Hi All,

Please bear with me on my first post as I get used to the tone of the forum.

Background

I favour botanical plant based experiences. Aside from Cannabis and Psilocybin mushroom use during University I had not experienced a 'breakthrough or OBE' until I had travelled to the Amazon ten years ago and went on a shamanic plant dieta combined with five ayahuasca ceremonies with an indigenous shaman. The affects were most profound and deep seated. The knowledge and learnings gained has taken me ten years to integrate. That is a story for another time.

When human consciousness is balanced between brain and heart, life improvement becomes inevitable. We are all on a journey. Many carry hurt, trauma, PTSD, guilt, abuse, depression and negative emotions inside. It is when these things become overwhelming that our balance is out of sync and then we resort to medications, addictive behaviours and patterns. I have been guilty of this. I felt the time had come to heal, find purpose once again and awaken myself from within.

Two weeks ago I returned to the amazon for ayahuasca and sanango medicine. This is what I learned.

Plant Medicines

Ayahuasca

Everyone experiences ayahuasca differently. Regardless of what you have heard or read, the experience will be entirely unique and personal to you. Visions are not just visual. The visions are only one small part of the ayahuasca experience. No matter what someones experience is, everyone is still receiving a tremendous amount of healing, transformation and medicine.

The purgative helps expel unwanted or afflicting energies. This includes emotional, mental and physical. If anything negative is coming up, that is the purge working. It is what is coming up and out of you. The experience of these energies is the release. It is best to focus on the releasing to love, rather than any negative elements. The more one tries to relax by listening to the icarros, focus on your heart and your breathe, then the easier it is to release. Other types of purges beside vomiting and diarrrhea, include energetic, yawning, crying, laughing, bodily sensations / movements, shaking, mental turbulence, sweating and hot/cold waves.

Relax, let the experience and ayahuasca do what it needs to do. The more relaxed you are, the easier it is for you. Breathing should be long and slow (but dont asphyxiate!), bring your attention to the shamans icarros and follow its energies. Move with the rhythm of the shakapas (dried leaves) and icarros, tap your finger bob your head; really helpful for keeping the energies flowing freely. Ask the medecine for help and guidance when feeling like you need the help.

Whilst the highlight of the experience may be the realm experienced whilst drinking ayahuasca much of the transformative and healing work happens during the day between ceremonies and after when back home. Once ayahuasca is in your system, it will continue to work with you throughout the entiere stay and beyond. The spirits are working with you to bring to the surface whatever you are here to address, release, purge or experience. Hence it is common to have intense feelings, emotions, mental turbulence or challengesarise at any time. This is all part of the process. Self care during this time is paramount. Including alone time and social time; a balance is good. Talking to the shamans, they are here for you and can often help you take the next step forward. Regular showering! water is incredible medicine to helping to smooth out the experience. Yoga or stretching but don't over do it. Vigorous or strenuous activity is best avoided. Getting enough rest.

Shamanism

What is ayahuasca? Well, even the shamans dont know! All I know is that the shamanism is the practice of spirits. To a shaman all things are understood as spirits. All physical - bodies, buildings, objects, food and everything we know as non-physical - thoughts, feelings, presences, entities and so forth. It includes all scale, from the greatest container in the Universe down to the smallest particle of energy. From a shamanistic perspective, everything that exists is a spirit.

In traditional shamanism, the shaman cultivates relationships with specific spirits. As the shaman grows their practice, these relationships grow stronger. Medicine spirits are all the spirits who help and support the process of healing, transformation, releasing, learning and movement towards the universal love, which is the movement to wholeness.

In amazonian shamanism, spirits are organised into groupings or hierarchies. Each grouping or hierarchy has a head medicine spirit, which is the highest and purest expression of that medicine form. They are the CEO of all other spirits of that plant! The shamans that work with the head medicine spirit enables efficient and very effective practice. This medicine world opens the entire realm of spiritual medicine to you.

(Note: That is why receiving healing and medicine with a shaman from a strong healing lineage is the pinnacle experience for plant based medicine and effective healing that received versus a DIY approach at home. I do not disagree that ayahuasca use at home is not of benefit but I personally feel and in my own opinion that working with shamans steeped in medicine lore, initiation and practice will most probably yield a greater efficacy to self and consciousness.)

With ayahuasca, which is filled with millions and millions of medicine spirits. These spirits manifest in countless ways. The highest expression of all the ayahuasca medicine is called the head medicine spirit of ayahuasca. This spirit is called Papa Tua.

Medicine practice can be summed up in a few simple intentions. Also called Set (as part of set and setting). What most shamans will be guiding and directing the spirits to do are expressions of these intentions, namely:

Healing - bringing damaged or wounded parts of you to wholeness
Cleansing - release of dark, heavy or unwanted energies out of you and your space
Straightening - realigning crossed, disharmonious or afflictive energies within you
Transformation - personal and spiritual growth and evolution
Learning - receiving knowledge about yourself, the universe, life, consciousness, shamanism, spirituality and divinity.

Throughout ceremonies, shamans will call the appropriate spirits into the space to help you with the above intentions. These spirits can manifest and relate to you in a variety of forms. Sometimes you feel them. Sometimes you can see them in the shapes and patterns of the visions. You may feel better or something you are working on is resolved. A flash of insight or sudden understanding. These are the ways that spirits work in ceremony.

To call or invoke the spirits the shamans will sing or whistle icaros. Icaros are a spiritual language that the shaman uses to communicate with and guide the spirits into the space to guide and direct all the energies of the ceremony. Shakapa (leaf rattle) are shaken to guide, direct and move the energies of the ceremony. Other musical instruments may also be used.

Amazonian shamanism has been practiced for thousands of years. These practices have been passed down through tribal lineage and blood lines for this length of time. Part medical doctor, spiritual healer and keeper of the knowledge. It is this knowledge that awards them the status, rights and responsibility of their practice. Each lineage has a distinctness including what plants to use to heal, how they are cooked, how the knowledge is applied and the belief system they maintain. One of the main focus of traditional medicine is healing. Ailments include physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sickness manifest as crossed energies, which result in disharmonious patterns within you and your life. Ayahuasca medicine is used to straighten this out. And boy did it straighten me out!

Uchu Sanango

The other medicinal plant I consumed was, Uchu Sanango Root (Tabernaemontana Sanango) - head of the sanango plants. Provides power, strength and protection. Head doctor spirit is a grandfather with long, grey-white beard.

(..from my diary...)

Uchu Sanango provides a complete system service. Introducing a new spirit ally into my body for growth, transformation and learning. Benevolent, kind and strong.

The Aboyla head medicine plant spirit is the totality of all. Uniting the many as one single spirit. Each plant is made up of millions of resident spirits, shaped into a plant civilisation of sanango. Layers of hierarchies with realms of wisdom, where teaching occurs. Uchu Sanango brings resolution into ones life. He helps align ones beliefs, values and processes with your core integrity. With your core truth. Transforming the inner landscape is incremental and gradual over a long period of time. Change does and will happen! But it is not always smooth.

My diet consists of dry roasted plantain (not sweet), sardines (breakfast) and Boqacetta (lunch), farinha (drink and powder form) and water. Note to self: Never drink farinha again!
General rules: no touching, avoid sunlight, no physical excursions.

Preparation - 3pm
Scrape of the (cleaned) outer orange bark down to the blonde wood underneath, no deeper. (Similar to chilli, don't rub eyes or sensitive parts as it burns). Place the shavings into a cheese cloth, twist the top and place into a cup, top with water.

Drink - 3am
Gong wakes me up from my deep and intense sleep. I stagger to the ceremonial house, where we are all served a shot glass of squeezed sanango. It has a clear, musty taste with a strong peppery follow through. Corporal sensations include hot/cold waves, sweating and diarrhea. Pretty soon, we all fall asleep till woken at 6.30pm, when we walk (unsteadily) to the main house / hut and lay down on a mat.

A few days ago I was sitting on my desk in my western world, streaming some tv show. right now I am laying on a mat in the amazon jungle listening to birds cacawing, mammals chattering as my vision starts to get very blurry. Pretty soon I cannot focus or see anything. My physical body has been taken over by an external force. Gravity increases steadily until I cannot move my head, my arms become limp until I cannot lift them and my legs are there sticking out but I have no control over them. I realise that I am paralysed from my ear lobes to my metatarsals. I can slowly move a toe on each foot but that is it. Muscular cramps, tension and deadweight. I am blind and I am paralysed. wtf is going on? Confusion and panic ensues as I realise that things are about to get a lot worse as I feel my stomach cave in and one heck of 'squirty' is about to be released high pressure out my nether regions. I have to get to the toilet. I cannot move or signal anyone to help me. I break out in a peppery sweat and I clench as a heat wave rolls through my body. I start humming very loud and three people come over, heave me up and drag me across the floor, feet folded back and scraping as I am place not too gently on a toilet seat. Someone has to undo my pants and pull them down because I cannot. Release and relief wash over me. Back on the mat again, time slows down. My spirit is held taught, my consciousness is prisoner in this shell. So this is what it feels like to be really old I say to myself. Man, this sucks! I am fully, in this space and time. Everytime I blink complex geometrical patterns reveal themselves. What does that mean I ask? Help me!

Three consecutive days of sanango! Followed by two ayahuasca ceremonies.

My dreams are clear, distinct and about fear of death, intimacy and communication.

Due to the Sanango cleanse, the ayahuasca ceremonies are more intense, visionary and insightful. I only purge once over all the ceremonies. Like a newborn, I have no more to expunge. The journey through hyperspace is more smooth. One is thoroughly grounded during the ayahuasca ceremonies. A psychedelic window into plant medicine space. Hyperspace and OBE is in full effect but the body is more stable. I spend two hours in the first ceremony OBE and five hours in the second ceremony OBE. So much knowledge, so much wisdom and insight. My head cracks open and I am everything. A lot is happening above but I am more rooted to the earth below. Thank you sanango.

Aftermath

The resulting shifts that occur create huge possibilities for change. Releasing and excreting from within has created a space that is open for the new and the beautiful to come in.

Restrictions

3 days -
no sweet, sugar, fruit, honey because they use the same pathways and receptors as the medicine.
30 days -
no other plant medicines or extracts, no intimacy, sex, orgasm, sexual thoughts or dreams (intentional).
Avoid media, news, music and books.
Focus on expressions and behaviours
180 days -
no pork, duck or aggressive animals (shark, piranha, aligator) - lol!
no deer (skittish energy) or rabbit (fearful energy) because we will absorb them
no harming onself or others whether physical, mental or thoughtful

In the immediate 30 days after, your integrity will be tested, either day 2 day or in dreams. This is simply sanangos way to helping us face and overcome old patterns and behaviours. To learn about ourselves and how we can do things differently. Our personal integrity.

My receptivity, listening and core strengths are becoming stronger.

If I find myself in unacceptable situations I ask for the plant spirits to guide and help me.

"I bring in the strength, wisdom, guidance and help of Uchu Sanango Head Plant Spirit, Ayahuasca Head Plant Spirit, dieta Plants, archangels and the Divine as manifest in Love, to help me and guide me in this space and time, here and now."

My systems are being reset as I rebuild and recreate.

Back in the western world, things are taking on new meanings. I think more deeply about things. Occasionally, I fall over as old behaviours reassert themselves but I have objectivity guiding me. Integration of all I have witnessed into a core experience for myself is the hardest part.

The advice about extracts is that if one is grounded and steady in everyday life, if thoughts and relationships are smooth then that is the best time to travel in hyperspace, otherwise wait. I met a fellow on my trip who was there because he had not come back 'fully' after vaping dmt. he was so ungrounded and this was carried into his experience, magnified and back again. The changes in his 'presence' between the before ceremony and the after was huge. I wish him well.

Thank you for having me here and to share my experience with you.
mini_baba
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