AYAHUASCA In The Spiritual Community Spotlight

Spiritual retreats to the deep heart of jungles that have yet to be westernized is the new trend within the spiritual community. One of the main attractions that is drawing the awoken modern to these indigenous villages is the increasingly popular and most coveted Ayahuasca drink. 

I have little doubt that most people have atleast heard the name Ayahuasca, but do you know what it is? Ayahuasca is a powerful spiritual medicine prepared as a drink by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. It's made from the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine, the Psychotria Viridis Leaf, and Chagropanga. It's praised and known for its very strong hallucinatory effects, and psychedelic experiences that surpass anything known to the western world, producing a truly profound spiritual and life changing experience. 

If Ayahuasca is the new cult movie, DMT is the leading star

The main ingredient, arguably the single most important, that gives Ayahuasca its power is DMT, or Dimethyltryptamine. Known as The Spirit Molecule, thanks to the work of Rick Strassman, this is one the most interesting molecular structures - in my opinion. 
DMT, the new spiritualist's drug that has countless people flocking to the nearest jungle tribe, is actually present and naturally produced in every living thing. That's right, everything. All plants produce this molecule, in different amounts, as do the brains of humans. The Spirit Molecule is an interestingly fitting nickname because it is believed to be the scientific explanation of the spiritual experience. If humans have the ability to connect with and experience the spiritual realm / God / Source / The Creator... then DMT is the road that gets us there.
When a person dreams, experiences hallucinations, perceives their life flashing before their eyes, and most likely when they have any sort of an experience that could be categorized as spiritual - they are experiencing the effects of the Dimethyltrptamine released within the brain. 

According to Rick Strassman -the leading authority on DMT- for an experience to be deemed mystical it must profoundly transfigure the three pillars of self, time, and space that hold together the human perception of reality.
DMT meets and surpasses these requirements. It has been deemed the single most hallucinatory drug known to man, and therefore illegal in most places across the globe. Although Strassman and his team of scientists set out to study the medicinal potentials of this compound and others like it, instead they found themselves -and all of the people who volunteered as test subjects- to be on the brink of a huge spiritual and mystical discovery.

Strassman found that there was a surprising similarity in all of his test subjects' experiences. In every instance the subject experienced 'oneness' or connectivity - they could no longer perceive a distinction between what was self and what was not self. The perception of time ceased to exist as "past, present, and future merge together into the timeless moment, the now of eternity." And as the self and time as independent structures begin to fall away, naturally the perception of space follows. "Like time, space is no longer here or there but everywhere, limitless, without edges."

"Psychedelics show you what's in and on your mind, those subconscious thoughts and feelings that are hidden, covered up, forgotten, out of sight, maybe even completely unexpected, but nevertheless imminently present."
- Rick Strassman, DMT The Spirit Molecule

So based on the scientific guidelines of requirements for a substance to be considered a psychedelic, Ayahuasca differs very little from others that are already at home in the modern world - i.e. shrooms, acid, and the like. If the spiritual realm is right next door to our subconscious and all we need is a chemical vehicle to get us there, DMT is just one of many modes of transportation. What makes DMT different than other chemical compounds that have the ability to produce the same affects is its naturally occurring state. "As an endogenous psychedelic, DMT may be involved in naturally occurring psychedelic states that have nothing to do with taking drugs, but whose similarities to drug induced conditions are striking." 
Drug induced states, like those reached from the consumption of mushrooms and acid, quite possibly all hold the ability to produce a truly spiritual experience. However, they are none-the-less drugs. Because the psychedelic ingredient in Ayahuasca is DMT - a naturally occurring compound - Spiritualist can partake and rest easy because they aren't meeting God at a rave or festival, but in the simple and natural surroundings of an indigenous people. 
It is true that our surroundings can greatly effect our mental, emotional, and spiritual experience. But isn't it also just as true that one can experience the spiritual in any setting? The magic comes from the purity of the jungle, from being so far from and untainted by the influence of the modern world. 

While experiencing the transforming effects of DMT in the form of Ayahuasca in its natural setting can be life changing to the modern spiritualist, it can be damaging to the purity of its nature in those same settings. Ayahuasca is special because -up until recently- had not been tainted by the whims of the modern world. With every retreat, this Shamanic drink loses a bit of its appeal. DMT will remain a mode of spiritual experience, as do all psychedelics, but eventually will lose its uniqueness if it is continued to be exploited by spiritual vacationers. This is not a stab at those who chose to partake nor is it an accusatory judgement of cultural appropriation - or maybe it is? - but it is the nature of human appeal. Value, in our eyes, lies with those things that are rare and beneficial. The benefit of psychedelics pertaining to the spiritual experience will never go away, but eventually the hype will die. And the magic produced by these tribes will soon be tainted as the trend that came and went within the modern search for Spirit. We should never cease in our search for Spirit, but perhaps care should be taken in the traditions and people we exploit in the process. Also, is chasing an experience - to add to one's personal collection - really the same as a desire to experience the spiritual. That question of course can only be answered on a deeply personal level, but demands an answer all the same.

DMT is released within our brains during sleep and while in altered states of consciousness, like those reached during deep meditation. You don't have to fly across the world to experience the connection to other realms. We were designed to be able to readily access the spiritual within ourselves, hence the naturally occurring presence of this compound. While the use of drugs or ingesting large amounts of DMT can have a slingshot affect, shooting us into this state immediately and with no effort, it teaches us very little on how to achieve the same effects on our own - of which we are very capable.