WHATEVER WORKS –

Dec. 22, 2022 – or the first time in the center’s 30-year history, a University of California, Riverside music researcher has captured the positive impact icaros play in men’s recovery. Ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic, means “vine of the dead” in Quechua, Perú’s primary Indigenous language. About 67% of participants who completed a nine-to-12-month program at Takiwasi Center, did not return to substance abuse, according to previous research cited by Graham and his colleagues. About 86% of patients showed statistically significant improvements on the Addictions Severity Index, an assessment tool used to evaluate substance abuse treatment. 

An analysis from 2017-19 assessed 180 responses. All patients reported that icaros changed their psycho-emotional state and that icaros effected healing related to “unblocking,” a process also known as “cleansing” and “removing,” referring to reports of ayahuasca’s purgative effects, both physical and psycho-emotional. 

“Ethnomusicologists and medical anthropologists understand the role that music plays in healing among many cultures,” said Graham, whose research interests include indigeneity and ritual music in South America. “While Western biomedicine’s foundation in science is strong, it has also neglected to explain the connection of mind-body and how music can effect healing.”

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