Ayahuasca as medicine - experience and healing / Ralph Metzner

Ayahuasca, which anthropologists refer to as the most powerful and renowned shamanic hallucinogen, has been used by Peruvian, Colombian and Ecuadorian shamans and healers for thousands of years as a tool for healing and divination. Ayahuasca, which is made from the Amazonian liana Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of Psychotria viridis containing large amounts of DMT, is considered to be an incarnation of intelligent plant beings who teach spirituality and healing to those who treat them with respect. Many Western physicians and psychologists now recognize that ayahuasca allows access to spiritual dimensions of consciousness, to supernatural worlds and beings, and brings a visionary experience similar to classical religious mysticism. The book includes contributions by leading scholars Dennis McKenna, Charles S. Grob, and J. C. Calloway on the ethnopharmacology, psychology, phytochemistry, and neuropharmacology of ayahuasca. Ralph Metzner provides a detailed examination of the chemical, biological, psychological, and empirical dimensions of this Amazonian hallucinogen. He includes more than 20 anecdotal reports from people who have participated in ayahuasca rituals and undergone major life transformations. He details how the sophisticated psychoactive distribution system works in the brain and body, and what the effects of this powerful entheogen are. He concludes with his own findings on ayahuasca, including its uses in medicine and psychology, and compares the world revealed by ayahuasca visions with our modern civilization. Publisher: Fountain Year of publication: 2018 1st Edition Language: Czech Original: The Ayahuasca Experience Translation: by Smolka Michal EAN: 9788073369316 ISBN: 978-80-7336-931-6 Binding: paperback Number of pages: 328 Size: 14x20 cm