Don has been leading Ayahuasca ceremonies for over 20 years. I had the opportunity to sit down and interview him on his journey with this sacred plant medicine.
Topics
- The history of Ayahuasca
- The two ingredients needed to cook Ayahuasca: banisteriopsis caapi vine (MAOI) and the psychotria viridis (DMT)
- How does it taste?
- How does one get started in becoming an Ayahuasca Shaman?
- When the phone rings, you pick it up
- Overcoming "Who do you think you are, whiteboy"
- Moving in with the shamans
- How many ceremonies does it take to become a shaman?
- How do you go about learning ancient native songs (Icaros)?
- Rituals around ceremony: Pre-ceremony, opening ceremony, during, closing ceremony.
- The importance of Set and Setting
- Mention: Dr Gabor Mate
- Thoughts on religion
- Clinical research on psychedelics
- Curanderos: Shamanic healers
- Risks of Ayahuasca
- Dieting before Ayahuasca: Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI's/anti-depressants)
- Dieting certain foods that contain Tyramine (like fermented foods, alcohol, meats, processed foods, etc)
- Thoughts on western medicine and prescriptions
- Mention: Bill Richards from John Hopkins
- Smoking cessation with psilocibin, up to 80% effective
- Mention: Therapsil non for profit coalition for psilocybin therapy
- Saskatchewan world class psychedelics facilities in the 1950's
- Ayahuasca Churches that are exempt in Canada: Santo Daime and Ceu de Montreal
- What is the recommended limit of people in an Ayahuasca ceremony?
- Dosages
- Michael's experience with Ayahuasca
- Mention: Graham Hancock
- Ancient civilization in amazon jungle found
- The most profound experiences with Ayahuasca
- The afterlife and reincarnation
- Sacrifices in becoming a shaman
- Closing words
