One of my favorite Future Sound of London albums includes this track titled after ayahuasca’s native common name, ‘yagé’. Listening to it suggests many things but the two that come to my mind are (1) it sure as hell sounds like these guys have done it, and (2) at about three-and-half minutes in, you realize that a pleasant experience is not guaranteed. Nor, apparently, necessary.
Corroborating this last point is an NPR interview with an ethnobotanist who described it as the most harrowing experience of his life:
RAZ: What do you remember?
PLOTKIN: Just crying and screaming and wishing I was dead.
RAZ: What did you feel like?
PLOTKIN: I was in my misery and I wanted to be put out of it. It was terrible.
RAZ: You were in pain - nausea? I mean…
PLOTKIN: All of that.
RAZ: So how did you experience death?
PLOTKIN: I saw myself die and dead, but painful and horrible and terrible. It wasn’t like I just floated to the top of the room and there I was. It was awful. And then it got worse. I ended up vomiting purple, phosphorescent scorpions.
[…]
And so afterwards, I said to the shaman, why did you do that to me? And he said, the fate of my culture, the fate of my forest is joined with that of you and your organization. I wanted you to experience death so you would never fear it again.
