Some Thoughts on DMT Art
A number of artists have attempted to render the striking visual experiences that occur after ingesting ayahuasca or DMT. In the Upper Amazon, there are both indigenous artists, whose traditional work...
View ArticleAyahuasca and Mental Health Among the Shuar
We have talked before — here and here — about the Grob, McKenna, Callaway, et al. psychiatric study on the long-term effects of drinking ayahuasca in the ceremonies of the União do Vegetal church. I...
View ArticleA New Book on Ayahuasca Shamanism
My new book on ayahuasca shamanism, Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon, is due to be published in October by the University of New Mexico Press. In the Upper...
View ArticlePsychointegration
Anthropologist Michael Winkelman, at Arizona State University, says that shamanic practices — drumming, chanting, and the ingestion of sacred plants — create a special state of consciousness he calls...
View ArticleBeta-Carbolines
by Steve Beyer Ayahuasca is made from the stem of the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), almost always combined with the leaves of one or more of three compañeros, companion plants — the shrub...
View ArticleSelf-Control
by Steve Beyer There is a theme woven through the shamanisms of the Upper Amazon — that human beings in general, and shamans in particular, have powerful urges to harm other humans. The difference...
View ArticleAyahuasca and Transformation
Steve Beyer talks about ayahuasca and transformative experiences. This is a clip from the film project From Neurons to Nirvana: Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century, produced and directed by...
View ArticleHoward Charing Talks with Steve Beyer
This is an edited transcript of a series of conversations between Howard G. Charing, author of The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo, and Steve Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to...
View ArticleJan Irvin Talks with Steve Beyer
Steve Beyer is a researcher in ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, shamanism, and hallucinogenic plants and fungi. His interests center on the indigenous ceremonial use of the sacred plants — ayahuasca and...
View ArticleTraveling Safely to Drink Ayahuasca
If you have decided to travel to Peru or other areas in South America to drink ayahuasca, I hope that you have a wonderful experience and return safely to tell everyone about your adventures. But be...
View ArticleThe Leaf-Bundle Rattle
Two rhythmic instruments are used in shamanic performance in the Upper Amazon — the shacapa, the leaf-bundle rattle; and the maraca, the seed-filled gourd rattle. Whether shacapa or maraca, rattles are...
View ArticleVisionary Experiences
There are a number of human experiences — I am thinking of such things as hallucinations, lucid dreams, visions, apparitions, false awakenings, out-of-body experiences, DMT journeys, eidetic...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....