Introduction

Ayahuasca is a Quechua word meaning “vine of the souls” or “vine of the dead.” Ayahuasca is also known by different names like yagé, caapi, natem, mihi, dapa, Daime or hoasca. The psychoactive beverage has been used traditionally for medico-religious purposes in shamanic rituals by at least 72 indigenous groups of the Upper Amazon (Luna 1986). It is not only traditional indigenous cultures in the Amazon and Orinoco basin of South America that have used ayahuasca for divination and healing; from the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of religious (Santo Daime, União da Vegetal, Barquinha) and other cultural expressions have integrated this potion into different cultural settings, including psychotherapeutic treatment. “Healing” is one of the most prominent concepts and motives present in all kinds of different uses of ayahuasca. Participants considered nearly all kinds of ayahuasca rituals to be “healing rituals” (Winkelman 2005; Fotiou 2012; Schmid et al. 2010). Ayahuasca is said to have healing powers and is seen as a kind of medicine, for some even as a panacea.

Ayahuasca is made of a vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), an monoamino-oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), which is usually cooked together with a dimethyltryptamine (DMT) containing plant (Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana). In few cases (as I have observed in Europe), ayahuasca is also available without a DMT-containing substance.

From 2002 to 2010, I studied healing experiences and therapeutic effects of ayahuasca in Europe. This included Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. I conducted two semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 people who had been diagnosed with a disorder by a medical professional, about therapeutic effects of ayahuasca regarding their personal experience. These 15 patients related 25 different complaints, and spoke of their first-hand experience attending diverse ayahuasca rituals. Three major settings of ayahuasca rituals in Europe could be found:

Most common are Santo Daime rituals from the Centro Eclético de Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu Serra (CEFLURIS) branch. Santo Daime was founded in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre in the 1930s and became a small but worldwide movement in the 1990s. Santo Daime is a syncretic spiritual practice that incorporates elements of different religious or spiritual traditions, such as folk Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritism, African religiosity, and South American shamanism. Santo Daime rituals are usually held in churches and are strongly influenced by Catholic representations. Classical Santo Daime practice features three main kinds of rituals: Hinários (hymnals), concentrações (concentrations) and curas (healing). Participants drink Daime (ayahuasca) as a sacrament in all types of rituals. Ceremonies, which are called trabalhos (works), typically last for several hours. Hinários involve dancing with special formalized dances called bailados, and singing hymns. Those rituals may last up to 12 h. Concentrações are silent, seated meditations, which include periods where sequences of hymns are also sung. Although, according to the group itself, all Santo Daime rituals have “healing effects,” the curas are particularly devoted to healing. In these rituals, participants sit in chairs while singing special hymns for healing. These rituals sometimes include healing mediumship sessions or the use of other special healing practices.

Neoshamanic ayahuasca ceremonies with a great variety of indigenous elements (including sweat lodges) are also very common. Rituals in Europe usually take place either in a tent, a yurt or in private homes, hotel rooms, or yoga studios. Participants sit in semi-darkness at night. At times they rest on blankets or sleeping bags or they sit on the floor or on chairs depending on instructions of the guide and the location of the ritual. Sometimes a “real” shaman from South America guides these rituals, other times these are conducted by European apprentices of a “traditional” shaman or by a self-proclaimed European shaman or designated “shamanic practitioners.”

Individual “ritual experiments,” described as “do-it-yourself rituals” by Adelaars (2006), were also observed in Europe. For the purpose of this study, I classify a wide category of activities under this label. “Self-made” rituals are rituals that an individual or a very small group of users created on their own. Such “rituals” are very diversified; they do not have a firm shape or delineated philosophical commitments. Sometimes these activities are intended as “no rituals,” which actively seek to have no formal rules and norms. In very few cases people cook their own brew, for example, buying “ayahuasca kits” from online markets.

Although the spiritual or religious orientation of these rituals is very different, “healing experiences” could occur within all three settings. This study did not intend to do a statistical analyses or scientific pharmaceutical tests of the effectiveness of ayahuasca in treating special diseases. It was designed as a qualitative analysis of subjective reports of (self-) treatment with ayahuasca in diverse forms of “healing rituals.” Before describing the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca to different diseases, I want to clarify some concepts and terms about healing and curing.

Cultural and Individual Conceptualizations of Healing

Although everybody uses the word “healing,” it is often not really clear what is meant by it. Scientifically, there is no consistent definition of healing, since there are a lot of divergent concepts in the different disciplines, varying from strict medical definitions (curing and health) to religious ideas of healing and salvation. The word “healing” is used in very different contexts. In medical or psychological contexts the term “healing” is usually avoided because of its ambivalent and sometimes religious nature. In the context of ayahuasca rituals, healing does not only mean convalescence but also coping in general. This means not only coping with the illness itself, but coping with all kind of difficulties and challenges in life (such as lack of money, an unsatisfying job, personal relationships, etc.). Often the term “healing” is used to describe a kind of problem solving, including awareness or sudden revelations or insights. For many participants in ayahuasca rituals, healing is not a state, but is understood as a process of learning about coping with life in general and becoming psychologically, or even spiritually, mature. It is believed that many diseases in the West come from a spiritual disconnect from other human beings or from nature in general. These findings are similar to those of Fotiou (2012).

In accord with Csordas (2002), I define four healing categories: (a) healing as solving problems or curing symptoms of a disease, (b) healing as salvation, (c) healing as a process of inner growth or psychological maturation, and (d) healing as enlightenment or perception of the truth. This is a much broader view of healing than the strictly scientific one. This can also lead to cases such as that of one patient who firmly believed that he was healed from his disease in a spiritual way in an ayahuasca ritual, but indeed died a few weeks later because of his age.

Medicine, Salutogenesis and Placebo Effects

In many European ayahuasca rituals, the ayahuasca tea is called “medicine.” In the tribal societies where these plants and plant preparations are used, they are regarded as embodiments of conscious intelligent beings that only become visible in special states of consciousness, and who can function as spiritual teachers and sources of healing power and knowledge. The plants are referred to as “medicines,” a term that means more than a drug: something like a healing power or energy that can be associated with a plant, a person, an animal, even a place. They are also referred to as “plant teachers” and there are still extant traditions of many-years-long initiations and trainings in the use of these medicines (Metzner et al. 1999, 2006, p. 3).

For many people in Europe, ayahuasca is such a medicine, even “the greatest medicine on Earth” (Adelaars et al. 2006). These ideas fit in conceptualizations of “salutogenesis” (Antonovsky 1987). Salutogenesis can be translated as “the development of health.” It describes an approach focusing on factors that support human health and well being, rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis). More specifically, the salutogenic approach is concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping. Many scientific studies have since worked out the salutogenic perspective. This approach is, in my opinion, the best way of dealing with successful outcomes of ayahuasca use or therapeutic effects of ayahuasca.

In the context of healing and therapy, many aspects of the performance of an ayahuasca ritual, or even some properties of the substance, may induce positive placebo effects. Many people regard placebo effects as the absence of effects. This is not true. Placebo effect can lead to real biochemical changes in the body and brain. Moerman (2002) calls this effect “meaning response”: a bodily response to meaning. A healer or a healing ritual may initiate this effect. Meaning response is defined as the physiological or psychological effect of meaning attribution in the treatment of an illness. This placebo response is based on the release of various chemicals by the brain in response to human expectations, having a positive outcome on a disease (Moerman 2002, p. 14ff).

Description of Study Participants

Seven patients were members of the Santo Daime church, seven consumed ayahuasca mostly in shamanic rituals, and one person had made a do-it-yourself ritual at home. The frequency of rituals attended extended from one time to over a hundred times. The occurrence of a healing experience was not related to the frequency of rituals. The study comprised eight women and seven men; ages ranged from 27 to 61 (mean average 44.5 years).

Ayahuasca rituals were sought by nine persons as an alternative to treat their illness; they were looking for a more holistic or spiritual kind of approach (“combining body, mind, and soul”), often due to a lack of confidence in conventional biomedicine. Alternative methods such as homeopathy, diets, acupuncture, or even spiritual treatments by healers or psychics were used by 80 % of the sample. There were four people who declared that they had given up biomedicine after having exhausted all available treatments, and who considered ayahuasca therapy to be their “last chance.” The other six persons had already been in contact with ayahuasca before they became ill (mostly Santo Daime members). More details about the sample are described in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 Profession, age, context and reported diagnosis in the sample N = 15
Full size table

Therapeutic Effects of Ayahuasca

All participants of the study declared that ayahuasca had positive effects on them. None of them regarded ayahuasca rituals as worthless, negative or harmful. The healing effects of ayahuasca were not attributed to the pharmacological nature of the substance, but to its spiritual nature and the role of ritual, including songs, aromatherapy, and the performances of the healers. I found patients using ayahuasca to treat all kinds of different diseases (as listed in Table 5.2).

Table 5.2 Frequency of reported illnesses in the sample of N = 15
Full size table

To evaluate therapeutic effects, I have used medical terms like recovery or remission. It should be noted that this study represented a qualitative analysis of subjective statements, and not of objective tests.

All complaints resolved for five people who said that they were completely recovered. Six people made reports of lasting decline of their observed symptoms. Temporary remission of the symptoms of two people was reported for about a week, and ayahuasca therapy seemed to have no effect on six complaints. One case was hard to appraise because the person reported a “remission,” but had never been to a doctor to confirm this.

Case Studies

In the following section, I will give a short description of the complaints and the changes attributed to ayahuasca as shown in Table 5.3.

Table 5.3 Course of illness and subjective experienced effects of ayahuasca on state of health
Full size table
  1. 1.

    Cured, complete recovery. Werner Harken suffered from a hepatitis C he had got while experimenting with different drugs, including heroin. For years he had visited his doctor routinely, once or twice a year. Two weeks after an ayahuasca healing ritual in which he had intensively focused on the curing of his hepatitis, the doctor told him he could not find any signs of this disease in his tests. So the doctor tested him again and again over a period of 3 years until he came to the conclusion that he had had a spontaneous remission and was cured. Werner H. said he does not really know what happened, but he thinks it is an “interesting” coincidence because he had never experienced such an intensive healing ritual (Santo Daime) before or after.

    Patricia Klaase had a healing experience while doing a neo-shamanic ayahuasca ritual. She “saw” the spirit of a spider showing her how to “weave” her detached retina. Before this ritual, Patricia K. had laser surgeries almost every year, but since then she never again needed one. Also, in another ritual, when she had pain in her shoulder (shoulder-arm-syndrome) and “worked with the energies,” she recognized that the problem was gone and did not return afterwards.

    Sandra List told me that she was diagnosed with a tumor. She then took ayahuasca regularly and intensively and, after 4 or 5 months, the tumor was not found anymore. The scheduled surgery was not necessary any more and she was told she had a spontaneous remission.

    Ingrid Delf had heard the sentence “you are healed” during a Santo Daime work. She explained that in her opinion, when this happened initially, her soul was healed on a spiritual dimension. She said that it took about 6 months for her physical body to follow. Therefore, it was about half a year after the ritual that she was completely pain-free.

    Egon Dauner’s symptoms were completely gone after taking ayahuasca and since then he always takes a little bit to cure such symptoms.

  2. 2.

    Lasting decline of symptoms. Simon Virnen was an athletic person who complained about a pain in his shoulder for several weeks. Despite a few visits to his doctor, nothing seemed to give him long-term relief. After a few days, the pain always returned. After a healing ritual with ayahuasca, the pain in his shoulder was completely gone. He still suffered from stiffness in his shoulder, but this did not bother him to a great degree.

    Isabell Maier had seen the ghost of a deceased relative who told her what to eat to avoid food incompatibility. While doing this diet, she did not have allergic reactions any more.

    Andreas Weller recognized in a ritual that he had lived the alcoholism of his dead father. He realized that he had unconsciously imitated his fathers drinking and his aggression. Since then, he says he is able to drink alcohol in a controlled way, much less than before and without having symptoms of craving.

    Annemarie Müller’s traumatic tinnitus declined after a Santo Daime healing ritual. The tinnitus was so distressing before that she nearly committed suicide. She still suffers from a hearing loss, but the sound effects were gone.

  3. 3.

    Remission. Egon Dauner and Tobias Doradi had remission of their asthmatic complaints for about 7 days. The week following a ritual, they did not need to take their usual medications.

  4. 4.

    No effect. Werner Harken said that in some rituals, he had a feeling that ayahuasca opened his crown chakra and relieved his headaches. However, sometimes the headaches came back right after the ritual. He often experienced an overall positive effect, but this effect seems not to be predictable. The migraine still exists, but there have been some positive changes, at least during a ritual.

    Georg Steinfeld had the feeling that the deficits in his visual fields decreased, but a perimeter test did not find any significant changes. The same goes for his PSA (prostate cancer indicator). It slightly got better, but was not statistically significant.

    Annemarie Müller did not notice any change of her pyelitis.

    Carla Boogen said ayahuasca did not change any symptoms of her fibromyalgia (chronic pain syndrome), but the rituals had helped her overcome problems concerning her psychotherapy. Psychotherapy helped her to cope with her illness, but she had a time when she was not willing to do psychotherapy; ayahuasca rituals helped her overcome these blocks.

    Andreas Wellers suffered from chronic pain in his knees. He confirmed Santo Daime had minimized the pain, but in the second interview, a year later, he said he had needed surgery. The surgery went better than expected and there were no complications.

  5. 5.

    Worse state of health. Nicole Braun was diagnosed having myomas (benign tumors in the uterus). She came in contact with Sandra List who talked about how she healed similar problems with ayahuasca. While doing these rituals, Nicole B. still went for gynecological tests. First, the tumor shrunk, but then a second and a third one grew, increasing in size. This resulted in intense pain. She thought that she should not combine the opiates she was taking with ayahuasca. Sitting in one ceremony (without taking ayahuasca) she heard the “voice of ayahuasca” telling her to have a hysterectomy, because that would be the only way for her to live. She proceeded to have the operation, and recovered rapidly. She thought this fast recovery was due to the influence of ayahuasca.

  6. 6.

    Not rateable. Claudia Dahm told about thinking and feeling that she had a remission of her tumors. She “saw” them shrinking and she felt better. But, because she did not want to go to a doctor, no one was able to confirm this.

Analysis of the Therapeutic Effects

The case studies show that there are interesting therapeutic effects in nearly all reported cases. In most cases, there is at least a minimal positive influence of ayahuasca. This does not mean that all people taking ayahuasca are cured; however, ayahuasca seems to affect the way of coping with a disease in a positive way. Coping includes all kinds of aspects of handling a disease: acceptance, positive way of life, relaxing, etc.

In addition, there is a tendency for people to use ayahuasca before an illness manifests itself in the body, for preventive purposes. Participants insisted on the idea that before problems manifest on the “material dimension,” they already exist on a “spiritual dimension.” Ayahuasca is a medium to work in these dimensions. By ingesting ayahuasca one can reach an emotional-spiritual dimension in which the “true” cause of an illness can be discovered and influenced, and the self-healing of the body can be activated. Many patients think illnesses emerge from stress; for example, repetitive negative thoughts. Negative thoughts (fear, anger, etc.) are seen as a magnet for “energy,” causing a chemical stress reaction in the body that can lead to diseases. This could lead to a homeostatic imbalance or an imbalance between body and soul. These aspects are often considered to be the true cause of an illness.

Participants perceive that ayahuasca use had an overall positive effect on their conduct of life and their well being in general. These profound and life-changing effects of ayahuasca were not related to specific diseases. They include:

  1. 1.

    a change in health behaviors, including diets, and restraining from alcohol or cigarettes;

  2. 2.

    enhanced clarity, recognition and sensibility;

  3. 3.

    increased physical well being;

  4. 4.

    energy, power, and strength;

  5. 5.

    better coping with problems and daily hassles;

  6. 6.

    confidence and tranquility;

  7. 7.

    a renewed sense of happiness, love, and joy;

  8. 8.

    a change of life orientation, sometimes including striving for non materialistic values; and

  9. 9.

    improved social competencies, including emotions like gratitude, forgiveness, and humility.

Discussing Therapeutic Effects in General

It is not that easy to scientifically evaluate the specific therapeutic effects of ayahuasca. There are various aspects to be considered, including: the pharmacological effects of the substance and its impact on the human body and mind (Riba and Barbanoj 1998, 2005; Riba et al. 2002, 2006); outcomes of the “setting variables,” credited to the circumstances of the ritual; and effects of the “set variables,” credited to the attitudes and beliefs and “inner work” of the individual. There are many factors contributing to the general outcome.

We also have to discuss the concept of spontaneous remission. Many medical conditions involve a natural course of better and worse periods, and this can make it difficult to recognize if a health upswing should be attributed to a drug effect or to the effect of a healing ceremony. Moreover, there are indeed spontaneous remissions due to factors we do not yet know. There are also problems differentiating ayahuasca effects from placebo effects. Calling a ritual a “healing ceremony” can activate “meaning responses.” Belief in the effectiveness of a treatment can have a positive influence on recovery as well. People do benefit from their belief to become cured by the ritual in itself or through the help of God, energies or spirits from another world. Also, we should not forget, subjective reports can be incorrect. Nearly all healing experiences of the participants happened in the past (from months to several years before the interviews) and therefore there could be false memory effects. Remembering is an active process of reconstructing, and thus the effects of healing rituals may have been falsely attributed; for example, they may have been overestimated or underestimated.

Last, but not least, there is the problem of scientific tests and statistical analyses not fitting so easily into the field of various ayahuasca experiences. Personal subjective reports, as shown in the case reports, sometimes speak languages other than “objective” scientific ones. What do we make of these persons having surgery, doing psychotherapy, and so on because ayahuasca told them to do so? Of course, an operation solves the problem; but should this effect only be credited to medicine? What would have happed if the patients had not been “told” in rituals to go to the doctors? Weeks later, they may have been in much worse condition and maybe then the operations would not have been so successful. As a psychologist, I am convinced that patients’ own ideas and theories are as relevant for their recovery from an illness as the “hard facts” provided by science. These subjective theories can be an essential contribution to the understanding of people`s thoughts and actions (Groeben and Scheele 2001; Currer and Stacey 1986). In the following section, I will discuss some selected theories regarding the curative power of ayahuasca.

Individual Understanding of Ayahuasca

All 15 participants regarded ayahuasca as a therapeutic tool or as a medicine in general. Only three persons reported a pharmacological understanding of ayahuasca’s effects, but in line with other often more spiritual concepts.

Unpleasant effects, like intense vomiting and diarrhea, were quite frequently interpreted as perceptible signs of a “healing process.” Hence, the experience of vomiting can be an important contribution to healing. It should be noted that subjective beliefs commonly are more salient for the individual than “objective” facts. The majority of participants believed that vomiting contributed to or initiated a healing process through “cleansing the body and soul” while supporting physical, emotional or spiritual healing.

Even in diverse European contexts, dietary rules were almost always associated with the use of ayahuasca. These taboos were perceived to not only avoid harm or risks, but were also a tool to intensify and benefit most from the experience.

One-third of the persons interviewed expressed a religious or spiritual understanding of ayahuasca related to different Christian and non-Christian discourses. They consider ayahuasca to be a “sacrament.” Another third of the participants expressed a magical or shamanic understanding of their ayahuasca experiences. The ingredients of the psychoactive tea were described as “spiritual healing plants” or “power plants.” Ayahuasca was referred to as the “mother of all plants” and as a “teacher.” Despite the cultural difference, an animistic worldview, quite common in traditional indigenous South American cultures, has been imported to European circles in a reinvented manner. This perspective was fully adopted by five participants, who considered ayahuasca a “spiritual being” with its own “personality”; others were ambivalently torn between science and shamanistic thinking.

It is common to call ayahuasca ceremonies not “rituals,” but “works.” Apart from expressing the origins of people in a society based on the concept of “work,” the term “works” here refers to the idea that the experience is not always fun, but often a hard and demanding experience. For these reasons, I propose adopting the term “transhedonistic understanding,” with “transhedonistic” signifying that ayahuasca may involve some kind of “having fun,” but also incorporates many rules, norms, and personal challenges. One participant made up the term “Gottesdienst-Arbeits-Party” that can be translated to “service-work-party.” These aspects are regularly linked to serious and often demanding topics, making it hard to compare this to the hedonistic use common with psychoactives like alcohol and cannabis. None of the participants reported using ayahuasca for recreational purposes only.

Beliefs About Etiology of Disease

I will refer to one interesting aspect of etiology: No one believes they succumb to a disease by chance. All of these 15 patients discovered personal reasons for having their diseases (internal attribution). They could refer to biomedical theories (infections, genetic dispositions, etc.) or psychosomatic theories (stress, traumas, and relationship between psyche and body) or environmental influences. Often, these known categories—that I will not consider further in this chapter—are mixed with other ideas, for example, “balance” or “energy” theories (five persons). To summarize the statements: “Being out of balance makes you sick”; “If body, mind, and soul are unbalanced, it is only a matter of time before you will fall ill”; “If your energy is blocked, you might get an ailment”; “Disturbances in the flow of energy might result in severe diseases.” Participants insisted on the idea that, before problems manifest on the material level, they already exist on a spiritual level. Being “out of balance” (not only physically but psychically and spiritually) is considered as a source of illness. The disease you might get appeared to be undetermined, but it seemed just a matter of time before you would get a disease. This belief is often combined with complex theories about the energy flow of the body. This could also include a lack of spirituality, or not being connected with Mother Nature. It is also said that constant repetition of negative thoughts or affirmations will not only make one unbalanced, but cause chemical reactions of the body that could make one sick. Therefore, people frequently tried to use ayahuasca before “an illness manifests itself in the body” (primary prevention).

About one-third of them had either magical ideas (six persons) or shamanic ideas (four persons). One idea presented was that if you had once the strong wish to die, you would get cancer; or, if you have problems with your sexuality, you might get a prostate cancer; or, if you “swallow” your anger or your negative emotions in general, you will get cancer in your stomach. There are also ideas of spirits sucking energy that might result in depression, or the loss of one’s soul, which also might precipitate depression.

Most of the persons interviewed also had the idea that their disease teaches them important things and gives them deep insights into their conduct in life, or that it is an initiation process. Not only can ayahuasca be a “teacher,” but also, so may the disease itself. Ayahuasca often helped “translating” the intent of an illness to the sick person. This means that the disease may not be purely negative, and may even be helpful; for example, to get a rest or timeout.

Beliefs About the Healing Mechanisms of Ayahuasca

Chemical or pharmacological effects only play a minor role in peoples’ understanding of the healing mechanisms of ayahuasca. Only four participants mentioned pharmacological effects. They related to their knowledge of MAOIs and their antidepressant effect, or brought up the idea of MAOIs having an antiallergenic effect, with DMT potentiating these effects.

The most important healing mechanism in the cleaning of body, mind, and soul is the purgative effects of ayahuasca. Although purging is not a necessary part of all rituals, it is sometimes instigated with the use of liquid tobacco, and people are encouraged to get rid of negative things through this kind of “cleansing process.” Most patients experienced not only cleansing the body (physical healing) but also an emotional cleansing (emotional healing) or spiritual cleansing (“healing of the soul”). This purification was regarded as fundamental for the improvement of health.

All participants expressed the idea that ayahuasca helped them by activating or stimulating their self-healing powers. This idea is often connected with the concept of an “inner healer.” This is based on the belief that everybody has the wisdom and the power to heal any illness without the need of invasive procedures or the introduction of pharmaceutical drugs. People having this idea did not consider themselves as passive patients but as actively contributing to their healing process. Subjects were also convinced of the possibility that ayahuasca itself maintained a “spiritual level of consciousness.” The plant itself was seen as a spiritual being. One participant stated that psychoactive plants had a “constructive intelligence” of their own. She thought that the “spirit” of the plant would be able to “communicate with every cell of a person and repair the DNA of a person.” Participants commonly perceived “vibrations” felt under the influence of ayahuasca as a “communication between plant and body.”

Insights and realization of “the truth” were also important for all of the subjects. These insights can affect not only the disease, but also life in general, often leading to changes in mind. After becoming aware of the “true reason” for a problem, people were able to change things in their lives that might have caused the illness.

Almost all subjects thought that a transpersonal experience could be curative in itself by changing their way of thinking or acting. Transpersonal experience included religious, spiritual, animistic or indigenous-shamanic aspects and episodes such as out-of-body experiences and similar moments in which people lose their fear of death. Fourteen people referred to such transpersonal experiences.

There is also another aspect that should not be ignored: Some people experienced getting help from other entities. These entities, or spirits, helped them in various ways: performing spiritual operations, extractions, providing insights, and in other ways. Sometimes such entities took the form of negative spirits that could also be the source of an illness, as in cases of spiritual possession.

Comparing ayahuasca therapy to professional biomedicine, participants regarded ayahuasca as the medium that gave them the possibility of healing on a spiritual level. They believed such spiritual principles would not be seriously regarded within the “materialistic” concepts of biomedicine. In contrast to biomedicine, there is plenty of space for spiritual concepts in the ayahuasca rituals. Additionally, people perceived a “holistic dimension” in ayahuasca experience that they considered to be essential.

Types of Ayahuasca Users

Based on the comparative analysis of the main motivational orientation, I could identify seven types of ayahuasca users (Schmid 2010):

  1. 1.

    Only loosely connected to an ayahuasca network or church, the “event type” uses ayahuasca only occasionally (e.g., often by attending in workshop-like settings or within an organized trip to South America). Often, they only attend a few rituals a year or have only one trip to a “healing camp.”

  2. 2.

    The “therapy type” is either searching for an alternative cure for a specific medical disease as a complement to scientific medical treatment or for “psycholytic therapy,” as a complement to classical psychotherapy. Ayahuasca is considered a therapeutic device for all kinds of maladies. When the intended curative effects fail to occur, the therapy types often transform into a spiritual or religious type. Remarkably, when people become more spiritual, they also become healthier.

  3. 3.

    The “seeker type” is an individual searching for a philosophy, concepts of identity, or an affirmation of his or her reality. This frequently unresolved search is not limited to psychoactives, but may also include meditation, yoga, Buddhism, and many other schools of thought. Often a seeker is a postmodern rationalist.

  4. 4.

    The “healer type” is often a “gifted” person who thinks of him or herself as having the power and mission to cure or help other people by facilitating ayahuasca sessions for them. This usually happens after they have had a healing experience with ayahuasca or had revelations about their future as a “healer.”

  5. 5.

    The “spiritual type” is on a search for individual transpersonal or spiritual experiences. The religious type differs from the spiritual one by using ayahuasca within a stable committed community of ayahuasca users, like a church, and is therefore often more willing to accept dogmatic world views.

  6. 6.

    The “substance user type” is often experienced with a large number of psychoactive drugs. He consumes ayahuasca in a way that is very similar to his or her use of other kinds of psychoactive substances (LSD, magic mushrooms, etc.). He may be driven by recreational motives or sheer curiosity.

  7. 7.

    Being different is part of the “alternative type,” a category that is often an expression of ecological orientation sometimes combined with non-conformist personalities. Often these persons are engaged in activities like saving the rainforest or fighting for the rights of indigenous people.

This typology constitutes qualitatively grounded prototypes. These could be used for further research to substantiate them into statistically grounded empirical types. The seven types are useful for describing diverse ayahuasca users. Also, being grounded in a study of healing experiences, this typology is not limited to those in search of healing or improvement of disease. The typology acknowledges the possibility that an individual could switch between different types over the course of time. For example, an individual may at first be categorized as a “substance user” and later as a “spiritual type,” or even a “healer.”

Some Personal Notes on the Different Diseases

These are my concluding remarks on some of the main diseases I came across in my 10 years of working in the field.

Cancer. I came across various stories about curing cancer with ayahuasca. Not all of them seem to be reliable, and only parts of them can be checked to some extent. There are so many different kinds of cancer, and even if you have the same group of cancer (prostate, breast or uterus) there are all kind of stages (size, deepness, lymph nodes affected or metastasis) that are responsible for positive or negative outcomes. As described, I met people who tried to cure themselves with ayahuasca and who found themselves going to hospitals for surgery because the spirit of ayahuasca told them to do so. On the other hand, I met people who were given up on by biomedicine and who still are alive or who have lived for many years. One of these was Geraldine Fijneman, a leader of Santo Daime in the Netherlands, who had an inoperable brain tumor (see: http://www.santodaime.org/archives/midia/geraldine.htm). In my personal view, it would be inexcusable not to recognize and utilize this progress in science.

Depression and burnout. From a psychological point of view, ayahuasca is a good tool in the treatment of depressions and burnout. Ayahuasca rituals can change moods which is a good support in overcoming depression. If joy, love, and other positive feelings are experienced, the body’s own chemicals may change, having the same effects as an antidepressant pill. Additionally, the brain changes because of these experiences: thinking may be altered, and therefore behavior. Furthermore, people may realize what caused their depression, for example, bad relationships, unsatisfying jobs, traumatic events, etc., and learn a better relationship with themselves. These insights can help to solve these problems; for example, getting a satisfying new job might alleviate depression. Of course, though not every bad mood is a depression, ayahuasca might be of some assistance. There are also interesting aspects in the topic of burnout. Many of the unspecific effects patients experience with ayahuasca (awareness, tranquility, tending toward a non-materialistic way of life, etc.) are essential steps in overcoming burnout or depression in general.

Cigarettes, alcohol, and drug abuse. As a result of ayahuasca use, many people seem to have given up some of their bad habits, or have achieved a controlled way of consumption of drugs like cigarettes and alcohol. An exception is marijuana (“Santa Maria”) that was a sacrament in some Santo Daime groups and was therefore often used in the rituals. Ayahuasca seems to be really effective in the treatment of drug abuse (see chapters by Bouso and Riba; Loizaga-Velder & Loizaga Pazzi; and Labate, this volume).

Pain (chronic back pain, headaches and migraine). Several participants remarked on the painkilling effects of ayahuasca. It is important to know that pain is often aggravated by anxiety. There are some studies showing ayahuasca diminishes anxiety (Santos et al. 2007), which may result in less pain. There is a vicious circle of pain—tension—feeling. Fear, anxiety, and bad moods aggravate pain and tension. Being in high spirits results in better coping with pain.

Some people have overcome their migraines, or at least dramatically reduced the amount of migraine attacks; on the other hand, I have met a lot of ayahuasca users still suffering from them. One reason for this might be that stress can be a concern when attending rituals. Stress is a main factor in headaches and can trigger migraines. Stressors are mostly not in the ritual itself and its effect, but in the surroundings. In Europe, people often have to travel a long way to get to ayahuasca rituals. Driving several hours by car, and other demands, can be nerve-wracking. In my opinion, ayahuasca can be helpful in the treatment of migraines, but it is essential to care for oneself and to respect one’s own limits. Also, we must face the problem that in many countries in Europe, ayahuasca is illegal. A lot of people have been in trouble with the police or have even been arrested. So, people are often afraid of being discovered, persecuted, or legally charged. Even in the Netherlands, where the Santo Daime holds some level of legal recognition, the police often make their presence known and cause the participants to feel uncomfortable, or may even disturb rituals without any reason. Many rituals, both of Santo Daime and neoshamanic practitioners in Europe, are underground and kept secret. These are not the best conditions for building strong communities and establishing solid informal, social, and cultural means of control.

Conclusions

Healing effects occurred in all these different kinds of ayahuasca rituals but, of course, all these rituals are intended for healing. “Healing” is not limited to the cure of physical and mental diseases, but is expanded to a variety of psychological and even spiritual problems. Most Westerners employ ayahuasca almost exclusively for spiritual purposes, in line with traditional usage, neo-shamanic ceremonies, organized churches, and workshop-like settings. There is growing evidence from natural science and psychology that drinking ayahuasca can be a very rewarding experience (Schmid 2010; Grob et al. 1996).

Its users regard ayahuasca as an important aid in solving problems and in coping with diseases. However, it seems to be a Westerners’ view to consider ayahuasca strictly as a healing medium. Instead, in traditional cultures, ayahuasca can also be used for sorcery and can even be used to harm others. In traditional medicine, ayahuasca is understood as a plant that can heal or can harm depending on the person who uses it or the purpose for which it is used.

It is very important not to give the impression that ayahuasca is a panacea that cures all kind of diseases in all of their stages. Sometimes, other therapies are crucial; for example, surgeries, and it is important for patients to know this. It should come as no surprise that an indigenous healer may give advice to go to a Western doctor or that a patient may get an insight that surgery really is necessary. As with other complementary treatments, there should be a way to combine both methods.