Several years ago, while on a business trip in the Peruvian
jungle, I was surprised to see someone I knew from Washington, DC. We were at
the tiny airport of a town called Tarapoto and he was the only white, tall man
in the building. I approached him and asked him what he was doing that remote
place. He said he was there to meet a shaman who would make him drink a plant
brew for a deep cleanse. The thought of being sick and vomiting with a medicine
man in a far-off jungle sounded terrifying to me. I put that strange idea out of my mind.
Still, as many other crazy things that I casually heard about
and ended up doing (such as living abroad, learning Thai massage, backpacking,
etc.), the message inadvertently slipped into my brain for later use. And the
day came when I would cleanse myself with the sacred plant through a shamanic
ceremony.
While in Thailand I had heard the personal experience of a
fellow Argentinean with Ayahuasca, the sacred plant. She told me that taking
Ayahuasca had led her to deep understanding about her life. Instead of
traveling to the Peruvian jungle, she had had the experience with a “Brazilian”
shaman in Buenos Aires. Upon listening to her enthusiastic narrative about it,
I became determined to try Ayahuasca in my next trip to Argentina.
So a few nights ago I stepped into a room full of people lined
up along the walls, resting on yoga mats, camping mattresses, sleeping bags and
blankets, expecting to achieve self-knowledge and heal themselves. Shaking with
fright, I laid on my massage mattress, head against a big-windowed wall. Soon
thereafter, the ceremony began. The shaman, who did not look like a medicine
man, but more like a loving hippie white guy with big tattoos, briefly
explained how the night would go. It was about ten in the evening and the ceremony
would end in the morning. Each of us would drink two small glasses of the brew.
For the first take, we walked in turns towards the shaman under the light of one
candle. While I drank mine my heart was beating frantically but I returned to
my mattress, laid down on my back with my hands on my stomach and started to
relax, listening to the lovely Indian music. Sometime later, the shaman brought
us a second glass –we were to dizzy to walk towards him. When he finished the
round, the musicians started playing in the dark. They played the most upbeat
and delightful music, music of the jungle, mystic music from South American
instruments.
I was expecting to start hallucinating immediately after the
second glass. Instead, my mind started resisting. I thought that the brew had
had no effect on me. I imagined myself shamefully complaining in the morning,
being the only one person for whom Ayahuasca had done nothing. I heard others
cry, toss and turn, and throw up. And I was just lying there, unaffected,
waiting for a third glass that never came. The struggle went on for a long time
until somehow, I surrendered to the music, to the shaman, to a reality my mind did
not understand. That is how, for a few hours before dawn, I had the most
amazing realizations of my life. I comprehended the Universe, God, and human
life in a most profound way. The waves of emotion I felt were so powerful that I
cried with all my body. In between those waves, there was only beauty and
pleasure.
Around three AM the musicians stopped their gorgeous melodies
and they started playing recorded music. Until the morning came, I reviewed the
revelations of the night and could not stop smiling, knowing that life is all love
and is never-ending.
I was able to stand and leave the place at around nine. I
felt as if I was extremely drunk without being sick. My body felt strange, as if
I had not been in it during the previous hours. I think I had not.
The revelations were very clear; however I do not want to go
into details about them because each person gets what he needs. What I can say
is that my night with Ayahuasca was the most pleasurable and healing experience
and I am looking forward to repeating it with the new inquiries that opened up.
*There is lots of information about Ayahuasca online. I
encourage you to learn more about it and, definitely, try it. Ayahuasca is a
gift from Mother Earth and our ancestors to help us heal and be happy.
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