Hyperbolic: Divining Ayahuasca
Discourse December 1, 2005 Richard Doyle 7 citations
A first-person account describes the author's second ayahuasca ceremony in the Upper Amazon, where the brew—made from B. Caapi vine and P. Viridis leaves—is prepared and administered by a vegetalista. The author notes that the experience involves visions, ego death, and the guiding role of Icaros (songs that mimic local birds and insects). The author addresses the ayahuasca with questions about integrating the experience into life back in North America, treating the interaction as a rhetorical experiment with non-human intelligence. The narrative emphasizes the contrast between the legal status of ayahuasca in the U.S. and its use as medicine in the Amazon.