From this picture, you may be thinking that I was ready and confident going into my first Ayahuasca ceremony. But this was not the case at all. I was very nervous and had no idea what to expect. I really don’t blame myself because I was in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, where the closest form of normal civilization was miles away, and I was about to take one of the most powerful hallucinogenic substance known on Earth, with people and Shamans I had just met. Luckily for me, some of my family members were with me which gave me comfort, but I knew they were just as nervous as me.

I did do extensive research on Ayahuasca and knew the ins and outs of it. I also did read up on hundreds of experiences to get a feel of what to expect. I realized now that this did not help me prepare much and I really had no idea what I was getting into.

MY FIRST CEREMONY:

It was dark. Sounds of animals were emanating from the jungle around me. I went into the maloka (a place where ceremonies were held) and waited my turn to take a shot of Ayahuasca. It had a deep, dark red color to it and tasted horrible. Imagine drinking boiled tree bark. I was sitting there waiting for the trip to come on. After about 15 minutes I could hear the jungle sounds getting more and more vivid. I was becoming more and more aware of how much stuff was actually going on around me. The jungle noises were furthering my experience. The birds, insects, monkeys and whatever else was out there created a jungle symphony. It was like I was aware of the jungle and it was aware of me.

Then things started to get a tad bit insane. I started to see these tribal snake like patterns. The only way to describe these visions would be to say that there were these intense, vivid, colors behind my eyes. But it wasn’t like watching TV, I was fully immersed in these visions and at the time seemed as real as reality itself. These snakes started to wrap around my body and I started feeling this immense pressure in my body and in my forehead region. It was as if these tribal, vivid colored snakes were squeezing my body. Surprisingly I was not too frightened by this, but it was very intense, uncomfortable, and a lot to handle.


Then I started to really lose my grip on reality. I was freaking out. This all was too much to handle. After this point I am not sure if the events are in correct order; I just have memories of extremely intense moments. The Icaros (songs shaman's sing) had not begun yet, and I was waiting for it. It felt like eternity, and I was thinking this whole thing was a sham. I kept asking in my head why they weren’t singing. I started losing my grip on reality. I was lost in this crazy world of absolute darkness, and did not have a ground on reality. I was terrified. Then the Icaros began. It was very odd and profound at first. I was wondering how someone could sing something so beautifully, but I was still freaking out. I was thinking there must be a mic and speakers somewhere I couldn’t see. My senses were extremely heightened and this could have led me to think this.

Then things started to get really insane. Keep in mind that during an Ayahuasca ceremony you lose your perception of time. Everything got magnified by a billion. When I say everything I am referring to everything in my awareness. Every thought I had was leading me to the exact same feeling of being magnified a billion times. I completely lost my sense of reality and had no idea where I was. I was stuck in some cycle and I felt like I was going around a race track at the speed of light, over and over again. To say it was extremely overwhelming would be an understatement. At this point, I was terrified and I thought I would be stuck in this loop forever. It truly felt like an eternity. While all of this was happening, I was also throwing up vigorously, and moaning at the top of my lungs. It felt as if my insides were my outsides and my outsides were my insides, almost like I was turning inside out from within.

The more I yelled, the more I would hear a voice telling me to be quiet, and calm, saying I was disturbing others. The more I heard this voice, the more I wanted to yell. It was just pure insanity. I had no idea where this voice was coming from or who was speaking. It was like a roller-coaster ride, and I kept moaning as I was launched higher and higher. There was such a vivid smell of the Ayahuasca coming out of my body when I was throwing up. It was almost kind of nice, and I will never forget that smell. I kept trying to find peace, but I couldn’t. It was too overwhelming, and I couldn’t handle it. I would moan, throw up vigorously, be so overwhelmed, throw up some more, cry, and then laugh about how I was stuck in this cycle. It really felt like an eternity. A voice told me to focus on the Icaros. As I did, it guided me through, but I could not focus on it with all my effort. My reality was too distorted.



It felt like an eternity. Finally, I started getting moments of peace, and when I found that first moment of peace, I knew everything was okay and that I was fine. I was still going through this cycle, but I had moments of peace. These moments of peace were getting longer and longer. I finally felt this calm feeling. It was okay, and I was okay. Then I was getting a grip of myself. I started drifting toward reality. The rest of the trip was pretty smooth. I kept thanking Richardo (the Shaman) in my head for guiding me through this and making it easier. I was so grateful that I had a grip on reality. I became tranquil. I was like “wow, how did I survive that?” I was so glad I did.

The ceremony finished. I walked outside, and it was so bright. The moon and stars illuminated the atmosphere. I started to understand that I had to focus on myself and not worry about others. This worry from my experience was what I do subtly in real life— worry about what other people are thinking too much. I feel like this is why my experience was extremely rough. Ayahuasca was cleaning me of that. Apparently I was only going through that cycle of throwing-up and moaning for about 15 minutes. To me it felt like I was stuck in that cycle for eternity. I went to bed but couldn’t fall asleep properly until the sun rose.

I was in Peru for 9 days and partook in 5 ayahuasca ceremonies. My trip to Peru completely transformed me and the way I view life. It was a very difficult, terrifying and uncomfortable experience to say the least but the gains I got from it heavily outweighed the pains. I really understood myself more on a whole new level and developed this sense of inner peace which is still growing till this day. This is just a brief overview of what happened in my first ceremony. I went a lot deeper into the experiences in the ceremonies that followed.


You can check out my book “Trip to the Infinite – The Ayahuasca Experience” available on amazon.com to learn more about what ayahuasca is; how it affects your mind, body, and soul; my detailed ceremony reports explaining what exactly happened to me in the South American Jungle; and the ways in which I transformed afterwards.

I also included some ways to prepare if you are looking to have an ayahuasca experience of your own.


Author : Amar Sahota, http://asahota.com/




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AFTER some 18,000 kilometres of travelling, consisting of five flights, a bumpy two-hour drive, a boat ride and an exhausting trek, I finally arrived at my location hidden deep in the Peruvian Amazon. The journey I would go on shortly after my arrival, however, would take me far beyond anywhere else I had ever been.

The plant medicine Ayahuasca has been used in South American shamanic cultures for thousands of years, yet only now are Westerners, like myself, learning of its incredible powers which fuel one’s curiosity to take the strenuous journey to drink it.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew comprised of two natural ingredients which are boiled together for three to four days: first, the chacruna leaves which contain large quantities of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a naturally occurring chemical produced in the brain. Consumed alone, the DMT would be broken up by a gut enzyme, which is why the second ingredient, the banisteriopsis caapi vine, is vital as it switches this off.

When combined and then consumed, these two induce an intense visionary state which takes you on an internal journey of around four to five hours, delving into the subconscious mind, stripping away the ego and the layers of conditioning picked up throughout your life, subsequently providing new perspectives, thought patterns and information.

I had not taken any drugs before, and nor can Ayahuasca rightfully be labelled as such. Though a Schedule I/Class A drug in the United States and Europe respectively, it is in no way addictive. In fact, it is notorious for curing long-term drug addictions and dependence on harmful anti-depressants. Taking Ayahuasca is not for a thrill-seeker looking to score a good time, it is a demanding ordeal and there is a fair amount of preparation involved in terms of research, diet and lifestyle.

My intentions were purely for self-development and the exploration of consciousness. As a curious deep thinker, my aim was to learn more about this incredible computer we have in our heads that we know so little about and use so little of. I wanted to travel inside the subconscious where, whether we like it or not, emotional clutter is not only stored but plays an active role in our decision-making, as well as to gain clarity on some long-standing dilemmas swirling around my mind.

Under Ayahuasca, the entire brain region where we store emotional memory is hyperactivated and therefore we can access deeply hidden memories and subsequently rewire the brain to create new, more positive thought patterns.

Held in a ceremonial setting in pitch darkness in a round hut called a Malocha, you are provided no shortage of warnings that your first experience will be dark and unpleasant; after all, Ayahuasca’s purpose is to get to the root of deep lying issues, phobias, harmful personal traits, and present them to you in such a stark way that you will be led to reexamine them.

Despite a grueling three-day journey with very little sleep topped off by being woken up from a brief nap to join the ceremony, my first time, strangely, was quite the opposite.

I walked into the Malocha and took my place on one of the vacant mattresses dotted around the room. Soon enough, I was called by the Shaman to take my cup of the brew. I had read all about its horrific taste and texture, and it was no overstatement. Imagine if you will, a tar-like thickness, black liquorice flavour and the bitterness of ten espressos rolled into one tall narrow cup.

It typically takes 30 minutes to an hour for the visionary effects to kick in. Sitting in a meditative pose awaiting to be flipped into another dimension, my heart began to race. After about an hour, I noticed my perception begin to alter.

After some initial unpleasant images which left me feeling slightly queasy, I was fortunate to feel the positive effects of Ayahuasca from my very first experience.

Upon coming into contact with an intense female energy, I was swiftly led on a tour of a serene jungle where nature was brimming with life. I soon felt myself begin to vibrate with my surroundings and eventually became immersed with all the plants, trees, rivers and animals around me, experiencing that much fabled ‘oneness with everything’.

It is important to stress that this is not like a dream state where you are simply watching images sail past, you are fully conscious and the vision state is felt fully, in fact, more intensely than everyday reality.

With this, a spontaneous outpour of tears began gushing from my eyes in what felt like a rebirth, a reconnection with the feeling of pure love and elation which, prior to my trip, I had lost touch with as a result of becoming constantly worried about the future, fuelled by my rather harsh levels of self-expectation.

The brew is made from plants found in the jungle
The brew is made from plants found in the jungle

In shamanic culture, Ayahuasca is commonly referred to as ‘abuelita’, or little grandmother, and is described as an all-loving female energy, the spirit of Mother Nature manifested into this plant to assist humanity, with whom many come into contact during their experience with the medicine.

Rather than a sequence from one to the next, visions in each ceremony are unique, as I would soon find out. In stark contrast to the first, my second ceremony saw me submerged into a gloomy underworld – I had the feeling that I was sinking into my mattress and ended in a room where serpents slithered past my body and sewer water flowed beneath me, bringing about a strong need to purge. These nightmarish visions would go on even after the ceremony had ended and I had returned to my cabin.

However, any rough experience you may have, Ayahuasca’s purpose is to bring you onto a noble life path and the shedding of jealousy, lust and other malignant traits picked up throughout life. ‘Bad trips’ tend to be a visual representation of negative tendencies and vomiting is a fundamental part of shedding certain emotional baggage.

In our society, we are quick to brand or slander something we have little to no knowledge of, and Ayahuasca, a mind-altering brew which takes people into different states of reality, certainly has not escaped this treatment.

Governments, media and pharmaceutical companies, whose industries rely on a passive and obedient general public, are quick to brand such substances as drugs, a sentiment which has precipitated into the minds of most. Research into psychedelics gathered momentum in the 1950s but once their benefits came to light, they were quickly thwarted by the aforementioned trio.


A mere mention of psychedelics is often met with startle or suspicion, yet our society is not without its mind-altering drugs, they simply are not presented as such. Sugar, cigarettes and alcohol are the cause of millions of deaths every year but are perfectly legal, in fact incessantly hammered into the public psyche. After all, they serve the current system to a tee while Ayahuasca, on the other hand, will shatter the illusion that this power structure maintains.

We are at a point in time where much of humanity has lost its way; our ego-dominant culture has made us numb to the treatment of animals, our environment and our fellow human. We squabble for temporary power and possessions and have consequently lost touch with soul and spirit.

But like an organism producing antibodies at a time of illness, psychedelics like Ayahuasca have resurged in the West in similar fashion at a time where our society needs healing the most. If we are to claim to be an advanced society then the way in which these plants are represented must change and more intelligent debate must take place.

Opening ourselves up to Ayahuasca and its worldly benefits could be the key to liberating ourselves from this mental cage we have unknowingly trapped ourselves in.

Author : Andreas Vou

Related Posts :

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• Preparing Yourself for an Ayahuasca Retreat
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Modern society and our educational system has little or no understanding of the underlying spiritual fabric of our existence on all planes across all space-time.... Ancient shamanic teachings which are still practiced and followed by a few people in our world today beckon us to awaken to our deep connection with all there is .. to go beyond our fears of the spiritual realms and to understand our true nature, as consciousness ... divine and omnipresent.

The word Shaman is an English translation of the Tungus word Saman. The Tungus are an indigenous people of Siberia located in the Altai Mountains. The literal translation of the Tungus word Saman, means, “To know”. Other research indicates that the word Shaman was derived from earlier peoples, perhaps even the Vedic people of northern India. One such example is that the Tibetan word for a Buddhist monk is Samana.

Regardless of the words true origin, it has come to represent on a global level all that practice Shaman like techniques.

Shamanic teachings show us how to rewrite our stories about our lives, to do what the shamans call “dreaming the world into being.”

These invaluable Shamanic teachings, known as The Four Insights, were kept under wraps for a very good reason. The Laika realized that this knowledge about our capacity to manifest our dreams is tremendously powerful, and could be easily abused by those lacking ethics. Nevertheless, these devoted “Earthkeepers” recognized that the Four Insights belong to all people on the planet, not just to the Inka. When they met a white person who did not possess the arrogant, hostile mindset of the conqueror, they were willing to share their wisdom teachings for dissemination to the world.

The Four Insights

The wisdom of the Laika Shamanic Teachings consists of Four Insights, each of which has four practices that allow us to move beyond mere understanding to actually experiencing shifts in perception that help us transform ourselves and our world.

Insight 1: The Way of the Hero
Practices: Non-judgment, Non-suffering, Non-attachment, Beauty

Insight 2: The Way of the Luminous Warrior
Practices: Fearlessness, Non-doing, Certainty, Non-engagement

Insight 3: The Way of the Seer
Practices: Beginner’s Mind, Living Consequently, Transparency, Integrity

Insight 4: The Way of the Sage
Practices: Mastering Time and Keeping a Secret from Yourself, Owning Your Projections, No-mind, Indigenous Alchemy

Through the Four Insights, you’ll learn that there’s a spiritual solution to every problem you encounter in the physical world, in your mind, and in your soul. You’ll learn that you can’t eliminate scarcity in your life by getting another job. You can’t heal feelings of abandonment or anger by understanding your childhood wounds. You can only fix these problems at the level above the one in which they were created.

When we shift from one level of perception up to the next, we retain our ability to function at the lower realm, but we still retain that wider view of what we’re experiencing. Einstein said, “Problems can not be solved at the level at which they were created.” Being able to shift to a higher realm of perception can help us to find solutions to our problems, resolve conflicts, heal disease, and experience oneness with all of creation when, before, we were experiencing distress and separation.

If you want to begin living your life differently and perceiving your experiences through new eyes, it’s important to go beyond mere understanding of the insights and actually follow their practices.

Condensed from Alberto Villoldo’s introduction in his book, The Four Insights ...

Alberto Villoldo’s best-selling book, “The Four Insights.”




Taoism has its roots in Shamanic Teachings. As a result this means the Personal Tao site also offers a collection of spiritual teachings to help people explore a modern Shamanic Life. Experiencing the movement of spirit is something that goes beyond physical words. The materials on this site are just a starting point for people on their spiritual journey.

While modern culture has many preconceived notions of what a Shaman might look like, it turns out shamanic teachings are much more varied than what people think. Shamanic teachings are not out of place in this modern world. In fact, the exact opposite is true, shamanic teachings offer tools to help a person find a healthier lifestyle and perspectives that balance the sensibilities of a modern life.

Many different “maps” and paths exist in shamanic teachings. Julie and Casey help shamanic students access and then begin exploring the spiritual aspects of life. We first teach a person a larger overview of Shamanism. Then based on a person’s nature, help each person focus down a path that matches their soul.

Spiritual activities appear magical to many, since in perspective how we see spirit varies so much from person to person. Yet no one can deny the larger mysterious universe that goes beyond our day to day stories of life. This larger reality around our physical base essence is what is known as “Spirit”. It’s the desire to move with connection to spirit and explore the spiritual worlds that calls to us in shamanic practice. Shamanic practice is an art of lifestyle that connects a person’s heart back to nature and to the roots of our history. Shamanism is the art of helping each person connect to and expand their life with spiritual exploration.


How do Shamans perform their Work?

Shamans primarily perform their duties on an energetic level, meaning that they take into account a “mind, body, spirit” connection when performing their work.

The basis of Shamanic technique is to honor the life system as a “whole”. Instead of addressing challenges as a symptom, a deeper cause for that symptom is sought. Many times it is a matter of speaking to the patient to identify direct life factors that play into a particular problem. A Shaman may very well provide practical counsel; however the treatment is centered around performing energy work and ensuring that the patient is provided support for on non-physical levels of reality.

Shamans utilize several techniques to perform there work. Some of the more common techniques are journeying, chakra based and dimensional energy work, meditation, counseling, performing ceremonies, and entering altered states.


What is Journeying?

Journeying is leaving "this world" reality to enter the "Otherworld" while in the altered state of “ecstasy”. It is the actual traveling through the various levels of the Worlds: Siberian Shamans have 9 levels and usually travel on the back of a goose or a horse. American Indians have 3 levels and travel in accompaniment with their totem guides. African Shamans, depending upon the tribe have multiple layers of the Otherworld and travel with their ancestors. Although each culture has their own methods of traveling they all have some kind of journeying to the Otherworld.

According to Tom Cowan, when a Shaman journeys he/she is letting their spirit leave their body to journey to the astral plane or spirit realm. There are many ways of obtaining this state of ecstasy or altered state. This altered state of consciousness has many levels including full awake, dreaming, and daydreaming. Unlike drug induced or dreamed realities, Shamanic journeying is intentional, focused and directed at all times. (Pocket Guide to Shamanism pages 111-112)

What is a Guided Journey?

A guided journey is a learning journey. It does not necessarily have to begin with the ecstatic state; often it can take place in deep sleep or in a guided meditation. A guided journey occurs when a spirit guide or animal guide (totem) takes control of the dream and "guides" you to where they want you. A guided journey is not always pleasant. This is where the Shaman learns more about him/herself and grows into their powers, it is where they meet and grow to know their guides and spirit teachers. It is also where they face their fears and overcome them so they are able to journey into the Otherworld and battle spirits.
What are the Principles of Shamanism?


The Basic Truths of Shamanism

Basic Truth ONE
All power comes from within - (We are all equally connected to our source).
Everything has power and all power is equal. Just the levels of which the person can control the power makes it look like some are stronger than others. Power comes from authenticity. This means you must have faith or trust in your own authority/ability. In other words be confident. One must be grounded and centered. It is very important to understand that your personal power comes from within and it is not outside of yourself.

Basic Truth TWO
Everything is relative and connected – (Microcosm / Macrocosm – Interconnectedness is truly universal).
In other words, cause and effect. You can not do anything without it affecting something. Positive thoughts and energy have positive results. Negative thoughts and energy destroy positive results. Example: If you attempt to control a force of nature/spirit world it will rebel. Nothing likes to be controlled. You need to learn to work as an equal partner with all. Man, nature, and the spirits are all connected for we all are all made of power.

Basic Truth THREE
The Shaman’s world with its 3 planes, Upper, Middle, and lower (read about them on page 35-36 in Celtic Shaman) is what you make it – (We operate on all dimensional levels, even though our energy is focused primarily on the physical)
This reflects upon your ability to use your power to understand that there are no limits to what you can do. In other words, the Shaman that says I can do this is the one that can.

Basic Truth FOUR
Effectiveness is the yardstick of ability – (Self assessment and introspection are a key foundation and life is about building a sustainable foundation of practice).
If you make it happen then you have gained the skills to make it happen. Just because you couldn’t make it happen doesn't mean that it can't happen. It only means you may not have found the right way yet. Do not get down on yourself just because you have not yet accomplished something.

The Aspects of Balance

There are 4 aspects of balance. These are mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. This means not going over board in any area of your life. At times, tunnel vision can be an asset but only for the duration of the need. It is important to learn not only how to be balanced, but how to balance those you are healing. Shamans endeavor to heal all aspects of the individual.

The Mental Aspect
This is how we process energy with our conscious thoughts.
Shamans need to understand how the person gets information and how certain information affects the person. Criticize someone too much and all they hear is that they are a failure. Tell them that they are doing better because of the results you see, and they will assist you in helping themselves heal even faster.

The Physical Aspect
This is how we process energy with our bodies. This reflects how we take care of ourselves. A healthy body allows the Shaman the strength to journey. You may be thinking I journey with my mind, which is true, but all is connected, -everything affects everything-. We need to reach high levels of physical strength and stamina to journey to the Otherworld and do the healing we are here to do.

The Emotional Aspect
This is how we process energy through our reactions to others. We all let others effect how we react, though we are the ones in control of how we react. First impressions are a good example: most know right away if they like someone or not. But what most don’t think about, is why we don’t like them? We need to look at the whys. You will usually see yourself in there someplace.

The Spiritual Aspect
This is the processing of the energy of our souls or spirits. Sometimes this is the strongest and least controlled energy in our four energy system. Spirituality is living in harmony with the 4 points of the medicine wheel, which represents your material life, as well as your non-material life. It is believing in something that is greater than a single human body. It is also everything we believe without affixing labels to them.

How Does One Learn to Become a Shaman?

There are two traditional kinds of instruction a Shaman receives and many forms a neo-Shaman can use. The traditional methods as stated by Mircea Eliade in his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy are:

1. Ecstatic
2. Traditional

Training by the ecstatic method is through visions and dreams. Often the apprentice spends months, even years in solitude living in a cave or forest in a most deplorable manner. This instruction is given by previous ancestors, spirits and guides and involves an initiation in the Otherworld. The conditions lend themselves to the ecstatic state through starvation and isolation. This is one reason why there are so few Shamans and why the lineage is not being continued in the hereditary manner.

Traditional training is usually done by the current Shaman as he or she tries to produce an heir for the tribe. Often a Shaman will spend 20 or more years training his or her apprentice. The traditional training includes the names of spirits, history of the clan (tribe); herbalism and other skills Shamans need to do their work.

Neo-Shamans sometimes try to glean the information they need from various books, seminars or Shamanic schools. They can however receive traditional training if they find the right teacher and are qualified to do so. In today’s world, there are fewer Shamans than ever before. The balance of the realities lies in the Shamanistic work being done. The lack of current Shamans is evident in the imbalance being seen in this world today. So the traditional teaching of apprentices is being allowed now by those few Shamans who have the proper mind and heart to keep the practice clear and focused on its own purpose.

Please keep I mind that the path of Shamanism is not a hobby or something to be taken lightly. If one embarks on this path without guidance, protection, and the proper mindfulness, one can cause harm to others as well as themselves.


References :

• Alberto Villoldo
• Personal Tao
• A Brief Guide to Shamanism

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João Meirinhos created a compelling and sublime documentary that reaffirms the power of the world's greatest traditional medicine, Ayahuasca. Assembling an impressive cast of traditional practitioners, aficionados and western converts, 'Mirror of the Spirit' bubbles like the brew itself to reveal the essence of the ayahuasca experience. And, like the ayahuasca vine, it entwines the viewer with an authentic and compelling message that is hard to resist.

Grounded in strong ethnographic roots, 'Mirror of the Spirit' captures the spirit of this eclectic mix of contributors all of whom have been transformed by the power of the medicine in a myriad different ways. Once again we are reminded that the message of Ayahuasca is more relevant today than at any point in our history.

- Gavin Searle


Research questions:

- Why are, nowadays, mostly foreigners interested in going through the harsh processes of shamanic initiation?
- Do Western and Amazonian shamans share the same cosmological views about the possibility of life after death?
- Has the replacement of religious beliefs for science, reason and capital left a metaphysical void in modern societies?

For more information please visit: - www.facebook.com/mirrorofthespirit or contact: [email protected]

With the academic and technical support from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology / University of Manchester.
Many thanks to all the Kickstarter campaign backers, especially Associate Producer Lily Spencer.
Dedicated to the inspiring memory of Pablo Amaringo and Terence McKenna.
World Premiere at the World Ayahuasca Conference 2014 in Ibiza.
All sound and images were collected during fieldwork.


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Taking part in an Ayahuasca retreat can be a life changing experience and preparing for your first Ayahuasca session is critical to the efficacy of this powerful jungle medicine. The following article shares more light on the things to keep in mind before you take Ayahuasca ...

Recent scientific discoveries have shown that certain foods are contra-indicated for the type of spiritual practice that we will be engaged in. These foods increase the probability of purging, nausea, headache or increased heart rate.

We recommend that you avoid these foods for 3-7 days prior to drinking ayahuasca.

You can read about the MAPS research into diet here.



As a general rule: foods that are aged or fermented to enhance the flavor are to be eliminated. Examples: blue cheese, roquefort, parmesan, romano, cheddar, smoked brie, etc. miso, braggs, soy or tamari sauce, sardines, herring, smoked fish, chicken livers, snails, red wine, vermouth, beers (including non-alcoholic), strong coffee, chocolate, cream, yogurt and sauerkraut. As much as possible omit salt from your diet.

Other food types to avoid include: Dried fruits, canned figs, raisins, walnuts, overly ripe bananas, avocados, beans (particularly broad beans such as fava or lima). Nutritional yeast, Brewer’s yeast, all vitamins, any supplements and protein drinks containing the amino acid TYRAMINE.

All the above foods contain high quantities of the amino acid L-Tyrosine that produces the contra-indicated chemical tyrosine in the body that causes the potentially negative reaction. This substance can be stored in the body for up to three days. Avoiding the above items is highly recommended.

All narcotics, barbiturates, antihistamines or analgesics, ephedrine (in some herbal stimulants and cold remedies and often times included in Chinese herbal remedies), and alcohol must be free from your system prior to drinking ayahuasca. Any prescription or other drug use must be discussed with the Spirit Vine facilitator prior to sessions.

We suggest abstinence from reading newspapers, watching TV, etc. the day of the session and as many days before as works for you will help to purge your mind of unwanted thoughts and influence. Practicing meditation is an ideal form of preparation.

It is also recommended to abstain from sex before during and after the retreat. Sexual orgasm is an intense energetic shift in the body’s’ energy field and it has been said by some shamans that it can create leaks or allow in other energies. By sealing your aura and energy body during an ayahuasca experience, the spiritual energy will remain intact within you. There are many schools of thought on this and we recommend at least three days abstinence before and after an ayahuasca ceremony.

These guidelines can assist you in having a more beneficial and enjoyable experience.

Source



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For most part our society treats people who commit serious mistakes in life as criminals worthy of punishment, without seeing the need for real change within these individuals. Brazil has taken a step forward in the right direction by bringing some healing and hope for salvation for the prisoners in the form of the visionary brew, Ayahuasca.

The Brazilian prison system has seen many bloody revolts in recent times and the number of prisoners incarcerated has also increased exponentially. Acuda, a prisoners’ rights group in Porto Velho, began offering inmates therapy sessions in Yoga, Meditation and Reiki, a healing ritual directing energy from the practitioner’s hands to a patient’s body.

Two years ago, the volunteer therapists at Acuda had a new idea: Why not give the inmates ayahuasca as well? The Amazonian brew, which is generally made by blending and boiling a vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) with a leaf (Psychotria viridis), is growing in popularity in Brazil, the United States and other countries.

Acuda had trouble finding a place where the inmates could drink Ayahuasca, but they were finally accepted by the Santo Daime Church. Santo Daime is a Brazilian religion founded in the 1930s that blends Catholicism, African traditions and the trance communications with spirits popularized in the 19th century by a Frenchman known as Allan Kardec.

“Many people in Brazil believe that inmates must suffer, enduring hunger and depravity,” said Euza Beloti, 40, a psychologist with Acuda. “This thinking bolsters a system where prisoners return to society more violent than when they entered prison.” At Acuda, she said, “we simply see inmates as human beings with the capacity to change.”

In spite of the fact that some of these prisoners have committed heinous crimes towards innocent people, they too need a chance to change their lives for the better by turning within for answers and guidance from the spiritual realms which Ayahuasca brings to them. Anyone who is seeking forgiveness and, or needs to forgive in order to heal should be entitled the right to use any and all plant medicines that grow on our planet. Ayahuasca is one such powerful jungle medicine which heals us from deep within, with the help of an authentic shaman who guides us along our journey, and some help from the spirit world, always.

Source


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In the Western world today, more and more non-tribal Westerners are seeking out a teacher of shamanism and in response, increasing numbers of shamanic teachers are now appearing on the screen. But how do we ensure that we will be drawn to an authentically initiated individual who will serve us well?

In the beginning of our connection with this ancient wisdom tradition, some of us decide to seek out teachers in the indigenous world, often through participating in travel groups or tours into remote regions of the world. These tours are usually accompanied or led by an acknowledged or self-proclaimed expert, and these experiences can be intense, exciting, and life-changing. However, we frequently discover that just because someone seems to be an expert, the knowledge may be quite limiting and superficial. In addition, these experiences usually lack an ongoing connection to facilitate our shamanic training and to develop shamanic skills. Thus, we continue to search.


Accordingly, some of us seek out indigenous spiritual elders closer to home, yet we usually discover that there are very few now who know the old traditions and fewer still who may be inclined to share their spiritual wisdom with outsiders. Some of us are lucky, though, and find an elder who has chosen to extend their knowledge to everyone, regardless of culture, race or ethnicity.

Then there are the growing numbers of spiritual seekers who become aware of the shaman's path through reading the published works of individuals who have 'spent time' with indigenous peoples. Some find their way into relationship with these individuals, who offer knowledge as well as experiential training in seminars and workshops at institutes and conference centers.

For Westerners, the hands-on experiential workshop offers opportunities for intense immersion in the shaman's worldview and practice. These structured settings provide tools and techniques designed to bring us into an enhanced connection with our spirit helpers, our spirit teachers and our guides, creating a good working foundation for our own practice. In the shaman's world, it is always understood that the real teachers are found on the other side. Only the spirits can convey true teaching as well as authentic initiation to the shamanic practitioner.

Accordingly, the job of the authentic shamanic teacher is to facilitate this connection...

Once the shamanic aspirant has been brought into relationship with their helping spirits, the role of the outer teacher is essentially done. Yet it is also true that many return to work with a singular teacher in serial training workshops in order to deepen their practice in specific areas such as working with ancestral spirits, soul retrieval and transpersonal healing, or exploring the dimensional realities of the Upper Worlds.

In doing so, Westerners discover that the ancient methodologies of the shaman, developed across tens of millennia by our stone-age ancestors, are the birthright of all human beings everywhere. If we go back far enough, we are all descended from indigenous tribal peoples, Westerners and non-Westerners alike, and they all had great shamans.

This means that it is not required that you be a Zulu or a Siberian, a Mayan or Hawaiian or Native American to practice shamanism. The practice, the method, is essentially the same the world over. It belongs to all.

Source : Shared Wisdom

Image Courtesy : Myztico Campo


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Twenty years ago, no one but scholars and committed psychonauts had heard of ayahuasca in the Western World. Today, it is the golden child of psychedelic cinema.

Opening with a sequence that sets its cultural reference points with prior films – including clips from Daniel Pinchbeck’s 2012 documentary and interviews with visionary artist Alex Grey – Daniel LeMunyan’s “Eye of the Needle” establishes itself as a member of the emerging “documentaries mainstreaming indigenous traditions” genre essentially started by Mitch Schultz with his film DMT: The Spirit Molecule. It goes on to spend twelve minutes mating MTV with La Madre Ayahuasca and the DSLR revolution. A filter-heavy short in love with trippy tilt-shifts, burned-out jungle landscapes, and grainy hand-held village shots, “Eye of the Needle” is more downtown than upriver.

The film does its best to make up for its short run time with regular explanatory subtitles, replacing (or sometimes in addition to) narration, which somehow succeed in keeping LeMunyan relatively transparent while packing information into the film to psychedelically intense degrees. But they also make it hard to sink into the intense and exotic spaces he captures – nothing is given its due, especially during the appropriately rapid-fire, luminous, and disorienting climactic medicine journey sequence. Don’t take the ayahuasca experience lightly; the “real thing” isn’t a 2 minute walk in the park.


Next to other ayahuasca-mentaries like Vine of the Soul, Aya: Awakenings, Stepping Into The Fire and even the fictional Blueberry (released in the US as Renegade), this thirteen-minute blip of a trip feels more like ayahuasca’s freebased cousin DMT with Travel Channel seasoning. But for the Youtube generation, trying to watch three things at once is normal – and this film still contributes to the work of sharing this important medicine and its traditions with the world.

- Michael Garfield

Source


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'The Shaman's Last Apprentice' is a narrative documentary focusing on the story of Rebekah Shaman, who in 1997 followed a vision she received from a Shaman calling her to the Amazon, where she found and studied intensively with a powerful Ayahuasquero Shaman in a little village nestled in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest. Now she tells of her unique story working with the Shaman and Ayahuasca to connect with Mother Earth.

What follows is a warning from the Shaman to the West that we urgently need to change our relationship with each other, and with mother Earth.
Only when we understand how vital each one of us is to the future unfolding of this planetary story, can we find the courage to let go of the fear, evolve consciously, and step into our own power so we can be the change.


Alexander Ward | Director's Bio :

Alexander Ward is an artist and film-maker coming from a highly trained background in traditional animation. Working as an Art Director in China for an animated feature, then moving into the Video Game industry as a Conceptual Artist.
Beginning to work in environmental documentaries after developing a profound connection to nature, he was led to work with the sacred medicine Ayahuasca in many journeys to the Amazon rainforest, tutored by native shamanic healers who practice in the tribal traditions, where he now proceeds to use his creative background in ways to promote the virtues of Ayahuasca, reconnecting to nature and the cultural shift that is evolving out of this.

Sharing his own journey with Ayahuasca in various documentary and media projects and bringing light to the stories of others touched by this powerful entheogen.


Rebekah Shaman's Bio :

Rebekah Shaman has travelled extensively and lived and worked with various indigenous groups. She has a BA Hons in the Study of Religions and MSc in Development Studies, both from SOAS, UCL in London. She has also self-published a book 'The Shaman's Last Apprentice,' based on her experiences as an initiate of a Peruvian 'Ayahuasquero' Shaman in the Amazon Rainforest in 1998. Returning to the West she worked with the World Travel and Tourism Council focusing on sustainable development and corporate social responsibility before leaving to set up Hemp Global Solutions Ltd, a hemp food company. Rebekah now facilitiates cacao ceremonies and coaches using shamanic techniques to release blockages and realise their potential.


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'Metamorphosis' is a documentary film by Keith Aronowitz, who traveled to Peru to try Ayahuasca for the first time at the Blue Morpho Lodge. The ceremonies proved to be profound. “It was an incredible experience and it forever changed my life, says Aronowitz.” He also happened to have brought his camcorder along and recorded some of the ceremonies and interviewed some of the people who had also journeyed to drink Ayahuasca. When he shared his footage, the response was enthusiastic, so he thought of making a documentary film !


Metamorphosis follows five Ayahuasca tourists on a nine-day retreat at the jungle lodge maintained by Blue Morpho Tours, where they participate in five ayahuasca ceremonies. The lodge is run by Hamilton Souther, who has been practicing shamanism for about seven years. “The spirits came along,” Souther says in the film, “and they said to me: You have to go into the jungle and drink ayahuasca.” Souther apprenticed under Don Alberto Torres Davila and Don Julio Gerena Pinedo, and they now all work together leading ceremonies at the lodge. The film tells Souther’s story, incorporates his explanations of the ceremonies, and portrays the physical, emotional, and spiritual changes through which he guides his guests.

The film does not flinch from depicting the sometimes overpowering physical and psychological effects of the drink. “Everybody who comes here suffers,” says Souther. Aronowitz puts this into his own context. “Fear is not the only thing that takes place,” he says. “You experience divinity. Universal knowledge through visions. Oneness. Love. Your heart opens. You feel connected to everyone and everything. I feel like I had to go to hell in order to get to heaven.”

Blue Morpho Tours specializes in what it calls all-inclusive shamanic workshops. The lodge is relatively comfortable, at least compared to the amenities available in local villages, and has hosted not only tourists but also journalists who have described their ayahuasca experiences in such widely read publications as the Houston Chronicle and National Geographic magazine.

Perhaps because of its success, Blue Morpho Tours has attracted both criticism and defense, largely concerning the commercialization of indigenous spirituality and the effect of ayahuasca tourism on local communities. “Blue Morpho is a unique place,” Aronowitz says, “because one of the shamans is a westerner. He left his life in America in order to learn this healing tradition in the middle of the Amazon. So he’s a conduit to helping other people heal through this tradition.”

As per a more recent update (As seen here), there have been some major changes at the Blue Morpho Lodge. Hamilton has kind of disavowed his title as Master Shaman and while Don Alberto still practices there occasionally with traditional medicine ceremonies, many of the retreats are now centered around 'universality' instead of the traditional shamanic lineage based medicine. The prices for ceremonies have since skyrocketed suggesting over commercialization of Ayahuasca tourism.

Someone commented on the Ayahuasca thread on Reddit, highlighting reasons behind the changes at Blue Morpho ...

" Hamilton and another master shaman wanted to push their mastery of the medicne to the limit so did 30 Ayahuasca ceremonies in 30 days..."The big 30" as they called it. Shamans drink fairly regularly but with gaps, so 30 days straight is a lot Ayahuasca.

Basically, during that experience he found another path. He discovered that the dualistic nature of traditional Amazonian shamanism (spirit world/real world) is artifice built out of tradition, but isn't necessary for healing, and is therefore an illusion so not useful. The path he discovered is about unification/universalism, where there are no divisions. He wanted to continue doing ceremonies with his 'updated' understanding of the medicine, but his new approach wasn't compatible with the traditional shamanic worldview so after a bunch of discussions with his Maestro (Don Alberto) he retired the title he had earned within the traditional apprentice/master lineage system.

So he's still doing Aya ceremonies, but they're using the "universalism" framework rather than a traditional one. Don Alberto still holds traditional ceremonies there too though, so when you book a tour you can choose which you prefer.

BM was my first aya experience years ago and it was a whopper. I've been back to peru a few times to drink but never at Blue Morpho again. Hamilton is (was?) a grade-a Shaman though, so whatever he's doing now is interesting and useful, I'm sure. If I could afford their tours now I'd be tempted to go back just to check it out. "




Here is a short excerpt from an interview with Keith Aronowitz ...

" At one point during the film, one of the shamans says, "Everybody who comes here suffers," and the film is really about facing fear, I think. To what extent is an ayahuasca ceremony about fear? Are there other aspects of an ayahuasca ceremony?

Aronowitz : That's a good question. Fear is definitely an element of the ceremony. It's a daunting task to drink ayahuasca in the jungle. Anybody who gets in there has to have a lot of courage. Every night I saw the people going into ceremony to face their fears. I was inspired. For most people who go to drink ayahuasca medicine, nothing else has worked, or they are looking to really challenge themselves. That's kind of what it's all about, in a way. But fear is not the only thing that takes place. You experience divinity. Universal knowledge through visions. Oneness. Love. Your heart opens. You feel connected to everyone and everything. I feel like I had to go to hell in order to get to heaven. I'm not saying that's always how it has to be for everyone else, but that's how it was for me. I had to straighten out my energy in order to see love and to feel love. It was really hard work, but that's what I was there for.

And at the end there's a lot of laughter, relief, some good flatulence. Whew, I made it. We made it! Hopefully I'll be ready for the next ceremony. And you grow and learn. "


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• Metamorphosis : Making of an Ayahuasca Documentary
• Singing to the Plants - Metamorphosis

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The Jaguar is revered as a powerful being in the Amazonian rainforest, who also serves as a Spirit Guide for the Shaman who seeks to heal the sick and receives visions which are key to human survival in the Amazon. For the Quechua Indians, the Jaguar like the Anaconda, is considered a highly evolved spirit who was perhaps a Yachak or a Shaman in their previous life.


"The Jaguar Man" is a documentary film which takes us on journey of initiation in the Ecuadorian rainforests of the Amazon. A young Quechua Indian is on his way to become a Yachak, a Shaman. His Father takes him to learn the ways of the Jungle, to encounter the spirits of the forest, in particular the Jaguar, who is often seen chewing on the Ayahuasca vine. The DMT visions hence induced give the majestic being enhanced perceptions and abilities that help it see with clarity even through the darkness. Here are some interesting articles on Jaguar Symbolism in ancient Shamanistic cultures ...

Jaguar, Power Animal, Symbol of Solitary Path, Reclaiming Power, Shape shifting, Psychic Vision

By Ina Woolcott

The Jaguar's medicine includes seeing the roads within chaos and understanding the patterns of chaos, moving without fear in the darkness, moving in unknown places, shape shifting, psychic vision, facilitating soul work, empowering oneself, reclaiming power.

The Black Jaguar's medicine includes the same as jaguar but in addition keeper of the circular time continuum, gatekeeper to the unknowable.

The South American name for jaguar, 'jaguara' is translated as 'carnivore that overcomes prey with a single bound.' there is an Indian legend that says the jaguar came by its beautiful spotted coat by dabbing mud on its body with its paws. These spots easily hold the jaguar apart from other big cats. What also holds them apart from other big cats is the fact that they are unrivalled. There are no other predators that can compete with this powerful cat. Those with this power animal generally make brilliant leaders and diplomats.

According to Mayan beliefs, the journey of the sun across the sky and the darkness of night represented the infinite journey of human consciousness and its transformations. The midday sun's position was compared to the Eagle, flying high in the sky, to then plunge below the horizon, just as we plunge into the dark to face our spiritual challenges and to be transformed. The hidden sun was said to be Jaguar, whose spotted skin represents the stars glittering/shining in the night sky. Hence it was called the "Jaguar Sun." Jaguar is the earth father, holding the authority over the sacred power of and in the earth, and the animals who live upon it. The force that lives within the mountains, giving them their volcanic and transformative power, is the same underworld source of energy and power contained within the Jaguar Sun. The Mayan word for Jaguar is IX and it is pronounced 'eesh'.

Similarly to the tiger, this solitary hunter stalks silently and patiently, to then strike with lightning speed. This symbolises the importance of knowing when it's best to take the solitary path in stalking one's own dreams. For the native people of the rainforests, everything contains the essence of the Jaguar.

Jaguar, Leopards and Panthers are very ancient and powerful power animals/totems. They embody aggressiveness and power, but without the influence of solar energy. Black Panther's power is lunar (moon). People with a Jaguar, Panther or Leopard medicine have the ability to multi-task. They tend to be loners and are very comfortable with themselves. Often they are drawn to other solitary people.

If this is your power animal, you must learn to pace your work - in all aspects of your life - and not push too hard. Women who have Jaguar, Panther or Leopard totems often bring their children up alone, whether it be through divorce or just circumstances in their lives.

Either sex holding this power animal have the potential to develop clairaudience, the ability to hear communications from other forms of life or dimensions and should trust their thoughts and inner visions as they are based in reality.

Jaguars have huge paws and a broad head with mighty strong jaws. They often kill their victim by piercing the skull with one rapid bite. The jaguar growls, snarls and makes deep grunts - it does not roar like a lion. People with this power animal generally possess a good command of language, although their words can have a tendency to cut, tear and shred others apart. Learning correct communication skills is of foremost importance for these people.

The jaguar's powerful body is capable of taking them hundreds of miles in the search for food. They are agile climbers. They teach us how to fulfil goals/dreams through pliability and steadfastness.

Jaguars are at home in the dark with their excellent night vision. They move fearlessly, whether night or day, teaching us how to trust our personal instincts. Latent psychic sight may be stirred in those with this power animal.

The jaguars preferred habitat is usually swamp and wooded regions, although they are also able to live in scrublands and deserts. Jaguars live in caves and canyons close to fresh water. In mythology caves are linked with retreat and isolation, a place to go to aid soul work. Water is linked with the emotional body of humans. When the jaguar bounds into your reality it is asking you to go within, to release your fears, to heal your emotions and to awaken your inner sight. When you come out of retreat the jaguar will be there awaiting you. If you choose to follow his lead, he will guide you into the underworld where the secrets of life and creation are to be found.



Jaguar Symbolism

The black panther is actually the same species as the jaguar. The black coat is simply a color variation. Jaguar is a Native American word meaning, “he who kills with one blow.” The jaguar actually originated in North America, though now it only lives in Central and parts of South America. The jaguar moved south when Central America formed into a land bridge. Jaguars prefer habitats like jungles and swamps, but also like semi-arid mountainous regions, so long as the area is forested. The jaguar is also one of the few cats to like water, and often can be seen playing in it.

As for the mythology and legends, the jaguar was seen as a god in Peru, Mexico, and Guatemala, in pre-Columbian America. The Mayans, Aztecs, and Inca all worshiped the jaguar in some form. In the pantheon, the jaguar god was second only to the snake god in religious importance. At the Temple of the Jaguar at Chichen Itza, the king had to walk beneath a frieze of a procession of jaguars during his coronation ceremony.

In Mayan mythology, the jaguar was seen as the ruler of the Underworld, and as such, a symbol of the night sun and darkness. There were Mayan priests called Balam who officiated at only the most important ceremonies. Along with the Aztecs and Mayans, the Inca also built temples to the jaguar.

The Jaguar is representative of power, ferocity, and valor; he is the embodiment of aggressiveness. For some, the jaguar represents the power to face one’s fears, or to confront one’s enemies. However, they are also associated with vision, which means both their ability to see during the night and to look into the dark parts of the human heart. The jaguar often warns of disaster, he does not offer any reassurance. Along with physical vision, jaguars are also associated with prescience and the foreknowledge of things to come. Cats have binocular vision, meaning each eye can work by itself, which provides them with better depth perception. This gives more evidence to their connection with vision and foresight.

The Jaguar, specifically panther, is linked to the Roman god Bacchus (Greek Dionysus). Bacchus was supposedly nursed by panthers, and in some depictions he is riding a chariot pulled by the large cats. Bacchus is often thought of as the god of wine and mirth, but he is strongly linked to the unleashing of desires. So, the panther, too, is a symbol of subconscious urges and abilities. This is something the Aztecs and Mayans also had a notion of. Both peoples spoke and taught about the power of becoming half-jaguar and half-human, because a person who can do this can be rid of all of his cultural restrictions and inhibitions. In other words, he can finally act upon his hidden desires.


References :

• Shamanic Journey
• Pure Spirit

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"Aya: Awakenings" is a documentary journey into the world and visions of Amazonian shamanism, adapted from the cult book ‘Aya: a Shamanic Odyssey’ by Rak Razam. As Razam sets out to document the booming business of Amazonian shamanism in the 21st century, he quickly finds himself caught up in a culture clash between the old world and the new. Braving a gringo trail of the soul, he uncovers a movement of ‘spiritual tourists’ coming from the West for a direct experience of the multi-dimensional reality shamanism connects one to.

Central to this is ayahuasca – the “vine of souls” – a legal South American entheogenic plant medicine that has been used by Amazonian people for millennia to heal physical ailments and to cleanse and purify the spirit, connecting it to the web of life. Western seekers also experiment with smokable dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and the juxtaposition of these two sacraments, and the way they are used by Westerners, is a central theme of the film. In researching the mystery of ayahuasca, Razam undergoes his own shamanic initiation, undergoing numerous tests and trials in the jungle and the psychic landscapes the vine reveals.

Aya Awakenings Trailer ...




Aya Awakenings : On Spirit Guides and Ayahuasca Visions




On the way he encounters a motley crew of characters, from rogue scientists that conduct DMT-brain scans on jungle psychonauts to indigenous and Western shamans that slowly unravel his cultured mind and reveal the magical landscape of the spirit world. And the more he drinks this potent jungle medicine the deeper it leads him: from the wet jungle where the ayahuasca vine grows and on into the raging heart of consciousness itself.

By blending narration directly from the book with video footage, interviews with practicing curanderos, samples of traditional icaros or magic songs, photographs and cutting edge special effects, AYA: Awakenings reproduces the inner landscape of the visionary state in unprecedented detail, invoking an awakening in the viewer.

Featuring the artwork of Pablo Amaringo, Andy Debernardi and more; written by Rak Razam and directed by Tim Parish, video editing by Verb Studios, soundscapes by Lulu Madill and music by Shpongle, Tipper, Darpan, Lulacruza, Maneesh de Moor and curanderos Norma Panduro, Guillermo Arevalo, Percy Garcia Lozano, Ron Wheelock and Kevin Furnas, this documentary charts the Global Shamanic Resurgence born in the jungles of Peru and reaching out to embrace the world.

An interview with Rak Razam about his documentary film, Aya Awakenings ...



Here is an interesting article by Rak Razam about one of his ayahuasca vision quests in the Amazon ...


The last time I came to South America I was seeking the mystery of ayahuasca, but this time the “vine of spirits” was no mystery. After drinking with over two dozen curanderos throughout Peru, as recounted in my memoir Aya: A Shamanic Odyssey, and living through a grand quest to unite the separate streams of Amazonian and Andean shamanism, I had come to understand that ayahuasca was like a woman, la madre, the mother, and from the infinite abundance of her giving all things were made manifest.

Still, it had been three years since I’d first been to the ayahuasca capital of Iquitos, Peru, and the shamanism tourist circuit had boomed in that time. Prices were higher, competition was fierce, and the business of spirituality seemed to me to be spiralling out of control. So many tourists all signed in for package deals at the numerous ayahuasca lodges that I was left with a slight unease at the overt commercialization of this once-sacred jungle medicine.

Yet who was I to cast the first stone? Here I was in a wooden motorboat with my partner, Jewelli, travelling up the river Nanay alongside two dozen other ayahuasca tourists, all of us headed to the Temple of the Way of Light, one of the newest lodges, a short boat trip outside Iquitos. The Temple billed itself first and foremost as a healing retreat, not just another ayahuasca lodge, but I wondered just how different that would be to the other shaman centers I had visited in the past. How many of my fellow travelers were genuinely interested in healing themselves and the planet, versus chasing the visions and power the ayahuasca trance can bring?

Cielo, a good friend from Australia, sat at the prow of the boat dressed in white Shipibo pants with colored geometric patterns. Cielo’s in her early fifties and is down-to-earth and on the path of madre ayahuasca. She’s been managing the Temple for Matthew, the English owner, and training with the women curanderas that worked here.

In the often male-dominated world of curanderismo, it was refreshing to learn the center had six curanderas, maestras fresh from jungle towns around Pucallpa in the Shipibo heartland, women shamanas whose core focus was healing, not chasing the money that nowadays was part-and-parcel of the packaged shamanistic experience.

The river tightened as we passed a curve and the lush green vegetation alongside the shore reached out and vines clogged our path. I looked up from the boat to the sun shining overhead, father sun, and was reminded then of mother earth, what the Peruvians call Pachamama.

Matthew, the charismatic owner of the lodge had told me previously in his clipped British accent that: “the maestras are here to heal you, not just give visions or deal with the average ayahuasca tourist trail.” They heal over multiple sessions, pulling psychic gunk out of you and revealing the light patterns or energy grid underneath the flesh, weaving that energy into a tapestry of health. Or as Cielo tells me one day:

“The maestras are amazing in ceremony. . . . Once I saw them with streams of colors coming out of their mouths, intricate designs snaking across the floor and going into people before coming back out. . . . For a second I thought oh my God, they’re aliens! And then I thought I must be an alien because I had a complete memory of belonging to them. . . . And then I realized that they were channelling the plant spirits that they’ve dieted with like a hollow bone to cure people they were working on.”

The women are also weavers in the Shipibo culture who make the manta fabrics with ayahuasca patterns on them that are so popular with the tourists. Funnily enough these women healers do the same thing, but the tapestries they weave are of light.

As we picked through a jungle trail leading from the river to the lodge, I got to know some of my fellow travelers. We were all decked out in thick black gumboots that were invaluable on the muddy path into the jungle, fresh from the rains the night before.

There was Jewelli, my lover, a flower-essence worker in touch with the plant devas and wanting to go deeper. Behind her was Kevin, a computer whizz from Silicon Valley in his late-twenties with a shaved head and quiet demeanour, and problems with depression and anxiety; and down from him was Mark, a businessman on a spiritual path: he’d drunk ayahuasca previously and it had opened up a new world of possibilities and healing for him.

As we shuffled along on the path I met Erin, a straight talking woman from the States who wanted help with emotional integration and assimilation, and Hala, a striking woman of Egyptian and British descent who had been working with ayahuasca for a time now, and had opened up a Pandora’s box of karmic issues: horrendous memories of previous lives where she had raped and killed and plundered.

There was Nadya from New York, working on opening her heart, who was committed to love and leaving all else behind; Ava, a small European woman with emotional issues and abnormal cells in her uterus that she had come in search of curing; and Patrick, a quirky man with a beard and glasses from San Francisco. He was tall and lanky and was wearing a green felt frog hat of his own making. He told me he was looking for home, for a place to be.

So many of us from all over the world, brought here together to experience the healing powers of ayahuasca. There was Tracey, an experienced medicine drinker from Australia, now staying in Cuzco, her arm covered in a snaking vine tattoo. Her brother Mark, an all-Aussie bloke in his forties with a heart of gold was out here cleaning his act up and finding his path. Then there was Caleb, a tall and lanky man of Finnish heritage with a pencil-thin moustache, whose academic profession involved scientifically recording entities and spirits, and whom had inadvertently been possessed during his work.

Spring was a vivacious twenty-something with light black skin and a wide smile, and like all good women in South America she’d been hit on by the men, some of them shamans. The night before coming to the temple she had gone to visit a male shaman, and during the ceremony, whilst on ayahuasca, he had told her not to go to the Temple — if she did she would be bitten by a snake. She should stay and drink with him he told her, exercising his will over her whilst in the vulnerable ayahuasca state, overstepping the bounds of client and doctor.

After a half an hour walk we breach a clearing and the retreat center, dominated by the Temple maloca. Inside it’s at least thirty feet across with a central pole that branches out like a flower about eight feet up, the vast spidery webwork of poles supporting and bracing the roof. Fresh young aya vines sprout outside the temple maloca, twisting and turning towards the light.

That day we meet the maestras with the hearts of children and the smiles of grandmothers. There’s Celestina, the matriarch of the group and one of the youngest, with her proud Shipiba face and look of firm command, She’s dieted with wiracaspi, a master plant, for many, many years to learn her healing arts and to bring the energy of that plant to her patients. She’s dieted with over seven master plants in all, on average over six months with each, and her father who is also a shaman helps her with his energy.

Then there’s Amalia, a quiet Shipiba elder who also has a father who is a curandero and helped prepare her for the journey into the healing arts, and she has also dieted with the healing plants to gain the power to do her work.

Manuela is a beautiful chubby grandmother who smokes a pipe frequently, her face pulled into a frown by the cataracts on her eyes as she squints. Her father was also a healer and the main plant she works with is ayahuma, with which she has had a long relationship, learning its healing qualities.

Rosa is the smallest maestra, barely five foot tall and as cute and round as a button. She’s dieted with a power tree and with toé (datura), but unlike the other maestras she doesn’t come from a lineage of curanderos. When her husband died many years ago she started dieting with the power plants to learn why, and that led her on the path of the plants and medicine. She was soon to take a special liking to Julius, a gawky young God-nerd looking for the “special essence of things” and would eventually fall in love with him and take him under her wing like a mother would a son.

Dona Maria is one of the youngest maestras, and the newest, arriving from Pucallpa for her first ceremony with a group tonight. She’s been dieting with tobacco juice and other plants, and her speciality is sucking out darts or negative energy from patients that come in search of healing. Ross, one of the guests at the temple, has cancerous tumors, and along with the other maestras Maria has been sucking out the psychic poisons that engender the cancer.

Ross is a gentley-spoken Briton in his early twenties who was diagnosed two years ago with a rare form childhood cancer. This is the second time it’s flared up and after a first round of chemotherapy he was given a six-month prognosis to live. Undaunted, he decided to try a more holistic healing approach looking at his nutrition and after six months he realized there was more to healing than the physical, and he came to South America.

Here he used ayahuasca to delve into his subconscious “in a way [he] had never experienced before . . . and rebalance any energies not in balance with nature.” Working with the maestras has been a phenomenal experience, he says, because of the intimate and devoted healing they provide.

The maestras size up the group energetically and announce there is a lot of “mal,” or bad energy hanging around us in the astral from all the other shamans they’ve been drinking with, all those mixed energies need cleansing and are like a wet blanket on the astral, weighing us down. So we get settled in the lush surroundings of the retreat and in our tambo huts, and that night before dark we all meet again in the Temple maloca where the ceremony is conducted.

The maestras sit on an inner ring of the maloca like Russian dolls all in a row, dressed up in their ceremonial Shipiba skirts and tops with geometric ayahuasca energy patterns blazoned across them. They giggle like schoolgirls as they prepare their spaces, setting out their mapacho cigarettes and the plastic two-liter ayahuasca bottle. Next to them Horaldo, the faciliatator, sets out ten small drinking glasses to be filled, and Horacio, the male curandero, sits behind the maestras like the baritone in the band.

Horacio has dieted with many master plants and gained a lot of healing knowledge, always with the intent to help, not harm. His masculine presence balances out the female healers and makes the circuit of energy they create complete.

The number of maestras is kept proportional to the number of seekers they are treating in ceremony, so with six maestras the circle is limited to just over twenty patients, so each person can receive intense healing during the ceremony. They start off in the center where they serve up the medicine and where they drink themselves. In dead silence they wait until they feel the mareacion, the feeling of ayahuasca coursing through them, which might take anywhere from half an hour to forty-five minutes, and then they launch into song.

One maestra will start and then another will take up her song, or backbeat it, weaving together a sonic tapestry. After waves of songs the maestras come out of the center of the circle and work their way around the group, sitting in front of each patient one by one to read their energy bodies and effect a personal healing.

But now, sitting here on the wooden floorboards of the maloca, oil lamps lighting the ceremony space as the maestras prepare their medicine, it seems like a scene from long ago, a timeless and sacred moment of jungle life. All of the maestras light up mapacho cigarettes and some spit to clear their mouths as the lights go out, and the darkness settles into me, cigarette lights trailing through the dark. And as eager tourists reach out to hold the little glasses full of ayahusca, I realize I’ve come full circle from where my own journey started.

I’m home, finally, here in the Temple, in the warm embrace of the madre once more. After three long years this man has come home to the mother. All of us mothers, fathers, parents, children, open to receiving the universal love ayahuasca can help unlock, that lies within us all along…

The maestras sing a haunting melody of high-pitched sound like schoolgirls screeching in the dark, interweaving with each other in arcane Shipibo language that washes over us like waves from the deep sea of the unconscious. The first song, I am told, is for cleansing, and the individual songs the maestras sing throughout the night are then for personal healing.

The maestras weave a wall of sound and healing in the air before us. On the inside a streaming screensaver geometric vision unfolds before me, melting fractals of color like sheet lightning, triggered by their song. It fades as the song progresses and the deeper healing begins.

Dona Maria is a strong Shipiba curandera with a force of will that belittles her tiny frame. She’s fresh off the plane from Pucallpa and eager to impress with the power of her icaros, magic songs that create a carrier wave for her healing energy. Nestled in the dark of the maloca, tucked far away from civilization amongst the viridian embrace of the jungle, Maria opens herself to me and shows me her power.

She sings to me, pours her love and healing into me like a cracked vessel, heat-sealing me whole with her song. Its all about the mother, I realize, as wave after wave of holographic awareness seeps through me, connecting me to all those I love.

And through my personal love streams I’m able to tap into something deeper — that universal love force that binds and sustains, the Gaian frequency itself. It’s love that breaks through like a ray of light through the clouds, that great love that connects us all — the Great Mother who creates, nurtures and destroys.

So there I am sitting there in the dark, exposed to the naked raw emotion of true love as Maria sings to me, and when she is finished there’s a pregnant pause like she’s waiting for me to speak. For a second my tourist reflexes kick in and I think she wants something, dinero, money, that I’ve been drawn back to the level of the primal buy and sell. But she doesn’t ask for money, no, that’s not what the mother does. Like a babe, I’m learning that the mother gives unconditionally; it’s not about money it’s about giving and taking, and about being able to receive.

We are all of us children in the eyes of the mother, kids with our psychic bruises and cuts from the hurts of life, and the Shipiba healers are all mothers, universal mothers pouring the song of love back into us.

The flowers and the plants drink in the light, and we, the humans, are the planetary flowering, we are the bridge between heaven and earth. We are being called to drink in the light, to ground higher dimensional realities into this plane. “No separation from the truth of universal consciousness” says Antara, a kundalini dance instructor from my hometown of Byron Bay.



The maestras bathe us in unconditional love and invoke that within us. I spend all ceremony learning again and again about love, revisiting all those I share a heartspace with: my daughter, my step-son; my ex-partner; my wife; my mother, how threads of energy connect us all forever, an invisible glue that bind us, and the world together: love. How simple a word, how pure a heart.

The maestras heal through their song and touch, through the love which pours forth from madre ayahuasca, the love straight from the heart of the planet itself. It’s love, I know, that brings a man and a woman together; there is no life, no creation, no world without it. Without love there is not even darkness because there is no one there to see the darkness.

I step behind the veil of the world and seep deep into the heartspace of spirit. What can I feel there? Not words, but the touch, the sigh, the spark of life itself that flows through from this world to the next . . . as soft as a mother’s touch, mother’s milk, mother’s love.


Over the next ten days at the Temple, in ceremony and out, all of us undergo a collective journey into our own healing, via the arts of the maestras. We’re making a circuit of energy that is interdependent on each other, relying on each other to support and hold, and to forgive and release. It’s as if one individual blockage has the potential to impede the group’s journey and our collective configuration, for this is a collective healing we are all undergoing. And whether we realize it or not, all of us are sick, sick with our physical illnesses, but also with a malaise of the spirit that is common to all Westerners.

Steve is a heavyset guy in his early fifties who’s getting treated with plant medicines to stop a debilitating ringing in his ears he’s had for over twenty years. “One of the reasons I came here was because of the sacred feminine healers and energy,” he explains, waving his hand across the maloca with a sweep to take in the maestras as they perform the 3 pm afternoon massages on the gringos. “The masculine has caused a lot of the problems of the world and I felt it was time I reconnected with the mother.”

At noon every day, on the dot as the spirits prescribe, the maestras conduct flower baths down on the stairwell of the maloca leading to the lake below. It’s a daily baptism with flowers that connects us to the vegetal world and it makes me feel clean and pure, whole again. I watch as they pour the agua floridia scented water replete with petals and green leaves over Jewelli, and she breaks into a warm and satisfied smile.

Later, over a light lunch, I talk to Jim, a cheerful, balding ex-Microsoft technician in his fifties who wants to be a healer, or who has been told he has the potential to be a healer, at least, by his spirit guides, but he’s still waiting for evidence of it. Jim’s very soothing to be around, like his aura exhibits an air of present-ness, like a monk or holy man from long ago. On a San Pedro journey he was told that he was doing just what he needs to be doing right now, but still, the Western mind wants to control things and know more, trust less.

“It’s frustrating,” he tells me at breakfast, “because I want the big revelation, the dramatic message that says ‘do this!’, but here and now is all I’ve got.”

It’s all any of us has got, as over many sessions drinking ayahuasca at the Temple we are all confronted with our own ego and desires, our need for visions and the gentleness of the medicine we receive. Some people experience visions, others have profound healing and insights, and like waves gently lapping against the shore and eroding the rocks, ayahuasca and the maestras do their healing work.

I don’t know if I’m holding on to the ego and my conscious mind, but I still don’t feel sick. Here I am at a specialist deep-healing lodge, and I can’t figure out what’s wrong with me. But maybe that’s part of my Western malaise.


Jewelli’s spasming and convulsing on the mattress next to me, bucking like a cosmic dolphin swimming out beyond the moon and sun, lost in the stars. Waves of energy are coursing through her as she comes slowly back into her body, to download visions of crop circles being made by plant teachers behind the sun.

Two of the maestras come over and blow mapacho smoke on her and sing, singing her back into her body and into the here and now. The maestras are doctors, nurses and conduits for the universal love to flow through. Watching them at work in the dark, their cragged indigenous faces sporadically lit up by the red tips of their cigarettes I remember how patients often fall in love with their nurses because the healing isn’t just about the medicine; it’s about the healing love they transmit.

The maestras smooth out Jewelli’s vibrational wavefront and energy and in doing so their energies merge, and love passes between them, giving and unconditional. And as they pass on to me with focused vibrational healing, they sing deep into the core, piercing me with their icaros like a scalpel and peeling back my layers, shaking loose all my pains and hurts and the weight of years.

Horacio’s icaros ring out then, loud and strong, masculine and paternal, anchoring the father energy, the bass backbeat to the feminine healing. And it’s then and there I realize that yes, we’re being healed, but there are also larger forces at work.

We’re all being healed so that the collective can be healed, so that as we go back out into the world those who are healed can continue the healing work themselves. This is how the global healing must work — all of us nodes in the global village, drops that make up the ocean. This is the intent behind the global shamanic resurgence now sweeping the West, a primal need by the Gaian matrix to heal the human virus out of balance, starting with the first wave of ayahuasca seekers and moving through the hive mind to the rest.

And this is where I realize the sicknesses of the West aren’t always in the flesh; they’re in the spiritual disconnect from nature, from the others around us, and from those parts of ourselves that were once in unity consciousness. True healing means integrating a perspective long lost to the West to unify with the web of life around it, and to know our place in the natural order.

Mark, the quiet all-round Aussie bloke reveals in the sharing circle the next day that in his ayahuasca journey he melted into the song of the frogs, of nature itself and the delicate web of life it revealed to him. The spirit of ayahuasca was in the frogs and in the web, calling to him, calling him on the path of shamanism.

“Ayahuasca was calling you to be a shaman. Are you interested?” Horaldo asks Mark.

“Yes of course,” Mark answers, “we must give our love, our healing, not just to ourselves, but back to the planet, to mother earth, to heal her sickness.”

That’s what we’re being called to do.

The next night in ceremony I finally accept that I’m sick.

An ayahuasca vision comes on strong, flickering green light filling me and connecting me to the web of life all around. The ayahuasca’s coming through my body, bubbling up within me like water in a spring. It feels like walking on air.

I’m vibrating with molecular rainfall all around, rising up within me as my energetic body shines and tries to break free from the flesh. It makes me feel sick until I’m heavy with the weight of my body, the food in my stomach blocking me, holding me back from letting go into the ALL. I feel like I can’t do this, I can’t do anymore ayahuasca, that I long for the safe confines of the flesh, the primal currents of my body, not the higher vibrational realms of the upper frequencies.

I can finally feel that I’m sick, and being healed, and this knowledge fills me with joy. Outside the maloca the frogs croak like ducks, the sounds of the night envelop and fill me, and I’m at home in this jungle hospital.

Which is when the vision comes upon me: I start getting a really heavy mareacion… and a lot of ambient green UV light shines through… in my trance state I realize after a while that I’m seeing snakes, not traditional snakes but snaking entities like BUS cords that connected old computers, weaving around me. All of a sudden the heaviness starts to get heavier and heavier, till the weight fills me from the inside out and pushes me into the deep DMT zone that the chacruna in the brew potentiates…

All of a sudden I’m in this blood red, muted room with frenetic activity around me, all these silhouetted human spirits rushing around me, as if it was some type of astral triage or emergency room…

As I tune into this new reality the weight I’ve been feeling is revealed as three spirits sitting on me, holding me down. I feel an immense wave of ease and peace as I realize the spirits have been weighing me down to press me back together, to open me up and perform astral surgery on me.

As I look up I see my love, Jewelli, standing fully realized at the edge of the room, shining like a beacon and watching them operate. She is like a heart chakra activation that floods my being with unconditional love, my love and her love and space-time love, everything is love love love everywhere and when forever and ever without end…

And then the spirits move and hook me up to this star-shaped device raised up from the floor like an altar. It felt like being in a float tank, wearing a second skin and being inside a pod with another person, like an orgasm machine or a wombdeck. Being hooked up to this machine feels like making love, but not sexual love, full heart chakra-opening love, and that was what they were showing me, and healing within me, some deep-seated need to experience primal love again, as in the womb.

Minutes go by in this primal womb-love of deep energetic healing at my core, and when it fades I cry out “Mas…more…”

Suddenly a maestra is before me in the dark, calling me up for my personal healing and singing her Shipibo icaros to me and through me. But I’m holding on again, energetic-sick and it feels like I could vomit on the maestra. It takes all my energy to hold on and breathe through it as the maestra blows smoke on me and smooths my energy body down.

“Mista,” she says, holding me out a burning mapacho in the dark, the orange tip flaring to life before me, and as I take the smoke into me it rights all wrongs, and I fall back, cured.

Later I remember that I had thought I had no need of healing, that on most levels my health was fine. But I had been born two months premature, and I’ve always wondered if that experience had affected my life, that time alone and newborn in the humidicrib without my mothers touch, denied that critical first love contact.

And now I had been given this experience of pure unconditional love, switched on and humming and primal and harkening back to this newborn love I had missed, all hypercondensed into this experience on the wombmachine, getting those two months of love compressed down into a few minutes in eternity. It was perfect.

Over breakfast the next day Steve tells me, “I’m feeling really healthy, really clear.” The maestras have been putting plant medicines in his ears twice a day now, and sucking out illness on the astral level and cleansing his ears with their mapacho smoke. “When the plant medicine goes in my ears its dark green, but when it comes out its dark brown,” he says with a satisfied grin. He’s had this ringing in his ears for decades, since his time as a gunner’s mate in the navy, but now after a week of the maestras treatments he says the ringing has decreased for the first time ever.



And he’s not alone. Jewelli tells me that last night in ceremony she could see the maestras working on Caleb, blue balls of energy bubbling up from his chest. The maestra’s held this energy as they moved away from Caleb and out of the maloca, where they grounded it in the trees. As Caleb explained:

“I knew I had an entity in me and as the healing went on I started to go into a convulsive state. My breathing changed and I could feel the maestra’s hands moving within me. I’d known since my first possession that there was some ‘residue’ left in me, and in fact at times this entity would take control of my body. This all happened years ago, and after this original possession I developed an auto-immune illness, like my body was sensing there was something foreign within me but it couldn’t pinpoint where, so it was attacking its own tissues.

“But with the maestras working on me, even with the one session, something very powerful happened to me. They were working on the spiritual roots of the illness, sucking out the entity lodged in me.”

Cielo could see this, too. As she watched the maestras at work on Caleb she moved Rosa to one side to better see the healing they were doing on him. And what she saw was this: a blue light like smoke, psychic ectoplasm moving around his chest like glowing balls. Cielo reached in to touch it but Rosa held her back and said no, that’s not safe to touch. This is the mal energy, the bad energy that they suck out of him, and when it’s safely removed they give it to the plants to hold so it doesn’t infect anyone else.

“They give it to the plants in the spirit realm and the plants guard that energy,” Cielo explains. “Its like a big processing plant where the energy is taken on board and recycled — energy can’t be created or destroyed, just transmuted, and that’s what must be done with negative energy too.”

Late the next afternoon I find Nadya lazing in a hammock, and ask her what her experiences were the night before.

“In my first ceremony I had a massive healing,” she tells me. After about forty-five minutes my body felt heavy on one side and almost frozen . . . everything was moving around me and the darkness crawled up my feet, past my throat and to my head. I couldn’t move and everything was darkness all around. The only thing I had to hold onto was my heart, and the light or spark within that which I tried to expand so it could burn brighter.

“Love, love, love, I kept repeating to myself, trying to put energy into my heart. And suddenly the darkness broke off me like crusted mud, and there was this voice from Aya herself that told me that my heart was my gateway to remembering who I really was.

“‘You have to choose between life or death,’ Aya told me, ‘It’s up to you to choose.

“And it was then that I felt this incredible love, this unconditional love for my family that I’ve had trouble expressing, it was as if my heart had burst and I could see the energy coming from me to them and vice versa, how we all connected to one another. And their love formed a stream of energy that went to the pain in my side and healed it, and then I could see myself as a little girl and I embraced myself and all the me’s I’d judged harshly over the years, and with each embrace more energy returned to me and healed the pain I had held in my side.

“Aya showed me this world that we live in and how much self-hate there is, how many of us that are subjected to that. And the healing that Aya does for us and that the maestras here at the Temple do for us, is all about making us whole.

“There’s these parts of us that we have subconsciously rejected and that we have withheld life from, and that mirrors the part of the collective psyche that goes out and tries to take life away because it’s been denied life. That’s what it knows so that’s what it tries to keep doing. So the work that needs to happen and that ayahuasca is facilitating is making us whole once again.”


Nadya’s realization matched my own. Three years after my initial odyssey into Amazonian shamanism I could see where the ayahuasca resurgence was headed.

A global healing is occurring, spreading like a vast mycelium network under the surface of the ayahuasca tourist boom. And once healed, the seekers go back into the world to do the work and spread the aya energy, like burrs in a cosmic ecosystem.

My intuition now was that a tipping point has, or is about to be reached on the heart frequency of the planet, and that as the plants work through us the planetary healing also blooms…


To listen to maestra Rosa singing an icaro, click here.

Rak Razam is the author of Aya: A Shamanic Odyssey from Icaro Publishing. He stayed as a guest at the Temple of The Way of Light Ayahuasca Retreat outside Iquitos, Peru.

Source : Rak Razam

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