Don has been leading Ayahuasca ceremonies for over 20 years. I had the opportunity to sit down and interview him on his journey with this sacred plant medicine.

Topics

• The history of Ayahuasca
• The two ingredients needed to cook Ayahuasca: banisteriopsis caapi vine (MAOI) and the psychotria viridis (DMT) 
• How does it taste?
• How does one get started in becoming an Ayahuasca Shaman?
• When the phone rings, you pick it up
• Overcoming "Who do you think you are, whiteboy"
• Moving in with the shamans
• How many ceremonies does it take to become a shaman?
• How do you go about learning ancient native songs (Icaros)?
• Rituals around ceremony: Pre-ceremony, opening ceremony, during, closing ceremony. 
• The importance of Set and Setting
• Mention: Dr Gabor Mate 
• Thoughts on religion
• Clinical research on psychedelics
• Curanderos: Shamanic healers 
• Risks of Ayahuasca
• Dieting before Ayahuasca: Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI's/anti-depressants)
• Dieting certain foods that contain Tyramine (like fermented foods, alcohol, meats, processed foods, etc)
• Thoughts on western medicine and prescriptions
• Mention: Bill Richards from John Hopkins
• Smoking cessation with psilocibin, up to 80% effective
• Mention: Therapsil non for profit coalition for psilocybin therapy
• Saskatchewan world class psychedelics facilities in the 1950's
• Ayahuasca Churches that are exempt in Canada: Santo Daime and Ceu de Montreal
• What is the recommended limit of people in an Ayahuasca ceremony?
• Dosages
• Michael's experience with Ayahuasca
• Mention: Graham Hancock
• Ancient civilization in amazon jungle found
• The most profound experiences with Ayahuasca
• The afterlife and reincarnation 
• Sacrifices in becoming a shaman
• Closing words

• Links:
• Dr Gabor Mate https://drgabormate.com/
• Bill Richards from John Hopkins. https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/richards  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9uexi_VHkg&ab_channel=PsychedelicSeminars
• Psychedelic research in the 1950's Saskatchewan: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/psychedelic-research-in-1950s-saskatchewan 
• Amazon civilization: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/amazon-jungle-ancient-population-satellite-computer-model/
• www.michael-davidson.com