One of my most meaningful ayahuasca ceremony experiences was witnessing the words of a healing song – an icaro – appearing as golden syllables issuing from the mouth of the curandero and gently floating down into my abdomen. In those…

For decades prior to attending ayahuasca ceremonies, I’d been acutely aware of patterns of ancestral trauma in my family extending back at least 3 generations. But this knowledge became much more viscerally explicit in my very first ceremony. In that harrowing experience,…

In ayahuasca healing culture, the topic of dietas or “dieting master/teacher” plants comes up frequently. Among Westerners like myself, there can be curiosity and confusion about this practice. This is understandable, as the tradition of dieting plants is associated with…

It’s pitch dark, about 2 hours into the ceremony. The ayahuasca is in full effect, and I’m in deep. After a period of silence, the ceremony leader begins to sing another icaro. Someone starts to cry, deepening into wrenching, anguished…

When drinking ayahuasca, intentions can be an important piece of the process. I was initially quite frightened to drink ayahuasca, but I was also on a mission: to figure out who the heck I was. So, my very first ceremony…