Friday, May 29, 2009

Ayahuasca Healing Journey - Part II
How to Fix You if You're Broken


“Remarkable physical healings and resolutions of psychological difficulties can occur with this medicine.”
– Dr. Ralph Metzner, Sacred Vine of Spirits (1)

If you’re Indiana Jones-ing for adventure…

Ayahuasca will provide it for you in spades.

But don’t confuse it with an E-ticket ride at Disney.

As one expert, Dr. Jeremy Narby puts it, “ayahuasca is the deep water.”(2)

There’s no hiding from the ayahuasca.

You will be given the gift of a meeting with your own unconscious mind. Unfortunately, it can be quite dark in there.

You Must Be Prepared

If you are considering your own ayahuasca cleansing, you must have the courage to be willing to open yourself up to having extremely dark encounters as a way to break through your deepest fears, your blocked emotions, and your suppressed memories to emerge cleansed from the chains that hold you back.

This bondage can only be alleviated during an ayahuasca ceremony by facing your demons head-on.


Ayahuasca Dream by Robert Venosa

The more serious your issues are, the more intense your experience is likely to be. And the greater your reward.

Each person’s experience is unique. And you’ll never have two ayahuasca sessions which are identical:

You may experience “soul retrieval,” recovering a splintered “soul part” which had fled to survive a traumatic incident in your past. Shamans believe that unless you undergo “soul retrieval,” these parts of you will be lost forever.

You could cross into other dimensions to meet your other incarnations – your other lives.

You may even be granted an audience with the Almighty himself. Shamans claim to see Him all the time.

Reported experiences during ayahuasca cleansing ceremonies include:

Dr. Jeremy Narby:
“…found myself surrounded by enormous fluorescent serpents that were fifteen yards long…and hair-raisingly real. They started communicating to me in a kind of thought language, telling me things about myself that were painfully true, including that I was just a tiny human being who didn’t understand very much.

Then I flew out of my body, miles above the planet, until the shaman shifted his song and I landed back in my body.”(2)

Kara Salak:
“…I reached the bottom of the tunnel and saw three thrones in a black chamber. Three shadowy figures sat in the chairs; in the middle was what I took to be the devil himself.

“The darkness will never end,” he said. “It will never end. You can never escape this place.”

“I can,” I replied. All at once, I willed myself to rise. I sailed up through the tunnel of fire, higher and higher until I broke through to a white light. All darkness immediately vanished. My body felt light, at peace. I floated among a beautiful spread of colors and patterns. Slowly my ayahuasca vision faded.

“Welcome back,” the shaman said.

The next morning, I discovered the impossible: The severe depression that had ruled my life since childhood had miraculously vanished.”(3)

Clinical Confirmation from the West

UCLA’s Dr. Charles Grob oversees the Hoasca Project.

Many of the subjects he’s studied have experienced “remarkable transformations” including achieving lasting sobriety from chronic alcoholism and drug abuse, along with significant reductions of associated psychopathologies.

Dr. Charles Grob:
“One particularly surprising finding was the up-regulated platelet serotonin receptor systems in subjects, which might be the neurobiological basis of ayahuasca’s observed antidepressant and mood regulation effects.”(2)

There is a very profound chemical combination at work in the ayahuasca brew which is highly therapeutic and according to Dr. Grob “a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs],” which he terms “a rather crude way” of doing it.(3)

If you’re willing to journey half way around the world, trudge deep into the rainforest and surrender yourself to a shaman’s care, in order to face your darkest terrors, you just may be rewarded exponentially.


South America (click image to enlarge)

These complex plants offer you an opportunity to communicate with the vast intelligence of the natural world.

In the Amazon, Earth’s own garden, as the sultry jungle pulses with a primal energy, you’ll become indoctrinated into the magical, mystical world of plant spirit shamanism.

If you’ll tune in to the sheer power of nature, ayahuasca is your invitation to emerge from the rainforest, stumbling out of the fog and into a new consciousness.


Amazon River at sunset - photo: Mike Lehtimaki

Ayahuasca opens the door to a life-changing experience, a spiritual epiphany of consciousness. And a return to balance and equilibrium.

During the ceremony, you’ll be seeing through your “third eye,” freeing you from three-dimensional reality and allowing you to connect with multiple dimensions.

It’s available now.

And it has been for thousands of years.


“Plant speech sounds like the hum of high-voltage wires, with a rhythmic, songlike quality to it. This is interesting, since shamans have spoken for thousands of years about the “song of the universe” – the energy vibration beneath all things.”
- Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing, Plant Spirit Shamanism(4)


If you’d like to explore ayahuasca further, here are a few resources you can find at your local library, bookstore or you can purchase them at Amazon.

In the meantime, you may be interested in Kira Salak’s story, Peru: Hell and Back. In National Geographic Adventure, Ms. Salak chronicles her own exorcism during an ayahuasca cleansing. It was the key to her escape from a crushing lifelong depression.

And if you choose to pursue ayahuasca cleansing on your quest for health and wellness, I wish you every success on your personal journey.


1 Sacred Vine of Spirits, Dr. Ralph Metzner ed., 2005, Park St. Press
2 Visionary Plant Consciousness – The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World, J.P. Harpignies ed., 2007, Park Street Press
3 National Geographic Adventure, Kira Salak
4 Plant Spirit Shamanism, Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing, 2006, Destiny Books

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