Posts
I Personal development a lifelong committment.Not a magic wand.Necesssity for continued persoal development.Physical therapy and massage.Attended 3 workshops. Amazing job done by the women attendant/healers.Massages and bathing in floral concoction.
II My process was utterly supported through the highs and the lows. I was tended to and nurtured with gentle compassion. And I experienced a miracle, nothing short of a cure. My process is not finished yet. After a convalescing period, I will return to the temple to finish my physical cleansing and continue my personal growth. quote
III Judy age 35 explained the experience as detox help with addictions,she gained help direction and focus and help with her "demons". Note the action taken by the maestras.
IV. Toby the writer from Denmark. Note his comments.
V Tracie Tracie, 44, from Australia, had an auditory journey one night that started with a hum, she could feel it in her whole body. "With every in breath it raised me higher so that I was hovering in the air and with every out breath I came down like a leaf to the ground -- such a lightness!'
VI Note Cielo and reference to Kananga and the vision of the centipede.
VII Indigo's description of distance healing and his vision of faeries.
Whilst the medicine works in magical ways, delivering profound insight and
transformation, it is also very important to understand and respect that there
is an integration period after the work. This means sticking with some
dietary and sexual restrictions for a period after the work and also being
conscious of taking care of oneself in appropriate ways, in the interest of
retaining the changes. Ayahuasca will continue to work in the body and
energetic field for a long time after an intensive workshop. Revelations,
liberation from stuck patterns, and changes in behavior may be experienced
months later. The work is suitable for people who recognize that personal
development is a lifelong commitment. Ayahuasca is not a magic wand to
make all the bad stuff disappear. It takes a while to get to the final
layer of the onion, which is why continued personal development is necessary;
some time is needed for the benefits to integrate into the rest of your life.
In my case, I have to rest for a number of months, without taking ayahuasca,
to allow my body to integrate the massive changes. I have to be conscious
of my diet and vigilant to the needs of my body. It would be highly
destructive for me to be drinking alcohol, undertaking strenuous physical
activity, or even getting back into a stressful job situation immediately.
All this would obstruct a thorough healing, and in fact, may even reverse all
the good work. I recognize that I need a lot of physical therapy, such as
massage, to help my body get used to its new configuration. Moreover, in
ceremony, I have been shown the areas that need a bit of extra care. And
so my focus is now to take care of my physical needs first and foremost.
For most people, one workshop at the Temple is enough to significantly
transform a life. With the gravity of my particular case it was clear I
had more work than most to do, after all I had a very serious and deeply
embedded illness that has been eating at me for all of my adult life. I
attended three workshops in a row, all the while observing and marveling at
how these women worked and how their intervention was reflected in the amazing
progress of my healing. By night they helped me through the physical
processes the medicine induced, and by day they dropped lime juice into my
eyes. They noted that part of the illness resided in my eyes -- I have
always had puffy eyes and in fact the tumor was directly behind my right
eye. Although it stung, my tears would wash away the acidic juice along
with plenty of grungy material. They would also give us massage every day
and bathe us in a floral concoction that was designed to protect and bring love,
luck, and harmony.
The care I received at the Temple was exemplary, and
inspiring, to work with such powerful, yet humble women. My process was
utterly supported through the highs and the lows. I was tended to and
nurtured with gentle compassion. And I experienced a miracle, nothing
short of a cure. My process is not finished yet. After a
convalescing period, I will return to the temple to finish my physical cleansing
and continue my personal growth.
Other People at the Temple
I
met people of all walks, types and ages at the Temple. All had different
reasons for coming and of course unique experiences.
Toby, 62, a
writer from Denmark, came "because my life was at standstill after a broken
relationship and a deep depression. I became self destructive, my mind had
turned black." After his retreat, Toby wrote to me, "I had dramatic and
profound experiences and visions. The ayahuasca cleaned my body and reset
my mind. To explain is impossible, it is so personal and individual, but
it has changed my life. Happiness and energy is flowing freely through my
veins and I was not surprised when my closest relatives confirmed the changes
when they met me shortly after the trip to Peru. Years of therapy and
psychoanalysis would not have been able to do this healing. My life is
back on track and I am grateful."Virginie, 27, a student and traveler from France, came to the temple because she felt she needed a ritual to mark her passing from youth into adulthood. She was returning to Europe after extensive travels in South America and she wanted to clear any debris and not fall back into old patterns on her return. She felt she got rid of a lot of her childhood fears and insecurities, through purging, by crying and vomiting. Furthermore, she stopped smoking, after experiencing that she had received a new set of lungs during the workshop. She said she understood that the cigarette smoke was her mental confusion, a foggy blanket which, one evening in ceremony, she started to blow and blow, blowing all the smoke out of her system, she could feel charred heavy energy coming out with her breaths. She summed it up at the end by commenting, "I feel super good and centered."
Judy, 35, a mental heath worker from Ireland, described her reasons for coming to the temple as, "needing help with my addictions, needing healing, direction, and focus. And I wanted to detox." The experience for her was very difficult, but also wonderful. "I faced all my demons; I went through every kind of emotion possible. It was like I already died and went to my own purgatory, this felt really familiar and very claustrophobic. It sounds strange but I was trying to make sure I was still part of my soul. The Maestras massaged my tummy and blew on my head. One of them sang to me while I lay in the fetal position and sucked my thumb. Maybe I was being born again." She concluded that the whole experience was amazingly powerful and intense.
Marcel, 35, a professional sportsman from Switzerland, came to the temple because he wanted to change his life, to deal with his frustration, to improve his energy levels and because he very much wanted to find answers. And he got his answers about "illusion and reality, fear and trust, and about love." He said every night in ceremony was special in a different way, with each passing night, he felt his process was moving forward, always learning. "It was really tough, I had to fight fear I have had all my life. Ayahuasca cut through the fear and opened new doors. For me ayahuasca is pure love." On his way out of the temple he commented, "I am not 100% sure I can handle all this, but whatever happens it's all learning, I keep on working on removing the fear to have a beautiful life."
A Dutch woman, Vanya, 43, a massage therapist, said that in one ceremony, she faced her family. She explained that they tend to take advantage of her, and do not take her seriously by disregarding her. She doesn't fight her corner, saying nothing, but it hurts her. She realized that when she returned home she would have to have a serious talk with them, and ayahuasca had given her the impetus and courage to do it.
Tracie, 44, from Australia, had an auditory journey one night that started with a hum, she could feel it in her whole body. "With every in breath it raised me higher so that I was hovering in the air and with every out breath I came down like a leaf to the ground -- such a lightness!'
Temu, 27, from Finland, came for a depression. He prepared mentally for a long time to come to the retreat, as he had a lot of fear about it. His process involved a lot of internal dialogue and facing his fears and anxieties, "ultimately getting the awareness that everything is actually alright, I don't have to worry, I am taken care of, even though I don't always realize it. In the process I also had a rebirth of my connection with nature, remembering that I am a part of this wholeness, this nature." He finds it hard to verbalize his final ceremony, summing it up by saying he had a lifetime of insights and lessons.
Cielo, 52, Australian and the administrator for the Temple, told me that one night she had a pain in her stomach, and Horacio, one of the Meastros, sang to her and sucked out the bad energy using "Kananga" (a kind of floral infused water), she lay down and had a vision of a huge white centipede undulating, as it rose up it started to transform into something else. She noticed that the women were doing something fiddling with something on the ground; she went to look and saw that they were killing a centipede. They confirmed that the bad feeling in her stomach was in the energetic form of a centipede and that following the healing it had manifested into physical reality.
Indigo, a 40 year old farmer from USA, "I had one experience where I was too tired to come to ceremony, so I was sleeping in my tambo. Sometime later, I could hear the Maestras singing, but my tambo is far away, the singing was so loud and clear, I thought she was with me. I could feel the energy pulling me, moving things inside my body. I went into a vision of beautiful fairies who wanted to take me somewhere, but my mind got scared, because I had not drunk ayahuasca that night. This was not a dream. I decided to go to the ceremony two hours after it had started; it was not too late. A Maestra came to sing to me, I didn't need to drink, I was getting the same healing. I asked Rosa (one of the Maestra's) about it the next day, and she said she had done a distant healing. That was pretty profound for me." She adds, "I feel I learned a lot not just from the Maestras but also from the people here. It's a place where people gather and share and help each other. As the week went on people's stuff was coming out. I got into a thing with someone, it was very significant, I wasn't even thinking of it, but that argument was my core issue being expressed. That night, in ceremony, was difficult, I could feel the anger coming out and going under me, and since then I have been going even deeper. The medicine is always working, even when sleeping and dreaming. It is important to pay attention to everything that happens here."
