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Praise for Listening to Ayahuasca
“With heart and clarity, Listening to Ayahuasca invites us to listen deeply and carefully to what Grandmother Ayahuasca has to tell us. Sharing the results of her in-depth and carefully designed research on the ayahuasca underground in North America, psychotherapist Rachel Harris, in her inevitably insightful, warm, and nuanced way, introduces her readers to what people do, what they experience, and how they are transformed when they choose to respectfully drink this mysterious mind-altering and spiritually potent entheogenic brew. Courageously self-revealing, Harris also openly shares her own struggles to make sense of the psychological, and even metaphysical, implications of her powerful ongoing interactions with ayahuasca. In Harris we have a guide we can trust: someone who for years has actively immersed herself in a wide variety of ritual ayahuasca contexts; who has thought long and hard about the shadow side of taking ayahuasca; and who does not let the all-too-human aspects of the ayahuasca experience undermine her willingness to underscore the potentially life-changing therapeutic potential of this powerful substance. With humor, care, and (it must be said) wisdom, Harris invites us to join her as she walks, eyes wide open, into the enchanted and wondrously thought-provoking world of Grandmother Ayahuasca.”
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It’s very tempting to study the flashes of illumination during ayahuasca ceremonies — the visions, mystical experiences, and paranormal phenomena. The extraordinary visions are beguiling and entrancing in a mythological way. They are most often seen with eyes closed, but some are seen with eyes open, like a design overlay on what no longer seems like the real world. Ayahuasca has been called the “television of the jungle,” since some visions unfold like a cinematic narrative.5 The context for the visions can range from the Amazon jungle to flying saucers to Egyptian temples. I can safely say there is no typical experience — anything is possible, and it’s often unimaginable.
People also report traveling through the universe, meeting spirits, talking to dead people, and receiving energetic healings. These healings involve a strong somatic component involving the physical or subtle bodies, beyond the purgative qualities of the medicine. A more difficult element to describe are the philosophical awakenings that move Westerners from their safely ensconced worldview to a magical, mystery tour of the universe.
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