How to prepare for ayahuasca: diet, medications and mindset
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8 min read
To prepare for ayahuasca, stop alcohol and recreational drugs two weeks before, ease into a lighter, mostly plant-based diet, and have every medication and supplement you take reviewed before the ceremony, without stopping anything on your own. Then do the inner part: get honest about why you are going and what you have been avoiding.
This is the preparation Two Birds Church, a small church in Anna, Texas, gives everyone before they sit in ceremony with us. Other groups set different rules, some much stricter. If you’re sitting with someone else, follow theirs.
Why there are rules at all
Ayahuasca is brewed from two plants. The leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub contain DMT. The Banisteriopsis caapi vine contains harmine and related harmala alkaloids, which block an enzyme called MAO-A for a short time. MAO-A normally breaks down serotonin and other chemical messengers in the body, and it also breaks down tyramine, a substance in aged and fermented foods.
That is where the risks come from. With MAOI antidepressants, too much tyramine can raise blood pressure sharply, which is why people on those drugs avoid aged cheese and similar foods. The inhibitors in ayahuasca are short-acting and reversible, so food is a much smaller risk with ayahuasca than with those medications. The bigger dangers are alcohol, recreational drugs and certain medications, especially ones that raise serotonin. Combining those with an MAO inhibitor can cause serotonin syndrome, which can be life-threatening.
So the order of importance is simple: medications and drugs first, alcohol second, food a distant third. The food side is mostly about comfort. A lighter body has less to deal with on a long night.
Medications: talk to your doctor first
Don’t stop or change a prescription on your own. Some medications are dangerous to stop suddenly, and coming off others safely can take months. Any change is between you and the doctor who prescribed it.
The medications we look at most closely are:
- antidepressants, including SSRIs, SNRIs and MAOIs
- stimulants, including ADHD medication
- some cold and cough medicines
- benzodiazepines, gabapentin and some blood pressure medications, which have to be cleared first
- supplements such as St. John’s Wort and 5-HTP
Everyone who applies to sit with us lists everything they take on our Ceremony Readiness Form. Anything that needs a clinical look goes to our medical consultant, a board-certified psychiatric pharmacist who specializes in psychedelic safety. We tell you what ceremony requires. We never tell anyone to stop a medication. If you take any medication, start the review early.
Health matters too. We ask about heart problems, blood pressure, seizures, pregnancy, head injuries and mental health history, including any personal or family history of psychosis, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Blood pressure has to be under 140/90, and we check it on the day. Uncontrolled blood pressure, serious heart conditions, pregnancy and an active mental health crisis all rule out ceremony with us. If any of this applies to you, see your doctor before you go anywhere.
The ayahuasca diet (la dieta)
The diet before ceremony is called la dieta in the Amazonian tradition. Ours is a gentle two-week clean-up of what you eat and drink. It is not a fast. People tend to go further than we ask, so please don’t. Start from where you are: if you eat fast food five days a week and get it down to two, that counts. The one exception is alcohol and recreational drugs, which stop completely.
Two weeks before
- Stop alcohol and recreational drugs.
- Cut back on heavily salted processed food and a lot of oil. You don’t need to cut out salt. The aim is steady blood pressure going into ceremony.
- Notice how much sugar and packaged food you have, and cut back where it feels natural.
- Eat more vegetables, fruit, grains and beans, and drink plenty of water.
One week before
- Alcohol, marijuana and caffeine should be out of your system by now. If you drink a lot of coffee, taper down rather than stopping all at once.
- Move toward plant-based eating. If that’s too much, keep meat to small amounts of chicken or fish, and ease off dairy, which can be harder to digest.
- Reduce heavy spices, garlic and onions. They can upset your stomach.
- Keep fermented foods to a minimum: kimchi, sauerkraut, aged cheese, and anything that has sat long enough to build up tyramine.
- Cut back on nightshades (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, goji berries) where you can. A little tomato in a meal is fine.
You don’t have to give up sex. There’s no medical reason to. Some people choose to, or to be more aware of it, especially if their own work involves patterns around intimacy. That’s your call.
The last two days
- Skip meat if you can. If you can’t, keep to chicken or fish, never red meat. We don’t serve meat on the ceremony weekend.
- A little fruit is fine, like berries in your oatmeal. Avoid lots of sweets and anything very overripe that may be starting to ferment.
- Don’t obsess over salt. Just avoid loading up on salty processed food.
- On the day, eat. Our first ceremony starts at 8 PM, so have breakfast and a light lunch (oatmeal, a salad, something simple). Arriving starving helps nobody.
What you can eat
Plenty. Most vegetables, from beets and squash to kale, broccoli, sweet potatoes and mushrooms. Beans and lentils of any kind. Quinoa, millet, brown rice and oats. Apples, bananas, berries, citrus, pears and melons. Eggs. Fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, mint, ginger and turmeric, with milder spices in moderation and hot ones like cayenne kept low. A little olive oil, coconut oil or tahini. Plant milks if you’re easing off dairy.
A day might be oatmeal with berries and cinnamon, a big salad with chickpeas and olive oil, and a lentil stew or a grain bowl with roasted vegetables.
To come off coffee (90 to 120 mg of caffeine a cup) without headaches, step down through guayusa (40 to 70 mg), matcha (35 to 70 mg) or yerba mate (30 to 70 mg), then cacao (10 to 25 mg), then herbal teas like chamomile, peppermint, rooibos or ginger.
After ceremony
Ease back slowly. Start with the lighter food you ate while preparing, and give yourself a few days before going back to caffeine, alcohol or other substances. Many people feel more sensitive for a while afterward. If a medication was changed for ceremony, go back to it only as your prescriber advises.
Preparing your mind: owning your intention
The diet is the easy part to describe. The part that decides how ceremony goes is whether you arrive willing to look at yourself.
Start with your intention, and make it honest. “I want to heal” or “I want answers” is a start, but ask what you actually keep running into. The argument you keep having. The thing you reach for when you’re stressed. The feeling you change the subject on. Our post on finding your intention walks through this.
Then own it. We see ayahuasca as a mirror. Fear, anger or grief that comes up in ceremony is yours, even when it feels like it came from the room, the music or the person on the next mat. Nobody there is going to fix you, and the facilitators don’t claim to heal anyone. People who come wanting to be rescued, or who blame what they feel on outside forces, tend to fight the whole night. People who are ready to say “this is mine” usually have something to work with afterward. Shadow work, looking at the parts of yourself you’d rather not see, is good practice for this.
Some practical habits for the weeks before:
- Turn down the noise: less scrolling, less news, more quiet.
- Journal about what comes up, including how you react to the diet. What you reach for when you’re bored or stressed tells you something.
- Name feelings as they come (“I feel anxious”, “I’m grieving”) instead of pushing them away.
- Talk to someone you trust: a friend or a counselor.
Many people find feelings, memories and old patterns start stirring as soon as they sign up. We call that the pre-purge. If a medication was changed recently, though, those feelings may be withdrawal or your symptoms coming back, so tell your prescriber.
You don’t need to arrive perfect or “fully cleansed.” If you slip on the diet, notice it and carry on. If something heavy keeps coming up, such as trauma, depression or thoughts of harming yourself, a therapist is the right help, and that comes before any ceremony.
More from us on ayahuasca: what ayahuasca is, what an ayahuasca church is, and what happens at a ceremony.
If you’d like to meet us, come to Sunday Service, Sundays 3 to 6pm in Anna. Our free Welcome course is the first step toward ceremony, and ceremonies are by invitation.