Drink ayahuasca and you may see yourself being eaten by a crocodile. You may find a miraculous resolution to a crippling sadness. Or, more likely, you’ll land somewhere in between. Regardless, you will definitely throw up. Author and ethnobotanist Chris Kilham says all of these things have happened to him after drinking this psychoactive Amazonian brew.

If you haven’t heard of ayahuasca, you may soon. While once consumed mainly by natives of the Amazon basin, today, thousands visit Latin American countries every year to imbibe it, with the hopes of seeing profound visions, having religious experiences and—many claim—undergoing immense healing. Ayahuasca now has devoted followers throughout the world.

It has been drunk by shamans throughout the region for thousands of years as a part of traditional healing processes: the visions brought on by the brew guided the shaman to the his patient’s problem.

The drink’s psychoactive properties are thought to derive from the presence of a psychedelic compound called DMT. (1)

But does it matter which substance is responsible?
The brain is a barrier.
Does it matter who brings the barrier down?
If the barrier is materialistic in nature, so must the things which lifts the barrier.

We believe we are better than the plant.
We believe we are better than the rock.
We have the tendency to “know”.
We believe we understand what is real and what is not.
We think we know what Being means.

But think again.
You conscious self is rising,
whenever you STOP thinking…

Relax.

Eat the plant.
Be the rock.

Exist.