The Medicine of the Soul
Ayahuasca is a natural and ancestral means of contact with the sacred is an invaluable legacy of an Amazonian culture on the verge of extinction. It is our duty to rescue it and introduce it to Western society as a viable alternative to cure psychosomatic illnesses, drug addiction and as a general therapy to connect with our “inner teacher”. – Diego Palma
Ayahuasca is a medicine, it is seen and felt in this way by thousands of people throughout the world. In our day to day, we are constantly subjected to tensions, frustrations, traumas, pains, work pressures, so constantly that we can no longer remember another way of feeling.
Ayahuasca allows us to give ourselves
Ayahuasca allows us to give ourselves that intense moment of reflection and allows us to let go of that burden, it gives us the courage to see ourselves naked, defenseless and sensitive.
Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) is a jungle vine that grows throughout the Amazon basin from Colombia to Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and the Guyanas. It is known and revered by all indigenous tribes as a “teacher plant” and forms the basis of their traditional medicine.
Ayahuasca is cooked together with the leaves of a bush called Chacruna (Psychotria viridis), giving a concoction or sacred drink of a psychoactive nature that is ingested in an indigenous ritual ceremony of reflection and cleansing. This concoction, also called Ayahuasca, has been used for more than 5,000 years by the shamans of the Amazon as a way to obtain the expansion of consciousness.
The term Ayahuasca derives from the Quechua words “aya” which means dead and “huasca” which means rope or vine. This translates as the rope of the dead or the vine of the dead, and is considered a drink used by initiates to communicate with the spirit world.
Throughout the entire Amazon basin, it receives different names depending on the region. In Ecuador it is called “natema”, in Brazil it is known as “jurema”, “chá” or “daime” and in Colombia as “yagué”.
In the Peruvian jungle it is known as “Ayahuasca” and popularly called “purging” due to its emetic and cleansing effects. As Jacques Mabit, director of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts – Takiwasi states:
“This preparation is commonly called the “purging” because it produces a controlled intoxication allowing the “body-mind” to be cleansed.
Ayahuasca has not been included in any list of prohibited substances for the sake of its religious use (thanks to the fact that it does not generate any type of dependency or toxicity), with which the Ayahuasca religions, like the peyote churches, are located in a certain way at the head of the world movement in favor of a liberalization of the consumption of psychotropic substances.