Many people who have taken ayahuasca describe it as life-changing in some way, whether it allowed them to work through childhood wounds, take a new direction in life, or just be a bit kinder to themselves and others. The experience of an ayahuasca journey is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t undergone one, but the wisdom gleaned from it can be translated to many situations, within and outside medicine circles.
Here are a few quotes about ayahuasca from those who have worked with it themselves, which can hopefully inspire your own life whether you’re familiar with the substance or not.
“From experience, I came to learn that ayahuasca bestows upon the user knowledge about a variety of topics, not only consciousness and perception, but also leads one to realize that what we perceive is an illusion.”
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“The strongest kinds of ayahuasca are ayahuasca negro, cielo, and rosaria. These kinds of ayahuasca, a normal human being almost can’t bear. If you are good-hearted, you will have a nice experience. But if you are bad-hearted, you will go through a real nightmare.”
— Doña Angélica Vásquez Flórez
“We women need to rise to the occasion. The ayahuasca experience rebirths, inspires, empowers, and ignites us to do that.”
“It’s not that the ayahuasca comes with an agenda. It works through you. And it manifests what’s in you so that your intention — the more specific it is to you where you are in life at that moment, the more effective it’s going to be.”
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“The nature of [ayahuasca] vomiting is exceedingly purgative. It’s a really deep, neurologically induced deep vomit. You literally feel as if you have vomited everything you’ve eaten since birth. It’s like this mega-hurl.”
“Being in nature helps you connect to pacha mama [Mother Earth], and that way, she gets to know you better so you can have a much more powerful healing experience. To make the most of your experience, first you need to have your mind clear enough, to have love and peace, to give love to nature, and to give love back to the medicine.”
“There’s a very common misunderstanding among many people: ayahuasca isn’t a drug — it’s a very strong medicine that needs to be taken responsibly. It can fix or relieve so many illnesses. That said, it’s not a quick fix either. It has to be a slow, gradual, and deliberate process. Most people I treated took ayahuasca dozens of times over a period of time to heal. But many don’t have patience for that. They want to go on a holiday and be fixed. But patience is the very core of ayahuasca.”
“We are told that one ayahuasca journey will cure your PTSD, or three ketamine sessions will cure your depression. But the reality is that our interactions with these substances are just the beginning of the journey — a journey of learning to face yourself, to step into those liminal spaces of discomfort or darkness you’ll be confronted with throughout your life, and to love and care for yourself and the world around you.”
