The Door of the Vine

Ayahuasca’s Popularity

Ayahuasca is a complex and diverse topic, first and foremost. It is not ‘black and white’ and requires us to approach it with care and a broad perspective. There are more than 150 Indigenous groups that brew, consume, and name it in just as many different ways. 

Moreover, religions stemming from Brazil that use ayahuasca as a central sacrament—including the Santo Daime, Barquinha, and União do Vegetal (UDV), to name the three developed and longstanding —have global reach. The UDV’s website reports 20,000 participants, and, as of 2012, Santo Daime held a similar figure, maintaining congregations in over 30 different countries. Since then, Santo Daime has only grown in popularity and membership. It has been estimated that, as of 2024, there could be upwards of 100,000 attendees each week at church services drinking ayahuasca. 

This statistic is just the Daime and not including the perhaps the more popular and widespread Indigenous, Mestizo, and Western neo-shamanic groups that far outnumber the former with regular retreat attendance and participation.

What Is Ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca, in its purest form and best practice, is the union of the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the chacruna leaf (Psychotria viridis) or one of its closely related cousins, like chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana) or even certain Acacia and Mimosa species. The leaf contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT is a tryptamine, structurally similar to serotonin and melatonin, and it is found in the human brain and body, as well as in over 400 plant species. 

Following the studies of Dr. Rick Strassman, DMT became known in the West as “the spirit molecule.” It was so named because it provides entry into a rich tapestry of multidimensional landscapes, where people often report the presence of entities and intelligent communication, as well as meaningful experiences that deepen awareness beyond the ordinary. To experience these effects, DMT by itself is either smoked, vaporised, or injected, because, if taken orally, it is broken down almost immediately by enzymes in the digestive system.

Not Merely A DMT Beverage

The ayahuasca vine acts as a strong inhibitor of those enzymes (an MAOI) and allows the DMT in the chacruna leaf to be orally active. Now, here, I want to emphasise two important ideas. First, I want to acknowledge with wonder the profundity of the original, inspired peoples who discovered this combination amidst a plethora of flora and fauna in the Amazon basin, and my rendition here is juvenile at best. If you want to know more, there are many good studies on the topic, and I assume you are here with a basic understanding already. Second, I want to share that this drink should not be confused as merely a DMT-containing substance or beverage. Let me explain.

In the late eighties and early nineties, people like Terence McKenna went to the Amazon and described it as just that: “a DMT beverage.” It was not until recent years that we in the West have been able to undo this assumption. While the visual and multidimensional aspects of DMT certainly play a crucial role in the experience, there are indigenous elders who disagree that it is the main component. There are many examples, historically and anthropologically, of peoples who do not actually add chacruna leaves to the brew, but consume the vine alone. Just as the common name for the brew, ayahuasca, takes its name from the vine and not the leaf, they argue that it is the vine that is the essential, healing component.

The vine contains harmala alkaloids, which act not only as MAOIs to enable the oral activation of DMT, but also have their own therapeutic and healing properties. These alkaloids, such as harmine and tetrahydroharmine, promote neurogenesis, regulate mood, and foster a deeply introspective and grounded state. By itself, the vine is slightly psychoactive and has a visionary component that is usually described as monochromatic and deciphered only by sensitive individuals trained as ayahuasqueros to work in and perceive these subtleties.

It has been said that the vine is the book where all of the wisdom is contained, and the leaf is the lamp light by which to read the book. Another way of phrasing this is that the leaf is the remote control for the television, while the vine contains the movie, the story, and the meaning. Yet another metaphor is that the leaf is the key, but the vine is the door and the room.