[Fiona]

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-88923322.html

Oh, sorry, the title which you can't quite read because it gets compressed is "Potent Jungle Vine Brew Has Potential to Treat Addiction."

This stuff is powerful on every level. I really believe in its possibilities...Now you guys know just how crazy I really am (probably no one is too surprised!), but I thought you should know about this.

This article is a little Western...well, dismissive of "the savages," hence lacks true depth and grasp - but has good info in it nonetheless....

I would entertain questions.

[paula_w]

Originally Posted by Fiona

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-88923322.html

Oh, sorry, the title which you can't quite read because it gets compressed is "Potent Jungle Vine Brew Has Potential to Treat Addiction."

This stuff is powerful on every level. I really believe in its possibilities...Now you guys know just how crazy I really am (probably no one is too surprised!), but I thought you should know about this.

This article is a little Western...well, dismissive of "the savages," hence lacks true depth and grasp - but has good info in it nonetheless....

I would entertain questions.

Yes do you have any video? not if it violates your privacy....but i'd love to see it. or a picture...a visual.

sounds very interesting...i don't learn about jungle brews very often. It sounds really interesting!

paula

[Fiona]

Hi Paula -
not sure what you were most interested in - there are many, many videos on youtube about ayahuasca, with some very varied approaches.

This one is not so medicinal, but was made by someone I know of the workshops that I first started going to that introduced me to the plant medicine - more of a personal travelogue, but it does give some idea of the setting I started with...there are four parts - this is the first one, but then you'll see the links to follow through if you want to see all four..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVIXOb23sKU

[Conductor71]

Originally Posted by Fiona

This stuff is powerful on every level. I really believe in its possibilities...Now you guys know just how crazy I really am (probably no one is too surprised!), but I thought you should know about this.

Fiona,

Welcome Back! You have to be one of the most fascinating women I have "met" in a virtual sort of way. I wouldn't at all use the adjective crazy, but adventurous, brave, and exotic, come to mind...

I have many questions but most are banal and some may be entirely too personal. I am most interested in exactly how Natives who treat using this plant based tonic know what to mix it with in order to optimally treat each individual's needs? How do they evaluate or assess you in this regard? PET Scan? ...just thinking again how dare any neurologist judge non-Western treatments or practices- ugh. Did you go on a fact finding expedition to observe first or did you try it?

I also, of course, started researching Ayahuasca and Parkinson's. Found this interesting abstract from Clinical NeuroPharmacology:

Summary: It is of historical interest that 63 years ago Louis Lewin reported the use of a hallucinogenic compound prepared from the South American vine, Banisteria Caapi, to treat Parkinson's disease (PD). This psychoactive compound, named banisterine, proved to be identical to harmine, but 30 years were to pass before it was shown to be a reversible monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor. The first reports of the use of banisterine to treat postencephalitic parkinsonism in 1929 created a stir in the popular press and banisterine was hailed as a "magic drug." Despite continued studies of the harmala alkaloids by other researchers, interest in the therapeutic value of these compounds vanished during the 1930's. The story of banisterine is reviewed because it was the first MAO inhibitor to be used in parkinsonism, and illustrates the historical role of psychoactive durgs in the development of effective therapies, and in elucidating the pathophysiology of PD.


Aren't there other psychoactive drugs that "speak to" PD? I'm thinking Ecstasy but may be way off....

Laura

[Fiona]

Hi Laura-
thanks for the encouragement! Yes, the piece of science you quote here is very interesting, and I had read it before I ever "went South." But then I just approached it head on, went down to Brasil a few years ago, and did a workshop. It is very fascinating in every way, chemically, culturally, the works...

Well, unlike our kind of science, the indigenous shamans don't differentiate out so much between different conditions - or at least not in the same way. They see your spiritual condition as being as important as your physical for one thing....different shamans do have different ways they make ayahusaca, but I don't think there's a huge amount of variables. It is called The Great Medicine because it is thought to prompt all kinds of healing. Something that could happen, for instance, is that a shaman who drinks ayahuasca with you during your healing could dream of a particular plant in the jungle that would be particularly helpful to you, and you would be guided in that way.

Nonetheless, my symptoms virtually disappear while journeying, and often I need much less medication for a day or so after. (The same would be true of MDMA, yes, you are right. Again, I think serotonin is the great overlooked element here...) I've been down here for over a month now, and have not had a single dystonia attack (keeping in mind they are usually daily for me) since I arrived, and I really feel as though my body has changed somehow.

But it's definitely process that unfolds over time. The setting that the ayahuasca session happens in is generally not too clinical in our way of thinking. There can be up to 60 or more people there of all ages - children and babies are included. One of the strongest shamans I know is a ten-year-old boy. There is lots of vomiting and so forth - people just step outside and lean against a tree - and the most insanely great music you ever heard played all night long. About 3:00 am is often when they do the special healings...many of the more than 70 cultural groups that drink ayahuasca are intensely Christian - although not all...

I heartily recommend the first book I read about it, called The Cosmic Serpent, by Jerome Narby. It is a really fascinating book.

[paula_w]

thanks for taking us into what you are experiencing when you are down there. i can see where all stress is removed.

our medical system is built on frustration and stress. patients are the lowly people with a hierarchy of medical people, tons of paperwork, and pharmas, insurance companies. what a busy place...we are so busy it's killing us.

peace fiona, you are fortunate to be able to do this.
paula