For centuries, the indigenous tribes of the Amazon have used a sacred medicine a s a powerful tool for physical,

emotional, and spiritual healing and awakening. This medicine is known as Ayahuasca, a Quechua Indian word which translates as Vi ne of the Soul . Having been almost completely ignored by Western civilization for centuries, Aya huasca has recently attracted a lot of interest from Academics, Doctor s, Philosop her s, Artist s and Mystics due to the mysterious healing and teaching properties th at it possesses. It is widely believed that Ayahuasca is the medicine of our time , giving hope to p eople with supposedly incurable diseases such as cancer, HIV, and Parkinson s diseas e, as well as chronic depression, anxiety, and drug addictions. Ayahuasca can pr ovide valuable insight into the sociological and ecological problems of today s wo rld, and inspires ideas about how to resolve them. Spirituality is at the core of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification of mind, b ody and soul in a healing ceremony can catalyse a profound process of spiritual awakening and development. This process of growth and spiritual evolution can co ntinue indefinitely even if Ayahuasca is not taken again. Ayahuasca is divine, sacred, magical - teaching a deep respect for life and the world and facilitating personal healing and self-discovery far beyond the bounda ries of conventional modern medicine. Indeed, it is believed that a single Ayahu asca session has the potential to be equally as effective as 10 years of psychot herapy or meditation. The Ayahuasca experience is highly individual and unique to each person as it en ables a direct connection with the deepest parts of the sub-conscious, facilitat ing a deep connection with our true, inner and higher self. Ayahuasca provides a window into our soul and shows us who we really are and who we can become. We strongly believe that the benefits to be gained from learning about Ayahuasca are immeasurable, both on a personal and planetary level. Ayahuasca is a powerful medicinal tea brewed from the thick woody stems of the B anisteriopsis Caapi vine (Vine of the Soul) and the lush green leaves of the Cha referred to as the Queen of the forest ). These two cruna Plant (Psychotria viridis native Amazonian plants, when fused with careful attention in a ceremonial cont ext, create a potent and divine medicine. With the utmost reverence, intention and prayer, the plants are prepared and coo ked for a number of days in a ritual context, during which time the Ayahuasquero s (maestro s trained in the use of the vine) chant their sacred songs of healing (i caro s) to the brew as it is being cooked. The mixture is prepared ceremoniously by cutting the vines to cook able lengths, attentively scraping and cleaning them, and pounding them into a pulp. Meanwhil e the Chacruna leaves are picked and cleaned one by one. The two are then boiled together for many hours or days until ready. The medicine Ayahuasca - often referred to as The Queen of the forest and consider ed to be the most powerful of the teacher plants - is traditionally consumed in a ceremonial context under the guidance of a Shaman or Ayahuasquero (a maestro t rained in the use of the vine). It is imperative to have an experienced Shaman/Ayahuasquero present to conduct t he ceremony, someone who has a deep understanding of the forces at work and how to keep the energies in balance. His hinario s (songs of healing, also known as Ic aro s or callings depending on the tradition) assist in guiding the drinker through his or her journey within. Ayahuasca ceremonies typically take place at night in a safe location within an

appropriate setting, and generally last between 5 to 8 hours. For initiates we sometimes hold our first ceremony during the day, providing a g entle introduction to the force of Ayahuasca, in beautiful natural surroundings. The following ceremonies are held at night, enabling us to go deeper with our e xperience. We are fortunate to have three very blessed venue s for our ceremonies: The Temple, the Tepee, and the Healing Wheel (outdoors). Preparation for a ceremony can involve dieting, contemplation, meditation, silen ce, and time immersed in nature. A ceremony is typically opened with a smoking of protector plants combined with an invocation (an invitation and calling to the spirits of nature and the elemen tal forces to guide and to protect) and likewise with a closing of the ceremony, something usually done whilst basking in an immense feeling of gratitude. It is preferred that one tries to remain in silence throughout a ceremony (with the exception of the Shaman s singing and chanting) so as not to distract another from their experience. The Shaman will usually start to sing when the force of A yahuasca arrives, normally after about 30 minutes. The Shaman is attentive to ea ch individual, and will give special care and attention to anyone who might be h aving a particularly difficult experience. The name Ayahuasca comes from Quechua, a widely spoken South American language f ound throughout the Amazon: aya means soul or spirits and huasca means vine , therefore translating to vine of the soul or vine of the spirits . Although there are many oth er names for Ayahuasca used throughout South America such as yage, caapi and Dai me. Ayahuasca was first described academically in the early 1950`s by Harvard Univer sity ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes who found it employed for divinatory a nd healing purposes by Amerindians of Amazonian Columbia. Ayahuasca has been use d in the Amazon for millennia, long before the Spanish came to Peru, long even b efore the Incan Empire was formed. The oldest known object related to the use of Ayahuasca is a ceremonial cup which dates to a culture that ended in the year 5 0 A.D. Hewn out of stone with engraved ornamentation, it was discovered in Ecuad or and currently rests at the Ethnological Museum of the Central University (Qui to, Ecuador). In the Peruvian Amazon, its use dates back much further. The origins of the shamanic use of Ayahuasca are lost in the mists of history an d there are many stories surrounding how the natives initially came to work with this sacred medicine. In his book, "The Cosmic Serpent", Jeremy Narby comments, "Here are people without electron microscopes who choose, among 80,000 Amazonia n plant species, the leaves of a bush containing a brain hormone, which they com bine with a vine containing substances that inactivate an enzyme of the digestiv e tract, which would otherwise block the effect. And they do this to modify thei r consciousness. It is as if they knew about the molecular properties of plants and the art of combining them, and when one asks them how they knew these things , they say their knowledge comes directly from [the] plants." In an indigenous context, Ayahuasca was used by the shamans of the Amazon region (Ayahuasqueros) for healing and divinatory purposes. Complex rituals surround t he preparation and use of Ayahuasca which have been passed down through generati ons of curanderos and curanderas (healers). Today, the use of Ayahuasca is rapidly gaining awareness and acceptance in South America and elsewhere thanks to organized religious movements such as Santo Dai me and the Unio do Vegetal (UDV), who recently won a supreme court decision for t he right of members to use the sacred medicine in ceremonies in the United State s. Ayahuasca is revered by the indigenous people of South America as a sacred medic ine and a master-teacher, capable of transporting the drinker to other dimension s of space and time, where past, present and future are all equally accessible, both one's own life path and those of others.

Everyone s journey with Ayahuasca is totally unique and individual. The plant-teac her guides us to the deepest parts of our subconscious where, with our conscious self, we are able to confront, understand and release deep-rooted emotional bag gage and behavioural patterns that are holding us back in our lives and preventi ng us from being our authentic selves. Diseases, behavioural patterns and egoist ic tendencies can be analysed to determine their nature and origin. It is not uncommon to experience a regression back to the situation or source of a problem or trauma. To relive the experience is to gain new understanding and insights enabling resolution or closure. Dream-like scenes where personal messag es from spirits are received cause ceremony participants to re-evaluate their l ife course with a deeper understanding of why they are here, and what it is they need to do to fulfil their purpose. Drinkers of Ayahuasca often report significant changes in the way they see life and how they feel about themselves, and in many cases they experience a growing sense of purpose and direction, inner strength and power. Not everyone comes to this medicine with the same needs. The magic of Ayahuasca rests in its ability to find, focus, diagnose, heal and transcend one s personal l imitations, conditioning, negative thoughts and fears. It takes us to a pure fun damental part within each of us that instinctively knows the answer, that wants us to achieve what we really desire in life and to be true to ourselves. It teac hes us how to trust this inner voice and achieve a more fulfilling life. Fundamental to the work of the Shaman is the knowledge that Nature is alive; tha t the plant kingdom is conscious and has intelligence; that plants have spirits who can help to heal mankind; that an answer to any illness can be found in Natu re. During an Ayahuasca experience it is possible for one to see and communicate with these spirits. For example, one can speak with plant spirits to learn thei r medicinal properties and how to collect and prepare them for use in healing. Ayahuasca allows for the integration of the Self with the Higher-Self. From this integration emerges the True Self. The fully active brain strips away the fearbased, ego-mind issues that plague the human condition. The light of our higher consciousness renders the mask of our pretend self irrelevant. It ceases to be of importance to impress others by being right or better than someone, or to be ash amed of who we are. A light, joyous and playful sense encompasses our being and we become resolved in our humanity and our divinity. We stop thinking and start knowing. Many rainforest shamans simply refer to ayahuasca as 'el remedio' - the remedy a nd believe that Ayahuasca is capable of curing any illness, be it physical or me ntal, from cancer to depression. In the shamanic world, all human conditions of sickness are considered to be a r esult of imbalance or energetic blockage between mind, body and soul. True heali ng comes from a place of integration simultaneously on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. From this viewpoint the ego based western societies are in a s piritual sickness, out of balance and in great need of healing. All disease is m erely a manifestation of this imbalance (or dis-ease). Ayahuasca works to diagno se and restore balance, therefore facilitating holistic healing far beyond the f rontiers of conventional treatment. There are now many scientific studies of the healing properties of eral. The curanderismo ("healing") of the Amazon Jungle is perhaps rful in the world. An incredible variety of medicinal plants exist , some known and many more yet to be discovered. Many of the drugs rn pharmacies were derived from Amazon jungle plants, and more and plants in gen the most powe in the jungle sold in weste more traditio

nal Amazon remedies (passionflower, guarana, cat's claw) are making their way in to western consciousness. There is no plant healer on the planet, however, quite as revered, as powerful, and as respected as Ayahuasca. And now the Western world is finally beginning to acknowledge this plant phenomenon, with an ever increasing number of people, ac ademics, scientists, neurologists, philosophers and mystics heading to South Ame rica to experience Ayahuasca for themselves. Indeed, Harvard University have rec ently sent a team to study the magical healing properties of this medicine, give n to the extraordinary and ever growing number of cases in which people have rep orted their condition to have completely disappeared since their Ayahuasca encou nter. (see article Ayahuasca & Cancer: One Man s Experience). Charles Grob MD professor of psychiatry and paediatrics at UCLA has found throug h his research that people using Ayahuasca experienced remission without reoccur rence of their addictions, depressions, anxiety disorders and even some physical ailments. Ayahuasca is currently being seriously considered as an effective treatment for Parkinson s Disease. As early as 1928 a natural substance called Banisterene was u sed successfully in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Banisterene is also an old and well-known plant product called Harmine, and Harmine is the most pronou nced Beta-carboline component of Ayahuasca. Sadly the use of Banisterene fell ou t of favor as a Parkinson's treatment, as the pharmaceutical industry was evolvi ng into the study of synthetic drugs that were patentable, and losing interest i n natural products that were not patentable. What s more is that many of the exper imental drugs being used today to treat Parkinson's disease contain strong MAO i nhibitors, as well as have pro-Dopamine properties, much like Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is a strong purgative (allows profound cleansing through vomiting and diarrhoea), an antibiotic (kills microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses), a n analgesic (painkiller), disinfectant, and cicatrizant (speeds healing of wound s). For some people the heaviness that is felt in their life is the weight of old em otional baggage. Ayahuasca can assist in bringing such memories to the surface t o be confronted and released through purging. The purging aspect of the Ayahuasc a experience is hugely beneficial as it also allows for impurities to be releas ed that sap the body s energy. This deep cleansing system is a natural detoxificat ion which restores physical vitality and harmony. It is in this clearing process that we create new space for higher energy, clarity, creativity and vibrancy to enter into our life. It is strongly advisable to follow a preparatory diet leading up to your Ayahuas ca experience, this includes refraining from eating meat and sexual activity 7 d ays before your experience. It is also advisable to drink plenty of medicinal pl ant teas to help cleanse the internal organs. This can potentially make any phys ical purging easier, and refraining from sexual stimulation will help conserve y our physical and mental energy resources required for the experience. Following an Ayahuasca ceremony, it is advisable to refrain from eating anything at all for a few hours, as the medicine will continue to work in the body long after the psychological effects have passed. A diet of basic, fresh, organic foo d of fruit, vegetables and fibre is recommended for the days following your expe rience. This will help to promote the ongoing healing effects. Ayahuasca has a way of teaching us what is good for us, and you may find that fo llowing your experience you have increased awareness and sensitivity for which f oods and drinks to avoid, such as red meat, processed and oily foods, alcohol an d fizzy drinks. The healing effects of Ayahuasca can continue long after the cer emony, depending on the individuals strength of will to take heed of the lessons Ayahuasca has taught them. Ayahuasca is non-addictive and safe to ingest and has the ability to facilitate holistic healing and transformation far beyond any other known method.

Ayahuasca is not compatible with SSRIs like Prozac or Zoloft, or other drugs tha t are MAOIs. If you wish to take Ayahuasca you must have stopped taking anti-dep ressants at least four weeks before coming to the retreat. This should be done u nder your physician's supervision. Scientific studies have managed to isolate the principle molecular compounds res ponsible for the consciousness-altering states induced by Ayahuasca. In 1923, Fischer analyzed the B. caapi vine and isolated a compound he named tel epathine (from the telepathic powers one reportedly gains when under the influen ce of ayahuasca). It was not until 1969 that a full chemical analysis was carrie d out (Shultes & Hoffman, 1992), and the compound was actually found to contain three primary active molecules (harmala alkaloids) - harmine, harmiline, and d-1 ,2,3,4-tetrahydroharmine (all beta-carboline derivatives). Harmine and harmiline were shown to be the primary molecules of the B. caapi vine responsible for the altered state of the ayahuasca drinker; however, these chemicals alone could no t account for the intense visions and experiences of ayahuasca. The beta-carboline chemicals Harmine and Harmaline found in the B. caapi vine ca n be psychedelic/visionary, but only in toxic doses (McKenna, 1993) and when con sumed at modest dosages, produce only a state of tranquility and purification. F urther research revealed P. viridis (Chakruna) as a common admixture to ayahuasc a. Assays showed this plant to contain small but significant amounts of the pote nt hallucinogen DMT or N, N- dimethyltryptamine. However, DMT is rendered inacti ve when taken orally. How does the DMT in Chakruna get into the blood when drink ing ayahuasca? In the presence of the Harmine (found in the B. caapi vine), DMT from the P. viridis plant becomes orally active in the body because Harmine alka loids inhibit enzymes (MAO s) in the stomach that normally destroy DMT. In other w ords, the B. caapi vine allows the hallucinogen DMT to make its way to the brain and induce visions (Turner, 1994). Of the thousands of plants in the Amazon rai n forest, only these two types of plants when combined and drank will allow the user to experience a slow, sustained release of DMT and the resulting psychedeli c/transformative state of mind.