Few people bridge the worlds of Western medicine and traditional Amazonian healing as naturally as Dr. Joe Tafur — a physician who also trained as a curandero. In this conversation, he joins host Sam Believ to explore one of the most common questions surrounding ayahuasca: how does it actually work? Is it neuroscience, psychology, spirituality, or something that lives between all three?
Rather than offering a single definitive answer, Dr. Tafur suggests that ayahuasca operates through multiple layers at once. The medicine affects brain chemistry, emotional processing, nervous-system regulation, and what many people describe as energetic or spiritual awareness. Understanding it requires moving beyond the idea that healing belongs exclusively to either science or mysticism.
A Journey From Medicine Into Tradition
Dr. Tafur’s path into plant medicine began during his medical training, when he experienced emotional struggles that conventional frameworks alone could not fully resolve. His early encounters with ayahuasca challenged his assumptions about healing and encouraged him to look beyond purely biochemical explanations.
Over time, repeated exposure to ceremonial contexts led him deeper into traditional practice. Working alongside indigenous healers reshaped how he understood illness — not simply as a malfunction of the body, but as a complex imbalance involving emotional patterns, relationships, and life experiences. This dual perspective now shapes his approach: he sees ayahuasca not as an alternative to medicine, but as a complementary system that engages parts of the human experience often overlooked in modern healthcare.
The Brain, the Nervous System, and Emotional Release
From a medical standpoint, ayahuasca influences neurotransmitters and neural networks associated with mood, perception, and memory. But Dr. Tafur emphasizes that the biological effects alone do not explain the depth of many experiences. What matters is how those changes interact with emotional and psychological processes.
In ceremony, people often revisit memories or confront emotional material they have avoided. This can feel intense — sometimes uncomfortable — but it also creates an opportunity to reorganize how the nervous system responds to those memories. Old emotional patterns may soften, and individuals can experience a sense of release that goes beyond intellectual insight.
He explains that the medicine doesn’t simply erase trauma or pain; instead, it can allow people to approach their experiences from a new perspective, one that feels less defensive and more open. In that sense, the work is less about escaping suffering and more about integrating it.
A Holistic View of Healing
One of the core ideas Dr. Tafur shares is that healing is rarely linear. In Western medicine, success is often measured by symptom reduction — less anxiety, fewer depressive episodes, improved sleep. Traditional plant-medicine frameworks, however, tend to focus on restoring balance between emotional, physical, and relational aspects of life.
This means that an ayahuasca experience might not always feel pleasant. Some ceremonies bring difficult realizations or strong physical sensations, which can be interpreted as part of a cleansing process. From a holistic perspective, these moments are not signs of failure but signs that deeper layers are being accessed.
He also discusses how ritual elements — music, intention, group presence — influence outcomes. The ceremonial setting helps guide the experience, shaping how individuals interpret and integrate what arises. Without context or preparation, the same biochemical effects might feel chaotic rather than meaningful.
Science and Spirituality: Two Languages for One Experience
Throughout the conversation, Dr. Tafur highlights the tension between scientific explanations and spiritual interpretations. Some people describe their experiences in neurological terms, while others speak of connection, insight, or energetic shifts. He doesn’t see these perspectives as mutually exclusive.
Instead, he suggests that science and spirituality are simply different languages describing similar processes. The brain may reorganize neural pathways while the individual feels guided or supported by something larger than themselves. Whether one frames this as neuroplasticity or spiritual growth often depends on personal worldview.
This dual framework allows people from different backgrounds — clinicians, seekers, skeptics — to find meaning in the experience without needing to agree on a single interpretation.
The Importance of Preparation and Integration
Dr. Tafur is clear that ayahuasca is not a quick fix. Preparation and integration are essential components of the process. Before ceremony, individuals benefit from clarifying intentions, reflecting on emotional readiness, and understanding potential challenges. Afterward, integration practices help translate insights into lasting change.
Integration might include therapy, journaling, movement practices, meditation, or honest conversations with trusted people. The goal is not to chase extraordinary experiences but to embody the lessons that emerge from them.
He emphasizes that without integration, even profound insights can fade into memory without altering daily life. The medicine opens a door, but walking through it requires ongoing effort.
Who Benefits — and Who Should Be Careful
Another key point is that ayahuasca is not suitable for everyone. People dealing with severe instability, certain mental health conditions, or lack of support systems may need to approach with caution. Healing journeys are deeply personal, and what works for one individual may not be appropriate for another.
Dr. Tafur encourages people to approach the medicine with humility rather than expectation. Instead of asking, “What will I gain?” he suggests asking, “What am I ready to face?” That shift in perspective can change how the experience unfolds.
A Bridge Between Worlds
Ultimately, Dr. Tafur’s explanation of how ayahuasca works is less about choosing between science and spirituality and more about recognizing their overlap. The medicine influences the brain and nervous system while also engaging emotional and symbolic layers that feel deeply meaningful to many participants.
Healing, in his view, is not simply about removing symptoms — it is about transforming the relationship we have with our own inner world. Ayahuasca can serve as a catalyst for that transformation, but it does not replace the ongoing work of living, integrating, and growing.
Rather than offering a definitive answer to how ayahuasca works, his perspective invites curiosity. Healing is complex, layered, and deeply human — and sometimes the most honest explanation is that it works through connection: connection between mind and body, past and present, science and spirit, and ultimately, connection to oneself.
Based on the Ayahuasca Podcast episode “How does Ayahuasca work?” with Sam Believ and Joe Tafur.
