Ayahuasca Visions: Her Mysterious, Multidimensional Language
By Kat Courtney
There’s a lot of ways Ayahuasca communicates with those of us lucky enough to imbibe with her. She can tap into our clairaudience and chat us up about the secrets of the universe, making the ayahuasca experience a profound journey. She loves to communicate through the language of feeling, and sensations from the body. The purges she facilitates can tell us volumes about what we’re carrying. But the mode of communication that people normally most desire to experience are Ayahuasca’s visions—those other-worldly, wildly vivid, marvelously mysterious images.
Ayahuasca’s visions are sometimes subtle, but oftentimes they are so intense and powerful it doesn’t matter of our eyes are open or closed; they can’t be escaped. Although every ceremony does not always include visions, they are her signature trademark. No other psychedelic medicine can match her visual tapestries.
Deciphering what the visions are communicating is an artform all its own. While each person’s journey is unique and personalized for exactly what they need, when they need it, there are some commonalities in the visions themselves, and the related symbolism. Let’s delve into the enigmatic world of Ayahuasca’s visual communications.
Understanding Ayahuasca
What is Ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca is a traditional plant-based psychedelic brew that has been revered for centuries in Amazonian cultures for its profound spiritual, medicinal, and ceremonial properties. The name “Ayahuasca” is derived from the Quechua language, where “Aya” means “spirit” or “dead” and “Huasca” means “vine.” This sacred brew is typically concocted from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the Psychotria viridis leaf, which together contain the powerful psychoactive compounds DMT and beta-carbolines.
In the heart of the Amazon, Ayahuasca is often referred to as a “medicine,” deeply embedded in the spiritual and shamanic practices of indigenous communities. She posses the power to heal physical, emotional, and spiritual ailments, serving as a conduit for communication with spirits, ancestors, and other spiritual beings. The Ayahuasca ceremony is a sacred ritual, a journey into the depths of human consciousness, offering insights and healing that transcend the ordinary realms of everyday life.
In recent years, Ayahuasca has garnered significant attention in Western cultures, with many individuals seeking its potential therapeutic benefits, particularly for mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. However, it is crucial to approach Ayahuasca with the utmost respect and caution, acknowledging its potent effects on human consciousness and the necessity of proper preparation, setting, and integration.
The Science Behind Ayahuasca
Psychoactive Compounds and Their Effects
Ayahuasca’s profound effects are attributed to her unique combination of psychoactive compounds, primarily DMT and beta-carbolines. DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, is a potent psychedelic compound responsible for the brew’s intense visual and auditory experiences. Beta-carbolines, which act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), play a crucial role in making DMT orally active, allowing it to produce its powerful effects when consumed as a brew.
The impact of Ayahuasca on brain activity is a fascinating area of study. Research indicates that Ayahuasca can alter brainwave patterns, particularly within the default mode network, which is associated with self-referential thoughts and the sense of self. These alterations can lead to profound changes in perception, mood, and cognitive processing, facilitating deep introspection and self-reflection.
Beyond her immediate effects, Ayahuasca has shown promise in promoting psychological healing and personal growth. Studies suggest that she can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, offering a pathway to healing past trauma and fostering personal growth.
Ayahuasca is not just a psychedelic experience but a journey into the depths of human consciousness, offering insights and healing that can transform everyday life. Whether you seek spiritual awakening, personal growth, or psychological healing, Ayahuasca’s visions provide a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.
Understanding Ayahuasca Visions and Human Consciousness
Ayahuasca and her plant friends speak the language of the subconscious more than the conscious mind, so the ayahuasca vision is often more dream-like and symbolic rather than clear and direct. The interpretation of these visions is a deeply personal process, shaped by individual life experiences and emotions. That’s part of the fun of integration; putting together the puzzle pieces around what they are communicating. As a rule, however, there are some main categories that the visions can be classified as:
Purging Mental Clutter – Sometimes the Ayahuasca visions are not meant to be messages, but rather a chance to purge the unending mental clutter that our overstimulated lives amass. Think of this as a mental purge. All the data we consume is not meant to be stored, yet the brain often doesn’t know the difference between critical information and mental trash. Ayahuasca often kicks in with strong, nonsensical visions that manifest to help us clean up our mental channels.
Sacred geometry – As the our pineal glands decalcify, we start to experience the sacred geometric patterns that make up the whole multiverse. Ayahuasca is a potent third-eye opener, and sometimes we are swept into a world of patterns and shapes; they are a language all their own, and their purpose and communications are in many ways a mystery. Somehow it makes sense when you’re with her, but when we try to think about it in the aftermath, it’s hard to give it language.
Visions that derail the mind – Some visions are not meant to make sense at all, but like a Koan in Buddhism, they are there to completely derail the mind. Ayahuasca does this to help us access our consciousness beyond thought, so she knows how to throw our brains in a blender with a single potent image.
Past memories/experiences – The portal of Ayahuasca often allows us to process things that have happened in our past (either this life or others!) in order to bring awareness, closure, and healing to these events. Sometimes we see them as they really happened, other times we see them as they FELT, not necessarily as they occurred. This is part of her brilliant trickery!
Future possibilities – Ayahuasca often shows us potential paths for our futures, not as a way of dictating our lives, but to give us a chance to really feel into whether or not we want to manifest things in that way. Since we are so sensitive under the influence of Mama Medicine, visions of the future give us a chance to feel into each opportunity, so we can be more intentional about what we call into our lives.
Visions that tell a story – Oftentimes, the visions don’t make a lot of sense in a literal way. Ayahuasca sometimes communicates things about our individual consciousness, and the world at large, through symbols and wonderfully bizarre imagery. We need not try to make sense of what she shows us while we are in her embrace; this is part of the fun of the aftermath, integrating what we witness, and finding the meaning as best we can.
The Ayahuasca Grid – Ah, the magical grid! It’s impossible to explain the grid, but if you’ve seen it, you know exactly what I mean. The Ayahuasca grid is a vision she reveals over time that shows the interconnectedness of all things, and the energy field we each possess. The grid can be witnessed on the micro (the energy grid for our body, or even a specific organ or body part) or on the macro (the energy grid of a room, the sky, the planet, or the whole mutliverse!) Aya communicates all kinds of amazing things through this grid; she shows us vitality, distortions, where healing is needed, where healing has happened; the list is endless! Learning to read this unique language of hers is part of the training to work with her, and it can (and usually does) take years and years. If only there were a Rosetta Stone course for Ayahuasca’s language ☺
Let’s delve into the enigmatic world of Ayahuasca’s visual communications and uncover their personal significance.The Healing Power of Ayahuasca Visions
The Healing Power of Ayahuasca Visions and Spiritual Awakening
How does Ayahuasca help facilitate healing through the visions and address personal challenges? There are so many ways! She shows us parts of ourselves that we maybe have never been conscious of before. She also helps us understand the perspectives of other people through the language of the visions. She teaches us about consciousness itself through the visions too, in ways that far exceeds the limitations of language and the mind. So, in essence, there’s nothing Ayahuasca can’t teach us.
For reference and inspiration, here are some of the things I have personally learned through Ayahuasca’s visions:
She once showed me a traumatic moment of abuse in my childhood, but instead of it happening to me, she placed a doll that looked like me in the vision. This allowed me to process the experience without it feeling so personal and painful; it was the moment I started releasing my attachment to that moment, and the healing it has brought me is truly indescribable.
She has shown me countless future possibilities so that I could feel into what I wanted to focus on manifesting, and what I wanted to avoid.
I have seen untold numbers of guardian angels and spirit guides supporting the space – we like to joke in our ceremonies that it’s “standing room only” ☺
After spending all night searching for my deceased soul kitty, Ayahuasca finally showed me that he lives in my heart, intertwining personal memories with spiritual encounters. I combed through the cosmos for nothing!
I once had a shared vision of a woman’s magnificent angel wings. We found out a few weeks later that she had leukemia, and she transitioned shortly thereafter with a smile – because she knew she was an angel and that death was safe.
What To Do If You Don't Receive Visions From Ayahuasca Ceremonies?
Not everyone is visual, and Ayahuasca isn't visual for everyone, every time. It's part of her mystery that she communicates with us in all kinds of ways, so you're not doing it wrong if you don't have bright and shiny visions. I find the more people are attached to seeing visions, the less likely they are to manifest. While the visions are magnificent, they are just one way Ayahuasca works with us, and they can actually be a distraction from the deeper work. Some folks always see visions, some folks rarely see them, but most of us run the whole spectrum.
If you've worked with her many times and have yet to have strong visuals, you're not doing anything wrong, but you can do things differently to maximize the possibility of experiencing the visions in the future. Here are some helpful tips:
Make decalcifying your pineal gland a top priority. Key ways to do that are to eliminate fluoride and related toxins from your body, work with Sananga and Rapéh for added assistance, and even do a heavy metal detox if you know you have elevated levels.
Take the diet seriously as you prep to sit with Ayahuasca. There's a reason we suggest that people eat very clean foods the week before a sit with Mama: Salt, citrus, spice, alcohol, red meat, and other dense and rich foods can not only be physically uncomfortable, they can shut down the visions.
If you work with Ganja regularly, stop working with her all together at LEAST 1 week before your ceremony, If you are a habitual user, 2 or more weeks is ideal.
Get good rest before you dive in with Aya, and a healthy meal the day of the ceremony so you have good food energy for grounding and focus.
If your facilitator works with Rapéh or Sananga in ceremony, ask for some if you are called; these medicines can help open up the third eye and facilitate a breakthrough.
Interpreting Ayahuasca Visions for Deeper Understanding
Making sense of the non-linear, highly symbolic visions that Ayahuasca unleashes when you drink ayahuasca can be incredibly challenging, but this is part of the fun of deciphering her messages. Ayahuasca and all her plant friends always speak in the present moment, even if they are reflecting events from the past, or potential ones from the future, through the ayahuasca vision. What this means is they are reflecting our relationship with these visions, how we feel NOW in the moment, as that is the only moment that matters.
Additionally, it’s very wise to not take the Ayahuasca visions literally in all cases. Sometimes she shows us things that may have happened in the past; she isn’t so concerned with the head-based, factual details of a story, she cares about how we feel in the moment. So she might show us an event that didn’t happen exactly as we see it, but it feels as though it did. Her mission is to help us heal, not to have our heads full of details. So this is why it can be very tricky to interpret her messages; our minds love to take things literally, but this is not how Ayahuasca communicates across the board. Think of her messages more like dreams than memories - they are symbolic and reflective of what we are experiencing.
Sometimes the best way to find the deeper meaning of her messages is through creative expression. When we write, dance, paint, sing, and otherwise channel the divine energy of creativity, our minds can get out of the way and a deeper truth can emerge. When we chase clarity, it has a way of evading us. And if you ever need help or guidance in this space, reach out to an experienced and trained integration coach.
I truly hope this has brought more inspiration and insight to your journey with this miraculous medicine.
What are some of the most memorable visions that you’ve had with Ayahuasca?
About the Author
Tina “Kat” Courtney is a traditionally trained Ayahuasquera and Huachumera; she apprenticed for over a decade in the Shipibo-Conibo and Quechua-Lamista traditions. She’s the author of Plant Medicine Mystery School Vol 1: The Superhero Healing Powers of Psychotropic Plants. Kat is a pioneer in the Psychedelic Integration space, as well as an expert in cultivating life-changing relationships with plant spirits. She leads Master Plant Diets both in person and remotely and is available for coaching and consultations about this and all shamanic topics. Kat is also a certified Death Doula, honored to help people make peace with the inevitable and beautiful transition into the afterlife. She has spent her adult life cultivating a bonded and trusting relationship with the darkness, and she’d love to help you do the same.
