When the Fire Goes Out

Depressed by his hollow existence, thirty-four-year-old Otto Matthias travels to the Peruvian Amazon to participate in a ceremony of Ayahuasca, a spiritual medicine that indigenous people have used to heal and learn for millennia and among the most potent hallucinogens on the planet. They say it opens doors to the spirit world. Matthias does not believe in such things when he embarks on his journey, but what he experiences in the jungle shatters the illusions of his reality. It changes his life. In this memoir, Matthias recounts his journey from Vancouver to Iquitos at the edge of the Amazon and of his experiences with the Ayahuasca ceremony. With unflinching candor and an eye for detail, When the Fire Goes Out presents an inspired account of shamanism and the psychedelic experience. It also provides a glimpse into the intimate window of Matthias' mind and communicates his fascination with being alive.