What changes in the brain after ayahuasca?

People who have received ayahuasca often say the same thing: the next day, something was different. A quieter mind, a more open heart, a wish to look at life with less hurry and fewer demands on yourself. For a long time this lived only in the words of those who experienced it. Now science has begun to look at that “afterwards”.

Researchers even gave it a name: the after-glow, the glow that stays. It is the period that comes after the strongest effect of the medicine, when the ceremony is over but something carries on.

The study

In 2017, a team of researchers followed 16 healthy volunteers who took ayahuasca. Before the experience and up to 24 hours afterwards, they had MRI scans, to see inside the brain. They also answered questionnaires on mindfulness, which is the ability to observe what we feel and think without getting caught up in it or criticizing ourselves. One of the items in this questionnaire is called “non-judgment”: how well a person can look at themselves without condemning themselves.

What showed up in the brain

The scans showed two things.

The first was chemical. In a region called the posterior cingulate cortex, part of the network that switches on when the mind wanders, thinks about itself and replays life, levels of glutamate dropped. Glutamate is a substance that keeps neurons active.

The second was about connection. The conversation between the posterior and the anterior cingulate cortex increased, and so did the one between the anterior cingulate and an area of the right temporal lobe, linked to memory and emotions.

And what did this change in the person?

This is the part that strikes me most. The changes in the brain did not stand on their own. The more glutamate dropped, the higher the person’s non-judgment score. And the stronger the connection between the anterior cortex and the temporal lobe, the greater their self-compassion, which means being as kind to yourself as you would be to a friend.

And there is more: two months later, what the scans showed right after the ceremony helped predict who had more non-judgment. In other words, the glow did not seem to be a one-day thing.

How to read this result with your feet on the ground

It was a small study, with 16 people and no comparison group. It shows that two things appear together, what changed in the brain and what changed in the person, but it does not prove that one caused the other. And it was not a study with patients: the volunteers were healthy people.

Even so, it is a beautiful sign. What people say they feel inside, more lightness and fewer demands on themselves, has a counterpart that science can see from the outside.

What Shaman MahaGi Wahbe teaches about this

When I read this study, I immediately remembered a teaching from Shaman MahaGi Wahbe about forgiveness. She says:

We are often our own harshest critics.

Self-forgiveness is not an act of weakness, but of courage and self-compassion.

What science calls self-compassion, MahaGi calls self-forgiveness. They are different words for a similar path: no longer being our own harshest critic and starting to look at ourselves with more kindness. And notice that the study saw exactly this appear, non-judgment and self-compassion, in the people who went through the experience.

What this has to do with our house

For us, none of this changes what is essential: everything with love and nothing without love, and responsibility first. The medicine is serious, and each person has their own story, their own health and their own moment. If you are unsure whether you can receive the medicine, get in touch with our team. The path of transformation is always there, and we prefer it to be walked with care.