Mother Ayahuasca

From: blue lotus nυμφαία (115013010)

To: (218267874)

Date: 12/04/2010 16:51:03

Subject: Mother Ayahuasca





1/ Mother Ayahuasca versus Bruce Parry
2/ My first 18 Ayahuasca ceremonies
3/ 21 Experiences with Mother Ayahuasca




Painting: Ayahuasca Serpent Vision, by Ralph Metzner


Mother Ayahuasca versus Bruce Parry

Written by Bruce Parry
Iquitos, Peru

My ayahuasca experience last night was one of the more humbling nights of my life. Remarkably, it seems, my ego decided to take on Mother Ayahuasca in some sort of a battle. Horrified, I watched the whole thing from the sidelines, feeling very annoyed with my ego for putting up such a relentless attack.

Looking back, I suppose it all started long before the ceremony began. I was feeling quite cocky about my preparation for the whole experience. I’d done a lot of research and was preparing to get my inner mindset and the physical setting just right.

The other members of the retreat all seemed very nice and were supportive of us filming this private ceremony. We had all bathed and been ritually doused in fine scented plant extracts and essences earlier in the evening and I had had a chance to interact with the group who had come from all over the world.

Some of the incumbents had been at the retreat for some time and everyone was very complimentary about Percy (the healer) and his brews of the sacred vine. If I was going to undergo such a powerful experience anywhere, this seemed like a good location.

When it came to the ceremony itself, we all had mattresses and pillows and buckets fanned out in a circle in the rotunda hut. Toilets were located to afford easy access in the dark – an essential requirement as it turned out. The ayahuasca brew itself was as thick as molten glass and as acrid as battery acid but everyone took it with due reverence and with only a hint of a grimace until the mouth had been swilled with water.

Much ceremony was put into the occasion and Percy blew smoke everywhere and so used the powerful tobacco plant in addition to the brew. Once we’d all partaken of the brew, the crew left and we all lay down to receive our respective experiences.

I have taken the same active hallucinogenic compound before with the Sanema people of the Orinoco basin, during the filming of an episode of Tribe. In that instance it had been administered through the nose (I’d say snorted but often the snuff was blown up my nose through a hollow tube by one of my tribal chums). This time it was to be taken orally, but only thanks to some quite extraordinary tribal knowledge of human physiology.

The science works like this: Dimethyltriptam..ine (DMT) is an extremely powerful visionary hallucinogen and is found in some plants and trees but it’s completely metabolised if eaten, which just renders it neutral as a psychotropic agent. However, by snorting a dried tree sap residue, the DMT can enter the bloodstream by bypassing the liver’s metabolising enzymes. But whoever thought to try snorting tree sap?

Likewise, some Amazonian tribal groups have somehow discovered that mixing two otherwise foul-tasting and nutritionally deficient plants (a vine and a leaf) will also allow the compound to enter the blood stream. Amazingly, the vine inhibits the metabolizing enzymes allowing the DMT in the leaf to pass through untouched.

Both methods are convoluted to say the least and it remains a mystery how tribes have discovered such involved methods of administration... Some contemporary shamans say that the plants speak to them and give them the knowledge, but most just say that their ancestors taught them.

DMT is almost identical in chemical shape to serotonin and interacts with the same receptors in the brain. Beyond that no one can rightly say with any certainty what really happens. If you follow a rational view you might say that you undertake a journey of inner exploration of the subconscious. Alternatively, you might say that you actually go to a different plane of reality. There is no doubt that for many, taking ayahuasca is a religious experience.

Whatever your school of thought, it is certainly one of the most profound experiences imaginable (or more correctly unimaginable as it is almost defined by its inexplicability..)!

For me, it was at once disappointing, telling and humbling. Sadly it was my self-..confidence that tripped me up. I was feeling confident and so prepared, that as the visual fireworks began in my head, I shuffled to get more comfortable and arrogantly provoked the plant by musing to myself, ‘come on then, let’s see what you’ve got to offer’.

How foolish of me. Almost instantly it all went wrong and I felt a wretched sickness welling up inside. Deep down I knew that what I needed was to relax, remain humble and allow the experience to wash over me, but some inner ego kept piping up and questioning the whole experience.

I’m quite proud of my inquisitiveness.. usually and I like questioning everything and not blindly believing ‘just because’. But what was interesting this time was that I was on the outskirts of my self looking in. My ego was rattling on in its usual way but this time it wasn’t making any sense.

It was almost like background ‘white-noise’, just a clutter of questions for the sake of it. At first I was fascinated by this alternative view of my ego’s insatiable ability to question and disbelieve, but after an hour or so it was becoming a horrible rant. Often there was little reason in the questions. They were questions for the sake of it. For a short while, my rationality had become irrational and I could not shut myself up.

Whenever I was able to let go for a second, my nausea subsided and I was presented with a myriad of spiralling colours and possible wormholes and intriguing places to explore, but as soon as my mind tried to reason with them or think about what they were, they receded to a black and white untuned-..TV-signal and I would feel wretched with sickness again, often reaching for the bucket.

Such expulsions were often quite violent (and noisy) and thankfully followed by a brief respite, but watching from the sidelines as my ego battled with the plant was tough. I even drank more ayahuasca (no small undertaking in the state of my discomfort) in order to give the plant a better advantage to shut me up, but it was to no avail.

Luckily I did have some moments where my voice subsided for a moment and I could explore. These were revealing as well as being a blessed relief. At one time, I met the snake that I’d encountered earlier in the day. She asked me why my initial reaction had been to kill her: “What about me?” she asked. “If you leave me alone and don’t corner me or pester my kids, I’ll leave you alone too. We can get along fine if we respect each other.”

Such excursions were rare and at one stage I felt disappointed with the whole experience, thinking that it wasn’t working for me. I had been hoping to fly though the universe, meet dead people and explore my innermost consciousness.

But then it dawned on me that in actual fact my ayahuasca experience had worked perfectly well. Ayahuasca is not a recreational pastime but a medicine and a spiritual lesson, just as Percy had told me. And my lesson was clear. It was: Bruce - stop thinking you know better than everyone. Yes, you’ve had some great life experiences and you have a respectable insight to some subjects, but you’ve got to deflate that ego of yours, stop thinking of the clever riposte before the other person has even finished talking. Be in the moment and listen, yes listen to others. It’s not about being better than other people and establishing your place in some invisible hierarchy, it’s about sharing this worldly space with others. Occasional experiences are beyond rational thought. They cannot be explained. We live in difficult times and we are in danger of losing our connection to the natural world. Some answers will only come from listening and experiencing the world in its natural state.

It was very humbling and a perfectly timed lesson for my journey.


source: http:../../..www...bbc...co...uk/..blogs/..amazon/..2008/..01/..mother_..ayahuasca_..versus_..bruce.html



My first 18 Ayahuasca ceremonies

Intro | Physical arrangements | Subjective experience | My experiences in detail | The Ayahuasqueros

Intro

I spent three months in Peru from mid-January to mid-April 2005 taking part in various Ayahuasca ceremonies. My initial intention was to attend one jungle seminar with Ayahuasca-Wasi to see how I liked the experience and to see whether I felt it was helpful and beneficial to me. In the end I attended three jungle seminars with Ayahuasca-..Wasi, a number of individual ceremonies with the same group in Pisac (near Cusco in the Peruvian highlands) and also two other Ayahuasca ceremonies with other healers -- a total of 18 ceremonies! So, as you may guess, I did find these ceremonies to be very beneficial to me, to say the least ...

For those who know little about Ayahuasca and want a brief introduction, it is a medicine plant, a plant whose name may be translated from Quechua as "Vine of the Soul". It is taken as a brown liquid 'brew', which has a fairly unpleasant bitter taste. The brew is made up of two plant constituents, one of which is the vine. The other constituent plant is required to stop the body disabling the active ingredients in the vine, as I understand it. Some curanderos add other additional medicine plants to the mix, but not the people I worked with.

[...]

So, these are all the ceremonies that I attended in Peru in early 2005:

* 22-Jan-2005, Ayahuasca #1, Puerto Maldonado, with Diego Palma
[Very strong, very far away from human concerns, only brief moments of consciousness, Ganesh's whole court visited me.]
* 24-Jan-2005, Ayahuasca #2, Puerto Maldonado, with Diego Palma
[..Lizards-..creatures, strong intent, Ayahuasca beings helping me lift stuff out, my distrust]
* 26-Jan-2005, Ayahuasca #3, Puerto Maldonado, with Diego Palma
[Cathartic experience, breathing, receiving lots of help]
* 2-Feb-2005, Ayahuasca #4, Pisac (Cusco), with Diego Palma
['Gentle' catharsis, giving something back, warrior energy]
* 6-Feb-2005, Wachuma #1, Pisac (Cusco)
[Too much, pushing very hard, forcing issues to surface]
* 10-Feb-2005, Ayahuasca #5, Pisac (Cusco), Diego Palma:
[Relatively unbalanced, consciously looking for help, clearing loads, connecting with the Apus]
* 15-Feb-2005, visit to Apu Ventana-Chayau:
[Mountain spirits, challenging the altitude]
* 19-Feb-2005, Ayahuasca #6, Puerto Maldonado, Diego Palma:
[Gentle ceremony, Sun Lion turns up and shines, feeling of Pisac in jungle]
* 21-Feb-2005, Ayahuasca #7, Puerto Maldonado, Diego Palma:
[..Self-..importance, sitting by Antonio, successfully riding the wave!]
* 23-Feb-2005, Ayahuasca #8, Puerto Maldonado, Antonio Fernandini:
[Torture for me, a lot of anger, putting things straight]
* 25-Feb-2005, Ayahuasca #9, Puerto Maldonado, Felipe:
[Very different Ayahuasca experience, very long but very complete]
* 1-Mar-2005, Ayahuasca #10, Pisac (Cusco), Diego Palma:
[Gentle session, great warrior visitor]
* 3-Mar-2005, visit to Apu Pachatusan:
[Spiritual adventure]
* 9-Mar-2005, Ayahuasca #11, Pisac (Cusco), Diego Palma:
[Forceful determination, giving energetic support, head-buzzing device]
* 10-Mar-2005, walk up towards Apu Linle:
[Picked up depressive energy]
* 14-Mar-2005, visit to Apu Linle:
[Interacting with mountain, absorbing Chi during descent]
* 15-Mar-2005, Ayahuasca #12, Pisac (Cusco), Diego Palma:
[Supporting someone else's healing, frustration of not taking enough, determination to push further]
* 18-Mar-2005, visit to Apu Chajtacaca:
[Breaking stones, strange energies]
* 19-Mar-2005, Wachuma #2, Pisac (Cusco):
[Dose just right, clearing material]
* 21-Mar-2005, Ayahuasca #13, Puerto Maldonado, Diego Palma:
[Different brew, different experience, no more "Ayahuasca World", having to adapt]
* 23-Mar-2005, Ayahuasca #14, Puerto Maldonado, Diego Palma:
[Deep deep purge, very successful ceremony]
* 25-Mar-2005, Ayahuasca #15, Puerto Maldonado, Diego Palma:
[Deep strong purging almost all night, processes complete]
* 28-Mar-2005, visit to Kinsa Ccocha:
[Pushing altitude further, trust, eagles]
* 1-Apr-2005, Ayahuasca #16, Urubamba, Eleana Molina:
[Very different experience, mother earth, abundance, issues related to female help]
* 5-Apr-2005, Wachuma #3, Arin yoga retreat, Sacred Valley:
[Light effect, worked on energy-body perception, climbing mountains]
* 7-Apr-2005, Ayahuasca #17, Pisac (Cusco), Diego Palma:
[Some gentle work]
* 12-Apr-2005, Ayahuasca #18, Pisac (Cusco), Diego Palma:
[..Experimentally trying a different 'brew', much too weak]

The rest of the article is here








More on Mother Ayahuasca
notes on Drinking Ayahuasca in Brazil
and (on another page) Peru in 2008.

Written by Tom Riddle


Brief intro:

In early 2007 I drank ayahuasca, Amazonian's "Vine of the Gods," about twenty-one times in Brazil and Peru, a story told in Meeting Mother Ayahuasca

It was only after I left Brazil that the profundity of those experiences became apparent. I felt that I had no choice but to return in 2008. These are my 2008 notes.

March 3: Opening the heart.
March 9: Meditation and a story from Tibet
March 12: Death on the beach
March 13: Death and re-birth
March 16 Oh, mama, can this really be the end . . . and forgiveness.
March 21, Magic on a rainy day and metta meditation
March 25, Bliss in the jungle, more on metta meditation
March 28, Death and rebirth on the high seas

Full article is here


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