The term Ayahuasca is derived from the Quechua words aya, meaning soul or spirit, and huasca, meaning rope or vine. This roughly translates to "cord of the dead" or "vine of the soul," and refers to a sacred plant medicine brew made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine.

 

Believed to open a window into the soul, Ayahuasca is used as a traditional spiritual medicine by indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon basin in ceremony to communicate with the world of the spirits. It is respected by indigenous peoples as a healing plant or master “teacher plant” and represents the basis of their traditional medicines and the foundation of the magical-spiritual connection.

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Working with Ayahuasca is an intense, profound and nearly always highly transformative experience that can facilitate deep healing on all levels of your being – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It can serve as a doorway to inner worlds that enables us access to higher states of consciousness and the experience of spiritual awakening. 

 

When taken in ceremony under the guidance of skilled and respectful shaman, Ayahuasca can bring about a profound state of altered consciousness and temporary "ego disintegration," allowing the initiated to move beyond their defense mechanisms into the depths of the unconscious mind — offering a unique opportunity to touch healing places that might not otherwise be possible. For many, it reveals the multi-dimensional nature of reality and ourselves and it leads us back to who we truly are.

 

Shaman Don Guido's brew is gentle and is typically cooked for 12 days prior to ceremony. He begins each evening ceremony by taking the pulse of all participants and checking their energy before determining the amount of  plant medicine each individual may take. The experience is enhanced by his singing of a unique Icaros , or ceremonial medicine song, for each person in the group, to induce a profound state of healing, awareness or amazement, to help them deepen, integrate and take home their healing.