Lima, Peru

[kangarunner]

I did Ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle near Pucullpa, Peru. The Shaman only spoke Spanish but he was authentic. I have also done San Pedro. San Pedro can easily last over 12 to 16 hours. Ayahuasca will last at most 5 hours.

Thanks...And which one would you recommend?

[MrPeabody]

Huacachina is another tourist trap - you want tranquility and miles of beaches - you need to go further south - Cayma, Mollendo and Ilo for the win.

Cusco and Iquitos have "healing centers" where you can do ayahuasca ceremonies. I thought about doing one. The total experience of enduring a complete ayahuasca ceremony looks to be very intense. I was looking at some sites for healing centers and they also offer San Pedro which is from a cactus. It's a psychedelic similar to LSD but from what I read the "trip" lasts much longer.

I did a lot of reading and watched some youtube videos on Ayahuasca and San Pedro. Some said that in the case you have a bad trip, you have to ride it out. I read one part that said "death would seem like a gift" in some cases. Wow...scary.

But from what I've read ayahuasca and psychedelics activate parts of your brain that can have positive mental health effects. Maybe I will go ahead and do one. They are definitely asking for a lot of money to do it though.

Obviously ayahuasca is an ancient and sacred ceremony by the Incas I think? But now the people in Peru are looking to make money off the foreigners. I wonder how many of all the participants in Ayahuasca are actually native Peruvian people.

In 2018, there was guy from Canada who traveled to Peru to learn about Ayahuasca and then was lynched by locals in Peru because he was accused of murdering an old woman. I watched a cell phone video showing them dragging him through the mud and him yelling please stop.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... lling.html

I did Ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle near Pucullpa, Peru. The Shaman only spoke Spanish but he was authentic. I have also done San Pedro. San Pedro can easily last over 12 to 16 hours. Ayahuasca will last at most 5 hours. For San Pedro, go to Cusco.

[kangarunner]

Ayahuasca is a sacred ceremony of the Amazonian tribes.

If the retreats that you've looked into are charging an extortionate amount of money for their Ayahuasca ceremonies, then they sound like a ripoff. I myself paid 70 euros for an Ayahuasca ceremony under the guidance of a shaman who had actually studied that sort of stuff with a tribe in Colombia and I had the deepest psychedelic trip that I've ever experienced. You don't need to pay a lot of money to take Ayahuasca. Those expensive retreats are just a ripoff for tourists. You can get the real deal for much cheaper.

My own Ayahuasca trip showed me the duality of all created existence (as opposed to the fundamental unity of the Transcendental Absolute) which I fully experienced in the flesh. While in a trance state, I experienced an ongoing alternation between absolute bliss and absolute suffering and terror (one moment I'd be feeling divine light enveloping me and filling me with unbelievable euphoria and serenity and the next moment I'd feel myself suffocating and filled with absolute panic and my soul writhing with forms of pain that I never knew even existed). This would continue until I realized that pleasure and pain are just two sides of the same coin and then I experienced a deeper, more fundamental level of reality that was completely unitary and pervaded only by bliss - a higher level outside of this created reality.

My Ayahuasca trip included considerable pain and terror but it was worth it for the greater growth which resulted from the whole experience. When the shaman gave me the brew, I asked to see what reality is and that is what I was shown. If you want to take Ayahuasca, it's best to approach it with the mindset of a warrior. The experience might knock the hell out of you but you just have to take it and ride it out.

Thanks for the detail on your experience. Would you say that your personality changed at all or you felt more uplifted mentally after? Do you think Ayahuasca has long term positive effects mentally?

[Lucas88]

Thanks for the detail on your experience. Would you say that your personality changed at all or you felt more uplifted mentally after? Do you think Ayahuasca has long term positive effects mentally?

When I took Ayahuasca in 2018, I was already in a good mental state and had minimal mental issues, so I can't really say that it resulted in a complete psychological transformation.

However, during the following week after taking Ayahuasca, I experienced a type of higher mental functioning in which my intelligence and verbal fluency were considerably enhanced and my thoughts were extremely lucid. So I think that it definitely had a positive effect even if only temporary.

[Pixel--Dude]

Thanks for the detail on your experience. Would you say that your personality changed at all or you felt more uplifted mentally after? Do you think Ayahuasca has long term positive effects mentally?

When I took Ayahuasca in 2018, I was already in a good mental state and had minimal mental issues, so I can't really say that it resulted in a complete psychological transformation.

However, during the following week after taking Ayahuasca, I experienced a type of higher mental functioning in which my intelligence and verbal fluency were considerably enhanced and my thoughts were extremely lucid. So I think that it definitely had a positive effect even if only temporary.

I was fascinated by your Ayahuasca experience when you told me about it. Both the experience and the events that lead up to it were of great interest to me. Especially since I see entheogenic plants a gift from nature which can offer us answers to deep existential questions. The added fact that Gaia/Pachamama called on you personally is indeed a great honour.

[Lucas88]

I was fascinated by your Ayahuasca experience when you told me about it. Both the experience and the events that lead up to it were of great interest to me. Especially since I see entheogenic plants a gift from nature which can offer us answers to deep existential questions. The added fact that Gaia/Pachamama called on you personally is indeed a great honour.

Yes, the reason why I took Ayahuasca in the first place was because I received a mysterious invite from the Pachamama.

One night, out of the blue, I got a text message from my wrestling instructor who explained to me that he had taken Ayahuasca and thereby become acquainted with the Pachamama (the Andean Earth goddess) and that she invited me to become acquainted with her too.

I was taken aback by the message but then asked for clarification. "Do you mean that in the midst of an Ayahuasca trip the goddess told you to invite me to take Ayahuasca too?" I inquired. "Yes, that's exactly what I mean!" responded my wrestling instructor.

The strange thing was that I hardly knew the guy at that time, having only just recently begun training at the club, yet he mysteriously received a message telling him to invite me to the next Ayahuasca ceremony.

Already a somewhat experienced psychonaut, I decided to take up the offer and shortly thereafter participated in my first and only Ayahuasca ceremony and had the deepest experience of my life.

[MrPeabody]

I did Ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle near Pucullpa, Peru. The Shaman only spoke Spanish but he was authentic. I have also done San Pedro. San Pedro can easily last over 12 to 16 hours. Ayahuasca will last at most 5 hours.

Thanks...And which one would you recommend?

For San Pedro (Huachuma) , I have heard good things about the below place, and he has written a book.

https://www.huachumawasi.com/


I actually recommend trying to do ayahuasca ceremonies in Mexico. They are cheaper. Go on facebook and find something close to you. You usually can find someone who speaks English.

[kangarunner]

For San Pedro (Huachuma) , I have heard good things about the below place, and he has written a book.

https://www.huachumawasi.com/


I actually recommend trying to do ayahuasca ceremonies in Mexico. They are cheaper. Go on facebook and find something close to you. You usually can find someone who speaks English.

Thanks for that link. I appreciate it. I think at this point with all the shit in my head, I'll have to try it.....(hopefully)

[kangarunner]

I'm probably going back into Peru just to do San Pedro. Psychedelic therapy is the way of the future for healing...

https://jerrytoth.medium.com/ayahuasca- ... d3effc423d

Ayahuasca and San Pedro are both extremely powerful tools with the potential to trigger a positive transformation the likes of which is difficult to achieve through other means. But they both work quite differently. The answer to the question posed in the title is this: it depends on the person.

I have come to appreciate the similarities and differences of both of these teachers. To some degree, I credit each with saving my life, and the gratitude I feel for them is roughly equal. Therefore, this is meant to be an unbiased look at how Ayahuasca and San Pedro each work. My hope is that this article will be of assistance to someone who is exploring the possibility of experiencing one or the other.

First, a few disclaimers. The exact nature of the psychedelic experience cannot be accurately translated into words. We are all forced to use metaphors when attempting to describe an experience to someone who is outside of our own head. All I can do is try to make my metaphors as useful as possible.

Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) vines ready for maceration.

The second disclaimer is subjectivity. I will be drawing distinctions between the type and quality of experiences that Ayahuasca and San Pedro create when consumed by people. Undoubtedly, these distinctions are colored by my own personal experiences and are therefore subjective. Ultimately you can’t take anyone else’s word for how you will experience anything in this life, whether it’s Ayahuasca or a work of art or the taste of asparagus.

Lastly, as is the case with all psychedelic tools, “set and setting” strongly influence the Ayahuasca and San Pedro experiences. I would also like to add a third and fourth variable into this equation, which is the quality and dosage of the medicine itself.

In this sense, San Pedro is inherently more predictable than Ayahuasca because it only involves one plant. The typical Ayahuasca brew involves at least two psychoactive plants, if not three or four — each of which exert a different range of effects. San Pedro is harder to screw up and requires less experience to make. Ayahuasca, on the other hand, should only be prepared by someone who is properly trained.