Over the years, Ayahuasca has built up the reputation of being some transcendental medicine that can change a person’s life in a single cup. Don’t get me wrong, it can do amazing things, but it might not work in the ways that you expect.
I’ve met plenty of people who have flown to South America to sit in a ceremony under the impression that Ayahuasca will solve all of their problems, only to find that it fell short. Perhaps they felt a little unusual; it stimulated some thoughts, and maybe they purged. However, the experience died down before it began.
So they take cup after cup, and the same thing happens.
Nada…
Where are the mind-blowing visuals and the entities you hear so much about? Where are the profound realizations and deep-rooted healing? Was it all just drummed up from the overactive imaginations of people who don’t know what they’re talking about, or is there some truth to this?
Sometimes people feel disappointed or even resentful after traveling far and spending a good chunk of hard-earned cash on an experience that didn’t meet its impossible expectations. So this is something I want to discuss in this article.
Does Ayahuasca promise you a profound, transcendental experience? Does it always work?
Let’s talk about it.
Does Ayahuasca Always Give You a Powerful Experience?
After hearing all the crazy experiences that people have, sometimes people are left frustrated when their Ayahuasca experience doesn’t seem to move the needle.
And I get it.
When you think of Ayahuasca, you tend to think of some life-changing experience your entire life has been building up to. Everyone raves about how transformative the medicine is, and that they can never return to their old, unenlightened life after sitting with it.
But often, these stories are blown a little out of proportion. With that said, Ayahuasca definitely can cause out-of-this-world experiences, I’ve had many myself. But it should not be expected (or necessarily desired).
The experiences people have while under the influence of Ayahuasca can vary widely and are often unpredictable.
You might be thrust into another dimension, wondering what on Earth you’ve done. Likewise, you might experience nothing at all, yawning away the hours until the next cup is offered. The depth of the experience ranges from no noticeable experience at all to experiences of ego death and transcendence.
So, let’s break it down. In my experience, here are some different thresholds of an Ayahuasca experience.
- Mild levels of an Ayahuasca experience: Often accompany minor changes in thoughts and feelings. Maybe more introspective with some subtle closed-eye visual patterns and colors, however, you generally feel grounded and relatively sober.
- Mid-levels of an Ayahuasca experience: Tangible changes in perception, thoughts, and feelings. You will likely experience visions, replay memories, and have realizations, although they may or may not be profound. You may perceive other entities or spirits in the space and get swept away in emotions and feelings. Visions, thought trains, and experiences may change irrationally, making you feel disoriented or ungrounded. Motor skills such as walking may be impaired.
- Deeper levels of an Ayahuasca experience: The deep levels of an Ayahuasca experience can feel like you’re transported to another place as these experiences can come on quickly. You likely have very vivid both open-eye and closed-eye visuals, which can be of colors, patterns, and fractals. Visions can be intense and profound, and you may feel like you’re downloading information. You often see, feel, and perceive entities that may interact with you. Often, these experiences accompany profound insights, realizations, and mystical experiences.
Regardless of whether you have a deep experience or a mild one, the medicine is still working.
Sometimes people believe that the medicine didn’t work on them because they didn’t have a visual experience. This is a common Ayahuasca misconception because even if you didn’t get any profound insights or realizations, or purge, it is still cleaning you.
Likewise, regardless of how deep your experience is, you may or may not purge. Purging is a mechanism to release stagnant or stubborn energies from your body. Sometimes I hear people say how disappointed they were because they didn’t purge, but because you didn’t purge doesn’t mean the medicine didn’t clean you.
You don’t need to have a transcendental experience or purge to benefit from Ayahuasca. As long as you consume the medicine, it will be cleaning you in the background, whether it manifests into the experience or not.
Why Ayahuasca Might Not Be Visual
So, why might Ayahuasca not give you an intense, visceral experience while it does for others?
To be honest, nobody knows exactly why this phenomenon happens, however how we view it may play a role. Viewing Ayahuasca as a machine that gives consistent results is not the most accurate outlook, rather it’s better to see it as something that’s organic and has a mind of its own.
Ayahuasca is a spirit. In shamanic traditions, at least, it’s known as a conscious, intelligent being that interacts with us. Just because we ingest the medicine doesn’t mean the spirit will show up in full force or that you will perceive it.
With that said, some factors that may influence your experience include:
- Your body is acclimatizing to the medicine: I’ve been told many times that the spirit of Ayahuasca likes to get to know you before throwing you into the deep end. When you drink the medicine it may take some time to get to know who you are, what you’re looking for, and more importantly, what you need. I’m not saying that you can’t have very intense experiences right off the bat, but it can take time to get to that stage.
- You have expectations: Intentions are good, but expectations can work against you. In my view, having expectations about the experience can create a forcing current. People seem to have better experiences when they’re not expecting anything from the experience and are rather open to whatever it wants to show them (or not show them).
- You need to clean up first: Impurities can act as blockages. Imagine that your body is like a drain clogged with grime that doesn’t allow the water to pass through. Energetically, if everything is blocked up due to a poor diet and other lifestyle factors, the medicine may not be able to work its magic as effectively.
- You weren’t ready, even if you think you were: Sometimes, people just aren’t ready to have super deep experiences with Ayahuasca. This may be on either a conscious or subconscious level, or perhaps you’re not prepared to let go of what’s holding you back, so it translated into the experience.
- There’s a learning curve: One thing most people never consider is that it often takes practice to go deeper. I know, sounds strange, but the more we sit with the medicine, the more we learn how to surrender to it, work with it, and seep deeper into the experience. There may be no issue, maybe it just takes time to learn how to work with the medicine which might come with experience.
With that said, sometimes the medicine just doesn’t seem to give certain people much of an experience. I’ve met quite a few people who would never experience anything, regardless of how many ceremonies they sat in, how many cups they drank, or how many rules they abided by.
Whether there is some sort of genetic component or not I can’t tell you. What I do know is that Ayahuasca is an organic process and it treats everyone differently.
It doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do to increase the likelihood of having deeper, more profound experiences with the medicine.
How to Reach Deeper Levels of Ayahuasca
Often, the Ayahuasca experience seems to be random, like a game of roulette. After drinking the medicine, you might be blasted into another realm, and you might notice no difference whatsoever.
However, having worked alongside hundreds of people who have sat with this medicine, I’ve picked up some trends. Here are some things you can do to increase your chances of having a profound experience:
- Abide by the dieta: People are suggested to do a dieta to clean up their bodies both physically and energetically before working with the medicine. My advice is not to half-ass it. Do it properly and adequately prepare for the experience, both physically and mentally. Although you can still have some breakthroughs without doing a dieta at all, it does seem to make a difference.
- Surrender to the medicine: I believe the biggest barrier generally comes from resistance, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. Ayahuasca responds to your energy and intentions. If you’re nervous, worried, or afraid of going into these deeper, darker places, this may act as a block.
- Set intentions: Your intentions act as your navigational compass. If you don’t know why you’re there or what you want out of the experience, it might not be very profound. When people have a very strong intention and know exactly why they’re there, they generally tend to have more profound experiences.
- Be genuinely respectful: Think about it this way. If you’re being disrespectful to someone and demanding their time, do you think they’re going to give it to you? Spirits aren’t so different. Why would they invite you into their home and provide you with wonderful gifts and insights if you’re taking it for granted? The best way to go deeper into an ayahuasca journey is to be very respectful of the medicine.
- Be humble: In my experiences, it seems that whenever I get a big head and tell myself, “I’m going to go super deep this time,” it never happens. On the other hand, when I just allow from a place of humility, it seems to be a very different experience. Therefore, I suggest that you be as humble as possible when taking the medicine.
Realize that even if you do everything in your power and follow all the above, it doesn’t guarantee that you will experience anything during an Ayahuasca ceremony.
This is why it’s so important to have trust in the medicine that it will do what it needs to do, and let go of expectations. Whether you have a deep, transcendental experience or don’t experience much at all, know that the medicine is giving you everything you need.