Blending Traditions: Using Indigenous Medicinal Knowledge to Treat Drug Addiction (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
This publication illustrates the manner how the drug addiction is treated in the Takiwasi Centre (Tarapoto, Peru). There are for more than twenty years plant medicines applied in the drug rehabilitation programme which combines the traditional indigenous medicine of the Amazon and psychotherapy. The Takiwasi model is based neither on complete abstinence nor substitution. Its key component is the ritual ingestion of ayahuasca, psychoactive substance producing altered states of consciousness. The aim of the research presented in this book was to verify, if the drug addiction could be treated with this substance, and answer the question about its efficiency.
Takiwasi: The Use of Amazonian Shamanism to Rehabilitate Drug Addicts
Takiwasi is a center for the treatment of drug addictions and research on traditional medicines. The therapeutic protocol of Takiwasi is based in traditional medicine's functions at three levels: organic, psychological and spiritual. The central plant in Takiwasi is the water extract from Banisteriopsis caapi, Psychotria viridis, and Brugmansia sp. Generally known in the jungle as ayahuasca it constitutes the central axis of curanderismo (shamanism), in the whole of the Amazon Western basin, due to its purgative and psychotropic effects. Anthropological, psychological, and phytochemical studies demonstrate that it can be effectively used in the treatment of chemical dependencies and psychopathology if it is properly administered. Treatment of patients al so indicates that curative sessions are affected not only by the active ingredients (β-carbolines and tryptamines), but also by the therapist, the psychosomatic condition of the patient, environmental factors, and the interaction between the participants. The article includes details of the organization of Takiwasi and the therapeutic process.
Traditional Amazonian medicine in addiction treatment: Qualitative results
SSM - Qualitative Research, 2022
Traditional Amazonian medicine, and in particular the psychoactive substance ayahuasca, has generated significant research interest along with the recent revival of psychedelic medicine. Previously we published within-treatment quantitative results from a residential addiction treatment centre that predominately employs Peruvian traditional Amazonian medicine, and here we follow up that work with a qualitative study of within-treatment patient experiences. Open-ended interviews with 9 inpatients were conducted from 2014–2015, and later analysed using thematic analysis. Our findings support the possibility of therapeutic effects from Amazonian medicine, but also highlight the complexity of Amazonian medical practices, suggesting that the richness of such traditions should not be reduced to the use of ayahuasca only.
The evolution of a pilot program utilizing ayahuasca in the treatment of drug addictions
The idea that psychoactive substances can be used to treat drug addicts may seem paradoxical to Western psychotherapists, yet there is growing evidence that the ritual use of plant medicines may provide one of the most effective treatments for people suffering from substance addiction. For more than fifteen years, my associates and I have been developing and testing an experimental rehabilitation program at Takiwasi, a residential center located in the Amazonian foothills of Peru, which actively incorporates the psychoactive beverage ayahuasca in the treatment of drug addicts. After having observed hundreds of addicts undergo hundreds of ayahuasca sessions at our center, we can affirm that the ingestion of ayahuasca—under controlled conditions of preparation, prescription, and psychotherapeutic follow-up—can produce surprising therapeutic benefits, with a total absence of dependence.
An Account of Healing Depression UsingAyahuascaPlant Teacher Medicine in a Santo Daime Ritual
The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 2013
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive traditional plant medicine preparation used by the indigenous tribes of the Upper Amazon in their shamanic traditions. Its use has become popular amongst Westerners seeking alternative means of healing, and the medicine has now spread across the globe via syncretic spiritual healing traditions such as the Santo Daime Church. Despite the increased use of the medicine, little research exists on its effectiveness for healing depression. The existing literature does not contain a detailed self-reported phenomenological account of ayahuasca healing a case of depression. The aim of this paper is to share a personal account of healing depression using ayahuasca in a Santo Daime ritual in Johannesburg, South Africa. This experience was unplanned and unexpected and resulted in a profoundly transformative healing process. Based on my experience, I describe ayahuasca's ingestion as having created a powerful mind-body-spirit connection that resulted in what appeared and felt like a profound reconfiguration of the bio-electrical energy system in my body and a powerful anti-depressant action on my mind. These effects were catalyzed by a strong intention to heal and trust in and take responsibility for myself. Other South African Santo Daime members have reported healing of depression with ayahuasca, although in longer and different processes. It appears that the medicine engages the individual's unique collective self (life-history, physical and mental disposition, beliefs and intents) resulting in different outcomes for different individuals. Thus, from my own and others' experience, I describe ayahuasca as a spiritual medicine; one that promotes enhanced awareness and deeper connection to one's core self, to others and the greater universe, while facilitating the manifestation of one's intentions and beliefs. This encounter with ayahuasca provided me a first-hand experience of learning and healing from the medicine, making real to me the indigenous Amazonian description of plants as being teachers and doctors. Ayahuasca is a psychoactive plant medicine preparation used among the indigenous groups of the Upper Amazon. The word ayahuasca (also known as caapi or yage) is a Quechua term meaning 'vine of the souls' and is applied both to the beverage itself and to one of the source plants used in its preparation, the malpighiaceous jungle liana, Banisteriopsis caapi (Schultes, 1957). The preparation is made by boiling or soaking the bark and stems of B. caapi together with various other plants. The mixture employed most commonly is the Rubiaceous genus Psychotria, particularly Psychotria viridis (Schultes, 1957). The medicine is primarily used for cleansing, divination and curing illness and disease as part of indigenous shamanic practices (Luna, 1984). Shamanism involves practitioners who, by using 'techniques of ecstasy' (entering trance and enhanced states of awareness), through various means (depending on the tradition in question) such as song,
Within-treatment changes in a novel addiction treatment program using traditional Amazonian medicine
Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 2021
Aims: The therapeutic use of psychedelics is regaining scientific momentum, but similarly psychoactive ethnobotanical substances have a long history of medical (and other) uses in indigenous contexts. Here we aimed to evaluate patient outcomes in a residential addiction treatment center that employs a novel combination of Western and traditional Amazonian methods. Methods: The study was observational, with repeated measures applied throughout treatment. All tests were administered in the center, which is located in Tarapoto, Peru. Data were collected between 2014 and 2015, and the study sample consisted of 36 male inpatients who were motivated to seek treatment and who entered into treatment voluntarily. Around 58% of the sample was from South America, 28% from Europe, and the remaining 14% from North America. We primarily employed repeated measures on a psychological test battery administered throughout treatment, measuring perceived stress, craving frequency, mental illness symptoms, spiritual well-being, and physical and emotional health. Addiction severity was measured on intake, and neuropsychological performance was assessed in a subsample from intake to at least 2 months into treatment. Results: Statistically significant and clinically positive changes were found across all repeated measures. These changes appeared early in the treatment and were maintained over time. Significant improvements were also found for neuropsychological functioning. Conclusion: These results provide evidence for treatment safety in a highly novel addiction treatment setting, while also suggesting positive therapeutic effects.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew that has origins in the indigenous traditions of the Amazon regions of South America. It is known as a healing medicine that is deeply embedded in shamanic practices and spiritual beliefs. In the last few decades the use of Ayahuasca has developed outside of the Amazon and has since become a transnational phenomenon, crossing boundaries between Western and non-Western healing contexts. This increasing popularity has attracted a multidisciplinary array of research interests, of which anthropology has significantly contributed. It has become evident for those engaged in Ayahuasca research that Western epistemology is limited by its longstanding constraints of objectivism, rationalism and scientific materialism. In this thesis, I provide an analysis of Ayahuasca to outline the spiritual centrality of its use and appropriation, especially in context of healing beliefs and practices. I apply the concept of neo-enchantment to outline how the globalization of Ayahuasca challenges the hegemony of rationalism and secularism in industrialized society. This is achieved through reference to recent Ayahuasca research and analysis that seek to overcome limitations of Western epistemology, through dialectically synthesizing scientific and indigenous paradigms of healing and knowledge. While focused on Ayahuasca research, the outcomes of this thesis relates to broader issues in the social sciences and beyond, and raises some important questions for future research.
This text presents a series of reflections on the therapeutic potential of the ritual use of ayahuasca in the treatment and handling of substance dependence problems. Anthropological and psychiatric data on the ritual use of ayahuasca for 'healing' dependence in psychotherapeutic centers (in Peru and Brazil), as well as in ayahuasca religions (in Brazil), are reviewed and critiqued. Methodological, ethical and political considerations for current and future research in this area are then discussed, and an interdisciplinary agenda for studies on the use of ayahuasca to treat or handle substance dependence is proposed.