200 47 The Secret Lfe of Nature
Columbia College, New York, and Cambridge University, England,
resident of Colombia, and contributor to various journals. In the mag-
azine Shaman's Drum (Spring 1993) Wieskopf reported that the river
communities along the lower Putamayo of eastern Colombia were
producing extraordinary stories of magical events and miraculous heal-
ings experienced under the influence of yaje. Many, says Wieskopf, are
so fantastic they are almost beyond the imagination of outsiders like
himself, products of secular materialistic cultures, but that "after one
drinks yaje, sees its magical visions, and feels its curative powers, the
stories suddenly become more plausible."
During his first visit to the Putamayo, Wieskopf was introduced to
yaje's healing gifts by a Siona curandero, Don Pacho, heir to a thousand-
year-old tradition of working with the vine.The experience convinced
Wieskopf that using the product under the guidance of a skilled curan-
dero such as Pacho can be highly therapeutic, particularly in dealing
with psychological disorders.
To prepare the ayahuasca drink, Pacho collected sections of vine
from the jungle, which he cut into pieces about twenty centimeters
1ong.These were smashed to ribbons with a stone and placed in a pot
in alternate layers with leaves of chacruna, "the two plants that fit."
Various plant additives called "misha" can be used, depending on the
purpose of the ayahuasca session, there being a distinction between
substances that "make you travel," that "make you see," and that "teach
you to heal."Water is added and the brew boiled down until only 10
percent of the liquid remains.
When the time comes to drink the mixture, almost invariably at
night, potions are ritually distributed in small cupfuls.Wieskopf took his
in the jungle in a square hut roofed with palm fronds, its bare earthen
floor and no walls malung it easier to deal with the vomiting and diar-
rhea that come with drinlung yaje, part of the cleansing process. At the
beginning of his previous yaje trips, Wieskopf had experienced an on-
rush of nausea, dizziness, and oxygen deficiency. So he breathed deeply
as he paced the clearing, preparing himself for what would come.
"As the wooziness came over me, I wondered whether this time I
would have the courageonce I had survived the initial, purgative