Ayahuasca/Yage is a mixture of two Amazonian herbs, (vine of Ayahuasca/Yage and the chacruna or chagropanga – depending on the region), capable of inducing altered states of consciousness, usually for 4 to 8 hours after ingestion. The experience can range from a mild stimulus to extreme visions, physical and emotional reactions. Ayahuasca/Yage is used primarily as a medicine and as a way of shamanic communication (Taitas), usually at a ceremony under the supervision of a Taita or experienced Shaman guide or teacher.
The main ingredient of this jungle tea is a vine, the cipó mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi). The tea itself is also called Ayahuasca (meaning “soul climber” or “climber with soul”). The secondary ingredients are chacruna (Psychotria viridis), or chagropanga (Diplopterys cabrerana) – plants with a relatively high content of the psychoactive substance Di Methyl Tryptamine (DMT).
The DMT enzyme is a neurotransmitter found in all humans and plays a key role in all cases of unusual states of perception. This neurotransmitter is found in the brain, blood, lungs, and other parts of the human body. There is strong evidence pointing to the pineal gland (“the third eye” in esoteric traditions), located in the center of the brain, as being the main source of naturally present DMT. In addition to being found in humans, DMT can also be found in all mammals and in a variety of plants.
No one knows for sure when humanity first started drinking this plant medicine. The first known contact with the West occurred in 1851, through Richard Spruce, the famous English ethnobotanist. When we consider the comparative archaeological evidence of the native use of the plant, it seems that the consumption of this plant medicine dates back at least two millennia ago.
The effects of Ayahuasca/Yage depend on a specific mixture of two plants: cipó mariri and chacruna (chagropanga). It is unknown how and when the mixture of these two plants was discovered by Native Americans in the South American Amazon, although many tribes and shamans have their own mythical stories explaining the origins of the medicine mixture.
In the Colombian and Venezuelan Amazon, the mixture of Ayahuasca/Yage and chagropanga is known as Yage only. In the other countries, like Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, it is known as Ayahuasca. We have also heard that some people talk about Ayahuasca as “grandmother Ayahuasca”, for our Colombian culture, the Yage, is the union of the feminine energy or chagropanga and the masculine energy, which is the vine of the yage; therefore, in our belief system, we don’t tend to qualify the element as the grandmother.
In many ancient cultures the religious use of entheogens has been standard practice since the earliest days of mankind. The use for religious/spiritual purposes of Ayahuasca/Yage has its origin in the ancestral traditions of the native people of the South American Amazon. It has been used in religious ceremonies, shamanic healings and therapeutic practices for thousands of years. This knowledge has been passed down to the present in forms of rituals, songs, and dances through which the divine beings, the sun, the moon, the stars and the forces of Nature are praised as an act of spiritual elevation.
The ritual of consecration, where the use of the sacramental drink takes place, carries within itself a universal message of peace, fraternity, and love, valid for all the people of the earth. Our experience tells us that the use of sacramental drink within an appropriate spiritual context, far from being a dissociative experience for the mind and detrimental to the health of the individual or of society, is, on the contrary, an activity beneficial for healing, evolution, and the expansion of consciousness, and in turn, positive for the purposes of a spiritual quest that we aim for.
Ingesting the Ayahuasca/Yage has great healing properties on a physical and spiritual level. Mainly, it acts as a laxative (purging agent), cleansing the digestive system, stomach, and intestines, and all organs that are involved with the digestion process and the production of blood, like the liver and the pancreas. The mixture activates enzymes in your whole organism that will benefit your entire nervous system and it submerges you in a spiritual experience, by which you travel through your internal world. While it acts over the pineal gland, it moves layers of ancestral information that is stored here in this fountain of information, related to our current life as well as our past lives.
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