Sananga is a powerful eye medicine used to sharpen night vision. For modern seekers of spiritual healing, however, sananga does more than help with hunting. Often used as a precursor to ayahuasca ceremonies by the Kaxinawa and Matsés tribes of Brazil, these powerful eye drops have a healing power that’s more energetic than physical, and that has the capacity to increase spiritual insight in the minds of those who use it. Sananga is potent medicine, and while you can administer sananga for yourself without undergoing a guided ceremony.

Benefits of Sananga

Sananga is still used by many tribes in the heart of the Amazon, but its benefits are reaching the rest of the world as these tribes open up ceremonies to outsiders and train those who are interested in the administration of the eye drops. Used either in conjunction with ayahuasca or as a stand-alone treatment, sananga shows powerful potential to treat a spectrum of physical and psychospiritual illnesses:

Treats and prevents ocular diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, and blindness
Detoxifies the body
Increases visual perception and enhances colors
Clears long-standing inner anger
Used in conjunction, helps with mental disorders such as addiction, depression, and anxiety
Resets energetic field
Treats spiritual diseases (“panema”) caused by negative energies in the body. These spiritual diseases can accumulate in a person’s energetic body and make a person depressed and anxious.

Administering Sananga

The human eye is a particularly sensitive organ, which means a sananga ceremony can be painful. These sacred, shamanic eye drops cause an intense burning that usually lasts a few minutes, but experienced practitioners say this pain is an important part of the healing process. Shamans advise you to breathe deeply into the intensity to gain the most from its benefits—it is by leaning into the pain that you can cleanse not only your eyes but your mind and spirit as well. Once the pain leaves and the sananga is no longer in your body, you’re left with a feeling of immense relaxation. Because of its cleansing properties, sanaga is often used in preparation for an ayahuasca ceremony.