The Ayahuasca Purge: A Whole Lot More Than A Physical Release

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Ayahuasca is a catalyst for transformation, but it’s not always a pleasant experience. If you know anything about this sacred medicine, you’re probably well aware that vomiting is a big part of it. The thought of vomiting during a ceremony can turn people off, but it serves an important function – as a purge.

With that said, the Ayahuasca purge is a good thing. It’s often a desirable part of the journey because it facilitates the release of stagnant energies and promotes healing. People who are getting ready for a ceremony usually want to vomit, especially if they’re carrying a lot of baggage because it’s a powerful release on all levels.

But… there’s a lot more to it than what meets the eye. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about the Ayahuasca purge, why it’s a key part of Ayahuasca ceremonies, and what’s actually going on here.

What is an Ayahuasca purge?

Generally speaking, purging is the act of releasing stagnant energies, emotions, or toxins from the mind and body. During our day-to-day lives, we regularly purge energies when we cry, vent, or express anger for example. It’s a normal part of life and a mechanism of releasing pent energy that we need to let go of.

In the context of an Ayahuasca ceremony, purging involves much more than simply removing toxins from the body. It’s a cleansing of the mind, body, and spirit via the expulsion of dense energies, traumas, beliefs, and mindsets.

An Ayahuasca purge is a manifestation of the medicine cleaning us on all levels – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It acts as a mechanism for healing by pushing you to confront the darkness you’re carrying and then letting go of what no longer serves you, including:

Stubborn traumas and unresolved emotional wounds
Painful memories that are no longer in service
Sexual or romantic energies
Energies of resentment, hatred, guilt, or shame
Dirty energies you have picked up from other people, situations, or substances
Harmful or counterproductive belief systems
Negative self-beliefs or social beliefs
Detrimental mindsets and outlooks

Think of it this way.

When you drink Ayahuasca, the medicine searches every crevice of your consciousness for impurities. Like a sponge, the medicine soaks up these impurities; the dark icky residue of your life experiences, and energetically discards them. These unwanted energies need a vessel to exit the body, which is why the removal of these energies manifests as a physical purge – or outlet.

But the medicine doesn’t do all the work for you. Sure, Ayahuasca is a powerful aid that dredges up the dense energy you’re holding onto, but you need to get rid of the gunk.

People often feel like they’re reliving a trauma, or experiencing the peak of a painful memory or emotion when they purge. This seems to be the medicine’s way of flushing the dysfunction into awareness, where it can be consciously processed and then gracefully let go.

Having taken somewhere between 60 – 70 cups of Ayahuasca in my life, the Ayahuasca purge isn’t as bad as some people drum it up to be. Although nausea does accompany each vomit, it generally comes on rather quickly and almost completely subsides afterward, leaving a sense of lightness and relief.

In my experience, as long as I embrace the Ayahuasca purge by sitting on my knees, opening up my body, and holding my bucket, it usually happens immediately without much nausea. However, there have been ceremonies when nausea will linger for a long time before I’m able to vomit. Sometimes, it takes time for the medicine to find something to get rid of.

On the other hand, if I resist the Ayahuasca purge, nausea can linger for much longer and it feels like I’m extending the countdown to the inevitable. Therefore, I always suggest embracing it. Once you begin to feel nauseous during an Ayahuasca ceremony, sit on your knees, open up your energetic centers, and consciously choose to release everything that needs to go!

Participants often vomit around 30 – 60 minutes after drinking the medicine, but it varies for everyone. Sometimes the nausea preceding the purge will kick in rapidly, in as little as 5 minutes after drinking the medicine. At other times, it may take several hours, sometimes even after the ceremony has finished.

What are the different types of Ayahuasca purges?

Vomiting is a common way that we discard harmful energies during Ayahuasca ceremonies, but there are many ways the purge can manifest.

Ayahuasca purges also commonly manifest as diarrhea, crying, laughing, trembling, shivering, sweating, yawning, or feeling abnormally cold. Sometimes participants may be hit by an overwhelming sense of sadness, sorrow, or mourning which plays a similar role in releasing energies.

For example, I generally vomit when I take Ayahuasca, but I also regularly purge by getting diarrhea, trembling, or feeling very cold. If I resist vomiting, then my body will often purge these energies another way.

Purging can be categorized into several types, involving:

Physical Purging: This is the most recognized form of purging during an Ayahuasca ceremony and causes a physiological response, such as vomiting or trembling.
Emotional Purging: You may find yourself expressing repressed emotions such as grief, anger, or fear. This purge unblocks emotions and promotes emotional healing.
Spiritual Purging: This may involve insights, new perspectives, or deeper understandings of your issues that allow you to let go of past burdens and energies.
Energetic Purging: You might feel energetic shifts such as vibrations, the releasing of tensions, or sensations in your body that move and unblock energies.

During some Ayahuasca ceremonies, I feel a vibration in my body. This vibration usually feels cleansing as if it’s removing something from me, and I feel the medicine is working on my energetic body.

Other times, I see/feel spirits doing ‘home repairs’ on me and removing what appears to be black goop (usually from my solar plexus which is the energy center that I had issues with in my life). Although I’m not necessarily purging, these spirits are removing something.

Energies are removed in all sorts of ways whether they’re removed via purging, by spirits, or by vibrations. Just because you don’t vomit doesn’t mean the medicine’s not working on you. Likely, the removal of these energies manifests differently.

How does an Ayahuasca purge facilitate healing?

Imagine that you see a medical professional because you have a foreign body wound. Rather than removing the foreign material from the open wound, cleaning it, and stitching it up, they bandage the dirty wound and send you on your way. Would the wound heal? Likely, it’ll just get worse because the wound is contaminated. The root issue was neglected.

Energetically, your body works the same way.

If you try to heal while you are still carrying harmful energies, beliefs, or trauma, there’s a barrier in the way because you are still dealing with the issue. For example, if you want to let go of the hurt surrounding a past relationship but still feel resentful, that resentment is like the dirt inside the wound – a contaminant.

In this case, you need to let go of the resentment first before you can start healing from the past relationship. Ayahuasca will help you remove the obstructions to healing, but it can’t do the healing for you.

That’s your job.

You need to discard what’s not serving you first, which then facilitates healing. This is the role of purging – to physically and energetically discard anything that’s not supposed to be there.

During my time working at an Ayahuasca healing center for six months in Ecuador, I met a lot of guests during this time who came for all sorts of reasons. Many of these guests stated that they physically vomited out something they had been carrying, including a man who claimed he vomited out the radiation poisoning he was ill from.

People often say they vomit black goo – a manifestation of the darkness, suffering, and trauma that they let go of. Other people have said that they vomited certain emotions, beliefs, entities, and physiological sicknesses or dysfunctions.

Does everyone purge during Ayahuasca ceremonies?

You’d be surprised by how many people I’ve met who were disappointed when they didn’t purge during their Ayahuasca ceremony. Many of these people believed that their entire spiritual journey was leading up to this moment of physically, emotionally, and symbolically releasing years of darkness, and turning a new chapter.

But it never happened… So what does this mean?

Don’t worry about it.

Not everyone will purge during an ayahuasca ceremony, and honestly, the medicine knows best. Many people purge once per cup of Ayahuasca they consume, however, there is no rule of thumb. Everyone responds to the medicine differently.

It’s important to trust in the process and have faith in the spirits you’re working with during these ceremonies. Believe me, they know what you need better than you do.

Perhaps you just didn’t need to purge the way you thought you would. If you don’t vomit, it doesn’t mean you aren’t growing or healing. There are lots of ways energies can be discarded. Even if you don’t seem to purge at all, the medicine is still working on you and removing internal junk.

Some people, regardless of how many Ayahuasca ceremonies they have participated in seldom purge at all. As everyone has different compositions and different ways of processing medicine, this doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them.

Generally speaking, a purge is quick, meaning the nausea comes on rapidly, and ends once the participant has purged. But it does depend on the individual. I’ve had ceremonies where I would purge multiple times from a single cup, and spend hours relentlessly gagging into a vomit bucket.

When people consume Ayahuasca, the medicine searches every part of their being for stagnant energies to get rid of. This can be a quick process, especially for people who are holding a lot of emotional baggage. Likewise, it can also be a lengthy process as nausea slowly builds up as the medicine discovers hidden junk to remove energetically.

Ayahuasca is a wonderful medicine with so much potential for healing and transformation, but you must trust in the process, whether you purge or not. Sure, a purge is a big part of an Ayahuasca ceremony, but whether you vomit or not, you will still gain transformative benefits from the medicine as long as you’re open to it.