Brewed from the leaves of the psychotria viridis shrub, ayahuasca is a powerful South American hallucinogenic tea created by ancient Amazonian tribes for spiritual ceremonies.
So potent is the psychedelic concoction, users are advised to ingest it only when supervised by an experienced shaman.
Drinking the tea - which Prince Harry said helped him overcome PTSD from the death of his mother - is often followed by aggressive vomiting before a euphoria so intense users claim they have been on a mystic journey that has changed them forever.
Like all psychedelics, however, it can induce powerful feelings of fear, paranoia and detachment from reality.
One person very familiar with ayahuasca’s mindbending effects is Brazilian handyman Marcus Monzo, who was yesterday convicted of decapitating a schoolboy with a sword while in a state of drug-induced psychosis.
