Having heard a lot about peoples powerful experiences of Ayahuasca and the strength of belief that many people have in its ability to heal and reveal, I'd been looking forward to finding out about it myself for a long time.
Finding myself in the Selva (the jungle), the natural and spiritual home of the Ayahuasca vine, it seemed like an obvious place to try it. My chosen Ayahuasca ceremony was at the Wizards Mountain jungle retreat, 10 minutes upriver from Rurrenabaque and on the edge of Maddidi national park. It's a beautiful place in the jungle with a small river flowing through the site, and traditional wooden huts built on stilts.
 |
| Phillip |
My shaman, Phillip, was a young Chilean guy (young being the same age as me). We left Rurrenabaque around 3 and after a little rest he took us on a walk into the jungle (to help us reconnect with nature I assume) which surprisingly developed into myself and Phillip going for a fun exploration and climbing up a small river until we reached a rocky impasse.
Nap time when we got back, then awoken at 8 for the ceremony. Getting up in the dark, as my senses re-gathered themselves added to my in trepidation and nervous excitement.
It was quite a large group with 11 of us in total, of all ages, with a mix of first timers and experienced hands, including another Shaman here for an 8 day retreat.
We said our thanks to Mother Ayahuasca and in turn each got invited to drink a glass of the medicine for the soul.
Sat in the dark, listening to the sounds of the jungle, overlaid by the chants and songs of the shaman the effects slowly started to take hold...
An initial rush then I settled into a deeply pleasant and relaxed state of being and with a big smile spread across my face let the sounds of the ceremony flow around me. No visions, deep thoughts or revelations, but a great sense of well being and happiness that persists now as I write this 2 days after.
The ceremony wrapped up around 2 am and while everyone else gradually drifted off, I was enlivened by finally being outside (the ceremony was beautiful but I was always itching to go outside and explore) and once alone had a lovely time prancing around the jungle when everyone else was long into bed.
Under the soft glow of the moonlight in the clouds I sat, danced, listened and pranced.
A storm rolled in, sending flashes of lightning across the sky.
The rain came down, and my spirit drifted back to the ground...
And I went to bed.
(That's about as close as i can get to catching my sentiment at the time)
It continued to rain heavily all day and didn't stop until the next evening. I'd decided to stay for another few nights and do another ceremony and enjoyed a very relaxing day reading my book and reflecting on the night before.
In the morning we all shared a good breakfast of fruit and cake then went back to the temple to share our experience of the Ayahuasca.
It's fascinating how differently Ayahuasca effects people so it was interesting to hear how everyone had got on. It was a shame my spanish isn't good enough to understand most of what was said but there were extremes of emotion felt, with tears from both ends of the spectrum.
For myself, my enjoyable and tranquil journey is a sign of inner peace (so I'm told).
The journey didn't end there however as all the rain had swollen the small river you have to cross to reach the site into a raging torrent (slight exaggeration). Everyone else was leaving so had a bit of fun helping folk wade through the rapids to get out of there.
 |
| the rain comes down |
 |
| The ceremonial hut |
I stayed another 2, lovely nights, at the lodge, exploring the area, reading and talking (or more listening) to Victor the groundsman. An interesting and friendly guy. We (he) talked a lot on the first night. I got the gist of what he was saying...
Everything's possible... he or may not have cancer.
 |
| A capybara comes down for a drink |
 |
| Jaguar prints? |
I did a second ceremony on my third night, but this turned out to be a bit of a flop. Barely felt anything until near the end of the ceremony, then, as the ceremony ended, the combination of light and smell of smoke made me throw up and the effects I was feeling soon dissipated.
No comments:
Post a Comment