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Introduction by Ralph Miller

Sometimes unrelated events occur in your life in clusters that cause you to notice something you would not otherwise really pay attention to.

Several weeks ago I saw the film Avatar with my children. To tell you the truth, the thing that impressed me the most was how the idea of connecting back to nature had been presented with the Na'vi's neural connection through their tails.  The Na'vi could link to any other living thing on Pandora via this connection. I thought it surprising that this concept was thrust into mass consciousness so simply in such an exceedingly beautiful film. I have often returned to the film in my thoughts since seeing it.

Just recently I traveled to Brazil where I was invited to give a presentation about ayahuasca to a group of doctors and scientists. My lecture was well received.

Most of the delegates were from Germany and Switzerland and there were a few others from Brazil. There were some really interesting people, many of whom I am sure I will see again. But the best thing that happened on this short trip was a very heart-felt friendship that I made with two new Brazilian friends.

The morning after my lecture I was sitting at breakfast with one of my new friends whose name is Alvaro. He commented about what I had said in my lecture, about the way that ayahuasca connects us back to the natural world. Definitely one of my favorite subjects! The re-connection to the natural world is one of the fundamental lessons from this sacred ancient medicine. I have spoken and written about the need to re-connect to nature for years. (see The Natural World)

We talked for a while and at one point in the conversation he said, “You know, what you were talking about connecting to nature reminded me of the same concept that was presented in the film Avatar.”

Having seen the film a few weeks ago, I agreed with him, “Yes, in the film every living thing had a tail or some means of connecting to every other living thing. The connection was real and vital and natural, that’s the way ayahuasca is. Ayahuasca is like the Na'vi tail – it’s an interface.”

Upon my return home, after a few days had past, several things happened in quick succession all in one day. My friend Alvaro told me about his passion in creating some very special photo images and he sent me an image of orchid flowers that he had made. He described it as experimental photography and said it showed the energetic patterns within the plant.

Click the image to view the full size.

Image of orchids (photo courtesy of Alvaro Guidotti)

The same day I noticed a marked increase in visitors to the heartoftheinitiate.com website and checked for the source of the increased traffic. I discovered pretty quickly that someone had put in a link to our website from the Avatar Forum … it was a pretty long post called, ‘Avatar, Eywa, and Ayahuasca healed my soul’. In the post there was a link back to our site referring to a specific page containing the shamanic music of our shaman Warinei Wanare.

Somewhere else on the forum was a link to an article called ‘Aya Avatar’ written by Erik Davis. I really liked Erik’s article.

I fired off quick emails to both Alvaro and Erik to ask if I could re-post their respective creative works and share them with our audience. I received an enthusiastic ‘yes’ from both of them within a few hours. So I am happy to share Alvaro’s beautiful image above and Erik’s insightful article below. I hope you enjoy them.

This all brought my awareness of the human-nature connection to a whole new level. The fact is we ARE connected!  Nice how some things happen … What a system!

Update 02/03 - Deleted Scene!

Cut Scene From The Original Script Click the image to read the script!

My interest in the film Avatar was further piqued today as I read a portion of the film’s script that recently found its way to the internet. You can read it for yourself, but there were a number of deleted scenes from the final film.

This particular scene dealt with Jake Sulley’s avatar participating in a sacred visionary ceremony. According to the script, the ceremony using a ‘psychoactive alkaloid’ was an initiation and it was Jake Sulley’s intention to ‘become one of them’.

This is particularly interesting to me as the ceremony involved eating a special worm and then immediately being stung by a scorpion type insect. Apparently the visionary effects of the ceremony required two separate components.

Of course this mirrors exactly the pharmacology of ayahuasca. The psychoactive component from the chacruna bush of ayahuasca is dimethyl-tryptamine or DMT which is also identical to the human neurotransmitter produced in the pineal gland. DMT when ingested orally is destroyed by the digestive stomach enzyme monoamine-oxidase or MAO. However, the ayahuasca brew contains a 2nd plant called caapi, which contains strong but temporarily acting MAO inhibitors which allow the DMT to pass from the gut to the brain.

The mechanism of inhibiting MAO was not discovered by Western science until 1952. The discovery happened ‘by accident’ while researchers were attempting to develop a new drug for treating tuberculosis. Ayahuasca has been in use among indigenous tribes for over 3,000 years we know of. Incredibly, simple tribal shamans have incorporated this fairly sophisticated process millennia before its discovery in ‘modern’ science.

Talk about intelligence in nature!

Aya Avatar

Drink the Jungle Juice
by Erik Davis (www.techgnosis.com) January 7, 2010

In paradoxical and altogether predictable terms, James Cameron’s ravishing Avatar sets a blue man group of mystically attuned forest dwellers against the aggressive and heartless exploitation that characterizes the military-industrial-media complex, with its virtual interfaces, biotech chimeras, and cyborg war machines. The paradox, of course, is that a version of this latter complex is responsible for delivering Camaron’s visions to us in the first place. To wit: before a recent screening of the film at the Metreon IMAX theater in San Francisco, we hapless begoggled ones were barraged with military ads, not to mention a triumphant techno-fetishist breakdown on the Imax technology that would soon transport us to the planet Pandora almost as thoroughly (and resonantly) as the handicapped jarhead Jake jacks into his computer-generated avatar body.

But those are behind the scenes ironies. With its floating Roger Deanscapes and hallucinogenic flora, the manifest world of Avatar instead spoke another truth: that the jungle pantheism that now pervades the psychoactive counterculture has gone thoroughly mainstream. Of course, noble savage narratives of ecological balance and shamanic wisdom have been haunting the Rousseau-mapped outback of the western mind for centuries. That said, Avatar represents some important twists in that basic tale. The most important of these is that the Na’vi’s nearly telepathic understanding of their environment is grounded not only in ritual, plant-lore, and that earnest seriousness that now afflicts PC Hollywood Indians, but in an organic communications network: the fibrous, animated, and vaguely repulsive pony-tail tentacles that not only allow the Na’vi to form direct control links with animals but also, through the optical filaments of the “Tree of Souls,” to commune with both ancestors and the Eywa, the biological spirit of the planet whose name resonates with Erda, our own Earth.

Call it ayahuasca lite. For while Avatar features nothing like the South American shaman lore and stupendous aya visuals that litter the otherwise very bad 2004 Western released here as Renegade, the film does suggest that the bitter jungle brew, and ideas of ecological wisdom now attached to it, is having a trickle-down effect. The banisteriopsis caapi vine that gives ayahuasca its name (though not its most hallucinogenic alkaloids) is also known as the “Vine of Souls,” which echoes the Na’vi’s Tree of Souls. And when Sigourney Weaver attempts to establish the efficacy of the Trees through a neurological discourse of electrical connection, the corporate tool Parker asks what she’s been smoking—a backhanded way of acknowledging how much Avatar’s visionary take on ecological consciousness is grounded in psychoactive consciousness.

After all, beyond a thriving and in many ways damaging ayahuasca tourist market in Brazil and Peru, clandestine aya circles manned by South American shamans and all manner of Euro-American facilitators are are now well established throughout the west. Among the professional creative classes who make up a sizable portion of West Coast seekers—for spirit and/or thrills—ayahuasca could almost be said to be mainstream. So it no longer matters whether Cameron or his animators have themselves drunk the tea; its active compounds are already swimming in the cultural water supply. Eco-futuristic dreams are now indistinguishable from the visionary potential of media technology itself. Indeed, whether you are talking form (ground-breaking 3D animation) or content (cyber-hippie wetdream decor), Cameron’s visual and technological rhetoric is impossible to disentangle from hallucinogenic experience.

OK, maybe I am the one smoking something. But if there is an aya-Avatar connection, it would explain one crucial way in which the film differs from conventional “noble savage” mysticism. Rather than ground the Na’vi’s grooviness in their folklore or spiritual purity, the film instead presents the vision of a direct and material communications link with the plant mind. Which means that Eywa (aka Aya) does not have to be believed—she can be experienced. After the temporary fusion with the Tree of Souls that fails to prevent her death, Weaver’s chain-smoking left-brain doctor happily confirms Ewya’s existence. Like the Vine of Souls now wending its way through the developed world, the Tree of Souls becomes a kind of bio-mystical media, a visionary communications matrix that uplinks the souls of the dead and the network mind of the ecosphere itself.

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Article by Ralph Miller

Intention is something we take into the sacred moments of our life. It is the prayer that we offer with each breath we take. It is a reflection of who we are moment by moment. We can try to grab onto the thoughts about those feelings. We can try to reduce to words what it is we want and then create an intention to move towards those things … but when we do the thing we felt behind the thought, many times it just doesn’t translate into words. Real intentions are our will to act and do in a way that guides our souls through this universe. What should those intentions be? Can they lead us to contentment and peace?

There is a growing awareness about the sacred plant teacher ayahuasca. This medicine is an interface with nature herself and can help those who encounter it to overcome attachments that are not serving them. There are many people who intend to come and meet this teacher, and do. Others ‘intend’ to have an encounter with this plant and do not. Yet, either decision is a good one in that moment. The universe has a way of allowing for a freedom that is within a perfect timing. You can never be late and you can never be early. Our true intentions will always lead us to peace and freedom.

Happiness

Our lives are guided by a desire for happiness and contentment. In the last centuries western civilizations have shifted to materialism in a quest for happiness. We have drifted far away from the notion of inner contentment that one achieves despite material possessions or wealth. The idea of ‘rising expectations’ as an economic principal that relates to the notion of members of an economic class or culture who adopt an attitude of reaching further and further towards products and services that are obtainable and affordable. Plainly stated, the principle is that ‘the more you have the more you want’. The media bombards us with messages that are geared towards desires and wants born out of cultural materialism that is running amok in our societies.

Expectations are not always about material things but they are often about something you want for yourself. Our cultural story is a survival story brought to us from eons of wars, striving and competition. We live in a world of every-man-for-themselves. This preoccupation that members of our cultures have about the perfect job, perfect body, stress free living, perfect relationship or perfect life is at its best a way that individuals are trying to better themselves. But at its worst is a reflection of a deep-seated group narcissistic psychosis.

The great thinkers of old such as Socrates who was the founder of Western philosophical thought, suggested that true contentment and happiness is only achieved when a person discovers peace within themselves irrespective of the circumstances of their life. Enduring happiness is the result of a deep knowing of oneself. Socrates said, “Everything the soul endeavors or endures under the guidance of wisdom ends in happiness.”

Crisis or traumatic life events bring many to a search within. It doesn’t matter how much money you have when you are confronted with a serious crisis. Crisis will always lead you to search within. Many people approach their lives as well as their spiritual development with intention in their hearts. We each have goals and aspirations for our lives. We want to make our futures brighter and happier. In order to do that we first need to understand what makes us tick. What will make us truly happy? Is it money or things? Or is it something deeper?

I find some of the law of attraction self-help philosophy to be pretty disturbing, because it focuses on materialism as the means to happiness. Old habits die hard, I guess. But, the idea of using intention to ‘attract’ a new house, car or boat seems to me to be like some kind of a new currency that can be used to obtain ‘things’ instead of money. Now you don’t have to pay for it, all you just have to do is wish for it. The point is, it’s still about material things. With all the ‘law of attraction’ stuff, Santa is probably getting concerned about his job security.

Expectation vs. Intention

The understanding of letting go of expectations is an important aspect of the ayahuasca ceremony. The plant will always bring profound lessons to you, but you never know what that lesson will be. What this plant medicine does is offer a perspective of yourself and your world that is unique. Encounters with this plant will confront the ego in a way to disarm it. You know your own excuses and justifications and so does the plant. Those things are placed before you, for you to see. The perspective is fresh and new and free of resistance and justification. They say that the master lesson of this ayahuasca experience is about letting go.

Ayahuasca is a teacher plant. It teaches us to connect to the natural world. It is interesting because this business of expectations is not something that fits into the natural world. The plants do not expect to have the sunlight to nourish them. The birds do not expect to find a worm to eat; they just go eat a worm. Or they don’t and they get a little hungrier. There is no currency. There are no material things that the natural world wants or requires in the same way as humans do.

Creating an intention about anything in our life can be tricky ground, because it can be just another way of having expectations. It may be a way of saying the same thing in a different way. Expectation creates an attachment between you and the thing that you want or expect; or ‘intend’. And, attachment to anything is like putting a piece of yourself into that thing. The things that we want; the situations in our life; our relationships; are all things that we need to let go of in order to be consolidated within ourselves. Consolidation within yourself means that you get to be fully YOU. There are not bits of you scattered into all the situations and things that are in your life. Consolidation is about personal freedom.

If we can’t or won’t let go, then that situation, person or thing that must change or happen in the way that we want, we are subject to the ramifications of the outcome whether we like it or not. It may work the way you want and it may not, but you have attached to only one of these outcomes. If it works out … then great. But, if it does not work out the result is profound disappointment that disempowers us.

The reason it works that way is this. Let’s say there is a complicated situation in your life that you are attached to. You need that situation to have an outcome in a certain way or you will be devastated. You make all kinds of ‘intentions’ for it to be the way that you need it to be. You pray that it will be that way! You have attached to a certain outcome that you want to have happen. It must be this way or it’s going to be really bad for you. When you attach to that certain outcome you are in effect creating the ‘possibility’ of that outcome’s polar opposite … that it will not work out the way you ‘intended’. Your attachment to one side of the equation has allowed for the possibility of a negative outcome on the other side of the equation. Your biorhythms are off. Bad hair day … whatever. It just doesn’t work out the way you intended! You can only look to your attachment as the thing that has set you up for this.

The answer is to just let go! I always look at it this way, “You’ve mastered everything else, why don’t you just let go?”

The Wisdom of Happiness

What wisdom can guide us to happiness that Socrates spoke of? Much of the Socratic philosophies are a mystery. Most of what we know was brought through his student Plato. One thing left to us in his own words was that there is a wisdom that can lead us to contentment. I surmise that part of the wisdom of happiness is threefold.

First, letting go and detaching from outcomes in one's life that ‘have to happen’ is one of them. There is an attitude one can adopt of making every outcome perfect. The wisdom of the Taoist sages would instruct us to walk a path free of commentary about the things around us that we could want or not want. Wanting too much creates attachment. Not wanting too much also creates attachment. If you truly let go … you free yourself from comment or judgment about whatever the outcome.

The potential we have in our lives is collapsed as soon as we attach to something. Difficult situations have unique ways of resolving. With attachment, the spontaneity of the universe is lost. The possibility of it going either way is no more. Novelty is gone. Maybe the other path would have opened a whole new world of possibility. Your freedom from attachments will make every potential possible again.

The second wisdom I would like to suggest is that we need to learn to live in the real world. We need to learn to live in the present moment. It is common to hear people say when speaking about something they want, “If only …” or alternatively, “I wish”. I find this interesting because ‘If only’ has to do with the past. It is the regret of something that is lost. It is pining away for something that could have worked out differently but didn’t. ‘I wish’ is about the future. Hoping for the right lotto numbers, the right partner, the grass that is greener over there. It is the ego’s attempt to stretch into a future that will never arrive.

True gratitude for our breath and our life will help us to be in the moment that we have right now. When you are thankful for everything in your life you are present. When you notice the beauty of every person you encounter, you see them in a brand new way. Living in the moment is real and it means you are awake. The past and future are a dream that will never be.

The third wisdom is to create true intention in your life. Intention is only your will to do or to act. The bird getting the worm simply goes over to the worm and pulls it out of the earth. You can make an intention to let go of attachment. You can intend to live in the present moment. You can intend to love, because it is an act of your will. You can intend to be free … and free you will be. Every possible outcome is perfect … it really is!

“His followers said to him, 'When will the kingdom come?' 'It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here it is,' or 'Look, there it is.' Rather, the father's kingdom is already spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it."
- Jesus, Gospel of Thomas

Most religious philosophies teach of a heaven. The idea of a heaven that is waiting for us when we die is kind of scary to me, because what if it isn’t. I would like to suggest that heaven is our responsibility and that is not a place that is far off into the future. The potential of heaven is all around us. My wife Anna taught me that heaven is a place that is here now on earth. All we have to do is to see it. It is a decision of gratitude, letting go and peace with all things. I like that idea.

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Article by Ralph Miller

The morality of the Inca cultures was a beautiful and simple approach to life. The Quechua saying, "Ama suwa, ama llulla, ama qhella" (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy) was the code of conduct that guided Incan culture. Quechua is the language of the Inca and is widespread in the Andean regions of South America. It was said that, ‘those who followed these simple precepts eventually enjoyed eternity living in the warmth of the Sun while those who failed to follow these simple rules would spend eternity on the cold earth’. Apparently the warmth of the Sun was the preferred place to end up.

My rationale is that we each have achieved a certain mastery of life in that it has brought us to ‘this point’. From there it is up to each of us to decide where to go next. We can try to become better individuals or not. What do we learn from our lives? What can we learn? How can we begin to live in a better way?

Do not steal, do not lie and do not be lazy are all ethics that require us to be radically honest with ourselves and with each other. Stealing is a type of falsification. It is really just a forgery of ownership of something that belongs to another person. Groups of human beings live together in families and cultures in a way where ideally every member of that group contributes a part of their efforts and resources to benefit not only themselves but also the group as a whole. When a person is lazy they are really just stealing from other members of the family or group who are contributing.

The guiding principal of the Inca would seem to be that living in a truthful way is better than living in a false way. The concept of truth is simply that of aligning ourselves to what actually ‘is’ versus that which ‘is not’. If we are living in truth we are in sync with what actually happened instead of a fabrication or distortion of what happened.

This does not mean ‘being better’. There is nothing you can do to be better. You are already who you are. There is nothing you can do to prepare to be who you are. You are already you! Many live out their lives in suspended animation while chasing an idea of them self that refuses to arrive. They project towards a time when they will finally be who they had always envisioned. Living with the dream of becoming someone … someday … will not help you to understand who you actually are now.

I remember once driving my car very early in the morning several years ago. I was going on a simple errand very close to our home in Colorado. At one point I became distracted and I touched my foot to the brake. Doing so caused some papers to slide off the passenger seat onto the floor. Instinctively I reached my right hand down to pick up the papers and put them back while continuing to drive with my left hand. My head was momentarily below the dashboard and I was unable to see where I was going.

As quickly as my head popped back up to see, I realized that the car had drifted a few feet over the centerline. I instantly steered back into the correct lane while at the same time glancing in the rear-view mirror to see if there were any police around who might have witnessed my infraction. Relieved, I thought to myself, “Too early in the morning for traffic cops and thankfully too early in the morning for a lot of other cars on the road that I could have run into.”

When this happened I remember reflecting on it. I thought that the process of glancing in the mirror so automatically to check for traffic cops was interesting for sure, because it was as if I was allowed to carry on ‘as if it never happened’ because nobody saw me. As quickly as I could forget about it, it was indeed as if it never happened. This is an interesting process because it is a way of re-writing history. I am not suggesting that I should have called the cops on myself for the traffic infraction, but I learned something valuable about human nature. We tend to write-out certain things that are not so flattering and write-in other things that would lend support to an ideal view of ourselves. I am suggesting that it is a function of ego to constantly re-write our histories so that we appear to be in harmony with our own self-image.

We received messages from the earliest age that reinforced our self image. Our parents told us who we were. They told us what to do and what to think. They either told us directly or modeled behaviors and beliefs to us. We were told that we were the sort of children that did this … whatever ‘this’ is. We were not the sort that did ‘that’. Just fill in the blanks. “In our family, small children act in this way.” When we become just a little older we loose track of the fact that almost all our beliefs about ourselves came from sources outside of us. We incorporate all of those beliefs into our own internal dialogue. Those beliefs then become our own. We say, “I am not the sort of person who does that. I am the type of person that does this.” This process makes our self-image and ego more solid and real.

When you have an encounter with the ayahuasca medicine, you have the chance to look at yourself and your life in a way that is uncluttered with the mental commentary or judgments you make about yourself. You can see yourself for what you are, not what you think you are. Sometimes we think of ourselves as less than we actually are and sometimes we think of ourselves as much more than we are. In either case we are habitually adopting a policy of self-image that works for us, which is precisely what ego is. It is the self-image that over time has worked best for us.

Ayahuasca is considered a teacher plant. The real conclusion that human beings take from their encounters with this very special plant is that they begin to look at themselves in a more honest way. When we discover the aspects of self that are false and not real, the things that are real become very sharp and vivid. We realize that we are connected to each other and everything in nature in a way that is real and tangible. We are nature. We understand that any action or choice that we make affects the whole. We begin to view our world with profound gratitude. We are connected.

What we believed about ourselves is shown to us as only a story that we adopted as our own. It was a story that sounded good. Ego is therefore a kind of psychological construct. It is an ‘assembly’ of ideas and inner commentary that form the conclusion of our self-importance. In most cases our illusion of self-importance is a premise for the belief that we are better than the next person, or alternatively that the next person should at least ‘notice’ how important we are. After all, we see how important we are; why shouldn’t everybody else?

The process of learning to live in a better way is therefore a process of learning to live in a more truthful way. Consider the possibility that apathy towards this process can be a form of spiritual laziness. Apathy can take a person in only two directions. You either remain stationary or you regress. Holding onto your ideas of self-importance is probably the path of least resistance because they are near and dear to you. You have achieved a certain mastery of your world based on your illusion of yourself and how you fit in. You basically stay where you are. So if it all seems like too much work, then the answer may be, “Do nothing.”

Golden Egg Standing In Front Of A Crowd Of Silver Eggs, Instructing Its Followers

Alternatively your apathy can take you in the direction of adapting your beliefs about yourself and your world to the beliefs of someone else. This is probably the more deadly form of spiritual laziness. There are plenty of self-styled teachers and gurus out there ready to give you complete wrap-and-pack answers for the burning questions you have. “Who am I?” “What is my purpose?” The questions beg for faithful followers, don’t they? They are the beginning of some new congregation or religion. They are the catalyst or jet fuel for a guru. People become apathetic when they are attached to the ideas and philosophies of a religion or a guru. The more ingrained those ideas are … the more apathetic and lazy a person has become.

There is a truth within each of us. Looking for ‘truth’ outside of yourself will inevitably lead you to fracturing yourself. You become disempowered to the extent that you have laid a part of yourself before whatever altar you are in front of. When we begin to design our lives around a guru, we abdicate responsibility for many of the choices we make. Our choices are guided by a conscience that is so ingrained into a sort of ‘teacher guidance’ about everything; it is not an individual conscience; it is a group conscience. If something goes wrong you can always blame the guru … you were following the teacher.

The Yale University professor, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment in the 60’s, the results of which bear out the nature of how people ‘follow orders’ from someone in authority. Directives from people in trusted positions or authority are followed even if it means doing so is in conflict with one’s own conscience. In the experiment, subjects were ordered by experimenters to apply increasing electric shocks to other individuals who they thought were also subjects in the experiment. Basically nearly all subjects could be coerced into applying electric shocks of increasing voltage to other people rather than fall out of step with a psych professor telling them what to do. Only after four verbal directives would any one session be disbanded. Those directives were: ‘Please continue. The experiment requires that you continue. It is absolutely essential that you continue. You have no other choice, you must go on’.

Each of us enters the world alone and we must depart alone. There is no priest or church or teacher or guru that will walk with you to the next evolution of your consciousness. There have been no verifiable interviews with dead people in order to determine the true religion. “How is it over there?” “Were the teachings of your favorite guru correct?” “How did that work out for you?”

We must each be very sincere with ourselves and decide that we really do want to evolve beyond a reality where the only thing we have is some tricked-up illusion of self. We can begin to take in those things which align with what is real and let go of the things in our life that are not real. We must each find our own way. We must each decide to live in a way that is truthful.

Human beings are an integral part of nature. We exist in a relationship with all other parts of nature. Many plants provide us with nourishment for our bodies and certain other plants are medicinal plants that help to heal us. There are still other plants that are ‘teacher plants’ that help to illuminate our minds and our souls. As I mentioned earlier, ayahuasca is just such a teacher plant. Our encounters with this very special plant allow us to take complete responsibility and control of our lives back. We individually can develop higher consciousness within a path that is truthful.

Alt.Health

Brewed Awakening
Ayahuasca’s not a party drug; enlist a guide to probe its secrets

Elizabeth Bromstein


If you’ve read the beats, you likely know about the hallucinogenic concoction ayahuasca. Weirdly, I didn’t. Until a few weeks ago, I couldn’t even spell it, but with local interest in the mind-bending brew reviving, I figure it’s time to clue in.

Ayahuasca (aka hoasca, yagé, caapi and daime) is traditionally made from the boiled bark and stems of Banisteriopsis caapi combined with the leaves of Psychotria viridis.

Together they produce the psychoactive compound dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. (Possession of this is illegal in Canada and carries a three-year sentence.)

The tea is at the centre of shamanic practices in the Amazon basin and is used by some religious groups in Brazil. Some claim it has myriad spiritual and health benefits, but it is also said to be dangerous and potentially fatal. Even enthusiasts stress you should never, ever try it on your own without the guidance of an expert.

This is a serious, serious trip, folks. Like, not a recreational drug.

What the experts say

“I was involved in a biomedical investigation of ayahuasca use in Brazil’s União do Vegetal [a Christian sect based on ayahuasca]. Many of the members had had problems with alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence and were able to stop their destructive behaviour. They all felt this was due to the tea, in conjunction with the supportive social environment. We found a change in the profile of serotonin transporters, which were altered in a long-term way, indicating the drug may have a persistent antidepressant effect. We found extensive literature linking deficits in these serotonin transporters to alcoholism and certain kinds of depression. Ayahuasca may reverse these deficits. We didn’t find evidence of acute toxicity. These people were not impaired cognitively and scored better than non-users.”

DENNIS McKENNA, professor, Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

“I’ve collaborated with Brazilian researchers, and some of the studies show people’s personalities overall get better integrated, but whether this is an effect of the brew or the social network effect is hard to discern. The downside is it can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. As with any hallucinogen, people panic and have “bad trips.” People who are latently psychotic can be pushed over the edge. It can’t be taken with a number of prescription drugs.”

RICK STRASSMAN, professor of psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, author, DMT: The Spirit Molecule

“Pure hallucinogens like LSD, ’shrooms and mescaline can trigger a psychotic episode or prompt people to put themselves in dangerous situations, but as a general rule they’re relatively physically safe. But this brew can have a lot of purgative effects (vomiting, diarrhea), which can lead to severe dehydration that can cause seizures and be potentially fatal. The brew contains DMT and an MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitor, used in antidepressants since the 1950s). There are some very interesting areas for study. The problem is that when drugs are on the list of prohibited substances, they are hard to study.”

WENDE WOOD, psychiatric pharmacist, CAMH, Toronto

“The ayahuasca ceremony is an intimate night gathering that includes music and chanting performed by a trained shaman, an important, if not essential, intermediary or go-between. What seems to be happening is awareness on a quantum level not typically experienced in a person’s lifetime. Yet the experience for many is familiar and may be reminiscent of the earliest moments of our life when we first reached this world from a source that is somewhere else. The familiarity nurtures a confidence that we will ultimately return to a source we already know.”

RALPH MILLER, writer and founder, HeartoftheInitiate.com ayahuasca retreats, Bahia, Brazil

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Article by Ralph Miller

I recently had a conversation with a close friend about the way current world events seem to be setting the stage for something really interesting to happen. Something really big! We talked about how the world is going to change in some fundamental way; you know things will change but you can’t put your finger on it to describe what the change would be.  You just feel it.

We invite you to have 'A Closer Look' at the Heart of the Initiate ayahuasca workshops in Brazil. We'll take you on an experiential journey with the sacred plants to have a deeper understanding of who you really are. In the stunning natural beauty of our location, we'll explore the vast inner worlds of this visionary medicine.

"The truly remarkable thing about this plant medicine ayahuasca is that it is presenting to you a whole new arena of consciousness. In the moment I think that's where this reconnection happens, this remembering, this reconnection with yourself. In this moment you can have a sense of the sacredness of every action that you make." - Ralph Miller, Heart of the Initiate

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2012 Nochmals Betrachtet von Ralph Miller (21. Juni 2008)

Das Datum des 21. Dezember 2012 existiert als ein Symbol besonderer Ironie. Jedes konkrete Datum ist eine vom Menschen geschaffene Kennzeichnung, um im Konstrukt der Zeit einen bestimmten Zeitpunkt darzustellen. Mir scheint das ironisch, da der große Übergang oder die große Evolution, der wir uns vielleicht nähern, sicher damit zu tun hat, unser Bewusstsein über die Zeit zu erneuern, oder sogar die Zeit selbst auszulöschen.

Das 2012 Problem

Wir leben gemäß dem Konstrukt der Zeit, jedoch wissen wir recht wenig darüber was Zeit wirklich ist. Es gibt einen vergessen Ort in uns, an dem wir unsere Verbundenheit mit allem erkennen können. Diese Wiedervereinigung wird das Ende von Zeit sein, wie wir sie jetzt kennen, und wird unser Sein als menschliche Wesen für immer verändern.

Ayahuasca: Lehrerin der Natur

Viele Menschen hoffen, dass sich die Menschheit an der Schwelle zu einem außerordentlichen Übergang befindet. Tatsächlich geht es bei diesem "Übergang" um die Rückkehr der Göttinnen-Energie. Heilung kommt zum Menschen durch die Natur, von der Mutter Erde, von Gaia. Die Natur arbeitet auf ihre eigene Heilung hin. Ayahuasca ist die Lehrerin der Natur.

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2012 Nochmals Betrachtet von Ralph Miller (21. Juni 2008)

Das Datum des 21. Dezember 2012 existiert als ein Symbol besonderer Ironie. Jedes konkrete Datum ist eine vom Menschen geschaffene Kennzeichnung, um im Konstrukt der Zeit einen bestimmten Zeitpunkt darzustellen. Mir scheint das ironisch, da der große Übergang oder die große Evolution, der wir uns vielleicht nähern, sicher damit zu tun hat, unser Bewusstsein über die Zeit zu erneuern, oder sogar die Zeit selbst auszulöschen.

Das 2012 Problem

Wir leben gemäß dem Konstrukt der Zeit, jedoch wissen wir recht wenig darüber was Zeit wirklich ist. Es gibt einen vergessen Ort in uns, an dem wir unsere Verbundenheit mit allem erkennen können. Diese Wiedervereinigung wird das Ende von Zeit sein, wie wir sie jetzt kennen, und wird unser Sein als menschliche Wesen für immer verändern.

Ayahuasca: Lehrerin der Natur

Viele Menschen hoffen, dass sich die Menschheit an der Schwelle zu einem außerordentlichen Übergang befindet. Tatsächlich geht es bei diesem "Übergang" um die Rückkehr der Göttinnen-Energie. Heilung kommt zum Menschen durch die Natur, von der Mutter Erde, von Gaia. Die Natur arbeitet auf ihre eigene Heilung hin. Ayahuasca ist die Lehrerin der Natur.

(Ursprünglich veröffentlicht in der September Ausgabe 2006 der Zeitschrift Four Corners Magazine)