
The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook
The Essential Guide to Ayahuasca Journeying
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $26.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Steve Wojtas
-
By:
-
Chris Kilham
About this listen
The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook provides a practical guide to ayahuasca use, aiding seekers in making right - and safe - decisions about where to go, who to drink with, and what to expect.
Ayahuasca, the Amazonian psychoactive plant brew, has become vastly popular. Once the sole purview of shamans and indigenous native people in the great Amazon rainforest, ayahuasca is now becoming well known - and widely used - around the globe. Today, foreigners from all over the world flock in ever-burgeoning numbers to the steamy Amazon, drinking bitter ayahuasca with shamans and curanderos in order to access its potent healing and spirit-enlivening effects. What began as a mere trickle of visitors in the 1980s has become a surging riptide of seekers.
Chris Kilham (Fox News' "Medicine Hunter") has worked closely with South American shamans for two decades and has sat in ayahuasca ceremonies with at least 20 different shamans. Through his "Ayahuasca Test Pilots" program, Kilham has brought numerous people to the Amazon to engage in ceremonies with maestro ayahuasceros. Clear, concise, straightforward, and well informed, The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook is an indispensable guide for anyone curious about this unusual plant medicine.
©2014 Chris Kilham (P)2019 North Atlantic BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Fellowship of the River
- A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine
- By: Joseph Tafur MD
- Narrated by: Joseph Tafur, Luis Robledo
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Western medicine has not been particularly successful at getting people relief from conditions like depression, chronic pain, migraine headaches, addiction, and PTSD. Dr. Tafur helps us to understand why. Too often, the Western medical approach fails to address the emotional dimension of illness. This is where traditional plant medicines, with their ability to alter consciousness and open channels of communication to our emotions, offer so much promise.
-
-
Essential knowledge for our times
- By Ksky on 10-17-18
By: Joseph Tafur MD
-
Ayahuasca: Soul Medicine of the Amazon Jungle
- By: Javier Regueiro
- Narrated by: Javier Regueiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Javier Regueiro not only provides general information about ayahuasca, but he bridges the cultural gap between the native and the current use of ayahuasca by Westerners. This guide offers background about the plant medicine, its history, and how to engage with and learn through its use. It includes stories of Javier's personal experience of transformation as well as stories from those he's guided in ceremonies.
-
-
Read this if planning on doing Ayahuasca
- By Amazon Customer on 12-21-17
By: Javier Regueiro
-
Grandmother Ayahuasca
- Plant Medicine and the Psychedelic Brain
- By: Christian Funder
- Narrated by: Mary Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook examines how ayahuasca affects the brain from a neuroscientific perspective and how its effects on consciousness relate to ancient esoteric texts.
-
-
So full of history and explanations and experiences! Wow
- By Clueless on 11-09-24
By: Christian Funder
-
When Plants Dream
- Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism, and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance
- By: Daniel Pinchbeck, Sophia Rokhlin
- Narrated by: Aaron Shedlock, Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In When Plants Dream, Pinchbeck and Rokhlin explore the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental impact that ayahuasca is having on society. "Part One" covers the background; what ayahuasca is, where it is found, and its cultural origins. "Part Two" explores the role and practices of the ayahuasquero in both Amazonian and Western cultures. "Part Three" examines the medicinal plants of the Amazon, looking particularly at the ingredients in ayahuasca and their therapeutic qualities, covering the most up-to-date biomedical research. Plus much more....
-
-
Well Rounded Perspective on Ayahuasca
- By Judith on 10-24-19
By: Daniel Pinchbeck, and others
-
The Psychedelic Handbook
- A Practical Guide to Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, and Ayahuasca
- By: Rick Strassman MD
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Entering the world of psychedelic drugs can be challenging, and many aren't sure where to start. As research continues to expand and legalization looms on the horizon for psychedelics like psilocybin, you may need a guide to navigate what psychedelics are, how they work, and their potential benefits and risks. The Psychedelic Handbook is a manual that is accessible to anyone with an interest in these substances. Packed with information on psilocybin, LSD, DMT/ayahuasca, mescaline/peyote, ketamine, MDMA, and more.
-
-
Great intro to what these substances are.
- By Sean on 05-11-24
-
How to Change Your Mind
- What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction, and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third.
-
-
A delightful trip
- By Paul E. Williams on 05-19-18
By: Michael Pollan
-
The Fellowship of the River
- A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine
- By: Joseph Tafur MD
- Narrated by: Joseph Tafur, Luis Robledo
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Western medicine has not been particularly successful at getting people relief from conditions like depression, chronic pain, migraine headaches, addiction, and PTSD. Dr. Tafur helps us to understand why. Too often, the Western medical approach fails to address the emotional dimension of illness. This is where traditional plant medicines, with their ability to alter consciousness and open channels of communication to our emotions, offer so much promise.
-
-
Essential knowledge for our times
- By Ksky on 10-17-18
By: Joseph Tafur MD
-
Ayahuasca: Soul Medicine of the Amazon Jungle
- By: Javier Regueiro
- Narrated by: Javier Regueiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Javier Regueiro not only provides general information about ayahuasca, but he bridges the cultural gap between the native and the current use of ayahuasca by Westerners. This guide offers background about the plant medicine, its history, and how to engage with and learn through its use. It includes stories of Javier's personal experience of transformation as well as stories from those he's guided in ceremonies.
-
-
Read this if planning on doing Ayahuasca
- By Amazon Customer on 12-21-17
By: Javier Regueiro
-
Grandmother Ayahuasca
- Plant Medicine and the Psychedelic Brain
- By: Christian Funder
- Narrated by: Mary Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook examines how ayahuasca affects the brain from a neuroscientific perspective and how its effects on consciousness relate to ancient esoteric texts.
-
-
So full of history and explanations and experiences! Wow
- By Clueless on 11-09-24
By: Christian Funder
-
When Plants Dream
- Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism, and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance
- By: Daniel Pinchbeck, Sophia Rokhlin
- Narrated by: Aaron Shedlock, Lauren Ezzo
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In When Plants Dream, Pinchbeck and Rokhlin explore the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental impact that ayahuasca is having on society. "Part One" covers the background; what ayahuasca is, where it is found, and its cultural origins. "Part Two" explores the role and practices of the ayahuasquero in both Amazonian and Western cultures. "Part Three" examines the medicinal plants of the Amazon, looking particularly at the ingredients in ayahuasca and their therapeutic qualities, covering the most up-to-date biomedical research. Plus much more....
-
-
Well Rounded Perspective on Ayahuasca
- By Judith on 10-24-19
By: Daniel Pinchbeck, and others
-
The Psychedelic Handbook
- A Practical Guide to Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, and Ayahuasca
- By: Rick Strassman MD
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Entering the world of psychedelic drugs can be challenging, and many aren't sure where to start. As research continues to expand and legalization looms on the horizon for psychedelics like psilocybin, you may need a guide to navigate what psychedelics are, how they work, and their potential benefits and risks. The Psychedelic Handbook is a manual that is accessible to anyone with an interest in these substances. Packed with information on psilocybin, LSD, DMT/ayahuasca, mescaline/peyote, ketamine, MDMA, and more.
-
-
Great intro to what these substances are.
- By Sean on 05-11-24
-
How to Change Your Mind
- What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction, and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third.
-
-
A delightful trip
- By Paul E. Williams on 05-19-18
By: Michael Pollan
-
DMT: The Spirit Molecule
- A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences
- By: Rick Strassman MD
- Narrated by: Drew Graham
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted U.S. Government-approved and funded clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected 60 volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. His detailed account of those sessions is an extraordinarily riveting inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical found in the psychedelic Amazon brew, ayahuasca, is also manufactured by the human brain. In Strassman's volunteers, it consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences.
-
-
good book, not what I expected
- By Jonathan O. on 08-11-21
-
The Cosmic Serpent
- DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
- By: Jeremy Narby
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences", leads the listener through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge. In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals how startlingly different the world around us appears when we open our minds to it.
-
-
Very Good Religious Text
- By Blair K. Hartman on 08-09-17
By: Jeremy Narby
-
Listening to Ayahuasca
- New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety
- By: Rachel Harris PhD
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Used for thousands of years by indigenous tribes of the Amazon rain forest, the mystical brew ayahuasca is now becoming increasingly popular in the West. Psychologist Rachel Harris here shares her own healing experiences and draws on her original research (the largest study of ayahuasca use in North America) into the powerful medicine's effects on depression, addiction, PTSD, and anxiety.
-
-
Did not prepare me for my experiences!
- By Pistol Pete on 07-17-20
-
The Immortality Key
- The Secret History of the Religion with No Name
- By: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock - foreword
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock, Brian C. Muraresku
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.
-
-
A Fun ‘Trip’—But Not a Sober One
- By Joshua on 11-28-20
By: Brian C. Muraresku, and others
-
The Wisdom of the Shamans:
- What the Ancient Masters Can Teach Us About Love and Life
- By: Don Jose Ruiz
- Narrated by: Charlie Varon
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Wisdom of the Shamans: What the Ancient Masters Can Teach Us about Love and Life, Toltec shaman and master storyteller Don Jose Ruiz shares some of the most popular stories from his family's oral tradition and offers corresponding lessons that illustrate the larger ideas within each story. According to Ruiz, their teachings are not primitive or reserved for a chosen few initiates but are instead a powerful series of lessons on love and life that are available us all.
-
-
Wooowzers
- By nicole tillman on 07-28-18
By: Don Jose Ruiz
-
Consciousness Medicine
- Indigenous Wisdom, Entheogens, and Expanded States of Consciousness for Healing and Growth
- By: Françoise Bourzat, Kristina Hunter, Ralph Metzner Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Diana Gardiner, Françoise Bourzat
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Françoise Bourzat - a counselor and experienced guide with sanctioned training in the Mazatec and other indigenous traditions - and healer Kristina Hunter introduce a holistic model focusing on the threefold process of preparation, journey, and integration. Drawing from more than 30 years of experience, Bourzat’s skillful and heartfelt approach presents the therapeutic application of expanded states, without divorcing them from their traditional contexts. Consciousness Medicine delivers a coherent map for navigating nonordinary states of consciousness.
-
-
How I wish the author narrated this!
- By Dulcie Clarkson on 07-04-21
By: Françoise Bourzat, and others
-
Sh*t the Moon Said: A Story of Sex, Drugs, and Ayahuasca
- By: Gerard Armond Powell
- Narrated by: Vince Royal, Kike Adedeji
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plant medicine? The moon typing? It probably seems incomprehensible. Gerard Armond Powell was a rags-to-riches success story - a member of the one percent - but also an extremely unhappy person with multiple addictions. On a fast track to destroying every relationship that ever mattered to him and considering suicide, he was looking for a miracle, a way out. He found it in the form of plant medicine and a shaman who introduced him to the truth of his life, and laid the groundwork for a psycho-spiritual journey that would lead him to reconnect with his soul, heal addictions, and more.
-
-
I am so glad I picked this book up.
- By Mars on 02-23-19
-
This Is Your Mind on Plants
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of all the things humans rely on plants for - sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber - surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable.
-
-
This is a clip show.
- By Jeff on 07-07-21
By: Michael Pollan
-
True Hallucinations
- Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise
- By: Terence McKenna
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This mesmerizing, surreal account of the bizarre adventures of Terence McKenna, his brother Dennis, and a small band of their friends, is a wild ride of exotic experience and scientific inquiry. Exploring the Amazon Basin in search of mythical shamanic hallucinogens, they encounter a host of unusual characters - including a mushroom, a flying saucer, pirate Mantids from outer space, an appearance by James and Nora Joyce in the guise of poultry, and translinguistic matter - and discover the missing link in the development of human consciousness and language.
-
-
I didn't like the narrator.
- By Dom on 03-20-19
By: Terence McKenna
-
Visionary
- The Mysterious Origins of Human Consciousness (The Definitive Edition of Supernatural)
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock
- Length: 21 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as "the greatest riddle in human history," all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers. In Visionary, Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious "before-and-after moment" and to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to modern human mind.
-
-
Pseudoscience, Pure and Simple
- By Scott on 05-10-23
By: Graham Hancock
-
Cannabis and Spirituality
- An Explorer's Guide to an Ancient Plant Spirit Ally
- By: Stephen Gray - editor, Julie Holland MD - foreword
- Narrated by: Stephen Gray
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Truly a medicine for body and soul, one of cannabis’ greatest gifts is its remarkable potential for spiritual healing and awakening. In this authoritative guide, editor Stephen Gray and 17 other influential voices of the modern cannabis movement explore the spiritual benefits of cannabis and offer guidance on how to interact with the intelligence of this plant ally, a companion and supporter of humanity for millennia.
-
-
A Great Collection
- By Amazon Customer on 04-27-19
By: Stephen Gray - editor, and others
-
The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide
- Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys
- By: James Fadiman PhD
- Narrated by: Ross Douglas
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Called “America’s wisest and most respected authority on psychedelics and their use,” James Fadiman has been involved with psychedelic research since the 1960s. In this guide to the immediate and long-term effects of psychedelic use for spiritual (high dose), therapeutic (moderate dose), and problem-solving (low dose and microdose) purposes, Fadiman outlines best practices for safe, sacred entheogenic voyages learned through his more than 40 years of experience.
-
-
Psychotherapist: ketamine trained.
- By Sean on 09-16-22
Critic reviews
“Kilham is the best person today to authentically tell the ayahuasca story because he embodies all things necessary to take us on that journey: he is a botanist, a widely recognized plant-medicine explorer, a close friend of tribal peoples, a historian, a storyteller, and one who has had a great many journeys with the medicine. With a brilliant, open mind and endless spiritual energy, Chris has pulled together the knowledge and stories of ayahuasca in a way that will help guide anyone into and through the wonder of it.” (Linda Sparrow, author, filmmaker, and natural-products marketer)
"Chris Kilham continues to shine the light on nature’s medicines. In this book, he has provided the ayahuasca traveler with an essential and practical guide that is well-informed, personal, and fun. I highly recommend this book to those who want to learn from the wisdom of the plants.” (Joe Tafur, MD)
“Chris Kilham writes convincingly and eloquently about some of his - and my - favorite medicinal plants from the Amazonian rainforest, my ‘second home’ for nearly 25 years. Like Chris, I have a great respect for the ayuahuasca, the entheogen.” (Dr. Jim Duke, author of Herbistatins and The Green Pharmacy)
What listeners say about The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A guy in Colorado
- 03-15-23
Excellent information
Very helpful in preparation for a trip to Iquitos. Clear, concise writing and quite comprehensive.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carissa
- 01-09-23
Great intro into the psychedelic and use of ayahuasca
Good easy understanding of Ayahuasca, recommend you read Fellowship of the River if you enjoy this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick Lopez
- 01-18-22
Straight Scoop
This is absolutely 100% straight to the point. Legitimate. Authentic and spiritual. Thank you so much for the education. Much respect!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elizabeth Rad
- 08-15-19
Great listen
Just had my first ceremony in the sacred valley of Peru which was incredible and this book proved very informative and enjoyable. The descriptions of the journeys under ayahuasca were similar to my own which brought back pleasant memories. This author provides a great deal of info about not only ayahuasca itself but the culture surrounding it. Amazing read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- william
- 11-04-22
Decent Exploration of Substantive Qualities
Mired with caveats and contradictions, I thought this was overall a good purchase and listen. On one hand the author frames the experience with "must do and must nots" in a very dogmatic fashion, and on the other hand tends to criticize the dogma in the vein of "experience this journey in your own way." I'm not sure he realized he was doing this, but it's like, ok here comes another westerner who spends a great deal of time devoted to the caveats of the folly of western mentalities and stressing how ayahuasca ought only to be done with an Amazonian shaman, and then making great effort to display how we as westerners must be wary of shamans and only pick a "good one"... If you want to take ayahuasca in your living room and tread cautiously into the inner and out realms of spirit and reality, please go ahead.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cheyenne
- 06-26-24
Well thought out, thoroughly informative and personable
When I saw Chris had a second book on Audible, I was so giddy and excited. His precise and well thought out formation of information fits together like a puzzle. And at the end, you're sitting with a beautiful picture!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thinker
- 04-30-21
Terrible Spanish pronunciations
There are a lot of Spanish words in this rather flimsy audiobook, which are right properly mangled by the narrator. Extremely distracting!
It seems like there is quite a bit of filler here like ‘if you feel the need to go to the bathroom go right away’ and the complete recital of a coca ad.
The song at the end? Dear lord can ot get more cheesy.
The book oscillates between a serious reference book, a quasi religious tome and a juvenile handbook for teens. Puke buckets is a term that doesn’t lend itself to the pseudo spiritual paragraph preceding it’s mention.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!