Ayahuasca is a plant brew from the Amazonian rainforest that is capable of inducing altered states of consciousness. It has been used for millenia by indigenous cultures as a medicine, typically in a ceremonial setting under the guidance of an experienced healer. The Ayahuasca ceremony has several stages: The first stage is the cleansing, then healing and teachings, followed by protection. The most difficult and long lasting is integration of what you have learned into your everyday life. The length of each stage depends on where you are in your current process. The process does not start or end with drinking Ayahuasca on a ceremony. 

Visions are a part of the teachings you receive during ceremony or in dreams. They come only when you are ready. To be able to understand visions the way they are meant by spiritual doctors and teachers, you need to go through the cleansing process. This part of healing with Ayahuasca is the most important. If you have a wound, the doctor first needs to clean the wound and give your body the opportunity to start healing itself. Afterwards he applies a wound dressing – a protection under which healing may safely continue. Shamanic healing is simmilar. Cleansing is being done on many levels. It is a part of the ceremony, but also part of the entire dieta process. On the physical level, it will clean your body of toxins, making circulation systems better, making your immune system stronger. During the healing on this level, you may feel sick, weak, have pains in certain parts of your body, sweat, diarrhea, get some rashes on your skin etc. This is how the body cleans itself.

On the energetic level it will clean the blocks that you carry with you from this life (the beliefs of your culture, religion, your family, and friends etc.) and past lives, which may also be connected to physical or mental illnesses. During this process you may face your fears, your weaknesses, your doubts, sadness, anger, resentments, envy, jealousy… You may release them through crying, screaming, laughing, becoming even more sad or angry. As part of the healing process you may have to revisit traumas or fears before you are able to release them. Sometimes this may result in what you could perceive to be a ‘bad ceremony’. Healing is therefore a complete process which starts with cleansing. Through teachings you understand how to live your life differently, with more peace, being more happy and balanced within yourself and with the world around you. Mostly this would involve being much more open to nature and to humanity. You may not grow spiritually without healing and may not heal without growing spiritually.

Teaching may therefore begin only after cleansing. Blocks are preventing us from understanding things as they are. Teaching may come in the form of thoughts in your head, hearing voices, seeing visions, or experiencing emotions and feelings. When you are in the dieta process, the plants that you diet with will support your work. Your responsibility for the work with Ayahuasca is very simple: respecting the dieta rules. This does not mean only to abstain from eating certain foods. It also includes drinking other medicinal plants that support your process. At the beginning the healer will guide you and explain the rules. After you become open enough, you may receive messages directly from plant spirits, and they will become your guides, teachers, healers, allays. The DAS center is a peaceful environment. The time spent between ceremonies is dedicated to integrating what participants experience and learn. Integration may not happen if your attention is diverted outwards rather than inwards. External distractions prevent receiving subtle messages from spiritual doctors.