At the vanguard of this research is Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLAs School of Medicine. In 1993 Dr. Grob launched the Hoasca Project, the first in-depth study of the physical and psychological effects of ayahuasca on humans. His team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a native church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. The studies found that all the ayahuasca-using UDV members had experienced remission without recurrence of their addictions, depression, or anxiety disorders. In addition, blood samples revealed a startling discovery: Ayahuasca seems to give users a greater sensitivity to serotoninone of the mood-regulating chemicals produced by the bodyby increasing the number of serotonin receptors on nerve cells.
Unlike most common antidepressants, which Grob says can create such high levels of serotonin that cells may actually compensate by losing many of their serotonin receptors, the Hoasca Project showed that ayahuasca strongly enhances the bodys ability to absorb the serotonin thats naturally there.
Ayahuasca is perhaps a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs], Grob concludes, adding that the use of SSRIs is a rather crude way of doing it. And ayahuasca, he insists, has great potential as a long-term solution.
According to Grob, ayahuasca provokes a profound state of altered consciousness that can lead to temporary ego disintegration, as he calls it, allowing people to move beyond their defense mechanisms into the depths of their unconscious mindsa unique opportunity, he says, that cannot be duplicated by any nondrug therapy methods.
Ayahuasca is not for everyone, Grob warns. Its probably not for most people in our world today. You have to be willing to have a very powerful, long, internal experience, which can get very scary. You have to be willing to withstand that.
