Ayahuasca, an Amazonian trip

Shaman Honorato Mishajo Shajoo, who conducted the ceremony

Ayahuasca, an Amazonian trip

Ayahuasca's a hallucinogen in a cup. Bring good karma, and drink at your own risk

by Simeon Tegel 

MADRE DE DIOS, Peru — Without a word, the shaman hands me a plastic cup of ayahuasca, one of the Amazon rainforest’s most powerful hallucinogens. 

I down the pungent black liquid in one gulp, barely managing to repress the gagging reflex that its bitter, foul taste instantly triggers. 

And the wait begins. 

Around us, in a moonless blanket of darkness, the rainforest throbs with life. A chorus of insects, frogs and other unidentified creatures crescendos into a wall of pulsating whirrs, clicks, and screeches.

An indigenous interpretation of an ayahuasca trip, by artist Rember Yahuarcani. Note the center figure, whose experience was apparently similar to our reporter's.
( Simeon Tegel / GlobalPost ) 

By the light of a single candle, I can barely see the shaman, Honorato Mishajo Shajoo, sitting on the ground, as he begins to hum and chant, occasionally playing a few lilting, repetitive notes on a mouth organ.

Every now and then, I make out a few words of Spanish. “Protecting, protecting, with your powerful medicine,” he intones.

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