Ayahuasca: Is It More than Just a Trip?

Ayahuasca is a naturally brewed psychedelic used in spiritual and indigenous ceremonies across South America. As the trend behind ayahuasca experiences steadily inclines, the traditions behind ayahuasca continue to shift consisting of self-exploration and psychological healing. Newly found individual experiences and experimentations with ayahuasca expand the field of research on how such a substance alters consciousness. Forthcoming data indicates that ayahuasca psychoactive ingredients (N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and β-carbolines), with their subsequent brain functionality shifts, alter various aspects of consciousness. Specifically, ayahuasca alters and oftentimes heightens spiritual consciousness, self-awareness, and sensory input processing. Systematically shifting brain functionality creates new consciousness fields under which creative cognition, memory surfacing, and abilities to work through psychological dilemmas increase. Changes in consciousness make ayahuasca an appealing and a potentially valid treatment for chronic or treatment-resistant conditions such as anxiety, depression, and addiction. Ayahuasca may even enhance functioning and promote mental health in the abstinence of clinical conditions