I recently attended the World Ayahuasca Forum in Girona, Spain. This conference was the first of its kind, and it was so remarkable and amazing that I really wanted to share it to you here so you that know about Ayahuasca as a healing modality and to provide resources about plant medicine so you can investigate more if you’d like.

What Is Ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is a plant medicine from Central and South America. It’s a psychedelic brew made primarily from a vine that grows in the Amazon jungle. 

It is prepared with the vine of the Ayahuasca plant and the leaves of the Chacruna plant. They are boiled together for hours to create a thick syrup or what I would refer to as a solid extract of the two plants. It is then drunk in a group ceremony led by a shaman. Some indigenous groups use only the vine, and some add other ingredients, but the vine-and-Chacruna combination is the most common.

Ayahuasca is a plant medicine that is known to help humans connect to the spiritual realm, to ourselves, to our intuition, our ancestors, and our spirit guides. It’s used by people of many different religions. It isn’t a religion itself, but a way to connect with one’s own spirituality. There are established churches, particularly in the United States, that recognize the spiritual use of Ayahuasca. 

Currently, Ayahuasca isn’t legal in the United States, though it has been decriminalized in Colorado. It is legal in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia, where indigenous communities are located and offer ceremonies, though they face real challenges from illegal mining and drug-trafficking activity encroaching on the Amazon and threatening their access to this plant. Protecting the Amazon, and the indigenous groups who have used plant medicine for hundreds if not thousands of years, was an ongoing concern at the conference.

I refer to Ayahuasca as a “medicine” rather than a “psychedelic” because that is the term used by indigenous people. It does have psychedelic properties, but to them it is, first and foremost, medicine. They believe that having a connection to spirit is essential for health, and if we don’t have a relationship with spirits and our ancestors that we are vulnerable to illness. Ayahuasca is a tool and ally from nature, to protect us.

About the World Ayahuasca Forum

The World Ayahuasca Forum was a landmark event, bringing together roughly 1,700 attendees over three days, with four simultaneous session rooms running from 9 a.m. to as late as 8 or 9 p.m. It brought together indigenous groups from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador alongside researchers, scientists, practitioners, and shamans supporting safe, effective use of Ayahuasca.

Keynote presentations came from Dennis McKenna and Paul Stamets, along with an enormous number of research presentations on Ayahuasca and on psilocybin, from magic mushrooms. Topics ranged from the latest science to legal questions and dialogue on integrating indigenous use with modern practice. 

The indigenous people opened and closed the event with prayer, song, and chants, bringing the spirituality central to their traditional use of Ayahuasca into the conference itself.

ICEERS, the event’s main organizer, presented their Ayahuasca Safe Documentation Kit, a set of safety guidelines covering screening, preparation, the ceremony itself, and post-ceremony integration for anyone facilitating Ayahuasca outside indigenous contexts. 

The Research on Ayahuasca

Several studies presented really stood out to me. One showed 71% remission of treatment-resistant depression one year after Ayahuasca use, a striking figure compared to standard depression treatments, which don’t come close to that success rate. 

It’s worth noting that Ayahuasca isn’t taken daily; people typically use it in one to three ceremonies, in a retreat or dieta. The benefits shown in research studies are from relatively limited use (not daily use). Research has also shown that Ayahuasca can help with PTSD, general stress, anxiety, abuse recovery, and addiction recovery.

Ayahuasca is classified in herbal medicine as a purgative, meaning it can cause vomiting or bowel movements. In my observation, this typically isn’t prolonged like food-poisoning-related vomiting; it tends to be a brief episode. Purging can also take other forms, such as tears, breathing, yawning, or sweating. I think of this as a kind of detox. 

It also helps us process emotions. With Ayahuasca, we’re able to feel difficult feelings, like those tied to PTSD or abuse, without it being frightening, allowing us to move through and process them, especially in a well-supported environment.

Another study I found compelling measured cortisol before and after Ayahuasca use. Many participants who’d been under chronic stress had low cortisol beforehand, and after ayahuasca, their levels normalized. Since cortisol affects fatigue, mood, depression, anxiety, and many other aspects of health, this kind of correction matters enormously. 

The same study looked at BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which supports neuroplasticity and nerve repair, and found BDNF increased with Ayahuasca use, suggesting benefits for neuropathy, pain, and emotional trauma.

Another study related to the purgative effects found that Ayahuasca is able to reset the vagus nerve, which mirrors what I’ve personally observed. I’ve traveled to Peru multiple times over the past 6 years to participate in dietas and experience Ayahuasca myself, and I’ve long felt that it was effective at resetting the vagus nerve. 

The vagus nerve governs the parasympathetic, or calming, side of our nervous system, as opposed to the sympathetic fight-or-flight response. Under chronic stress, the vagus nerve can get stuck, and we remain locked in fight-or-flight. Tools like breathwork and time in nature can help reset it, and it seems ayahuasca’s purgative action does the same.

If you would like to learn more about the studies I mentioned you can find the links below.

Nature, Science, and Connection

Dennis McKenna, well known botanist, opened the conference noting how disconnected humans have become from nature, forgetting that we are part of it and that nature holds real intelligence. Both he and Paul Stamets spoke to how science, often reductionist, is beginning to recognize that intelligence.

Stamets pointed out that the same molecules, tryptophan and tryptamine, are found throughout the universe and in humans, in Ayahuasca, and in psilocybin, and that tryptamine appears to be the healing active ingredient in both medicines. 

He shared that over 300 institutions now have registered psilocybin research, and more than 700,000 people worldwide currently use psilocybin, including for depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addictions like tobacco, alcohol, and opioids.

My Experience with Ayahuasca and Certification 

Personally, Ayahuasca has been life-changing. It helped me to resolve chronic migraines and chronic pain from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and it resolved depression, anxiety, and PTSD that I once lived with, for which I am extremely grateful.

I have found Ayahuasca and psilocybin to be such powerful medicines that I feel compelled to support the movement to increase access for others to heal, especially from chronic conditions that are not being solved by Western medicine. 

I became certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy through the Integrative Psychiatry Institute in 2025, and I’m now licensed in Colorado as a psilocybin facilitator in-training. Within 2 or 3 months I will have full licensure as a facilitator in Colorado. New Mexico is expected to allow legal access to psilocybin by year’s end. 

For Ayahuasca specifically, I believe it should be used with a shaman in a group ceremony. It’s important to go through a screening process to be sure it is a good medicine for you and to evaluate for contraindications. You’ll also want to follow the recommended diet changes prior to and after Ayahuasca use. I can provide information about safe, reputable experts, if you are interested.

Ayahuasca and Women’s Health

Going forward, my particular focus is on how Ayahuasca and psilocybin can help women recovering from stress, trauma, and abuse, particularly those facing high-risk HPV and related cancer risk, since trauma is linked to greater susceptibility to HPV. 

Indigenous women leaders at the conference emphasized their own growing role in this movement, which gave me real hope.

To Learn More About My Approach

I have been researching, writing, and helping patients (and myself) recover from stress and trauma for over 30 years. I knew from young age that stress was at the root of most all health issues. And by finding ways to help humans recover from stress would allow for healing to happen. 

That is what lead me to find Ayahuasca, as well as psilocybin and many other nutrients, herbs, and approaches from nature that help humans heal. 

I have written about what I have discovered in five books up to this point in time, including Master Your Stress Reset Your Health where I talk about how it’s not just about “managing stress.”

Stress is not one-size-fits-all and to the degree that we treat it that way, we will fail. Instead we need to identify the unique way that stress impacts your system, and then provide the support you need in order to recover from the stress you’ve been exposed to.

Stress, whether due to chronic daily stress, a crisis or abuse, childhood adverse events, and/or physical stress, and even toxins as a stress, all effect our cortisol and adrenaline levels.

Our bodies start to anticipate the next stress, and that creates a perpetual stress message which then disrupts all our internal systems, like a domino effect. The immune system, all our hormones, our digestion, and nervous system become imbalanced, and imbalance creates symptoms and health issues. 

It is when we can rebalance what was thrown out of balance, using diet changes, nutrients, herbs, lifestyle changes, and, if and when needed, a plant medicine such as Ayahuasca and psilocybin, I have observed that it is possible to reset and heal. Health issues that seemed impossible to resolve simply disappear when the underlying disturbance is released. 

I know it can seem “too good to be true” when you’ve been struggling for a long time, which is exactly why I share my story, and the research, as well as resources for you to learn more. 

You may want to start by taking the Stress Type® Quiz I developed, to understand how stress is impacting you today, and then follow my Stress Recovery Protocol and C.A.R.E. Method to support your body and nervous system to heal using diet changes, and natural approaches including time in nature. 

If you’re dealing with HPV and want to prevent cervical cancer, I welcome you to join me over on Instagram @drdoniwilson and on my website at clearhpvnow.com. You can download my free HPV Recovery Guide and watch videos of women who’ve implemented my HPV Protocol and found freedom from high-risk HPV. 

I welcome you to join my next free How to Get Rid of HPV online workshop where I help you to create a plan to get HPV out of your life for good. From there, you might choose to join the Heal HPV Kickstart Program, for the initial steps of my protocol, including diet changes and supplements, over the next 30 days.

Or you can begin with the comprehensive Say Goodbye to HPV Program, which includes everything you need to implement my full protocol and to address all eight susceptibilities to HPV, including helping you to resolve underlying emotional stress and trauma. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office. My team and I would be happy to connect with you and help you. Click here to set up a call with my team.

Thank you, everyone, for listening in to this episode of How Humans Heal and learning about Ayahuasca and the latest research on how it can help humans heal. If you haven’t already subscribed, I welcome you to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. 

Prior episodes related to Ayahuasca and psilocybin: 

• Learning from the Incas About Healing with Dr. Doni (Episode 64)
• What Is Shamanism and How It Heals with Don Gino (Episode 65)
• The Power of Psychedelic Medicine: Recovering from Stress and Trauma (Episode 151)
• How Psilocybin Microdosing can Reset our Nervous System with Aya Allison (Episode 188)
• Recover from Trauma to Heal HPV – Report from an Ayahuasca Healing Retreat Center (Episode 272)
• Psilocybin: How Healing Trauma Heals Our Bodies and Ourselves with Nina Badoux (Episode 274)

Hasta pronto! (until soon)

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Disclaimer: This specific article and all other Content, Products, and Services of this Website are NOT intended as, and must not be understood or construed as, medical care or advice, naturopathic medical care or advice, the practice of medicine, or the practice of counseling care, nor can it be understood or construed as providing any form of medical diagnosis, treatment,  natural HPV cure, or prevention of any disease.

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References:

1. Recalled childhood trauma and post-psychedelic trajectories of change in a mixed-methods study. PMCID: PMC12669718  PMID: 41309700
2. Preliminary analysis of ayahuasca-induced anatomical alterations in the somatosensory cortex of juvenile non-human primates (Callithrix jacchus) subjected to chronic stress. Translational Psychiatry volume 16, Article number: 118 (2026)
3. Moderators of ayahuasca’s biological antidepressant action. ORIGINAL RESEARCH article Front. Psychiatry, 04 December 2022 Sec. Psychopharmacology Volume 13 – 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1033816
4. Beyond the psychedelic effect: Ayahuasca as antidepressant. March 1, 2023 | Family Medicine | Teresa Santos (In Collaboration With Ilana Polistchuck, MD)
5. Ayahuasca for the Treatment of Depression. PMID: 34761362  DOI: 10.1007/7854_2021_277
6. Psilocybin-assisted therapy for reducing alcohol intake in patients with alcohol use disorder: protocol for a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled 12-week clinical trial (The QUANTUM Trip Trial). PMCID: PMC9577917  PMID: 36241352