Abstract
This article presents the experience of the Institute of Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology (IDEAA), which was created by a group of Spaniards in the Brazilian Amazon in order to study and implement the use of ayahuasca in processes of personal growth and addiction treatment. It begins with a brief description of their basic assumptions, as well as the sources of knowledge underlying the practice, such as transpersonal psychology, Santo Daime, shamanism, and Eastern disciplines. The following section shows the relationship of activities carried out in the rituals, then goes more deeply into the healing process, through a therapeutic model based on minimal accompanying intervention. Through an analysis of the content, we are introduced to the fundamental themes of ayahuasca sessions with addicts, which are discussed and related to the dynamics of transformation. The text concludes with clinical field observations that have emerged after years of practice.
Translated by Gayle Highpine and revised by Clancy Cavnar.
This chapter is a translation from the original Spanish published in 2013 as, “Experiencia de un tratamiento con ayahuasca para las drogodependencias en la Amazonia brasileña,” in B. C. Labate and J. C. Bouso (Eds.), Ayahuasca y Salud (pp. 392–423). Barcelona: Los Libros de La Liebre de Marzo.
X. Fernández—Deceased
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Kambô, also called “frog vaccine,” consists of an inoculation of the venom of the frog Phyllomedusa bicolor, based on a belief that in controlled doses it can reinforce the defenses of the organism.
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The hinário (hymnal) work is a session in which a determined collection of hymns is danced and sung.
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The concentração (concentration) work alternates periods of singing with periods of silent meditation, called concentrations.
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The cura (healing) works are intended to seek health at all human levels, including the spiritual.
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Referring to spiritist practices, based on the teachings of Allen Kardec, among others.
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Umbanda is a doctrine that fuses Candomblé, Christianity, and Kardecist Spiritism.
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Jünger was the first to use the term “psychonaut,” meaning “navigator of consciousness.” It is used at present to refer to researchers and artists who use psychoactive substances as means of introspective self-exploration.
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This is related to the neologism “entheogen,” proposed by, among others, Wasson and Ott, in 1979, to designate visionary or shamanic substances or those substances capable of producing a similar modified state of consciousness. It means, “generating the divine within” and was born of the intent to clarify that visionary substances are not strictly hallucinogenic.
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The term “user” alludes to those who “use” IDEAA, both people with definite problems like addictions or other psychological complications and people without specific disorders who seek a process of personal growth.
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The cabins are constructed of wood with thatched roof in the traditional Amazonian style. They are 15 sq m, and in IDEAA they are the home of each user, creating an individual space for collecting oneself and introspection.
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Chapéu is Portuguese for “hat.”
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Both in the ayahuasca sessions and in the integration meetings, the word “guide” is used to describe the figure who leads and accompanies the work of the users. The knowledge of the guides comes both from experiences with Daimista and shamanic traditions and Western training, such as that developed in the Society for Ethnopsychiatry and Cognitive Studies (Sociedad de Etnopsicología y Estudios Cognitivos, or SdEA), directed by Josep María Fericgla, which has brought together the majority of the guides and therapists who work in IDEAA.
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Mata means “forest” in Portuguese.
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“Acting out” [English in original] is used in therapeutic language to refer to the unconscious tendency to exteriorize internal conflicts with excessive willfulness and without reflection.
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“Insight” [English in original] signifies a sudden idea of intense clarity or penetration that may be associated with intuition.
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This emptiness, different from what we mentioned as a result of the abuse of drugs, refers to an experience described and valued by the Zen Buddhist tradition as a state of profound perception of the nature of reality. It can manifest in a paradoxical form as empty and full at the same time, since this emptiness makes the phenomenal world possible.
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Referring to cases where abstinence from the principal drug of abuse was maintained for at least 1 year.
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A technique for registering brain waves, LORETA is an acronym for Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography.
- 20.
Grof has described spiritual emergencies as evolutionary crises of growth: sharp, sudden, and erupting to change everyday habits and relationships in an uncomfortable and painful way.
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Fernández, X., Fábregas, J.M. (2014). Experience of Treatment with Ayahuasca for Drug Addiction in the Brazilian Amazon. In: Labate, B.C., Cavnar, C. (eds) The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40426-9_10
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