2.1 Background

The Sacred Voyage: a holotropic perspective on mental health

Over the last few years we have acquired a wealth of experience in the therapeutic guidance of people who have used ayahuasca within the setting of the Sacred Voyage. This experience convinced us that the method on which we report through this medium, is beneficial to people, provided the method is applied under the right conditions. This method has been dubbed ‘the Sacred Voyage’ and is based on the controlled, effective and safe use of the entheogenous brew ayahuasca, which finds its origins in the Amazonian rainforest.

The Sacred Voyage method was developed by Lars Faber and consists of therapeutic, oriental meditative, shamanistic and spiritual/religious elements. The book that accompanies the method and goes by the same name, has the subtitle ‘the pilgrimage to the soul’. The main goal of the Sacred Voyage method is to help people get in contact and develop a lasting relationship with their essence (also known as their true self, inner Child or Divine Child).

Ayahuasca is a brew which originated in the Amazonian region and was first discovered by the rainforest’s native inhabitants. We feel obliged to express our respect and gratitude to the shamans in ‘the world’s breeding ground’ for making ayahuasca available to Westerners. To these shamans, ayahuasca, known to them as the ‘Mother of all Medicine’, is a holy sacrament, serving many purposes. Ayahuasca is used for spiritual initiation rituals, as medication, to induce clairvoyancy, for astral travel and for relaxation.

It has been known for some time that ayahuasca possesses some special medical qualities, as has been testified in earlier publications. As Dr. Charles Grob concluded from his 1993 Hoasca project: ‘“Ayahuasca is perhaps a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs],” Grob concludes, adding that the use of SSRIs is ‘a rather crude way’ of doing it. And ayahuasca, he insists, has great potential as a longterm solution.’

One of the articles about the healing properties of ayahuasca, which received worldwide attention, was written for National Geographic by Kira Salak and covers Salak’s personal experience with the brew. She describes how an ayahuasca cleansing ritual helped her accomplish what years of psychotherapy had failed to deliver. A day-long ayahuasca ritual rid her of a heavy depression. Lars Faber experienced a similar feat and has written “The Sacred Voyage” to describe the process he underwent. Later, dozens of other people would report having had similar experiences after using ayahuasca under his therapeutic guidance. ****In spite of the promises associated with ayahuasca, little interest has been shown by the scientific fields of medicine and psychiatry. In this day and age, treating symptoms and prescribing medication like antidepressants seems to be an easier approach than tracking down and actually curing the source of the ailment, even though for shamans, this is ‘all in a day’s work’.

This paper reports on an effect which cannot be measured, explained, proven or replicated in double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies, not only because it does not deal solely with average scores but also because it is contingent on highly individual psychological and somatic processes. The common denominator of these processes is that, despite the individually unique path people travel along, the goal is always the same: to find one’s personal essence and fulfill ‘the act of becoming’.

These goals, and their fulfillment, can only be assessed introspectively by the individual in question. However, because the phenomena at hand are often described as healing, transformational and even as peak experiences, the individual contributions to this research seem worth reporting and delving into more deeply.

This report will cover the findings of those who have experienced the use of ayahuasca in the setting of the Sacred Voyage, as well as the conditions under which the therapeutic sessions take place. The main focus will be on the results achieved by clients in the fields of personal growth and emotional well-being. The data used to assess these phenomena have been acquired through both quantitative and qualitative research, targeting clients of the Sacred Voyage therapeutic practice.

The data provided to us by our clients who were willing to share their most intimate and personal processes of awareness with us, have been treated with the utmost integrity. Assuming that the words connected to the experiences of our clients will speak for themselves, we feel strengthened to report in this manner, which we recognize as rather subjective. However, a factor of objectivity in this research is that clients only report in retrospect. It was not until late in 2007 that we decided to approach our clients for their personal and entirely voluntary contribution to this project. We have chosen this retrospective approach to prevent us from influencing or tainting the therapeutic processes and experiences. Our gratitude goes out to those seventy volunteers who have granted us a glimpse of their highly personal developments.

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