparations. The highest concentrations are said to be found in the preparations of Barquinha Santo Daime church (Luis Eduarda Luna, pers. comm., 1996).

Natema Recipe of the Shuar

The Shuar shamans (uwishin) split a 1- to 2- meter-long piece of Banisteriopsis caapi stem into small strips. They place the strips in a pot along with several liters of water. They then add leaves of Diplopterys cabrerana, a Herrania species, Ilex guayusa, Heliconia stricta, and an unidentified Malphighiacea known as mukuyasku. The resulting mixture is boiled until most of the water has evaporated and a syrupy fluid remains (Bennett 1992, 486). The Kamsá, Inga, and Secoya make similar preparations (Bristol 1965, 207 ff.).

Ecuadorian Recipe

The bark of the Banisteriopsis caapi liana is peeled off and placed beneath a certain tree in the forest. The bare stems are then split into four to six strips and boiled together with fresh or dried Psychotria viridis leaves. A piece of liana approximately 180 cm long and forty Psychotria leaves represent a single dosage, although a piece of stem just 40 cm long and 3 cm thick is also said to be sufficient. In general, the less vine that is used, the easier the ayahuasca is on the stomach.

Preparation of the União do Vegetal (UDV), Brasil

Pieces from Banisteriopsis caapi vine are pounded, mixed with leaves from Psychotria viridis, and boiled for 10 to 12 hours in rust-free steel pots until all that remains is a thick liquid with globules of fat on the surface that shimmer in all colors of the spectrum.

Recipe of the Shipibo of San Francisco/Yarinachocha

A fresh piece of Banisteriopsis caapi bark is boiled together with a fresh handful of chacruna leaves (Psychotria viridis) and a flor de toé (Brugmansia suavolens flower) until a thick liquid decoction is produced. This preparation is said to have especially strong effects and to produce many visions.

Indigenous ayahuasca preparations exhibit considerable variation. Numerous plant admixtures can be used to induce psychoactive effects, and stimulating or medicinal drinks can also be produced. An Ecuadorian preparation of Banisteriopsis caapi and Ilex guayusa is purported to be a strong purgative. Recipes that cause delerium often contain tobacco and angel's trumpets (Brugmansia). Experienced ayahuasca shamans posses a vast wealth of knowledge about the effects of many plants and may utilize more than one hundred different admixtures in order to achieve the effects they desire.

These traditional preparations are often devoid of N,N-DMT. However, it is precisely those drinks that do contain high concentrations of DMT and that do produce visionary effects that have exerted such a powerful attraction on legions of Western ethnobotanists, psychedelic cognoscenti, artists, New Age tourists, and seekers of the esoteric (Leginger 1981; McKenna 1989; McKenna and McKenna 1994; Perkins 1995). For most outsiders, experiences with Amazonian ayahuasca have tended to be rather disappointing (McKenna 1993). Westerners seeking "highs" or healing experiences are often duped by the pranks of curanderos or self-proclaimed shamans. As early as 1953, William Burroughs reported "...I had been conned by medicine men" (Burroughs and Ginsberg 1963, 15). But there are also examples of more positive experiences (Pinkson 1993; Wolf 1992).

http://www.dr-bob.org/tips/maoi.html

http://www.ayahuasca-shamanism.co.uk/onanyanshobo-ayahuasca-info.htm#fo

http://forums.mycotopia.net/ayahuasca-aka-yage/8878-ayahuasca-com-faq-preparation.html