“When diet is wrong medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need.” – Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb
The use of plants has been the principal form of self exploration in the Peruvian Amazon for thousands of years. This practice and the philosophy and worldview that underpin it can easily be misunderstood by people accustomed to Western values and culture. It is in short a completely different way of seeing the world, nature, the body and spirit & soul. When this has been understood — and this can be a long process, the plants can open a completely new paradigm of understanding not only of healing but also the nature and purpose of our lives on this planet.
It is a journey I invite you to undertake and to set yourself of to. When harnessed and understood the potential that plants have (especially plants from the Amazon rainforest) for healing the mind body and spirit / soul are unlimited in scale and scope. That can not be understated! To really open this door and let this world in, requires both courage and a willingness to let go of many deeper aspects in the complex societies in which we live, we regard as normal and just part of (often a largely unfulfilled) life.
The greatest aspect of this is our relationship with nature itself. Would it shock you to hear that nature herself is only interested in your strength, happiness and fulfillment each and every day? That it is conscious and intelligent and perhaps knows more about you than you do yourself, and perhaps always will? These statements for most of us sound absurd and illogical and go against all we have been taught about how the world works. However they are completely true.
The plants can help in answering the most important human questions — ‘who am I?’, ‘why am I here?’ and ‘in what manner should I live?’ . The understandings received often concur with many ancient spiritual traditions — letting go of attachments and fears are the most common themes that are encountered and addressed. From those core understandings, we can often become aware of our addictions and unhealthy emotional patterns so we have the ability to choose differently in all aspects of life and relationships.
Traditional shamans are working with many plants, each one with particular properties — there are a variety of general groups. The “amorosas” are gentle, and can open up the heart and lessen the dominance of the mind. The “master” plants are deeper, more direct and require discipline and a willingness to accept uncomfortable truths. The important thing to state is that there is “no one size fits all” — each person is at a different stage in life and will learn more from some plants than others.
Ayahuasca: The magical brew of the Amazon
Ayahuasca is one of the most potent shamanic therapy tools which is known to humankind. Ayahuasca is the name of a brew which is made out of a combination of amazonian plants. This brew can induce physical and especially astounding psychic effects on the consumer. The medicine is basically at the very core of amazonian shamanism and one of the most important and meaningful cultural entheogen.
Ayahuasca is the foundation of a lot of ethnicities’s culture and therefore stands for culture creation as well as preservation. It’s a medicine which is used in ceremonial settings; it’s a tool for insights which shows the position of the consumer within the universe and reveals the true truth. It’s a generator of creative processes, a source of artistic inspiration. Ayahuasca — used the right way — gives healing and health, imparts personal significant visions and stimulates the creative work.
If you ask a shaman from the Amazon what the meaning of live, what the purpose of being, the reason of existence, the sense of death is than you’ll get the simple answer: “Drink Ayahuasca! Then you’ll understand.”
Teddy is preparing vines for the brewing process at Amaru Spirit
Ayahuasca is the essence of the amazonian forest. Only the one who tastes is able to understand the water world. Only to the Ayahuasca drinker the doors of the treasury house of the jungle will open. Only to him the secrets of the forest will be revealed.
Effects
The medicine basically acts on the body and mind. The body gets cleaned through the emetic effect (thus through purging) and the mind transforms the physical happenings into visionary sensations. When body and mind are fully cleared it can come to fantastic adventures in the “otherworld”. Often the visionary effects are crowned by the experience of ecstasy. It’s not a stepping out of the body, but rather the direct connection with the universe and the cosmos: One is like in the Unio mystica of the middle age mystics with the outer world and at the same time the very own inside entirely one. “Ecstasy is the total experience!”
When people take Ayahuasca it’s all about healing. When people are taking other substances it’s often pursued with other intentions. In so called shroom circles there are often shared visions and communication; the strongest community feeling you’ll probably get to experience with LSD. That’s why LSD is one of the “party substances” of choice in specific gatherings. In Ayahuasca rituals each participant has it’s very own experience, but is still part of an interdependent organism.
We people tend to search for a meaning in our existence. We don’t accept that we don’t find any meaning. We don’t believe in our perception anymore and we create a construct of potential meanings of being, of life, of the universe. Without success! We ask questions which no one has an answer to: So are we only an experiment of the universe, a try of being, learning something about ourselves?
The perception fulfills us with meaning. We’re not able to do more. Or are we? If we realize that we are an organ of perception of the universe itself, we can interpret our awareness as the only evidence of our existence. Our experience awakens in us the wish of insight. We all want to find reasons, to explore and we travel through all kinds of worlds and look for answers. However, the answer to all of it as only we by ourselves. If we drink Ayahuasca, we come one step closer to our very true essence.