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The Creative Cycle Processes Model of

Spontaneous Imagery Narratives Applied to the


Ayahuasca Shamanic Journey
frank echenhofer
Clinical Psychology, California Institute of
Integral Studies
fechenhofer@ciis.edu
abstract

Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychoactive shamanic brew that often elicits


spontaneous, intense, and meaningful imagery narratives related to
psychological and physical healing, problem solving, knowledge
acquisition, community cohesion, creativity, and spiritual development. My
EEG and phenomenology ayahuasca research found it caused the greatest
changes in EEG beta coherence from 25 to 30 cycles per second
compared to a resting state before ayahuasca ingestion. Enhanced beta
coherence indexes significantly greater information exchange between
cortical regions and is congruent with the reported enhanced richness,
complexity, and profundity of ayahuasca experiences. I developed the
creative cycle processes model that identifies in ayahuasca reports distinct
experiential change processes and describes how these processes,
neuroscience, psychotherapy, mythological, and other transdisciplinary
evidence can be coherently integrated to explain ayahuasca benefits. The
model suggests three change process stages together underlie one emergent
dynamic creative cycle process. The sequential stages are Form
dismantling and healing processes, form creation processes, where novel
forms spontaneously combine, and form expression processes, where
emergent experiences are embodied. The model suggests that these three
stages repeat cyclically in human development in an ongoing process of
dismantling and generation producing more creative experiences and
expressive forms.
k e y w o r d s : ayahuasca, shamanism, healing, creativity, spirituality

Anthropology of Consciousness, Vol. 23, Issue 1, pp. 6086, ISSN 1053-4202, 2012 by the
American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1111/j.1556-3537.2012.01057.x

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introduction
My research findings (Echenhofer 2011) concerning the experiences
reported after ingestion of the Amazonian psychoactive brew ayahuasca,
which has its origins in shamanism, agree with prior research literature. In
both my research and in prior research, ayahuasca was reported to often elicit spontaneous, intense, and meaningful imagery narratives. These narratives are often related to psychological and physical healing, problem
solving, knowledge acquisition, creativity, spiritual development, divination,
community cohesion (Shanon 2002a, 2002b), and encounters with disincarnate entities or beings (Heuser 2006). Spontaneous imagery narrativesor,
more precisely, spontaneous waking visual and kinesthetic transformative
imagery narrativeshave been widely reported in many cultures throughout
recorded history.
In this article, I will first review the literature describing the nature of ayahuasca experiences and then will describe the aims of this study, which are
to further examine the EEG and phenomenology of ayahuasca and to offer a
model suggesting how ayahuasca facilitates the benefits reported in the literature. The methods and conceptual framework for this study will then be presented, followed by the results and a concluding section.
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ayahuasca experiences
I first will briefly summarize some of the anthropological literature, relying
initially on anthropologist Michael Harners review of reports gathered
from indigenous informants. Harner reports that across indigenous Amazonian peoples the common visionary themes that emerged during ayahuasca
use were of geometric designs, ones own death, constantly changing
shapes, jaguars, snakes, birds, entity encounters, distant cities, divination,
and descriptions of the shamanic journey (1973:172173). The Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo (1973) administered ayahuasca to 35 nonindigenous volunteers from Santiago, Chile, to examine how their visions
compared to those in ayahuasca reports from the indigenous respondents.
Naranjo reports that the common visionary themes were of a geometric
grid with a central focus, a rotating vision with a central focus, eyes, a
perceiving central eye or other form, caves, prehistoric scenes, monstrous
or sardonic masks, going unconscious, being devoured, and dying. Other
themes were of serpents, large felines, and birds of prey. Themes related
to the shamanic journey to other worlds were of ascending, leaving the
body, flying, landscapes and cities, pearls, devils and angels, Jesus Christ,

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and heaven and hell. Naranjo suggests that these visions share a pervasive
mythicreligious quality of life and death, of the human drama unfolding,
and of accepting everything in existence, including evil and death, as well
as a sense that by this acceptance, evil and death were transformed (see
quotations on pages 177190). The reports of Harner and Naranjo suggest
some similarity in the thematic content of ayahuasca experiences. It further appears, however, that there is less commonality when shamanic journeys to other worlds are described; cultural variances in religious belief
may explain these differences.
Benny Shanon (2002a), a cognitive psychologist, offers a more recent and
systematic phenomenological analysis of ayahuasca experiences, which he
has described in terms of content (113140), theme (141159), and typological structure (8698). Some of his content categories include personal autobiographical material; human beings; naturalistic and nonnaturalistic
animals; plants and botanical scenes; beings that are neither human nor
animal; cities; architecture; art; vehicles of transformation; symbols and
scripts; landscapes; historical and mythological beings; and scenes of creation, evolution, and heaven. Some of Shanons thematic categories include
psychological understanding; birth and death; masculine and feminine;
health; the majesty and mystery of nature; forces in the physical world; the
life force; royalty; the divine and praising the divine; philosophy and metaphysics; and the ambience-related themes of enchantment, rapture, and
love. Shanon (2002a) has also created a typology of the structural types or
forms in which ayahuasca visions occur, and he aims at the discernment
of internal patterns and regularities as well as lawful relationships (5). His
18 typological structures, in the order in which they arise during a session,
are:
Visions without semantic content, primitive figurative elements, imagesscenes-visions of light, bursts-puffs-splashes, repetitive non-figurative
elements, patterned geometric designs, rapid figural transformations,
designs with figures, kaleidoscopic images, presentation of single objects,
serial images, snapshots, glimpses, full-fledged scenes, grand scenes,
virtual reality, geometric compositions, coloured visual space, darkness,
the spider web, and supreme light. [Shanon 2002b:24]
Shanon (2002b) also suggests that, with just a few exceptions, there is a progression over the course of the ayahuasca session toward the more figurative,
well-defined and well-formed, stable, global, content rich, encompassing
scope, powerful and real, psychologically significant, spiritually important,
integrative, interactive, narrative complexity, insightful, learned, and veridical (25).

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aims of the study


One aim of this research was to replicate earlier pilot research that I had
conducted examining the EEG and phenomenology of the ayahuasca. A
second aim was to develop a model to create greater coherence regarding
the nature of ayahuasca by integrating the evidence from my ayahuasca
EEG and phenomenology research and other ayahuasca research studies
and to include evidence from other healing and spiritual traditions that
were related to ayahuasca phenomenology and to the kinds of benefits
facilitated by ayahuasca.
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methods
My recently published research (Echenhofer 2011) presented detailed evidence from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, religion, the ayahuasca
research literature, and my own research regarding ayahuasca and first introduced a model suggesting how the benefits of ayahuasca might occur. In this
article, I will present further refinements of this model, utilizing ayahuasca
subjective reports and sacred imagery from a variety of traditions, to suggest
the specific kinds of spontaneous imagery narrative experiences and related
bodily processes that ayahuasca facilitates are directly related to the reported
healing, creative, and spiritual benefits.
The research design I used to examine the EEG and phenomenology of
ayahuasca was a mixed-methods design that collected both quantitative and
qualitative data. The quantitative data consisted of EEG recordings made
prior to and during ayahuasca sessions. The qualitative data consisted of selfreport data collected during ayahuasca sessions. As a conceptual framework, I
used a pragmatist approach, which is often adopted in mixed-methods designs
for solving specific problems in specific contexts. This approach has an
emphasis on creating knowledge through lines of action (which) points to
the kinds of joint actions or projects that different people or groups can
accomplish together (Morgan 2007:72). To integrate the evidence regarding
ayahuasca from many academic and spiritual traditions, it was crucial that the
conceptual research framework used explicitly required the mutual respect
between the different perspectives. Morgan suggests that the pragmatist
approach does not ignore the relevance of epistemology but it does reject
the top-down privileging of ontological assumptions (Morgan 2007:68).
As will become apparent later in this article, the ayahuasca experience
is complex, richly layered, and profound in content, defying adequate
description and logical understanding. Pragmatism is well suited as a research

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inquiry approach to examine such experiential complexity, in particular with


its overt appreciation and acceptance of the inherent indeterminacy of existential reality. According to Feilzer:
Pragmatists view of the measurable world relates more closely to an
existential reality (Dewey 1925:40), a reference to an experiential world
with different elements or layers, some objective, some subjective, and
some a mixture of the two. There are layers of the stable and the
precarious (Dewey 1925:40), layers of completeness, order, recurrences
which make possible prediction and control, and singularities,
ambiguities, uncertain possibilities, processes going on to consequences as
yet indeterminate (Dewey 1925:47). [Feilzer 2010:8]
Because this article will provide a more refined model suggesting how all the
evidence related to ayahuasca can be seen in a more coherent fashion, it is
important to discuss the pragmatist approach regarding both theory development and role of theoretical models in the pragmatic research approach.
Feilzer states that:
Pragmatists also hold an antirepresentational view of knowledge
arguing that research should no longer aim to most accurately represent
reality, to provide an accurate account of how things are in themselves
but to be useful, to aim at utility for us (Rorty 1999: xxvi). [Feilzer
2010:8]
My model regarding ayahuasca may have more general application to concerns relevant to the psychology of religion. Paloutzian and Park (2005)
have suggested that one of the perennial concerns of scholars [is] grappling
with how best to conceptualize the psychological processes that mediate
religiousness (4) and the concern that no theory currently exists that cuts
across the range of topics in the field that serve as comprehensive integrating devices. It is precisely such integrating themes that the field needs (5).
Emmons and Paloutzian (2003) have argued for approaches that recognize
the value of data at multiple levels of analysis while making nonreductive
assumptions concerning the value of spiritual and religious phenomena
(395).
To develop my model, I used several guiding principles to identify and
integrate the many different kinds of disciplinary evidence regarding ayahuasca. Wilber (2000) recommends drawing from at least three different methodological families for developing holistic research approaches, using methods
to collect and integrate data from (1) direct experience, (2) intersubjective
understandings, and (3) systems perspectives (Wilber 2000). Haig (2005)

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suggests that theory development involves using the pragmatic strategy of


conceiving of . . . unknown mechanisms in terms of what is already familiar
and well understood (379). Haig (2005) goes on to say that analogical models play an important creative role in theory development and that it is
important to build analogical models of the causal mechanisms in question
(379). This analogical principle was a primary conceptual tool in my model
development process. For example, as a clinical psychologist I was quite
familiar with psychotherapy process research theories that modeled how positive change processes occurred in psychotherapy. One key experiential process stage for positive change was termed the allowing and accepting of
experience (Greenberg and Safran 1987). After studying the ayahuasca experiential literature, it soon became apparent that similar analogical processes
might be occurring during ayahuasca experiences, and subsequent research
supported this view. While these similar ayahuasca experiences were much
more intense and often were accompanied by spontaneous visual or kinesthetic imagery, they shared many common phenomenological features with
the allowing and accepting of experience process stage of this psychotherapy change theory. In both cases, this process stage was reported to be an
important part of the healing process. In my model, I termed this process
stage tolerating overwhelming experiences because during ayahuasca it also
often had the additional characteristic of feeling overwhelming. All of the
nine stages of my model were developed in a similar way, by first identifying
the core features of experiential process stages that were already deemed as
important in a scholarly tradition relatively more mature than the ayahuasca
literature, such as the change processes identified in psychotherapy process
research and in the mythological scholarship depicting transformational
changes, and then devising a short phrase to label each process stage.
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results: the creative cycle processes model of


spontaneous imagery narratives and supporting
evidence
I will first briefly present an overview of my creative cycle processes (CCP)
model of spontaneous imagery narratives along with the accompanying imagery and psychophysical process changes that are assumed to occur. The CCP
model (see Figure 1) suggests that there are three main sequential stages of
imagery and physiological process changes that occur in a cycle: form dismantling and healing processes, form creation processes, and form expression
processes. All three main stages are inherently creative, which is why the
models name emphasizes creativity. The emphasis on cycle processes suggests
that a number of sequential and interrelated dynamic processes are involved

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f i g u r e 1 . c r e a t i v e c y c l e p r o c e s s e s ( c c p ) mo d e l a n d em b l e m a t i c
i m a g e r y of s p o n ta n e o u s i m a ge r y na rr a t i v e s : t h r e e m a i n s ta g e s o f
FORM DISMANTLING AND HEALING PROCESSES, FORM CREATION PROCESSES,
AND FORM EXPRESSION PROCESSES A ND ASSOCIATED SUBSTAGES LISTED
BELOW IN TABLE

1.

table 1. the three main stages of the ccp model with each of the three
substages
Form dismantling and
healing processes

Form creation
processes

Form expression
processes

Figure 1a.
Enhanced
conflicting energy

Figure 1d.
Enhanced
inner attunement

Figure 1g
Enhanced
field complexity

Figure 1b.
Tolerating
overwhelming experiences

Figure 1e.
Enhanced
form fluidity

Figure 1h.
Enhanced
vertical attunement

Figure 1c.
Dismantling
of self-schema

Figure 1f.
Enhanced
compressed complexity

Figure 1i.
Enhanced
horizontal attunement

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cycling through these three main stages and that this cycle repeats itself both
in dreaming and ayahuasca experiences. Each cycle reflects a movement
toward greater narrative coherence and wholeness.
In the first main stage, forms of imagery spontaneously arise that reflect
the healing of difficult unresolved memories. Once those memories have
been relatively resolved, the second stage of form creation processes can
begin, in which the imagery reflects emergent creative processes of form
exploration. If those processes are sufficiently complex, the third stage of form
expression processes builds upon that complexity to generate more coherent
and meaningful ways of experiencing and expressing the self in the world.
The model is at best a template depicting general process stages, but every
individual will be different as they undergo their unique change experiences.
Variables such as culture, gender, genetics, and recent experiences all shape
the content of change experiences. Worldview often plays an important role
in whether the expressive experiences are reported as spiritual or aesthetic,
with the underlying dynamic structure of these experiences remaining similar. Emotional maturity tends to determine the length of time spent in any
of the three main stages, with more mature individuals spending most of
their session time in the second and third main stages.
The three main stages and the nine substages of the CCP model will now
be presented, integrating ayahuasca and other experiential data, neuroscience
data, where relevant, sacred art iconography, and other evidence relevant
from a variety of academic and spiritual traditions.
Form Dismantling and Healing Processes
After reviewing hundreds of transcripts of ayahuasca reports involving psychological healing, it became clear that many people described the beginning of
their ayahuasca experiences as having some level of anxiety or vague inner
disquiet or concern, often then shifting to an intensification of negative
affect, and finally a dramatic shift to some kind of existential crisis and sense
of losing ones identity. I identify these three substages of form dismantling
and healing as enhanced conflicting energy, tolerating overwhelming experiences, and dismantling of self-schemas.
Enhanced Conflicting Energy. Many ayahuasca reports from the beginning
half of sessions, in particular in individuals having only a few sessions, can
be related to unresolved memories of difficult childhood experiences. Ayahuasca acts to excavate these memories and shape them in new narratives
that are reported as healing and enhanced meaning making. The excerpt
below, reported in John Heusers research, is from an early session of a Western-educated mans ayahuasca experience in which psychological healing is
prominent:

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[I] . . . began to feel even more intense grief . . . for my mothers sadness
and my inability to connect with her and help her when she was alive . . .
for the lack of mothering I received from her . . . Much more weeping
and sobbing . . . More nausea . . . Every time I would get distracted
from my emotions . . . the nausea would surge up to unbearable levels
. . . As soon as I could get back to the feelings, it would subside . . .
Eventually [vomited] . . . [found] myself lying on the floor . . . with
racking sobs. After . . . [an] hour . . . start[ed] to settle down. Still very
sad. Saw [image of] my mother . . . She could see me and spoke but no
sound . . . could not read her lips. She looked about same age as when
she died but not sick . . . I could tell she was very sad about what had
happened in the past and extremely happy about what I was doing now
and felt freed and released by it. [Heuser 2006:70]
In writing about his own form dismantling and healing experiences, the Swiss
psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1989:170) used the words uncertainty, disorientation,
inner pressure, and disturbance, all of which are congruent with the first substage, where enhanced conflicting energy is creating a difficult inner situation
as depicted in Figure 2. It appears that a transformation requires an increase
of conflicting energy. Marie-Louise Von Franz, perhaps Jungs only peer in
regard to her understanding of alchemy, suggests that a necessarily difficult
beginning stage of the alchemical transformation is the nigredo state.
Figure 2 is an engraving from the German alchemist J. D. Myliuss 1622
alchemical work Philosophia reformata, which von Franz suggests is the psy-

f i g u r e 2 . a l c h e m i s t i n t h e n i g r e d o s ta t e : e n h a nc e d c o n f l i c t i n g
en ergy.

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chological equivalent to the nigredo state: a situation of psychological conflict and depression (von Franz 1980:223).
Tolerating Overwhelming Experiences. The second ayahuasca substage,
which I have called tolerating overwhelming experiences, is often experienced
as fear of the unknown in oneself or in the world. Mythological narratives
can be seen as maps of transformation processes that explain why difficult
truths must be facedsuch as why our sense of self, if it is too rigid, must
sometimes be dismantled. Joseph Campbell (1974) related the mythic story of
Kirtimukha (p. 118), the fierce Face of Glory that appears over many doorways leading into many Hindu and Buddhist temples. Figure 3 is a photograph of the 13th-century Hindu temple of Candi Kidal.
In this story, King Jalandhara was foolhardy enough to send the giant Rahu
to try to steal Shiva's bride. Shiva became so enraged that from his brow a
terrifying monster with insatiable hunger emerged to devour Rahu, whereupon Rahu begged for mercy and Shiva relented. The monster screamed
that he was ravenous and asked what he was to do, and Shiva, looking at
him for a moment, said that he could devour himself. So the monster ate all
of himself but his head, and Shiva exclaimed, This is my most magnificent
creation ever! Henceforth it shall be known as Kirtimukha, the Face of
Glory, and must always remain at the entrance of my door. From now on,
nobody comes before me unless they first bow to Kirtimukha (Campbell

f i g u r e 3 . fac e o f g l o r y : t o l e r a t i n g o v e r w h e l m i n g
e x p er i e n c e s .

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1974:118). There are many interpretations of this myth, but in this context the
relevant interpretation is that for us to be transformed and truly alive and creative, we must allow our negative feelings without protest.
Empirical psychotherapy process research regarding the crucial importance
of this same psychophysical process has been identified by Gendlin (1997)
and Greenberg and Safran (1987). Greenberg labeled this stance toward
experience allowing and accepting and found that psychotherapy clients
who could allow and accept their experience in the moment noticed that a
dynamism arose within them that allowed them to feel more alive and experience more fully.
Dismantling of Self-Schemas. In the account by the Western-educated man
reported above in Heusers research, the third substage of dismantling of
self-schemas also appears, in which unbearable nausea, vomiting, and sobbing
is experienced.
Figure 4 is an illustration from Atalanta fugiens, by the German physician
Michael Maier (15681622). For both von Franz and Jung, this alchemical
illustration depicts the symbolic death of the hero king in the foreground,
and can be seen as the kind of imagery that spontaneously arises as part of
the dismantling of self-schemas substage. Such experiences can rarely be consciously approached and allowed and accepted, but they can be endured if
they occur spontaneously. This may be why ayahuasca is so effective in the
healing of seemingly unbearable, unresolved childhood memories: it brings
about an unfolding of spontaneous visual and kinesthetic waking transformative imagery narrative that otherwise is very difficult to allow. From his
alchemical studies, Jung gained confidence that the purpose of the descent .
. . is to show that only in the region of danger can one find the treasure hard
to attain (Jung 1953:335). While the experience of losing ones old sense of
identity can be frightening, it also creates an experiential situation of openness and a readiness to experience a sense of self conditioned not by past
suffering but by creative processes outside conscious awareness that manifest
themselves during the next substages.
Form Creation Processes
In the model, the three substages of the form creation processes are
enhanced inner attunement, enhanced form fluidity, and enhanced compressed
complexity. It is suggested not that these three processes are most primary to
creativity in general, only that they were observed to be most prominent in
the reports of our ayahuasca research participants and have been used to
develop this stage of the CCP model.

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f i gu r e 4. king dying and being reborn: dismantling of self-schema.

Enhanced Inner Attunement. Enhanced inner attunement often occurs when


the dismantling process is so intense that even one who has lost faith cries
out for help. Many reports from our ayahuasca participants mentioned that
at crucial difficult moments they experienced a tender presence, saw loving
disincarnate entities, or prayed for help and care. Von Franz suggests that
Jung related this to the birth of new life from darkness, the Annunciation in
Christianity, and the alchemical process rubedo. She quotes Jung:
Analysis should release an experience that grips or falls upon us as from
above, an experience that has substance and body such as those things
that occurred to the ancients. If I were to symbolize it I would choose the
Annunciation. [von Franz 1980:269]
During most Annunciation portrayals, Gabriel, the angel of revelation, tells
Mary in a vision she will be the mother of the world savior. The Flemish
15th-century painter Rogier van der Weyden (13991464) depicts the Annunciation (Figure 5). Seen as imagery narrative and not sacred dogma, some
of the major elements of transformative narrative can be observed. A being
from another world reveals to a human the knowledge that the divine is to
be made flesh; and this human being will have the role of the mother
who uses her body to give birth to that process. This painting displays an
abundance of visual detail and suggestions about a kinesthetic experience
as well.

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The infant attachment research literature indicates that between securely


attached infants and their mothers, there is a quite rapid and energetic nonverbal exchange of gesture and vocalization that allows the infant to learn
that energetic dyadic interactions can be quite pleasurable and reliable, thus
enabling the infant to become familiar with and unafraid of the high-energy
states associated with pleasure, exploratory play, creativity, and uninhibited
self-expression. As the infants immature nervous system slowly develops, so
do its own capacities for self-regulation, assisted by a process of attuned communication involving the resonance of energy and information (Siegel
1999:71) between mother and infant. This process also occurs between therapist and client, spiritual teachers and their students, shamans singing as part
of the process of healing their patients, between lovers, and in all loving
relationships. This motherly presence seems to provide love, self-regulatory
stability, and a secure base from which to explore the unknown and to return
when needed.

Enhanced Form Fluidity. At this substage, one can consciously explore the
dazzling displays of novel forms that ayahuasca famously helps to facilitate.
Research participants have described these novel form displays as playful,
dynamic, morphing, extremely novel, experimenting with possibilities, improvisation around a theme, intricate, and intelligent. I believe that form fluidity,

f i gu r e 5. r og i er van de r w ey de n, t h e ann u nc i at i o n, c a . 143 5


(photograph verlagsgesel).

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and in fact all of the processes described herein, are multimodal. This fluidity is also reported to occur in spontaneous gestures and is similarly
described, but with the additional descriptors of embodied, channeled movements, attuned tactile communications with some kind of kinesthetic force or
presence, delicate, tender, and exquisitely nuanced. Spontaneous vocalizations
have also been reported to have the same properties.
While it is very hard to communicate in words the kinds of visual and kinesthetic ayahuasca facilitated imagery that may be experienced during the
stage of enhanced form fluidity, the iconographic forms seen in the tunics of
the Huari pre-Columbian Peruvian culture (7501000 C.E.) come very close
to depicting the essential features of enhanced form fluidity, Sawyer (1963)
has illustrated in his drawings in Figure 6bd a progression of Huari tunic
designs that all could be seen as improvisation around a theme, that theme
being shown in Figure 6a of a kneeling half human and half bird attendant
to the staff God carved on the Gateway to the Sun, a stone monumental gate
of the Tiahuanaco culture near Lake Titicaca straddling the border of southern Peru and Western Bolivia. These morphing and dynamic tunic designs
may well be a very similar to ayahuasca experiences because like ayahuasca,
snuffs containing DMT and were in widespread use in the Tiahuanaco and
Huari cultures. Evidence for sacred use of these snuffs being directly linked
to these Huari tuni designs is that the most common sacred icongraphic
theme decorating snuff trays is also the same staff God whose attendant the
tunics depict (Torres 1995).
Neuroscience Correlates of Ayahuasca and Enhanced Form Fluidity. In collaboration with the Colombian anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna, I traveled
with my dissertation student David Stuckey (2004) to an Amazonian retreat
center near Manaus, Brazil, in 2000. We examined the EEG effects of ayahuasca on two experienced research participants. We found that ayahuasca
decreased the amplitude of the EEG across frequencies, as had been widely
reported in previous research. What was novel and unexpected was that ayahuasca enhanced EEG coherence at the beta and gamma frequencies from
many cortical regions (Stuckey 2004:iv). We knew that this could be an
important finding, but because the study had only two participants with little
artifact-free data, it needed replication.
In Brazil in 2005, I obtained EEG recordings and subjective reports from
research participants before and during ayahuasca sessions. The twelve participants ranged in age from 27 to 60 and consisted of 11 men and 1
woman from various countries including the Netherlands, South Africa,
Colombia, Cyprus, and the United States. All participants had consumed
ayahuasca prior to the study; their experience with the substance ranged
from a minimum of four to over a thousand ayahuasca journeys. Experi-

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f i g u r e 6 . ( a ) G A T E WAY O F T H E S U N , A T T E N D A N T D E I T Y ; T I A H U A N A C O
( B ) A T T E N D A N T D E I T Y I N V E R S I O N 1; ( C ) A T T E N D A N T D E I T Y I N
V E R S I O N 2 ; ( D ) A T T E N D A N T D E I T Y I N V E R S I O N 3.
TAPESTRY

ence with ayahuasca ranged from 1 to 34 years across participants. Participants reported the ayahuasca effects from 15 to 40 minutes after ingestion.
On the basis of hundreds of ayahuasca session reports, it is fairly certain
that most individuals encounter the form dismantling and healing processes
stage about 2040 minutes after feeling the initial ayahuasca effects. On
average, the form creation processes stage lasts for the next 4060 minutes,
with the form expression stage lasting for the next 4060 minutes after that.
The total range of time from ingestion until cessation of effects ranges from
approximately two to four hours for most individuals. Because the process
of recording EEG requires individuals to remain still in order to reduce
muscle artifacts, it is possible to acquire reliable data before effects are felt
and before the form dismantling and healing processes begin but usually
not during this main stage because its intensity makes it all but impossible
for participants to maintain muscle relaxation. Because the first substage of
the form creation process is also quite prone to artifacts, our most reliable
EEG research data has been collected from 80 to 110 minutes after ingestion. During ayahuasca sessions, the self-report data were collected just subsequent to five minute periods of recording the EEG. On the basis of the
phenomenology of ayahuasca reports and of my model, our EEG recordings were acquired from our participants during the substage of enhanced
form fluidity and do not reflect the many other kinds of experiences that
can occur during an ayahuasca session.
We recorded EEG from our 12 participants during an eyes-closed baseline
condition just prior to the ingestion of ayahuasca, using discrete gold sensors
attached to the scalp. Nineteen EEG tracings were obtained in this way,
using the standard international 1020 system to establish the precise scalp
locations. After 80110 minutes, we recorded the EEG again from the same
participants, who, still with eyes closed, were by this time fully experiencing
the effects of ayahuasca. Although EEG can be analyzed in many ways, the
finding that discriminated most robustly between the two conditions was

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EEG coherence, which is equivalent to the correlation of EEG activity at a


particular frequency at one location on the scalp compared to another. The
measure is presumed to reflect the relative strength of neural network connectivity between specific EEG locations; it indicates the level at which
information is processed with higher coherence and thus signifies enhanced
cooperative activity between the regions (Thatcher, Biver, and Duane
2009:17).
Coherence is averaged over a specific range of frequencies. Research suggests that different frequency ranges, or EEG bands, are related to different
neural processes.
Figure 7a depicts the 19 EEG locations recorded with the head observed
from above with the nose on top. Figure 7b shows the eight EEG locations
Fp1, Fp2, F8, T4, T6, T5, T3, and F7 as black dots indicating that these
EEG sites were recorded but excluded from the analysis because these
locations are easily contaminated by scalp muscle activity occurring during
ayahuasca sessions. Figure 7b also shows as white dots the remaining 11
EEG locations F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4, O1, and O2 that were
included in the analysis. Coherence in the high beta EEG frequencies,
from 25 to 30 cycles per second, best discriminated baseline from ayahuasca
conditions. Figure 7b shows the EEG high beta frequency coherence differences between eyes-closed ayahuasca compared to eyes-closed baseline conditions, averaged for the group of 12 research participants. The solid lines
indicate significant increases (p  .01) in EEG coherence between cortical
regions, suggesting enhanced information processing between these regions

f i g u r e 7 . ( a ) s tan d a r d ee g l o c a t io n s f o r s c a l p re c o r d in g . (b )
aya h uas c a a n d b a s e l i n e e e g be ta ( 2 5 3 0 c p s ) c o h e r e n c e
differences.

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anthropology of consciousness 23.1

during ayahuasca as compared to the baseline condition. The dashed lines


indicate significant decreases (p  .01) in EEG coherence between cortical regions, suggesting decreased information processing between these
regions during ayahuasca as compared to the baseline condition.
Our findings are congruent with Francisco Varelas (Varela et al. 2001)
research and theoretical writing; he speculates that:
A unified cognitive moment relies on the coordination of scattered
mosaics of functionally specialized brain regions . . . [and that] . . .
although the mechanisms involved in large-scale integration are still
largely unknown . . . the most plausible candidate is the formation of
dynamic links mediated by synchrony over multiple frequency bands.
[p. 229]
Our participants heightened, complex, and creative ayahuasca experiences during the substage of enhanced form fluidity could be related to the fact that their
EEGs showed very significant changes in EEG coherence over many frequency
bands. These coherence changes may be related to the neural network dynamics required to sustain the enhanced form fluidity our participants reported.
Enhanced Compressed Complexity. During the enhanced compressed complexity substage, more complex narrative ayahuasca experiences start to
occur; these are reported to be more vivid, realistic, dramatic, and lengthy
narratives that sometimes include encounters with entities and the classic
shamanic journey to other worlds. Often in these other worlds, strange symbolic objects are a part of the encounter.
An example of enhanced compressed complexity involving a vivid encounter
with a disincarnate entity is reported in Janet Gyatsos translation of Tibetan
master, Jigme Lingpas (17301798) autobiography. Lingpas spontaneous
visionary experiences served as the foundation for tantric visualization meditation practices still widely practiced in both Tibetan and Western settings.
The passage below is drawn from Jigme Lingpas Dakkis Secret Talk, written
from 1767 to 1769.
I mounted an attractive white lioness and was carried to an
unrecognizable (place) . . . I encountered . . . the face of the dakini . . .
She committed to me a flattened casket made of wood, in the shape of
an amulet box . . . she said, . . . This is the Treasure of . . . heartmind, the symbol of the great expanse of Awareness-Holder Padma, the
great secret repository of the dakinis. Symbols dissolved! As she said
that, she vanished . . . filled with great delight, I opened up the box.
From inside came rattling out five rolls of yellow paper . . . At once I

creative cycle processes

77

carefully opened up the large roll of paper. There was an immeasurable


effusion of the aromatic fragrance of camphor . . . I opened [the roll] . . .
slowly . . . which was filled with scrambled secret dakini sign-letters,
which the mind could not make sense of. Since I could not read it, I
began to roll it up, when just in that instant, like an optical illusion . . .
all of the symbolic characters inside turned at once into Tibetan.
[Gyatso 1998:56]
Tibetan Buddhisms mind terma tradition is extremely relevant to the central
topic of this paper. The mind terma is a spiritual teaching that originally
arose spontaneously as a vision in the mind of an advanced meditator subsequently accepted within the tradition as a valid new practice form. The mind
terma recipient interacts with a celestial entity, a sky dancer or dakini (Figure 8) known to destroy conventional forms. She provides, in a vision or
materially, new teachings beyond conception, often written in dakini script, a
secret language often requiring later extensive decoding.
Another example of enhanced compressed complexity is the pre-Colombian
Chavin cultures (800200 B.C.E.) stone Tello Obelisk, found at Chavin de
Huantar, Peru. It probably depicts, in relief, a large male and female cayman. Their bodies are covered with kenning, or visual metaphors. Peter Roe
suggests the Tello Obelisk images depicts the two caymans, plants, the jaguar,
and the harpy eagle, all of which are of Amazonian origin (Roe 2007). 1

f i g u r e 8 . t ib e tan d a k in i f i g u r e .

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anthropology of consciousness 23.1

Figures 9a and b show examples of enhanced compressed complexity in the


female and male caymans bodies, respectively. Each is composed of embedded animal images. In Figure 9b, at the lower far right a cross-sectional slice
of the San Pedro cactus can be observed. Research suggests that San Pedro
cactus, which contains mescaline, and hallucinogenic snuffs that include
DMT-like compounds were used in Chavin religious practices.2 The resulting visions must have exerted a powerful impact upon methods of rendering
imagery in pottery, in stone, on shells, and in textiles.
Form Expression Processes
The final major stage of the model involves the form expression processes,
with the substages of enhanced field complexity, enhanced vertical attunement, and enhanced horizontal attunement. Only 2 of our 12 subjects, who
had years of spiritual practice, reported ayahuasca experiences that were
clearly of this type, so this part of the CCP model is the most speculative
and most related to spiritual experiences. The major stage of form creation is
possibly preparatory to the form expression stage. If form creation processes
function to explore the possibilities of form fluidity and compressed complexity, form expression processes allow for expression of the richness of these
forms and their accompanying meaning.
Enhanced Field Complexity. The first substage is enhanced field complexity;
an image representing this is the Tibetan Buddhist Kalachakra mandala,
shown in Figure 10. As it is well beyond the scope of this chapter to explain
this mandala in any but the most summary manner, the intent here is to suggest only a few of its obvious features that directly correspond to experiences
of our participants and to the model. In summary, the mandala, along with
the sacred mountain (Neihardt 1998:46), temple, shrine, or tree, is the sacred
environment that supports the transformative process of awakening at the symbolic sacred axis of the world, or axis mundi (Eliade 1969:2756). Rudolph
Arnheim observes, When we speak of the center we shall mean mostly the
center of a field of forces, a focus from which forces issue and toward which
forces converge (1982:2). Tibetan Buddhism suggests that there is actually no
real self at the center of things, and while we experience ourselves as the center of everything, in reality we construct a self. Through meditation practice,
the reality of no-self can be directly realized. So the journey to the center of
the mandala is a discovery that there exists no separate self. Often a mandala
is visualized as a part of Tibetan Buddhist visualization meditation practice: it
is round, surrounded by protective fire, and it contains sacred symbolic
objects. It has a square central portion that is the palace of the deity, and four
gates facing the four directions; the deity sits upon a throne at the center of

creative cycle processes

79

f i g u r e 9 . t e l l o o b e l i s k ( a ) d r awi n g of ma l e c ay m a n ( l e f t ) ; ( b )
dr awi n g of f em al e c ay ma n (r i ght ) .

the palace. Surrounding and supporting the mandala are many attendant
beings and the area outside of the palace is beautifully ornamented.
Although the mandala is often represented in only two dimensions, when
visualized it also has the vertical dimension of the palace walls; the palace
building itself rises many stories and has a central high axis. This general
plan of a palace in which the deity resides at the central axis is a very widespread narrative that Eliade referred to as the symbolism of the center

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anthropology of consciousness 23.1

f i gu r e 10 . tibetan kalachakra mandala: enhanced field complexity.

(Eliade 1969:2756). For the meditator, the culminating processes related to


awakening take place at the central axis. For the Shipibo shaman, the central
wooden axis of the maloka, or sacred building where only ayahuasca ceremonies are held, is the where Shipibo sacred narrative processes unfold.
Enhanced Vertical Attunement. Two of our participants reported that they
found their way into situations where they were at the center and that the
center possessed certain unique properties. One participant had experiences
reflecting the enhanced vertical attunement substage:
I was feeling energy in the area of my neck and the top of my head
when suddenly there a blinding flash of white light and what felt a
waterfall of downflowing energy coming down through the top of my
head and washing through my body . . . my body was shaking and
trembling but the feeling was ecstatic and beyond words . . . it also felt
electrical and powerful . . . it lasted for perhaps 20 seconds and for quite
a while I had no thoughts and my mind was still and spacious.
[Echenhofer n.d.a]
Many spiritual traditions employ esoteric systems that explain the vertical
movement of some kind of spiritual energy in the area of the spine and that
consider such movement to be related to spiritual development. In my view,
such experiences are spontaneous and primarily kinesthetic waking transformative imagery narratives.

creative cycle processes

81

My hypothesis is that in the major stage of form expression processes, the


experiences shift from being visual to more kinesthetic, because to be expressive the motor system must be operative and attuned. One way of characterizing these processes is to see them as a shift from inner experiencing to outer
expression of subtle, highly complex states of mind, as would be required by a
master artist or spiritual teacher who not only experiences what is profound
and meaningful but also develops the capacity to express it to others. My intuition is that sacred art forms communicate information related to inner developmental processes, such as enhanced vertical attunement, that were first directly
experienced and later rendered into a form. Figure 11 illustrates the Raimondi
Stela (2011), another Chavin major deity from Chavin de Huantar, the imagery
of which was probably inspired by the psychedelic San Pedro cactus.
Again, keening is used throughout this image, with snakes and animal
heads incorporated throughout the deitys body and the extreme vertical
movement of the image suggesting intense peaking to most individuals
who have had strong psychedelic experiences. Multiple heads or energy lines
radiating from the head, such as halos, are ways of graphically portraying profound inner experience that are used both in the sacred art of cultures that
employ psychedelics as a sacrament and in Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian
sacred art depicting religious figures.
Enhanced Horizontal Attunement. The last substage of the form expression
processes is enhanced horizontal attunement. Unlike the enhanced vertical
attunement, which receives the vertical flow of spiritual energies the
enhanced horizontal attunement continues to receive down- and possibly
up-flowing spiritual energies but also simultaneously projects energies horizontally and outwardly to other beings as transmissions of healing. In
Figure 12, the Tibetan Bodhisattva Tara (2011), from the Tibeto-Chinese 16th
century, exemplifies the capacity to provide abundance to others in the imagery of her thousand arms, hands, heads, and legs (Rhie and Thurman
1991:321). The CCP model suggests that three sequential substages comprise
the main stage of form expression processes that underlie ayahuasca transformative imagery spiritual experiences. The sub-stage of enhanced field complexity, depicted by the mandala as seen in Figure 10, is experienced as
bringing together, arranging, and balancing the required energetic spiritual
resources so that the next substage of enhanced vertical attunement can
occur, followed by the substage of enhanced horizontal attunement. More
research is needed to test the CCP model regarding the experiential and physiological processes involved in ayahuasca spiritual experiences.

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anthropology of consciousness 23.1

f i g u r e 1 1 . r a i m o n d i s t e l a , c h av i n : en h a n c ed v e rt i c a l at t u n em e n t.

&

summary and conclusion


The CCP model suggests that there is a continuing cyclical process to
make sense of our world and that this process involves the creation of new
forms to make meaning of new circumstances and that this reformation
process necessarily requires the destruction of old lifeless forms that are no

creative cycle processes

f i g u r e 1 2 . t i b e ta n b o d h i s a t t va
ho riz ontal attune me nt.

83

ta r a

( s i t a t a p a tr a ):

en han c ed

longer of benefit. If we can allow these disembodied forms to die, a process


of form exploration and creation is spontaneously activated and displayed in
visionary experience, culminating in the embodiment of new forms of experiencing and expression. The reformation process is cyclical and embodied
because forms must undergo this process of being-in-the-world to be
attuned and aligned. One version of the origin of dervish dancing, seen in
Figure 13, suggests that when the Persian poet Rumi lost his beloved, his
heartbreak was so devastating that a vast opening arose in him which
allowed a profound spiritual realization to occur expressed spontaneously in
ecstatic movement and later in poetry. Through these three spontaneous
unfolding stages, something profound was revealed that otherwise would
have remained hidden. Gyatso (1998) suggests that the ground from which
these kinds of nondual states arise is understood to be intrinsically expressive (p. 200); perhaps it is for this reason that when human beings can
allow this ground to flow through them unimpeded, the expressive display
strikes us as being inspired.
Earlier I mentioned that Paloutzian and Park (2005) suggested that no theory exists in the field of the psychology of religion to provide comprehensive

84

anthropology of consciousness 23.1

integrating devices. One goal of the CCP model is to suggest specific


conceptual devices, identified below in italics, to understand how the many
currently unrelated things known about ayahuasca might be related. The
CCP model emphasizes developmental process stages suggesting the three
main sequential stages emphasizing healing, creativity, and spiritual processes. A natural process of spontaneous creative emergence, always moving
toward fuller embodiment, is displayed in spontaneous images and accompanying emergent neural networks during spontaneous imagery narratives in
ayahuasca and related experiences.
The CCP model is new and untested. For an explanatory model to comprehensively integrate what is known about spontaneous imagery narratives
in general, and ayahuasca in particular, additional transdisciplinary collaboration involving further integration of disciplinary knowledge and methods is
needed. Specifically, an examination of the ways that gender, culture, sexual
orientation, genetics, and other individual differences may alter the arc of
healing, creative, and spiritual change processes would have to be carefully
examined to determine the models value for different individuals, communities, and contexts.

f i g u r e 1 3 . me v l e v i d e r v i s h da n c i n g .

creative cycle processes

85

&

notes
1. Figure 9 is an adaptation of a drawing made by Peter G. Roe, professor of anthropology at the University of
Delaware. The original drawing is of a male and a female cayman on the Tello Obelisk found at Chavn de
Huntar in Peru. This image was downloaded and adapted, with Dr. Roes permission, from his website at
http://copland.udel.edu/~roe/chavin.html#tello.
2. The examination of a series of stone head sculptures at the Old Temple at Chavin de Huantar suggests the stages
of a priest transforming from human to a jaguar-like being that could serve as an intermediary between the human
and supernatural realms. Possibly mucus can be seen flowing from the nose of some of these stone heads, and this
has been interpreted as evidence for the use of hallucinogenic snuffs, because these potent substances irritate the
mucous membranes of the nose, causing discharges and visionary altered states of consciousness. The San Pedro
Cactus is also prominently depicted in the iconography at Chavin, suggesting that hallucinogenic snuffs containing
compounds similar to DMT and mescaline from San Pedro probably facilitated the spontaneous visionary experiences at Chavin and contributed to the development of religious beliefs and practices and styles of sacred art (see
Burger 1995:157).

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