Ayahuasca & Visionary Plants – Companions to the Soul
Writing from my own personal perspective from my years of work and research in the Amazon Rainforest with the shamans and curanderos who drink the visionary plant brew called Ayahuasca. I use the term ‘shaman’ as a convenience as this title has only been ‘imported’ from the West into the Amazon quite recently in the past thirty years or so. A more appropriate general term could be ‘vegatilista’ or a seer and healer who work with plants from not only the physical or medicinal aspect but who are also in communion with the soul of the plant. in addition there are many ‘sub’ specialities, so a shaman who primarily works with chonta (a hard palm wood) is known as a chontero , a shaman who works with the aromas and scents of the plants is called a perfumero, and a shaman who works with ayahuasca is known as an ayahuasqero.
Ayahuasca is a combination of two plants (although other plants are added to elicit certain visionary experiences or healing purposes). This mixture of two plants the Ayahuasca vine and the Chacruna leaf, operate in a specific manner with our neuro-chemistry. The leaf contains the neuro transmitters of the tryptamine family (identical to those present in our brain) and the vine itself acts as an inhibitor to prevent our body’s enzymes from breaking the tryptamines down thereby making it inert. Science defines this as the MAOI effect (Monoamine Anti Oxide Inhibitor) and forms the basis for many of the widespread anti-depressant pharmaceutical medication such as Prozac and Seroxat. This MAOI principal was only discovered by Western Science in the 1950’s, yet interestingly this very principle has been known by the plant shamans for thousands of years, and when you ask the shamans