For many veterans, the deepest battles begin long after they’ve left the frontlines. What they bring home is often invisible: memories that don’t fade, hyper-vigilance that never turns off, a lingering sense of danger, guilt, and emotional numbness. In the podcast episode “Ayahuasca for Veterans and PTSD,” the conversation explores how ayahuasca – a traditional Amazonian plant medicine — is becoming a path some veterans choose when all conventional treatments have been exhausted.
Life After Service: The Hidden War
Many veterans describe the transition home as the hardest part of their journey. The camaraderie, structure, and sense of purpose from military service disappear overnight. In their place arise sleepless nights, intrusive memories, depression, and a feeling of drifting through life without identity.
Despite therapy, medication, or years of clinical programs, many feel stuck. One of the recurring themes is this sense of “Nothing else worked.” Standard PTSD treatments often help manage symptoms, but they don’t always reach the roots: grief, moral injury, trauma stored in the body, and deeply suppressed emotion.
This is often where the path to ayahuasca begins — not out of curiosity, but out of a last attempt to feel human again.
Ayahuasca as a Mirror to the Soul
Veterans who sit with the medicine frequently describe ayahuasca not as something that “fixes” PTSD, but something that forces them to finally face it. The ceremonies can be intense, emotional, raw. The medicine has a way of revealing what has been buried under years of avoidance.
Some veterans re-experience moments they had tried to forget. Others confront guilt over decisions made in combat, grief over fallen comrades, or the heavy armor of emotional numbness they learned to wear. Ayahuasca brings it all up — not to punish, but to release.
Rather than numbing pain, the medicine makes veterans feel again — sometimes for the first time in years. This is why they describe it as a mirror: blunt, uncompromising, and deeply personal.
The Power of Ceremony and Community
A crucial part of the healing process is the environment in which ayahuasca is taken. Veterans repeatedly emphasize the importance of proper guidance, screening, preparation, and integration. The medicine alone is not enough — the setting shapes the experience.
During retreats, veterans sit in a group, often with others who have shared similar battles. This sense of community becomes a profound element of healing. Many discover that the isolation they carried for years starts to soften when they realize they’re not alone in their suffering.
After the ceremonies, integration is essential. Veterans who experience the most positive shifts often invest heavily in follow-through: journaling, therapy, lifestyle changes, reconnecting with family, and redefining their sense of purpose. Healing takes place not only in the ceremony but in the weeks and months that follow.
Why This Path Feels Different
Traditional PTSD treatment often addresses the mind. Ayahuasca speaks to the whole person: body, heart, memory, spirit. Veterans repeatedly say that the medicine helped them connect with the emotions they had suppressed — fear, sadness, rage, guilt — allowing those feelings to move instead of stagnate.
Another key difference is the sense of meaning many veterans rediscover. Ayahuasca often brings visions or insights about purpose, identity, and connection. Veterans describe walking away with a stronger sense of self — not defined by trauma, but by the possibility of a new life.
Not a Quick Fix — A Doorway
Both the host and the veterans interviewed emphasize that ayahuasca is not a magic cure. It can be destabilizing if taken in the wrong context. It is not suitable for everyone, and it requires preparation, responsibility, and a strong support system.
Yet for many who felt they had tried everything, the plant provided something they hadn’t found elsewhere: a path inward. A confrontation with truth. A chance to mourn, to release, and to rebuild.
Ayahuasca doesn’t erase the past — but it can transform a veteran’s relationship to it.
A New Chapter
For some veterans, the results are life-changing:
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The nightmares ease.
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The hyper-vigilance softens.
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Relationships start to mend.
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The emotional numbness breaks open into feeling.
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A sense of identity returns.
Most importantly, many no longer feel trapped inside their trauma. Instead, they find a direction — a sense of meaning — and a way to step back into life with clarity and strength.
This episode offers a message of hope: for veterans who feel unseen by conventional systems, ayahuasca may open a doorway into healing that feels more honest, more human, and more deeply aligned with the inner work that PTSD quietly demands.
Based on the Ayahuasca Podcast episode “Ayahuasca for veterans and PTSD” with Sam Believ and Jesse Borgelt.
Sam Believ is the founder and CEO of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat, the best-rated Ayahuasca retreat in South America, with over 520 five-star Google reviews and an overall rating of 5 stars. After his life was transformed by Ayahuasca, he dedicated himself to spreading awareness about this ancestral medicine to help address the mental health crisis. Sam is committed to making Ayahuasca retreats affordable, accessible, and authentic, with a focus on care, integration, and the involvement of indigenous shamans. He is also the host of the Ayahuasca Podcast.
