I did Aya ceremonies twice (so far) a year apart, with a legendary shaman @ivanchocron. The ceremonies I did included Aya on night 1, San Pedro on day 2, Aya on night 2, San Pedro on day 3, and Rapé on day 3 afternoon.
It was not reality shattering for me. It did not one-shot me, I think.
I never felt any effect from Rapé or San Pedro, and I didn't throw up during any ceremony. It is possible I did not take a strong enough dose either time, even though I topped up in the middle of the process all 4 nights.
Or, I might just have some weird tolerance. I did a lot of weed in university to be popular, Snoop Dogg amounts really, but never got high, only got vision latency and cottonmouth.
On Aya I had good revelations about myself.
No demons, no entities, no shadow creepers. Lots of colors and fractals (when you close your eyes). I wonder how much of that vision was programmed in due to things I read and watched about Aya experiences rather than my own. When my eyes were open, I just had a blurred vision and problems with coordination when try to move.
On my first go, I distinctly remember seeing seeing hamburgers and pancakes in a Windows 95 style screensaver on my first Aya night, because I was craving carbs back then and it was super hard for me to stay off of junk food for the week of preparation before the ceremony.
Mentally, I had just a deep talk with the "common sense" of the world and my subconscious, and a really good plan on how to get out of burnout, shake a bad past relationship, be a good father, stepfather, and husband, be a disciplined man.
To me, it was like a deep, concentrated meditation with no distractions, while thinking hard about what it is that makes the difference between the ideal me, and the current me, and how to get from here to there.
If you're thinking about it, you need to keep TREES in mind:
- Tolerance
- Resistance
- Expectations
- Effort: Is this a last or first resort?
- Shaman
Let's quickly go through each of these.
Tolerance
Some people are more tolerant to psychedelics, some less. Some get rekt by weed but feel nothing on shrooms and others vice versa. Your tolerance will be topical, specific, and sometimes random.
Resistance
Most people fear their first (or even subsequent) encounters with Aya, so they try to resist the effect when they feel it coming on. But Aya shows you what it wants no matter how much you fight it, and the more you fight the more uncomfortable the process is. The key is to not fight it, but deluding yourself into thinking you're open to it doesn't work either - for some people, it just needs to be a bad experience the first time around so it can be good on the second one.
I was fighting it hard on the first time, but subconsciously. I was one of those who thought "I'm open, bring it on" but it was a fake sense of openness. So, I got dragged across the coals by the Mother. Next time was easier.
Expectations
Don't expect to see monsters, aliens, gods, God, or anything mystical.
The Roganite representation of altered states of mind is possible, but rare and usually reserved for pure forms of DMT rather than the digested ones you get from Ayahuasca during your ceremony night.
Some people get absolutely nothing from the experience. Others see demons of the past and only unlock a trauma they weren't even aware of, preparing for a healing session down the line. Others still find sudden meaning and enlightenment in helping others around. Everyone reacts differently, and only one thing is certain - whatever you expect is wrong.
Effort
If you're thinking about Aya to do any kind of healing of mental health improvement, please consider doing other things first.
Aya is great at helping you face some trauma and prepare you for going through it, but if you have other issues, they may be resolvable in less extreme ways.
As an example, clinical depression can almost entirely be resolved not through psychoactive medication, but through exercise and healthy food.
Addiction can't really be helped with Ayahuasca - at best, you will stop for a short while. For addiction, Ibogaine is a much better one-shotter.
And even with traumas like abusive relationshops, divorce, dealing with death - all of these are generally possible to largely resolve with psychotherapy (non-medicated). Aya is a shortcut to this indeed, and often acts like it speeds up a 6 months psych treatment, but it's not a silver bullet, it's not guaranteed, and yes - it can make things worse by adding new traumas on top of those you thought you were aware of.
Make sure you've exhausted other options before trying Aya.
Shaman
Finally, the most important part - a good shaman. I was lucky enough to score a session by Ivan, a highly methodical and data-based Shaman who nonetheless expertly guides you spiritually before, during, and after the ceremony so that you get the most out of it.
For many people, the most valuable part of the ceremony is the option to partake in Ivan's 1:1 "debrief", a chat about how it was, how it feels, and whether or not you got the answers you were looking for, or more questions.
Aya was a useful experience for me, but I'm at peace now and I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon, if ever. If you're considering it and want to know more, feel free to reach out and I'll tell you more about my experience. It won't prepare you - nothing will - but maybe I can help in other ways.