Ayahuasca and Spiritual Crisis: Liminality as Space for Personal Growth

Introduction

Abramson frames the paper within a rising Western interest in non-Western healing and spiritual practices, using ayahuasca — a traditional Amazonian botanical brew combining Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis (and sometimes other potent plants such as brugmansia) — as the focal example. The introduction summarises that ayahuasca commonly produces powerful, often spiritual experiences (visions, perceived spirit contact, death-rebirth imagery) that may sit uneasily with Western worldviews and social norms. Because many Western users undertake ceremonies without embedded cultural supports, the author highlights an increased risk of acute psychological distress following ceremonies; yet these same distressing episodes are often appraised by participants as having deep spiritual significance. The study sets out to explore these difficult post-ceremony episodes through ethnographic, phenomenological case material and clinician interviews, and to interpret the material through the anthropological concept of liminality. Abramson aims to show how what clinicians and lay Westerners may label as psychopathology can also be understood as a ‘‘spiritual emergency’’ or liminal phase that, if worked through with meaning-centred therapeutic support, can lead to personal growth and identity transformation. The paper uses three American case studies and interviews with US clinicians to illustrate experiential trajectories and clinical implications.