rainforest medicine
Ayahuasca – Medicine for the Soul Part 3
Ayahuasca, is regarded as the "gate" of the soul. The third part of this article continues explore this fascinating plant preparation of the Amazon rainforest. Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made of ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) and sheet chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). Both are a potent drug that has one in the visionary world. The vine is an inhibitor which contains harmala and harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf contains vision inducing alkaloids. Like all natural medicines, is a mixture of many alkaloids that makes their unique properties.
My first real encounter with the plant world of the shamans was when I first arrived in the Amazon some fourteen years. At the time I got off the plane in Iquitos felt like it was beaten by the energy beam. I was very excited that I could not sleep for two days, my senses were on a heightened state of awareness, and felt like I could hear the heartbeat of the forest itself.
Iquitos is a city in the Amazon jungle, no roads (completed anyway) to it. The only way to get there is by air or river boat. The city in the 19 th century was the center of the rubber industry, but by the 20th century the rubber trade had moved to the Far East, and the city had fallen into disrepair and decay. Now is a place with no apparent purpose resplendent in its post-colonial splendor, literally in the middle of nowhere, a true frontier town.
I remember my first moments in Iquitos on the Malecon standing on the edge of the city overlooking the river and about 3,000 miles of pure rainforest spread out before me, an exhilarating experience which still fills me with awe and admiration.
I had arrived Iquitos, a long time interest and desire to experience first hand the living tradition of plant spirit medicine and, of course, the magical drink Ayahuasca that I had heard so much.
I would not be disappointed, my first session with a shaman in an open jungle clearing changed my view and understanding of life, a spiritual epiphany. I have experienced being in the center of creation. I had the realization and the experience I was not independent, but an intrinsic part, a discrete element in the vast cosmic mind or the field of consciousness, and they were connected. All part of a great mind, and our experience of "separation" was merely an illusion generated by our being in our bodily vehicle which housed our senses.
One of my most profound experiences in a ceremony Ayahuasca, when I was what I felt like the center of creation. I was in the cosmos witnessing totality, planets, stars, nebulae, and training universes. Everywhere lay most intricate patterns and geometric complexity of the fluid is constantly changing size and shape. The chanting of the shaman was filling each cell with an electric force, all ports on my body was vibrating and it felt like I was being bodily lifted into the air. I was in a temple sound, vibration and happiness. giants gathered around me were in suits adorned with gold and multicolored feathers fanned me fuming and these were the spirits of ayahuasca, and then that voice soft and gentle and exquisitely soft and sensual told me about the creation and universal mind.
To reinforce this poetic vision, the words before me in bold as neon script. When I told this after the session to the master said, "Ayahuasca wanted to understand ", and continued," Ayahuasca opens the doors to different dimensions. Often, the mind can be obstructed access to inner knowledge. Ayahuasca can open the mind to abstract things that can not be seen in the material world. If I had not had the experience would not be able to believe that a tree can have your own world or have a spirit. But when you start to discover these personal dimensions, slowly begin to recognize and accept the mystery of it. "
About the Author
Howard G. Charing, is an international workshop leader on shamanism. He has worked some of the most respected and extraordinary shamans & healers in the Andes, the Amazon Rainforest, and the Philippines. With Peter Cloudsley he organises specialist retreats to the Amazon Rainforest. He is the author of the best selling book, Plant Spirit Shamanism.
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