Episode Details
Back to Episodes
Ayahuasca Scientific Research with Dr. Dan Engle
Description
His medical degree is from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His psychiatry residency degree is from the University of Colorado in Denver, and his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship degree is from Oregon Health & Science University.
Dr. Engle is an international consultant to several global healing centers facilitating the use of long-standing indigenous plant medicines for healing and awakening. He is the Founder and Medical Director of Kuya Institute for Transformational Medicine in Austin, Texas; Full Spectrum Medicine, a psychedelic integration and educational platform; and Thank You Life, a non-profit funding stream supporting access to psychedelic therapies.
Dr. Engle is the author of The Concussion Repair Manual: A Practical Guide to Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries, as well as his new book, A Dose of Hope: A Story of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy.
Dr. Engle shares how he sees ayahuasca and other plant medicines as a bridge between traditional medical practices and contemporary medicine. This is particularly the case in the field of psychology. Ayahuasca can have the ability to create visionary states that lend insight into what individuals find most important at a deep subconscious level.
There are ongoing efforts to understand the possible uses of ayahuasca as a tool in integrative therapy. Dr. Engle has particular experience applying it in TBI therapies. He describes what he has observed in how ayahuasca can create synaptic genesis and stimulate the growth of brain cells. This has huge implications for treating neurodegenerative conditions.
Dr. Engle goes on to describe some of the scientific research surrounding ayahuasca. Its ability to treat a number of conditions has been closely examined in recent decades. This includes its effects on such a large range of issues including chronic inflammatory bowel conditions, addiction, depression, and brain injury.
In this episode:
- The potential of ayahuasca to lend insight into unconscious desires
- Uses of ayahuasca in integrative psychology and TBI treatments
- What ayahuasca is and the active chemicals it contains
- Known contraindications of ayahuasca
- The findings of many of the research projects focusing on ayahuasca
- Ayahuasca's potential to treat addiction
- The lasting positive and negative effects of ayahuasca use
Quotes:
"The opening that happens when medicines are facilitated well is orders of magnitude more powerful than the opening that I had experienced in talk therapy." [6:30]
"If you have brain trauma, or a neuro deficit or hypoactivity, many people feel like their brains come back online." [19:16]
"We started studying it. But we're still in our infancy of understanding, whereas the traditional cultures ha