Why People Vomit on Ayahuasca: The Purge, Explained
It is the thing people are most embarrassed about in advance and most grateful for afterward. Here is what is actually going on.
Nausea and vomiting are reported by around 62% of participantsRuffell 2023 — it is the norm, not a complication.
In the Amazonian traditions the purge is not an unpleasant side effect. It is understood as cleansing, and as part of the work itself.
Practically: do not fight it. Use the bucket, surrender to it, and you will almost always feel relief afterward.
Of all the things people are anxious about before a first ceremony, this is the one they are most embarrassed to ask about. So let us be direct: you will probably vomit, everyone around you probably will too, and it is completely unremarkable in that setting.
How common it actually is
One survey reported nausea and vomiting in 62% of participantsRuffell 2023 That makes it the most commonly reported effect of ayahuasca — more common than any specific visionary phenomenon.
It also is not limited to vomiting. Crying, trembling, yawning and even laughing are all part of the same family of releases, and all are ordinary.
Why the tradition calls it "the purge"
In the Amazonian traditions this is not framed as a side effect to be tolerated. It is la purga — a physical and emotional cleansing, understood as part of the medicine working rather than an obstacle to it.
You do not have to adopt that framework to benefit from it. But it is worth noticing what it does psychologically: if you go in expecting an unpleasant symptom, you will fight it. If you go in understanding it as part of the process, you let it happen — and letting it happen is both more comfortable and, by every practitioner account, more useful.
When it comes, do not fight it. Use your bucket. Surrender to it, and you will almost always feel relief immediately afterward. Sip water.
The assistants are there for this too. Nothing that happens to you is something they have not seen a hundred times.
"Everyone will be watching me"
They will not. This is the single most reliable reassurance anyone can give you about a first ceremony: everyone in that room is deep inside their own process, and the sound of someone purging is the ordinary soundtrack of the night, not an event.
Many people who dreaded the purge most describe it afterward as the part they were most grateful for — not because it was pleasant, but because of what it released.
What is not the purge
Worth separating clearly, because normalizing discomfort should never mean normalizing danger. Intense vomiting is expected. What is not expected, and should be flagged to the team immediately: difficulty breathing, chest pain, violent disorientation, or anything that feels like an emergency to you.
Speaking up is always the right call. A good team would rather respond to a false alarm than miss a real one.
Afterwards
Your body has been through a night of purging on top of weeks of simple eating. Reintroduce food gradually rather than with a celebratory meal — start light and build up. That gentleness is the first small act of integration, and the first place people tend to ignore their own preparation.
Sources
Every medical or safety claim on this page traces to one of these. This is the same editorial rule the full course follows.
- Ruffell 2023Ruffell, S. G. D., et al. (2023). Ayahuasca: A review of historical, pharmacological, and therapeutic aspects. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Reports, e146. DOI 10.1002/pcn5.146.