Ayahuasca, the liana of the Soul
Ayahuasca, also known as Yagé or Caapi, is a hallucinogenic drink originating from the Amazon basin, made from the decoction of two plants with complementary active principles: the Banisteriopsis Caapi liana, and the leaves of a shrub of the coffee family, Psychotria Veridis.
Its exact composition as well as its psychoactive principles have remained an enigma for researchers for decades, alternately called telepathine, then banisterine, the alkaloid responsible for the visions that Ayahuasca provides, is today identified under the barbaric name of Dimethyl tryptamine (DMT), a molecule which is similar to serotonin, one of the main neurotransmitters of the human central nervous system, and which, by substituting for it, produces brilliant “hallucinations. However, DMT is inactive when ingested, as it is destroyed during intestinal transfer by the action of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO).
The Indians have overcome this problem by combining, in their recipes, the leaf of psychotria veridis, rich in DMT, with the Banisteriopsis Caapi liana which contains Harmines and Harmaline, powerful MAO inhibiting principles. The discovery of these enzymes and their inhibitors (MAOIs) in the 1950s allowed Western medicine to develop new classes of antidepressants. The hallucinogenic drink and the liana share the same name: Ayahuasca, liana of the Soul or liana of the dead in the Quechua language, because it is this liana which, according to tradition, lavishes its teachings on the drinker, making visible to his or her eyes a hidden world that is indissociable from the material world, a “parallel space” in which the Ayahuasquero shaman can have a tangible effect on reality, whether it’s a question of healing, finding lost livestock, waging war or other pragmatic goals.
The growing interest of pharmaceutical laboratories and other industrialists in the resources of the Amazon rainforest is leading to a patent war on plants and their uses, from which the people who live there are often excluded. A legal battle was recently waged in the commercial court of Washington, USA, between Amerindian tribes for whom Ayahuasca is a sacred plant, and Mr. Loren Miller, director of a private laboratory, who had registered a patent on the plant and the rights for its exploitation. The representatives of the Amerindians who came to Washington to ask for the withdrawal of the patent, won their case.
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*Ayahuasca means in Quechua: Liane of the dead, or Liane of the soul.
Text & images © Hervé Merliac/Kaleidos-images – All rights reserved
Water transportation
Pucallpa, Peru. Running water is a luxury that the inhabitants of the peripheral districts ignore. Two children carrying buckets of water.
Tarapoto region
Tarapoto, Peru. Landscape of the Tarapoto region.
Sunset
Tarapoto, Peru. Landscape of the Tarapoto region.
Main street
San Francisco, Pucallpa region, Peru. Large street of a village of Shipivo Indians.
A musical vigil
Tarapoto, Peru. A musical vigil, brings together adults and children, in a family of this city of average altitude in the Amazon.
Painting by Pablo César Amaringo
Pucallpa, Pérou. Painting by Pablo C. Amaringo. Visions of Ayahuasca: “Las Tingunas”.
Sale of medicinal plants
Pucallpa, Peru. A curandera (healer) of the Indian community Shipibo, smoking a mapacho (local tobacco cigarette).
Bénédiction d’un nouvel hôtel
Pucallpa, Pérou. Cérémonie pour la bénédiction d’un nouvel hôtel, par le chamane de la communauté Shipivo (Guillermo Arrevalo).
Dr. Jacques Mabit
Tarapoto, Peru. Doctor Jacques Mabit, a French doctor installed in Peru, heads the Takiwasi Center dedicated to the study of traditional medicines and the rehabilitation of drug addiction by treatment with Ayahuasca.
Dr. Jacques Mabit
Tarapoto, Peru. Doctor Jacques Mabit, a French doctor installed in Peru, heads the Takiwasi Center dedicated to the study of traditional medicines and the rehabilitation of drug addiction by treatment with Ayahuasca.
Dr. Jacques Mabit
Tarapoto, Peru. Doctor Jacques Mabit, a French doctor installed in Peru, heads the Takiwasi Center dedicated to the study of traditional medicines and the rehabilitation of drug addiction by treatment with Ayahuasca.
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Ceremony for the blessing of a new hotel, by the Shaman of the Comunatée Shipivo (Guillermo Arrevalo).
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Ceremony for the blessing of a new hotel, by the Shaman of the Comunatée Shipivo (Guillermo Arrevalo).
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Shaman Shipivo Guillermo Arrevalo and his patients during a “Currenderismo” session with Ayahuasca.
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Shaman Shipivo Guillermo Arrevalo and his patients during a “Currenderismo” session with Ayahuasca.
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Shaman Shipivo Don Guillermo Arrevalo, revealed by his ceremonial outfit, is pretended to drink the enteheogenic drink to the courtyard of his daily “Curanderismo” session (healing).
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Shaman Shipibo, Don Guillermo Arevalo poses with a foot in Ayahuasca in front of his house on the outskirts of Pucallpa.
Guillermo Arrevalo
Pucallpa, Peru. Shaman Shipibo, Don Guillermo Arevalo poses with a foot in Ayahuasca in front of his house on the outskirts of Pucallpa.
Défibrage des lianes
Tarapoto, Pérou. Préparation de l’Ayahuasca. Défibrage des tronçons de liane.
Tronçons de lianes
Tarapoto, Pérou. Centre de Takiwasi. Fagot de tronçons de liane Banisteriopsis Caapi destiné à la préparation du breuvage cérémoniel.
Jeune curandero
Etat de San Martin, Pérou. Orlando, un jeune curandero de Tarapoto, replante au pied d’un arbre, une bouture de Banisteriopsis Caapi. (Ayahuasca).
Oja de sangre
Tarapoto, Pérou. Centre Takiwasi. Oja de sangre ou Ayar Panga. Liane à la sève, couleur sang, dont le jus puissament émetique, est utilisée lors des purges qui précèdent la prise d’Ayahuasca.
Centre Takiwasi
Tronçon de liane pour l’Ayahuasca
Tarapoto, Pérou. Centre Takiwasi. Tronçon de liane Banisteriopsis Caapi (Ayahuasca).
Dr Jacques Mabit et Dyonisio Santos
Tarapoto, Pérou. Centre Takiwasi. Le Dr Jacques Mabit (à droite) et Dyonisio Santos.
