Can Ayahuasca Help Us Communicate with the Souls of the Dead?

warning: Dangers of Ayahuasca use

Can Ayahuasca Help Us Communicate with the Souls of the Dead?

Noah Eckstein

As absurd as it sounds, people report that ayahuasca opens a channel to communicate with the dead. It’s like that scene from Black Panther where T’Challa drinks the purple Heart-Shaped Herb and is able to have a final conversation with his dead father; or like in Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi returns from the dead to give Luke Skywalker advice. Except this isn’t a movie, these encounters occur in real life, eyes closed or opened, in the screens of our mind, and they feel very real.

“Ayahuasca can put a person in contact with someone who died, ” says Kerry Moran, a former foriegn correspondent from the US, who’s now an integrative psychotherapist living in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

For Leah Dorion, a paramedic from Saskatoon, Canada, ayahuasca provided an opportunity to see her sister who had recently passed away from a drug and alcohol overdose. “I saw that she was somewhere safe and healthy, looking down on her children. I knew she was okay and I knew that I could stop worrying,” Dorion tells DoubleBlind. Her story is one of many. I’ve spoken to dozens of people who report similar experiences where ayahuasca makes them feel more at peace with grief. Many of them wish not to be named in fear of repercussions at work and in their social lives. Nonetheless, their stories shed light on the perceived ability to communicate with the memory or soul of the deceased.