We received an interesting synchro from someone who wants to remain anonymous. You’ll see why when you read the post.
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A few years back, I was at a friend’s house. We were both on a low dose of psylocybin mushrooms, and I was helping him brew up a batch of something I’d never helped make before. It is extracted from the root bark of a shrub from Brazil.
Maybe 15 minutes after I’d finished pouring the bark into the jar we were using, while we were waiting for it to dissolve, I got a text message from a friend … asking me if “there was a drug made from tree bark.” She had zero idea what I was up to that night (no one did). She’d just gotten into a conversation about magic mushrooms (which I was on at the time), which led her and the guy she was with to talk about other psychedelic experiences. The guy was saying that he’d heard of some crazy drug made from tree bark, and she thought I might know what the heck he was talking about, so she texted me to ask about it … while I was actually making the stuff!
Oh, and to clarify – the jar behind the phone in the pic is root bark undergoing the extraction process.
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Ayahuasca is also used by indigenous tribes in the Amazon as a rite of passage. In the past few decades, Western travelers have gone into the Amazon in search of native practitioners who would take them on an ayahuasca journey. Author and visionary Terrence McKenna used ayahuasca during one of his jungle excursions, he believed he had seen into the heart of the universe and discovered that the I Ching is a coded system about quantum time/space.
Years ago, when we led trips to the Amazon, one of our guides, Hugo, told us about his rite of passage, during which he encountered an enormous anaconda that talked to him. He’d found his power animal.
The ceremony and preparations for the journey took three days. When he finally drank the liquid from the bark – which he described as disgustingly bitter – he got sick. Everyone does. Over and over again until you think there is nothing left in your stomach. Then you throw up again. Then the visions begin.
After encountering the anaconda, another animal – a black panther – approached Hugo. He couldn’t tell what was a hallucination and what was real. He thought the panther was a physical creature and freaked out when the panther charged him and passed right through him.
We always wanted to try the bark ourselves, but in our three trips to the Amazon, we were the organizers, the ones supposedly in charge of the journalists who joined us. Maybe we should’ve advertised one of the trips as an ayahuasca journey. We probably would’ve traveled much farther than the Amazon on that one!
I’ve read about this drug and it sounds like you would want to have someone with you to guide you that knew what they were doing. I just remember people having bad trips on LSD back in the day. I’m going to my first Shamanic retreat next weekend. She said I should find my power animal, and learn to journey. We’ll see!
Can’t wait to hear how it goes, Nancy!
Stay well, Nancy. I hope it turns out as wonderful as you hope it does.
I’m with Connie….I don’t need the drugs.x
The clips mentioned by Darren about Bruce Parry were from a series of programmes on UK television. I remember his ‘trip’ well – the sickness part wasn’t too good to watch! Liked the synchro.
I’ll have to to see if we can find these programs in the U.S.!
Interesting. I just read Sting’s “Broken Music” a month ago and he wrote about his experience on this drug. The violent vomiting is enough to prevent me to try it, as I hate vomiting. Sting’s experience seemed to be negative (regarding what he saw) while his wife had a more pleasant experience.
A friend of mine who uses drugs is an atheist after having been religious. He claims that the stuff he saw while on drugs proves to him that all mystical experiences are a chemical reactions in the mind and therefore cannot be transcendent or “real.” What do people think of that? Do these hallucinagenics reflect a mere chemical imagination in the mind, or are they “authentic” spiritual experience? I’ve meditated and experienced beautiful images and received answers. I’d hate to think that it was all a chemical reaction in the mind. Perhaps because I can achieve a blissful state through meditation is why I don’t feel a need to experiment with drugs. That stuff is too scary!
I just don’t buy the chemical imagination explanation. Most scientists say that’s what near-death experiences are, too.
Re:
“Sting’s experience seemed to be negative”
Whilst I did read somewhere that he had a few scary experiences (and I think he discusses those in the full interview on the DVD from what I remember) under the brew,his overall experience seemed to be very positive.
Here is a clip of Sting discussing his trip with Daniel Pinchbeck;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1lOQ7DpkgI
It’s from Pinckbeck’s doco “2012:A Time for Change”,which is really worth a viewing.The full Sting interview is in the special features section of the DVD and is worth buying just for that interview.
Sting’s daughter lives (or lived…I don’t know if she does now) at Byron Bay,by the way.I’m told he often visits the area.
Haven’t seen that documentary. Onto our list it goes. Thanks, Daz!
Religion means different things to different people. Many religious actually believe in tradition, customs and differences between “us” and “them” more than anything else. Even if all mystical/psychedelic/transpersonal experiences (I know how an LSD trip looks like just by playing with my imagination during half-awake states) can be physically and scientifically explained, they are not “just that”. When you for instance love someone or something, it’s not just another chemical/electromagnetic reaction in your brain.
What a funny synchronicity!
I would have loved to go on such a tour with you.
I have heard several people say that their experience with Ayahuasca was very frightening, that there was a kind of fear threshold they had to pass through.
Would love to hear more about Hugo’s experience with his power animal. I’ve had some visionary experiences of my own when working with a shamanic journey circle, wish that I was still doing this work with a group.
I wish we could remember more about Hugo’s story with hs power animal!
P.S. years ago when ether was the anestheitc of choice and practically the only one available for surgical procedures where deep anesthesia was essential, the anesthesiologists called these effects “ether dreams”. I seriously doubt that they were
“dreams”, but instead were trips into other realities. But again, keep it away from me!!!
I have a close friend, a doctor, who for many years led groups on tours to the sacred sites in Peru. A shaman gave him the substance and “guided” his use. He later reported to me that his experience was phenomenal, indescribable, etc. As for me, I would never in a million years intentionally use it or any other hallucinogenic. However, I don’t put down people who do. I personally have enough visions and OBEs and encounters with who-knows-what and other types of experiences while sober as a judge. Of course this may mean I’m crazy as a loon, but maybe not. As far as the above-mentioned drug, my one intense, inexplicable phobia, (the fear, which likely arises from a horrific past-life experience, is so great it brings on life-threatening panic attacks), is vomiting, so I certainly would stay as far away from this one as possible. But I’ve heard and read accounts from many others who’ve taken it, and find it provocative. Just as an aside, the old general anesthetic ETHER had (has) similar effects……vomiting, fantastic and amazing visions, almost Alice-Through-The-Looking-Glass-type effects. Go figure.
This is one thing I never discuss on my blogs: drug use, past or present. So I certainly understand the need to stay anonymous. However, I have never heard of this particular substance before. I have “heard” that peyote also makes you really sick but the visuals are nothing like described here. I’m curious enough to go check it out on the Magic Box (Google). Thanks for the information.
The getting sick part probably discourages a lot of people from experimenting with this drug.
I would love to do an ayahuasca trip,but I hate throwing up so much (I always feel like I’m going to choke to death…and sometimes I nearly do) that I avoid it at all costs.
This is a great clip of a British guy going through a life changing Iboga trip.
Worth watching…even if I don’t think it would be worth doing for me personally.
There are three parts to it,hence the three links;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA0LD_OrmEE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqZByUisD8&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6xWY1u0Ess&feature=related
Bruce Parry Trips Again – The hallucinogen Iboga – Altered States of Consciousness.
He also does an ayahuasca trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APky-ukvRtM&feature=related
but I found the Iboga trip he did more interesting to watch.