Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Original ayahuasca piece

As mentioned in the previous post, this is in danger of disappearing from the web (though the wayback machine still has it). Another link. I think it's worth saving.





WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN YOU TAKE AYAHUASCA?


Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew mostly composed of Banisteriopsis caapi vine and can be combined with various other plants. The natural ingredients to prepare this medicine can only be found in the deepest jungles of South America; the amazons rain forest.
For hundreds of years, Indigenous tribes of South America have been using this ancient elixir to reconnect with the spiritual world and cleanse their bodies from all the negative energies they have collected through their long journeys. However, Ayahuasca serves a higher purpose; to help people reach enlightenment and a higher consciousness level. It is said that once you try this psychedelic brew, you’ll never look at life the same way.
This sacred elixir can help a person to awaken their intuition and reach consciousness by opening their mind to an experience out of the ordinary. This is why Shamans often say that this plant has its own soul. They call it “planta maestra” which means sacred plant. This sacred plant will take you into a journey to the world of the unkown, a world that very few people have had the chance to see.

The world of the spirits


After one hour, I started to think that maybe I was not worthy of having any visions. I felt sick and I was starting to feel disappointed. Suddenly, I began to see beautiful colors all around me. It felt like if I wasn’t in the same room anymore. The colors started to form shapes and faces.
They were not human faces and looked more like plants and leaves mixed with geometrical symbols. Is very hard to describe what the spirits looked like because there is nothing in this world that resembles them. Then, after a few minutes, I could see them clearly.
The room was full of spirits! I could see them everywhere. They were all dancing around and interacting with the humans. I noticed that people couldn’t see them. The spirits were next to them helping, talking, healing, playing and hugging them.
I noticed an old American man who was puking a lot. He looked very sick but he wasn’t alone. There were multiple spirits next to him, rubbing his back and holding him so he wouldn’t fall.

The ceremony felt as if we were in a big carnival, where spirits and humans joined together to celebrate. These beings were filled with love and concerns for people’s well being. They were flying around, helping people and having fun at the same time. They looked like little kids just enjoying life. The spirits were of all shapes;small ones, big ones and very big ones. Then suddenly, a spirit that was flying around saw me and said:
- Look, look! He has woken up! Look at him!
The spirit had a big smile on his face.  As he got closer to me, my first reaction was to try to touch him and to feel him but my hands would just go through him. More and more spirits approached me, one of them said laughing:
- He is a very curious one!
Then another spirit came next to me and offered me a fruit:
- Here, eat, eat!
Without thinking twice, I quickly grabbed the fruit and eat it. This fruit was like no fruit that exists in our world.  It was circular and was composed of beams of light from different colors that looked liked like crystals. It was tasteless to the tongue but I felt an ecstasy of energy going through my body. I was so fascinated by all of them that I quickly forgot about my physical discomfort. They were beautiful. I looked at them with amazement and asked:
- Who are you?
They replied at the same time:
- We are the spirits of the Ayahuasca.
One of them approach me and said; I feel that you feel alone, but don’t worry that won’t last for long; all you need is a little love. Then they all started hugging me and fixing my pillow to make me feel more comfortable. I could feel so much love in my heart that a tear fell off my cheek. I hadn’t feel that kind of love in years.
They were pure, strong, powerful, playful, wise, joyful and innocent. They loved shamanic music and would dance to it nonstop. It was like a big party for them.
One of them asked me with a big smile “why do you put mud on your hair?” He was clearly referring to the gel I had put on my hair that morning.  He even called other spirits to come look at my “muddy hair” and they all started poking it.
They were really curious, almost like children. They we were all laughing about it. The spirit insisted that I touched my hair and when I did, it felt like I was touching dry mud. I finally understood what the spirit was talking about – whatever I was putting on my hair was indeed a very strange human habit.
Seeing them all having fun and dancing was a majestic privilege. Then, I remembered the purpose of my trip. I had a lot of questions that needed answers. I focused and without wasting any time I said:
-I have so many questions to ask! I don’t know where to begin! What’s the purpose of life?! How do I reach happiness?
An older spirit approached me and just replied:
Just relax and enjoy the present moment, what you are experiencing now only comes once in a life time. Stop worrying, just enjoy the moment. Appreciate it. The answers to those questions will come at their right time.
I was a bit confused about what the spirit had told me. So I asked again:
- “Well can you at least tell me what I need to change in my life?
The spirit smiled at me and told me:
-“You don’t need to worry about that. You are on the right track. Just look at where you are right now! In the end everything will be okay, just enjoy the ride.”
At that moment, I felt like he didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that in fact the spirit had answered my question but I wasn’t ready to understand it.I still had a lot to learn from the spiritual world.
He was trying to tell me that the key to happiness is to appreciate the present moment and not worrying about the future or past. I was thinking about my questions so much that even when I was in a beautiful world with the spirits, I wasn’t appreciating that experience because I was thinking too much. The key to happiness is to enjoy every second of the present moment.
Being in the world of the spirit was amazing. That’s when I realized that the physical world wasn’t the only world. There’s a lot more than we do not know about. I was feeling so much bliss and love that I told them:
-“This is so amazing. How come people don’t know about this?! We should tell everyone about this and help them wake up! we should help the whole world.”
One of the spirits replied with a soft smile:
- “Listen, instead of worrying about changing the world, you should start by helping yourself first. That’s the first step for change. You can’t give what you dont have, so you must create happiness in your life first to be able to give to others”.
I asked the spirits how come they never tried helping humans. They reply with a little  laugh:
- In fact, we are always with the humans every single second of their lives. It’s just that humans choose not to see us.
After some time, I started to see less and less of the spirits. I realized I was coming back to reality. I felt sad and scared that I might never see them again. Then one of the spirit said “We are always there. Even when you can’t see us with your eyes, we are always there.”
Ayahuasca was one of the experiences that made me feel sure that there’s more in life than just the physical world we live in. It opened my mind; I realized anything is possible in this universe. There is magic in life, we just have to look a little bit closer.  I also learned about the main goal in life is to follow your heart and be happy.
Don’t take life too seriously, because like Shakespeare said: “Life is but a dream”. Life is a dream and when we die we awake to another world.
By: Raphael Echeverri

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