Why do people keep drinking Ayahuasca? if it’s so good for you why do people have to keep going back?

Doesn’t mean that it’s addictive, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work, doesn’t mean that i’m gonna end up becoming a lifelong client of some South American Shaman that just wants my money.

These questions are reasonable and quite often we worry because maybe we see our friends, family, people we know, taking it over and over.

If it’s really as good as they say, if it can cure you from so many things then why do you need to do it more than once?

So, 4 main reasons of why people keep drinking Ayahuasca:

1. Falling in love with the process:
   People fall in love with the process and not the integration, it’s very easy to feel like you’re doing work during Ayahuasca because you remember your past trauma, your history, you vomit them out, you’re cleansing your body, you go through a roller coaster of a movie of your own story, your own fears, and finally come back into a beautiful place and although the experience of drinking Ayahuasca is not pleasant by any means, with all the vomiting, everything can be quite rough mentally and phisically afterwards.
   
   Most people feel rather at peace and bliss, it has a good ending most of the time and this can become a source of distraction for many people.
   
   There are people in our community that we have seen over the years come back once a month or every couple of months, but very little in their life changes and this happens because they don’t give themselves time to integrate, they’re really excited about the process, the visions, the spirits, the Shamanic side of it and they forget that it’s only a tool meant to be used to improve their life.
   
   Sometimes, they’re not actually doing the work but because it feels as if they’re doing it they think that the more they drink, the more they’re gonna grow, it’s not like that.
   
   It’s like going to church, we all agree that we’ve all seen have had a friend or family member who goes to church quite often and they’re not the nicest people, but the more they go to church, the more they pray, the better people they’re gonna be, but it’s not true.
   
   They’re not applying what they learn in the sermons, in the speech from the priest.
   
   
2. Can’t heal everything in one night:
   There is a lot of damage that we have done to our system by the time that we decided to drink the medicine.
   
   20, 30, 40+ years of possibly substance abuse, maybe unhealthy habits of thinking, maybe of being depressed, anxious. We believe or we expect that in one night that’s gonna be cleaned up and that’s not the case.
   
   Imagine that you have a very, very big house and beautiful home, then you expect that in one night you’re gonna clean all of it even though you have neglected it for 20, 30+ years.
   
   It’s unrealistic and this is what most people find out, their first Ayahuasca retreat becomes a before and after in their life, it allows them to understand in a deeper way who they are, why they are, the way they are, what has worked, what didn’t work to heal some very debrided traumas.
   
   But also shows them that it is a process that’s going to require deeper involvement, you can’t fix 30, 40+ years of toxicity in one night, you could, but it would be way too overwhelming for the mind and for the body, sometimes we have cases of people that cure themselves of cancer, autoimmune diseases, life long depressions.
   
   They do so in just a few days, but usually that person is a person that ends up losing their mind for a few hours, vomiting themselves, pooping their pants, screaming, they go through what feels like hell, releasing a lot of stuff in a small period of time.
   
   For most people, that’s not the case and that’s healthy because most people’s minds and body are not ready to have such a cathartic release in which you destroy or dismiss 30, 40+ years of conditioning in 2 or 3 nights.
   
   They realize that this was useful but they healed, they changed, they felt better, they saw results in their life, they healed their relationships, their health. They also realized that there’s more to it and they want to continue doing the work, they notice that this is a very, very useful tool, so when the time feels right they come back to keep learning, to keep growing.
   
   
3. Spiritual cleansing/reset:
   Ayahuasca for me is a sort of spiritual shower, if i lived in the jungle there would be very little worries, maybe a little interaction with the outside world and life could be rather chill and relaxed – but i live in the city in downtown Toronto.
   
   I move in a lot of different communities and usually when we live in the cities we are exposed to a lot of stuff that is not supportive of a spiritual process;
   
   Starting from the food, the water, the air that we breathe, the information that comes to us through social media. There’s many things that gets our energy a little bit blurry, clogged and cloudy.
   
   So it’s useful for me at least once a year when i’m feeling heavy and charged where my daily practices are not enough to keep my energies clean like with yoga, meditation and so on.
   
   Drinking Ayahuasca is a way of taking a deep cleanse, I release things that maybe I don’t even notice that I brought into myself, emotions, energies, sensations.
   
   People keep coming back realizing they need a little bit of a reset, not necessarily hurting or in massive pain, but they realize that the quality of consciousness with which they left the retreat now seems a lot more distant and the confusion is coming back, they realize that maybe they haven’t been the best at keeping up their resolutions, their commitments, so it serves as a reminder.
   
   You take a shower, you end up clean again, and you remember what you were comitted to do, so you can keep walking that direction.
   
   
4. A path of service:
   People see this as a path of service (This being my case). Ayahuasca for many people (When done in a community where you can look up to and admire the progress, the way of being, the peace, the joyfulness of the Shaman and the assitance.) becomes a place where you want to hang out, a place where there’s wise people, wise elders.
   
   You have a lot to learn from them and they have a lot to teach about life, so for a lot of people they feel the calling to drink Ayahuasca as a way to practice service as a way to be in connection with a healthy community and as a way to continue their journey of growth.
   
   Christianism is what works for some other people, South American Shamanism is what feels close to others heart.

If you ever wondered why people keep drinking Ayahuasca, there’s a group of people that come because they’re confusing the ceremonies and the tools provided for the result and they think that it was the result, but it’s not the case.

Maybe it’s because people realize that in just a few nights you can’t heal/clean up 30+ years of conditioning.

Or people have a great experience and they realize that they want to come back, to reset, to reconnect to that which changed their life, sort of a spiritual shower.

They may see this as their path of service, of growth, of spiritual journey – surrounded by people who can guide them, which is rare in today’s world.

If you feel the calling to sit with Ayahuasca, in a container held by Colombian shamans at a sacred temple in the middle of the mountain forests, please check: www.ayahuascacolombia.com/retreats