Ayahuasca -- visions of jungle medicine: Adam Oliver Brown at TEDxUOttawa

Through the story of his experience taking the potent psychedelic brew Ayahuasca with shamans in the jungles of Peru, Dr. Brown will illustrate the importance of nature conservation for a bright and prosperous future.

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to a critical time in this interface
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between humans and the natural world and
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they might rightfully argue that the
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state of the environment is quite poor
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and things may look bleak and while I
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agree mostly with those statements I'm
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not here to depress you today in fact
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tell you a little bit of good news and
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illustrate that we have made some
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progress and so I'll talk to you today
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about my vision for a prosperous and
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sustainable world which involves of
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course the greater understanding
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reverence and respect for nature now
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there are many ways in which we've begun
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to incorporate ecological and
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environmentally sustainable practices
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into our society such as through levels
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associated with industry for example
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using natural biodiversity ecosystem
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services in agriculture such as through
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pollination services or pest reduction
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by simply putting habitats out there
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instead of destroying it by promoting
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its environments that can sustain native
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biodiversity we can work with nature
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rather than against it and this is an
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example in which we can recreate a sort
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of harmony or equilibrium with nature
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after centuries of trying to eradicate
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and control another means is to turn to
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nature for inspiration such as from this
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majestic creature the peregrine falcon
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the fastest animal on the planet who
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achieves speeds upwards of 300
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kilometres an hour as it dives out of
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the air in order to kick another bird in
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the back as its prey now any of you
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who've ever stuck your head out of a car
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window that's racing down the highway
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will well know how difficult it is to
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breathe as that air is rushing past your
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nose and this would have was course been
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an evolutionary challenge to a fast
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traveling bird like the peregrine falcon
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and so we find there are adaptations to
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counter these challenges such as this
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little inverted cone that's in its
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nostril and so we can also turn to
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nature in order to inspire ourselves
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such as when engineers have began
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building faster and more powerful jet in
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Asians one of the main limitations was
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being able to get the air to go into the
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turbine because of all the turbulence
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that was created at such high speeds and
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by inspiring themselves from the
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peregrine falcon they're able to insert
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little cones into the turbines and
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improve the mechanical efficiency of our
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technologies another way in which we can
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turn to nature in order to find
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potential solutions for our problems and
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so the last way I'm going to mention
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which will really be the body of my talk
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today is by referring to nature's
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inventions directly that is in the form
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of compounds and chemicals that have
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evolved in nature's organisms over
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millions of years and have biologically
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active effects on animals and so this
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story I'm going to tell you today is one
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in which we went down to Peru in 2010
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with a film crew for the nature of
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things of CV CBC television in order to
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make a documentary on a Vancouver doctor
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named dr. Gabor maté a who you see
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sitting here in the foreground to your
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left who is a doctor who treats skid row
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addict patients of the lower east side
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of Vancouver who were dealing with
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crippling addictions so why ayahuasca an
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addiction would that why would that be
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even a topic to discuss well we know
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that in the 1950s a lot of research was
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initiated in research institutions and
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academia looking into psychedelic
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medicine and its potential roles in
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treating people with psychosis or
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various psychological illnesses and that
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these experiments and studies led to
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great promise for treating people that
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were afflicted with psychological
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burdens of course this movement was
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largely discredited over the course of
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the 60s as people discovered that the
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military was using psychedelics in order
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to conduct mind-control experiments and
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that of course the hippie acid parties
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in the Haight Ashbury neighborhoods of
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San Francisco somewhat deviated the
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seriousness of the potential for these
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psychedelics to help people and it's
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only relatively recently that it's
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thought to come back in the discussions
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in the halls and the laboratories of
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academia in using psychedelics to treat
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people who have psychological disorder
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now why why psychedelics and
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psychological disorders
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well psychedelics be they be they LSD
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the psilocybin of magic mushrooms DMT
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which is the active component in the
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ayahuasca that I'll be discussing with
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you today these are all chemicals that
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mimic serotonin and serotonin is a
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neurotransmitter that acts in our region
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the regions of our brains that are
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associated with mood perception and
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memory so it's perhaps not surprising
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then when we over stimulate these
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receptors with analog mimics of these
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neurotransmitters we get these
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mind-altering experiences now
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specifically what's ayahuasca ayahuasca
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is an amazonian psychedelic brew that is
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made up of two different plants the bark
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from a vine of the banisteriopsis genus
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and the leaves of the psychotria tree
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and these two ingredients are harvested
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and macerated and mixed together and
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boiled in these cauldrons boiled and
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reduced and then boiled and reduced and
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boiled and reduced over 24 hours until
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at the end you receive this dark thick
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molasses molasses like sludge and that
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is what it's used in the ayahuasca
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ceremonies and this ayahuasca is the
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most potent psychedelic that is known in
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fact its effects are so strong that the
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name itself has some kind of indication
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towards these effects ayahuasca is a
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catch you an Amazonian term which
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literally translates into English as
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vine of the soul and so these
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experiences with ayahuasca clearly give
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individuals some kind of profound
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insight into their own psyche so in
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order to document these ceremonies and
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these effects of the psychedelic
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ayahuasca we gathered up our film crew
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and hiked up the mountain of outside of
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tarapoto Peru one Saturday afternoon
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through thick Amazonian jungle through
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stinging fire ant nests and biting
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bullet ant nests and across raging
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rivers we hiked from hours
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before we were met at the top of the
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mountain by aku and arrows or the shaman
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at this open-air ceremony hot or Tambo
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so we were greeted warmly and we had
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time to prepare for the ceremony which
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would happen after sundown and
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preparation involved partly getting
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changed into our ceremonial white
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clothing which was essential because
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these these rites are performed in
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complete darkness and pitch-black and so
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it's important for the quand eros of
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shaman to be able to see you through the
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luminescence of your clothing because
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they do come over and administer some
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rites and songs and healing practices
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and sometimes they have to prevent some
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wigged out space cadets from wandering
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away from their little trip out station
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which is basically just a little pillow
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against the wall and a bucket to vomit
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into so you see part of the preparation
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of course is psychological getting
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yourself ready for the experience to
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come and when it was my turn to go up
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and get the ayahuasca said a little
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salutation salut de todos to everyone
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wishing us all good luck for what was to
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come and what was to come was definitely
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the most terrifying and the most
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exciting event of my life to date so
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they once everybody had received their
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ayahuasca they turned out the lights
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the quand eros began to sing some
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ceremonial traditional songs and not
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long thereafter the visual
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hallucinations began so the first of
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these visual hallucinations were that my
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vision began to be separated into layers
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away from me and then in the closest of
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these layers I found that they were
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infested with insects and snakes and
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bugs all scurrying around very very
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close in my personal space many people
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would have found this to be quite
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disturbing but I'm trained as an
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entomologist and I therefore focused a
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little bit more intently on the insects
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and found that they were mostly carotid
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and tuna Brianna beetles and so
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therefore not really much to be
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concerned about
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and so I really did quite enjoy this
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aspect of the the preliminary visuals
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that were happening and noticed that in
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some of the further layers that were
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more distant away from me there were
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actually orbs of pastel colored lights
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bobbing around I remember thinking to
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myself well that's weird because we're
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sitting here in the dark where does this
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light come from and little did I know
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there would be a lot more light yet to
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come one of the other aspects of course
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as I hinted with the bucket is that
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there's vomiting at this point and this
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is a form of purging in which the body
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is expelling this nasty bitter liquid in
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your stomach but it's not just the
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physical purge it's also a psychological
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one now it seemed like there was a lot
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of vomiting going on in retrospect there
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wasn't because afterwards I looked in
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the bucket and there were only a few
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drops of spit and some torn up petition
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paper that I'd used to wipe my face but
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at the time it really felt like there
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were these torrents of vomit coming out
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and not to disgust you too much for one
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because it wasn't even vomit it was
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snakes so there were snakes losing out
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of my nose and my mouth and this is
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quite literally what I was experiencing
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however despite this sort of somewhat
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fake freaky nature it was very cathartic
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because these snakes were felt like they
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were bringing demons up from inside and
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we're cleansing my soul in the process
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so in fact I felt quite good after this
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purge good as you can in the experience
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and of course it helped me prepare for
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what was to come next because that was a
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lot more intense so not long after say
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45 minutes into this the first couple of
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layers of insect grits began to
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dissipate and I moved closer towards
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these bobbing Pascal colored orbs of
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light and managed to spend a little bit
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of time in that weird strange cartoon
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kind of world until all of a sudden they
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came rushing at me and I found myself
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blasted off into the universe on the
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back of some kind of fractal fireworks
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roller coaster so I was traveling
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through the universe at light speed with
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the visuals becoming much much more
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intense at this point with colorful
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mandalas the fractals opening and
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closing and spiraling around each other
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like clockwork so quickly I couldn't
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take it all
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in and in fact at this point I was also
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physically being thrown around by the
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violent turbulence of the wild ride on
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this comet that I was traveling through
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the universe on and again I had to say
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to myself this is so weird because
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rationally I was able to recognize that
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there shouldn't be any lights I'm in the
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dark in a hut in Peru and why am I
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feeling like my body's being thrown
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around so this was a really
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all-encompassing experience at this
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point and I have to admit at this point
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it was a little much for me and I
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started to panic thinking I don't like
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this anymore I wanted to get off but of
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course you can't the you are on this
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ride until the very end and at some
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point I admitted that to myself and said
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well we're just going to have to ride it
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out and so I did and thankfully this
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really intense part of the trip only
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lasted for another hour or so and so
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that was fun but when that subsided we
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came down into this really thick quiet
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warm emotionally Laden place it wasn't
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the room it was like more of a zone and
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this zone was bordered by a big red
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velvety curtain that reminded me
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essentially of this the black lodge in
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the Twin Peaks television series but in
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this hallucination there were no
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backwards talking dwarves however what
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did come next was truly astonishing to
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me the curtain pulled back and revealed
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to me a scene a forgotten scene from my
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own childhood that was somewhat
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troubling emotionally and I had
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forgotten about that scene probably
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since the very day it happened but as
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soon as that curtain pulled back and I
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was witness to it again I recognized it
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immediately as having been an important
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event in my life that I somehow had
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repressed and what was interesting about
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this is while I was reinsulate ly
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traumatic scene from my childhood I
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wasn't revisiting any of the emotional
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trauma associated with it it was like I
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was a third party observer in partially
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and objectively being able to watch my
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life story and to be
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to determine why or how it was important
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to me becoming who I was as an
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individual it's almost like I wasn't
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seeing what was happening but I was
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being told why what I was seeing was
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important to how I became as an
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individual later on in my life and so
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over the course of the next hour or so
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these curtains continued to part and
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presented me with these astonishingly
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vivid memories that I had forgotten
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about since those times but that allowed
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me to incorporate somewhat troubling
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experiences from my past objectively
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into my life story and to be able to
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move forward without having the
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emotional burden of those events
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continue to nag at my conscience and my
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subconscious throughout the rest of my
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life so the point here folks is not a
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story about recreational drug tourism
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it's about illustrating the potential
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for these chemicals to help us to help
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us heal ourselves our health our
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psychology and our societies and to
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recognize that let me tell you straight
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I had a pretty happy childhood I was not
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burdened with a lot of emotional trauma
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but even in my experience with ayahuasca
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I came out with a profound understanding
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of the events that led up to me behaving
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the way I do nowadays and most
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importantly the way I behaved when I
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don't like the way I'm behaving and
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usually that those behaviors come from
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some kind of psychological nagging that
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is recessed somewhere in the back of
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your brain that we all carry with us
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more so those people that have
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experienced serious dramas and have much
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more emotional burdens that they carry
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and we've already heard from some people
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here today that have Illustrated that
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they have experienced those emotional
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traumas and they continue to carry those
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burdens
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well ayahuasca is clearly a tool that
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can be used to allow people to come to
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grips with those nagging forgotten
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memories to be able to incorporate them
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into their life story and then to move
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on more happy and healthier
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psychologically speaking and therefore
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these experiences as well as the
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academic research indicate that there is
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great potential in the psychedelic
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medicine to allow people to deal with
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drama that has led to behavioral
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problems such as addictions or syndromes
15:39
such as post-traumatic stress disorder
15:41
where people are haunted by their
15:44
memories and can't let go and move on so
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it's very interesting of course these
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chemicals exist and have that effect and
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as an evolutionary ecologist I don't
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suggest that they were put here to help
15:56
us or to inform us they'd rather evolved
15:59
in order to deter the more pervasive
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insect herbivores but insects have
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essentially the similarly structured
16:05
nervous systems as we do and whereas
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these neurotransmitter mimics may cause
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convulsions and paralysis in the motor
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system of a simplified animal like an
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insect in a more higher evolved animal
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whose neurotransmitters are clustered
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into networks the effects can be
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profound in terms of giving us insights
16:27
into our own psyche of course
16:29
accompanied with the greatest light show
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on earth
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so the message here is that the
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potential for turning to nature for help
16:39
and cut-in finding solutions to our
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problem is great this potential could be
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related to working in harmony with
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nature such as in the agricultural or
16:49
other industrial sectors it could be in
16:51
terms of turning to nature for
16:53
inspiration when we're looking to create
16:55
the next mind-blowing technology or it
16:58
could be turning to nature in order to
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utilize some of the pre-existing
17:03
structures that have evolved in nature's
17:06
organisms over millions of years and
17:08
that can help us as a society but of
17:11
course nowadays the environment is in
17:14
peril ecosystems are under threat from
17:16
human advances in habitat destruction
17:19
and toxic pollution and as we lose these
17:22
ecosystem functions we don't just lose
17:25
integral fabrics of our nature we also
17:27
lose the potential for these discoveries
17:30
that can help human society in the
17:32
future and so that is why I say that
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part of my vision for a prosperous and
17:39
sustainable future involve a deep
17:41
understanding and respect and
17:44
preservation of the natural world
17:47
hope that you would agree