Didn’t the people in Brazil warn you about antidepressants and ayahuasca?” my friend asked as we sat down at the sushi bar in Berkeley. She’d already had several revelatory nights drinking the psychedelic tea with a Peruvian shaman.“Not a word,” I replied.“Well, you need to stop your antidepressants seven weeks before you try ayahuasca. Otherwise, it could kill you.”I dropped my chopsticks.“Seven weeks!” I exclaimed. “The retreat is in three weeks and I have a nonrefundable plane ticket.”My friend reached across the table and touched my arm.“If I were you,” she said, “I’d wait.”Waiting is not something I do well.So I rushed home, went online, and found all manner of opinion about what a person should do before embarking on an ayahuasca journey. Some websites warn about antidepressants and ayahuasca. Others say you shouldn’t have sex for a week before drinking the tea, or watch TV, or eat raisins, or dairy, or meat, or gluten. According to some, you should only wear white. The usual avalanche of information on the Internet raised more questions than answers. How does one separate the science from all the …