In 1977, she drank Ayahuasca for the first time with a Brazilian spiritual group, the UDV (União do Vegetal). She was a member for eighteen years and a primary translator. Her story of rituals, the strength of community, and the years of deepening awareness portrays a tradition of mystery with ancient roots, and also a very modern drama involving stark and honest revelation. The story shares the role of Ayahuasca in opening Annelise to dimensions beyond this realm. These experiences prompted a significant change in the trajectory of her life, the healing of old wounds, and deeper happiness in her everyday life.Ayahuasca, Opening to the Mysteriesshares these exciting, often wondrous, and sometimes traumatizing experiences from her life.

Annelise adventured with researchers in the Amazon and learned first hand the personal, cultural, and scientific significance of Ayahuasca in human development. She was an interpreter for The Hoasca Project, a multinational, biomedical investigation of the short and long-term effects of this sacrament. Her book contributes beautiful knowledge and personal experience to the conscious exploration of this sacred tea.

Annelise has been writing for the last thirty years. She has written articles and presented her knowledge at conferences dedicated to studying Ayahuasca. Her first book, The Art and Science of Caregiving: Stories of Inspiring Elders with an End-of-Life Guidebook was published in 2019. (Link to Art & Science Book)

With her retirement as a death doula in 2023 she was able to dedicate time to finishing her second book, Ayahuasca, Opening to the Mysteries.

Her insights and knowledge accrued from years as a valued member of the UDV and regular participant in religious ceremonies using ayahuasca as a psychoactive sacrament, offer us a greater understanding of this extraordinarily unique phenomena as she explores the realms of healing that ayahuasca manifests, on both personal and collective levels.

The book is a revealing and highly personal account of her healing from both serious illness and a pattern of recurrent abuse and her emergence into the light of renewed health and empowerment. The book also reveals new information regarding the recent evolution of the UDV in Brazil, including the political divisions that have rocked the country in the wake of the Bolsonaro presidency This is a beautifully written book and Annelise Schinzinger provides a masterful job of elucidating the inherent value of the UDV doctrine and their use of ayahuasca under optimal conditions as well as the transformative potential this legendary plant decoction possesses when treated with the respect and reverence that she has observed during her many years journey into the light of healing and new beginnings. For readers fascinated with the innate capacity these visionary plants possess to heal and transform, Ayahuasca, Opening to the Mysteries deserves serious attention and inclusion in the ever-expanding dialogue on this remarkable emergence of ancient psychospiritual models into the light of modernity.

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After 18 years with this patriarchal spiritual group, Annelise eventually outgrew its confines, and went on to explore even deeper depths of spirituality and the human experience. In the early 1990s, she was led to attend people as a death doula, to help ease the transition at the end of their lives.

Annelise faced many hard lessons and formidable obstacles on her journey, both random and deliberate, as too many lithe blond women will know. But she never lost her faith in the purpose and divinity of life, or her gentle curiosity, and continued to view life through a lens of ethereal compassion.

These few sentences hardly begin to describe the presence of Annelise Schinzinger. Her new book, Ayahuasca, Opening to the Mysteries follows her 2019 publication of The Art and Science of Caregiving: Stories of Inspiring Elders with an End-of-Life Guidebook.

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We met again in 1993 when I traveled to Brazil to participate in a biomedical study of this medicine that was organized by the UDV. In the UDV, this medicine is referred to as ‘Hoasca.’ It is more commonly known as ayahuasca. Under this and many other names, ayahuasca occupies a central position in the shamanic and ethnomedical practices of many indigenous Amazonian tribes. Over many decades the use of ayahuasca has diffused beyond strictly indigenous boundaries. Ayahuasca is now an important part of mestizo ethnomedicine which is an amalgam of diverse indigenous traditions. Under the most common name, ayahuasca, the sacred tea became widely known over the last few decades, as it attracted the attention, and indeed the fascination, of seekers across the planet. Ayahuasca is now the focus of a burgeoning ‘ayahuasca tourism’ industry, as many people look to indigenous traditions to find the spiritual succor they can no longer find in mainstream religions.

The use of ayahuasca, or Hoasca, within the UDV and other syncretic religions in Brazil (such as the Santo Daime and Barquinha) was incorporated into the practices of these apparently non-indigenous sects in the early and middle decades of the 20th century. The founder of the UDV, Mestre Gabriel (whose full name was Jose Gabriel da Costa) is said to have had a close spiritual connection with King Solomon and the Inca. Mestre Gabriel, the undoubted historical figure, was a rubber tapper who learned of Hoasca in 1959 from a fellow rubber tapper in the region where he lived in the western Amazon. Later he established the first center for the UDV near Porto Velho in the Brazilian state of Rondonia. Mestre Gabriel passed on in 1971, while his wife, Mestre Pequinina, survived him by several decades.

This is the historical context that existed in 1977, when Annelise, then a young woman of 21 who was in Brazil on a study abroad program at the University of São Paulo, was first introduced to the UDV and the Hoasca tea, or Vegetal as it is sometimes called. Thus she began her personal and spiritual journey with the sacred medicine that played a key role in her life, the importance of which continues to this day. I did not meet her until 1991, but our lives have had interesting parallels. Annelise’s entry into the world of Hoasca came via her initiation into its mysteries by Mestre Helio who was introduced to her by a mutual friend. I first came to the Amazon in 1971, the year of Mestre Gabriel’s death, though I did not know of him or the UDV until 1991. But my earliest serious engagements with ayahuasca did not come until 1981, when I traveled to Peru as a graduate student, with the intention of investigating the chemistry, pharmacology, and ethnobotany of ayahuasca. Once I had discovered ayahuasca, it became much more than just a scientific curiosity. As with Annelise, ayahuasca became for me an important source of wisdom and guidance, and that relationship continues to this day.

After I completed my graduate work in 1984, I embarked on a series of postdoctoral fellowships that spanned the next six years. Over that time, I published several papers reporting my investigations of ayahuasca. One day, unexpectedly, I received an invitation from a representative of an obscure Brazilian sect, the UDV, unknown to me at the time, to participate in a conference they were organizing in the state of São Paulo in the spring of 1991. They had seen my papers and kindly invited me to present my findings at the conference. This sect, apparently, had a medical studies committee, and they were extending invitations to a number of international investigators representing disciplines from anthropology to ethnobotany, pharmacology, and neuroscience. I was able to request a leave of absence from my job and so I went.

Once at the conference, it became clear that the UDV had a secret objective in organizing the conference. CONFEN, the Brazilian Federal Narcotics Counsel, had raised concerns about the safety of Hoasca as a potential threat to public health and were considering its prohibition. The UDV wanted to present findings from a variety of international investigators that would provide evidence of its safety when used appropriately. I received this news enthusiastically as I had been thinking for some time about preparing a grant for a biomedical investigation of ayahuasca. I returned to the US and got busy preparing a grant and study protocol. I was able to secure funding through the Heffter Research Institute, which had just formed, and Botanical Dimensions, a non-profit started by my brother Terence and his wife, Kat Harrison. With funding assured, I returned to Brazil in 1993, to conduct the study in Manaus at the Nucleo Caupurí, one of the oldest of the UDV temples. My colleagues in this endeavor were Dr. Charles Grob, fellow Heffter Board member and Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry program at the UCLA Harbor Medical Center, and Dr. Jace Callaway, then a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Kuopio, Finland. Glacus de Sousa Brito, MD, an immunologist and the head of the UDV’s Medical-Scientific Department, fulfilled the role of Principal Investigator and overall Project Director for the study.

Some weeks prior to the initiation of the study, Annelise met me and Dr. Callaway in São Paulo to assume the role of translator, tour guide and special liaison to the UDV that she would fulfill throughout the study and beyond. It was wonderful to have her guidance; we were strangers in a strange land, and it was very reassuring to be introduced and squired around by an attractive young blonde from California. During the period we visited several UDV temples in São Paulo, Rio, and Forteleza, before traveling to Manaus to meet Dr. Grob to commence the study. These visits were immensely helpful to us for getting familiar with the UDV and some of its members. During this time, we also got to know Annelise. I came to appreciate what a remarkable person she was and is. Annelise was raised in a Quaker household, and her parents inculcated her with Quaker values. Those values, including kindness, respect for nature and others, tolerance, being of service to a community, and actively striving for personal moral and spiritual growth, were already important elements of her personality and worldview before she ever got involved with the UDV. When she did finally join the sect, it was because it resonated for her with the values and beliefs she had cultivated from an early age. It was a perfect fit (or so she thought at the time), and the UDV welcomed her into their community. She remained a member until 1995; by then she had become increasingly troubled by certain aspects of UDV doctrine that were not compatible with her own values, and so she separated from it, while at the same continuing her respect for its people, many of whom had become close friends.

The Hoasca tea continued to be an important spiritual ally for Annelise even after she discontinued regular participation in UDV ceremonies. In her book, Annelise shares her story; how she came to Brazil as a student, how she encountered the UDV, and her years of association with it, and the many incredible experiences she had in the burracheira — the expanded state of consciousness that is rendered accessible by the Hoasca tea. She relates the story of her personal relationship with a sacred medicine that became a guiding light, a source of wisdom and insight on a life-long quest for spiritual growth and maturity. This book will speak to anyone who seeks deeper meaning in their life journey, whether they find it with the help of ayahuasca or other sacred plants or substances, or approach it by other means. Annelise’s book provides reassurance and encouragement to fellow seekers that there is a path forward; it requires only that it be traveled with courage, sincerity, humility, and an open heart.

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Ayahuasca offers a brilliant opportunity to explore spiritual topics and experience mind-bending, thought-provoking topics without using any substance. Annelise's lyrical words shine light on the richness of nature and the universe at large. I was reminded to listen more to the universe's teachings with such profound messages like, "When we are not in harmony with the high vibrational current of energy circulating in a session, our body will often let us know."

Deep, intelligently crafted books like Ayahuasca usually compel multiple returns. From intricate details of cultural practices and legends to research data and historical records, the book's chapters are brimming with intriguing information. I also loved the book's rich descriptions of trips and nature explorations. Whether she's writing about witnessing the Amazon jungle and a legendary Samauma tree or sharing about dodging rain in the redwood forest in northern California, Annelise carries the reader along with her picturesque descriptions.

Readers will find the author's raw honesty refreshing since her book serves as a source of inspiration for those who have experienced similar troubling situations to hers. She speaks about difficult topics like trauma, sexual abuse, manipulation, and health challenges. I personally found the author's generous spirit and her various volunteering activities very inspiring.

You will love Ayahuasca if you enjoy memoirs with strong spiritual themes and profound words about healing and learning from the universe. It will also appeal to readers who love to travel and experience the beauty of the natural world. I enjoyed its eye-opening and life-changing lessons and look forward to discovering the special messages that the universe has in store for me now that Ayahuasca has convinced me to listen more.