AYAHUASCA — INSTRUMENT OF SELF-OBSERVATION
Perception, habitually conditioned, accesses a distorted fraction of reality, coated with personal projections and presuppositions. The central property of 'entheogens' or 'psycho-integrators' is to lift veils. Ayahuasca amplifies the capacity to respond to the most subtle gradations of stimuli, in addition to integrating the sensory faculties in synesthetic processes. Increasing the capacity to evaluate and appreciate vital experience for oneself is central to understanding its meaning. This amplification, like a magnifying glass, allows for an intensive and absorbed (re)visitation of mental contents: memories, ideas, fantasies, thoughts, emotions, fears, hopes, sensations in general. The ayahuasqueira, a technology that modulates the biochemical composition of the individual, of the instruments of information processing, allows the temporary deactivation of cultural and psychodynamic filters acting in the backstage of the mind, formatting and hierarchizing everyday experiences; as a result, the process releases psychic vitality; uncomfortable contents are transformed and eliminated to the point of reconciliation and acceptance. Besides influencing the intensity and focus of perceptions, the experience can motivate the re-signification of contents, attitudes and ethical values.