I went to a large town in Peru named Tarapoto, which is a commercial center in the Eastern Andean foothills at an altitude of about 350 meters. There, by “accident”, I met a French man named Jean, who had been studying for the last three months with an ayahuascero by the name of Alberto Ferrari Chavez. Alberto's medical center is about 10 km from Tarapoto, deep in the forest. It's not a medical center in the Western sense, but Alberto calls it that because ayahuasca is regarded in Peru as a medicine, and it is taken to cleanse one's body, mind and soul.
All-night ayahuasca sessions are often called “ceremonies” for the benefit of ayahuasca tourists who are looking for some kind of ritual ceremony. But there's actually not much ritual involved. The session usually takes place in a circular structure made of wood with a thatched roof, called a maloca, and is large enough to hold up to 20 people.
None of the three ayahuasceros with whom I took ayahuasca speak English, and I relied on Jean and a couple of Peruvians to translate for me. Prior to the session with Alberto, I asked him some questions, beginning with, “Are the animals that appear to shamans under the influence of ayahuasca individual beings, with minds of their own?” He said, Yes, they are protectors of the forest. The feminine Spirit of Ayahuasca oversees and looks after those animal spirits. I asked if there is a spiritual being higher than Ayahuasca, and he says, Yes there are several, but normally they don't appear to humans. The spirit Ayahuasca is their 'doorway' whereby they minister to the human world.
I asked if this physical world, which we perceive via our senses of sight, sound, etc., is an illusion, or like a dream. He says, Yes and No. The spiritual and the physical worlds are each created by different non-physical beings, who cooperate (maybe with us) to produce what we see as the physical world. The Earth is maintained by several spirits, not just one.
Alberto's medical center does not have running water and relies on rainwater. The toilets are very basic. In the early part of an ayahuasca session it is common, at least among newcomers to the practice, to experience diarrhea. At sunset I went to check the toilet, in case I needed to go in the night, and I slipped in the mud, landing heavily on my back and severely injuring it, though not permanently. So during the ayahuasca session in the night my back was painful, which didn't help.
There were five Western students of Alberto living at his medical center, studying plant medicine and shamanic practice, and following a strict diet set by Alberto, who charges a rather hefty 600 US dollars for a week of this instruction. All of these students participated in this ayahuasca session, so with Jean and I there were seven people, in addition to Alberto.
For the first hour of the ceremony we just lay on mattresses in the dark. There were no lights except occasionally someone's flashlight. Each of us, going around the circle in turn, approached Alberto and received and drank a cup of ayahuasca, then returned to our mattress. There was total silence and darkness. We lay there waiting for the ayahuasca to take effect. The darkness was only broken by Alberto occasionally lighting up a hand-rolled cigarette made from tobacco plants which grow just outside the door.
Lying there, I heard something strange, and realized that it was Alberto singing/chanting icaros, which are magical songs. The curandero leading an ayahuasca ceremony normally does this. Alberto's icaros were sung softly and with the 'words' rapidly run together. Curiously, I heard them as coming from my left, though I knew (since he occasionally lit up) that Alberto was on my right. I wondered if he was somehow projecting his voice.
I had hoped that the ayahuasca would produce visions, but for an hour or so, nothing happened. Being told of this by Jean, Alberto then gave me more ayahuasca. After a while this produced some effect, but not strong. I was very annoyed that I had fallen and hurt my back. Initially I wanted revenge upon whoever or whatever caused this (assuming it was not a mere 'accident'). Then I turned to asking the Spirit of Ayahuasca to heal the injury.
Around midnight each of us sat before Albert to receive a limpieza (a "cleansing"). He shook a device made of leaves (called a chakapa) over most parts of my body — head, neck, limb joints — while chanting an icaro.
I spent the rest of the night thinking, not very clearly, mostly about personal stuff. No animal spirits appeared, and I was disappointed that apparently the Spirit of Ayahuasca had nothing to tell me. Three times I needed to piss, so I had to get up, painfully, put my boots on at the door, and go down the path to the toilet and return.
The night wore on. I frequently wondered whether it would ever end, and hoped that dawn would come soon, but it didn't. To make it worse, every hour, it seemed, a cock crowed loudly, right next to where I was lying. I wished that it would die. I was very uncomfortable because my back hurt if I moved, but eventually I fell asleep, but before doing so I decided that this ayahuasca experience was best described as “awful”. I had no wish to repeat it.
I awakened to find that the day had dawned, and most of the participants had left the maloca, so I got up. I was not feeling well. I sat next to the kitchen with Alberto, and Jean translated for me. I mentioned that I had smoked DMT many times, long ago, and had experience of the entities in the DMT space, and that I wanted to see whether some such entities would appear under the influence of ayahuasca. Alberto explained that taking ayahuasca is not meant to produce visions but rather is meant to cleanse one's body, mind and soul of impurities. When all three are healed then, and only then, will ayahuasca enable one to perceive the spirit world. Alberto also said that in this shamanic practice one has to be seriously involved with plants, to get into communion with them, to become part of the world of plants.
Upon leaving, my back was still painful, but I believed it would heal completely in about a week, and it mostly did.