| Ayahuasca has been used for healing among indigenous groups for hundreds if not a thousand years for knowledge acquisition, mental healing, and physical healing. A single pilot study of two individuals suggests that EEG coherence patterns may transform during ayahuasca ingestion. This dissertation analyzed topographic EEG power and coherence pattern differences between baseline and ayahuasca conditions in archival data recorded on 12 research participants to develop biofeedback protocols for facilitating visionary experience. Because EEG biofeedback has been used successfully to facilitate the self-regulation of states of consciousness, this study examined the ayahuasca-EEG linkage to provide information for future development of biofeedback protocols that could be used to facilitate the self-regulation of the EEG patterns associated with profound visionary experiences. If in the future it is shown that the self-regulation of such EEG patterns is possible, such training might conceivably also facilitate the healing capacities associated with the voluntary mastery of visionary experiences that is widely reported in the literature on shamanism. |
