Ayahuasca

What is Ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is a sacred indigenous brew traditionally prepared by boiling the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with the leaves of the Psychotria viridis plant. These plants grow throughout the Amazon and have been used for generations by indigenous communities across Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. Some traditions also refer to the medicine as yajé or yagé.

At Ananda Lodge, we offer small-group ayahuasca immersions in Costa Rica, guided in the Shipibo ceremonial tradition and supported through trauma-informed care, preparation guidance, and integration support. Shipibo medicine carriers work with icaros, sacred healing songs that guide the ceremony and support the energetic work of the medicine.

Ayahuasca travels to the root, showing where a pattern began, including what came before you. It meets you where you are; it can be tender, and it can reach layers that feel hard.

Ceremonies take place at night and typically last several hours. The medicine often works with the subconscious mind, bringing forward memories, emotions, and insights that help people understand themselves and their lives more clearly. The physical cleansing, the purge, is part of how the medicine works.

Ayahuasca and the root of the pattern.

Held in the Shipibo tradition, the medicine travels to the root, personal and ancestral, and opens paths forward in a life.

For those called to ayahuasca, new to the medicine or seeking deeper study. An apprenticeship of the self.

Many traditions describe ayahuasca as a nurturing and intelligent medicine, sometimes experienced as a feminine guiding presence.

Master plants are tools of knowledge. Guests come for growth and study as well as healing, and the work centers on what you do with what the medicine shows you.

Our immersions are intentionally small and trauma-informed, so guests feel supported throughout the process.

Ayahuasca indigenous history.

Ayahuasca has been used for centuries by Indigenous communities across the Amazon basin, with traditions rooted in Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. The brew, made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and chacruna leaf, reflects generations of deep ecological knowledge and relationship with the forest.

Ceremonies are guided by trained medicine carriers, often called curanderos, who spend years in apprenticeship with the plants. Songs known as icaros are used to navigate the experience, and the practice is grounded in respect, reciprocity, and connection to the natural world. In the Shipibo-Conibo tradition, the Maestro guides ceremony through icaros, healing songs learned through years of plant dietas.

In the 20th century, ayahuasca began to spread beyond the Amazon through syncretic churches like Santo Daime and União do Vegetal, and later through global interest. At Ananda Lodge, we approach this tradition with respect for its origins, while creating a setting that emphasizes preparation, safety, and integration.