Ayahuasca boom in Brazil: remedy or risk?
DW Documentary
A public-broadcaster documentary weighing ayahuasca’s rapid growth in Brazil against its real risks.
Watch
Videos
A small, carefully chosen watch-list: documentaries, the science, the traditions and their ethics, and honest perspectives on healing. Start here if you take things in better by watching than reading.
These are external videos hosted on YouTube. They reflect their creators’ views, not ours, and we don’t endorse everything said in them. Nothing here is medical advice. For risks and contraindications, read our safety guide.
Documentaries
Ayahuasca: Vine of the Soul
Gravitas Documentaries
A feature documentary on the brew’s ceremonial and cultural context, and the people who work with it.
The science
Tripping on the World’s Oldest Psychedelic (Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia)
VICE TV
Hamilton Morris investigates the chemistry and anthropology of ayahuasca and orally-active DMT.
Psychedelics: effects on the human brain and physiology
TEDx Talks
An accessible overview of how classic psychedelics act on the brain and body.
Psychedelics and How to Change Your Mind
Bioneers · Michael Pollan
The author of “How to Change Your Mind” surveys the science and history of the psychedelic renaissance.
Rapid Effects of Ayahuasca in Treatment-Resistant Depression
MAPS · Dráulio Barros de Araújo
A neuroscientist presents his team’s randomised trial of ayahuasca for hard-to-treat depression, the early-stage study we cite. Promising, not proof.
Traditions & ethics
Encounters with Shipibo ayahuasca ceremonies and ethics
TEDx Talks · Dr Simon Ruffell
A psychiatrist-researcher (whose work we cite) on Shipibo ceremonies, the evidence, and the ethics of access.
Psychedelics, ayahuasca and indigenous wisdom
TEDx Talks · Benjamin De Loenen
The founder of the NGO ICEERS on indigenous knowledge, reciprocity and responsible policy.
Onanya: Indigenous Shipibo Culture & Sacred Medicine of the Amazon
Onanya (Documentary)
A documentary foregrounding Shipibo healers and the cultural context of the medicine.
Healing & integration
Ayahuasca: visions of jungle medicine
TEDx Talks · Adam Oliver Brown
A biologist’s calm primer on what ayahuasca is and how it works.
Dr Gabor Maté: trauma, addiction and ayahuasca
Tim Ferriss
A physician’s personal and clinical perspective on trauma and plant medicine, a viewpoint, not a treatment recommendation.