Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the effects of ayahuasca on humans and more specifically how this substance defines changes within psychological and behavioral patterns, including experience of emotions, decision-making processes, and life changes. The demand for the new-wave of antidepressants based on psychedelic substances places emphasis on the study of how the powerful ayahuasca, a psychoactive vine used in contemporary and indigenous practices, can positively rebalance a person’s behavior and emotions. The study uses a qualitative phenomenological approach and selects 10-15 individuals, new and experienced, to legally consume ayahuasca in ceremonies. Pretreatment intercessory and organizational interviews to measure baseline emotional and behavior patterns, and post-ceremony interviews at 1 week, one month and six months aimed at measuring shift in emotions, decisions, and change in lifestyles. Furthermore, field notes are taken down in order to give a description which would be used as a note of observation about the participants going through the ceremonies. This data will then be discovered through thematic and comparative analysis that would help in determining the recurring themes and the change in mentality of participants before and after the ceremony. Another limitation will be that ethical issues such as informed consent, patient privacy, and researcher’s prejudice will be highly considered. The anticipated contributions of the study include a better understanding of how behavioral change occurs in the long run, the relationship between emotion regulation and behaviour, and how integration of change can be enhanced. This work seeks to improve the knowledge about the therapeutic use of ayahuasca and usage of plant induced vision in daily life.