Greetings family. Thank you for reading my thoughts. Advanced apologies for the length. Hopefully it will be worth your time to have read my words.
At 13, the onset of puberty, I knew something was wrong. This world is very rough, and is designed to break-down an individual. It's difficult to live this way.
At 14, or so, I started drinking alcohol. I kept drinking alcohol, instead of what I needed. I drank for a number of years, knowing it was not helping, but it was connection with the spiritual. The problems is that there are a variety of spirits. Not all of them are life-affirming, some of the spirits want to take a human down the drain.
At 17 I had my first experience with LSD.It was amazing. It was very good, and I knew that this experience was the key to happiness here on this planet. It was not what I would call particularly spiritual, yet I knew that the nature of the substance was one that had that potential.
So it was with this mindset that I endured puberty, and growing-up in Suburbia, USA.
Much of my life growing up was in search for the "transcendent other", as Terence McKenna calls it. I have always had a sense of not fitting in, that all this crap of this planet is brand new for me, and much of it doesn't make sense. One of the worst experiences to to have a human, used-to all this stuff here on Earth, try to explain the human silliness of their actions and what they do. The explanations make things make less sense.
Since high school, I've operated with the sense that psychedelics, and entheogenic substances could bring a component of enlightenment. Yet, nothing is automatic.
Enlightenment is not cheap, nor easy--but may be had freely for one's dedication to the pursuit.
Fast forward to 2004
I've been listening "religiously" to T. McKenna since 2004. When I heard his monologue on the first time he tried DMT, experiencing the self transforming machine elves; I knew it was what I was looking for. The way he describes logically, and reasonably looking at DMT and the accompanying phenomena, really hit a chord with me.
I've always had a strong belief in the supernatural, and the afterlife, of God and Creator in general. Finding the divine is not the issue to me, but living as a human is.
I started to uncover more facts and information regarding ayahuasca, listening more to McKennas, and others who have the angle of entheogenic substances as a means of personal growth and therapy.
Around this time I found an article on the therapeutic effect of Ibogaine, how it released the majority of users from their alcohol and other addictions. This validated what I had felt about these entheogens for a very long time.
After listening to McKenna's tales of visiting the amazon, I made the decision that I was going to go out into the jungle to try ibogaine, or ayahuasca; both of which I knew little about at the time.
Fast forward to 2014
By this time I'd listened to hours and hours of lectures and monologues of McKennas, and other psychonauts. Started to narrow-down the pursuit for jungle spice, arriving at the conclusion that I was going to have to take an actual journey to the country of Brazil, or Bolivia, or somewhere along the Amazon, just as McKenna's.
In the pursuit of Hoasca, Terence McKenna became my guide and mentor--although I've never actually met him.
During one of the lectures, listening on Youtube at this point, he started to talk about the legal battle of the UDV. The nucleo in Santa Fe, in getting the plants into the US to allow for brewing of their sacrament, Hoasca, incurred legal troubles with the DEA. Reception of the plants necessary to make the Hoasca, were controlled and subject to legal sanctions, with a court battle ensuing.
In 1999 (http://www.ayahuasca.com/news/ayahuasca-in-the-supreme-court/), the DEA took UDV to court. Little know fact of this period of 7 years while the court battle raged, is the fact that the members of the UDV in this country had to drink water as a substitute for the vegetal/Hoasca.
On the auspicious day of 21 Feb 2006, the right to drink the vegetal was conferred to UDV members in the US. I heard of the UDV through the following of their legal battles.
In 2014, I made contact with the Santa Fe nuclea, asking them if it would be possible to have a session with them. Some time later, they replied back that there was a nucleo closer in Florida, and forwarded my letter there. I spoke to the secretary in the FL nucleo, and expressed an interest in taking a session with them. The eventual reply was that this was fine, if I could get to Florida.
In the process of making arrangements to visit FL for a one-time session, they replied to me that there was a nucleo in the Northeast, and asked if it was closer to where I lived. The Northeast temple was located, in fact, 38 miles from where I was living at that time. I replied, most definitely the location is much closer to me, and that I would be interested in a session with the UDV.
So it was over a year since my first inquiry, when I finally made meaningful contact with the Church. In Jan 2016, I had a Skype call with the Maestre Pierre, Secretary of Northeast nucleo, (not officially a nucleo at that time), who interviewed me for suitablity for admissions to the UDV.
Traditionally, this is not how it works with the vegetal, and with the UDV in general. Most people, let's just say 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the individuals coming into the UDV arrive there through personal, social contact with the individuals who regularly ingest the vegetal.
A "statistically insignificant" group of individuals go looking for the tea because we know what the tea can do. This miniscule group of which I am of go looking for the tea for the sake of the tea itself.
The "who are you with?" who introduced me to the Tea, is Hoasca Herself.
15 March 2016 was the day of the first Adventiseo session at the newly-formed Northeast nucleo (not yet an official nucleo). The building was originally a Presbyterian church in the countryside of CT. I'm from this area. The church, the building itself felt familiar. The people, Brazillians and those married to them, generally, with their language and concomitant culture, not so much.
At 8 pm, we gathered in the Salon. Shortly after this, the mysterious tea, which we call Hoasca was portioned-out to those present.
The rusty-brown, smokey scented, very bitter and sour tasting tea is served in 10 oz glasses, of the type we use at work for mixed drinks. I received around 4-5 ounces. A standard thing for a first timer.
There's alot to tell about the first time. It affects everyone in different ways. I knew instantly that this was for me, that this is what I needed in my life. I knew early-on that I have an affinity for the vegetal.
What was it like on that occasion? Well, I've had difficulty in explaining it to people. I did NOT see the "dribbling, self transforming machine elves" that I was hoping to see. What happened more than anything was that both hemispheres of my brain started communicating. A balancing occurred that's never happened before. Both halfs of the brain started to become active, but not in a bizarre, nor confusing way. It's difficult to explain.
It was as if there were two story-lines going on at the same time. One half of my thoughts and mental constructs was me walking around in the town I live, streets fairly quiet, while I was looking for a slice of pizza, same as any other given Saturday night. The other side of my thoughts was so far out there I can't even begin to comprehend what was happening, let alone to describe it in a way digestable by the average person.
An escala session goes from 8 pm to 12:15 am at the latest. It definitely takes all this time to process what happened immediately during a session. Yet, what happens during a session is only part of the story. During a session, mental blocks, and "things" get knocked loose. It is within the next few days, or weeks even, where one is then left in dealing with what's been knocked-loose during a session.
This is difficult for one to wrap their head around that even though there's no lasting effects, there is a very clear, very definite cleaning that takes place in a person's life. This, to me, is one of the more important things that the vegetal does in the daily life of individuals who regularly take the vegetal.
There is the relatively short "rise" where one experiences the brilliance of the Superiour Astral. Yet, the majority of the time, the vegetal does housekeeping for a person to keep them in all of the various distractions in our lives, to keep us as people in balance. Yes there are the wonderful "flights" where we leave this plane of reality, but the biggest goal and work of the vegetal is to keep balance. There have been times where I have gotten my usual "big gulp", bigger than the average member, and yet I never reached that session those heights. Instead I was forced to deal with the passing of my step mother. Or forced to deal with the loss of my sister (that took 2 whole sessions); or forced to deal with a wide variety of issues which get into the way of me, as a person, rising about the dreck and muck of society.
The vegetal really does have its competence, and intelligence. It never lets one get "too far out," if they aren't ready for it. If one has a lot of mental blocks, and things in the way of growth...well, guess what comes up during a session. It gets to the point where one is unable to grow, until the blocks are resolved.
Then you can have your elevation and admission to the Spectral lights. Yet, if one hasn't dealt with the general housekeeping of life, s/he can't progress any further.
The vegetal is no joke. She is not for recreation.
She is not there to co-sign your bullshit.
She is there to help you be who and what you were meant to be.
The Omniverse will always provide the answer. This is the easy part. Ask, you shall receive.
The real problem comes once you know. Playing dumb is no longer an option.