Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca, the visionary medicine of the Amazon, is typically used in formal ceremony by the maestro to open and close the dieta.
Tobacco
The Amazonian form of tobacco, smoked as mapacho or ingested as rapé, is often used during dietas for energetic cleansing and connecting with the spirit of the plant or tree being dieted.
Deep Healing
Each master plant or tree is characterized by its ability to offer a special type of healing. Many believe that successful completion of a dedicated plant dieta offers more healing than any other type of healing modality.
Shamanic Apprenticeship
The dieta is the process by which apprentices from the Amazonian tradition of vegatalismo (plant-based shamanism & healing) learn to become curanderos (healers).
"The Spirits do not roll out a chalkboard"________
Me: "What happens when you decide to lower someone's mareacion? Can you describe the energetic processes that occur as you hold that intent and start to bring someone down from an overly strong mareacion?"
Abraham Lozanobrioso: "It seems that you want to know about the mysteries of magic."
Abraham Lozanobrioso: "There are many ways. Through song, intention, vision. At times, I rescue the person from their own mind or from the spirit world. Navigating to where they are in the universal fabric, which can be like catching a fish in a very large pond, until I can work out the way to still the waters and see. Sometimes, it is simply accompanying them and holding a strong light while Spirit guides them through a particular realm...moderating the current so that it becomes gentle enough to continue the prayer."
Me: "Did you learn to do this in dieta or through practice in ceremonies you have led?"
Abraham Lozanobrioso: "Both. I also experienced my teachers fish me out many times from oblivion. Realms that I entered into, entangled myself in, and could not return back or transit through so easily."
Me: "Do you then believe that it is possible, when someone enters a very deep mareacion, to journey to places that we are not prepared for?"
Abraham Lozanobrioso: "We are prepared if Spirit gives it. But the mind can have trouble remembering this in the transition between these realms. Sometimes, the body reacts and is not capable of being still enough, which can cause someone to hurt oneself or make a mess. We can receive flashes of unexpected things, things too beautiful or a love too intense for us to handle in that moment."
_______
Me: "What happens when you decide to lower the intensity of someone's mareacion?"
Michael Sonn: "I usually sing into some tobacco or agua florida, ask it to lower the high of the mareacion, then use the tobacco or agua florida to suck the high out of them. I learned how to do that from Shipibo maestro Antonio Munoz Diaz and it works around 8 out of 10 times."
"Antonio used to tell me that you have to know how to close what you have opened if you lead ceremonies, and that you do not want your participants to suffer too much. A little is okay but they are not to suffer like I did to learn."
"When I would get terrifyingly high with him, he would say "If you were a participant, I would lower your mareacion, but you are not." Then, everytime someone was too high, I would watch him take it down."
Me: "Did you learn to lower a participant's mareacion in dieta or by transmission?"
Michael Sonn: "Transmission after closing of a dieta. I dieted plants but I feel like I dieted my maestros even more. Antonio also taught me how to do chupas (healing by sucking/extraction) in general."
"In terms of what I experienced when it happened, an anaconda came to me in my vision and asked me if I was afraid. I said no, that I am in love. It then morphed into an ayahuasca vine and I was crowned and received my cushma in the spirit world. I saw the sun and the moon in the same sky with a hummingbird whizzing by. At the end of this ceremony, it taught me how to lower a person's mareacion by sucking. The next night, I ran my own ceremony [after 10 years of dietas and apprenticeship]."
Me: "Do you feel that the teachings of Amazonian curanderismo is more of a receiving than it is a "learning" as a Westerner may think of it?"
Michael Sonn: "Yes, 100%. I told my apprentice: 'The spirits do not roll out a chalk board.' It really is implicit learning if you want to get scientific about it."
_________
[Artwork by Anderson Debernardi]
![The Spirits do not roll out a chalkboard
________
Me: What happens when you decide to lower someones mareacion? Can you describe the energetic processes that occur as you hold that intent and start to bring someone down from an overly strong mareacion?
Abraham Lozanobrioso: It seems that you want to know about the mysteries of magic.
Abraham Lozanobrioso: There are many ways. Through song, intention, vision. At times, I rescue the person from their own mind or from the spirit world. Navigating to where they are in the universal fabric, which can be like catching a fish in a very large pond, until I can work out the way to still the waters and see. Sometimes, it is simply accompanying them and holding a strong light while Spirit guides them through a particular realm...moderating the current so that it becomes gentle enough to continue the prayer.
Me: Did you learn to do this in dieta or through practice in ceremonies you have led?
Abraham Lozanobrioso: Both. I also experienced my teachers fish me out many times from oblivion. Realms that I entered into, entangled myself in, and could not return back or transit through so easily.
Me: Do you then believe that it is possible, when someone enters a very deep mareacion, to journey to places that we are not prepared for?
Abraham Lozanobrioso: We are prepared if Spirit gives it. But the mind can have trouble remembering this in the transition between these realms. Sometimes, the body reacts and is not capable of being still enough, which can cause someone to hurt oneself or make a mess. We can receive flashes of unexpected things, things too beautiful or a love too intense for us to handle in that moment.
_______
Me: What happens when you decide to lower the intensity of someones mareacion?
Michael Sonn: I usually sing into some tobacco or agua florida, ask it to lower the high of the mareacion, then use the tobacco or agua florida to suck the high out of them. I learned how to do that from Shipibo maestro Antonio Munoz Diaz and it works around 8 out of 10 times.
Antonio used to tell me that you have to know how to close what you have opened if you lead ceremonies, and that you do not want your participants to suffer too much. A little is okay but they are not to suffer like I did to learn.
When I would get terrifyingly high with him, he would say If you were a participant, I would lower your mareacion, but you are not. Then, everytime someone was too high, I would watch him take it down.
Me: Did you learn to lower a participants mareacion in dieta or by transmission?
Michael Sonn: Transmission after closing of a dieta. I dieted plants but I feel like I dieted my maestros even more. Antonio also taught me how to do chupas (healing by sucking/extraction) in general.
In terms of what I experienced when it happened, an anaconda came to me in my vision and asked me if I was afraid. I said no, that I am in love. It then morphed into an ayahuasca vine and I was crowned and received my cushma in the spirit world. I saw the sun and the moon in the same sky with a hummingbird whizzing by. At the end of this ceremony, it taught me how to lower a persons mareacion by sucking. The next night, I ran my own ceremony [after 10 years of dietas and apprenticeship].
Me: Do you feel that the teachings of Amazonian curanderismo is more of a receiving than it is a learning as a Westerner may think of it?
Michael Sonn: Yes, 100%. I told my apprentice: The spirits do not roll out a chalk board. It really is implicit learning if you want to get scientific about it.
_________
[Artwork by Anderson Debernardi]](https://plantdieta.com/wp-content/plugins/custom-facebook-feed-pro/assets/img/placeholder.png)
Joseph Smallthought you might find this interesting 😍 about ayahuasca
Om
Thank you for sharing 🙏🏽
Beautiful words 🔥👁🙏👁🔥
Curandero Michael Sonn receiving a soplada from the late Shipibo Maestro Manuel Mahua (eldest of the Mahua brothers maestros) in the Shipibo community of Paohyan in the year 2004 | Photo by Kathleen Sonn.
Lo llamamos SABIO de la comunidad, buen trato del hermano MAHUA
Excerpts from an interview by Morgan Maher with Stephan Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants, from the year 2009_______
Morgan Maher: "Steve, how have the plants changed you?"
Stephan Beyer: "Life has changed me, and the sacred plants have been part of that. Also important have been my experiences in the wilderness, my training in jungle survival, my vision fasts in the desert, my family, and the joys and sorrows of a lengthening life in the human world."
"I don’t know whether it was drinking ayahuasca, or the magical phlegm my maestro ayahuasquero don Roberto Acho Jurama planted in my chest, or the gentle example of my plant teacher, doña María Tuesta Flores, working in my visions and my dreams, but I have changed."
"Far from the Amazon I have found that my arrogance and rage have drained away, and my heart has slowly opened. Entering into right relationship with people and spirits has happened spontaneously and miraculously."
___
"I was often told in the Upper Amazon that the difference between being a healer and a sorcerer lies in the exercise of self-control. This means self-control during la dieta and during the period immediately following coronación [coronation, or receiving of the spiritual crown]."
"One may take this as a metaphor, but I believe that it is profoundly true. Our egos are as tricky and autonomous as magic darts. Our envidia (envy), our foolish willingness to destroy relationships of trust and confidence with others, seems to flair up at the slightest provocation."
"Whether it is called a rule or a guide, once again we see the centrality of right relationship in indigenous thought, and the necessity for care and self-control in how we treat our relationships with the spirits and each other."
___
"I don’t think that we can view shamanism in the Upper Amazon through the lens of some popular construct of what shamanism is
all about, as benevolent, nurturing, and safe."
"I do not think we should ignore the dark and deep aspects of this tradition, paint it in bright and soothing colors, and rob it of its richness and ambivalence."
___
"The question that the plants have asked me is this: Are you willing to give up ego, hierarchy, power, dignity, self-importance, moral superiority? Are you willing to give up control, to hand yourself over to the process? Are you willing to see the world as miraculous and filled with spirits?'"
"A lot of people go down to the Amazon for very self-centered reasons. “It’s about me. I am going down for my enlightenment. I am going down for my healing. I am going down there for my very own transformative transcendent experience. I am going down for my epiphany.”
"And they go down there without any sense of this rich, deep, profound culture that is giving them the medicine that they are taking for their own private purposes."
___
"I think the plants love us. I have no idea why. We certainly have done nothing — at least recently — to deserve it. I think that they want us to be human beings again."
___
[Photo is of Don Roberto Acho Jurama, who Steve Beyer cites as one of his teachers and primary source for Singing to the Plants]
Jeremy, powerful words here.
That was beautiful. Thank you
Thanks for this! 🙏🏻
"The Amazon Rainforest is a very big school, a very important science, and a very powerful pharmacy."- Pajé Kateyuve Yawanawa of Aldeia Yawarani
Funny pictue 😃👌🍃
Chuchuhuasi trees (hembra y macho, or female and male) @ Amazon Rainforest of Peru | Photo by Wexa Metsa
Additional excerpts from my conversations on plant dietas and apprenticeship with Benjamin, a curandero in the Shipibo tradition.________
Me: "What would you say to a dietero, especially a dietero who has been dieting under a maestro seriously for several years, but perhaps they no longer resonate with that maestro, or they are unable to make it back to the jungle for whatever reason...do you think there comes a point when it becomes more productive for them to diet by themselves?"
Benjamin: "I think this is the purpose of every dietero at some point. But anyone who is interested in discovering the power of the master plants should truly follow their heart and go to the jungle first."
"There is great guidance in your posts and the group that you have created, which has true, genuine information compared to most of the superficial or misleading information that you see elsewhere."
"So I would stress that people should really really really try to find a good teacher, someone you resonate with, someone you have been guided to, from whom you can learn through your first plant dietas."
"The other thing I would really recommend is that you should not look for one tree that is going to single-handedly enlighten you, show you all of the universe, teach you everything about yourself, and expect that you are going to come back enlightened afterwards."
"Go first to the jungle and diet the plants of the Amazon Rainforest. The ones that give you the first levels of understanding of the plant spirit world. There are many that are filled with light and have so much power."
"I am talking about Bobinsana, Pinon Blanco, Ajo Sacha, Marosa, Pinon Colorado, Coca, Tobacco. All these plants have so much power to just start with. My first teacher would tell me that to really understand a plant completely, you may need a 5 year isolation dieta to understand the world of one plant. And I completely resonate with that in the sense that there are plants for everything and it is important that if you really want to walk the path of mastery with ayahuasca, you have to go through these plants first."
"And then, they can show you many different things about yourself: by healing your heart; healing your mind; going deep into the nervous system; showing you how to use your senses in ceremony; how to sit and breath while a very deep medicine world opens up that can blow your mind, but at least with the first plant spirits you have accumuluated with your dietas, they stabilize the effect of the mareacion; showing you how to be anchored, how to get your sensations straight. There are so many different levels to this medicine!"
"And then, when people have those plants already, there are other categories of plants that come as a second level: tree spirits like Shihuahuaco or Camalonga, and for some people -- Toe -- which is not for everyone, as it is very specific medicine and not to be used by just anyone."
"A maestro may give you a cocktail of plants, different plants that teach you specific things, for example, to hear, to heal specific conditions, to feel the energies."
"And maybe 3-4 years into the apprenticeship, when you can start recognizing the icaros, the vibrations of the different medicines, when the plant spirits start coming to you, that is the time you may be able to go and start learning by yourself."
"At that point, I would recommend starting with a plant that seems to have some power for you. You will be guided by ayahuasca and the other plants. For example, you may feel that you are being called by the plants of your home country, such as the Lindon tree or the Oak tree (a magnificient tree that grows in both Europe and the US that you can diet). Rose is another plant that is very easy to diet by yourself, but it is also very strong, it is a full master plant with a powerful energy that is going to reveal the divine feminine, open the heart, work on the physical heart, and has amazing healing properties."
"But I want to stress that the best thing is still to diet with a maestro or maestra for some amount of time before approaching a plant dieta by yourself."
_____
Me: "Are you finding that your personal dietas are going deeper and in that way, becoming more difficult? I suppose it is easier in that you are used to the restrictions that are necessary, the personal processes that you can expect to come up, the learning from the plants that can occur deeper into a dieta such as receiving the mariri or fuerza of the plant when you really become one with your dieta. But do you also find that the dietas are becoming more difficult over time for you because the curas are also reaching deeper into you?"
Benjamin: "I have dieted with full restrictions and I have dieted with very little restrictions because my teachers wanted to see how I would handle different types of energies as I entered into a certain level of mastery. For example, energies from sexuality, menstration blood, pork, heavy foods for the medicine, etc."
"I was reading one of your posts about the apprentice of Pascual Mahua, who was dieting Noya Rao with just a few restrictions. That is actually how I dieted the Divine Light. It is true that if the maestro knows the niwe of the plant and is already in agreement in the world of the plant, he can make your diet exactly how he feels your physical and energetic structure can take. There are many different types of arkanas, and specific ways a dieta can be opened inside a dietero."
"But to answer your question, I have discovered myself one thing: when I re-diet the plants I have dieted in the past, like the first plants I dieted from 10-12 years ago -- (and I re-diet them without the same strict restrictions as before, although I still have my own discipline that I have to follow) -- then yes, it goes deeper into the cura. I go very deep into the things that I might not have perceived at that time: because I was not ready, because I did not have the mindset to take it. And now, you are on another level of consciousness and you can just observe it from another vantage point. So yes, I would say it can become even harder."
"I remember a very long dieta I did not so long ago. It was around 2-3 years ago. I was still traveling and maintaining a dieta at the same time. I had my own restrictions and non-restrictions, and I was balancing these aspects at the same time which was one of the hardest things I have ever done."
"I had to master all the capacities of my mind because I had a full description of the outside world while feeling like I was in complete isolation in the middle of the jungle at the same time And I sometimes felt like: 'Oh My God, I cannot handle this.' But I had already entered into a contract with myself and with the plant spirit, that I would diet in this way, and that whatever comes to me, I would face it."
"I would say that sometimes less restrictions during a dieta is much harder than a restricted dieta inside of the jungle. In the jungle, you have no one around you, you can just sit there alone and smoke your mapacho if something seems to be entering your space."
"A dieta always comes with a contract, and you have to understand that every dieta we enter into is a contract we make with the plant spirit at that moment. And it is up to us to make it straight, to fulfill the contract, and to keep it straight enough to diet the plant spirit even within a non-traditional environment."
_____
Me: "Do you think it is possible for people to have apprentice dietas, really serious diets, in non-traditional environments? For example, at home while living in a city. Or is that always going to be a different type of dieta, a "dieta suave," (soft dieta) which is not going to go as deep as it can when you are in complete isolation, especially within the jungle?"
Benjamin: "I would say, it depends where you are with the medicine. I would say that setup is possible, if you have been on dietas in the jungle already. And then you can continue. If you have the mindset and a strong practice on how to use your perfume, your tobacco, you can do some miracle learning. I have done this myself many times."
"When I started dieting, my teacher wanted us to commit to 6 months to one year dietas in the jungle . So many of us did that."
"But when we wanted to re-open a dieta, my ex-wife became pregnant with our daughter."
"That is when my teacher at the time told me that he could open a very special process for both of us. We ended up doing a one year dieta together, going back and forth between the Amazon and Europe. Even when I was back home in Europe however, I was so connected to the plant spirit and its teachings."
"Keep in mind, I was not really working during that time, so I could just stay at home and concentrate on my dieta, and concentrate on my wife who was pregnant."
"My wife was given a plant that she could take and drink almost every day during her pregnancy to continue her learning. This worked amazingly because my daughter was born completely inside of this energy. Now my daughter is 12 years old and she has kept that energy. It is very, very strong in her."
"So yes, I would say that it is possible to diet in this way. I have done it myself. But I would say this is recommended only for people who already have a certain level of mastery after dieting with a maestro, someone who knows how to sing the icaros so they have an energetic effect."
_______
[Artwork by Pablo Amaringo]
Loads of great information! Highlights how fluid and personal each persons path is. I would add, for some people, their paths will/have begin by dieting trees before any other plants... and that too will be the perfect path, for some.
thank you very much for the posts and the interviews that you post. it is most intresting.
Gracias🙏🍃❤️
Could you share a link to Benjamin group?
Ann Torfs
Excerpts from an honest and nuanced conversation about the apprenticeship path I had with Benjamin, a curandero in the Shipibo tradition_____
Me: "I am like a cura magnet. I can have a dieta for just 7 days, and I am probably going to have a vivid encounter with a spirit, and undergo a very strong cura. But the curas have changed. I really do not know exactly what is being healed anymore."
"I have also lost count of the number of surgeries that have been performed on me. These usually happen at night; there is a spirit working on me; and it is a quite scary experience (although I am trying to be more brave about it). When I wake up in the morning, I am sore in the area that was worked on, usually my chest, throat or forehead, like something both physical and energetic has taken place."
"One of the things that have also come up for me is that you are better able to see your maestro or maestra within the mareacion."
"For example, I stopped working with one Shipibo maestro beause I started seeing things that were extremely disturbing about him. Even things that he had done to me. One night, I purged out some kind of block that he had put on me. After that ceremony, I actually confronted him. I looked him in his eyes and told him that the light of God helped me purge out his block. I then told him that I really did not like it, and did not want it happening again."
"And he admitted to having done it. He looked embarassed and ashamed, stared down at the ground while he was talking, and said it would not happen again. But then he muttered in a bitter way: 'If I teach you everything I know, you cannot leave me like other people have.'"
"It helped me understand what his motivations were. He was afraid: 'If I teach him too much, if he learns too fast, then he is not going to need me any more.' So it was a mentality of fear and scarcity."
"And I have noticed a similar phenomenon among long-term dieteros, especially those who seem to be developing a curandero's ability to see and diagnosis, where they cannot help but see things in their teachers that they did not notice early on in their studies."
"Has that ever come up for you, not just seeing things within yourself, but in your teachers as well?"
Benjamin: "Yes, almost immediately actually, after the divine light was opened. After some months, I realized that something was wrong, and from the very beginning. But I was young, and I did not know how to really interact with this. I was young and very emotional at that time. I did not know how to master my emotions when I received this information."
"But there was more and more information about my teacher that was starting to appear, a feeling, a vision, and then something that was completely surrounding me. So I had to confront my teacher very soon, that something was wrong and that I would not accept working like this. And it took several years to uncover and clear all of this."
Michael: "You mean clearing and recovering from all the energetic entanglements that you had formed with your teacher?"
Benjamin: "Yes. And even 10-15 years later, I still find something new that is cleared from that time. I am not blaming any of the maestros. I now see the subconscious contract that we had with one another. I see how we attract certain energies, they remain stuck inside us for years, then one day, you understand why it was there and it is released."
"So this is why I say I do not blame the maestros. But certainly, we have to be very careful about what we ask for when we diet with and learn from teacher, both consciously and subconsciously."
"We all want to learn, but there is an excitement behind that learning. And behind that excitement can be something else, like 'I am going to have the power to heal', or it could be linked to confidence. A lack of confidence in yourself, and you are trying to gain confidence by the practice of working with the plants."
"So for myself, I had things that were inside me for a long time, and after I released them, I realized and understood why I could not see it for many years."
___
Benjamin: "One of things that I have seen in all apprenticeships, is that everyone at some point on their path, has their visions or sight blocked."
"You begin to diet a new plant and suddenly, you do not have visions or you cannot "see" anymore. But in my experience, this is because there is another frame of sight that is coming to you, that is being remodeled and re-shaped. You may not see it for while. Or during this process, you might be learning to better utilize another sense, how to connect with the plants in a different and more sensitive way. Maybe you are developing your clairaudience (hearing the songs) or a cognitive way of seeing the pathology or disease inside of someone."
"I would say we have to be aware that there is no one to blame. It is part of the path to lose your sight or your visions. One of the last teachers that I still work with, Don Antonio, told me that he did not have any visions for 5 years. He has been a curandero for 50-60 years, and there was a point on his path where for 5 years, he could not see anything. But he continued to drink ayahuasca and chant his icaros until that current returned."
"I had a similar experience myself. I went through a point where I went years without visions. Without seeing the patterns of the medicine, without seeing the colors of the medicine world. Everything was just grey, like the machinery of the spirit of the dead. I just kept chanting and struggling through it, and one day, that energy was gone."
"I had mastered it. I had reached another level of integration with the plants. It just takes time sometimes. We have to understand that nothing is automatic or guaranteed with the plants. It depends on the maestro, on your own condition, on many things."
_____
Benjamin: "I think that is an important message for everyone. Do not think that you can go to the Amazon, do a three month "initiation dieta", and you can come back and start running ceremonies as a curandero. It takes years to just have your dietas settled well inside you, for you to start working in accordance with that energy."
"If you are already an apprentice, and you are wondering whether you are ready to serve medicine to other people, ask your teachers specifically: 'Do you think I have the capacity to serve medicine for other people and work as a curandero or curandera?' And ask it very carefully, because the indigenous teachers are very nice people, and they may say yes to you to avoid upsetting you. So try to really find out what they think about your capacity with complete honesty."
"The way that we pour medicine, as doctors or medicos, is different from those who serve medicine as facilitators. We have to make sure with our teachers that we at least have the first wings of mastery. I remember being told by my teacher after I completed a one year dieta, that I could now start pouring medicine for other people. A couple of years later, he said to me: 'Now you can open dietas for other people.' I always went by the guidance of my teachers. I will never do anything just by myself, although believe me, I wanted to. It is important to follow this."
_____
Michael: "When I look at my own path of healing and learning, it seems like some things just took years to reveal themselves, for me to have the capacity to go deeper. How has it been for you?"
"Looking back, do you feel that there were certain things that took time to mature within yourself, within your spiritual body? Because I think people can get excited when they first start dieting, feel like they need to be dieting all the time, and that the more they diet, the faster they will learn. And I am not sure that is the way it works exactly."
Benjamin: "Yes, for sure it takes time. It is not a good or a bad thing to go for many dietas from the beginning. But I would say: 'Check yourself at all times' What is it that you are looking for? Are you really following the icaro inside your heart that is telling you to go to the Amazon to heal and learn?"
"We have to understand that this is a life-time commitment. To be a good curandero who works with the medicine, it is a minimum 5-10 years learning with the plants and with dietas. And this is just the first step."
"And I mean 5-10 years where you go often to the Amazon to do dietas, you come back home, you integrate, you start dieting by youself, you learn the language, you learn to receive the icaros, you perhaps go to other tribes to see how they are working (so that you can get a better and more comprehensive view of how the medicine works), and then, you can start to organize the medicine within yourself."
"Throughout this process, you have to superimpose two different worlds. The world of traditional plant mastery in the Amazon, and the world in which you live back home. You have to merge those two worlds, unless you decide to become a healer in the middle of the jungle and live there the majority of the time."
"It does not work to rush through your dietas or to diet many plants in the minimum amount of time. That will not work at all. It will also not work to say: 'Okay I am going to stay in the Amazon as long as I can, get that knowledge, and become a shaman.'"
"I have seen people leave everything, stay two years in the jungle dieting continuously, then get extremely depressed when they return back home. They have become completely lost, and one of them was a dear friend of mine, who actually wrote a beautiful book about the Shipibo language. But when he returned home, he was in deep distress where he could not integrate the sounds of the jungle and the sounds of the urban jungle."
"I know other people who have come home and actually had traumas from their dietas. And they end up having to fix their dietas or deal with the trauma of the experiences they underwent in the jungle. It is like those hospitals for yoga people, where yoga is supposed to be medicine, but there are yoga teachers all being treated for injuries they sustained from their yoga practice."
"So if you hurt yourself too much from dieting over and over again, just wanting to be a curandero or gain additional powers to heal, and being super dedicated to that specific path, you may forget something on the way about yourself. How to treat your body. How to treat your mind. How to listen to your heart. How to take care of your family and loved ones back at home."
"So I would like to say to people, take your time! This practice is fragile."
_____
[Artwork by Pablo Amaringo]
Thank you beautiful post 💚
David Nightheart
Ann Torfs ✨
Excerpts from a NY Times article about U.S. military veterans becoming unlikely lobbyists in the push to legalize plant medicine & psychedelics | Link to full article here: www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/health/veterans-psychedelics-ptsd-depression.html_______
"Jose Martinez, a former Army gunner whose right arm and both legs were blown off by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, has a new calling: He’s become one of the most effective lobbyists in a campaign to legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs across the country."
"On a Zoom call this spring with Connie Leyva, a Democratic legislator in California who has long opposed relaxing drug laws, Mr. Martinez told her how psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic” mushrooms, had helped to finally quell the physical pain and suicidal thoughts that had tormented him."
"Ms. Leyva says she changed her mind even before the call ended, and she later voted yes on the bill, which is expected to become law early next year."
“We ask these men and women to go fight for our freedoms,” she said in an interview. “So if this is something that is helping them live a more normal life, I feel like I shouldn’t stand in the way.”
___
"In the two years since Oregon, Washington, D.C., and a half-dozen municipalities decriminalized psilocybin, vets have become leading advocates in the drive to legalize psychedelic medicine, which they credit with helping ease the post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression that are often tied to their experiences in the military."
"The campaign has been propelled by the epidemic of suicides among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but also by the national reckoning over the mass incarceration of people on drug charges that has softened public attitudes on prohibition."
"More than 30,000 service members have taken their own lives in the years since Sept. 11 — four times the number of those who died on the battlefield — and the Department of Veterans Affairs has struggled to address the crisis with the traditional repertoire of pharmacological interventions."
___
"Kevin Matthews, a military veteran who led a 2019 ballot measure in Denver that decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms — the first U.S. city to do so — said personal testimonies about psychedelic therapy have been pivotal in winning over skeptics who worry that decriminalization will fuel increased recreational use."
“The key to doing that is getting the right people in front of the right constituencies,” he said."
"Decriminalization advocates have made remarkable progress over the past two years. Last month Seattle embraced the decriminalization of psilocybin and other plant-based psychoactive drugs, and Michigan and several other cities across the country are poised to do the same."
"State Senator Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who sponsored California’s psilocybin measure, said he had been surprised by how readily some opponents changed their minds. “Veterans are very, very compelling messengers,” he said."
___
"The legalization campaign’s focus on vets as leading advocates is not without controversy. Carlos Plazola, co-founder of the advocacy group Decriminalize Nature, said he was disappointed by the movement’s overemphasis on the struggles of service members. He said a broader cross section of people of color should have their experiences heard."
“We understand the value of pushing patriotism and advancing the American flag to the front of the parade, if you will, but if we’re going to be successful we have to also talk about the traumas of Black, brown and Asian people and Indigenous communities,” he said."
"Still, military veterans have proved effective messengers. Mr. Gould, the former Army Ranger, started Heroic Hearts in 2019, not long after he took his first psychedelic journey in Peru with ayahuasca, a plant-derived, hallucinogenic brew that has shown extraordinary promise in treating a range of psychological maladies."
"Mr. Gould said a traumatic brain injury caused by the many rocket launches he oversaw during three deployments in Afghanistan left him with uncontrolled spasms of anger and anxiety. Healthy romantic relationships, he said, were out of the question."
“It defragged my brain in a way that allowed it to heal,” he said of the ayahuasca retreat, adding that his new frame of mind made it possible for him to meet the woman who would later become his wife. “It definitely saved my life.”
___
"Mr. Martinez, the former Army gunner injured in Afghanistan, has become an especially effective evangelist for psychedelics. He endured 19 surgeries and ceaseless pain that left him dependent on opioids. Beneath the physical agony was an unaddressed wound: childhood abuse he suffered at the hands of a relative."
“For a very long time I didn’t understand why I was so mad at the world,” said Mr. Martinez, 33, who grew up in South Los Angeles and lives with his wife at the edge of the Mojave Desert. Psilocybin, he said, changed everything. Although he still grapples with constant pain, his “journeys” while using the drug allow him to step outside himself and focus on the good, and what is possible in life, which lately includes sidelines as a Paralympic surfer, an archer and a weight-training enthusiast. He also runs a nonprofit that seeks to connect veterans to nature through wilderness outings."
“Psychedelics helped me realize that my problems are small compared to the world’s bigger problems like starvation and cancer,” he said. “And now I understand what I’m actually here for in this world, which is to make people smile and to remind them that life can be beautiful even when it’s not so easy.”
Aerial photo of the isolated village of the Moxihatëtëa people (numbering approximately 80 people) @ Amazon Rainforest of Brazil | Photo by Guilherme Gnipper
give address,im interested
The Ayahuma tree (Couroupita guianensis) growing next to a statue of Buddha near the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodh Gaya, India
Jij hebt toe nog n blad gevangen van de holy tree.
Tanja Dulmers
"The United States is the largest global consumer of oil extracted from the Amazon Rainforest. 66% of the crude oil exported from the Amazon goes to the U.S.""In California, where the majority of this oil is refined, an average of 1 in 9 gallons of gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel pumped in the state comes from the Amazon Rainforest."
"In Southern California, the volume goes up to 1 in 7 gallons."
"Los Angeles International Airport consumes more oil from the Amazon Rainforest than any other airport in the world – an average of 1 in 6 gallons of jet fuel pumped at LAX comes from the Amazon."
_______
Full report by Amazon Watch: amazonwatch.org/.../files/2021-12-linked-fates.pdf
[Photo is of a worker siphoning crude oil from a waster pit left by Texaco near Dureno, Cofan Territory, within the Ecuadorian Amazon]
Lights from the Forest, excerpts from a recent research study published on bioluminescent fungi that illuminate the trunks and fallen leaves of trees within the Amazon Forest_________
"It was a night of a new moon and with clouds in the Amazon Rainforest when researcher Noemia Ishikawa saw bioluminescent fungi for the first time. They were introduced by a resident of the region, the indigenous Aldevan Baniwa, who knew the phenomenon as “Lights from the Forest."
"The lights were already known by the indigenous community, in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), and used for illumination in forest trails."
"In late November of this year, researchers catalogued another species of bioluminescent fungus discovered in the Amazon. It was first seen in 2018, on the banks of the Cuieiras River."
"Mycena cristinae, is a tribute to the professor at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), Cristina Maki, who was part of the research group, but died before completion."
________
"In the forest, bioluminescent fungi can be found in fallen tree trunks and fallen leaves."
"Here in the Amazon Rainforest, this species in particular degrades trunks. We can see that the tree trunks also shine, that is, the fungi act on this surface, releasing enzymes and digesting the wood."
"This also occurs with other fungi that make fallen leaves appear to shine."
"In the forest, fungi are important in the decomposition and release of nutrients that remain in the branches and leaves of trees. They break down the remains of dead trees and leaves and then return the nutrients to the land, causing other plants to absorb the nutrients."
"This whole process makes the Amazon ecosystem work, function properly," explains Jadson Oliveira, the principal researcher for the project.
______
Research article in full can be found here:
www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/mycosci/62/6/62_MYC545/_html/-char/en
Glowing fungi on fallen leaves found in the Amazon Rainforest in Tambopata, Peru by Aaron Pomerantz
La Cura Divina_______
Me: "These curas that I have been going through during our dieta, and in the ayahuasca ceremonies that followed, have been the most difficult of my entire life."
"It feels like darkened grey matter within the deep corners of my brain are being activated by light. It has really taken everything I have ever learned about healing, and a level of allowing that I did not think I was capable of, to get through them. Just barely."
Me: "Did you happen to notice the incredibly difficult curas I was going through during our ceremonies?"
Abraham: "I simply saw you as becoming illuminated."
Me: "I did not see that at all. I felt the opposite."
Me: "I have also entered a phase of no longer having "visions." I just see and experience the divine channels that open up when you are singing within the force...energetic landscapes of sound and light that feel like the gates of heaven itself have opened up for a brief moment in time...and that transform and bring harmony to contours of darkness and disorder."
Me: "The healings I experience, they have also become largely energetic. They are no longer attached to any personal trauma or emotional history that I can identify."
Abraham: "It has become the same for me as well. But of course, the deep healings can still come at anytime."
________
Me: "How were the ceremonies for you these last couple of weekends?"
Abraham: "They were very beautiful. Maybe it is because of all the personal work I have done over the past 20 years, but the ayahuasca ceremonies have become very easy for me. I simply allow Spirit to work through me. The song lines are so very clear."
Me: "You once told me that the gift you received from Spirit is the ability to perceive the perfection of the healing sound. Is that something you are able to see during ceremony?"
Abraham: "Yes, but I perceive every sound that affects the healing lines being created within the space itself. Even if someone knocks over their purge bucket, I can see the effect that sound causes in the healing lines of the ceremony..like ripples on a pond when you throw a rock onto it."
Me: "What do you see within the people around you?"
Abraham: "At times, when I look at a person, it is like gazing upon the multiple dimensions that a person exists on. But there is a turquoise blue light that appears above people sometimes. Whenever I see it, it makes me want to pee, poo, and vomit all at the same thing. It is energetically so strong that I prefer not to look at it at all and try to just keep singing with my head down."
Me: "What do you think it is?"
Abraham: "I do not know."
________
Abraham: "A man came to visit me today. He was in town to facilitate some healing workshops. We sat in a prayer with rume, and he went through a tremendous cura. He was screaming continuously for 10-15 minutes...with such anger."
Me: "It reminds me of what a participant from one of your ceremonies once told me: "There is nowhere to hide when
Abraham sings."
Abraham: "Why do you think that is?"
Me: "I think it is the brilho da verdade. The shine of the divine truth. From my personal experience, there is nothing that can hide when the white light of Spirit shines upon and within you in ceremony."
Abraham: "I got goosebumps hearing the way you describe it. But it is true. Everything becomes revealed within the pure light of Spirit."
Gracias
Beatiful
Wow