The Ayahuasca Foundation

The Ayahuasca Foundation has offered healing retreats and courses since 2009 and began a collaboration with Onaya Science in 2015 to host plant medicine research in the Amazon. This research is led by indigenous curanderos at a research center located in an indigenous community inside a national reserve. Current research explores the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca retreats on post-traumatic stress disorder in military veterans and first responders.

The pilot study began in 2023 and the results have already demonstrated profound improvements in the veterans health. This study uses neuroimaging techniques, microbiome and metabolomic assessments, epigenetic analyses and a range of psychometrics in order to investigate how ayahuasca retreats are impacting our veteran samples. On nearly every scale there was a clear improvement to health and well being in the veteran retreat participants.

In 2019 the Onaya Science team carried out the first UK government-funded study into ayahuasca in a project hosted by the Ayahuasca Foundation that formed collaborative efforts from respected institutions around the globe. This was the first experiment to look at the effects of a psychedelic on genes; using cutting edge epigenetic analysis. The study was published in Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2021. More than ten other studies have been published from the ongoing research being conducted at the Ayahuasca Foundation.

Visit our website for more information about the research, the Onaya Science research team, and the other projects and offerings of the Ayahuasca Foundation.

The Ayahuasca Foundation operates a charitable project fiscally sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Inc. (MAPS), a Section 501(c)(3) public charity (federal tax ID: 59-2751953). In accordance with federal tax requirements, MAPS exercises discretion and control over all project funds. Please make your donations for the purposes of this project directly to MAPS.