Feeling worse after an Ayahuasca Ceremony?

Integrating post-ceremony Trauma…Yes It’s a thing. 

Ryan was a meditator, experienced with ayahuasca, so it surprised him (not in a good way) when a disturbing ayahuasca ceremony revealed the world as hollow and grotesquely meaningless. In the aftermath, he felt dissociated and numb. It took him the better part of a year to recover, and he was still wondering what had happened when we met several years later. He’d been wary of ayahuasca ever since.

Ayahuasca can be powerfully therapeutic. More and more scientific research is showing how ayahuasca can help people overcome severe depression, addiction, chronic grief and loss, and other problems. The research parallels the abundance of stories on the internet of people gaining different types of healing from their work with the brew. I‘ve met many individuals who are deeply grateful for how ayahuasca has helped change them. Some even claim, sincerely, that it saved their life.

But there is a thorny issue at the heart of the ayahuasca path that people often avoid talking about. Some people actually feel not better but worse after drinking the brew. What should we make of this fact? First, let’s consider some more examples.

Read the rest of the article by Kerry Moran  here