Guide To Surrendering To Ayahuasca

As someone who struggles to let go

Last month at a plant medicine retreat at Gaia Sagrada all participants gathered the day before our first Ayahuasca ceremony for a family meeting.

After the facilitators finished going over the ceremony, I chimed in to share with the other attendees how important I think surrender is to working with Ayahuasca.

Healing comes much more easily when you are not trying to hold onto a particular pattern of thinking or emotional state within yourself. If you expect the ceremony to follow a specific path, then you become less open to growth.

You can use the following four steps to better notice your thoughts and emotions, and surrender to the medicine at the right time.

Step 1. Imagine your mind as a pond.

• Visualize sitting at the bottom of the lake.

• Your eyes are closed.

• Now bring your attention to your internal world.

• Each time you notice a thought or emotion, envision it as a bubble coming up from the bottom of the pond floating up towards the surface.

• If you find yourself tangled up in a particular thought or feeling, kindly nudge yourself to release your hold on it.

• Then return to watching for future thoughts or feelings.

This is a practice I use to prepare for surrender in Ayahuasca ceremonies.

Step 2. The hour before your Ayahuasca ceremony

Meditate using a mantra or by counting the breath. There are many mantras you can use.

One example is Hari Om Tat Sat:

• On your inhalation, silently say to yourself Hari Om.

• On your exhalation, silently say Tat Sat.

If you want to count your breath:

• Begin by exhaling all of your breath out.

• Inhale.

• Exhale. This is one count.

• Continue breathing this way and counting up to 10.

• Then restart your count at 0.

When you notice your attention has drifted away from the mantra or your breath, gently refocus your attention.

Step 3. Set your intention

It is essential to choose your intention as this helps you understand what trains of thought are irrelevant to the healing work you are trying to do.

Either before your ceremony or during the ceremony before taking your first cup of Ayahuasca, set your intention for the ceremony.

For example, in my first Ayahuasca ceremony in June 2023, I intended to understand why I had cheated on my previous partner.

Because I was focused on this particular question, any thoughts around work planning, the next week's social activities, or future ambitions could be easily bucketed into a 'does not have to do with the mistake I made' category.

Step 4. As the Ayahuasca begins to work 

After taking the first cup, resume the meditation for the coming up of the medicine. This helps steady the mind in preparation for what comes next.

When your attention drifts away from your mantra towards a thought or emotion related to your intention, release your mantra. Let your attention rest on the train of thought or emotion. This is the moment of surrender.

The more you try to hold onto control, the less space there is for insight to float from your subconscious to your conscious mind. When you notice your attention drifts towards topics unrelated to your intention, recenter your attention on your mantra.

If you tend to control your thoughts with a heavy hand, it may be challenging to release the mantra and flow into intuition. This is normal and okay.

Similarly, you may notice your attention shifts off of the inner work around your intention very quickly. Again, this is normal and okay.

Each time this happens, you have another opportunity to practice surrendering to the medicine. It is important to give yourself grace in this process. Do not expect perfection.

Do not expect to easily disengage from emotionally charged trains of thoughts arising in the ceremony.

It is your choice to set a goal of surrendering alongside your intention. When you make this choice, the actions you take to bring your surrender into reality are all within you.

If you ever think you are overthinking, you probably are.

If you think you are distracting yourself from the work, you probably are.

The goal of meditation, and the goal of surrendering to Ayahuasca, cannot be to not think. It is human nature to think, plan, and reevaluate prior thoughts and plans. This is the beautiful gift and curse of being human.

Rather than pursue a state of no thoughts, focus your attention on your mantra or your breath to open you up to experience inner quiet.

In 2018 I read a paper about how in brain scans of individuals with long meditation practices and the brains of people on LSD, scientists observed a breakout from the Default Mode Network.

The Default Mode Network is where we spend most of our time in daily life. This means these two groups of people are less trapped in the neural pathways they would normally find themselves in day to day.

At the level of neurons firing, I like to visualize surrendering as letting the mind walk off of the main path through a forest onto the side trails. However, the side trails are scary.

I feel I want to return to the main path. Then I remember I am choosing the side trails.

Always remind yourself you are choosing the path. Even though the side trail may feel like too much.

Give yourself grace. Acknowledge where you are. Give yourself gratitude and praise for showing up to do the work.

In each ceremony, the level of stamina and desire to work will be different. There is a degree of active effort involved in surrender. Releasing your attachment is not without cost.

As the ceremony progresses, be kind to yourself and let yourself rest.

There will be future opportunities for surrender.

May these tools and visualizations serve you in ceremony and daily life.

Aho Metakease - Yes I agree, we all are family.