Hello.
I recently got back from a trip to Peru where I took part in 8 Ayahuasca ceremonies, one with a Shipibo curandero in Taray, Pisaq and the remaining 7 in the jungle in Iquitos.
Just so you know where I stand; my experience with previous psychedelics/drugs that produce visions or hallucinations are dmt, changa, mescaline hcl, san pedro, 4-aco-dmt, mushrooms, ketamine, 2ce and 2cb.
(Corr I'd love to write that on my cv)
The first ceremony in Taray, Pisaq was a bit of a dodgy adventure.
A friend and I went to Pisaq from Cusco in search of Mellisa Wasi (an Ayahuasca ceremony/retreat house). However, upon arriving in Pisaq, we found Mellisa Wasi very difficult to find; people had either never heard of it, or were giving us different directions.
Upon walking up a rather vertically inclined hill, to which we had been told was the route to Mellisa Wasi, we both felt the effects of the altitude, became breathless, and sat down.
After sitting for a few minutes we saw a Peruvian man strolling past who, after asking for directions, stopped and tried to help us with his very limited understanding of English. It was moments later that a white woman came towards us as well, explained she was his wife.
They both went on to explain that Mellisa Wasi does not provide authentic Ayahuasca ceremonies for several reasons including that the host is not a curandero/shaman (and doesn't claim to be either), there are too many people in the ceremonies so the host cannot attend to each person individually if they need assistance and the music he plays on guitar is not traditional for ceremonies.
The Peruvian man's wife then explained that they do Ayahuasca ceremonies and that her husband is a Shipibo curandero. At this point I became both more interested and sceptical.
Anyway, they gave us a bit more info, we thank them for their time and take their contact details and address.
At this point I'm thinking this is too good to be true; things going through my head like 'this is fate' and 'this is meant to be' etc.
But also I'm thinking 'these guys could be conning us, battling against the other Ayahuasca competition'.
Later on whilst drinking tea in a cafe, I fell asleep as effects of travelling, fasting for Ayahuasca and the previous night's Pardo's chicken (which gave me a bad stomach and diarrhoea) had gotten to me. Upon awakening, a lady in her 30s entered the room my friend and I were in.
We greeted each other then began talking. Eventually she mentioned about her studies of Spanish language and then medicinal properties of plants. Then she said the magic word and conversation got a bit deeper.
I told her why we were in Pisaq, my concerns for Mellisa Wasi and the couple we had met earlier in the day. She more or less confirmed and said exactly the same thing that the couple told us about Mellisa Wasi. She also said that you may get visions, but the experience will not be the same. Also, she briefly mentioned that her friend had been with the couple before and the ceremony was very beneficial and most definitely worth it.
After some debate, we decided to go to the couple's house. Time was running short, it was about 6.30pm, Mellisa Wasi was booked for 7.00pm, and we only had a general idea of the direction of this couple's house. Also it was getting quite dark.
With the idea in my head that all Ayahuasca sessions started around 7.00pm, we got on the move. We knew that the house was somewhere in Taray, just past Pisaq.
We walked to find a motor-taxi and got one as close to the destination as we could describe to the driver. Basically we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere, down through grassy, junglish paths in pitch black.
We had no idea where we were or where this house was, and the nearest town was about a 20 minute walk through what seemed like endless dark pathways.
Anyway, we started dodgily walking up dark driveways towards various lodges and houses, all of which were dead silent. One house freaked me out a bit, there was no-one home, but I could hear someone speaking quickly from the bushes, also I could see movement from on top one of the hills surrounding the houses. The whole experience was quite daunting and to be honest I was ready to give up over fears of being mugged.
However, my friend was eager to carry on and keep looking, knocking on doors with no answer and heading further into the darkness. This was all complete with the full sounds of the night time insects and the bright moon keeping us company. So I told myself it would all be worth it and nothing bad had happened, and basically that my fears were made up and meant nothing.
Eventually we found a tipi. My friend stuck his head inside and saw a woman doing yoga. He asked her if she knew where this shipibo curandero's house was. She didn't know, but was very friendly and took us to a nearby lodge which stunk of weed, and then into the kitchen where there were about 5 or 6 men hotboxing what seemed like the whole house.
They told us the house was a few houses down, up a pathway near a rock path, or something like that.
So again we set off, this time the same thing ensured; we couldn't find the house, there was no-one about and it was now around 8.00pm. So eventually, we called it a day and started heading back to Taray.
On the way back we saw a man walking towards us and then went straight past us. My friend then stopped him and we asked for directions. The guy was American, lived nearby and said he knows the couple and where their house is.
He told us the correct way to go, that there would be a gate in front of the house, and behind the gate would be a dog that would bark at us.
We followed the route up towards a house with a gate, and sure enough a dog which barked at us.
The dog spooked us a bit but we made it to the front door, knocked, and after hearing some talking and also wondering if the dog was gonna bite me while I stood waiting, a little girl, about 7, answered the door.
We asked if her parents were home, she called out, and moments later the shipibo curandero's wife we met earlier came to the door.
We asked to have a chat about the Ayahuasca ceremonies, to which she was very welcoming and invited us straight in, through her home, into a back room where I saw the curandero, half laying on a mattress on the floor, rolling a joint.
He greeted us, moved across the room to sit down, and told us to sit and get comfortable.
The room had around 5 pieces of painted Ayahuasca inspired artwork, each about 7ft tall, and one was being painted as we sat there. There were all sorts of strange things in the room, most of which I can't even remember, I'm still kicking myself now for taking no photos, but I thought it would have been disrespectful and didn't really want to ask in case it gave bad vibes towards the ceremony.
After a 20 minute chat with the curandero and his wife, we made an agreement to have our first Ayahuasca ceremony, which started at 9.00pm, just over 45 minutes away.
There was one guy from New Zealand staying with the family for a month, who was very pleased to see us as we spoke English. The curandero barely spoke any, and his wife's was limited (I believed her to be French-Canadian as she had a French accent and wore a Canadian emblem on her jacket).
To cut to the chase, the curandero had his brother come in, set up 3 mattresses against the wall complete with 3 buckets sat at the end of each one.
After the curandero had smoked about 4 cigarettes, a couple of mapachos and a hash joint, he was ready to start the ceremony.
Each of us sat on our mattress, awaiting our first dose of Ayahuasca.
The second the curandero turned the lights out, I felt like I was dreaming. Everything was pitch black, the only thing I could see was some of the curanderos face and clothing, lit up by his joint in the dark room.
At this point everything started to hit me; where I was, what I was doing, the journey here etc; the whole thing was completely surreal.
After pouring some Ayahuasca from a 'San Luis' water bottle into a small cup, my friend was instructed to go up and drink. I watched him chug it down and knew I was next.
I was then called up and I gulped it down, the taste wasn't that bad (however I found the more you drink it, the worse it gets).
The guy from New Zealand drunk his cup.
We then sat and meditated whilst being serenaded by the curandero who sang a variety of different icaros, with a variety of different instruments. Occasionally his brother would join in, either singing or playing an instrument.
For the first 2-3 hours I felt practically nothing, but heard my friend and the New Zealand guy throwing up either side of me.
At one point my meditation felt deep and I felt an electrifying energy surrounding me, I could partly see this, but it wasn't full on hd visions as I was used to with pure DMT. I felt like if I could focus on this, I would go deeper. I could already feel myself being lost in the electric energy. However, it soon faded.
After about 3 hours I felt a sickness coming on. My thoughts were 'oh god not now, I've done my time, it's too late to be sick, I should be sick after 30-60 minutes not 3 hours.' My body refused to listen and I sat up towards the bucket and threw up like I'd never before in my life.
At this time the curandero was changing instruments, or taking a quick break before his next icaro, however, upon hearing my gargling, he quickly starting singing again. This really didn't feel like being sick, it felt like something was being released; the consistency was even throughout. It had a distinctive flow. That, combined with the Icaro, gave it meaning, like I was cleansing myself.
About 30 minutes after being sick I started getting a headache, feeling generally quite bad. I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. I tried, but the curandero was still bellowing out icaros louder than ever at about 2.00am. I wondered if his neighbours ever complained: "would you keep those bladdy icaros down it is 2 o clock in the morning!!! Bladdy curanderos enlightening people at all hours of the night I'm sick of it!"
Anyway, after laying there, beginning to hate any sound as it made my headache much worse, I started really listening to the music, and one piece has stuck with me since then; a fast-paced Amazonian jungle flute piece, which I have been trying to track down online ever since.
I don't remember falling asleep, but I woke up to find that our buckets had been removed and the pain in my stomach from the diarrhoea chicken had gone.
The curandero and his wife came in to ask us about the ceremony, took payment, about £45, told us we could make food and have drinks in the kitchen, and then leave when we wanted. They then left for Pisaq to go shopping.
So that's it.
Sorry if it's a bit long and I'm not sure anyone's actually going to read all of it. I could have been much more detailed but I think I included all of the most important bits.
My general thoughts were that the Ayahuasca was not very strong, but could be beneficial over several ceremonies, combined with meditation and good diet. Perhaps I was resisting mentally?
The ceremony I craved was an ego-death, drifting deep into the void to view myself and my world from the perspective of the universe, meet mother earth and have her tear me open and expose me for what I truly am, then piece me back together, reborn and fresh, a blank slate... or something like that.
I will write about my remaining 7 ceremonies in Iquitos if there is at least one good response to this thread, otherwise I will keep them to myself
Everything I say is actually false and I'm not real.