The Ayahuasca Diaries

The Ayahuasca diaries is a vine-entangled tale of shamans, jungles, psychedelic substances, a broken-hearted poker player, a few pretty girls (and a couple who aren’t) and several dark temples where smoking and spitting are encouraged . . . if only to ease access into the spirit world. In this, the first South African title to chronicle the South American Ayahuasca experience, Caspar Greeff, in the throes of a mid-life crisis, travels to Peru with his father where they are introduced to Ayahuasca, ‘the vine of the dead’. The dark, foul-tasting psychedelic brew is made up of the leaves of an indigenous shrub and a jungle vine. While Ayahuasca is believed to transport its drinkers to the world of spirits, the land of the dead, it is also known as ‘the mother of all medicine’ by the Quechua Indians of the Amazon. They regard it as a healer of body, mind and spirit, which enables its drinkers to purge both physical and spiritual toxins. Documented as a cure for everything from cancer to cocaine addiction, Ayahuasca is a way to clear emotional blocks, to gain a sense of inner peace and an enlightened perspective on life. This lively travelogue takes the reader along on the author’s psycho-spiritual odyssey through the rain forests of Peru and further to Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador where Ayahuasca is taken in the dark of night at ceremonies presided over by shamans who sing otherworldly songs that are both magical and healing. His Ayahuasca experiences ignite in him a renewed enchantment with life that leaves him with a burgeoning sense of self and an intimate connection with the natural world.