You’ve been prescribed another medication for your mental illness by your psychologist. This has been about the fourth one. You’ve had a bad reaction to all the others and you don’t expect anything different from this one.
If this sounds like you, an ayahuasca retreat may be what you need. While there are still a few unwanted effects from it, they don’t last long term like most medications for mental illness. Ayahuasca also allows you to attack your illness at the source by looking deeply into yourself.
If this sounds like what you need or you’re out of options at this point, read this guide on ayahuasca and ayahuasca experiences to get prepared for your retreat.
1. What is Ayahuasca Anyway?
Ayahuasca is a spiritual beverage made out of the plants Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis. Both of these are found in South America and so the drink has become a huge part of many of the different cultures there.
Though ayahuasca is probably one of the strongest psychedelics out there it’s also seen as a healing mixture. It causes you to dig deep into your subconscious to supposedly cure many mental illnesses and other sicknesses.
There is a little controversy with using the brew. For instance, it’s not exactly legal in the US. There is some grey area anyway.
It’s perfectly legal to use it for religious purposes but that’s it.
2. How is it Prepared and What Can You Expect
The brew is created when the bark and stem of the two plants are boiled. That’s all there really is to the creation process. As far as what you can expect from the ceremony itself it really depends on the shaman you have.
You’re usually sat in a dark room and once the ceremony begins you’ll drink about an ounce of the beverage. It takes a little over half an hour before it starts to kick in.
During this time, the shaman will sing or blow smoke at you. Both of these actions are thought to bring on the visions faster and easier as well as protect you spiritually during the process.
3. What You Should Know Before a Ceremony
Nothing can truly prepare you for the actual ceremony but still, it helps you if you’re at least a little mentally prepared before you go to a retreat. Here are a few main things that you should keep in mind.
Let Go of All Expectations
Anything we tell you and anything you see or read won’t live up to the actual experience of the ceremony. The drink affects everyone a little differently so the things that you see and feel will be nothing like what another person experienced.
It’s important that you don’t create any expectations for the ceremony in your head before you go. Live in the moment.
Tear Down Your Walls
The visions that you experience may not be the best ones and you may not like the idea of digging deep into yourself. It’s because of this that you may fight it which is the worst thing that you could do.
Most people either try and fight it by trying to stop the visions from coming on or by trying to make sense of them as they come. Instead of doing this, relax, let the visions happen, and try and make sense of it all later.
The Visions You Have May Make No Sense Until Later
One of the reasons why you don’t want to try and make sense of the visions while you’re drinking the brew is because what you see will most likely make no sense until you’re able to piece it together later.
Most likely, the morning after the ceremony you’ll still be in a daze for a little bit. You probably won’t be able to start putting the puzzle pieces together until later on in the afternoon when it hits you all at once.
You May Have No Visions at All
Before you go into the ceremony it’s important that you know that you may not have any visions at all. Some people don’t see things as much as they feel them. If this is you, don’t go away feeling disappointed when you hear all friends talking about their colorful visions.
4. How You Will Benefit From Taking Part in the Ceremony
So we’ve told you that this ceremony makes you dig deep but we haven’t really been over why you’d want to do that. Some of the most common reasons are to cure mental health issues and clear out your system.
Clears Parasites
If you have any parasites wriggling around in your body, ayahuasca will take care of them. It does this by first clearing you out. Which means as gross and unpleasant as this sounds, you may experience vomiting and diarrhea.
The next step is to kill anything left over. The chemicals found in ayahuasca will do this in a snap.
Fights Depression and Addiction
Ayahuasca has been known to target the parts of your brain that cause depression and anxiety and increase the blood flow there. This will lift your mood and give you a new outlook on life.
Many forms of addiction are triggered by depression. So by lifting your depression, it may also control any form of addiction you have.
Create Your Own Ayahuasca Experiences
Ayahuasca ceremonies have the power to stop many forms of mental illness by causing you to look into yourself. During this process, you may feel certain powerful emotions or see visions. Your experience will differ from another person so you may not experience some of these things at all.
All you can do is try it out and create ayahuasca experiences of your own. When that time comes, we hope you’re able to use this guide to get yourself prepared.
Are you ready to create your ayahuasca experience and start down the path to spiritual healing? Book now. We can’t wait to work with you.
