New Ayahuasca Study Stating Risks Outweigh Benefits is Pure Propaganda
Maybe you’ve seen the long list of recent headlines declaring the risks of Ayahuasca far outweigh the benefits. I have a Google Alert for Ayahuasca news, so my inbox has been flooded. Everyone’s touting the same study, with different clickbait headlines and reframes. The problem is simple: The study / report they are all citing is woefully flawed, highly biased, and outright incorrect.
What’s even more disturbing than the misinformation and lies the media is spreading about Ayahuasca is what is likely the underlying intention from those that control the information we consume.
I am writing this as a commitment to my messenger status with Ayahuasca and her plant friends. We deserve to know the truth about who she is, and what the systems are up to.
The Ayahuasca Study That is Based on Lies
The study in question literally states that 70% of Ayahuasca participants experience “adverse physical effects”, and 55% “adverse mental health effects,” essentially painting a picture that Aya is almost guaranteed to harm you. The resulting conclusions from dozens of outlets is that risks outweigh potential benefits by a landslide.
So why are hundreds of thousands of people working with her? And what of the gazillions of magical stories of healing and insight sprinkled all across the internet?
Digging deeper into this so-called study, several things become abundantly clear:
1) The people who wrote the study didn’t actually ever work with Ayahuasca. They are pretending to be experts with something they have never experienced.
2) The medical establishment defines adverse effects as things like purging, crying, sweating, etc. Their myopic view of the body’s natural processes of expelling toxins sees the exact methods Ayahuasca uses to help heal us AS THE PROBLEMS THEMSELVES.
Read that again. The “adverse effects” they are referring to (vomiting et al) are actually the ways by which she heals us. And not just Ayahuasca herself; this is the magic of our potent, purifying, wildly intelligent bodies.
This study, then, is not just vilifying Ayahuasca’s way of healing us, but the natural cycles the body’s intelligence already has built in to detoxify.
Are the scientists involved really this dense? Or is something more sinister at play?
Why Big Pharma and the Medical Systems Want us to Believe the Lies About Ayahuasca
Stupidity is not the factor here; no, the motivation at play for a study like this is about what everything is about in our self-serving system: Money and power.
Let’s break this down.
The core reason it serves a pharmacological system to vilify a powerful, natural plant medicine like Ayahuasca is they know unequivocally they will never make billions off her. So while the entheogenic movement is in full swing, and clinicians are starting to gain the legal right to administer psychedelics to patients, the war against nature is perpetuated.
They system does not want us to think we can step outside and find all the healing we need growing in our gardens, forests, and rainforests. No, they want to continue the narrative that we need to visit our local doctor’s office and spend around $1k per session in order to achieve any semblance of healing.
Furthermore, almost all clinical psychedelic therapies are synthetic – not because synthetic psychedelics are better, but because they can be controlled, and far, far more expensive.
So it stands to reason that Ayahuasca is the target of a smear campaign. They are taking her most valuable healing attributes and trying to spin them into false dangers.
Don’t fall for it.
There is No Such Thing as Pharmahuasca
Another movement from our nefarious medical system is the trickery that is “pharmahuasca”. The name is horrifically misleading, because there is absolutely no Ayahuasca in this substance. This refers to a blend of any MAOI (almost always synthetic) and synthetic DMT.
On the one hand, the medical industry is blasting the above report about the dangers of Ayahuasca. On the other, they are hawking a “pharmacological Ayahuasca” that in no way contains Ayahuasca in order to capitalize on her popularity and name recognition.
When are we going to learn that these plants are powerful, sentient, wise beyond anything we could ever comprehend, and require our profound reverence and respect?
Not anytime soon, clearly.
The Truth About Ayahuasca
The study in question is right about one thing: Ayahuasca is not an easy medicine to work with. But healing isn’t easy. Expanding consciousness isn’t easy. Life isn’t easy.
I often compare drinking Ayahuasca to giving birth. It’s messy, painful, wild, unpredictable, challenging…and indescribably sacred and beautiful. Ayahuasca helps us give birth to the new version of ourselves. She leads us through the darkness and shows us how to love it all. These may not be things Western medicine fully understands yet, but we would be wise to stop blaming and vilifying her, and instead own our own shadow of distrusting anything uncomfortable. Including life, and death. Just because humanity has a lot to learn doesn’t mean Ayahuasca should be blamed for our resistance. We are so, so blessed to have her motherly guidance.
I wish you all remarkably safe and healing journeys. Thank you for standing for the sacredness of Ayahuasca and all her plant friends.
About the Author
Tina “Kat” Courtney, The AfterLife Coach, is a traditionally trained Ayahuasquera + Huachumera and a vocal advocate for all sacred Plant Medicines. Kat is the CEO and co-founder of Plant Medicine People, and she works as a coach, ceremony guide, and mentor to people navigating their shadows via altered states of consciousness. She is the author of Plant Medicine Mystery School Vol 1: The Superhero Healing Powers of Psychotropic Plants, as well as a certified Death Doula. She loves the darkness, the Sacred Medicines, and she believes everyone has the right to work with nature for healing and awakening.
