By Sean Illing — 2019
What the psychedelic drug ayahuasca showed me about my life.
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I drank ayahuasca in 1999, in a ceremony led by two scholars with expertise in ayahuasca. What follows is an edited version of what I wrote about the experience in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism.
In an appropriate context, ayahuasca can be a valuable therapeutic tool and can act as a catalyst that can render psychotherapeutic processes more effective in less time, and sometimes allow for critical interventions when several other therapeutic strategies have been unsuccessful.
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For those psychedelic users who experience post-use “spiritual comedowns”, psychedelic withdrawals, or a general sense of dopamine depletion, what can be done to alleviate these symptoms?
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Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.