Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon (42 page)

Schultes himself, at Puerto Limon, drank an infusion derived solely from
ayahuasca bark, and he experienced "subtle visions, blues and purples, slow
undulating waves of color. 1122 Then, a few days later, he tried the mixture with
chagraponga. The effect was considerably brightened-"reds and golds dazzling in diamonds that turned like dancers on the tips of distant highways. 1123
Author Daniel Pinchbeck-I do not know where he got this informationsays that (3-carbolines taken alone "create subtle, monochromatic hallucinations that are soft, warm, and humanized. 1124 As one curandero told me, visions with the ayahuasca vine alone are dark and dim; the chacruna makes
the vision come on like this: whoosh! he said, moving his closed hand rapidly
toward my face, the fingers opening up as it approached. Luis Eduardo Luna,
one of the leading investigators of Amazonian mestizo shamanism, reports
that often a larger amount of the ayahuasca vine is added to the ayahuasca drink than is needed for MAO inhibition, precisely because of its ability to produce strong visual hallucinations.25

Interestingly, some users of parenterally administered DIM, and even of
hallucinogens other than DIM, potentiate the effect by acute pretreatment
with an MAO inhibitor. These hallucinogens are active by themselves, and it
is difficult to see what benefit would be derived from inhibition of peripheral MAO. This too suggests that harmaline has actions on its own that would
contribute to the hallucinogenic response." For example, among the Piaroa
of the Venezuelan Amazon, shamans inhale a snuff, generally called yopo,
made from the pulverized seeds of the DMT-rich plant Anadenanthera peregrina,
but also orally ingest a drink made from the ayahuasca vine prior to inhaling
yopo, and add the vine to the ground seeds. The two plants work together,
they say; drinking the vine is especially important when particularly strong visions are required.27

There is also some reason to believe that THH may be in part responsible
for the hallucinogenic effects of the ayahuasca vine, either by itself or acting
synergistically with other (3-carboline compounds. In 1957 Hochstein and
Paradies had already conjectured-"astutely," in the words of Jonathon Ottthat harmaline and THH might have "substantial psychotomimetic activity in
their own right. 1121 Strikingly, among members of the ayahuasca-using Uniao
do Vegetal church in Brazil, experienced users seem to prefer ayahuasca
drinks where THH concentrations are high relative to harmine and harmaline. They explain that such drinks deliver more "force" to the experience.29
It is therefore surprising that so little research has been done on THH. Alexander Shulgin, in his search of the self-experimentation literature, found only
a single and entirely unhelpful report. "More studies on tetrahydroharmine,"
he says, "are absolutely imperative."3°

Similarly, additive and-especially-synergistic studies of harmala alkaloids have not been performed. The ethnographic evidence strongly suggests
that interactive effects are important and are yet to be investigated.

VARIABILITY AND DOSAGE

Variability in Component Plants

Another issue in understanding the ayahuasca drink is that plants of the same
species, and different batches of the ayahuasca drink made from plants of the
same species, may differ markedly in their chemical composition. Four different analyses of the DIM content of ocoyage leaves, from different areas of the Upper Amazon, report the mean DIM content ranging from 0.17 to 1.46 percent, a greater than eightfold difference.3' Five analyses of the DIM content
of chacruna leaves, similarly from a variety of sources, report the amount of
DIM as ranging from undetectable to 1.77 percent, with mean DIM content
differing from one study to another by an order of magnitude, from o.io to
i.oo percent.jz Note the finding that some chacruna leaves apparently contained no detectable level of DIM; an ayahuasca drink made from such leaves
should, according to the common wisdom, have no psychoactive effect at
all, or any effect would be due entirely to other psychoactive substances. In
the same way, six analyses of the (3-carboline content of dried stems of the
ayahuasca vine report amounts ranging from 0.05 to 1.44 percent, a twentyeight-fold difference. Mean values reportedly vary from 0.21 to 1.o1 percent, a
fivefold difference.33

Why should this be so? The chemical constituents of plants, especially in
the rain forest, can differ significantly depending upon microclimatic conditions. Adjacent plants, gaps in the canopy, the presence of clearings for
swidden agriculture, the nature of the soil, and consequent variations in
temperature, water, and sunlight-all these can affect the type and quantity of plant chemicals.34 The ayahuasca vine may also differ in its chemical
composition depending on its age and even the height of the section that is
cut for use.35 Anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff makes the same
point-that the chemical composition of the local soil is likely to influence
the potency of the plant, and that Tukano men, fully aware of these differences, will go to great pains to collect the ayahuasca vine at some remote part
of the jungle.36 Chemist Jace Callaway reports that DIM levels in the leaves
of a single chacruna plant varied according to the time of day they were collected, with the highest levels of DIM found in leaves collected at dawn or
before dusk and the lowest levels found in leaves collected at midnight and
midmorning, with values remaining low through the hotter part of the day.37

Further, a number of Amazonian shamans have developed their own plant
cultivars, which they grow in their own gardens, and which may differ significantly in chemical constitution from other cultivars or the same species
growing wild. Don Romulo Magin, for example, had a large bush of sameruca growing in his front yard, which he would use to prepare his ayahuasca
drink, and which probably differed in significant ways from wild sameruca,
as well as from both wild and cultivated chacruna. Almost all the shamans in
Colombia use ayahuasca vines that are deliberately planted for use in preparing the ayahuasca drink;38 among these Colombian shamans, the culminating stage in the shamanic apprenticeship is when the master gives the apprentice
vines to plant in his own garden.39 In Peru, on the other hand, many mestizo
shamans consider wild ayahuasca to be more potent, and they will seek out
an abuelo, a grandfather plant, old and powerful, deep in the jungle, whose
location they keep secret.4° Cocama shaman don Jose Curitima Sangama has
planted his own ayahuasca in the monte, the highland jungle, where it will
grow undisturbed; he has been told that, in the new global economy, ayahuasca is a cash crop.41

Frequently, too, mestizo shamans will make distinctions among plants
considered by Europeans to be the same species. For example, they will distinguish different types of ayahuasca vine-red ayahuasca, white ayahuasca,
yellow ayahuasca, black ayahuasca; cielo ayahuasca, sky ayahuasca; lucero ayahuasca, bright star ayahuasca; trueno ayahuasca, thunder ayahuasca; and ayahuasca cascabel, rattle ayahuasca, which is the best ayahuasca of all. These
distinctions are often based on the types of visions produced, rather than on
the morphology of the plant.42 Attempts are made to coordinate these various
classifications: yellow ayahuasca is said to be the same as sky ayahuasca, and
black ayahuasca is the same as thunder ayahuasca.

Similarly, the Ingano Indians recognize seven kinds of ayahuasca, the
Siona recognize eighteen, and the Harakmbet recognize twenty-two, distinguished on the basis of the strength and color of the visions, the trading
history of the plant, and the authority and lineage of the shaman who owns
the plant. All of these variations are a single botanical species, yet shamans
can distinguish these varieties on sight, and shamans from different tribes
identify these same varieties with remarkable consistency.43 Indigenous ayahuasqueros look at the shape of the vine, the color and texture of the bark,
the shape and softness of the leaves, and the overall nature of the cylindrical
shape of the vine, not to mention its smell and taste.

In Brazil, members of the ayahuasca-using Uniao de Vegetal church distinguish two varieties of Banisteriopsis caapi, which they call tucanaca and caupuri.
The tucanaca variety is a smooth vine that grows in the cooler climate of
southern Brazil and is known to have a mild purgative effect; the caupuri variety is a knobby-looking vine with large internodes, which grows in the hotter
jungles of northern Brazil and is known as a powerful purgative. A comparison of the mean content of the three (3-carbolines in the dried bark of these
two varieties of ayahuasca vine shows striking differences: caupuri has more
than twenty-six times as much THH as tucanaca and more than six times as
much harmaline.44 These results indicate, once again, both significant differences in chemical composition among ayahuasca vines and indigenous
ability to recognize variants of the same species and correlate these differences with differing physiological effects.

Variability in the Ayahuasca Drink

Six analyses have also measured the mean amount of DIM and (3-carbolines
found in samples of the ayahuasca drink, all made with chacruna, from the
Upper Amazon and from Brazil.45 The mean amount of DIM in the different
studies ranged from 12.5 to 6o mg/ioo ml, and the mean amount of total (3carbolines ranged from 20 to 668.33 mg/ml, more than an eighty-fold difference. In two samples analyzed by Callaway, one from the Uniao do Vegetal
and one from the Shuar, no DIM was detected at all.46 Equally striking is the
variability in the amount that each researcher took to be a dose of the ayahuasca
drink-an amount that varied from 50 to 240 ml, almost a fivefold difference.

Similarly, where we have information about individual (3-carbolines in ayahuasca drinks, the variability is just as striking. Four analyses of the individual
3-carboline content of ayahuasca drinks report that mean harmine levels differ thirty-fold, and THH differs forty-fold, among the three analyses.47 In four
samples, the investigator reports that harmaline was so low as to be below the
level of detection;48 in another, the level of harmaline was actually higher than
that of harmine.49

Again, why should this be so? The drinks will vary, of course, depending on the alkaloid content of their ingredients. Additional factors affect the
finished drinks, particularly the method of preparation. Among some Amazonian people, the ayahuasca drink is prepared simply as a cold infusion of
macerated vine, without cooking the plant.s° In my experience, the drink is
always prepared by cooking, sometimes in two stages-first with the plant
materials boiled in water, and second, after decanting the plant material, to
produce a reduction of the liquid alone. The part of the ayahuasca vine used
in the preparation of the drink apparently varies from place to place as well,
with some shamans scraping off the outer layer, some leaving it on, and some
using the bark alone. 51 Again, in my experience, the entire vine has been used,
pounded with a hammer and rendered into long stringy fibers that are then
boiled in the water along with leaves of the companion and modulator plants.
Cooking time in particular is a race between extracting all the relevant constituents from the plants, on the one hand, and boiling away the more volatile
constituents on the other. The mixture may be boiled once or several times
and for differing amounts of time; additional plant materials may or may not be added during the cooking process. Storage, too, can affect the quality of
the ayahuasca drink, with the quality of the psychoactive effect often claimed
to change as the drink ages.

FIGURE 9. Pouring off the ayahuasca.

Moreover, the ayahuasquero decides just how much ayahuasca drink will
be given to any participant; in effect, the ayahuasquero titrates dosage to effect. The ayahuasquero fills the cup with the amount considered appropriate for the person drinking it. I have been given-after some discussion-a smaller amount of ayahuasca to drink at the next session after a particularly
spectacular purge. Alternatively, I have been called back up to the ayahuasquero and given-to my dismay-a second and even a third drink of ayahuasca
at a single session. In addition, a specific psychoactive effect may be orchestrated not only by dose but also by additional plants, either mixed into the
ayahuasca drink or ingested separately-for example, by smoking the leaves
of the toe plant after drinking the ayahuasca, or by smoking the bark of the
ayahuasca vine in addition to drinking the ayahuasca drink.

The idea of deliberate titration to end point by adjusting dosage may be
illustrated by looking at the mean DIM content of ayahuasca drinks not as
mean mg/ioo ml, as we did above, but, rather, as mean mg/dose. When we do
that, the total (3-carbolines in the ayahuasca drinks vary as widely as we have
come to expect, ranging from 20 to 416 mg/dose. But the amount of DIM becomes remarkably constant, with a range ofjust 25 to 36 mg/dose and a mean
of 3o mg/dose. It certainly seems that 30 ± 5 mg of DIM is considered, from
the Upper Amazon to Brazil, an optimal dose, and that the leaders of ceremonies are able to judge just what amount of the drink they had made contains
just that much DIM.