Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca (pronounced /eye-uh-WAHS-kuh/) refers to a wide variety of traditional and modern brews and infusions of natural plant sources that produce powerful psychoactive or hallucinogenic effects (EntheoMedicine). Ayahuasca is used as a traditional spiritual medicine in ceremonies among the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, many of whom say that the plants and plant spirits themselves direct them to ayahuasca. Ayahuasca was first described outside of Indigenous communities in the early 1950s by Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who became aware of its divinatory and healing purposes (EntheoMedicine). As is the case with other psychedelics, ayahuasca is not considered to be dependence-forming or addictive. Scientific research has linked ayahuasca with anti-depressant and anti-anxiety effects. It is also linked to heightened openness and optimism in various brain regions.
