The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca

This book presents a series of perspectives on the therapeutic potential of the ritual and clinical use of the Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca in the treatment and management of various diseases and ailments, especially its role in psychological well-being and substance dependence. Biomedical and anthropological data on the use of ayahuasca for treating depression, PTSD, and substance dependence in different settings, such as indigenous contexts, neo-shamanic rituals, contemporary therapeutic circles, and in ayahuasca religions, in both South and North America, are presented and critiqued. Though multiple anecdotal reports on the therapeutic use of ayahuasca exist, there has been no systematic and dense reflection on the topic thus far. The book brings the therapeutic use of ayahuasca to a new level of public examination and academic debate. The texts in this volume stimulate discussion on methodological, ethical, and political aspects of research and will enhance the development of this emergent field of studies.

• Ayahuasca
• Ethnopharmacology
• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• drug and therapeutic potential
• psychedelics and therapeutic agents
• psychopharmacology

Since the time our team has discovered the mind-altering effects of synthetic DMT in the 1950's, I am still amazed by the immense power of this drug to open - temporarily - the mind. Ayahuasca's potency is largely based on its content of natural DMT. The articles in this book will tell you how this power might be used to treat a variety of severe mental problems.

Stephen Szára, MD, DSc., Retired Chief of Biomedical Research Branch of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse

This book makes a significant contribution to growing evidence on the therapeutic benefits of ayahuasca. The chapters explore ayahuasca’s potential for physical and mental disorders from a variety of perspectives and settings, underscoring the importance of a transdisciplinary approach to understanding this ‘medicine’ that has been employed for centuries by Amazonian cultures.

Esther Jean Langdon, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil

This volume offers the most recent and broadest overview of the therapeutic potential of this remarkable plant medicine, which is only now being recognized and accepted into the clinician's armamentarium.

Dennis McKenna, PhD, Assistant Professor, Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota, USA 

This book fully traverses the space between shamanism and Western medicine, by giving attention to the special importance of setting, vindicating traditional ritual uses, and grounding the various aspects of healing on cultural studies, pharmacology, and neuroscience. This tour de force on the therapeutic use of ayahuascais a must for those interested in the topic.

Sidarta Ribeiro, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, Director, Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

• Center for Economic Research and Education (CIDE), Aguascalientes, Mexico

  Beatriz Caiuby Labate

• Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives (NEIP), San Francisco, USA

  Clancy Cavnar

Beatriz Caiuby Labate has a PhD in social anthropology from the State University of Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP), Brazil. Her main areas of interest are the study of psychoactive substances, drug policies, shamanism, ritual, and religion. She is visiting professor at the drug policy program of the Center for Economic Research and Education (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, CIDE) in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She is also a research associate at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg University, co-founder of the Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives (NEIP), and editor of its site (http://www.neip.info). She is author, co-author, and co-editor of eight books, two with English translations, one journal special edition, and several peer-reviewed articles. For more information, see: http://bialabate.net.

Clancy Cavnar is currently completing her clinical postdoctoral hours in clinical psychology at the Marin Treatment Center, a methadone clinic in San Rafael, California. In 2011 she received a doctorate in clinical psychology (PsyD) from John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California, with a dissertation on gay and lesbian people's experiences with ayahuasca. She attended New College of the University of South Florida and completed an undergraduate degree in liberal arts in 1982. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute and graduated with a Master of Fine Art in painting in 1985. In 1993, she received a certificate in substance abuse counseling from the extension program of the University of California at Berkeley and, in 1997, she graduated with a master's in counseling from San Francisco State University. In that same year, she got in touch with the Santo Daime in the USA, and has traveled several times to Brazil since then. She is also co-editor, with Beatriz Caiuby Labate, of two books: Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon andBeyond (Oxford University Press, in press), and Prohibition, Religious Freedom, and Human Rights: Regulating Traditional Drug Use (Springer, in press).

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