March 16, 2002

  • Love--what is it?
    It seems I have always expected Love to be psychedelic, not figuratively, but literally mind-altering.  And, indeed, the thrill, when I have found thrill in Love, has been profoundly mind-tripping.


    Ah—so is Love a hallucinogen?
    Precisely right.


    And what drug may that be?
    Not one, but the entwinement of two.


    Two psychoactive drugs?
    No, two drugs, neither of which is psychotropic, but when perfectly mixed, create the ultimate trip.


    And what do you call this? 
    Ayahuasca.


    Ayahuasca?
    Oh yes.


    In Ecuador and Peru this medicine is known as Ayahuasca, a Quechua Indian word meaning, ironically, "vine of the dead". In Columbia and parts of Brazil, the Tupi Indian name Yage (pronounced Ya-hay) is used, and among Amazonia's proliferating mestizo religious cults it is called Daime...


    Entirely natural and born of the earth, then like lovers paired, two plants become magic as they are commingled together.   The Banisteriopsis caapi vine contains harmala alkaloids which alone can act only as a tranquilizer or emetic.  Psychotria viridis bush leaves contain DMT (N, N-dimethyl-tryptamine) which is not orally active unless activated by a  monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor, precisely the role that the harmala alkaloids play.


    So Love is the drug you are thinking of?
    Ayahuasca.


    And that is Love?
    No, it is a vision.


    But you said Love!
    I lied.  I meant healing.


    Healing?
    Listen…


    The Jivaro Indians of the Ecuadorian Amazon believe that witchcraft is the cause of the vast majority of illnesses and non-violent deaths. The normal waking life, for the Jivaro, is simply "a lie," or an illusion, while the true forces that determine daily events are supernatural and can only be seen and manipulated with the aid of hallucinogenic drugs. A reality view of this kind creates a particularly strong demand for specialists, who can cross over into the supernatural world at will to deal with the forces that influence and even determine the events of the waking life.


    These specialists, called "shamans" by anthropologists, are recognized by the Jivaro as being of two types: bewitching shamans and curing shamans. Both kinds take a hallucinogenic drink, whose Jivaro name is natema, in order to enter the supernatural world. This brew, commonly called yage, or yaje, in Colombia, ayahuasca (Inca "vine of the dead") in Ecuador and Peru, and caapi in Brazil, is prepared from segments of a species of the vine Banisteriopsis, a genus belonging to the Malpighiaceae. The Jivaro boil it with the leaves of a similar vine, which probably is also a species of Banisteriopsis, to produce a tea that contains the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloids harmaline, harmine, d-tetrahydroharmine, and quite possibly dimethyltriptamine (DMT). These compounds have chemical structures and effects similar, but not identical to LSD, mescaline of the peyote cactus, and psilocybin of the psychotropic Mexican mushroom.


    When I first undertook research among the Jivaro in 1956-57, I did not fully appreciate the psychological impact of the Banisteriopsis drink upon the native view of reality, but in 1961 I had occasion to drink the hallucinogen in the course of field work with another Upper Amazon Basin tribe. For several hours after drinking the brew, I found myself, although awake, in a world literally beyond my wildest dreams. I met bird-headed people, as well as dragon-like creatures who explained that they were the true gods of this world. I enlisted the services of other spirit helpers in attempting to fly through the far reaches of the Galaxy. Transported into a trance where the supernatural seemed natural, I realized that anthropologists, including myself, had profoundly underestimated the importance of the drug in affecting native ideology. Therefore, in 1964 I returned to the Jivaro to give particular attention to the drug's use by the Jivaro shaman.


      --The Sound of Rushing Water, by Michael J. Harner,  Natural History, July 1968


    So, I don’t get it.  What are you saying?
    I’m returning to the Jivaro.


    For Ayahuasca?
    No, for Love.

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