Welcome to Ayahuasca Info

This website is dedicated to a magical potion from the Amazone basin which is known as ayahuasca. Here you can find information on the different ingredients that are used to make this brew, the way it's used by indigenous people, and what you can expect when you take it yourself.

Traditionally this beverage contained a combination of the bark of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the leaves of the Psychotria viridis (or alternatively the Diplopterys cabrerana). It has now been determined what the active components of these ingredients are, and some people have used plants from other parts of the world to make similar herbal potions. You can read about this in the botany and chemistry pages.

The most important active component in ayahuasca as far as its visionary qualities are concerned is a substance called DMT (dimethyltryptamine). DMT has a powerful effect on consciousness that is difficult to describe in words. It's described by many as "spiritual", and is characterized by detailed, very bright and colourful visions. Indigenous people say that during their trance, which lasts approximately four hours, they enter the world of the spirits and communicate with them, while psychologists consider DMT to be one of the hallucinogens, or psychedelics: "substances which make the soul visible."

We invite you to explore this site, read the interviews and prepare yourself well before you decide to try this powerful potion yourself. In case you are completely new to ayahuasca, we recommend you start by reading the introduction.

News

July 21 2008 - Peruvian government recognizes Ayahuasca as cultural heritage

The Institute of National Culture has declared the knowledge and traditional uses of ayahuasca as national cultural heritage, in order to guarantee their cultural continuation within native Amazonian communities. This resolution was published on July 12 in the law bulletin of the national daily El Peruano. It states that ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) is a plant specimen with an extraordinary cultural history due to its psychotropic qualities that are to be experienced when combined in a brew containing the plant known as chacruna. B. caapi is in the indigenous world known as a 'master' plant which teaches to its initiates the very foundations of the world and its components.

Peruvian government declares ayahuasca as national heritage (English)
Cronicaviva (Español)
Altino Machado (Portuguese)

To read previous articles on ayahuasca go to the news page.