Exploring the Altered States of Mind: A Lesson from the Amazonians

During the winter break of 2021, I decided to pack my stuff and head for the deep Colombian Amazon Forest. I had been thinking about spending time with the indigenous people of Amazonia for a while and after two years of social isolation, stress, and turmoil, I felt the right time had come. 

My plane landed in Leticia, the capital of the Amazonas and the southernmost town in Colombia. As I retrieved my luggage, I spotted my tour leader, who also happened to be a shaman, standing outside the airport holding a sign with my name. We got into a taxi and off we rode to the shore for a boat ride, and a hike, and several hours later, we were in Puerto Nariño. 

Upon arrival, I saw nothing but a green, humid jungle and heard countless birds. I was going to spend the next five days in Puerto Nariño, to experience the culture of the indigenous inhabitants of Amazonas, where many of the norms of human civilization were challenged. 

The indigenous people of Leticia evolved for generations with little contact with the world outside their village. Spending five days with them is about as close as you can get to visiting a culture relatively untouched by the modern world. With their limited exposure to civilization, their way of living and belief systems are dramatically different from ours. 

By the time I arrived at my hotel room, I was ready for a warm bath but to my surprise, there was none. You can swim in the nearby pond, I was told. If I wanted a clean water bottle, I was out of luck. All that was offered to me was the same pond water that they offered for my bath. I was awestruck by their way of living and their model of reality. I had to stop myself numerous times during the day to remember where I was and what I had chosen for myself. 

My tour guide told me about the yucca root that the indigenous women harvest, boil, and chew for hours. “Then they spit the chewed-up root into a bowl, and pour the bowl of saliva and yucca root into the pond water,” he explained. “They leave the mixture in the pond for several days to ferment, yielding alcohol, which kills the bacteria in the pond water,” he continued. “What you end up with, is not pond water but a beer of some sort made from the spit of the tribal women of Leticia. So, each man can have his own brewery of pond water made from the saliva of his women. And yes, each man can have multiple women at the same time.” 

The people of Leticia do not believe in God or a higher power the way most of us do. Instead, they believe that animals and plants possess human souls, and these souls can communicate through language and signs. One of the ways they communicate with these plant and animal souls was through drinking ayahuasca, a plant-based drug, to induce vision and metaphysical experiences. Ayahuasca, known as the plant/vine tea blend given under the guidance of a respected shaman for a long night spent in deep connections to higher intelligence and an understanding of one’s true self. 

You see if I was brave enough to drink the pond water, I knew I would have the courage to join the ayahuasca ceremony with my tour shaman, who was well-respected by the tribe. The experience was surreal. In the ceremony, I could hardly spot my tour guide’s face as he mumbled a few words in his language in my ears, blew smoke in my face, tapped my shoulder with a branch, and then gave me a tiny taste of ayahuasca tea. 

For a few minutes, I was fine. Then suddenly, I started feeling a sharp pain in my stomach. I fell on my knees and started vomiting. Once I stopped vomiting, I felt extremely weak. They walked me to my hotel room. I made it to my bed and closed my eyes. I was dizzy and everything looked and felt out of proportion. I opened my eyes to look at the trees outside the hotel window and they looked like tree monsters. I was scared but the fear slowly turned into a sense of peace. It was a surreal feeling of being completely present in the moment with no regard for the past or the future. It felt good to be alive, to be present. I eventually fell asleep and woke up at sunrise to join my group and share my experience. Without realizing it, the ayahuasca exposed me to the four altered states of mind. 

In the book, The Silva Mind Control Method, Jose Silva guides readers through the four human altered states of mind: beta, alpha, theta, and delta. The brain operates at a different speed in each state. The goal of exploring these altered states of mind is to look deep within and find our internal resources to master ourselves as well as the world. 

During the beta state, the mind is wide awake during the day. Ayahuasca taps into the deeper states: alpha, theta, and delta. 

The alpha state is when we are in a relaxed and reflective state of mind, often observed in a meditative state that eradicates anxiety, stress, and depression. Most meditation stop at the alpha level, but Jose Silva wanted to go deeper to access the theta state of mind, the state of tapping into our intuitions to solve a problem and innovate. During the theta state, the brain is drifting off to sleep or just waking up. The theta state can happen when you are awake and in a very relaxed state of mind. The hardest state to tap into is the delta state, where you are in deep sleep. It is during the delta state that we can connect to a higher power. Silva states that we can program our mind before we go to bed to tap into our delta state to connect to the source of a higher power to guide in solving problems and accomplishing goals. 

You see what inspired me the most about this tribe is their interpretation of dreams. Most of us hardly remember our dreams. However, in Leticia, the tribe would often wake up at 4:00 am and assemble around a fire to drink tea and share their life experiences, concerns, and dreams from the night before. They view life experiences that occur during the day and night as equally important, blending both worlds to communicate and use the communal morning gathering for deep soul cleansing. 

It is worth noting that these thousand-year-old religious rituals have predated Western medicine and provide a deeper understanding of the connection between the human mind, body, and soul and the techniques that influence people. In an age where so many of us have been disappointed by the inadequacies of the mental health community, an alternative way to look at the mental health and wellbeing of our patients is needed. We may want to consider different approaches such as metacognition to complement our western practices and help our patients restore their balance and sense of peace.