Ayahuasca’s effect is a state of altered, amplified consciousness that is experienced after drinking the Ayahuasca brew. The process with Ayahuasca principally is that of a physical cleansing or detox and of a psycho-emotional release. The physical cleansing is accompanied by nausea and eventually other emetic effects or purging: throwing-up, diarrhea, sweating, shaking, etc.
On a psychological level, the Ayahuasca brew amplifies all feelings and perceptions making the experience of thinking, self-reflection, reaction and belief more vivid and intense. Not only does the inner experience of one’s mind gets more amplified, the part of us that is conscious and aware becomes able to draw clearer connections between the thoughts, emotions and behaviors. This results in an experience of seeing the full picture of parts of our life, our relationships, our difficulties or so called “problems,” leading to insights about oneself and deeper comprehension of one’s reality. Essentially in the Ayahuasca experience not only our inner world is lit up and illuminated, but the capacity of consciousness is also amplified and expanded.
The visions associated with the Ayahuasca experience, whether chaotic, confused, or vivid and intense, serve to show us the totality of our life: the in-s and out-s of the conscious and subconscious mind, our emotional reactions and behaviors and how they affect our relationships. On the other hand, the visions often are just another factor of cleansing, allowing us to process visual imprints – the impact from the mass media, TV, Internet, and other psychosomatic and emotional blockages.
In respect to a person’s spiritual aspirations, the Ayahuasca experience occupies a role of a spontaneous teaching. Without claims of a particular phenomenological status of what is the source of these teachings, an Ayahuasca practitioner can have very profound insights, revelations and even sense of being guided. Based on this, the Ayahuasca experience deserves to be approached with the utmost respect, so that one’s attitude or the intention is that of going to meet a spiritual master or teacher.
Who Benefits from Ayahuasca and How?
The Ayahuasca process helps us to gain more than a mental understanding of our lives. It helps to reveal a heart based understanding of our situations. Within the Ayahuasca experience, it is hard to avoid one’s reality, rather on contrary – it opens one’s perception and awareness and let’s a person meet one’s mind in its totality.
Given that it reveals the knowledge of all of the different sides of personality (the pleasant aspects of it as well us the sides that we don’t get along with easily) it’s literally impossible to use it in a recreational manner or to have a trip into other realities.
Even though Ayahuasca is potentially powerful support on a path for knowing ourselves, it is not effective when it is approached in a passive manner. Ayahuasca is not something external that “intervenes and repairs a problem inside us” without our intentional contribution. What makes it a real helper for transformation is a solid person’s determination, a right motivation, and intention.
As was described above, Ayahuasca helps to expand and deepen the known experiences as well as the consciousness capacity as such, hence the main benefit is for the individuals who consciously search for exploring life, relationships and spiritual fulfillment.
Ayahuasca is often described as a healer because of the the inner processes that it facilitates, that eventually may initiate physical changes, psychosomatic and spiritual shifts in a person, change of habits, or release of addictive patterns, etc. The Ayahuasca experience inspires us and helps us to start changing so that a self-healing and genuine transformation may happen.
Ayahuasca can provoke a person to take a deeper look to the reality, ideas, ideologies or beliefs.