After ingesting ayahuasca, the effect begins, according to the individual, between ten minutes and one hour. There are many types of preparations, since each shaman mixes different plants that modify the effect, such as tobacco, brugmansias, brunfelsias, etc. These plants have their own effects, which adds to the final result of the ayahuasca experience. Therefore, the result and intensity of the ayahuasca session can vary greatly from one to another, depending on the preparation. Some spaces or groups use very potent ayahuascas and others prepare mild decoctions. Many facilitators do not offer high doses to first-time takers, so they can first become familiar with the results of ayahuasca before offering them larger amounts.
The experience with ayahuasca generates modifications in the perception of reality. The texture of reality can become luminous, colored and composed of patterns and threads of vibratory energy. The beginning of the experience is usually noticed when, with both open and closed eyes, the texture of reality changes and starts to be endowed with that peculiar character. Buzzing in the ears can also appear, announcing that mental effects are approaching. Although with closed eyes the experience is much more intense than with open eyes, with open eyes there is always a modification in the texture of reality. A common strategy, in fact, when the content of the experience with closed eyes is excessively intense, consists simply in opening the eyes, and the effects slow down.
During the course of the experience, abstract motifs as well as defined images that can be identified usually appear. Emotions are perceived with greater intensity and access to memories that were thought to be forgotten can be achieved. Some manifest paranormal phenomena, such as telepathy or precognition. Although these paranormal effects may not seem real, they are subjectively common elements of the experience.
Fears or difficult emotions can arise that can be accompanied by blockages in the body (pains, stiffnesses, etc.). The best thing to do in problematic moments is to breathe slowly and deeply, let the music take you and trust in the process that ayahuasca imprints and in the guide. It is common, especially for beginners, not to have visionary effects in the first sessions, but this is not always the case. Sometimes it seems that the visions of ayahuasca need a cognitive and visual learning to be experienced.
Ayahuasca also modifies habitual thinking and when one is not experiencing visions one can believe that he is not having any psychological effect, when the truth is that, from the outside, an external observer would certify said effects. That is why, never abandon a session because you think you are not having any effect. It may be simply that you do not have visions, but that your mind is functioning in a different way. If you have decided to take ayahuasca, whatever happens, never leave the session until the responsible authorizes it. It is better to spend a time of tedium than to suffer an accident for wanting to leave the place where the session is held prematurely, or to run the risk that the psychological effects can manifest themselves intensely once the room is left and being alone. Ayahuasca is a powerful plant, take it with respect even if you think it is not having any effect. In some people the effects take time to become noticeable. Be careful. To go home there is always time.
Many consider ayahuasca as a mirror of the interior of oneself, where, in the same way that internal conflicts can arise, also your wonderful and compassionate facets can appear. When that happens, the experience is of an indescribable beauty.
Sometimes it can happen that one feels paranoid during the course of the experience. The experience with ayahuasca is not a linear progress, rather there are different stages, some more rewarding and others more challenging. As in any journey taken in life, there are moments of joy, moments of sadness, moments of happiness, moments of sudden understanding, of discovered truths, and moments of boredom and disappointment. Clinically, symptoms similar to those appearing in mental illnesses can also appear, mainly suspicion, paranoia and self-referential thoughts («everyone is watching me» or «this or that happens because somehow I have motivated it»). These effects are normal at some point in the experience and are usually fleeting. The appearance of these effects is a proof that they are experiences that we all pass through at some point or another in life for whatever circumstances, and although they can be uncomfortable, you must face them. Learning to cope with whatever comes is the best attitude always in an ayahuasca session. And most importantly of all: do not hesitate to ask for help from your facilitator when you consider it necessary. He is there for that, part of his job is to provide it to you and you have paid him for it.
It can also happen that one is immersed in perinatal states, as described by psychiatrist Stanislav Grof. The term perinatal refers to experiences related to the birth process. During an ayahuasca experience, it is possible to relive one’s own birth process, the biological childbirth. According to Grof, birth is the first traumatic situation that a human being has to face and he has described this experience in four phases or «basic perinatal matrices» as he calls them, which correspond to different stages of labor. Perinatal experiences can be very intense and involve physical sensations such as choking, compression, pain, as well as psychological experiences of death and rebirth, existential emptiness, psycho-spiritual rebirth, etc. These experiences are at the basis of many of the rites of passage of ancestral cultures.
Although the experience with ayahuasca lasts between 4 and 6 hours, depending on the doses taken, the moments of confusion and disorientation or feeling of lack of control of the experience usually do not last more than 30 minutes. In any case, you have to be aware that the usual perception of time under the effects of ayahuasca can be altered very considerably. Time, as we experience it in ordinary conditions, may even cease to exist, so it is the own subjective time that will govern the experience.
At the end of the session
When the session is over it is advisable to stay in the place where the dose was taken and not drive or immediately go out into the outside world. You may find yourself much more sensitive to external stimuli or emotionally stirred. Eating something light and writing, even telegraphically, the contents that emerged during your experience before going to sleep can be useful for the integration process.