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Compreensão de Sentidos Atribuídos à Ayahuasca: Percursos Terapêuticos do Uso Ritualístico

Jaqueline Tavares de Assisi, Maria Inês Gandolfo Conceicao

PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES - Revista da Abordagem Gestáltica 2020 DOI: 10.18065/2020v26n2.4 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Qualitative study Peer reviewed
Population People with therapeutic itineraries connected to ritualistic use of ayahuasca
Intervention Ayahuasca
Topics Ayahuasca
Key findings Ritualistic ayahuasca experiences and therapeutic itineraries contributed to participants' recognition of health as a posture of maturity or wisdom, with ayahuasca enabling re-significations in self-care and self-love.

Abstract

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive drink of Amazonian origin prepared from vine known as jagube and/or mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and chacrona bush (Psychotria viridis). Its cultural and ritualistic use have been recognized from millennia by indigenous ethnic groups in the Western Amazon and gained worldwide influence in the 1980s through the expansion of it religious use. In the biomedical field, studies have attested the safety in the administration of the beverage in humans and found features of physical and mental wellbeing on users. This article aims to discuss the results of a research that investigated life histories of people with therapeutic itineraries connected to the ritualistic use of ayahuasca, from a phenomenological-existential understanding and gestalt-therapy approach. The methodology was based on a phenomenological stance and in life history method, enabling an apprehension of lived experience of the rituals. Thus, it was verified that the ritualistic experiences and the therapeutic itineraries contributed in the participants' recognition that health is a posture of maturity or wisdom associated to their relations with the world, attributing to ayahuasca the capacity to operate re-significations in the daily process of self-care and, above all, in love of oneself.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on ayahuasca, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
The antipodes Of the mind Indigenous people, shamans, members of different religious sects using Ayahuasca, and... 2002 Qualitative study
Drug Tourism or Spiritual Healing? Ayahuasca Seekers in Amazonia Westerners participating in an ayahuasca retreat in Amazonia 2005 Qualitative study
Therapeutic Effects of Ritual Ayahuasca Use in the Treatment of Substance Dependence—Qualitative Results Therapists, expert researchers, and individuals who underwent ayahuasca-assisted... 2014 Qualitative study n = 29
Nourishing the Spirit: Exploratory Research on Ayahuasca Experiences along the Continuum of Recovery from Eating Disorders Individuals previously diagnosed with an eating disorder 2017 Qualitative study n = 16
Exploring ayahuasca‐assisted therapy for addiction: A qualitative analysis of preliminary findings among an Indigenous community in Canada Indigenous adults in Canada who participated in ayahuasca-assisted ceremonial retreats 2019 Qualitative study n = 11

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Ayahuasca Philosophy of mind