Ayahuasca, a cultural heritage

The Peruvian National Institute of Culture (INC) has declared the knowledge and traditional uses of the Ayahuasca plant by the Amazon natives a National Cultural Heritage. The INC goal is to protect the traditional use and the sacred ritual character of the Ayahuasca from western use out of context and with commercial purpose.

The effects produced by the Ayahuasca (liana from the skies), which are different from the effects usually produced by hallucinogens, have been research extensively and are given in a limited cultural frame for religious and therapeutic reasons. For the natives in the Amazon it’s a gateway to the spiritual world and its secrets, their traditional medicine has been structured around the Ayahuasca ritual.