I occasionally get writers for patients that complain of writer’s block. Since my source of Ayahuasca has temporarily dried up, I must resort to other methods. I must confess I don’t miss the projectile vomiting.

I usually begin by saying to the patient, “Oh, you’re struggling with the Persephone Effect.” This piques their curiosity and also places the problem outside of them. They have a problem, but they are not the problem.

I tell the story of Demeter and Persephone and the bargain struck with Pluto. As the result of losing her daughter, Demeter makes the earth cold and barren for almost six months. When Persephone returns, we enjoy spring and summer.

Most people like to be associated with a myth, but this is usually not enough to solve the problem. I induct the patient into a hypnotic trance through drumming, rattling, or describing a place where they feel safe. Then I tell them a story tailored to their individual situation.

I had a writer as a patient and I wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted to start writing again. She was getting a secondary gain from not writing and I couldn’t figure out what it was–maybe attention, money from home, a buffer against self-awareness, or a defense against having her writing rejected. It could have been any or all of the above.

During the induction when I tell the patient that their left arm is getting so light that it raises by itself off the chair, she didn’t move. Big clue right there. It is almost like Jungian therapy when a complex comes up. The patient blocks. Something really didn’t want her to write. Therefore, I said when your left hand gets so heavy that you can’t possibly move it then we’ll know you’re ready. You have got to go where the patient/complex is.

The story I told her was this: There was a logging town with a huge problem. Timber had floated downriver and jammed so completely that no one could release the logs. The future income of the town was threatened. Fights broke out. People were looking for something or someone to blame. Then a stranger came to town.

I deliberately avoided describing the stranger. I did not allow anyone to get a look at his face. He carried an enormous logging tool, and no one but he was able to lift it. He threaded his way out onto the logjam. He studied one log for a long time. He drove the pike into the log and rolled it. It broke the jam. Before anyone could thank him he was gone.

Before I broke the trance, I told my patient that sometime soon she would start to write. Maybe it wouldn’t be today, or tomorrow or this week. She would need a good instrument to write with–a tool that “only she could lift.” She would begin her search right away. It might be a quite humble tool, but it wouldn’t matter. She would know it when she saw it.

When I brought my patient out of the trance, she wanted to ask all kinds of questions about the process. I wouldn’t answer them. I think I said, “Where did you get those cool running shoes?” and then I pushed her out the door.

I planted the suggestion in the unconscious. It would find a way to physically engage her in writing. It would stimulate a response. We would ruin the effect if we dissected it in therapy. No need to make bricks to dam the unconscious.

I wish I could report success but I never saw this patient again.

Ayahuasceros refer to the drug as the TV or Internet of the Amazon. It is a widely held belief that taking Ayahuasca multiple times allows your DNA to “speak” to the DNA of plants and animals. There are 80,000 plant species in the Amazon and humankind had about 10,000 years since the last Ice Age to figure out which plants were toxic and which were not. Ayahuasceros believe the plants “told” them what was safe to eat. When you think about it, there wasn’t enough people or time for random sampling to work it out. So if you want to open yourself up to the DNA of everything else you’re still going to retch and see demons—or worse.

Later if you’re inclined to be eaten by a condor and spend a pleasant afternoon flying, devoured by a jaguar and sleep all afternoon in a tree, see how you will die, or see yourself dead, then this is the drug for you.

Ayahuasceros say that there are things that we know, things that we don’t know and things that we don’t know we don’t know. The latter is where Ayahuasca takes you. Sometimes it is best not to know too much.

San Pedro is another drug of Central and South America. It is much milder and is similar to peyote. The negative side effects are much less. One approaches San Pedro with a question they need answered. My experience is akin to sitting in your grandfather’s lap and told difficult things about yourself in a loving way. Curanderos use San Pedro in all night healing sessions. Both client and curandero consume the drug. It would seem San Pedro a better choice than Ayahuasca.
The San Pedro experience can briefly be re-created through the use of pipe tobacco. The user only get one question. Ayahuasca is prone to flashbacks.

A friend of mine on Ayahuasca was attacked by a huge python while on a trip to the Amazon. He ran like hell. Later he was in Switzerland sitting by a lake when the same python appeared. He allowed himself to be swallowed, and reports that he enjoyed being a snake for several hours.