I think the healing power of ayahuasca lies precisely in its connection with the earth, the body, with suffering, passion, and mess. The healing is not conceptual – an insight, a realization, an epiphany. Rather it is a visceral impact on the body. We should not think of ayahuasca shamans as spiritual gurus. What they do has more kinship with eleos and phobos, Aristotle’s pity and terror. That this links to catharsis – cleansing or purging – should come as no surprise. Ayahuasca is, above all, and apart from our own cultural obsession with visions and insight, la purga.