Symbosity

Category: Modalities

Learn about different healing and spiritual modalities to explore your consciousness and tap into other realms of information.

  • Why Didn’t I Experience Anything When I Took Ayahuasca?

    Over the years Ayahuasca has built up the reputation of being some transcendental medicine that can change a person’s life in a single cup. Don’t get me wrong, it can do amazing things, but it might not work in the ways that you expect.

    I’ve met plenty of people who have flown to South America to sit in a ceremony under the impression that Ayahuasca will solve all of their problems, only to find that it fell short. Perhaps they felt a little unusual, it stimulated some thoughts and maybe they purged, however, the experience died down before it really began.

    So they take cup after cup and the same thing happens.

    Nada…

    Where are the mind-blowing visuals and the entities you hear so much about? Where are the profound realizations and deep-rooted healing? Was it all just drummed up from the overactive imaginations of people who don’t know what they’re talking about, or is there some truth to this?

    Sometimes people feel disappointed or even resentful after traveling far and spending a good chunk of hard-earned cash on an experience that didn’t meet its impossible expectations. So this is something I want to discuss in this article.

    Does Ayahuasca promise you a profound, transcendental experience? Does it always work?

    Let’s talk about it.

    Does Ayahuasca always give you a powerful experience?

    Ayahuasca intention artwork

    After hearing all the crazy experiences that people have, sometimes people are left frustrated when their Ayahuasca experience doesn’t seem to move the needle.

    And I get it.

    When you think of Ayahuasca, you tend to think of some life-changing experience your entire life has been building up to. Everyone raves about how transformative the medicine is, and that they can never return to their old, unenlightened life after sitting with it.

    But often these stories are blown a little out of proportion. With that said, Ayahuasca definitely can cause out-of-this-world experiences, I’ve had many myself. But it should not be expected (or necessarily desired).

    The experiences people have while under the influence of Ayahuasca can vary widely and are often unpredictable.

    You might be thrust into another dimension, wondering what on Earth you’ve done. Likewise, you might experience nothing at all, yawning away the hours until the next cup is offered. The depth of the experience ranges from no noticeable experience at all to experiences of ego death and transcendence.

    So let’s break it down. In my experiences, here are some different thresholds of an Ayahuasca experience.

      • Mild levels of an Ayahuasca experience: Often accompany minor changes in thoughts and feelings. Maybe more introspective with some subtle closed-eye visual patterns and colors, however, you generally feel grounded and relatively sober.

      • Mid-levels of an Ayahuasca experience: Tangible changes in perception, thoughts, and feelings. You will likely experience visions, replay memories, and have realizations, although they may or may not be profound. You may perceive other entities or spirits in the space and get swept away in emotions and feelings. Visions, thought trains, and experiences may change irrationally making you feel disoriented or ungrounded. Motor skills such as walking may be impaired.

      • Deeper levels of an Ayahuasca experience: The deep levels of an Ayahuasca experience can feel like you’re transported to another place as these experiences can come on quickly. You likely have very vivid both open-eye and closed-eye visuals which can be of colors, patterns, and fractals. Visions can be intense and profound, and you may feel like you’re downloading information. You often see, feel, and perceive entities that may interact with you. Often these experiences accompany profound insights, realizations, and mystical experiences.

    Regardless of whether you have a deep experience or a mild one, the medicine is still working.

    Sometimes people believe that the medicine didn’t work on them because they didn’t have a visual experience. This is a common Ayahuasca misconception because even if you didn’t get any profound insights or realizations, or purge, it is still cleaning you.

    Likewise, regardless of how deep your experience is, you may or may not purge. Purging is a mechanism to release stagnant or stubborn energies from your body. Sometimes I hear people say how disappointed they were because they didn’t purge, but because you didn’t purge doesn’t mean the medicine didn’t clean you.

    You don’t need to have a transcendental experience or purge to benefit from Ayahuasca. As long as you consume the medicine, it will be cleaning you in the background, whether it manifests into the experience or not.

    Why ayahuasca didn’t work for you

    So, why might Ayahuasca not give you an intense, visceral experience while it does for others?

    To be honest, nobody knows exactly why this phenomenon happens, however how we view it may play a role. Viewing Ayahuasca as a machine that gives consistent results is not the most accurate outlook, rather it’s better to see it as something that’s organic and has a mind of its own.

    Ayahuasca is a spirit. In shamanic traditions, at least, it’s known as a conscious, intelligent being that interacts with us. Just because we ingest the medicine doesn’t mean the spirit will show up in full force, or that you will perceive it.

    With that said, some factors that may influence your experience include:

    • Your body is acclimatizing to the medicine: I’ve been told many times that the spirit of Ayahuasca likes to get to know you before throwing you into the deep end. When you drink the medicine it may take some time to get to know who you are, what you’re looking for, and more importantly, what you need. I’m not saying that you can’t have very intense experiences right off the bat, but it can take time to get to that stage.

    • You have expectations: Intentions are good, but expectations can work against you. In my view, having expectations about the experience can create a forcing current. People seem to have better experiences when they’re not expecting anything from the experience and are rather open to whatever it wants to show them (or not show them).

    • You need to clean up first: Impurities can act as blockages. Imagine that your body is like a drain clogged with grime that doesn’t allow the water to pass through. Energetically, if everything is blocked up due to a poor diet and other lifestyle factors, the medicine may not be able to work its magic as effectively.

    • You weren’t ready, even if you think you were: Sometimes, people just aren’t ready to have super deep experiences with Ayahuasca. This may be on either a conscious or subconscious level, or perhaps you’re not prepared to let go of what’s holding you back, so it translated into the experience.

    • There’s a learning curve: One thing most people never consider is that it often takes practice to go deeper. I know, sounds strange, but the more we sit with the medicine, the more we learn how to surrender to it, work with it, and seep deeper into the experience. There may be no issue, maybe it just takes time to learn how to work with the medicine which might come with experience.

    With that said, sometimes the medicine just doesn’t seem to give certain people much of an experience. I’ve met quite a few people who would never experience anything, regardless of how many ceremonies they sat in, how many cups they drank, or how many rules they abided by.

    Whether there is some sort of genetic component or not I can’t tell you. What I do know is that Ayahuasca is an organic process and it treats everyone differently.

    It doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do to increase the likelihood of having deeper, more profound experiences with the medicine.

    How to reach deeper levels of Ayahuasca

    The ayahuasca vision

    Often, the Ayahuasca experience seems to be random, like a game of roulette. After drinking the medicine you might be blasted into another realm, and you might notice no difference whatsoever.

    However, having worked alongside hundreds of people who have sat with this medicine, I’ve picked up some trends. Here are some things you can do to increase your chances of having a profound experience:

    • Abide by the dieta: People are suggested to do a dieta to clean up their bodies both physically and energetically before working with the medicine. My advice is not to half-ass it. Do it properly and adequately prepare for the experience, both physically and mentally. Although you can still have some breakthroughs without doing a dieta at all, it does seem to make a difference.

    • Surrender to the medicine: I believe the biggest barrier generally comes from resistance, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. Ayahuasca responds to your energy and intentions. If you’re nervous, worried, or afraid of going into these deeper, darker places, this may act as a block.

    • Set intentions: Your intentions act as your navigational compass. If you don’t know why you’re there or what you want out of the experience, it might not be very profound. When people have a very strong intention and know exactly why they’re there, they generally tend to have more profound experiences.

    • Be genuinely respectful: Think about it this way. If you’re being disrespectful to someone and demanding their time, do you think they’re going to give it to you? Spirits aren’t so different. Why would they invite you into their home and provide you with wonderful gifts and insights if you’re taking it for granted? The best way to go deeper into an ayahuasca journey is to be very respectful of the medicine.

    • Be humble: In my experiences, it seems that whenever I get a big head and tell myself “I’m going to go super deep this time” it never happens. On the other hand, when I just allow from a place of humility, it seems to be a very different experience. Therefore, I suggest that you be as humble as possible when taking the medicine.

    Realize that even if you do everything in your power and follow all the above, it doesn’t guarantee that you will experience anything during an Ayahuasca ceremony.

    This is why it’s so important to have trust in the medicine that it will do what it needs to do, and let go of expectations. Whether you have a deep, transcendental experience or don’t experience much at all, know that the medicine is giving you everything you need.

  • All About Niños Santos and the Spiritual Meaning of Mushrooms

    We all know that psilocybin mushrooms are powerful tools to work through emotions and connect with the cosmos, but how well do you know the spiritual meaning of them?

    Most of us see mushrooms as nothing more than entheogenic substances with no inherent meaning, but different traditions offer different lenses to view them. In shamanic traditions, mushrooms are ancestral medicines and spiritual tools to access higher planes of information.

    Having worked closely with magic mushrooms in a ceremonial setting, it’s clear that there’s much more to these fungi than what meets the eye. In this article, I’ll cover the spiritual meaning of mushrooms, and we’ll discuss how they’re used within a ceremonial framework.

    Magic mushrooms in spiritual traditions

    spiritual meaning of mushrooms
    Sharing circle after a mushroom ceremony in the Sacred Valley, Peru

    Just like Ayahuasca and Wachuma which are central to shamanic practices in Latin America, so are their estranged fungi cousin – mushrooms.

    Magic mushrooms are going through a boom in all walks of life, from the scientific community to psilocybin-assisted therapy and spiritual retreats. Simply put, they’re making a comeback, and are gradually becoming a more accepted part of society in general.

    Most of us know that mushrooms can be useful tools in the world of healing, personal development, and spiritual growth, but there’s a lot more to them. Mushrooms are, and always have been rooted in spiritual tradition and shamanic practice in every corner of the world.

    This is what we’re going to look at.

    In South American traditions, magic mushrooms are known as “niños santos”, or the spirit of the child because they embody innocence, playfulness, and purity. They guide us back to our inner child and help us envision paths to reconstruct our lives, inside out.

    Just like a child’s innocence inspires playfulness, creativity, and joy, mushrooms help us reconnect with that part of ourselves that is so often lost as we ‘grow up’. We become overserious and bitter and tend to forget that we need more play in life.

    To enjoy. To experience the world through a lens of curiosity and wonder without becoming so consumed by the stress of adult life.

    but there’s a lot more to them…

    Mushrooms are spiritual tools

    Mushrooms help guide us toward our future selves and pave a path to get there. They have always played a role in elevating consciousness while symbolizing rebirth due to their cyclical nature growing from decay.

    While under the effects of mushrooms, people often feel connected to nature as they encourage introspection and thought. Although not necessarily common, people may undergo mystical experiences while under the effects of mushrooms including experiences of ego death, spiritual awakening, and rebirth.

    Mushrooms are associated with:

    • Reconnection with the inner child
    • The expansion of consciousness
    • Inner healing and emotional release
    • Spiritual awakening and the transmutation of consciousness
    • Mystical experiences
    • Death and rebirth

    If you’ve worked with these medicines enough, you might notice that there are similar tones between a mushroom experience and an Ayahuasca experience. That’s because they are both teacher plants that open the gates to our subconscious and dissolve the barriers between us and the universe.

    Each teacher plant has a different energy and is used for different reasons. Ayahuasca is mostly used as a healing plant, San Pedro as a heart opener that connects us to love, and mushrooms to learn more about oneself and begin constructing new paths.

    Think of Ayahuasca as a stern teacher while mushrooms are like an imaginative friend handing you a pen to rewrite your story. They invite you to co-create through introspection and reflection. You have more control over the narrative and can guide it with your intentions.

    Intentions are important with any teacher plant, but with mushrooms they are everything. Intentions during an experience with psilocybin mushrooms allow you to consciously address problems, map solutions, and shape the reality you desire.

    How do magic mushrooms help?

    Mushroom ceremonies offer a space for rebirth, renewal, and reflection under the guidance of healers.

    During my experiences participating in mushroom ceremonies, I gained a whole new appreciation for these teacher plants and realized how crucial the role of the ceremony is. I had taken mushrooms many times in my life as a way to reflect and process experiences, but under the guidance of shamans, it was a much more profound experience.

    My first mushroom ceremony was held in a pitch-black temazcal in a shamanic medicine community in Peru. The shaman who was facilitating the ceremony spoke about the importance of using intention and desire to build a path into the future – saying that this is a time to think about what we want in life, and how to begin achieving it.

    Unlike with Ayahuasca ceremonies, much more consideration goes into the narrative, or the process, as it’s believed that what you think about and believe during a mushroom ceremony will manifest into reality. The experience starts strong but slowly stabilizes into a gentler, smoother experience where it’s important to guide the journey and consciously create our realities.

    After setting intentions and saying prayers, we drank the mushroom tea and were led through a guided meditation to:

    • Focus on our intentions and direction for the ceremony
    • Connect with the breath to activate the mushrooms
    • Ground and feel connected to the Earth
    • Hold love for our mothers and fathers

    Within moments, I felt jolts of electricity channeling through my body. Visuals quickly became apparent as we were instructed to lie down on the Earth and get comfortable. I began melting into the Earth while the visuals opened up to an entirely new world.

    Like I was watching a high-definition TV screen, I instantly became immersed in an interdimensional space somewhat representing a cosmic labyrinth full of spirits and people walking around and interacting with me. It was unlike anything I’d experienced before: clear, vivid, and extremely profound. The detail was impeccable and I observed in awe.

    As I lay in silence observing the experience, the vivid visuals slowly eroded into plans, solutions, and a crystal-clear roadmap for how I could provide value to the shamanic center during the time I was working there.

    It was as though the mushrooms were architects, drafting blueprints for my future, not just showing possibilities but allowing me to emotionally experience and believe in their reality. More than just a mental exercise, it was a visceral experience: I could see, feel, and embody the future reality I wanted to create.

    So I played everything out and for hours, could only focus on the center – like building it brick by brick. I saw every message I would send, every design I would implement, everything. It was more than refining a vague, overall picture, but was rather extremely vivid.

    After integrating the experience, I put this plan into action which brings me to an important point.

    Just because you can create a roadmap for your envisioned reality doesn’t mean it will automatically come to fruition. You need to put in the work.

    Mushrooms and the inner child

    Mushrooms are spiritual allies that offer gentle guidance to connect us with divinity, heal past wounds, and chart new futures. They teach us to honor our inner child, embrace our creative potential, and consciously build the lives we want to live.

    Mushrooms are spiritual healers that subtly cleanse both body and soul. While they don’t trigger dramatic physical purges like Ayahuasca, they help the body expel toxins through the urine and quietly sweep away emotional and energetic clutter which creates space for renewal.

    As sacred medicines, mushrooms remind us that the answers we seek are within—waiting to be rediscovered with curiosity, intention, and respect.

  • Ayahuasca Spirits: More Than Entheogen-Induced Hallucinations

    With all the hype these days, I would be surprised if you haven’t heard of Ayahuasca. In fact, I bet you’ve heard some pretty wild stories – from traversing dimensions, contacting all sorts of spirits, and perhaps even having visits from our extraterrestrial friends.

    But where do we draw the line between something that’s tangibly real, and convincing hallucinations induced by a mind-altering substance? This is what I’m going to address in this article.

    Are Ayahuasca spirits real, or are they simply manifestations of the mind?

    The connection between Ayahuasca and entities

    Ayahuasca spirit

    First off, our consciousness is amazing!

    There’s so much more to it than what meets the eye, and some of its projections can feel extremely real. With that said, we need to draw a line between an internal process projected outwards, vs an external being that can be perceived under the effects of the medicine.

    Many of the things we see while under the effects of Ayahuasca are projections of our consciousness due to the entheogenic properties of the medicine. These projections can manifest as colors, patterns, abstract thoughts, and revisiting old memories.

    With that said, having spent quite a lot of time working with Ayahuasca, there’s not a doubt in my mind that spirits are real. Every shaman or medicine man will recognize the existence of spirits because Ayahuasca is one!

    But first, we need to iron out what a spirit is.

    In the shamanic world, everything has a spirit. Each tree, person, the elements, Earth, the sun, the moon, etc.

    Ayahuasca itself is known as a nurturing feminine spirit, which is where the term mother Ayahuasca comes from. The spirit of Ayahuasca responds to your thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and intentions in a way that can only be understood as having intelligence.

    On the other hand, the more common definition is that spirits are entities, or souls that exist beyond the material reality. For example, we may understand spirits as conscious beings like you and I, each with individual identities, personalities, intelligence, intentions, perhaps beliefs, thoughts, and egos.

    In this sense, spirits, as individual beings are also certainly real, and a deeply intertwined part of the Ayahuasca experience. The same way that any shaman will recognize Ayahuasca as a spirit, they will also recognize individual spirits.

    The thing about Ayahuasca spirits is that encounters are generally profound. It’s never really the case that you have a vague, blurry image of something that could well just be your imagination, because they:

    1. Are extremely vivid and often prominent with eyes open or closed
    2. Have an organic nature to them and respond to your intentions, feelings, and actions
    3. Often accompany deeply intuitive feelings and have a physical presence in the space
    4. Have different personalities. Some may observe you from a distance while others are mischievous, playful, curious, indifferent, etc.
    5. Communicate with you in the form of downloads, visions, and insights

    What do Ayahuasca spirits want?

    Ayahuasca can be viewed as a bridge into the spiritual realms. Sure, the medicine itself is a spirit in its sense – being a conscious, intelligent entity, but it also opens you up to higher realms that are teeming with life.

    Similar to astral projection, I see spirits in all sorts of forms during most ayahuasca ceremonies, and I’m certainly not the only one. In my experiences working alongside hundreds of individuals who have sat in ceremonies, a large percentage are convinced that they encountered spirits. Not the vague ‘eh, could have been’ type either, but more of ‘I will not forget this for the rest of my life’.

    So let me explain how this works from my understanding…

    Spirits are everywhere, but mostly, we can’t perceive them as they exist on another wavelength to us. Generally, it’s the people who are far along their spiritual pathway who acquire the ability to sense spirits. Likewise, people who develop a strong connection with Ayahuasca tend to be more receptive to the Ayahuasca spirits.

    The spirits you see during an Ayahuasca ceremony are external beings, or souls that come into the ceremony space to assist. We may or may not perceive them depending on how strong our connection is with the medicine.

    Because of the nature of an Ayahuasca ceremony, the spirits associated with it are generally healing spirits that enter the space to:

    • Search for dense energies, traumas, and things you’re carrying that no longer serve you
    • Assist you in purging something you need to let go of
    • Assist in opening your channels and chakras, and removing blocks
    • Providing information, knowledge, and insights that are necessary for your self-betterment

    With that said, it’s not uncommon for dark spirits to seep through the mesh. As ceremonies are protected spaces, dark spirits from the outside generally can’t enter the space, however, they can come in entity attachments, as people unknowingly bring them into the ceremony where the medicine flushes them out.

    Likewise, there are also neutral spirits, and many strange, odd, and interesting beings out there that can enter the ceremony space, so you never really know what you’ll see.

    What sorts of entities are out there?

    While working with Ayahuasca, I’ve encountered all sorts of things. Let me tell you, there’s so much more out there that most people would never imagine.

    But it’s all real.

    The first time I took Ayahuasca, I began to perceive some orbs, or wisps flying and around me, entering my body and repairing me like I was a mechanical machine. As these wisps left my body, two humanoid beings of pure white light appeared in front of me, reaching into my chest and pulling out this dark goop.

    This was my first encounter with a real spirit, but I’ve encountered more than I can count since then. One spirit took form as a colorful, vibrant nonhuman entity that just appeared out of nowhere in crystal clear HD, eyes open or closed didn’t matter.

    Other times I have seen angels, lost souls, alien-looking spirits, tall cosmic beings, dragons, deities, energies, orbs, and many strange nonhumanoid spirits, mostly of the light, but many neutral beings too. It’s a mixed bag.

    I know… sounds like I’m just making this up, however, these beings are as real as you and I.

    Then there’s a dark side to spirits too.

    Occasionally, I’ll bump into dark spirits, who feed from our negative energetic outlets such as fear, anger, and depression. One demonic spirit took the form of a black mist with three glowing white dots as eyes. This being was watching me, however, I felt protected in the ceremony space, almost as if there was a pane of glass between us where we could observe one another but not interact.

    Likewise, I have encountered dark spirits during astral projection on multiple occasions. One had no form, but a horrifying presence and a tangible voice, others have manifested as dark humanoid shadows – reaching into my solar plexus energy center.

    The spiritual realms are teeming with life, and when we learn to tap into them – either via natural abilities or developing abilities, we see a whole range of beings. In a way, this exposes us to their world, where they become more visible to us, and we also become more visible to them. Ayahuasca, of course, is one of the many roads to tap into the spiritual world.

    Each entity is a unique individual, just like each person is a unique individual, so we can’t necessarily blanket label them as a type or species.

    How does Ayahuasca connect you to spirits?

    Ayahuasca spirit

    Ayahuasca is a powerful medicine that does funny things to your brain but is also a gateway to spirit. When you consummate the medicine, you connect to the spirit of the medicine, creating a gateway to other realms of information.

    Think of it as if your feet remain planted on the ground, but your head drifts into the clouds. You’re still here in reality and aware of your surroundings, unless perhaps you break through which doesn’t happen as much as you think it would.

    However, while under the effects of Ayahuasca, all sorts of spirits, energies, and entities come through when this gateway is opened. Perceiving these beings can be anything from vague visuals that you take with a grain of salt, to full-blown interdimensional experiences where there is no doubt in your mind that you’re dealing with something real.

    In my experiences with Ayahuasca, often encounters are like being hit with a brick. At first, there will be nothing, and within a moment, there will be something in vivid detail, accompanied by a sinking or expansive feeling.

    These spirits are often very detailed as if I was watching on a high-definition TV, and they often accompany a feeling, such as a feeling of peace, love, or that intuitively I’m in good hands.

    These beings often move organically through the space, observing me, and sometimes communicating with me. They can manifest either as a form within physical reality – which I observe with my eyes open. Or they can be perceived by my 3rd eye, in which case it doesn’t matter whether my eyes are open or closed as they occupy another space outside of physical reality.

    Spirits tend to take on forms. From my understanding, this form can change depending on the entity, however, spirits don’t have a fixed form like we do.

    How do you communicate with spirits?

    When you’re in the spiritual dimension, everything is energetic, meaning there is no verbal communication. Although there have been times when I’ve heard a real voice talking to me in unknown languages, this appears to be out of the norm.

    You can’t verbally speak to them, you can’t use your body language, so how do you communicate?

    Within the spirit realms, communication is telepathic. When in the presence of an entity that is engaging you, generally you will just know. Telepathic communication with entities can feel like information is being beamed straight into your consciousness, which has advantages:

    • It’s direct, bypassing interpretation, understanding, ambiguity, etc. The information transferred is 100% accurate.
    • It’s instant and the information transferred doesn’t have limitations on time or speed of transfer
    • The capacity to acquire information is much higher. You can suddenly understand what might take a long time to learn otherwise

    Ultimately, telepathic communication is so much more efficient than verbal communication. While verbal communication is slow and clunky, telepathic communication is instant, powerful, and direct. It happens automatically as it comes straight from your soul nature, bypassing the comparatively inefficient nature of verbal communication.

    At times when I’ve encountered spirits, they have beamed me information. Sometimes this information was profound, sharing secrets of the universe and esoteric wisdom. At other times, I suddenly knew what I needed to do, or what I was communicating with.

    Telepathic communication feels like a sudden knowing, and it can kick in strong. Sometimes visions or insights accompany this communication.

    Beings also communicate through vibration. For example, if you encounter a spirit while feeling vibrations of love, gratitude, humility, and openness, the spirit will respond to this energy. If you feel fear, uncertainty, arrogance, or ill feelings towards the entity, it will likely move on or not engage you.

    This is why you want to hold a high vibration when you’re encountering spirits, with trust and love, knowing that they will respond to your energy.

    What to do when you encounter spirits

    If you take Ayahuasca regularly enough, you are very likely to encounter spirits. Usually when this happens, in my experience, it’s quite abrupt. Often the appearance of a spirit accompanies a strong intuitive sensation which is usually positive – knowing that the encounter is a good thing.

    When I encounter a spirit during an Ayahuasca ceremony, intuitively I know to let go and embrace it. This can be one of the most difficult parts especially if this is a new experience for you, because it can be a lot to take in.

    Sometimes, spirits will give you divine insight, open up channels, or remove blockages. Their gifts can manifest in many beautiful forms as long you allow them to work on you, which is why it’s important to surrender knowing that you’re in a safe environment.

    Sometimes, spirits will send you messages about your future, perhaps provide insights about the errors of your way, or show you a path to become the best version of yourself.

    Occasionally dark spirits pop up which can be frightening to some people. These spirits generally take the form of black entities that accompany feelings of fear. In some cases, spirits that are attached to people come out with the medicine where they must be confronted and sent to the light. Other spirits of light are likely to join in and help transmute the dark spirit.

    Although I have seen cases of possession during ceremonies, this is a rare phenomenon, and doesn’t cause harm. People can get possessed by spirits or channel spirits. If this happens, rest assured knowing that you’re in a good place, and the shaman will know what to do.

    As long as you’re contacting these spirits from a position of love and joy, only positive things will come from it. Therefore, the most important thing is to be secure and confident that you are safe, and feel love towards any entity that appears. Love is the ultimate weapon.

    To wrap up, Ayahuasca spirits are very real. They’re not figments of your imagination or manifestations of your mind. They are real entities that occupy these otherworldly spaces and come through when you consummate the medicine.

    Therefore, it’s always important to treat them with respect and openness while projecting feelings of love, humility, curiosity, and gratitude. I’ve learned that respect and tradition are a must when working with these powerful spiritual medicines.

  • Master Plant Dieta: What Is It And How Does It Work?

    Imagine stripping away the hustle and bustle of modern life and spending a month by yourself in the Amazon. Sounds like a dream, right? But why talk in hypotheticals… Isolating in the Amazon is a part of many Indigenous cultures which is commonly known as a master plant dieta.

    This tradition has been carried on for millennia by communities of the Amazon and is now much more widely available due to the rapid commercialization of the shamanic healing space.

    With that said, these processes are so much more than just immersing yourself in nature for a nice vacation. Doing a master plant dieta involves abiding to a strict dietary regime, cutting of social contact, working closely with a master plant, and participating in ceremonies.

    Needless to say, it’s not a walk in the park, but it’s an integral process for medicine people studying in Amazonian traditions who are seeking clarity, direction, and to deepen their relationship with a particular master plant.

    And that’s really the point.

    Master plant dietas open a doorway into ourselves via a strict process of purifying the mind, body, and soul – while working closely with a particular plant spirit and soaking up the wisdom it provides. In this article, I’ll tell you what to expect during a master plant dieta, and a little bit about my own experience doing one in the Peruvian Amazon.

    What is a master plant dieta?

    A master plant dieta can be seen as a type of shamanic initiation, unique to traditions in the Amazon. Typically, it’s understood as a process of purification where the student isolates in the jungle under a rigorous dietary regime, intending to develop a deeper connection with the master plant they are working with.

    With that said, a master plant refers to any plant that is central to shamanic healing and spiritual practice. These are plants that provide information, protection, or medicinal properties. Plants such as Ayahuasca and Wachuma are well-known examples of master plants in the shamanic healing sphere. However, master plants that people commonly work with during dietas aren’t entheogenic, including:

    • Bobinsana: A feminine plant known for its heart-opening properties, emotional healing, and ability to help the user channel icaros.
    • Coca: A sacred plant to the Incas commonly used in the Andes and used to connect with the ancestors.
    • Oje: Commonly used to treat digestive issues, purify the blood, and strengthen the memory.
    • Chirik Sanango: Renowned as a challenging plant due to its powerful effects, it’s known to make you stronger both physically and mentally.
    • Uchu Sanango: Taken for strength, power, protection, and enhancing spiritual energy.
    • Ushpawasha Sanango: A feminine plant known for promoting emotional balance, lucid dreams, and neural activity while awakening buried emotions and memories of the heart.
    • Shiwawaco: Taken for emotional stability, mental clarity, and clearing negative energy.
    • Chuchuwasi: Commonly known to help with sexual and reproductive issues and the healing of intergenerational themes.
    • Huambisa: Used for purification, emotional healing, and grounding.
    • Sangre de grado: Understood to heal wounds of the spirit.
    • Chanca Piedra: Used for detoxification, purification, and physical healing, particularly for liver and kidney health.
    • Mucúra: Calms the nervous system and relieves anxiety or stress. Is also used spiritually to bring energetic awareness and protect from witchery.
    • Ayahuma: Used for spiritual initiation, communication with spirits, and metaphysical healing, however, it is also associated with witchcraft.

    This process of dieting with a master plant provides cleansing on all levels and allows you to reemerge with newfound wisdom, knowledge, and guidance from the plant. People often work with plants that have medicinal or spiritual properties, and a master plant dieta can be seen as a sort of apprenticeship with a plant – to connect more deeply with its energy.

    Traditionally, this is how master plant dietas were done. They are integral to many Amazonian cultural practices, but they have been especially popularized by the Shapibo in recent years.

    Now the name of the game has changed with tourism and commercialization. Pay a few thousand dollars, spend a week or two in the Jungle, and viola – You’re a shaman Harry!

    But a master plant dieta is much more than simply isolating yourself and consuming a plant during a strict dieta. It’s about going inwards to receive information from the plant – as all plants have spirits, and can transmit knowledge and information.

    Therefore, a master plant dieta serves the purpose of:

    • Acting as a shamanic apprenticeship in some traditions, where medicine people often spend many months in dieta
    • Teaching the student through visions, dreams, and experiences that offer personal growth, healing, and guidance
    • Allowing the student to develop a relationship with the plant, creating a long-term spiritual connection that may enhance the individual’s healing practice or personal life
    • Helping the student cultivate a deeper connection to the spiritual realm and aiding them in developing spiritual gifts
    • Facilitating the passage of information, knowledge, and guidance from the plant
    • Acting as a purification process of the body, mind, and soul, cleansing the student of negative energies, thought patterns, and beliefs

    Why people do master plant dietas

    Pots and pans cooking Chuchuwasi in the Peruvian Amazon
    Preapring the plant Chuchuwasi

    Many plants, whether they’re entheogenic or not, have certain properties that once ingested can help us in some way. As I’ve been told, we absorb the properties of the plant we consume, so when we do a master plant dieta, we’re absorbing a lot of the plant’s energy.

    Some plants teach us things or can help cure certain physical, emotional, or psychological illnesses. Likewise, certain plants are good for certain things. For example, people who have sexual or reproductive issues such as PCOS or infertility issues may work with Chuchuwasi to heal these issues. Someone who wants to heal their heart or underlying emotional issues may work with Bobinsana – as the plant is known to help with these particular issues.

    Each plant has different properties and can help us in different ways.

    Master plants are wise teachers. Traditionally the indigenous, especially medicine people would do dietas in isolation as a way to connect more deeply with the plant, as it acts as part of their training.

    Depending on the plant that people work with, a master plant dieta can be a way to:

    • Develop a deeper communication with the plant
    • Receive divine guidance and higher spiritual awareness from the plant
    • Take on properties of the plant
    • Attain insights, knowledge, and wisdom from the plant
    • Develop stronger focus and discipline
    • Reflect and encourage meaning and direction
    • Heal physical, mental, or emotional illness
    • Restore health and equilibrium
    • Purify oneself physically, mentally, and spiritually.
    • Increase resilience, stamina, and endurance
    • Ward off negative energies and spirits

    Master plant dieta guidelines

    Master plant dieta food
    Food for the master plant dieta

    In July 2024 I did a 1-week master plant dieta with Uchu Sanango – A powerful non entheogenic plant that helps people develop inner strength and deeper clarity. It is also said to help open the third eye and enhance spiritual foresight, often inducing dizziness, nausea, vivid dreams, and recycling old memories to be discarded.

    My dieta began by helping the healer harvest the Uchu Sanango after a brief meeting to discuss the plants and determine what to work with. He gave me the green flag to work with Uchu Sanango – one of the more potent plants they do dietas with, and away I went.

    The healer and his son prepared the plant into a liquid which was then put in a bottle and given to me to take a shot of twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening. During the master plant dieta, I could only eat the food they prepared for me and brought to my cabin once a day, consisting of mostly white rice, green plantains, and grains.

    Needless to say, I didn’t get out of bed for the food. It was tasteless without condiments or seasoning, however, each day I was given a big meal with tea.

    During this week I stayed in a small rustic cabin, somewhat isolated from the Main cabins, social area, and ceremony space, however, it was just a small walk. Although I was free to do what I wanted, during my master plant dieta I was suggested to:

    • Isolate as much as possible and avoid social contact
    • Only eat the food that was prepared and brought to me
    • Avoid unnatural chemicals (soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc.)
    • Take care of my energy (rest lots, reflect, write, etc.)

    I also participated in an Ayahuasca ceremony, both to commence and to end it. At the center, people mentioned that the closing Ayahuasca ceremony is when you meet the spirit of the plant you’re working with, as it tends to manifest into the journey.

    The week went quickly and I didn’t feel any heavy effects from the Uchu Sanango, as many people describe. I do believe the medicine helped me discard old memories that no longer served a purpose, and every night I seemed to dream about my deepest fears, eventually realizing that it wasn’t so bad.

    Therefore, the dieta I believe helped with some emotional and mental healing, and acted as a powerful detox and uniquely riching experience, however, I can’t say I gained any profound insights or visions from it as some people mention.

    What does a master plant dieta include?

    Master plant dieta accommodation
    Lodging for the master plant dieta

    Often, people participate in Master plant dietas at well-established shamanic healing centers, for anywhere between a week to 6 months. Generally, this includes:

    • Accommodation: Often rustic bamboo-styled huts without electricity or water
    • Food: Generally, you’re given 1 or 2 meals a day of plain rice, grains, and plantains
    • Consultation: Often you will consult with the center or shaman about what medicine to work with
    • Medicine: You’re given the medicine to take daily, or multiple times a day
    • Ceremonies: Most medicine centers include weekly or biweekly Ayahuasca ceremonies
    • Extras: Some places also include workshops, flower baths, cleansings, and other miscellaneous activities

    Of course, each place you do a master plant dieta in is run a little differently, but these are the core ingredients.

    Generally speaking, it’s quite expensive to participate in a master plant dieta, often costing upwards of $1000 per week, all included. These days, it seems that master plant dietas have become a luxury – I guess ever since the demand rose and due to the rapidly growing tourism industry regarding shamanic medicine.

    But is it worth spending thousands of dollars to isolate in the Amazon under the guidance of a healer?

    It depends.

    If you want to do one just for the experience, paying so much for a master plant dieta probably isn’t worth it. If you’re committed to the shamanic path and genuinely seek a deeper connection with the plant you’re working with, then master plant dietas can be worth the money.

    Of course, this is a rule of thumb.

    Some communities still offer master plant dietas at a low price, or as an exchange. However, most of these places are tricky to find and come with logisitical challenges as they are often small, nontouristic Indigenous communities nestled deep in the Amazon. They are likely very rustic without internet or a website, and I very much doubt the communities would speak any English. In these cases, it’s mostly word of mouth – knowing someone who knows someone, etc.

    Most foreigners seeking a master plant dieta go to larger, more well-known retreat centers that charge a steeper price, but cater to English-speaking foreigners. Generally, the more well-established centers are still just as authentic, albeit more business-oriented.

    With that said, it’s always best to steer on the side of caution.

    There are plenty of centers out there that aren’t integral to the practices and training and do it more as a money-making scheme. Similar to seeking out Ayahuasca ceremonies, it’s best to do your research and find a reputable place where you work with healers who have deep roots with these traditions.

    Where to do a master plant dieta

    Master plant dieta lodging

    Master plant dietas are most commonly done in Peru. There is a big culture for them, especially in the Amazon – around Puculpa, Iquitos, and Tarapoto.

    Regarding how to do them, generally, it’s pretty straightforward. Many centers offering master plant dietas have websites where you can easily book one in. Just doing a quick Google search for “master plant dietas in Peru” will give you a list of different centers that are generally quite reputable, although I can’t vouch for them as I have only been to one center.

    I went to Magia del Duende in Chazuta, about an hour from Tarapoto. This center is by far the cheapest I have seen, but it was a very authentic experience will very knowledgeable healers. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to do a master plant dieta without breaking their bank account.

    Otherwise, there are some other places I’ve heard good things about, including Jochipapanete, and Temple of the Way of Light, however, these places will cost you a premium.

    Needless to say, there are many great centers out there, just be diligent, check out the reviews and testimonials, and do it somewhere reputable. Enjoy your journey into self!

  • The Diet For Ayahuasca: Just How Important Is It?

    Before sitting in an Ayahuasca ceremony, it’s common practice to follow a specific diet – or dieta –  for anywhere between a few days to a couple of weeks. The diet for Ayahuasca serves an important function – which is to prepare and restore the body and mind to optimal states for the medicine to work with.

    People often consider the diet for Ayahuasca to be an essential part of the experience, one that many claim can have severe adverse effects if not adhered to. But is the Ayahuasca diet absolutely necessary, or has its significance been exaggerated over the years?

    Although some people stick to the diet for Ayahuasca religiously, it’s actually more of a suggestion than a mandatory regime that must be adhered to. Here I’ll explain what the diet for Ayahuasca is, what role it plays in the preparation of an Ayahuasca ceremony, and how you should navigate it when anticipating an upcoming ceremony.

    What is the purpose of a diet for Ayahuasca?

    Diet for ayahuasca

    The Ayahuasca diet can be seen as a period of physical and mental preparation preceding an Ayahuasca ceremony. It’s a standard protocol in which the participant adheres to a strict diet and cuts out any impurities that may negatively interact with the medicine.

    In a nutshell, the purpose of a diet for Ayahuasca is to restore the body to a neutral state – which facilitates an easier passage to commune with the medicine.

    Think of it this way.

    If the medicine acts as a bridge to spirit, impurities act as roadblocks. Impurities in the form of oil, refined sugar, alcohol, and artificial chemicals can act as obstacles for the medicine to work through you. If you have a lot of garbage in your body, the medicine needs to remove the garbage before it can get to the real stuff!

    Imagine that your mind and body are a sponge. The medicine soaks into this sponge and permeates every fiber of it – which allows it to dredge up trauma, discard impurities, and clear blockages. If this sponge is already soaked with dirty water, the medicine won’t be able to do its job properly because it needs to compete with that dirty water.

    On the other hand, if you’re in a pure (or as pure as possible) state, the medicine can more easily seep into every crevice of your mind and body to facilitate deeper levels of healing and transformation.

    Many people take the diet for Ayahuasca very seriously and believe that it heavily influences the journey. Undergoing a dieta, at least for a few days is heavily recommended, but what does it actually change?

    How does the Ayahuasca dieta influence the Ayahuasca journey?

    There are a few reasons why it’s important to have a clean vessel when working with this sacred plant. In the same way that consuming too much junk can make us mentally cloudy and lethargic, having excessive impurities in your body can cloud the Ayahuasca journey. First off, when you are in a good state of health, the Ayahuasca journey is likely to be:

    • Clearer: Insights, realizations, and reflections tend to make more sense. Messages also tend to come through with more clarity.
    • More vivid: The visuals, journeys, and accompanying information tend to be more cohesive and vivid rather than vague and confusing.
    • Easier: Often people purge less and have smoother experiences because the medicine has fewer impurities to remove.
    • More healing: Ayahuasca generally moves the needle more on your healing when fewer impurities are obscuring it.

    When your body is in poor form, you will likely purge more as the medicine needs to remove a lot of this surface junk before it can get to the core issues. Instead of all of the medicine going towards the deeper issues you’re there to resolve, much of the energy will be wasted clearing up superficial junk that you can do yourself.

    With that said, Ayahuasca is a powerful medicine. You want to be prepared when you take it because you’re setting yourself up for a bad trip if you aren’t. If you have been filling your body with crap and don’t feel at your best, these dense feelings will likely translate into the experience.

    In my opinion, the medicine seems to punish people when they have been disrespecting their bodies before taking the medicine. Believe me, you will know when you’re getting punished by Mother Aya.

    There have been times when I figuratively spat on the dieta by drinking alcohol and smoking many cigarettes the night before a ceremony, then filling up on meat and fried food the day of the ceremony. Needless to say, the medicine gave me an ass-whooping.

    During the times I didn’t diet before an Ayahuasca ceremony, the experiences were generally very unpleasant. They were dark, uninsightful, and usually involved my head slumped in the vomit bucket the entire night. Occasionally the purging would last for hours and empty my tank completely, leaving me exhausted – praying for the experience to come to an end.

    But horror stories aside, there have been times when I didn’t take the dieta too seriously and also had wonderful experiences. So I think there’s more at play than just what you put into your body.

    In my experience, a contributing factor to these rather brutal episodes was not necessarily how I treated my body, but because I disrespected the medicine. Ayahuasca is an intelligent spirit. It knows when you’re not taking it seriously, and you know when it knows that you’re not taking it seriously.

    When you disrespect the medicine by loading up on crap before a ceremony, the medicine seems to respond. Sometimes it will give you hell, other times it may block you out completely. Regardless, you’re likely to have a sub-par experience if your body is in a poor state when working with the medicine.

    What’s involved in the diet for Ayahausca?

    Ayahuasca dieta

    When people prepare for an Ayahuasca ceremony, they often cut out anything that can be considered an impurity. As the purpose of an Ayahuasca dieta is to restore your mind and body to their optimal states which bridges a stronger connection to the spirit of Ayahuasca, it is necessary to cut out the junk.

    However, there are two sides to the Ayahuasca diet, the physical dieta, and the lesser-known estranged cousin – the mental dieta. One side pertains to what you consume, which is what usually comes to mind when referring to an Ayahuasca dieta, and the other side pertains to mental preparation.

    Both are necessary components.

    Traditionally, medicine men and individuals from Indigenous communities practiced rituals where they spent time in solitude in the jungle while sticking to an extremely raw diet in preparation for an Ayahuasca ceremony. They would have no social contact, and spend their time connecting with nature and the plants they consume.

    Nowadays, master plant dietas are still available at certain medicine centers, but they’re not necessary when preparing for Ayahuasca. Rather, they have become a practice for connecting with other master plants. Depending on how strict you want to be with yourself, you can either do a moderate diet or a strict diet in preparation for an Ayahuasca ceremony.

    A strict Ayahuasca dieta narrows you down to essentially green plantains, grains, and rice. It limits you to a very raw diet, but this level of diet is not necessary unless you’re doing a formal master plant dieta under the guidance of trained curanderos. For a normal diet for Ayahuasca, here’s what you should avoid:

    • Avoid salt and other seasonings: Salt can disrupt the purification process and affect the body’s natural rhythms.
    • Avoid spicy foods or ingredients: Spicy foods can be harsh on the digestive system and cause discomfort during the ceremony and purging.
    • Avoid refined sugar: Refined sugar can also disrupt the purification process.
    • Avoid allium: Believed to interfere with the body’s sensitivity to the medicine and may affect the flavor profile of ayahuasca during the purge.
    • Avoid meat: Red meats such as pork and beef are often considered ‘dirty energy’
    • Avoid dairy: Dairy can cause mucus build-up, potentially interfering with the ayahuasca experience.
    • Avoid alcohol: Alcohol is energetically dense, ‘contaminates’ the body, and can interfere with Ayahuasca.
    • Avoid fermented products: Fermented foods contain tyramine, which can interact with MAO inhibitors and cause negative side effects.
    • Avoid coffee and other stimulants: Stimulants can heighten anxiety and interfere with the meditative state needed for the ceremony.
    • Avoid industrial cigarettes: Commercial tobacco is loaded with dirty chemicals and impurities. Using raw tobacco or Mapacho is okay.
    • Avoid taking any other plant medicines: Different plants, spirits, and energies can interact poorly with one another, potentially causing unpredictable results.
    • Avoid any medication if possible: Most forms of medication contain harmful chemicals and impurities. If you must take a particular medication, make sure that you communicate it with the center you’re going to.
    • Avoid processed food if possible: Generally, the more processed a food is, the more impure it becomes.
    • Fatty foods: Fatty foods can slow down digestion and make the ayahuasca harder to absorb

    You don’t need to be a grade-A student and adhere to everything. Small amounts of impurities are generally okay, just make sure it’s in moderation and you’re feeling healthy before consuming Ayahuasca.

    With that said, I would draw a hard line when it comes to alcohol, medications, drugs, and other plant medicines. There are certain things you don’t want to mess around with. Although, generally it will be fine, certain combinations can be lethal, and everyone reacts differently. Stay away from mind-altering substances and give your mind and body the needed space to be working with such a powerful teacher plant.

    Now, here’s what you should stick to:

    • Fruits: Preferably bland or non-acidic fruit like apples, bananas, and papayas.
    • Vegetables: Steamed or boiled, avoiding strong-tasting ones like broccoli.
    • Grains: Rice, quinoa, and oats (unseasoned and unsalted).
    • Legumes: Lentils, beans, and chickpeas (without heavy seasoning).
    • Herbal teas: Chamomile, peppermint, or ginger tea (no caffeine).

    Ideally, you want to stick to food that is straight from the source to soak up as much pure life energy as possible. Sticking to a diet that consists mostly of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains is the best way to restore your body to a clean slate and give you the best possible experience.

    Why a mental detox is also necessary

    Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. Taking care of your body and cutting out impurities during the diet for Ayahuasca is one thing, but it’s also important to mentally detox to prepare your mind for the experience.

    The sewage trapped in your mind often manifests in your experiences. I learned this during several ceremonies after being focused on the negativity of the world including political situations, world events, and the dark underbelly of society.

    As a result of this constant negativity (or focus) compounded by social media and ‘news’, my Ayahuasca journeys during these periods were dark as the medicine flushed out a lot of junk from my subconscious.

    Rather than the medicine focusing on other things, the focus of some of these experiences was to get out all the crap I’ve been filling my head with. This process is as unpleasant as it is wasteful.

    Now I see why it’s important to not only physically cleanse before a ceremony but to mentally cleanse too. Mentally detoxing before an Ayahuasca ceremony ensures that your mind is in its best possible state to work with the medicine.

    To mentally detox yourself, I suggest:

    • Avoiding social media as much as possible in the days leading up to the ceremony
    • Spacing yourself from work as much as possible leading up to the ceremony
    • Getting your mind off from politics and current world events (focus on yourself)
    • Spending plenty of time in nature
    • Focusing on being present with your thoughts and feelings
    • Spend more time reflecting, meditating, and being mindful
    • Eating and drinking consciously
    • Focusing on what you want to create in your life, rather than what you want to avoid

    Is the diet for Ayahuasca necessary?

    The diet for Ayahuasca can be a powerful aid, but it’s not entirely necessary.

    In my experiences, I generally notice near to no differences in the journeys when I’m on a strict diet as opposed to a lenient diet. As long as I’m in relatively good health when consummating the medicine, the experience can be just as profound if I don’t adhere to a strict diet.

    Don’t get me wrong, you do want your body to be in a clean state when consummating the medicine, but it’s not necessary to do a strict diet in which you cut out all impurities. The diet for Ayahuasca serves more as a suggestion, not a requirement, however adhering to a healthy diet before your ceremony can improve your experience.

    My advice is to look after your body and treat it well in the days leading up to a ceremony. I suggest abstaining from alcohol, fast food, highly processed food, and anything that is quite costly to your health. The smaller pleasures like drinking a coffee or having some chocolate in the days leading up to the ceremony I believe have a minimal effect, at least according to my own experiences.

    However, how strict you want to be with the Ayahuasca diet is completely up to you.

    In my opinion, the healthier you are, the less important a diet for Ayahuasca is. On the other hand, if you’re feeling unhealthy, it’s best to do a diet to restore your body to optimal health before working with Ayahuasca.

    Therefore, look at the diet as a tool to get your body into shape for the medicine rather than a strict procedure you must adhere to. Generally, a few days of adhering to a relatively healthy diet is fine. A couple of weeks can be overkill unless you’re very dedicated to the medicine and want to exercise your discipline.

    With that said, Ayahuasca is a beautiful medicine that offers beautiful experiences. Enjoy your travels and most importantly, respect the spirit.

  • Is It Important To Have An Ayahuasca Intention?

    Ayahuasca is known for its life-changing potential, but the journey can feel unhinged without a well-defined intention. Your Ayahuasca intention serves as a guiding force in your journey. Think of it as a steering wheel that directs the medicine journey toward your deeper purpose, reasons, and desires.
     
    Working with this medicine over the years, I’ve learned just how important setting an intention is. This isn’t just because it gives you a sense of purpose, but it can change the entire experience.
     
    In this article, we’ll look at why it’s important to set an intention when taking Ayahuasca and how to do it properly. I’ll also share some examples of what you can ask Mother Ayahuasca. Regardless of how many times you’ve sat with this powerful medicine, setting the right intention can make a world of difference.

    What is an Ayahuasca Intention?

    Ayahuasca intention artwork

    An Ayahuasca intention refers to the purpose you bring into your Ayahuasca ceremony. Most people have a reason why they’re seeking out one of the most powerful medicines in the world, and likely traveling intercontinental to do so.

    But hey, sometimes we just take it because… why not? Sometimes we don’t really know why we’re taking the medicine. It may be due to curiosity, to experience it, or because the opportunity arose. In my experiences, the medicine journey is generally much more profound when taken with a deep-seated reason, as opposed to taking it just because you can.

    There’s a reason for this.

    Your intention acts as a guiding mechanism and helps focus the medicine journey on something specific you’re seeking information, healing, or understanding on. Intentions come in many forms including:

    • Finding guidance regarding a life situation
    • Self-discovery and inner exploration
    • For clarity, purpose, or direction
    • For self-actualization and spiritual growth
    • For healing trauma, depression, and other emotional issues
    • To release something such as fear or resentment
    • Healing addiction and dependency
    • Connecting with ancestors or loved ones
    • Illuminating and clearing particular blockages
    • To become more at peace with death and mortality

    Whether you’re looking for emotional healing, spiritual growth, or clarity on major life decisions, having a clear intention can steer the journey in your desired direction. Therefore, think of your Ayahuasca intention as your compass. If you don’t have one, the journey can be random, scattered, and lack inherent meaning.

    For example, if you focus your intentions on healing trauma, letting go of something, or finding a deeper sense of purpose in your life, then your experience will likely tailor itself to this intention.

    With that said, your Ayahuasca intention isn’t a silver bullet. Just because you intend your experience to be oriented around something in particular, doesn’t mean it will be.

    Sometimes the medicine will show you something unrelated that you may not intend. Other times it will reveal a deeper layer of your intention that you don’t expect, and then sometimes it won’t show you anything at all.

    Although setting an intention generally does direct your experience, it’s important to trust that the medicine knows best and that you’ll experience what you need to experience.

    Why is an ayahuasca intention important?

    During my time working with plant medicines in traditional and therapeutic settings, I became aware of three important keys that can transform the medicine journey into one of profound learning, healing, and growth.

    These keys involve:

    • Intention: Have a clear reason for consuming the plant, and know exactly what you’re seeking from it.
    • Respect: Treat the plant with the utmost respect, recognizing its role as a wise teacher and powerful spiritual tool.
    • Openness: Be open to the teachings of the plant in whatever form they manifest, and avoid resisting the experience.

    Sitting in an Ayahuasca ceremony without having an intention is like setting off on an adventure without a destination. The journey may still be incredible, but it lacks inherent meaning.

    Setting an intention gives the journey meaning. This means you’re much more likely to take something tangible from the experience and interpret it in ways that benefit your life moving forward. Likewise, an intention can redirect the entire journey and drastically change the experience.

    Most of us see plant medicines as nothing more than entheogenic substances, however, when working with Indigenous traditions and using these plants in an entirely different context, your perception begins to shift.

    It’s important to note that plant medicines are spirits. When I say this, I mean they’re intelligent entities that you connect with through consuming the plant.

    Rather than perceiving these plants as simply entheogenic substances that lack inherent meaning, you begin to see them as conscious beings that can open a window into the deeper levels of your subconscious and beyond.

    These spirits respond to your energy in the form of words, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and experiences in a way that can’t be rationalized. When I have taken these substances unconsciously without respect and intention, I often receive a vivid message: ‘You shouldn’t be here’.

    So, if you’re planning on working with these powerful tools, make sure you’re doing it right!

    Intentions vs expectations

    There’s a fine line between having intentions and expectations for an Ayahuasca journey. Intentions are good, but expectations are not.

    I have met a lot of people who believed that Ayahuasca would be the solution to all of their problems after a single sitting. Likewise, sometimes people think that Ayahuasca will fix their relationship for them, fill them with self-love, or cure a terminal illness.

    The result is often disappointing because an intention, especially an unrealistic intention can create a block for the medicine to work its magic. I’m not saying Ayahuasca won’t help with these issues, but it can’t do the legwork for you.

    Ayahuasca is a teacher plant that gives you information, but it can’t solve your problems. Many people who seek out Ayahuasca get the idea in their heads that it will be the most profound, life-changing experience, but this isn’t a grounded approach.

    This is having an expectation.

    It’s important to note that the medicine knows best. Trust that it is doing what it needs to do, even if there are no epiphanies or visions popping out at you, or they’re not in line with your intentions.

    You may be looking for a solution to an issue, and the medicine illuminates a deeper, root issue rather than giving you what you want. For example, if are seeking Ayahuasca to heal depression, it could help you remove a blockage preventing you from opening your heart. You might think it’s unrelated, but perhaps the best solution to heal depression is by feeling more love, gratitude, and compassion.

    Therefore, intend the best, but let go of expectations and be open to whatever the medicine wants to teach you because it may be very different from what you anticipate.

    How to set an Ayahuasca intention

    Person soul-searching during an Ayahuasca ceremony

    Your intention determines the purpose the plant serves – whether it’s as an aid to heal, or whether it’s as a channel for information. There are two ways we can use Ayahuasca depending on our purpose for using it:

    1. As a medicine: To heal, grow, and resolve issues in our lives.
    2. As a power plant: To attain knowledge, wisdom, and divine information.

    Your intention is likely to be different every time you take Ayahuasca. The thing about an Ayahuasca intention is that your life situation is always changing, meaning as each ceremony arrives, you will be in a different situation, with different priorities.

    When I have an upcoming Ayahuasca ceremony, I usually think about what I need most in my life at that moment. If there is any pressing concern, I will focus on addressing this issue in my life. If there is no pressing concern, I will reflect on my life situation and think about what information would benefit me the most – guidance, wisdom, courage, etc.

    Often I will focus my intentions on spiritual growth and exploration – based on my interests. In many ceremonies when there is no pressing matter to address, I’ll ask the plant to connect me with deeper levels of consciousness, to contact entities, or to venture into higher dimensions. These intentions don’t always come to fruition, but usually, they do if I humbly ask for it and genuinely want it.

    Setting your intention is about focusing your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions on resolving an issue you’re facing in your life, and asking the medicine to help you. Make sure that you genuinely want what you are asking for, and do it with humility.

    Setting powerful intentions

    To set a strong intention that the medicine is likely to respond to, you need to:

    1. Be specific: Don’t ask vague questions such as “Help me overcome my problems.”
    2. Be clear: Know exactly what you’re asking, and why you’re asking it (what is the desired outcome?)
    3. Feel it, don’t just say it: Words count for something, but the emotion behind it accounts for a lot more.

    When working with Ayahuasca, you should approach it as a wise spirit that has the answers. Even though Ayahuasca will do what it needs to do to help you regardless, providing it with intentions can focus the journey on a specific issue.

    It’s always best to feel the intention from your heart. Speaking your Ayahuasca intention before a ceremony may reinforce it, but it won’t count for much unless it’s backed with genuine emotion and desire. After all, it’s your energy the medicine responds to.

    A strong intention is always felt. The strongest intentions are those you don’t need to think about because you know exactly what you’re looking for from the journey.

    For example, someone who is mourning the loss of a child is automatically going to have a very powerful intention, because consciously or unconsciously they are seeking something specific from the medicine. In this case, it could be closure, it could be to release the pain, connect with their loved one, or move on.

    When you’re setting an intention for an Ayahuasca ceremony, I suggest that you speak to the medicine as you would to a person. Take your time to talk to the medicine, and express yourself fully to it. This is good to do just before drinking it while holding the cup, and it’s good to think about leading up to the ceremony.

    People often hold the medicine to their hearts while setting an Ayahausca intention because the heart generates a powerful energy that the medicine responds to. Don’t rush the process and try to embody your intention before drinking the medicine.

    Examples of Ayahuasca intentions: What to ask mother Ayahuasca

    As mentioned previously, the strongest intentions are the ones you instinctively know. However, if you don’t have a burning desire to why you’re seeking Ayahuasca, then here are some examples of different intentions you can gain inspiration from.

    It’s best to phrase your intentions as questions – as if you’re asking the medicine how it can help you. Likewise, it’s good to be specific with your intention.

    Here are some different things you can ask mother Ayahuasca.

    • “What do I need to learn to move forward in my life?”
    • “Can you help me understand the root of my anxieties?”
    • “How can I overcome this blockage”
    • “How can I learn to love myself more fully/again?”
    • “What do I need to release to heal my heart?”
    • “How can I let go of the baggage I’ve been holding onto?”
    • “How can I open my heart to experience more love, compassion, and gratitude?”
    • “How can I align my actions with my higher self?”
    • “Help me understand my true self”
    • “How can I discover my true purpose/calling in life?”
    • “What do I need to do to feel more at peace with my life?”
    • “I’m seeking emotional healing
    • “What do I need to do to heal this depression?”
    • “I want to release the resentment and anger I’m holding onto”
    • “Show me how I can feel more fulfilled”
    • “Help me process and release grief”
    • “I seek a deeper connection with nature and the universe”
    • “Guide me toward forgiveness for myself and others.”
    • I want to connect with entities and spirits
    • I want to experience deeper layers of consciousness, other dimensions, and realms of existence
    • “Show me the path I need to take for my professional life”
    • “Guide me to improve my relationships.”
    • “How can I heal my relationships?”
    • “Show me what I need to do to have a fulfilling relationship with someone”
    • “How can I create healthier habits that will increase the quality of my life?”
    • “What lessons do you have for me today?
    • “What steps can I take to align with my true purpose?”
    • “Help me identify the obstacles that are holding me back from achieving a great life”

  • The Ayahuasca Purge: A Whole Lot More Than A Physical Release

    Ayahuasca is a catalyst for transformation, but it’s not always a pleasant experience. If you know anything about this sacred medicine, you’re probably well aware that vomiting is a big part of it. The thought of vomiting during a ceremony can turn people off, but it serves an important function – as a purge.

    With that said, the Ayahuasca purge is a good thing. It’s often a desirable part of the journey because it facilitates the release of stagnant energies and promotes healing. People who are getting ready for a ceremony usually want to vomit, especially if they’re carrying a lot of baggage because it’s a powerful release on all levels.

    But… there’s a lot more to it than what meets the eye. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about the Ayahuasca purge, why it’s a key part of Ayahuasca ceremonies, and what’s actually going on here.

    What is an Ayahuasca purge?

    Ayahuasca Purge - woman crying while spirit supports her

    Generally speaking, purging is the act of releasing stagnant energies, emotions, or toxins from the mind and body. During our day-to-day lives, we regularly purge energies when we cry, vent, or express anger for example. It’s a normal part of life and a mechanism of releasing pent energy that we need to let go of.

    In the context of an Ayahuasca ceremony, purging involves much more than simply removing toxins from the body. It’s a cleansing of the mind, body, and spirit via the expulsion of dense energies, traumas, beliefs, and mindsets.

    An Ayahuasca purge is a manifestation of the medicine cleaning us on all levels – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It acts as a mechanism for healing by pushing you to confront the darkness you’re carrying and then letting go of what no longer serves you, including:

    • Stubborn traumas and unresolved emotional wounds
    • Painful memories that are no longer in service
    • Sexual or romantic energies
    • Energies of resentment, hatred, guilt, or shame
    • Dirty energies you have picked up from other people, situations, or substances
    • Harmful or counterproductive belief systems
    • Negative self-beliefs or social beliefs
    • Detrimental mindsets and outlooks

    Think of it this way.

    When you drink Ayahuasca, the medicine searches every crevice of your consciousness for impurities. Like a sponge, the medicine soaks up these impurities; the dark icky residue of your life experiences, and energetically discards them. These unwanted energies need a vessel to exit the body, which is why the removal of these energies manifests as a physical purge – or outlet.

    But the medicine doesn’t do all the work for you. Sure, Ayahuasca is a powerful aid that dredges up the dense energy you’re holding onto, but you need to get rid of the gunk.

    People often feel like they’re reliving a trauma, or experiencing the peak of a painful memory or emotion when they purge. This seems to be the medicine’s way of flushing the dysfunction into awareness, where it can be consciously processed and then gracefully let go.

    Having taken somewhere between 60  – 70 cups of Ayahuasca in my life, the Ayahuasca purge isn’t as bad as some people drum it up to be. Although nausea does accompany each vomit, it generally comes on rather quickly and almost completely subsides afterward, leaving a sense of lightness and relief.

    In my experience, as long as I embrace the Ayahuasca purge by sitting on my knees, opening up my body, and holding my bucket, it usually happens immediately without much nausea. However, there have been ceremonies when nausea will linger for a long time before I’m able to vomit. Sometimes, it takes time for the medicine to find something to get rid of.

    On the other hand, if I resist the Ayahuasca purge, nausea can linger for much longer and it feels like I’m extending the countdown to the inevitable. Therefore, I always suggest embracing it. Once you begin to feel nauseous during an Ayahuasca ceremony, sit on your knees, open up your energetic centers, and consciously choose to release everything that needs to go!

    Participants often vomit around 30 – 60 minutes after drinking the medicine, but it varies for everyone. Sometimes the nausea preceding the purge will kick in rapidly, in as little as 5 minutes after drinking the medicine. At other times, it may take several hours, sometimes even after the ceremony has finished.

    What are the different types of Ayahuasca purges?

    Vomiting is a common way that we discard harmful energies during Ayahuasca ceremonies, but there are many ways the purge can manifest.

    Ayahuasca purges also commonly manifest as diarrhea, crying, laughing, trembling, shivering, sweating, yawning, or feeling abnormally cold. Sometimes participants may be hit by an overwhelming sense of sadness, sorrow, or mourning which plays a similar role in releasing energies.

    For example, I generally vomit when I take Ayahuasca, but I also regularly purge by getting diarrhea, trembling, or feeling very cold. If I resist vomiting, then my body will often purge these energies another way.

    Purging can be categorized into several types, involving:

    • Physical Purging: This is the most recognized form of purging during an Ayahuasca ceremony and causes a physiological response, such as vomiting or trembling.
    • Emotional Purging: You may find yourself expressing repressed emotions such as grief, anger, or fear. This purge unblocks emotions and promotes emotional healing.
    • Spiritual Purging: This may involve insights, new perspectives, or deeper understandings of your issues that allow you to let go of past burdens and energies.
    • Energetic Purging: You might feel energetic shifts such as vibrations, the releasing of tensions, or sensations in your body that move and unblock energies.

    During some Ayahuasca ceremonies, I feel a vibration in my body. This vibration usually feels cleansing as if it’s removing something from me, and I feel the medicine is working on my energetic body.

    Other times, I see/feel spirits doing ‘home repairs’ on me and removing what appears to be black goop (usually from my solar plexus which is the energy center that I had issues with in my life). Although I’m not necessarily purging, these spirits are removing something.

    Energies are removed in all sorts of ways whether they’re removed via purging, by spirits, or by vibrations. Just because you don’t vomit doesn’t mean the medicine’s not working on you. Likely, the removal of these energies manifests differently.

    How does an Ayahuasca purge facilitate healing?

    The spirits of ayahuasca being illuminated during an ayahuasca ceremony

    Imagine that you see a medical professional because you have a foreign body wound. Rather than removing the foreign material from the open wound, cleaning it, and stitching it up, they bandage the dirty wound and send you on your way. Would the wound heal? Likely, it’ll just get worse because the wound is contaminated. The root issue was neglected.

    Energetically, your body works the same way.

    If you try to heal while you are still carrying harmful energies, beliefs, or trauma, there’s a barrier in the way because you are still dealing with the issue. For example, if you want to let go of the hurt surrounding a past relationship but still feel resentful, that resentment is like the dirt inside the wound – a contaminant.

    In this case, you need to let go of the resentment first before you can start healing from the past relationship. Ayahuasca will help you remove the obstructions to healing, but it can’t do the healing for you.

    That’s your job.

    You need to discard what’s not serving you first, which then facilitates healing. This is the role of purging – to physically and energetically discard anything that’s not supposed to be there.

    During my time working at an Ayahuasca healing center for six months in Ecuador, I met a lot of guests during this time who came for all sorts of reasons. Many of these guests stated that they physically vomited out something they had been carrying, including a man who claimed he vomited out the radiation poisoning he was ill from.

    People often say they vomit black goo – a manifestation of the darkness, suffering, and trauma that they let go of. Other people have said that they vomited certain emotions, beliefs, entities, and physiological sicknesses or dysfunctions.

    Does everyone purge during Ayahuasca ceremonies?

    You’d be surprised by how many people I’ve met who were disappointed when they didn’t purge during their Ayahuasca ceremony. Many of these people believed that their entire spiritual journey was leading up to this moment of physically, emotionally, and symbolically releasing years of darkness, and turning a new chapter.

    But it never happened… So what does this mean?

    Don’t worry about it. 

    Not everyone will purge during an ayahuasca ceremony, and honestly, the medicine knows best. Many people purge once per cup of Ayahuasca they consume, however, there is no rule of thumb. Everyone responds to the medicine differently.

    It’s important to trust in the process and have faith in the spirits you’re working with during these ceremonies. Believe me, they know what you need better than you do.

    Perhaps you just didn’t need to purge the way you thought you would. If you don’t vomit, it doesn’t mean you aren’t growing or healing. There are lots of ways energies can be discarded. Even if you don’t seem to purge at all, the medicine is still working on you and removing internal junk.

    Some people, regardless of how many Ayahuasca ceremonies they have participated in seldom purge at all. As everyone has different compositions and different ways of processing medicine, this doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them.

    Generally speaking, a purge is quick, meaning the nausea comes on rapidly, and ends once the participant has purged. But it does depend on the individual. I’ve had ceremonies where I would purge multiple times from a single cup, and spend hours relentlessly gagging into a vomit bucket.

    When people consume Ayahuasca, the medicine searches every part of their being for stagnant energies to get rid of. This can be a quick process, especially for people who are holding a lot of emotional baggage. Likewise, it can also be a lengthy process as nausea slowly builds up as the medicine discovers hidden junk to remove energetically.

    Ayahuasca is a wonderful medicine with so much potential for healing and transformation, but you must trust in the process, whether you purge or not. Sure, a purge is a big part of an Ayahuasca ceremony, but whether you vomit or not, you will still gain transformative benefits from the medicine as long as you’re open to it.

  • My Experience Astral Projecting With Plant Medicines

    Astral projection is undoubtedly a fascinating, but bizarre phenomenon. Over the last several years, I’ve astral projected just 5 or 6 times, however, each experience has been nothing short of profound.

    View astral projection as your consciousness temporarily projecting into the spiritual dimensions, which allows you to experience alternate facets of your multidimensional consciousness.

    Those of us who have astral projected recognize that some pretty wild things are happening all around us, at every moment. It’s just a matter of training ourselves to tap into states of consciousness that can perceive these alternative layers of information.

    Most of my experiences with astral projection have occurred during deep states of meditation, however, I have also tapped into the astral planes with plant medicines.

    My first successful experience with astral projection occurred under the influence of marijuana. I used to be a pretty heavy smoker, yet one experience; the one I’ll explain in this article, was significantly different from any other experience I had with the substance.

    Just to be clear, I now only use plant medicines ceremonially usually under the guidance of a shaman or healer to tap into deeper layers of my consciousness. I’ve discovered that plant medicines can be spiritual gateways to alternate realms if used with respect and intention.

    I’ve learned to go much deeper into plant medicine experiences, and now I much better understand the realms I’m tapping into.

    My first experience with astral projection

    My first experience with astral projection occurred around 4 years ago when I was living in Vietnam. The experience left a distinct memory that I won’t soon forget.

    I smoked marijuana and lay on my bed as still as possible while observing my thoughts and feelings. This was a normal practice at the time to listen to what the teacher plant wanted to show me, I had no intention to astral project.

    I felt like I was sinking deeper into my consciousness and slowly losing my grounding in reality while remaining completely still, breathing almost to a halt, and completely surrendering to the experience. This is where things started to take a life of its own.

    I experienced something I now recognize as the bridge between reality and the astral planes; the gateway. I have experienced this phenomenon every time I have astral projected to date and recognize it as a cornerstone of the experience.

    Essentially, the gateway is a threshold where my consciousness begins tangibly expanding into new territory. This is characterized by my closed-eye vision stretching out and brightening, the sensation of rapid vibrations in my body, and a feeling as if I’m beginning to disassociate from reality.

    This experience is always intense, and can wake me out of my meditative state due to shock, fear, or excitement – which tends to quickly ground me back to reality, thus ending the experience. To successfully pass through this gateway I must remain completely indifferent to the experience, to avoid reactivating my mind. It is a very delicate process.

    During my first astral projection experience, it wasn’t very pleasant. As I was passing through the gateway, dark shadows appeared around me and began reaching into my solar plexus area which was causing pain and distress.

    At that point I was in between worlds. I was beginning to tap into the astral planes, however I was still lucid and recognized that I was in my apartment. I felt as if I was in danger, however I didn’t know how to navigate the situation. I have discovered that almost all of my encounters with dark entities attack my solar plexus energy center, it has become a common theme in my life.

    Encounters with benevolent spirits

    Spiritual orb with violet radiant aura

    While in a dark space surrounded by shadows, suddenly two orbs entered the space. I intuitively knew they were here to help, and instantly felt relief. 

    One of these orbs had a violet radiant aura, and I could distinctly feel the energy of the being. It was feminine, soothing, and felt like someone I have known for a long time. There was no doubt that she was a spirit, however, the sense of familiarity with this being was surreal. I remember it very vividly today.

    The other orb was masculine. He had a radiant green aura and a brotherly energy. I felt supported as if he wanted to protect me, like a big brother stepping into the scene when being bullied. At this point, I knew I was in good hands.

    I had never before felt that sense of familiarity with another person, yet I felt at complete peace with this orb. After flying around for a moment, the feminine spirit began pulsating light. I witnessed these shadows dissipate in the light and felt at complete ease.

    In the following moments, it felt like I was grabbed and shot through a tunnel, following behind these two orbs. As if I was on an interdimensional rollercoaster, my spirit shot out of my body and I was now far disconnected from physical reality.

    Exploring the spiritual dimension via astral projection

    The nature of my existence was energetic, however it felt strangely familiar as if I had been here many times before. I had no ability to think, at least not from my human mind. Therefore, everything occurred instinctively/intuitively from this point.

    After whizzing through this tunnel guided by these two friendly entities who I perceived as orbs, the space opened up to a beautiful realm full of patterns and colors. Like I was on tour, I was moving through this interdimensional space in awe.

    At times I would bump into neutral entities. Usually, you instinctively know whether an entity is of the light or dark due to the energy you pick up from them, but neutral entities seem to not have a read at all, meaning they were just there.

    There were moments when I felt as if I physically bumped into these entities. There was something there, but I had no idea what it was, or what its intentions may have been.

    I remember one moment when it felt as if someone was resting on my shoulder and moving around a little, the same way your partner may rest on your shoulder in bed. The thing is I was alone on my bed in physical reality, so this couldn’t have been a manifestation of someone resting on me. I thought it was a little strange, but didn’t feel uneasy about it.

    encounters with neutral entities seemed to occur a few times as I was being brought along on this journey, however, it wasn’t a cause for concern. I felt safe and also had my orb friends with me, so I knew nothing bad would happen.

    Encounters with an enlightened being

    After moving around for some time exploring this new dimension of experience, I crossed paths with another orb. This orb had a bright silver aura, and instantly I knew it was a being of absolute love, absolute beauty.

    I remember this entity very clearly because it was unlike anything I had ever felt before. The only thing I recognized was that this entity was a highly advanced spiritual being, akin to the status of enlightened. Just being in its presence was such an honor. I felt the energy of this being radiating light into me and it was truly blissful. Believe me, I don’t use that word lightly.

    The only thing I knew at this moment was that my life had been building up to this moment. Intuitively I knew this was a big deal and just wanted to be in this being’s presence.

    That’s when something spectacular happened. I received a download asking if I wanted to come with this entity. It was like a sudden spike of knowing that I was being invited to share an experience with it. It wanted to show me something, and I certainly wasn’t going to turn down the invitation.

    The joy I felt was incredible. I was so excited to share an experience with this being and honored to do so. My soul instantly agreed and it felt like I was catapulted through a tunnel. This experience was much more intense than the first tunnel, however it was blissful. I knew I was in a good place and felt accepted by this glowing silver being.

    My vision of spiritual warfare

    After following this entity through this tunnel at light speed, this leads to the last segment of this astral projection journey. After exiting this light-speed tunnel, the space opened up to another realm, or perhaps a part of a realm, I’m not quite sure.

    I remember opening up to a space where I very clearly saw spiritual warfare. This manifested as light and darkness colliding. It felt very raw and violent as energies clashed with one another, the space was beyond grand.

    Whatever I witnessed, it was intense. There was an instant understanding that warfare is too a spiritual phenomenon. My whole life I thought warfare was a human construct. After all, surely spirits are much more highly advanced than humans, and these realms would only be love and peace… right?

    There was no doubt that what I was experiencing was something real, and this spirit wanted to show me for some reason. It was almost like an epiphany as I witnessed that, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what the purpose of knowing this was.

    I was only there for a few moments, although time can be difficult to gauge when in these alternate dimensions. From that point, I snapped back into my body. It took a moment to recollect myself. What on Earth did I just witness?

    I didn’t sleep much that night while thinking about this profound experience I just had. I started to understand what astral projection is. It’s not about flying around reality and looking at things. Perhaps people experience that too, however, this was interdimensional and undoubtedly spiritual.

    Insights from this astral projection experience

    Astral Realms

    This was my first experience with astral projection, and it was a journey, to say the least. Since then, I’ve experienced astral projection a handful of times without the aid of any plant medicine or substance.

    Although the experience is rather rare as I haven’t done any official training, or sought counsel from more experienced teachers, it does continue to happen here and there, and I’m sure it will continue.

    I’ve learned that the astral planes are a beautiful, but strange place. Every time I enter this bizarre world, I encounter all sorts of spirits. Most of them are friendly, however, I’ve encountered several dark entities along my astral journeys too, and that can be frightening.

    However, I am more excited than ever to be exploring these worlds, and I have now spent a considerable amount of time working in shamanic communities in Latin America, where the medicine people have been incredible teachers.

    Astral projection is not an easy process. I certainly haven’t mastered this art, however, it does seem to occur more frequently nowadays as I continue opening my consciousness, exploring my reality, and engaging in various spiritual practices and cultural modalities.

    All I have to say is that the astral planes are real. Astral projection is real. Spirits and energies are real. All of this spiritual stuff is real, and we all can train ourselves to tap into it.

  • Astral Projection Entities: What’s Really Out There?

    I’ve had a fascination with astral projection for years, and the occasions where I fully disconnected from my body were nothing short of profound. However, there’s also a dark underbelly of such experiences, and we can encounter all sorts of entities within these spaces.

    While venturing into higher different realms of consciousness, it’s not unusual to encounter entities. These entities come in many forms, each with unique energies, personalities, and intentions. Astral projection is a fascinating experience, but there are things out there that we want to steer clear of.

    With that said, sometimes we can’t.

    Thankfully, we’re relatively sheltered from entities with nefarious agendas while on this Earthly plane. This is a different story when we step into their territory, and it’s something that needs to be cautioned.

    In this article, I’m going to talk about astral projection entities and my experience encountering a demonic spirit when tapping into the astral. You’ll learn what astral projection entities are, what happens when we encounter them, and what we can do about it.

    What are astral projection entities?

    What we see in the physical is just one layer of the consciousness cake. In different realms of consciousness (or what we can understand as dimensions), there are all sorts of beings. These beings are also souls like you and me, however, they exist within an energetic container rather than a physical container (or body).

    Imagine this reality as one face of a cube.

    In truth, reality has many faces, and each face is a stage for foreign experiences of consciousness. In my perspective, this is the best way to conceptualize alternate dimensions, and astral projection is the act of tapping into them.

    During astral projection, you’re not necessarily going anywhere. Rather you’re rotating the cube to experience another layer of reality. As with our reality, these spaces are also teeming with life, it’s a very diverse world out there.

    Makes sense?

    Astral projection entities refer to the spirits we can perceive during astral projection. You can view these beings as souls that exist in higher realms, and we can encounter them when we tap into these realms.

    With that said, these beings don’t have physical bodies because the realms these souls are inhabiting at non-physical. Many of these entities have forms, often appearing as orbs, and others are just energies that you feel. These realms act on the language of intuition, so trying to rationalize these beings is like speaking a language that doesn’t exist.

    Astral projection is a tedious process. I’ve attempted many times to no avail. On the odd occasion, however, I entered a bizarre but beautiful realm teeming with life. I’ve encountered all sorts of entities during astral projection. Some of these entities are positive beings of light, some are neutral, and some are dark.

    Usually, my experiences with entities during astral projection are positive. I often encounter spirits of light who want to help, and it’s exciting to come into contact with them. Often, these spirits show me spiritual truths and teach me things, and there’s a powerful intuitive feeling that they are there to help.

    I’ve also come into contact with many neutral spirits – those I couldn’t get a read on, and didn’t know what they wanted or how they intuitively felt, but they were certainly there.

    It has become apparent to me, that each spirit is an individual. Each spirit has its personality, identity, and desires. They all want different things. We can’t just generalize people and say we’re all the same, and we can’t do it with spirits either.

    My experience with an astral projection demon

    Astral entity

    Several months ago, this excitement for encountering spirits fell short when I was forcibly catapulted from my body into the grasp of a demonic presence.

    I was lying in bed feeling restless and thinking about some impending decisions in my life. Astral projection was the last thing on my mind, I had no desire or intent to leave my body, yet something odd happened.

    Out of the blue, I heard my dad’s voice call out my name. His words were crystal clear like he was in the room, and this was enough to instantly snap me to full awareness.

    “What on Earth was that?’”

    I sat up in bed with my ears perked. My dad is on the other side of the world, yet I heard his disembodied voice as clear as day.

    Within moments, a deafening ringing pierced my ears. Before I had a chance to react, my body began rapidly vibrating as my vision brightened and stretched out – revealing patterns, and what I can only describe as energy.

    Even though this sensation felt familiar, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Due to the intensity of the experience, I knew it was the real deal – there was no doubt in my mind that this was just a dream, hallucination, or sleep paralysis.

    ‘I’ve been here before’ I thought with mixed emotions of nerves and excitement.

    My grip on reality was rapidly deteriorating as I felt myself being sucked out of my body by some unidentifiable force. I didn’t know what was happening, but when a spiritual experience comes knocking at my door, I seize the opportunity to explore it. I let go and allowed myself to enter this foreign territory.

    ‘something doesn’t feel right’ I thought.

    Still in shock by the speed and spontaneity of this experience, I began to notice a quality of energy in this space that was anything but inviting. This dense energy instantly put me on edge – as if I was in physical danger.

    ‘Okay, this isn’t good’ I thought as this dark presence became more prominent.

    I immediately thought there could be a dark spirit here. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve encountered one. Theoretically, I know what to do if that were to be the case, but it doesn’t ease the nerves.

    ‘Just hold the space and be in a place of love, and all will be right’.

    I envisioned myself in a safe aura of golden light, however, the darkness became more intense. Naturally, I began to worry. My efforts to spread light weren’t working, and I was seemingly trapped in this space. All I wanted to do was snap out of this eerie space I found myself in.

    This is when I started hearing a deep demonic-sounding voice whispering to me. Although I couldn’t make out the words, it sounded like they were right next to me. Never have I heard disembodied voices so clearly.

    I was vulnerable and I didn’t have the experience to deal with something like this, which only made me more afraid. It felt like my body was collapsing under its weight, and my Manipura (solar plexus energy center) had a dense, almost painful sensation to it.

    This wouldn’t be the first time a dark entity focused its intent on my Manipura. This is a common theme with dark spirits, perhaps because my center of power is my weakest energetic point, and it still has some substantial wounding from childhood.

    Re-embodiment after my astral projection encounter

    I reached behind my back to grab onto the bed while trying to free myself from this disembodied state, hopefully grounding myself to reality.

    To my surprise, my arm brushed through the air with nothing to obstruct it. As I was reaching behind my back in a state of complete bewilderment I spouted “Oh my god I’m levitating!”

    Keep in mind, I didn’t know I was astral projecting at this stage. During this moment I still thought I was in my physical body. I didn’t realize that I was in my astral body until later on after the experience ended.

    This is when I snapped myself out of this state and landed on the floor next to me. All I wanted to do was turn on the light so I could at least see what was happening.

    I began brushing my hands against the wall near the door looking for the light switch in pitch darkness – while the whispers from this entity continued. In my desperate attempt, I couldn’t find the switch, so I opened the door and attempted to find the light switch in the hallway in a desperate scramble to orient myself.

    As I peered down the short hallway outside my bedroom, I noticed a dark silhouette in a cloak sitting in the living room. I stood there paralyzed.

    I gasped for air and opened my eyes in bed. I was emotionally dysregulated as the ringing in my ears continued. I was disoriented and felt incredibly out of place, still wary if this entity was around.

    Without hesitation, I reached for my phone light. The exact moment I turned on the screen, a message came through from a Huachumera (Huachuma Shaman) I worked with when I was living in Ecuador.

    “Hi Daniel, your dad is here, it was great meeting him, he is very proud of you” – the Huachumera said, referring to her shamanic healing center in Ecuador.

    I would have been more stumped by this synchronicity if this ringing had subsided, but I couldn’t focus. It was just so damn loud.

    I turned on the bedside lamp, put my phone down, and spent some time recollecting myself. It took about ten minutes for the ringing to subside, and I then sat in silence for another ten minutes thinking about what happened. I was now wide awake, and it was only around 1 am.

    Shortly after, I messaged back telling the Huachumera what had happened. If there is anyone who knows about this stuff, it’s her.

    These were her actual words:

    “Your dad was probably helping you saying a kind of ‘look out!’ The dark spirit means you’re graduating to the next level of your astral projection game! It’s good! You’re ready to play in the big leagues now! Congrats. So get used to this, these spirits you’re going to be inviting back to source someday soon, it will be your otherworldly work.

    It all clicked.

    I was astral projecting!

    That’s why the experience was so familiar. I’ve experienced the same gateway phenomenon every time I fully disembodied. Although this experience was involuntary and much quicker, it was the same phenomenon.

    What are dark spirits during astral projection?

    Astral projection entity: dark spirit

    The next day I spoke with a Huachumera (San Pedro shaman) I know about my encounter.

    She told me that people who are learning to astral project will eventually encounter dark spirits. Like we encounter benevolent spirits who want to help us, it’s just a matter of time until we run into the darker underbelly of the spiritual dimensions. The spiritual realm is a fascinating place teeming with all sorts of life.

    There are many beautiful loving, angelic spirits out there, but as with duality – if there is light, there is also darkness.

    Darkness exists in the void of light. When any being loses touch with the light – of energies of love, gratitude, compassion, and kindness, they enter states of consciousness that are tormenting and destructive.

    Astral projection is not demonic, and it’s not bad. It’s a tool that can be used to access the astral planes which are another layer of consciousness. We can use astral projection as a tool for darkness the same we can use it as a tool for light, depending on our intention of tapping into these spaces.

    I perceive dark spirits as wounded souls who have lost their connection to source – in the same sense ‘bad’ people are wounded people because their attitudes and actions are a manifestation of their internal reality.

    Even though some people do terrible things, can we blame them? Does evil really exist, or do individuals just stray too far from god?

    When you begin entering other realms of consciousness, whether it’s via astral projection, shamanic ceremonies, or energy healing, you’re popping your head into their world, so these spirits become aware of you.

    Although I’m still not sure why I was spontaneously pulled out of my body, it reinforces the fact that there are dark spirits out there, and sometimes we might land in their crosshairs.

    What to do when encountering a dark spirit

    Angel sending a demon back to source

    Even though this was the most intense encounter I’ve had, it was not my first encounter with dark spirits. I’ve bumped into a few via ceremonies, meditation, and within my day-to-day life. I’ve witnessed a few exorcisms and learned some valuable wisdom from the shamans performing them.

    High vibrational energy is a repellant to dark energies.

    If you can experience energies such as love, gratitude, or compassion in the presence of a dark spirit, they want nothing to do with it. This is another reason they try to scare you: fear will quickly dissolve the high vibrational energies you’re experiencing.

    The challenge is to hold a space of love.

    You might think it seems simple – the fear is all in your mind so just maintain a space of love and you’ll be right. But it’s not all in your mind. These experiences are very real, and when you’re in the presence of a dark spirit you feel a visceral danger.

    Imagine you’re in an old house by yourself, and suddenly furniture begins moving, you see shadows, hear noises, and perceive something in that house that wants to harm you. Would you be able to hold a space of love?

    Probably not, at least not without being very centered in yourself and indifferent to whatever you’re experiencing.

    Unless you’re very advanced with this sort of work, you’re probably going to panic. Especially when the nature of the being is otherworldly, you don’t know what you’re dealing with. It’s unknown which makes the encounter even more eerie.

    With that said, try your best to hold love for the being. This light energy will ward off the dark spirit, or better yet, convert it. If you can project this light energy toward the spirit by genuinely wanting to help it, then you may even get through to it, and illuminate a better path for the spirit to take.

    What do dark spirits want?

     Dark spirits feed off dense energy. They intend to lower your vibration by provoking feelings of fear, anger, shame, guilt, and resentment.

    Imagine they’re sucking out your dense energy through a straw. If you’re not experiencing much dense energy, they will squeeze as much of this sweet nectar out of you as they can.

    Dark spirits are very good at identifying your wounds, and leveraging them. If they sense you’re in a conflict with someone, they may play on your guilt, shame, or hatred, and stir the pot. If they see you lack self-love, they will do everything in their power to kick you while you’re down.

    This is why deeply wounded people are often beacons to dark spirits. These spirits see a buffet and often attach themselves to these vulnerable victims – often resulting in mental illness, suicide, perversion, psychopathic behavior, or in extreme cases, killings.

    And they do this by attempting to scare you. Maybe they will play on your guilt, or press your buttons to make you feel angry. The more pain they can cause you to feel, the more they benefit from you.

    In my experience, dark spirits try to scare you. Fear is a particularly juicy energy for them, and it doesn’t take a lot to make people experience it.

    Envisioning yourself with radiant golden light can act as a protective barrier between you and the entity.  Although envisioning yourself being surrounded by this golden light, this can be difficult to do when you’re under the spell of fear.

    Affirm your stance

    Remember, despite how frightening the encounter is, you are in power. If you stand in your power and firmly tell the spirit it’s not welcome, it won’t be able to get to you.

    This needs to be done with confidence (not anger, because that will attract it). Again, spirits feed on low-vibrational energy. Therefore, if you’re standing in your power and not falling into their games, there’s not a whole lot they can do.

    Some people will call on the name of Jesus, or god. Although I’m not sure if words really make a difference as it’s more about the energy you’re experiencing, some people claim that telling the spirit to leave in the name of Jesus works.

    I believe it’s more the confidence and faith that someone experiences by using the name of a benevolent figure they hold closely in their heart. In this sense, I imagine falling back on any icon you hold in your heart may work, it doesn’t need to be Jesus if you don’t genuinely love Jesus.

    Send them back to the source

    We have the power to send these spirits back to source, but the spirit must be willing – meaning you must get through to it.

    I haven’t sent any spirits back to source myself as I’m relatively inexperienced, but from what I’ve heard, you may be able to reach through the darkness and tap into the soul of the entity.

    This can take practice because first, you need to practice holding your light in the face of darkness. But if you can do so, you can help these spirits – at least the ones that want to go home.

    Ask the entity what has hurt them. Ask them if they’re ready to start a new experience, and make sure you do it from a place of genuine compassion and love.

    From my understanding, if you can reach the soul within the darkness, and they agree to be helped, other spirits such as angels will appear in space and bring them back to the source to be transmuted into raw energy.

    Essentially, when a dark spirit wants to be helped, that’s the end of its lifecycle, where it can be transmuted into something else.

  • How To Astral Project In 3 Simple Steps

    How To Astral Project In 3 Simple Steps

    Astral projection is something I’ve had a fascination with since I first experienced it several years ago.

    It has become apparent that within our consciousness lies a doorway into foreign realms of experience – distant from ordinary reality. People can reach these doorways via various disciplines, whether it be meditation, fasting, prayer, yoga, breathwork, mediumship, shamanism, or astral projection – just to name a few.

    Here I’ll focus on astral projection because it tends to be one of the lesser-known spiritual crafts, yet it’s undeniably profound.

    I want to be clear, I’ve only successfully astral projected four times in my life. I’ve experienced this intriguing phenomenon a couple of times under the influence of plant medicines, and a couple with no aid at all.

    These experiences have all been profound, yet worlds apart from the many stories I’ve heard. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there, so I want to clear the table from my limited, but genuine experiences with this other-worldly phenomenon.

    What is astral projection?

    Astral projection occurs when your soul temporarily unplugs from physical reality – allowing you to perceive and experience other realms of consciousness. Think of it as projecting your consciousness into other dimensions that can’t be ordinarily perceived.

    Instead of viewing your human awareness as an isolated point, imagine it as a node on a string. This string connects you to source (the core of all creation), and vicariously exists in other realms too. We understand this string as the soul.

    This means your soul vicariously exists within other realms, and currently, you’re only experiencing a single manifestation of your immense consciousness.

    If my experiences with astral projection have taught me anything, we can move our awareness along this string by sinking deeper into the experience of consciousness. We can leverage deeper states of awareness to tap into different experiences of the soul.

    While tapping into deeper parts of your soul, you will traverse foreign realms, contact spirits, and soak up an abundance of wisdom within these realms.

    I know what you’re thinking.

    ‘Dude, I just want to fly around Earth and look at things, let’s not overcomplicate this’.

    Although I do believe flying around our universe in real-time is a true phenomenon, I understand this phenomenon as remote viewing, not astral projection. Astral projection is interdimensional, and teeming with entities of all kinds. Angelic, demonic, beautiful, weird, neutral, you name it.

    So let’s explore the common misconceptions about astral projection to know what we’re actually dealing with here.

    Common misconceptions

    First off, it’s important to separate fact from fiction and untangle this mess we’ve created.

    Astral projection is interdimensional, not part of this universe.

    I’ve heard one too many stories of people flying around the universe or touring the pyramids of Giza in spirit. It’s difficult to say what others have experienced, but I believe people tend to mix up the terminology.

    Even though astral projection is technically an out-of-body experience because your consciousness is detached from your physical body, it’s not in the way you would think.

    I once had an out-of-body experience onset from a lucid dream. I was walking around my house while simultaneously aware of my physical body in bed. However, when I stepped outside into the cold morning mist, my physical body began shivering even though it was cocooned in warm blankets.

    This is what I understand as an out-of-body experience. It’s completely different from astral projection because as you’re still here in reality. Sure, you may be disembodied, but it’s the same universe.

    I believe remote viewing is a variation of an out-of-body experience. Rather than solely walking around like a regular human, people train themselves to fly, appear in different locations, and go on world tours.

    What are the astral realms?

    Astral-realms spiritual dimension

    Our reality is akin to a layer of an onion, not the onion itself.

    Beyond reality lies other realms of existence that consciousness occupies, but currently we’re experiencing a single layer of it here in the flesh. Each layer represents a different dimension of consciousness, and the core represents source (or god), where all things manifest.

    The astral planes are of a different dimension. Different dimensions act as alternate platforms for consciousness to undergo experience. The nature of existence within the astral planes is purely energetic (vibrational), and void of Earthly constructs such as time, matter, and form.

    Within the astral planes, I tend to experience moving sacred geometry, colors, and entities. Sometimes entities have a form, however, they often appear as qualities of energy, orbs, or auras.

    I’ve tapped into some of these alternate dimensions of consciousness mostly through shamanic ceremonies and plant medicines, which have been extremely foreign to our experience here.

    You can read about my complete submersion into one of these realms via ego death here.

    How to astral project

    Astral projection infographic

    Now we’re getting into the fun stuff – the experience of astral projection, and how I’ve achieved it.

    Astral projection is most commonly experienced during deep states of awareness induced by meditation. Imagine sinking so deep into your consciousness that you penetrate the fabric of reality. By creating a needle-like focus on your 3rd eye, your awareness pushes through that hole to enter a foreign realm of experience.

    Although I have experienced this phenomenon spontaneously without intending to do so, it occurred during deep states of meditation every other time.

    My journey of astral projection is characterized by distinct stages. These stages include:

    • Regular meditation
    • Deep mindfulness via meditation
    • Gateway phenomenon (needle-point awareness)
    • Astral projection

    Understand that astral projection is an advanced spiritual discipline. Don’t expect to successfully astral project after a few attempts as it requires a lot of practice and patience, as does any spiritual discipline. This process is a long learning curve and can take years to experience.

    As mindfulness is the foundation of astral projection, you’re learning curve is likely much quicker if you regularly meditate.

    Set your intentions

    Setting intentions is an important element of any spiritual practice because your intention is the compass. If there is no desire to enter these realms, you will call quits as soon as anything out of the ordinary happens because it will be a shock.

    Before you attempt to astral project, intend to reach these deeper states of consciousness where you can project outwards, and then let go of the result. Don’t think about your intention or hold onto it. Thinking about it will activate the mind and prevent you from slipping into deeper states of awareness.

    Start meditating

    First, you want to start meditating. Either sit or lie in a comfortable position, and loosen u[ your mind.

    Usually, the first 10 – 20 minutes of my meditation sessions will be observing my thoughts in silence. I give my full attention to any thoughts or feelings that arise, and allow myself to think about whatever is coming up. I allow my mind to wander, and don’t resist where it takes me.

    Slowly, I’ll begin recentering my mind to my third eye (point of awareness between the eyes). My thoughts will begin to slow down and become less intrusive the more I sit with them without judgment.

    At this point, there is about a 50/50 chance that I will transition into a deeper state of awareness marked by tangible differences in my state of consciousness. However, this doesn’t always happen. Often enough, I won’t make it past the cerebral stage of meditation, and wrap up the session.

    After years of inconsistent practice, it is just now becoming more common (and quicker) to pass the cerebral stage of meditation to enter the state of stillness that ensues.

    So don’t pressure yourself. If you spend the whole session thinking, that’s also good because you’re processing your thoughts and emotions, and building the practice of disciplining your mind.

    Reach a deep state of awareness

    Sometimes when I’m meditating, I reach a stage where my thoughts seemingly stop. I notice my brainwaves changing, and everything slowing down to a near-halt.

    There will be a deep sense of stillness, comfort, and peace in this state of consciousness. My breathing finds a natural rhythm by becoming slower and more shallow, to the point I almost feel as if I’m not breathing at all.

    There may still be some thoughts, but they are non-intrusive, more so acting as background noise without goading my attention. I don’t have any desire to ‘do something’, because during this deep state of awareness I feel fulfilled. I’m completely present. There’s no place I would rather be than in this moment.

    I’ve noticed that this state of deep awareness can be delicate. If my mind is reactivated, I slide back into the cerebral state of awareness (thinking). A single thought, or perhaps a loud noise can trigger this shift, so it takes discipline to sit with this experience and slowly slide into deeper states of awareness.

    This is a very nourishing state to be in, however, occasionally I’ll go even deeper into my consciousness, and this is where I enter the gateway.

    Enter the gateway

    After entering a deep meditative state, sometimes I will enter an even deeper state of consciousness which I call the gateway. This is where things start to get real.

    The astral gateway is the bridge between our physical reality and the astral realms, and you need to reach a certain state of consciousness to access it. The gateway is marked by a set of symptoms that occur simultaneously during deep states of meditation.

    This experience tends to come on quite rapidly and it can certainly throw you out of balance, therefore maintaining your composure is necessary, otherwise, you’ll ground yourself and end the experience.

    A sharp ringing in my ears occurs while my body energetically vibrates. There will be a sense of expansion, and often my heart starts racing. When this expansive feeling happens, my vision begins brightening – while becoming more complex with colors, patterns, and shapes. There is a heavy feeling in my body like I’m starting to disassociate from it. 

    Imagine your regular closed-eye vision as a static TV screen. As I become immersed in this expansive state of awareness, that screen becomes three-dimensional as the boundaries stretch outwards.

    Within moments my closed-eye vision has depth while visuals including sacred geometry, movements, colors, orbs, and auras begin to appear inside that space.

    Here’s what happens when I reach the astral gateway. These symptoms tend to all happen spontaneously, and simultaneously.

    • A loud ringing in both my ears occurs
    • My heart usually begins to beat quickly
    • My closed-eye vision begins to broaden, providing the sensation of stretching out
    • My closed-eye vision brightens to a whitish hue
    • There is an intense vibration feeling in my body
    • There is a generally heavy body feeling as my consciousness begins to detach (feels like I’m being stretched out)
    • I begin to lose awareness of my physical body
    • I may hear disembodied sounds, hums, and noises
    • Sometimes there are visuals including patterns or a grid matrix

    Leave your body

    To pass through this gateway, I need to maintain this deep state of awareness without snapping out of it – which has proven to be a challenge.

    There were multiple times when I would start disassociating from my body, however, the only times when I have successfully passed through this gateway occurred when I could maintain complete composure while undergoing these intense symptoms.

    At first, I began to feel fear when this phenomenon began because it was a very unusual experience and I didn’t know what was going on. The fear would activate my mind and instantly snap me out of my deep meditative state.

    Once I recognized this experience was the onset of astral projection, I felt excited when it happened. I would think ‘Woah, it’s happening again’ which activated my mind and again, snapped me out of my meditative state.

    When you enter this astral gateway, you need to be indifferent to the experience which allows you to maintain a deep meditative state.

    As soon as you react to what’s happening, you’ll instantly reactivate your mind and end the experience. You don’t want to be grounded, you want to leave your body and explore. Therefore, being indifferent to the experience is critical.

    After a few moments of maintaining composure while passing through this gateway, the journey seems to somewhat stabilize, and you’ll find yourself in a space with a very different quality of experience.

    Navigating the astral planes

    Astral projection artwork

    If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you’re in for a ride. So now you’ve made it through the gateway where your conscious experience resides in a bizarre, but beautiful place. You now exist as a form of self without cognition or rational thought.

    Everything in this space is energetic, but you innately recognize everything you interact with. It feels very real, and there’s no argument that you’re no longer in reality (although there may still be a sense that you are energetically connected to your body, and aware that you’re astral projecting).

    Guiding the experience

    The nature of your awareness is different in the astral planes. You don’t think ‘I’m going to go that way!’ You instinctively act from desire. In other words, you cut out the middle man – the mind, which allows your experience to be more pure.

    If you encounter something dark, your first instinct tells you ‘I’m getting out of here’ and the experience changes. If you encounter a loving being with a bright golden aura, you will feel beautiful feelings, and stay around unless you intend the experience to change (or until the being leaves).

    Energy is the language of the astral planes, and intention is your guiding mechanism. Whatever you intend when you’re astral projecting tends to happen. If you get a message from a spirit saying ‘Let me show you something’ and you instinctively feel like it’s a good idea, you will follow it.

    Even though there is a sense of movement, I don’t necessarily perceive space in the astral planes. Sure, the experience changes, but it’s almost like you’re watching a video rather than playing a game.

    So trust that you know what to do. When you don’t have a mind to think from, guiding yourself in the astral realms is quite simple.

    Interacting with entities

    As the astral planes are teeming with life, you’re likely to encounter entities when you’re in this space. In my experiences, encounters with entities have always been a vivid experience. There was no doubt that I was interacting with a being.

    I’ve experienced orbs with colorful auras that were either distinctly masculine or feminine. There have been all sorts of bizarre spirits both of light and darkness. I’ve also encountered neutral entities who I couldn’t read at all. They didn’t seem to have an intention or distinct energy. They were just there.

    About a month ago I was thrust out of my body randomly and attacked by a dark energy. It was a terrifying experience, and I heard it very clearly speaking to me in deep whispers. I felt like I was in imminent danger, and that danger felt very real, regardless if it was in the astral realms.

    During my time working at a shamanic healing center in Ecuador, I was told that dark energies can cause real-life issues, and I witnessed several exorcisms during this time too. Dark spirits can attach themselves to you and ride your spirit back into reality.

    Unless you know what you’re doing, you’re vulnerable (or rather, exposed) in these states of consciousness. You’re in their world, so don’t play with fire.

    There is often a visual component to spirits in the astral realms as they may manifest a form, however, you feel them, the same way you feel the presence of someone else in the room – however you’re much more sensitive in these energetic states.

    Each being has a distinct, yet unique energy. When you’re in their presence, you will start to feel things. You may feel love and compassion, you may feel pain and hatred. Likewise, you may feel calm, strange, uneasy, or just downright weird because you’re picking up the energy field of the being you’re interacting with.

    Astral beings can communicate with you, but as with all spiritual encounters, they do so telepathically. You may receive messages or insights as if you’re getting a download. You may hear voices, or attain instant understanding.

    Returning to reality

    At some point during the experience, you will snap back into your body. Like a lucid dream, I don’t see a need to end the experience. It will naturally end at some point, so my advice is to enjoy it while it lasts.

    Remember, you’re still energetically tied to your physical body, so you can’t get lost. Having trust in the process may help. With that said, perhaps you’re feeling afraid and just want the experience to end. In this case, your desire to end the experience will probably end the experience.

    It’s no mystery that the astral realms are an intriguing place to visit. There are so many beings to interact with, so much you can learn, and overall it’s just a fascinating experience.

    Enjoy the journey and don’t be afraid to explore your immense consciousness!

  • Common Ayahuasca Myths And Misconceptions Explained

    Common Ayahuasca Myths And Misconceptions Explained

    Having worked with ancestral medicines for a good while now in Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru, I’ve had my fair share of experiences with Ayahuasca.

    Whether these experiences were drinking the medicine myself, assisting in ceremonies, or helping people through their integration, I’ve learned a lot about this powerful medicine, and also about the misconceptions that many people have about it.

    Some people believe that Ayahuasca is simply a mind-altering drug. Others believe that one sitting will change your life forever. You hear all sorts of wild stories about this medicine, so what’s going on here?

    Well, that’s what I want to clear up in this article.

    I’m going to address some of the common misconceptions that people have about Ayahuasca based on my experiences working with the medicine and helping many people through their processes.

    Ayahuasca is dangerous

    Generally speaking, ayahuasca is safe. After all, it’s a medicine, but there are also a lot of variables here.

    Are you a healthy adult with no history of mental illness? I would be very surprised if something went wrong. If you have a serious heart condition or something like that, ayahuasca might be a little riskier as it puts your body under a lot of stress.

    But if there’s no cause for concern, you’ll be fine. Just make sure you’re drinking pure medicine at a reputable place. Most issues come not from the medicine itself, but from other people with bad intentions.

    Ayahuasca is a recreational drug

    Ayahuasca is not a reacreational drug. In medicine circles, you’ll probably get some dirty looks if you call it a drug as it’s considered disrespectful.

    Ayahuasca is a medicine (or spirit), and it’s traditionally used in shamanic ceremonies with the intent to heal and grow. It is not intended for recreational use and should be approached with respect and intention.

    Even though you can have enjoyable experiences, often the ayahuasca experience is difficult and involves purging (vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, etc.)

    Ayahuasca causes psychosis

    If you have no history of mental illness, Ayahuasca cannot cause schizophrenia or psychosis. Ayahuasca can however trigger or onset preexisting conditions which can lead to psychosis.

    Ayahuasca can make you feel very ungrounded though, both within the ceremony and for some time afterwards. If your mind is already in the sky, I would avoid ayahuasca as it might make you disassociate a little.

    It’s best not to mess around with these medicines unless you’re confident that you have no preexisting mental illness.

    I met someone who was broken by the medicine as he decided not to tell the facilitators that he had bipolar. Believe me, you don’t want to end up like him, so be transparent if you’re seeking out the medicine.

    You can mix Ayahuasca with other medicines

    Do not take Ayahuasca if you’re under the influence of drugs or medications. Although some medications are okay, others can be deadly if used in conjunction with ayahuasca, so you need to be very cautious about this.

    Always be transparent with the facilitator or center where you’re planning on taking the ayahuasca, and disclose anything you’re taking.

    I would avoid drinking alcohol or coffee in the days leading up to the ceremony. Mixing other plant medicines with Ayahuasca such as cannabis or psilocybin may not be dangerous, but I heavily advise against it as these other energies can interfere with Ayahuasca and have consequences.

    Ayahuasca is a religious experience

    Ayahuasca is a spiritual medicine and doesn’t fit in any religious box. The healers who work with ayahuasca are shamans who each have their own beliefs, but it’s not a religion.

    I’ve worked with people who were Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and people who follow just about every religion out there. But those people also happened to be open-minded (otherwise they probably wouldn’t take Ayahuasca) and understood that the belief system doesn’t matter.

    Ayahuasca causes permanent changes in your life

    A common misconception is to believe that one ceremony will create drastic, permanent changes in your life. Many people who take the medicine don’t experience anything at all.

    What everyone gets out of Ayahuasca is personal, but common long-term effects include changes in perception and belief systems, a deeper connection with spirit, the emergence of healthier habits and lifestyles, and a higher sense of inner peace and fulfillment.

    Look at it as if ayahuasca sows the seeds, but you need to water them. Don’t expect to walk out of a ceremony as a different person.

    Ayahuasca always leads to positive change

    Ayahuasca does not always lead to positive change.

    For some people, it has the opposite effect, however, this is usually when they resist what the medicine is trying to show them or disrespect it.

    Ayahuasca does have the potential to retraumatize people and cause more issues than they came in with. But this happens on rare occasions. The vast majority of experiences with Ayahuasca create positive change.

    Just be open to the medicine, and don’t resist the experience.

    You need integration after taking ayahuasca

    Formal integration can help some people after taking ayahuasca, but it’s not necessary for most. Integration coaching is a pretty Westernized addition to plant medicines and is primarily focused on people who don’t have a whole lot of experience with plant medicines.

    Generally, people integrate on their own. Spend plenty of time by yourself. Meditation. Slow down. Reflect. Taking your own time to integrate should do the trick, and help you bring the teachings of the medicine into your daily life.

    Integration work may be necessary for people who were shaken up by the medicine or left feeling confused and disorientated.

    If this is you, I’ve written an article on the best integration practices which you can find here:

  • The 5 Levels of a Psychedelic Trip: From Microdose to Breakthrough

    The 5 Levels of a Psychedelic Trip: From Microdose to Breakthrough

    Without a doubt, psychedelics can be incredible tools to explore the deeper workings of your consciousness and facilitate healing and spiritual growth.

    Although we’re currently undergoing a psychedelic renaissance, there’s still a lot of ambiguity surrounding the topic, especially regarding the deeper levels of a psychedelic trip.

    Psychedelics have a wide range of applications. Commonly they’re taken recreationally in small doses, but there is a whole other side to them too. Psychedelics, within the theme of spirituality and mental health, are revered as powerful medicines and wise teachers. Beyond the recreational trip, people use psychedelics due to their consciousness-expanding effects, and as powerful tools to improve their lives.

    Due to the therapeutic application of psychedelics in general, practices such as psychedelic-assisted therapy have become popular. There’s a constant stream of research pouring into the collective consciousness that’s supporting the responsible use of psychedelics, and showing that they are indeed helpful if used correctly.

    For the more traditional route, people take psychedelics in shamanic ceremonies all over the world, which have been done for many thousands of years. However, these traditions are only now catching the spotlight.

    With that said, let’s explore the depths of a psychedelic trip.

    Down the psychedelic rabbit hole

    The psychedelic mandala

    Like most people, I first experimented with psychedelics due to curiosity but quickly realized their unparalleled benefits for personal growth and healing.

    As I was a generally miserable teenager, I saw psychedelics as a road to explore my reality and bring about some serious changes within it.

    During my youth, I took psychedelics hundreds of times to explore my suffering. I consistently went deeper into the experiences and had some pretty incredible revelations.

    It was clear that I was making strides with my development, but that was dwarfed by one experience which permanently changed my life. Upon waking up from that experience, a deeper part of my consciousness was activated.

    Years later I moved to South America where I worked at a shamanic healing center for the next six months. I assisted with the Ayahuasca and San Pedro ceremonies, and my depth of knowledge about these powerful medicines broadened even further.

    Even though I’ve broken down a trip into levels here for easier digestion, the depth of a psychedelic experience is a spectrum. On one end you are completely sober, on the other, you don’t exist. There are certainly different levels to a psychedelic trip but look at it in a way where each level gradually blends into one another.

    It’s important to note that all psychedelics are different, so the experience will vary. For example, LSD is a much more spacey experience compared to Psilocybin, which is Earthy and organic. Mescaline is light and euphoric, while DMT is completely alien. With that said, the psychedelic experience tends to converge at deeper levels with many overlapping themes. So likely, many of the points written here will apply, regardless of what you take.

    Microdose

    Level 0: Microdose

    A microdose is a very light dose that is usually used to assist with cognitive processes and everyday functions. You may feel a very mild buzz on a microdose, but it’s not enough to cause an altered state of consciousness.

    You can expect to experience:

    • Heightened awareness
    • Slight energetic buzz
    • Slight increase in creativity
    • Increase in productivity
    • More attention to detail
    • Higher focus
    • Easier ability to problem-solve
    • Sense of Wellness
    • Sese of composure

    Microdoses are the lowest dose where you can feel the effects of the psychedelic. They’re intended to create a very subtle high that doesn’t disrupt your thinking process or behavioral patterns.

    Since you can usually function perfectly fine on a microdose, they’re popular options to aid everyday activities such as working, studying, catching up with friends, and doing chores and activities such as cleaning the house or getting groceries.

    People often take a microdose to assist them when they’re at work due to the subtle improvements in energy levels, creativity, and productivity they induce. This dose has been popularized to be taken as a daily routine, and many people vouch that it benefits their daily life, and generally makes them feel more wholesome.

    Light stage of a psychedelic trip

    Level 1: Light dose

    A light dose is generally taken with a recreational intention, however, it can also be used to aid cognitive processes and boost creativity. A light dose has some therapeutic application.

    You can expect to experience:

    • Minor changes in perception
    • Minor visual distortions such as moving patterns and textures
    • Brightening of colors and changes in the color spectrum
    • Auditory distortions, sounds appear to be drawn out
    • Heightened awareness of your senses
    • Higher bodily awareness
    • General feeling of being high, or not in your normal state of mind
    • A looser mind, characterized by abstract thinking and unusual ideas. You may make more connections, and feel more intelligent
    • A heavier focus on your internal reality over your external reality
    • Some enhancements with creativity and problem-solving
    • You start to become more receptive to emotions and energies

    Level 1 of a trip is where you will start to recognize the psychedelic effects. Although mild, you will notice some changes in perception and thought patterns. Your mind will feel loose as you experience more abstract thoughts and gain new perspectives on your life situation.

    On a light dose, you may get some visuals in the form of moving patterns, and changes in colors and color intensity. People commonly get a breathing effect on surfaces. There will also be some visual distortions and anomalies, such as things looking out of place, or not being able to recognize certain shapes and forms without closer inspection.

    During this stage, you won’t feel quite right either. Even though your mind is still fully intact and you’re completely aware of what’s happening, you feel a little strange. Your emotions become more prominent, and you might start thinking about yourself and your reality a little differently. On a light dose, your body might feel a little heavy as you become more aware of its internal processes.

    Relaxing into a level 1 trip can help you experience and process buried emotions. The trip might flush up certain stressors or worries about your life, and allow you to see them from a different perspective. Resisting the experience might make you feel a little uneasy, but usually won’t be enough to cause a bad trip.

    As you’re still grounded during a level 1 trip, a light dose is safe for people who don’t have much experience with psychedelics. This is a good level to experience some of the psychedelic effects without risking a bad trip, however, the therapeutic gain is minimal.

    Persons face with psychedelic patterns

    Level 2: Moderate dose

    A moderate dose is what people usually take for recreation. This dose provides a good balance by inducing a deep enough trip to have a proper experience, but not enough to make you unstable.

    You can expect to experience:

    • Prominent two-dimensional closed and open-eye visuals
    • A loose mind which is characterized by abstract thoughts and a drifting mind
    • Deeper and more profound existential thoughts about oneself and the universe
    • Warped perception of the space around you
    • Distorted sense of time. Time appears to move slowly
    • Reflective thinking which leads to new outlooks and understanding of your life situation
    • Heavy body feelings, awareness of internal organs and functions
    • It may feel like the air is heavy or you’re in a bubble
    • Some difficulty constructing legible sentences
    • Difficulty articulating thoughts and ideas
    • Deepening of emotional intensity and reception
    • Thought loops
    • You might laugh a lot at external stimuli or your thought processes
    • Disassociation from sense of self

    During a moderate dose, you will start feeling noticeable effects of the psychedelic. You will have changes in perception where reality (and your understanding of reality) changes. Your thought patterns become quite dislodged and abstract which can lead to realizations, insights, and new outlooks. At this level, it becomes harder to focus due to your drifting mind, which makes a moderate dose not ideal for productivity.

    Your spatial recognition and depth perception may be warped, and you may experience some time dilation (time appears to move slower than normal). During a level 2 trip, people often get two-dimensional visuals including breathing effects, moving patterns, and brightened colors. Things will generally look a bit strange. Sound will appear deeper and more drawn out, which makes listening to music a very enjoyable experience.

    During a level 2 trip, you will feel different. There’s no doubt about it that you’re not in your normal mind, but it can be hard to describe how you’re feeling. Often you just feel weird and realize that you’re not acting normal. You might feel confused and disoriented, but by relaxing into the trip you can feel euphoric and fulfilled. You may find yourself getting caught in thought loops where you juggle alternating thoughts that keep leading back to one another. A thought loop might go something like this:

    Am I cold? I think so, so I should put on a jacket. But the jacket is downstairs, I’m comfortable here. But I’m feeling a little cold, oh that’s right, I should put on a jacket, but the jacket is downstairs and I have to get up to get my jacket. But I don’t want to get up, it’s a lot of effort. Maybe I should just enjoy this for a while, but I can’t enjoy it because I’m cold. So how do I fix this problem? Oh, that’s right, I can put on a jacket.

     That’s why it’s a good idea to prepare everything before your trip so you can focus on the experience itself. During a level 2 trip, you may experience some ego dissolution, meaning you start questioning who you are, and become more dislodged from your sense of identity. This feeling can be used as a trampoline for personal growth as you become dislodged from your normal patterns, and gain an alternate view of who you are, and why you’re living the life you are.

    Psychedelic visuals level 3

    Level 3: Heavy dose

    A heavy dose is usually taken for the purposes of developing yourself, healing yourself, or for spiritual growth. Due to the intense nature of a level 3 experience, a heavy dose is usually overkill when used solely for recreation, unless you know what you’re doing, and you’re very comfortable with who you are.

    You can expect to experience:

    • kaleidoscopic two-dimensional visuals, the presence of three-dimensional visuals overlapping
    • Sounds are much deeper and drawn out. You may begin hearing things that aren’t there
    • Your thoughts might start playing out like a slideshow. You’re not sure whether you’re seeing them or thinking about them
    • The presence of deep loops of thought, memories, or situations, like you’re replaying the same experience over and over
    • You have a strong high. You may be hyperaware of your own body and its internal functions
    • Lots of difficulty articulating thoughts and constructing legible sentences
    • Major distortions in time. Time feels much slower. You may think it has been an hour when it has only been ten minutes
    • Deep realizations and insights about your life, yourself, and the universe
    • You may experience mystical experiences such as telepathy, or think about someone and then get a message from them
    • Disassociation from self. You may start questioning who you are
    • You may perceive vague moving humanoid or nonhumanoid shapes that appear to be observing or interacting with you

    Level 3 is usually the preferred depth of a psychedelic trip if you’re looking to do some heavy work on yourself. Whether it’s to figure things out in your life, address and heal trauma, or for your spiritual growth, this level can provide some pretty major changes in consciousness that can lead to all sorts of things under the correct application.

    Usually, a heavy dose is not enjoyable to experience due to the intensity, making it an unpopular choice for recreation. Inexperienced people might panic and feel like they’re losing their minds on this intensity. There is a high potential for the experience to turn into a bad trip, so you should be cautious about going this deep. 

    During a level 3 psychedelic trip, you experience major changes in perception and thought patterns. It may feel like your mind has become completely unglued, with little structure. This makes you a little irrational when under this intensity, which can lead to people freaking out or thinking they’re dying.

    You will experience vivid kaleidoscopic visuals. But they won’t just be patterns anymore. Shapes will begin to shift. Your perception of space becomes warped. You might see things that aren’t physically there, and objects will look very strange. You may have the presence of three-dimensional visuals in the form of fractals which become especially apparent if you close your eyes and pay attention to them. There will be a tangible depth to these visions as if you’re peeping into another world.

    You will have a heavy body high. You won’t know what’s going on with it at all. Of course, it’s yours, or maybe it’s just a figment of your consciousness. Thought loops will be rampant, and almost a little mystical, as if you’re playing out the future as it’s happening, which sorta makes sense.

    Your emotions become very intense. Repressed memories tend to flush up. You may have intrusive thoughts, and mentally go places that you have no control over. Sitting with these feelings and allowing them to surface is usually why psychedelics are used as a therapy, as they allow you to replay and process repressed trauma.  You will also become very receptive to external and internal energies. Better hope that you’re not with someone who is feeling awkward or anxious, because it’s going to change the entire trajectory of your trip, and you’re not going to be in the right state of mind to handle it.

    You will struggle to construct legible sentences at this stage. You might sound like a caveman. Your sentences will come out like ‘vision, big!‘, but it will make perfect sense in your mind.

    Time feels like it’s moving extremely slowly.  You may experience profound realizations and insights about the universe, your life, or the nature of your consciousness. If you lean back into the experience and surrender to it, here you might have mystical phenomena too such as visions, astral projection, premonitions, or experience states of profound love and unity. Even though you’re deep in the experience, you still have some awareness of your body and probably know where you are and what you’re doing.

    Stage 4 of a psychedelic trip

    level 4: Heroic dose

    A heroic dose is a very heavy dose that gets you to the furthest state that you can go before breaking through. This is called a hero’s dose because this level of intensity is certainly not for the common man.

    You can expect to experience:

    • Vivid three-dimensional close-eye and open-eye visuals
    • Extreme alterations in sounds and hearing things that are not there
    • A deep disconnection from self. You may not know who you are, what’s happening, or where you are
    • Sense of connection with all things in existence. Almost no sense of self
    • Extreme emotional amplification that can lead to states of absolute love and bliss, or extreme states of panic
    • Extreme disorientation, existential crisis, and feelings of impending death
    • Rapid heart rate and uncontrollable breathing
    • Time loops and feelings of replaying the same situation repeatedly
    • Extreme distortion in space and time. Minutes can feel like hours
    • Profound realizations and insight. You might feel like you’re getting answers to some of the big mysteries of the universe
    • Only able to mutter words and syllables
    • May have difficulty moving your body
    • Almost no rational thinking
    • Spiritual phenomena such as kundalini awakenings, chakra activations, premonitions, and visions may occur
    • You may experience vivid orbs, sensations of other presences, shadows, faces, silhouettes (both stationary or moving) and other anomalies which you will have no doubt that they’re entities.  

    Now we’re getting into the heavy-duty stuff. There’s a hard line here of don’t try this at home kids, because you’re probably going to call an ambulance. There’s a high potential for a bad trip if you take a heavy dose without being familiar with the headspace. People who are not experienced are very likely to become overwhelmed as their reality crumbles around them.

    Once you get to this level of a psychedelic trip, there’s a fork in the road. It can either be really good or really bad with almost no mutual ground, depending on how well you manage it. If you surrender to the experience and let yourself go, you can have an absolutely blissful and deeply mystical experience that can change your life. If you resist the experience, it can lead to existential crisis, feelings of impending death, and extreme panic.

    A heroic dose is the deepest level of a psychedelic trip until you completely break through. This means it’s the last point in which you retain your human awareness before completely evaporating into the interdimensional rip. During a level 4 trip, you’re here, but you’re not fully here. You might still have some sensory awareness and recognize that you’re in a safe place, perhaps that you took something, but memories… what are they anyway?

    You’re likely to experience a complete deconstruction of reality and a near-complete loss of yourself and your identity. Due to this loss of self, a level 4 trip can be extremely disorientating. You may find it incredibly difficult to move or speak. There is still a tether connecting you to reality, and you probably recognize that you’re a human, but you won’t know much more than that.

    People often experience intense fractal-like patterns and sacred geometry. They appear to experience other realms of existence such as five-dimensional space that is alien to our reality. On a level 4 trip, people often experience profound insights and understandings, and mystical phenomena such as visions of the future, telepathy with family and loved ones, experiencing memories of other people or animals, astral projection, and chakra activation. The universe might make complete sense, but you can’t articulate this knowledge as it’s way too vast.

    Time almost appears nonexistent here. minutes can feel like hours, and you might feel like you’re stuck in limbo which can be an extremely frightening experience. Only by fully letting go, whether it’s out of love or because you can’t hold on anymore, that’s when you will break through and enter a level 5 trip.

    Ego Death
    Stage 5 of a psychedelic trip interidmensional travel

    Level 5: Shamanic dose (Breakthrough)

    A shamanic dose is used for the deepest levels of soul exploration, interdimensional travel, and contact with spirits. This is called a shamanic dose because you probably don’t want to get there without a shaman to guide you.

    You can expect to experience:

    • Complete loss of oneself and absolutely no control over the experience
    • Complete disconnection from reality
    • No existence of memories, thoughts, or perceptions
    • No presence of space, time, or matter
    • Submergence into a realm beyond comprehension which is completely otherwordly and alien
    • Existence is infinity, fractals, and scored geometry 
    • Experience can feel like years
    • The experience of being a spec within an infinite sea of consciousness
    • Experiences of totality and cosmic consciousness
    • Fully blown encounters with spirits, entities, and deities
    • Infinite knowledge of all creation
    • Sense of familiarity, like you’re home

    Now we’ve reached the bottom of the rabbit hole, level 5. A shamanic dose is taken for the deepest spiritual endeavors which induce a complete submergence into other planes of existence. Never attempt to go this deep by yourself because you can completely lose yourself. The only exception is in a shamanic ceremony with a facilitator who works with these energies and can guide you.

    I’ve been here once in my life. This ego-death experience permanently changed my life, but it could have also been the end of it. I thought I had a heart attack and passed out on the living room floor. Long story short, I came back a new man maybe an hour later! Then I packed my bags and set off traveling the world for many years to find myself. True story.

    But about the experience… During a level 5 experience, your consciousness completely leaves your body. If you don’t believe in life after death, believe me, you will. Your body becomes a lifeless vegetable with no signs of awareness. This is known as the breakthrough where you become a part of all energy without separation. There’s no driver in your body anymore, so you’re completely within another dimension of experience.

    Essentially you’re a part of everything, so you have no control over the experience. You have no thoughts, no memories, no ties to reality. It’s like reality never existed in the first place, because now you’ve woken from the dream. During a level 5 experience, the entire experience is mystical. Totality, states of bliss, and experiences of being in heaven or hell are possible. Experiencing life as different life forms can happen. There are no rules here (well there probably are, but I certainly don’t know them).

    I experienced crazy fractals and sacred geometry. Vision after vision after vision. I didn’t exist, but I was like an observer. The place was teeming with all sorts of entities, energies, and spirits. There was a divine order in this realm, and it seemed a million times more sophisticated than any sort of human civilization.

    Upon awakening from this level, your life will never be the same. How could it be? You experienced something that felt so much more real than life in these monkey suits. But you will never forget that this dimension of experience does exist. That there are other realms of consciousness that we do have access to. And it might make you take shamanism a little more seriously, that shamans are actually dealing with different dimensions, so you might respect these plants a little more too.

  • Post-Ayahuasca Integration: How to Avoid Slipping into Old Patterns

    Post-Ayahuasca Integration: How to Avoid Slipping into Old Patterns

    So you’ve traveled to the other side of the world to experience an Ayahuasca ceremony. You had such eye-opening encounters with the medicine, and you were filled with inspiration and insight.

    Suddenly you’re back home and everything once again seems a little regular. You try to implement your newfound insights and ideas, but the grind of reality kicks back in.

    Your old lifestyle no longer provides fulfillment as you feel you have outgrown the pot you live in. All you want to do is jump back on the plane, but you can’t. You have responsibilities, bills to pay, and perhaps a job or dependents.

    So how can you find that balance, integrate the medicine, and apply it to your new reality, but juggle the reality of your life situation?

    This is where the real work begins.

    You’ve learned the theory, now it’s time to put it into practice. This is why post-Ayahuasca integration is important: To learn how to apply what you’ve learned to the real world, and to incorporate those insights into your daily life.

    As someone who has helped hundreds of people work through their processes with ancestral medicines, I’m going to give you some advice to make sure you gain the full benefits from your Ayahuasca experience.

    Following these guidelines will help you to integrate the teachings of your Ayahuasca journey, incorporate what you’ve learned, and prevent you from slipping back into old patterns.

    The impact of Ayahuasca

    Cooking ayahuasca

    Ayahuasca is a consciousness-enhancing spirit that plays a big role in healing, personal growth, and self-realization.

    As with many plant medicines, the experience of Ayahuasca can be very intense as it opens you up to different dimensions of consciousness that we typically can’t perceive.

    Ayahuasca is renowned for rewiring people’s emotional ecosystems, belief systems, mindsets, and perceptions. In the days or weeks following an ayahuasca ceremony, people often feel ungrounded as deep levels of transformation are underway.

    There appears to be a transition period which can be disillusioning.

    Having sat with Ayahuasca twenty times and supporting hundreds of people throughout their medicine journeys, I now recognize the importance of ayahuasca integration, especially for people who are returning to less-than-ideal situations.

    Even though the transformations that occur are overwhelmingly positive; given the person takes this experience seriously and is ready to do some serious healing, it can be a disorienting journey following a medicine journey.

    This is why integration work is necessary. Following a ceremony, ayahuasca integration is the process of:

    • Grounding and regulating oneself
    • Incorporating insights and information into daily life
    • Working through the process of personal transformation and change

    Learning how to integrate the experience of Ayahuasca is a big part of the process as your ability to integrate the information received impacts how this experience unfolds into your future.

    The experience of Ayahuasca is completely different for every person and every ceremony, it’s not a one-size-fits-all medicine, not at all.

    The medicine shows you certain things about your life that you need to work on. Often, you receive insights and inspiration for what changes need to be made, and how to implement them.

    However, sometimes it’s not so clear. Some experiences appear to have no inherent meaning. They can leave you confused, or perhaps frustrated. Then there are the destroyer experiences that can turn people on their heads, causing long-lasting confusion and disorientation following the ceremony.

    Whatever you’re shown, there are usually commonalities after the experience that people who take ancestral medicine connect over. Below are some of the common themes and challenges that people face post-Ayahuasca.

    • The feeling of not belonging to the life you had before taking Ayahuasca
    • The desire to make big changes in your life, whether it’s related to your work, relationships, environment, or lifestyle
    • The draw to organize your life, clean yourself up, and get your shit together
    • General disorientation and disillusionment due to changes in perspective and belief systems
    • Living more authentically with oneself
    • An urge to develop yourself spiritually and pursue spiritual growth
    • You feel like there have been major internal transformations, but you’re uncertain about what to do now
    • Fear about enacting upon what you have learned, questioning its validity, or feeling uneasy about taking a leap of faith
    • The need to connect with like-minded people who understand the process and are supportive

    Is Ayahuasca integration work necessary?

    Ayahuasca integration

    The Ayahuasca ceremony is just one part of the experience.

    If your mind is a garden bed, Ayahuasca pulls out the weeds and sows seeds. In the early stages, this garden bed is fragile as it takes time for those seeds to grow (and stabilize the ecosystem). As the garden bed is most vulnerable after it has been renovated, it’s important to protect it so that everything grows, and it is well maintained.

    In other words, the medicine may show you a path to walk, but it’s your responsibility to walk it. We all have free will, and sometimes, people fall back into old patterns because they don’t stay on the path that was illuminated for them.

    The medicine facilitates mental, emotional, and spiritual processes that need to be tended to for months to come. Therefore, it’s important to integrate all the work you have done during the ceremony to make sure you don’t slip back into old patterns, and steer the transformation process in a positive direction.

    Post-Ayahausca integration work encourages the transformative process and allows you to receive the full benefits of the medicine in the years to come. If you have a lot of fresh insights to assimilate, you’re unlikely to gain the full benefits of the medicine if you don’t integrate them.

    The amount of integration work required depends on the individual, the intensity of their experiences, and how well they understand the medicine.

    If you had a particularly challenging experience with Ayahuasca, integration is especially important to make sense of your experience and to create space for deep levels of healing. If you’re feeling ungrounded after an Ayahuasca ceremony, integration work provides stability and helps you rediscover a new sense of belonging.

    Regardless, everyone should do some sort of integration as integration is an essential part of the transformation process that Ayahuasca facilitates, but that process looks different for everyone.

    For some people, integration could be spending a lot of time in nature and reflecting on what they learned during the ceremony. For others, it’s more of an act where they will have specific practices and a strict routine to implement following a ceremony.

    The ceremony may have finished, but the ceremony of life has just begun. If you perceive your transformation as a gradual unfurling following a ceremony, integration is the act of encouraging this process of transformation for years to come.

    Integrating insights and new understandings

    Ayahuasca ceremony

    Ayahuasca shows you what you need to do, but it’s your responsibility to do it. If you have been shown some big changes that you need to make in your life but refuse to act upon this insight, your life situation probably isn’t going to change a whole lot. You may gain insights into new habits that will help you, and things that you need to do to improve your life. But you need to do it because the medicine can’t do it for you.

    For example, if you were shown that you need to take a leap of faith and end a toxic relationship, or a job that you’re comfortable in, but stagnant, you need to do these things. It doesn’t need to be a drastic decision that puts you in a bad situation. You can be calculated and sensible about it, but make sure it happens.

    Likewise, perhaps you were shown that you need to stop drinking, that you need to get your shit together, or perhaps you need to stop trying to have so much control as it is causing you pain. Even though it can be difficult or scary, it’s important to trust those messages and do what you know you need to do. Those insights won’t lead you astray.

    The importance of the self-reflection process

    Self-reflection is a core part of the Ayahuasca journey, as the insights often take time to settle in.

    Reflecting on your experiences regularly helps you incorporate those insights into your daily life. Likewise, reflecting on who you are, and what you can do to heal/better yourself encourages the growth process that Ayahuasca leverages.

    Introspection after an Ayahuasca ceremony allows you to deepen your sense of self, and continue doing the inner work. Clarity tends to surface when you’re sitting with an experience and processing it. Not when you’re watching TV, catching up with friends, or stimulating yourself. Practices such as regular meditation and going for walks in nature are highly beneficial here.

    The intention of self-reflection is to reduce stimulus and sit with the thoughts and emotions that you’re experiencing. It’s good to give yourself space and not rush the experience. 

    Your life can be a confusing haze for a while following work with the ancestral medicine, but the more you dig into those thoughts, concepts, and beliefs that have been illuminated during the ceremony, the more you will consolidate realizations and understand what you need to do moving forward.

    Nurture your growth by practicing self-care

    Show yourself care after working with Ayahuasca.

    The medicine can take a toll on your mind and body, so it’s important to give yourself proper consideration, give yourself plenty of rest, and do things that nourish you. Nurture your mental and emotional health during this time, and it’s going to get you far.

    Self-care is a staple for Ayahuasca integration, as when you stop looking after yourself, everything else tends to go out the window too. If you’re forcing yourself back into work too quickly, to be too productive, or to do things that don’t feed your soul, this can undo some of the work you’ve done.

    Therefore, eat healthy, drink lots of water, and treat yourself with kindness and self-respect. Show yourself compassion during this transformation process, and be easy on yourself. Acknowledge the needs and desires of your body to make sure it’s receiving the love and care it needs to be in optimal health.

    The importance of grounding yourself

    Some people become extremely ungrounded after working with Ayahuasca.

    After all, Ayahuasca is a very powerful medicine. It can shake your life up like a snow globe, and the aftermath can be disorienting. As Ayahuasca often facilitates a lot of changes on an emotional and mental level, it’s important to find your footing and bring yourself back to reality.

    This is why you need to make a habit of grounding yourself so you can still recreate yourself, but you’re not unhinged from reality. In extreme cases, people can become increasingly disconnected from reality, and forget to look after themselves. Grounding is really about cultivating a connection to Mother Earth.

    To ground yourself, it’s important to make sure you’re down to Earth and not too caught in the ethereal.

    Ayahuasca often amplifies the connection to spirit, but remember to root yourself into the here and now, so you get the best of both worlds. Below is a guide on learning how to be more grounded. I suggest you give it a read if you are experiencing this issue.

    Encourage your identity to shift to better ideals

    How you identify with life sets the tone for your life experience.

    Ayahuasca has a powerful ability to unroot your sense of identity, where you can see yourself, your life, and your reality in a different light. After making this perceptual pivot, you might not resonate with the same things anymore. You might have different beliefs and perspectives, or you might be curious about different things.

    So embrace those changes and don’t resist them. Allow yourself to shift without feeling the need to revert to who you were, just because it’s familiar. Feeling a little lost is part of the process of finding your authentic self, and you’re not going to find your authentic self if you fall back into the superficial identity that you were trying to get away from in the first place, just because it’s the easier option.

    Therefore, allow your identity to morph as you find your footing with a different view of your life.

    Don’t chase the same pastimes or activities that didn’t provide much joy in the first place. Now is the time to really activate the changes that you see in yourself, and walk a new path that you’re not familiar with.

    Keeping the momentum

    Woman thinking

    Part of the post-Ayahuasca integration process is to make sure you don’t go back to your old ways. This is why you need to maintain the changes that have been made via the medicine until they become an incorporated part of who you are.

    To make sure you do maintain the changes that have been induced, you need to develop your new habits and perceptions, and encourage them to be a part of your life.

    Maintaining the new features of your consciousness might come in the form of continuous learning, personal growth practices, and nourishing yourself spiritually via connections, modalities, and other ceremonies. Below are some suggestions to help you maintain the changes that you have made with Ayahuasca.

    Don’t slip back into old patterns

    Just say you’re a heavy drinker, and during your Ayahuasca ceremony, it killed the buzz. You purged a lot, you were shown the error of your ways, and that you’re using alcohol as a form of escapism from the deeper unfulfillment you have from your present lifestyle.

    After the Ayahuasca ceremony, you feel clean. You don’t really feel like drinking again, you were shown that you need to stop, and drinking is just going to sabotage the process, but in the back of your head you’re thinking ‘I could probably have a few drinks again for old times sake‘.

    This thought can be a slippery slope. I know many people who have fallen back into drug addiction and drinking because they fell into this little urge. Especially if there is some form of pressure, like going out with your friends and they’re encouraging you, or being in a social situation where you usually use alcohol as a crutch, you need to fight the urge to go back.

    Intuitively, you know what is good for you. You will know whether it’s a bad idea to fall back into an old habit. That’s because it takes discipline. This applies to going back to toxic relationships, self-sabotage, and making certain decisions or behaviors. You need to discipline yourself and know what you really should avoid, as it’s going to send you spiraling back down into the life you took Ayahuasca to get out of.

    Reinforce your intentions

    Likely, you took Ayahuasca looking to get something out of it, otherwise, you wouldn’t have taken it in the first place. In that sense, you probably had intentions when you took the medicine, so make sure you don’t lose sight of those intentions just because the ceremony has ended.

    Intentions are powerful as they’re like a compass. If you had a deep experience with Ayahuasca, chances are you probably gained some good insight, and you know what you need to do. But sometimes we get caught up with life. We forget that we need to hold those intentions close, look at them daily, and remember what we’re aiming for.

    Every time you begin to stray off track, remind yourself what you’re doing it all for. If you start feeling discouraged, or like you’re going back to who you were, think about your intentions. This is going to keep you motivated and remind you of the bigger picture.

    Be consistent with your efforts

    Make sure that you are consistent in your efforts to change yourself. If you only keep up the habits for a few weeks after your session with Ayahuasca, sooner or later, you’re going to revert to old patterns. That’s why you need to make sure you’re consistently working on them.

    It takes around 60 days to form a new habit. That habit will only be consolidated if you’re constantly reinforcing that certain behavior, thought, mentality, and so forth. So don’t lose interest after a matter of days or weeks. Keep at it and remind yourself why you’re doing it. Exercise discipline, and leverage your intention to make your new habits stick.

    Readapting to society

    Spiritual awakening

    For many people, one of the hardest parts of the Ayahuasca journey is re-adapting to society. You may have had some mystical experiences and profound realizations that change the way you see everything, but before you know it, you’re back home and everything is exactly how it was.

    This transition is often described as the most difficult part of the process. It’s easy to be zen in the wilderness with like-minded people and plenty of medicine to drink, but a little harder when all those comforts are stripped away.

    This is where the real work starts as you’re once again on your own, and need to start putting what you’ve learned to practice. Here we’re going to discuss the social aspect of returning home, and why you need to make sure you’re around the right people.

    Leaving toxic relationships

    If there’s one thing I’ve seen a lot, it’s that returning to toxic relationships can really mess up the entire process of integration, and undo all the work that you did with Ayahuasca. Whether this relationship comes in the form of friends, family, or a partner, you need to do your best to get out of that situation and to find people who are good for you.

    This can be tricky at times. Maybe you’re moving back in with your parents, and they’re deeply stuck in their ways. Perhaps your friends are unconscious, and there’s nobody else to spend time with. They have no interest in bettering themselves or mutually supporting one another on their growth journeys. You’re just with them because you have nobody else.

    Maybe you have outgrown your partner, and they have no intention of catching up. Whatever it is, bad influences can do a lot of damage. It’s easy to fall back into old patterns and become self-destructive if you’re around people who are no good for you. So start planning your way out of that situation, and follow through with it. This can be difficult, especially if you have been in that situation for a long time, but again… you know what you need to do.

    Surround yourself with positive influences

    As we’ve already looked at the damage that negative influences can have on your integration process (and life in general), you need to have people in your life who are there to support you and help you. They don’t necessarily need to understand what you are going through, but they should have your well-being at heart, and support you during this transitory time of your life.

    Being around good people makes such a big difference. Look for people who live with their hearts, who are compassionate, and caring, and who share the same values that you do. Mutual beneficial relationships are the way to go, as once everyone is there for one another, the growth process is accelerated, and it makes it easier not to fall back into old patterns or temptations.

    Finding like-minded community

    As with surrounding yourself with the right influences, it’s good to find community and to seek out your tribe. The post-Ayahuasca integration process can be an alienating experience because often we don’t feel like we belong anymore. That’s why it’s important to find a new sense of community that can understand you, support your growth, and help you through difficult times.

    This sense of community will look different for every person. I would suggest utilizing social media and different event groups to see what’s around and what you can check out. Go to medicine circles and see if you can find any like-minded people in spiritual communities. Try joining sharing circles and self-help events. Check out small self-sustainable communities and see if there’s a place for you. Go to places that you think like-minded people will be at, and start networking.

    Modalities for integration

    After working with ancestral medicines, it’s a good idea to start practices that help you connect with yourself.

    As the process of transformation can be disorienting at times, consistent practices can be a great way to ground yourself, process the experience, and contribute to your continued growth. Below are some practices I would recommend.

    • Creative expression: Finding some sort of creative outlet is a great way to process the experience. This could take the form of writing, making music, dancing, or art.
    • Meditative disciplines: As a big part of the integration process involves both reflection and grounding, kicking off the habit of regularly doing meditative practices can be beneficial. A meditative discipline is any act that cultivates mindfulness and brings you into the present moment. This could be a habit of meditating every day, doing yoga, practicing a martial art, playing a sport, or going for walks in nature.
    • Spiritual practice: A spiritual practice is just a way for you to connect more deeply with your soul nature, therefore it looks different for everyone. Whether it’s learning about different modalities, or connecting with different spiritually-centered communities, look for a spiritual pathway that feels good for you.
    • Journaling: As with any integration process, journaling is no exception when it comes to post-Ayahuasca integration. Journaling allows you to organize your internal processes via writing about your experiences. The act of journaling is a good way to make sense of your emotions.

  • Healing Depression With Plant Medicines

    Western medicine tends to fall short when dealing with depression, but what if a solution is through traditional medicines that have been demonized within our culture?

    After working closely with hundreds of guests at a shamanic healing center, I learned a thing or two about the healing power of plant medicines in the context of tradition and ceremony.

    The individuals who sought out ancestral medicines came for different reasons, however, I found there were three main camps:

    1. Curiosity: After reading the many stories tucked away in the deep corners of the web, many individuals simply wanted to see what all the commotion was about.
    2. Spiritual growth: Many individuals on a spiritual path wanted to further explore their consciousness, address certain roadblocks, and attain guidance or wisdom.
    3. Deep healing: The most common reason people sought out these medicines was to heal the emotional issues that they were facing.

    The emotional issues people had were a mixed bag, and often they were quite severe.

    Some of the people I supported throughout their medicine journeys involved:

    • Substance abuse and addiction
    • Lack of self-love, core shame, etc. 
    • Mourning and loss of loved ones
    • PTSD (mostly in veterans)
    • Emotional dysregulation from toxic relationships
    • Anxiety and panic attacks
    • Childhood trauma
    • Trauma from sexual abuse, rape, and molestation

    However, the common thread was depression.

    Many of these individuals were fed up with conventional medicine. Years of SSRIs and therapy didn’t work, so they looked for alternative solutions. After hearing about, or perhaps experiencing the healing of psychedelic plants, many individuals sought to deepen their healing through ancestral medicines including Ayahuasca and Huachuma.

    Working closely in this space, this is where my path crossed with some of these people.

    The deep healing of ancestral medicines

    Plant medicines can certainly act as a powerful remedy for depression. Although Ayahuasca has taken the spotlight in recent years, other plant medicines such as magic mushrooms, Peyote, and even LSD are also very effective in this area.

    I credit plant medicines for facilitating a space to work through my depression, and I’ve witnessed psychedelics facilitate dramatic transformations in people, again and again. However, this isn’t to say that plant medicines are a linear solution to depression, because they’re not.

    Depression is complex, with many potential factors contributing to it. It would be naive to objectively say that psychedelics heal depression, however, they are a powerful aid.

    I have seen cases of retraumatization and psychosis following the use of ancestral medicines. It’s important to veer on the side of caution when using any psychoactive substance to address serious mental health issues, but with that said, they are medicines for a reason.

    I’m writing this article to illuminate an alternate path to healing depression that many people aren’t aware of. Many individuals in today’s world are facing depression, and feel like they don’t have a fighting chance.

    Honestly, I can’t blame them. We live in a fix-it society after all, when depression can’t be fixed, it must be healed.

    Some people may be interested in exploring psychedelic healing, but to many people, it has never crossed their mind. On the other hand, many people have been conditioned to perceive psychedelics as dangerous recreational drugs, as opposed to what they have traditionally been used for, for millennia – medicines.

    Although psychedelics aren’t for everyone, if you are facing depression and don’t know what to do about it, hear me out.

    There is a lot to unpack regarding plant medicines and depression, so I’m going to speak from my experiences working closely with plant medicines, for many years.

    Treating depression with plant medicines

    Psychedelic therapy

    It seems that now more than ever, people are once again setting their sights on ancestral medicines, especially regarding healing. Indigenous wisdom is beginning to penetrate the intelligent, but closed-minded blanket of science, and telling us there is something here worth looking at.

    Conventional medicine is fantastic when it comes to the physical body, however, it lacks in the realm of emotional health.

    That’s because the emotional body is viewed through the wrong lens. Western culture tends to perceive emotion as something mechanical – that can be fixed, rather than a fluent expression (or manifestation) of the deeper workings of consciousness.

    First off, depression is a phenomenon that isn’t well understood within the scientific framework.

    When we bring psychedelics into the equation which are even less understood, conventional medicine tends to give an arm’s length because this is not its forte.

    This is why we turn to tradition for guidance. Many thousands of years of shamanic ceremonies involve plant medicines for healing and spiritual growth. Perhaps, these healers know something we don’t. Perhaps there is a lot of wisdom within these lineages, who have such an affection towards these healing plants.

    And let’s be honest, we aren’t aware of this knowledge, not because these healers are hiding it from us. It’s because we’re too stuck in our ways to consider anything outside the box of conventional medicine.

    However, as more research is being conducted, naturally occurring psychedelics are slowly becoming more widely accepted treatments for depression, and this is also being reflected in our studies and research.

    How I treated my depression with psychedelics

    When I was in my late teens, I began self-medicating my depression with psychedelics.

    From my perspective at the time, life was hell. Therefore, going deep into strange and unfamiliar headspaces via plant medicines wasn’t frightening for me, because anything was better than reality.

    Perhaps my plant medicine journey began as an act of escapism, perhaps I was just curious, but the more regularly I took psychedelics, the more intrigued I became with them.

    It wasn’t long until I began to see the bigger picture with psychedelics. They aren’t simply feel-good drugs that they’re painted as within our society, they’re gateways into the deepest layers of consciousness. They allow us to access parts of ourselves that have never been met with the naked eye.

    My recreational use shifted towards use with intention – to explore my consciousness, dredge up harmful but stubborn patterns, and alter my perception of myself and reality. Over the years, many of the unhealthy programs that kept me trapped in a mental prison began to deteriorate.

    The trips often weren’t pleasant, but they were eye-opening. They forced me to confront the darkness in myself and take a long hard look at what was wrong with me.

    As my general sense of well-being improved, I attributed it to a few things that the plant medicines were doing:

    • They were cleaning out a lot of internal junk that was keeping me in the same old painful patterns.
    • They were dredging up a lot of trauma, and facilitating the space to heal that trauma and feel happier about my life.
    • They were changing my attitudes, mindsets, and perceptions, which in turn changed the way I interacted with reality.
    • The new ways of interacting with reality were more fulfilling, meaning depression had less ammunition.

    One experience transformed my life forever. After experiencing a complete rebirth following ego death, I set off the travel the world indefinitely and worked closely with ancestral medicines in Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador, where I worked at a shamanic healing center for some time.

    My horizons broadened, and I began to understand just how deep this rabbit hole goes

    The holistic perspective of depression

    Rather than perceiving depression as solely a trigger in the brain, I now understand it primarily as a dysfunction in our energetic systems.

    In other words, you have some dark crap trapped inside you, and you’re not going to feel happy until you get it out. This darkness has many interpretations depending on the belief system or context. We can call it emotional baggage, negative energy, dense energy, stagnant energy, low-vibrational energy, Hucha, Duḥkha, you name it.

    Whatever you want to call it, it’s not good. I’m going to call it dense energy because that’s the term I’m familiar with.

    Dense energy manifests as depression, illness, or even disease, and causes suffering in one form or another.

    Imagine dense energy as grime that builds up through painful experiences, trauma, or being energetically exposed to some nasty stuff. Healing is the act of slowly wiping away this grime to avoid it building into a level of dysfunction.

    This is where plant medicines come in – as a cleaning agent.

    Plant medicines help clear out dense energy for a couple of reasons:

    • The spirit of the plant energetically cleanses you, as long as it’s used responsibly in the right context.
    • Plant medicines facilitate a space that allows you to clear out this energy, the same way you do via meditation or therapy.

    There’s a lot more than what meets the eye when it comes to healing via plant medicines. If you approach depression from an angle where your brain simply isn’t producing enough happy chemicals, it may take you a very long time to heal.

    Dopamine (or serotonin) isn’t happiness.

    Happiness is happiness, it’s a vibration of consciousness that well-exceeds the physical being.

    Holistic remedies vs Band-Aid fixes

    Using psychedelics to treat depression is a much more holistic approach to healing than taking medication.

    My aim is not to discourage you from using conventional medicine to treat depression. Western medicine has its place, of course, but it doesn’t come without its issues.

    In most cases, modern medicine acts as a Band-Aid fix. SSRIs may provide relief, but they’re not a long-term remedy. Therapy can be helpful, but it can also miss the mark and take a long time to see any progress.

    Plant medicines, on the other hand, get to the roots of the issue. They expose everything that’s trapped within your energetic body, therefore they are great at illuminating what in particular is the issue, and how to proceed with it.

    This is what needs to be acknowledged when it comes to depression.

    There is nothing to fix. Something, or more likely a host of different things are influencing depression, whether it’s:

    • Your environment or setting
    • Your lifestyle or lifestyle choices
    • Trauma and dense energy you’re holding onto
    • Painful mindsets and perceptions you’re harboring
    Maybe you’re being attacked from several angles, which is why healing your depression feels hopeless. Even if you resolve one thing, there might be a host of others keeping you trapped in this state of misery.
     
    For example, it’s hard to do the inner work and clear out some of the dense energy trapped in you if you’re in a toxic environment that’s smothering you with it. It may be difficult to get out of that toxic environment if you have limiting belief systems or detrimental perceptions that prevent you from doing so.
     
    As you can see, now we’re in a pickle.
     
    Therefore it’s important to work all angles when it comes to healing depression. Don’t solely rely on plant medicines, because there could be other things in your life that may be contributing to it.
     
    Use plant medicines as an aid for depression, and tackle it from every angle.

    How do psychedelics heal depression?

    Psychedelic healing

    Let me make something clear.

    Psychedelics don’t treat depression, you treat depression. Psychedelics are an aid, but you’re the one who does the heavy lifting. If you expect psychedelics to be a miracle cure, or the process of healing to be a smooth ride, you’re missing the point.

    Think about it this way…

    Psychedelics facilitate deep healing, but you’re the one working through your issues and dropping the emotional baggage.

    Psychedelics are the therapist, providing the space to more deeply understand where your depression is coming from, and what you can do to make progress with it.

    There is a learning curve with psychedelics. They work similarly to therapy sessions with a psychologist or counselor. It takes practice to get deep into your subconscious where the real work can be done. Likewise, with psychedelics, it takes experience to learn how your mind works, and how to work with it.

    Keep in mind that therapy isn’t always easy. Through this approach, psychedelics may force some pretty dark stuff out of your subconsciousness, which you very well may not be prepared to confront. That’s why it’s important to mentally prepare yourself, and acknowledge that the experience could be very unpleasant.

    Psychedelics facilitate inner work

    Trauma is well-known to be a contributing factor to depression. If someone has a lot of trauma hidden deep in their psyche, this trauma is going to manifest somehow. Therefore, if depression is dependent on trauma in this context, once the independent variable is removed, the dependent manifestation will likely be resolved.

    The difficult thing about trauma is that we often don’t know we have it. Even if we do, we don’t know how to dredge it out, or what the process of healing it looks like. This is where plant medicines shine.

    Plant medicines create a space for you to do the inner work. While under the influence of psychedelics, you will often revisit emotional wounds, past traumas, and things that hurt you in the past.

    As long as you work with the medicine instead of fighting against it, the psychedelic will flush up a lot of the ugliness in yourself, which gives you space to work through it.

    Lie down and be completely present with the experience. Don’t listen to music, don’t stimulate yourself. Allow yourself to be fully there with the experience because healing occurs through experiencing. This is a big part of therapy. You’re giving yourself an audience, which in turn allows you to acknowledge and discard some of the trauma.

    The deeper you go into the trip, the more crap is going to be flushed up. Therefore, it’s important not to dive beyond your limits. If you can’t handle what’s coming up, and you can’t stop the experience because you’ve already committed to it, this is where things can get ugly.

    This is where I’ve seen people experience psychotic snaps because they were panicking and resisting the avalanche.

    Nonresistance plays an essential role here, as via the path of nonresistance, you will embrace the experience, rather than causing friction.

    Psychedelics dismantle the self

    During a psychedelic journey, your self, and your identity start unhinging, which is a phenomenon called ego-dissolution. Essentially, ego dissolution is when the construct of you begins to fall apart.

    This means you can see between the cracks that usually aren’t illuminated, and look at yourself from an angle you may have never seen before. This can be very helpful in getting you out of your negative mental space, where you can make some real progress.

    For me, a big part of my depression was due to never feeling good enough, and not living up to who I wanted to be. It was made worse by the constant loneliness of being shy around people, and the desperation to be someone else.

    The dismantling of my identity gave me a different vantage point of my life situation. This new perspective allowed me to reshuffle the pieces, and put them together differently. Instead, of being glued to my usual, broken perspective, psychedelics allowed me to gain an unbiased view.

    During my psychedelic journeys, I began to wonder why I was living like this, and why I was not the person I wanted to be. Rather than hovering on the surface, plant medicines allowed me to explore these questions in more depth, and illuminated the changes that needed to be made.

    As your identity begins to dissolve, you’re left with more room for a narrative. Spaciousness is created, and you finally have an audience with your thoughts and feelings.

    Rather than being glued to a biased outlook in which your depression very well might manifest, you start to see life for what it is, and this can be a very refreshing feeling.

    During a trip, you may think about different solutions to your problems, and paint things in a very different light. You might have originally avoided your problems, while psychedelics push you to confront them and find solutions to them.

    Instead of seeing everything as monotonous and dystopic, a different appreciation for life starts to seed in your consciousness.

    Psychedelics are an emotional detox

    The reason why psychedelics are such good therapists is because they act as an emotional detox.

    We generally have a lot of shit trapped in our energetic bodies which can obstruct the road to clarity and happiness. This junk accumulates throughout your life experience, and unless you’re constantly doing the inner work and learning from these experiences, it gets stuck.

    People who are good at processing their emotions regularly detox themselves and prevent this grime from building up. For people who don’t regularly introspect, process, and do the shadow work, the grime can build into a level of dysfunction.

    Therefore, when you take psychedelics responsibly, you tend to introspect, confront your issues, and clean out your mental environment. You will tend to pay attention to your emotions, feel them, and process them.

    This is why people tend to feel relief after landing back down on Earth after a psychedelic journey because they feel clean. They traveled deep into their subconscious with a broom and put in the hard yards.

    The spiritual cleansing

    From the hundreds of sittings with plant medicines I have had in my life, there is no doubt I have experienced some mind-blowing phenomena.

    A kundalini awakening, spirits of all sorts, different energies, cosmic states of consciousness, bliss,  astral projection, gateways into other realms of consciousness, spirit guides, you name it.

    Anyone who has spent enough time around ancestral medicines will understand that there’s a whole lot more to healing than what meets the eye.

    When involving plant medicines, there is a spiritual component that at first may be understood as simply beliefs and placebos, but it has become apparent, to me at least, that healing is too a spiritual phenomenon and extends beyond our realm of perception.

    You may believe that all healing simply stems from fixing the physiology of our brains, and that’s okay. Still, this belief often prevents people from diving into the deeper levels of consciousness and shoveling out the grime deeply entrenched within it.

    Our bodies are more than just sacks of flesh and bone. They are complicated energetic systems with different influences on all levels of reality.

    When working with Ayahuasca, a big component of healing comes from the spiritual side of it. The shamans always refer to the plant’s spirit, while the participant often perceives these spirits too.

    People may have dark energies or entities attached to them that can cause a host of problems. Plant medicines can ward them off and protect the person who is working with the medicine. Plant medicines can also open you up energetically to nasty things within these spiritual dimensions, so it’s important to respect tradition and take plant medicines seriously.

  • How to Manage a Bad Trip on Psychedelics

    How to Manage a Bad Trip on Psychedelics

    A psychedelic trip is often portrayed as a colorful, kaleidoscopic journey through wonderland, but they can also be telescopes into the darkest corners of the subconscious mind, and you might not like what you find in there.

    If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, you might find yourself trapped in terrifying states of consciousness, and have no idea how to get out. That’s why it’s important to learn how to manage a psychedelic journey, to prevent it from turning into a bad trip.

    If you’re familiar with the headspace, you’re probably well aware of the potential for a pleasant trip to turn into a living nightmare. Many people will have a bad trip at some point, especially when they’re unfamiliar with the psychedelic headspace. That’s why it’s important to know what to do, and how to handle one.

    What is a bad trip?

    Person having a bad trip

    A bad trip is when a psychedelic experience takes a dark turn and becomes overwhelming. Considering there’s no off switch to a psychedelic journey, when it becomes too much, people may end up panicking because they don’t know how to make it stop.

    So they end up getting caught in a negative spiral while drumming up more fear which becomes a relentless cycle. Your thoughts take a turn for the worst and you start worrying if you’ll ever be normal again.

    Since you’re not exactly in the most rational state of mind when tripping on psychedelics, you might believe you’ve gone mad which opens up the floodgates of painful thoughts and feelings.

    Although there is no real risk from a bad trip, they can be terrifying to experience. These unpleasant experiences tend to bring up a lot of unresolved issues as you’re trapped with your deepest primal fears and emotions.

    What causes a bad trip?

    Psychedelics shine a light on the hidden aspects of yourself. If they’re illuminating something that you’re not ready to deal with (fears, traumas, worries) and you become avoidant, this can cause a lot of stress. Since you can’t escape yourself, it feels like you’re backed into a corner and this is where things can become dark.

    Psychedelics also exacerbate your current state of mind. Therefore, when you have a lot of negative things happening in your life, trips will inevitably force you to look at these situations.

    On the bright side, this is how psychedelics are used as therapies because they force you to confront your darkness. But if you don’t want to confront that darkness, the trip can become a living hell.

    Therefore the difference between a bad trip and a therapy comes down to your management of the experience, and how you decide to utilize it.

    Every psychedelic has the potential to cause a bad trip as there are common themes with every psychedelic. Although a bad trip might manifest in different ways depending on what you’re taking, it’s really your inability to handle the disorienting headspace that causes a bad trip.

    The positive side of a bad trip

    On the positive side, bad trips can be leveraged for some serious growth. The most inner work happens during the dark side of a trip when you feel like you’re not in control. This is where you do the real shadow work, and heal some of your deepest, core wounds.

    This is because you’re forced to deal with all the nasty stuff that’s going through your head. A bad trip dredges up everything wrong with you, and you’re forced to take a long hard look at why you are the way you are. In turn, this allows you to find solutions to your problems, and heal the root cause.

    What happens during a bad trip?

    Bad trip artwork

    It’s hard to say what exactly happens during a bad trip as everyone experiences them differently. The psychedelic experience is very personalized, but there are some common themes.

    Often, people experience a sense of being overwhelmed and start to panic when they realize they can’t make it stop. A trip can become too much to handle at times, especially if the person is inexperienced, dealing with a difficult situation in life, or ill-prepared for the mental flight.

    As the ego loves to be in control of the situation, this can cause a lot of distress for some people. It’s common to feel like you’re dying, or something has gone wrong which adds to the fear.

    Here are some common signs that you’re having a bad trip:

    • The feeling of being overwhelmed, that it’s getting too much for you to handle
    • Negative distortions of reality and oneself
    • Intrusive negative thoughts, ideas, or imagery
    • Paranoia and incessant worrying
    • Worry about your safety or well-being
    • Fear of coping, and not being able to deal with it
    • Anxiety and panic attacks
    • Rapid heart rate
    • Rapid breathing and shortness of breath
    • Feeling like you’re losing your sanity
    • Disorientation and confusion
    • Disconnection from reality
    • Inability to think rationally
    • Feelings of pre-emptive horror or death, or that you need to be in hospital
    • Existential dread and the fear of permanently losing yourself, or your conception of reality

    How does a bad trip happen?

    A bad trip usually occurs when you have gone deeper into a psychedelic experience than you intended, expected, or prepared for.

    You can refer to this guide below:

    Psychedelics grant access to the deeper levels of your consciousness, and strip away reality in front of your eyes. Needless to say, this can be very disorienting, especially to people who don’t have much experience with altered states of consciousness.

    Bad trips are easier to avoid for people who know how to stop resisting. Unlike disciplinary practices like meditation or yoga, psychedelics are very much a jump into the deep-end approach to spirituality.

    It can be sink or swim on larger doses. When people can’t stay afloat and don’t know how to surrender to the experience, they get caught in an unpleasant limbo-like state.

    Getting caught in the torment loop

    Overthinking can also result in the trip turning south. When you get fixated on negative thoughts, it can be difficult to break out of that headspace. It’s not difficult to drum up fear and paranoia during a trip if you’re fixated on something negative.

    Incessant thinking about your safety or well-being can also result in a bad trip, as you’re feeding, and believing into these negative thoughts. This creates a torment loop because you’re perpetuating the frightening experience.

    Bad trips are also common when you take psychedelics in an unfamiliar setting. It’s important to be in a familiar place with people that you trust when you trip. If you start losing your mind when you’re in a strange place or around people that you don’t know well, this is a recipe for disaster.

    If you smoke weed, you might be one of the many people who become anxious when you smoke around people. Now imagine this same phenomenon, but ten times stronger. Psychedelics push you far out of your usual mind and identity, where things can get weird, to say the least. Tripping in a bad set or setting can also lead to overthinking and paranoia, which can quickly onset a bad trip.

    How to avoid a bad trip

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    When you’re taking any sort of psychedelic, you want to be in a comfortable setting. If you’re somewhere where you’re not entirely comfortable, or you need to keep your wits about you, you’re setting yourself up for a bad trip.

    It’s always best to take psychedelics at home, or in a private location that you’re familiar with. Trip in a safe space where you won’t be disturbed, and you have a comfortable setting to do the inner work. Ceremonies with like-minded people are also a good setting where you have a support network and a trained facilitator.

    If you’re taking psychedelics recreationally at a music festival or something of the like, I would be conservative with your approach. Avoid taking any psychedelics if you’re in an uncomfortable setting. Even just being around people at a park can be overwhelming. The last thing you want is to lose your grip on reality when you have nowhere to retreat to.

    Be around people you trust

    If you’re taking psychedelics with a nonrecreational intent, I would suggest going on the journey alone. The only exception I would make to this is if you’re inexperienced and want someone with you for support.

    In this case, make sure you have a deep trust in the person. If it’s someone you don’t know, things can start spiraling out of control very quickly. Your good mate will understand, someone who you don’t know well might not.

    If you’re in a group, same thing. I recommend only taking psychedelics around people you know and trust. If there are people in the group who you feel uncomfortable around normally, just imagine how that’s going to feel when you’re balls deep in a trip.

    Don’t provoke yourself

    Avoid exposing yourself to footage or information that is dark, gruesome, or depressing. You want to try to keep the experience clean and surround yourself with things that are calming, not things that will provoke emotions like disgust or worry.

    For example, watching a horror movie is probably not a good idea. Exposing yourself to footage of ongoing wars, crime, or drug abuse can make the trip go in a bad direction. If you’re wandering into some mysterious corners of the internet where you’re seeing content that really isn’t pleasant, it can also offset a bad trip.

    So keep it light. I suggest staying off the internet and focusing on simple, grounding activities such as meditating, playing music, making art, or sitting in nature. Take it real gentle and be present with the here and now.

    Take care of all pressing matters beforehand

    As psychedelics dredge up all of your hidden emotions, any pressing matters will create a cesspool of difficult emotions such as stress and worry. Therefore, it’s best to clear your mental slate before embarking on a psychedelic journey.

    Something as little as forgetting to message someone you were meant to can turn into a big ordeal.  When you’re in the midst of a trip, it’s easy to overthink everything and jump to the worst-case scenario. 

    Now imagine if it’s something that is a bigger deal. Your relationship is on the hinges, you have business to attend to, or there’s some sort of pressing matter that just can’t wait.

    You can start spiraling into a bad trip very quickly in an altered state of consciousness, because you’re not in a rational frame of mind to deal with these things. Even if there are no actual consequences, you might think there are when you’re tripping.

    So turn off your phone, lock your doors, and make sure nobody is trying to get a hold of you. Think about what could potentially be an issue when you’re tripping, and make sure that any pressing matter is taken care of before taking the psychedelic.

    Have everything prepared before your trip

    Make sure you’ve got everything set up and ready to go before your trip.

    As mentioned before, minor issues can evolve into big problems when you’re in an altered state of consciousness. Sometimes these issues can just be frustrating, othertimes, those issues can cause you to spiral into a bad trip.

    Imagine if you’re deep into a psychedelic trip and realize you have no toilet paper. Now, when you’re in a sober, rational state of mind, there could be a simple solution here. When you’re on the brink of reality, it most certainly won’t be a simple solution.

    If you don’t have enough warm clothes, it can very much change the trajectory of the experience. Likewise, if you’re out in nature and have no water, it might become a much bigger worry than it needs to be.

    Likewise, something as simple as having the speakers connected to your phone and not having to hassle with tedious things can help smooth out the trip a lot. Therefore, it’s best to be prepared for all situations. Make sure that you have things like water, a bed, access to a toilet, earphones, etc. Set it all up before you take any psychedelic.

    Set your intentions

    I never realized just how important it is to set intentions when taking any form of psychedelic until I started using them as a spiritual tool. Likewise, in every ceremony I’ve participated in, setting intentions is a foundational part of it.

    There’s a reason for this.

    Your intentions act as your compass while in the depths of your subconscious mind. Without intentions, it’s easy to get lost, disoriented, or freak out.

    When you hold your intentions close, a deeper part of you will kick in during those frightening moments. That little voice will tell you ‘I’m here for a reason’, and as a result, you get on with the work that you’re there to do.

    Knowing why you’re taking the psychedelic and what you’re looking for out of the experience it’s like a safeguard. When things start to get dark, the intentions that you set beforehand should take over and help you turn the curse into a blessing (because the most growth occurs in the dark scary corners of your subconscious).

    Baby steps are a wise option

    It’s best to build up your dosage rather than plunge into the deep end, especially if you’re inexperienced with the psychedelic headspace. If you take a conservative dose, you might be a little disappointed that you didn’t go deeper, but it beats the alternative (with a stick!).

    I’m a plunger. Throw me into the primal abyss of infinity, and I’ll have a good time. But there have been times when I most certainly regretted it, and that’s with a lot of experience with these substances.

    Especially if you’re new to plant medicines, it’s wise to slowly work your way up to bigger doses so you don’t go too much deeper than you anticipated. If you go deeper than you’re expecting and don’t know how to manage those alien states of consciousness, you’re gonna have a bad time.

    Go in with a clean bill of health

    During my time working at an Ayahuasca center in Ecuador, most of the guests who came through took part in a dieta. A dieta is essentially a very raw, clean diet to purify your vessel which allows the medicine to work with it better.

    Although it’s not entirely necessary, you should have a clean body for the psychedelic to work with. Plant medicines interact with all of your bodies, and the physical body is no exception. The trip will also be a lot better if you haven’t been drinking, and if you’re not under the influence of anything else.

    A clean body = a clean trip.

    An unhealthy body = a dirty trip.

    For cleaner, better experiences, your body should as clean of a platform for the medicine to work with. If you are sleep-deprived, have been eating crap, and generally not feeling good, there’s a much higher potential for the trip to be unpleasant.

    So let’s recap.

    To avoid having a bad trip, you should:

    • Make sure you’re in a comfortable place
    • Either be by yourself, or around people you deeply trust
    • Avoid public settings
    • Avoid large groups
    • Make sure any pressing matter is sorted before you trip
    • Make sure nobody is trying to contact you with something that is time sensitive
    • Stay off media if you can
    • Don’t expose yourself to anything dark or disturbing
    • Prepare everything before you trip
    • Don’t overdo the dosage
    • Make sure you’re as healthy as can be before dosing
    • Avoid alcohol and other substances

    What to do during a bad trip

    Person meditating to avoid a bad trip

    When a trip starts going in a dark direction, there are some important practices to know. By following the guidelines written below, you will have the knowledge to prevent yourself from slipping into that terrifying rabbit hole called a bad trip.

    Here are some tips and tricks for when a trip is getting the best of you.

    Declutter

    It’s important to declutter by shutting off any external stimuli and sitting with the experience. You want to create a calm mental environment, and the best way to do this is by sitting with your thoughts in silence.

    I know, it seems contradictory.

    People often put on music, turn on the TV, walk around, and do whatever they can to distract themselves from the negative thoughts and feelings that they’re experiencing. This is not a good approach because it’s essentially glorified escapism.

    Therefore, turn off any screens. Turn off any music. Turn off any flashing lights, sound, or whatever is competing for your attention, and just be in silence with the experience. It might be stressful to start with but find that stillness in the middle of the chaos, and you can turn a frightening experience into a blissful one.

    Ground Yourself

    Once you start having a bad trip, it’s important to ground yourself. That is to anchor yourself to the here and now by doing activities that bring you into your body.

    In other words, grounding yourself will prevent the trip from spiraling out of control.

    I suggest that you try meditating and going deeper into the uncomfortable feelings. Meditation is probably the best thing you can do when you are feeling overwhelmed because it can help you find a state of emotional osmosis.

    Grounding activities such as yoga, stretching, dancing, and singing can also help bring you back to the present. If you can, try sitting in the garden by some nature as nature has a strong calming effect.

    Don’t fight it

    Naturally, the first thing people do when a trip turns bad is try to fight their way out of it. This is the problem. You try to force the trip to come to an end or hold onto reality for your dear life.

    Fighting the experience leads to resistance. Resistance leads to pressure. Pressure leads to an implosion. This is where you’ll begin to panic and have a really bad time. Resisting the experience is an ineffective coping mechanism, and just causes more pain in the end.

    Therefore, nonresistance is essential.

    Letting the trip have its way with you seems counterintuitive, but it’s necessary. Whether you like it or not, the trip is stronger than you. 

    So instead of fighting, to the best of your capabilities, just let it happen. Let it hurt, let it suck. Lie down on your bed and do nothing but feel it. Be present with the terrifying experience you’re having, and I can assure you that it will come to an end.

    This certainly won’t be easy at the time as your survival instincts will kick into action, but this deeper awareness before going into the trip can help.

    Surrender to the experience

    When a trip becomes unbearable and you don’t know how to deal with it, surrender to it. If you have taken a very large dose, this will probably happen whether you surrender gracefully, or go out kicking and screaming.

    You probably won’t believe it during that time, but a bad trip is a gateway. A bad trip has enormous potential to result in mind-blowing phenomena such as breakthrough trips, ego death, and rebirth. If you’re able to let go of reality, you can have some profound experiences.

    But it takes trust.

    Despite how much it feels like you’re dying, surrendering to a bad trip is a good thing. So when it gets too much, lie down, do nothing, and allow your identity to disintegrate, knowing that you will be okay.

    Focus on your breath

    A bad trip can be scary because nothing is consistent anymore, but your breathing always is.

    No matter how different everything appears to be, your breath is always a consistent factor, and you can use it to anchor yourself into the present moment.

    Focus on your breath and put all of your attention on it. Breathe deeply into your diaphragm, and take slow and controlled breaths. Try to regulate your breathing patterns, as this will reduce the activity in your mind, and bring you back to a present space.

    Purge those dense energies

    Sometimes when you’re going through it, you just need to let it all out. Vent, scream, cry, pray. Ramble to yourself, blame yourself, blame god. Just get it all out and don’t hold back, it does help.

    Therefore, allow yourself to go through the motions and leverage catharsis to help depressurize yourself when you’re having a bad trip. Once you purge all of these painful energies, you will find a stillness afterward.

    To learn more about purging energies, follow the link below:

    Realize that it’s temporary

    Even though you might know that it’s temporary in the back of your mind, during the peak of a bad trip, it certainly doesn’t feel that way. As rational thought goes out the window, you might think you’ve done permanent damage to yourself, gone psychotic, or that you’re stuck in that state forever.

    Often, what makes a bad trip so bad is that you think it’s never going to end. Your mind becomes your worst enemy in this case and just makes the issue a whole lot worse.

    Therefore, reinforce this idea to yourself that it is temporary, and you just need to wait it out. No matter what happens or how bad it gets, it will come to an end. Nothing lasts forever, and despite how freaked-out you are during the trip, I can assure you that this is no exception.

    Reassure yourself

    How many times have you been in real trouble and thought you weren’t going to make it? Yet every single time, you’re still here, alive, and well. Well, a bad trip is no different.

    Even though it might feel like the end of your journey on this planet, you will always come through to the other side unscathed, if not stronger than you were. But it’s not good enough for me to tell you this. You need to believe it. You need to become your own best friend during a trip and activate the higher self.

    It also helps to set your intentions before the trip. Before you go on the trip, reaffirm to yourself that everything will be okay despite how bad it gets. Write it down if you need to. As it’s hard to believe in yourself during a bad psychedelic trip, remembering what you said before the trip can reinstate your confidence, that sober you knows best.

  • What Happens During a Psychedelic Breakthrough Trip?

    What Happens During a Psychedelic Breakthrough Trip?

    Have you ever had such a profound experience with psychedelics that it permanently changed your life? I’m not speaking of gaining valuable insights or witnessing stunning visuals that elicit feelings of awe, but rather undergoing an experience so profound that your entire worldview was turned on its head.

    Journeying into the deepest voids of a psychedelic trip leads to much more than the loss of self, but rather the obliteration of reality and everything associated with it. In these profoundly raw states of consciousness, you are one with the infinite spiritual rift without memory, thought, emotion, or any ties to this Earthly plane.

    During a breakthrough trip, you don’t exist anymore. Nor does reality, nor does anything you have ever known. The space you’re experiencing is the only thing that has ever existed, and ever will. If you have experienced this, then you have reached the bottom floor of a plant medicine journey – the breakthrough.

    The breakthrough is a phenomenon that occurs when you pierce through the fabric of reality to be consumed in foreign dimensions absent of time, space, matter, or form. These profound psychedelic journeys where we lose all ties with ourselves and reality are called breakthrough trips.

    Of course, your physical body can’t come with you on a breakthrough trip, but your consciousness can cross the threshold into the spiritual realms, and experience these higher dimensions.

    In this article, I’m going to share my knowledge and understanding of this breakthrough phenomenon where the spiritual and mystical meet at a crossroads. I’ll tell you a little bit about what I’ve learned living with Ayahuasca shamans for about a year, and explain what happened when I underwent a life-changing psychedelic breakthrough trip in my early 20s.

    What is a breakthrough on psychedelics?

    Psychedelic breakthrough trip depiction art

    Plant medicines such as Ayahuasca, mushrooms, Peyote, and even LSD are not drugs despite their misleading, common labels. Plant medicines are so much more than mind-altering substances, they’re spirits that can bridge our consciousness to higher dimensions and foreign realms of information.

    Psychedelics can have profound effects on consciousness and transport us to extraordinary places if used with respect and responsibility. These spirits open gateways to mystical experiences because they are quite literally portals. Perhaps not the portals we see in science fiction movies, but portals of consciousness.

    It’s not that psychedelics necessarily ‘take’ us to other dimensions, because the spiritual dimensions are always here, within everything. These higher dimensions too are a property of consciousness, but while we’re holding onto all this heavy stuff like a mind and body, we’re bound, for lack of a better word, to the material.

    The deepest levels of a plant medicine experience remove the obstructions of mind, thought, memory, and body from the experience of consciousness, which allows us to sink deeper into these foreign dimensions. Consciousness seeps through the veneer of materiality like sand seeping through a net.

    Now, you might be thinking ‘Daniel, I just want to hear some trippy stories, let’s not get weird here’, but this is important to understand because the nature of plant medicines is spiritual, and this is how they’ve been used for millennia all over the world – as spiritual tools.

    A breakthrough trip is not simply an illusion of the brain, it’s the real deal.

    Anyone who argues that a breakthrough trip is just the result of chemicals firing wildly in the brain has either never experienced it, or knows very little about the nature of plant medicines.

    Now, I’m not saying that plant medicines are a trump card to spirituality, not at all. However, working with these medicines in a mature, ceremonial setting with guides and teachers is a pathway. Most notably, the path of the shaman.

    My curiosity for exploring my reality via psychedelics is a big reason why I have spent much time working with healers and shamanic traditions. Since working in a professional setting with these medicines in Latin America, my understanding of psychedelics has evolved tremendously.

    At this point, I’ve had many major encounters with truth via plant medicines that have illuminated new worlds of information. From contacting all sorts of spirits, exploring other dimensions, and channeling otherwordly information, some of these experiences have been profound. However, no experience can compare to the breakthrough trip I’m going to share here.

    It was in a league of its own.

    My only true breakthrough trip occurred with LSD about 10 years ago. This experience offset a kundalini awakening which I talk about extensively in my work, changed my life permenantly, and set me on a drastically different life course. 

    My psychedelic breakthrough trip on LSD

    Ego death induced by a breakthrough trip

    During my early twenties, my curiosity had peaked in psychedelic exploration. I was struggling with depression at the time and trying to find meaning in a life of bitterness. I understood the healing potential of the deep psychedelic state and was venturing further into the unknown with every sitting.

    After all, I’ve always been a curious person. I would often pounce at the opportunity to go as deep into a psychedelic trip as I could handle, not necessarily because I wanted to escape reality, but because I knew these states of consciousness were abundant in answers – the answers I was looking for.

    Conceptually, I knew how far into one’s consciousness a person could go, and I had ‘an idea’ of what the experience would be like. Stories seemed to vary wildly, ranging from experiences of enlightenment, experiencing other dimensions, encountering profound spirits and deities, bliss and divine healing, to psychosis and even death on rare occasions.

    At this stage, I was quite experienced with psychedelics. Ultimately, to my knowledge, I knew that everything was going to be okay. I was determined to jump off the figurative cliff to see what was on the other side. If there was any doubt in my mind, I never would have taken the plunge, but that didn’t ease the nerves.

    It took me about a year to build up the courage to consume such a large dose in one sitting. One day, the stars aligned.

    During the still one morning before rationale kicked in and gave me the chance to hesitate, I consumed 690ug of LSD by putting six tabs on my tongue. This was enough to surely instigate a breakthrough trip.

    Over the next 10 minutes, the small paper squares dissolved into my saliva. I’ve always been a jump-into-the-deep-end kind of guy, but the anticipation was scary.

    Nervousness mixed with a touch of excitement were just some of the feelings I had. What I didn’t realize is that this single action was going to permanently change my life in ways I could never prepare for.

    Stage 1: The come-up

    Some details are vague at this point, but I remember the main events like it was yesterday. I remember being completely eloped in music as the effects became apparent. During this time I was writing down thoughts, feelings, and ideas that came to me in a notebook.

    I danced like a maniac and sang like a rock star. I felt the energy of movement like it had a whole new meaning. Sensations of boundless joy radiated from me, bursting from my flesh like fireworks. There was a heat emanating from my groin and drifting upwards through my body.

    The sensation of ecstasy intensified. Before long, abruptly, kaleidoscopic closed-eye visuals engulfed me. They were circular and crystal clear as if I was watching in high-definition.

    I opened my eyes in awe, and my vision returned to the same ordinary living room. Every time I shut my eyes and allowed myself to be absorbed in the moment of ecstasy, the visuals abruptly reappeared like being hit by a truck.

    It was time to be completely present with the experience and allow myself to be immersed in this new world, so I shut off all stimuli and lay on my bed in silence.

    My psychedelic induced kundalini awakening

    I remember peering at the static blanketing the ceiling as the colors brightened to vivid hues. The sensations of immense joy continued elevating as I became increasingly absorbed in the sheer magnitude of the experience.

    Visions of fractals intensified as the tunnel within them became more apparent. My concept of time and space was rapidly disintegrating as I melted further into my bed, but there was no fear, no pain. Just love like I’ve never felt it before.

    This was still early stages of the journey, perhaps twenty minutes after dosing. I wasn’t close to the peak, but the experience continued getting more and more intense. As if there was a cracking sensation at the base of my spine, the energy emanating from this region up opened up to a whole new level.

    The heat channeling upwards from my groin area grew from a trickle into a torrent. I could now see a reddish-pinkish etheric light drifting through my body like a river, exiting through the crown of my head and the center of my chest – like water gushing from a tap.

    I was in disbelief. I had read about these concepts in stories, but this isn’t real, how could it be? The sensations continued to evolve into pure ecstasy. Unconditional love like nothing I had ever felt, something light-years beyond it.

    It was love, peace, acceptance, and connection to everything in existence. The healing power of love began to make more sense as my reality was rapidly collapsing into this feeling of absolute beauty. All these spiritual concepts I was learning about at the time were becoming very real, very quickly.

    My psyche was dismantling as I could no longer hold a thought, only make groans and mutter single syllables. I was entering a blissful state in the most literal sense I can fathom. This state was astoundingly powerful, well beyond my comprehension. There was no thought, no desire, or hunger. There was nothing I could want in this state because I was completely fulfilled in every sense of the word.

    This sensation was solely unconditional love for everything and everyone. It was the uncontrollable urge to serve this love. The energy channeling through my body was intense. It was hot but not uncomfortable. It was sexual and unmistakable.

    This was an experience I did not know human beings were capable of having. A cheat code, a wormhole, a paradox. I shouldn’t be here. Nothing made sense anymore.

    There was only a thread of self, dangling out of this oneness of love, light, and heat. No grounding in reality, no concept of suffering. Only a state of absolute joy that was facilitated through love and the desire to serve it.

    But it didn’t end there because the last remnants of my ego revolted. It became overwhelming in the best possible way. This was enough, I’m drawing the line because this is too good to be true. I’ve had my fun, and now time to go back to reality and integrate the experience.

    At that moment, baby steps were suddenly the ideal option. Rookie move, because that desire to ground myself was a big mistake.

    The descent into hell

    I just couldn’t let myself completely go into the unknown, despite how blissful it was. Already, this experience was so much more than I could dream about, but I just couldn’t go through that doorway into the psychedelic abyss. 

    Perhaps it’s death, perhaps my ego found ammunition, I can’t tell you. As soon as I permitted my ego’s existence, fear instantly consumed me. Negative thoughts flooded into circulation as the feeling of bliss rapidly deteriorated into emptiness, almost like the flick of a switch.

    The hot energy tap switched off and I could hear my mind screaming for the first time. Panic replenished me as I paced around the house, wondering if I was losing my mind. Within seconds, I was experiencing insanity. I found myself in a limbo between worlds, where I feared going into one, and couldn’t get back to the other.

    It’s okay! I could wait this out.

    I looked at the time which read 9 am on the dot. So I started meditating, but couldn’t get back into a positive space. I paced around the house, chilled out on the couch for a while, and looked at artwork.

    After killing an hour or two, I looked at the time.

    9:01 am.

    My stomach dropped. How? How is this even possible? Seconds lapped like hours on the clock. There was no hope of waiting this out. There was no structure or form anymore.

    Through the depression I had endured throughout life, I had never known fear quite like this. I condemned my decisions as at that moment, I thought my life was over. I thought I had entered hell, trapped in this space forever, going mad. A bad trip is an understatement. Why was I the stupid fool, did I think it was going to be a walk in the park?

    My heart was beating in my chest like a hummingbird’s wings. I thought I was waiting out the clock to cardiac arrest. Could I call for help? God knows I wanted to, but how? At that point, the phone seemed like alien technology. How on Earth could I operate that as a simpleton ape?

    I was completely alone, stuck in my meat jacket, and anticipating the end of my journey on this planet. All I felt was misery in every form fathomable. Like a lizard brain, survival was the only thing on my mind.

    Surrendering to the experience

    I didn’t want to accept death even though at that time, I did not doubt that it was impending. Then the point came where I couldn’t resist it anymore, it was too powerful for me.

    I broke down on the living room floor and wept like a baby. The burden exploded and I was overcome with everything I didn’t want to face. I knew this was death, at least that’s how I perceived it.

    I was sorry to my family, for my decisions, for being a shitty person at times. At that moment, all I felt was sorrow. I didn’t willingly surrender, I was forced into it kicking and screaming.

    Then it happened.

    As soon as I surrendered to this nightmare, I instantly blasted through the fractal abyss I kept seeing. I saw what resembled a purple eye while rapidly vibrating, and then I was instantly consumed in the infinite.

    All attachment to reality was obliterated into dust. The last thing I felt was my consciousness dissipating into a huge inter-dimensional network of energy in the cosmos.

    Imagine everything that makes up you is a handful of sand. This sand is an assemblage of your memories, thoughts, personality, identity, and everything that creates an ‘I’.

    If you were to throw this handful of sand into a hurricane, where each grain is dispersed in the wind, that’s what it felt like. There was nothing left that remotely resembled me anymore. No thought, no memory, nothing. I ceased to exist.

    The beginning of the breakthrough trip

    breakthrough trip

    I will use the term ‘I’ for the sake of simplicity, but I wasn’t present. It was purely experience, observation, and knowledge. I don’t know how I witnessed what I witnessed, I can’t tell you whether this was from a first-person perspective, third-person perspective, or something entirely different.

    I saw nature’s design for the first time. I experienced consciousness through what seemed to be a worm. Squirming, moving without purpose. No vision, reason, thought, and comprehension. There was only hunger. Nothing else, but the need to survive.

    Time was absent so I can’t impose a timeframe. But it felt like an eternity as the most basic mode of life. It was remarkably unspectacular.

    As the experience transitioned and took the role of an observer in a savannah-like setting, I saw the food chain, survival, and animals suffering and dying to provide sustenance for others.

    I experienced vultures ripping the flesh off rodents, ants swarming beetles, and what appeared to be this huge beastly dog roaming the lands. But there was no fear, no sense of danger, there was no urge to escape, just witness.

    The vision transitioned again, then I saw the divine masculine and feminine energies. There were vivid displays of symbolism not dissimilar to those of the male and female, not unlike that of Om represented in Hinduism.

    I witnessed the unity of these complementary energies, merging where new consciousness bifurcated like cells dividing. Then came the reproductive cycle as I was bombarded with imagery of birth.

    Animals and humans giving birth, babies crying, growing old and dying, then repeating the process. Sex – reproduction – death, as if it all made sense in the endless circle of life.

    Floating to the heavens

    Then came a point where there seemed to be trillions upon trillions of grains of energy floating from this reddish-purple realm into a bluish-whitish one.

    The feelings of light started to reappear as all of these energy grains were floating upwards or towards this bluish-whitish hue. It felt like going home, like going to rest for the first time.

    But what struck me odd in hindsight were the flashing signs and religious symbolism I saw at that moment, such as imagery of Christ-like figures, crosses, and that which is loosely represented through the construct of religion. I understood everything for I was knowledge itself, or so it seemed.

    Between every transition, I seemed to go back to this interdimensional spiral of energy. I would rise with the trillions (easier to say an infinite amount) of atoms, souls, energies, or whatever they were like a current of raging water. The further I elevated this spiral structure, the more light and positivity seemed to reappear. Love started to come back.

    There was an innate feeling of higher beings, something far beyond humans at the top of this spiral. Enlightened entities exist as the dust of energy that we were all a part of.

    At the very end of the experience, I vaguely remember all of these specs of energy forming what almost looked like a section of a human-like jaw. Then there was blackness, emptiness, nothingness.

    The rebirth

    Image depicting a rebirth after a breakthrough psychedelic trip

    I noticed the chirps of birds and the hum of my fridge. I opened my eyes and I was back, but there was calmness. It was like waking up from a beautiful dream, refreshed and filled with life.

    My body was collapsed in a pile on the living room carpet. I wasn’t just back, I was sober. I didn’t even try to process what had happened, but lay on the ground for the moment, absorbing the reality around me.

    From that moment, the old me had died, and he never came back. Good riddance, but what was I?

    I remembered my past, but I was new, reborn with all this fresh inspiration and knowledge, with a purpose so strong that it burnt like a flame, rather than the smoldering ashes that I had grown familiar with. For the first time in my life, I was complete.

    Not long afterward, I went for a walk in a nature reserve behind my house, absorbing life fully, and appreciating every little thing in it. I saw bugs crawling in the grass and flies buzzing around me, and I loved it.

    For days afterward, I felt the energy in every living thing. I saw life from a different perspective.

    But what did I experience? I still can’t answer this question. Was this simply a trip? Was everything I experienced sourced from my subconscious, or was this something else entirely? I can’t say, nobody can. Whether it was or not, from that moment I was a different person, and that’s what mattered.

    This experience changed the trajectory of my life. Within a year or two, I packed up my bags and began my nomadic soul-searching journey, which has now lasted for more than 8 years. Since this experience, I birthed a whole new level of respect for psychedelics and became increasingly involved in ancestral healing practices using entheogenic substances.

    This breakthrough trip has allowed me to understand the connection between psychedelics and spirituality. It has shown me firsthand why psychedelics have had such a strong affiliation with spirituality and the world’s indigenous, and why they have been perceived as portals to other dimensions.

    Psychedelics or plant medicines are not toys. They are gateways to higher realms, and they must be treated with the utmost respect. I would not recommend gunning for this experience to anyone. Even though this breakthrough trip had the best possible result, I felt I was extremely lucky.

  • Psychedelic Spirituality: Spiritual Growth Through Psychedelic Exploration

    Psychedelic Spirituality: Spiritual Growth Through Psychedelic Exploration

    Anyone who has nosedived deep enough into a psychedelic journey will tell you how otherworldly the experience can be. But are these alien states of consciousness the simple effect of chemicals misfiring in the brain, or are they something else entirely?

    After experiencing some profound phenomena such as a kundalini awakening, rebirth, and astral projection during some of my medicine journeys, I set off to learn the true nature of these mystical substances. This path led me to work alongside Ayahuasca shamans in the Ecuadorian Andes for six months, and my knowledge of these sacred plants expanded rapidly.

    Never again can I see psychedelics as drugs. These ancestral medicines are spirits that connect us with other realms of existence. These spirits are healers, and by ingesting a sacred plant, you connect with the spirit of that plant. Shamanic healers have possessed this knowledge for thousands of years, and our collective consciousness is just starting to loop back around to it. 

    As there is so much mystery surrounding the topic of psychedelic spirituality, here I’m going to explain what this spiritual practice is from my understanding, and how you can leverage it if you’re on a growth journey too.

    What is psychedelic spirituality?

    Awakening consciousness

    Psychedelic spirituality refers to the use of psychedelics as a medium to explore consciousness. When people use psychedelics for nonrecreational intent, that is to learn, heal, and grow, psychedelics can be seen as spiritual tools.

    The practice of psychedelic spirituality is based on the belief that psychedelics are gateways to higher dimensions of existence, and there’s a lot of profound knowledge we can access by going into these realms.

    In other words, psychedelic spirituality is to leverage the use of psychedelic plants to connect more deeply with our soul nature.

    Beyond the recreational trip, psychedelics have the potential to induce profound experiences. There’s a whole other world associated with the psychedelic experience, and these plants have been used all over the world for thousands of years to explore these mystical states of consciousness.

    Even though we can tap into a deeper part of our consciousness via plant medicines, it’s worth mentioning that they’re just one path for spiritual growth. People can go just as deep into these foreign states of consciousness via practices such as regular meditation or breathwork.

    Using psychedelics for spiritual growth is the sledgehammer approach, and it’s certainly not for everyone. There is also a line between using psychedelics recreationally, to using them to heal, learn, and grow.

    Why do people use plant medicines for spirituality?

    There are many reasons why people use plant medicines within the context of spirituality. First off, plant medicines give you instant, tangible results compared to disciplinary practices such as meditation or yoga.

    It can take years of dedicated meditation practice to even have visuals, let alone tap into energies, spirits, and otherworldly phenomena. Psychedelics are a fast track. Although not all psychedelic experiences are spiritual (of course, psychedelics affect your mind too), if you go deep enough into a psychedelic trip, you’re bound to start tapping into other sources of information.

    Especially by learning how to navigate these foreign realms of consciousness, there’s a gold mine of wisdom that can be accessed via the intentional use of these medicines.

    With that said, here are some reasons why people use psychedelics for spiritual growth.

    • To heal from their wounds and traumas
    • To gain insight and information about their life
    • To learn more about the nature of their soul
    • To learn more about the nature of our universe
    • To communicate with spirits and entities
    • To open their consciousness to new ideas and concepts
    • To experience mystical phenomena such as chakra activation or kundalini awakening
    • To explore their blocks, and address what’s holding them back
    • To activate spiritual gifts such as clairvoyance or mediumship
    • To help erase the fear of death
    • To become more at peace with life and oneself
    • To energetically connect with loved ones
    • To experience higher states of consciousness, including divine love and bliss

    Is psychedelic spirituality recognized?

    Psychedelic spirituality is probably one of the oldest spiritual practices known to mankind. This practice is particularly recognized via shamanic traditions which use plant medicines to work with ancestral spirits.

    The spiritual usage of psychedelics via shamanism predates modern religions, so it’s not a new trend that will come and go. With shamanic traditions pushed underground due to the outcasting of psychedelics driven by modern religion (and then the war on drugs), we’re only recently seeing a resurgence of shamanic culture within the framework of Western society.

    A huge amount of detail has been lost throughout this process. Still, Western society blows off the many claims regarding psychedelics as fictional, without really knowing anything about them.

    Due to the now science-driven, atheist-oriented world we live in, many people deny the existence of anything beyond what modern science can prove. Of course, if you’re an atheist, the notion that psychedelics are gateways to other dimensions won’t jam.

    This is important to understand because psychedelics tap into a whole other realm of information that has been cloaked by pop culture, folk-lore, and fantasies. But the connection these substances have is real, and shamans are the pioneers of using these substances for this purpose.

    The dark side of psychedelic spirituality

    There’s a dark side to psychedelic spirituality that I need to address.

    Spirituality is a way of life, not a act to make or place to get to. People can get the wrong idea of psychedelic spirituality, and treat it as a place they need to go, or a state of consciousness they need to achieve.

    If you believe that you need a substance to experience spirituality, you’ve got a backward view of what spirituality is. Some people become reliant on psychedelics to feel connected to the spirit but completely neglect the day-to-day acts. This is misguided at best and dangerous at worst.

    When I was working in ceremonies, something I learned is that the shamans have a very strong connection with these plants, but they never need them. Spirituality happens outside of the ceremony space. Connecting with these spirits can be a big assistance for your spiritual growth and healing, but it should never be the entire focus.

    On the other hand, people can be very inexperienced, and go quite deep into these dimensions which can be overwhelming. 

    I’ve met people who have had their minds scrambled because they weren’t ready for what the medicine showed them. I’ve met others who have had entities latch onto them because they didn’t know how to protect themselves. I have had entities attach themselves to me too, despite being very familiar with the medicine space.

    The reason I say this is because you don’t want to mess around with plant medicines if you don’t know what you’re doing. They do open you up energetically and expose you to all sorts of weird and wacky things out there.

    This is why it’s always best to work with these medicines in a ceremonial setting facilitated by someone who is properly trained to work with these spirits. Poking your head into these dimensions without knowing what you’re doing can cause some serious damage.

    Psychedelics: Gateways to deeper realms of consciousness

    Psychedelic spirituality

    Before getting into how psychedelics blast you into another dimension, we need to do a quick crash course on spirituality, so that you have context.

    Consciousness has layers, and you vicariously exist in multiple realms at once. Imagine existence is like an onion, and each dimension is like a layer of this onion. At the core of this onion is the source of consciousness itself, this is what we refer to as god.

    There’s a whole lot more information around us than what you and I can perceive. Being intelligent monkeys, we can perceive the physical world with our primary senses, but we’re not quite there when it comes to perceiving these other dimensions (except for some spiritually evolved people).

    The dimension of experience discovered through psychedelics is always there beneath the surface. Your soul is vicarious existing in it too, and projecting a piece of itself into this dense hologram that we understand as life.

    Other dimensional planes are energetic. They have no physical existence. This means they’re timeless, formless, and ethereal realms.

    Each religion and spiritual belief has different interpretations of these realms, but they all agree on a fundamental truth, that ‘it’ exists. You can learn more about this in the link below:

    The ego acts as a plug to reality, which keeps our feet on the ground. I’m sure there are forces behind the scenes pulling strings in this dimension too, but typically, we’re bound to this realm until we die. After all, we’re here to have a human experience. If it was so easily transcended, then what’s the point?

    Imagine the object of spirituality as an alternate realm that has many different pathways leading into it. These pathways can be accessed through myriad disciplines such as meditation, yoga, fasting, and prayer. There is a barrier between the physical construct of your consciousness and the spiritual construct, but they are always tethered together.

    The relationship between psychedelics and the ego

    The ego acts as a plug to reality which keeps our feet on the ground and allows us to exist as an individual.

    Think of your ego as your anchor to reality. When your ego begins to diminish, your deeper spiritual nature starts shining through, and it becomes easier to perceive these other dimensions of experience.

    Psychedelics dissolve your ego, which means you begin to lose your connection to the person you see yourself as today.

    I’m sure there are forces behind the scenes pulling strings in this dimension too, but typically, we’re bound to this realm until we die. After all, we’re here to have a human experience. If it was so easily transcended, then what’s the point?

    Accessing other realms via psychedelics

    Through psychedelic spirituality, you create an intersection point between physical reality and the spiritual dimension. You keep your feet on the ground and pop your head into the cosmic ocean, or in some cases lose yourself in it completely.

    Certain disciplines such as meditation can thin the veil, as these practices focus on presence which also deteriorates the ego. Psychedelics are the sledgehammer approach. One path is like slipping into a warm bath over years of practice, the other is like plunging into an icy pool.

    Without a mind or body, consciousness seeps through the mesh of reality, like a yolk draining from a cracked egg. Your consciousness is immersed in a realm so profound, that it strikes remarkable similarities with many spiritual doctrines and beliefs.

    So we need to question, are psychedelics hotwiring the connection to spirituality that has been prevalent all over the world? And that’s the foundation of psychedelic spirituality. To believe that psychedelics can indeed bring you to the same dimension that all religions, indigenous, and spiritual beliefs point towards. That they’re in essence, a shortcut to the unknown.

    To learn more about the different levels of a psychedelic trip, click on the link below:

    Spiritual experiences with psychedelics

    When you’re submerged completely into a new dimension of information, you’re essentially a drop in the ocean. You are nothing, with no ability to do anything, think, understand, or comprehend. You exist in a state of absolute presence which is induced through the death of ego.

    Psychedelics open a gate to unimaginably complex dimensions of reality. If you venture deep enough into a psychedelic trip, it will tear apart reality right in front of your eyes. You are then lost in a realm that exists far beyond the extent of imagination.

    As your human construct dismantles, you are likely to experience things such as sacred geometry and have access to experiences, sensations, and feelings on a whole new level.  Psychedelics have an incredible ability to reset your mind, flush away the negativity, and irreversibly change your beliefs and perceptions of life and yourself.

    Psychedelic spirituality begs the question, can this experience just be credited to the mind? Surely, the human mind is not capable of simulating such powerful experiences that can completely change a person’s life. And if it is, then it just raises more questions.

    Whether these states are credited to the mysteries of the mind, or whether we’re tapping into something else, it is well beyond our understanding. The experience itself is certainly real, despite what it is.

    Using psychedelic for spirituality

    Ayahuasca ceremony

    There is a lot of ambiguity surrounding psychedelics, but it’s important to keep an open mind about what they can do.

    Psychedelics are not recreational drugs. They are powerful spiritual tools that can send you into the deepest levels of reality and beyond. Psychedelic spirituality is about recognizing these plants as much more than what we typically give them credit for.

    If you’re not on board, I understand. But let me ask you what if it’s plausible that through the void of ego, we reconnect with the deeper nature of spirit? What if there exists a universal intelligence that extends through all layers of reality, including the one that we’re experiencing right now?

    If we could learn to harness this information and navigate this realm of knowledge, you can only imagine what we could learn about the nature of reality.

    Set intent

    One of the most important things to do when using psychedelics for spiritual growth is to set intentions. Your intentions act as a compass. If you don’t have a reason for taking the plant medicine, then why are you taking it in the first place?

    If you want to explore your consciousness and become a better person, it starts by setting your intentions each time you take any plant medicine. Whether you intend to gain wisdom or insight about your life, to heal, communicate with spirits, or open up your consciousness, without intention, you’re just floundering.

    Have a purpose for taking the plant medicine, and don’t treat them as a recreational substance.

    Have respect

    One of the most important things you can do is to respect the plant medicine. This is a major common theme in the context of shamanism, and shamans tend to spend a lot of time praying to the spirits of the medicine before consuming it.

    Keep in mind that these medicines are sentient spirits. If you have no respect for the medicine, you can’t expect to have a mindblowing experience. Likewise, you’re defeating the purpose. If you hold a great deal of respect for the medicine before taking it, pray to it, and perhaps leave an offering, this can drastically change the experience.

    I’ve found in my journeys that I’ve often been blocked out when I didn’t do the prayers properly. Simply put, the spirits weren’t a fan, and I always got a dirty feeling, like I was being disrespectful. When I do the prayers wholeheartedly, that’s when I’m let into their world, and have some deeply profound experiences.

    Create a sacred space

    When and where you take the plant medicine makes a difference. If you’re taking a psychedelic while at a festival or with some friends, you’re not going to learn much from it.

    If you’re using psychedelics for spiritual growth, it’s best to either take them in a ceremonial setting, or by yourself. If you’re inexperienced with plant medicines, I would suggest doing a few ceremonies before going into these realms solo.

    I find it’s important to set aside the time and create the space to take the medicine. If you’re taking it while you feel rushed or your house is a mess, then you’re not giving the medicine the space it deserves. So put aside the time and create the space to have a proper session.

    Have restraint

    Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of taking psychedelics too regularly or seeing them as the only path to spirituality.

    Most people find that the medicine tells them when they’re starting to overdo it. If it’s becoming a habit or a compulsion, you’ll likely get a sign that you need to stop for a while during one of the journeys.

    But it’s best to be preemptive. I suggest only taking a plant medicine regularly, and don’t mix them up. 

  • Do Psychedelics Manifest Synchronicities via the Collective Unconscious?

    Do Psychedelics Manifest Synchronicities via the Collective Unconscious?

    Outside of therapeutic settings, many types of unusual experiences arise from psychedelic use, both during and following a psychedelic journey. Our current, limited scientific paradigm relegates these unexplainable phenomena to the forlorn lost and found box of rational materialism. Synchronicity qualifies as one such phenomenon that can’t be validated through empiricism. 

    What is a Synchronicity?

    synchronicity

    Famous Swiss psychologist Carl Jung created the concept of synchronicity. He wrote plenty on the subject, as well as many other people following him. Merriam-Webster defines a synchronicity as:

    the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (such as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality

    Jungian psychology might describe synchronicity as a meaningful coincidence of the collective unconscious. People share accounts of experiencing synchronicities that often involve seeing the same number, hearing the same song, or a name that gets repeated. While these might be synchronicities, are they low-resolution examples?

    Post-Ayahuasca Synchronicity?

    Synchronicities come in much bigger, more potent and improbable shapes and sizes. I tend to dismiss repetitions of names, numbers and songs as cosmic compost. Living in a world inundated with prodigious amounts of information, it’s not hard to see or make connections in the media landfills that occupy our minds.

    I feel there’s a similarity here to psychics who glean information from you based on what you’re wearing, and what you say. If there’s sufficient information floating around in the environment, even the smallest bits, they can be tied together with ease. 

    But what about higher-resolution synchronicities that don’t involve the media landscape? What about synchronicities with such improbability, they exceed lottery winning odds? What about synchronicities of powerful, meaningful coincidence that defy explanation? I experienced my first high-resolution synchronicity after a plant medicine retreat.

    About a couple of weeks or so after my second ayahuasca retreat and still in my integration period, I experienced the most potent synchronicity of my life up to that point. I was tinkering around on LinkedIn and did a check to see who had looked at my profile recently.

    The last person who looked at my profile works in the psychedelic therapy industry. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw who the person worked for and what they did. I have nothing on my LinkedIn profile about psychedelics and have no idea why they would be checking me out. 

    I had to follow up. I reached out, messaged the person, and asked why they looked at my profile. As the universe would have it, they were looking for a writer to produce content for their website. This is my line of work. In a matter of weeks, I found myself writing about psychedelics and pursuing a passion I never thought would ever come to materialize. 

    The universe, it seems, drafted me into my “cosmic job.” There are day-to-day jobs to pay the bills, then there are “cosmic jobs.” Cosmic jobs are the jobs that unlock and utilize our greatest talents, skills and passions. We dismiss our cosmic jobs as pipe dreams, instead of considering them as attainable pursuits.

    In other words, your cosmic job is the life work you’re tasked with by the universe and your reason for existing on Earth. The Japanese concept of ikagi explains this idea well. Did the universe reward my deep inner work with my first step forward into my cosmic job?

    Tapped into the Oneness of the Universe

    Meditation

    Despite the epistemological limits of science at the moment, we’re making thrilling strides into virgin realms of knowing. Discoveries on the scientific fringes, both in neuroscience and quantum physics, threaten rational materialism, pushing the worlds of science and spirituality closer together, inch by inch.

    For example, science now shows us how LSD makes us feel one with the universe. This isn’t the jelly-brainer at Robot Heart during Burning Man telling you this at sunrise. No, this is real science, which discovers what spiritual gurus and systems across the world have already known for millennia. 

    So does the universe feel us when we’re tapped into it, and manifesting the oneness? Much like how the brain demonstrates neuroplasticity after psilocybin sessions, does the universe make novel connections with newfound psychonauts after psychedelic journeys?

    Does the universe increase and make new connections in the cosmic brain? Are we all a neuron in a cosmic brain, and a cosmic brain in a neuron? Is a high-resolution synchronicity an example of the cosmic brain’s neuroplastic expansion?

    Downloading Consciousness and Cosmic Runway Lights

    A burgeoning idea now challenges our collective belief regarding consciousness. We’ve long held that consciousness arises from the brain, and that our body produces it. However, a new theory suggests that our brains could download consciousness.

    Our brains may act like a radio antenna and actively download consciousness. I find this idea fascinating. If this is the case, then does that make a synchronicity a cosmic file download? Do psychedelics act as the click on the cosmic download button? Do psychedelics make our antennae bigger, more receptive, and more sensitive to the universe’s signals?

    Where empirical investigations fall short, indigenous spirituality and anthropology picks up the slack. Indigenous cultures around the world have long known about synchronicities and their meaning. Our rational materialist paradigm has long made the mind preeminent at the expense of the wisdom of the heart. Synchronicities challenge logic and reasoning. They reassert another way of knowing, that has long been forgotten in the West. 

    Carlos Casteneda spoke of the “path of the heart,” that journey through life doing your cosmic job. This is no secret to indigenous cultures. In his book, The Way of the Shaman, Michael Harner considered synchronicities as “a kind of homing beacon analogous to a radio directional signal indicating that the right procedures and methods are being employed.”

    If this is true, then are synchronicities a cosmic ping, or cosmic runway lights that illuminate our path forward into the unknown and into fearful places? 

    Synchronicities Dispel Fear

    I know that I felt scared about a couple of things. I was afraid to go into freelance writing. I also feared making my psychedelic use public. Now, I don’t care about either. Why? Because it seems that the universe wants me to go in this very direction. 

    Not long ago, I learned the difference between bravery and courage. More or less, bravery is action in the absence of fear. Courage is action in the face of fear. Courage is the greater virtue. Synchronicities can help nurture courage. As Terrence McKenna said:

    “Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.”

    If you’re downloading the cosmic map, illuminated by runway lights, what is there to fear? Fear can be turned into a valuable tool. What can be more mysterious and powerful than the random design of the universe? If the universe is sending you these signals, what can possibly be a more intriguing mystery to delve into, than the enigma of what your true purpose on Earth is?

    Psychedelics Connect to Cosmic Wifi to Tune In, Turn On, and Flow Out

    Merriam-Webster defines “synchronous” as:

    of, used in, or being digital communication (as between computers) in which a common timing signal is established that dictates when individual bits can be transmitted and which allows for very high rates of data transfer    .

    Assume we’re a radio antenna (or a computer as in the definition), downloading consciousness. When we do psychedelics, are we telling the universe our cosmic wifi is turned on and ready to receive and transmit data? I think it’s more probable than doubtful. 

    Once we “tune in” and “turn on” as Timothy Leary said, awesome things happen. He got the “drop out” part wrong. The third part is to “flow out.” To go out in a cosmic flow state with the passionate, random design of the universe, and be ready to accept its mysterious gifts of bliss, awe and fulfillment. The universe wants to play with you, make novel connections through you, and experience itself and the joy of being alive through you and your success.

    Synchronicities are the runway lights toward that goal, and psychedelics seem to turn them on. It’s about time we all “glow up.”