Ayahuasca and self-judgment: what studies have measured

Some teachings are simple to receive and so hard to put into practice. Not judging others, and not judging yourself, is one of them.

Looking at everything with peace and neutrality does the soul a world of good. The trouble is that nobody teaches us how. And for most of us, the first courtroom we ever sit in is the one inside our own head.

Ayahuasca is such a remarkable medicine that, as scientific research moves forward, this point about non-judgment is becoming clearer and clearer. Here is what some of these studies found, without exaggeration and without promises, the way we believe it should be told.

What the studies measured

In 2018, researchers followed 45 volunteers who took part in ayahuasca ceremonies (Domínguez-Clavé and colleagues, Psychopharmacology). Before and after, the participants filled in questionnaires on mindfulness, which is the ability to observe what we feel and think without getting caught up in it. After the experience, their scores improved in areas such as not judging their own thoughts and feelings and not reacting to them right away. And their difficulty in dealing with emotions went down.

Another study, also from 2018, compared two things: four weekly ayahuasca sessions and an eight-week mindfulness course, the kind offered in hospitals (Soler and colleagues, Frontiers in Pharmacology). On non-judgment, the two groups ended up similar. On other measures, the eight-week course did better. There were very few people, 10 on each side, so it is best read as a signal, not as a final answer.

What about the brain? In 2017, a study of 16 people saw changes in the brain up to 24 hours after ayahuasca, and the larger those changes, the higher the non-judgment score (Sampedro and colleagues, International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology). Two months later, what showed up right after the ceremony still helped predict who was judging less. I go through this study more slowly in another article.

All three studies are small and have limitations, as any early research does. But they point in the same direction: after ayahuasca, non-judgment is being detected.

The courtroom we carry

Shaman MahaGi Wahbe holds this wisdom in her guiding phrase: Be Light for the world and do not expect the world to be light for you.

And she goes deeper when she teaches about the judge and the courtroom we carry inside:

God is so wise that He placed the judge inside you. In truth, your own levels are a real courtroom that you create, and so it is you who judge and condemn yourselves. If you want to leave, you can.

Shaman MahaGi Wahbe, teaching 2.9.28

Think about how it begins. From an early age we learn to demand things of ourselves: at home, at school, in society and sometimes even in faith. And like a mirror, from childhood on you start demanding of yourself and judging yourself. By the time you notice, you are already living inside that courtroom.

When judgment makes room

When you stop judging yourself, you make room for a lighter version of you. And from that version a new, healthy personality can be born, one that creates a new, happy reality. Everything depends on how you observe life and how you respond to it.

Science is beginning to measure this. We had already been learning it, in practice, through the teachings.

And you? Did you notice this after ayahuasca?