The Walking Guru – Self Empowerment in Action

How Peru was??  This is a summary of experimenting 3-months in the Amazon –  Ayahuasca and more

On December 27 the physical journey started leaving Europe for Peru. Last week I got back.

Living away from electricity and internet in the midst of nature, eating mostly local, seasonal, homemade food is a special experience already for me. What a peace of mind, not having even the chance to check in with family, emails, business of any kind! That is already worth the trip!

Amazon comes with rain, humidity, bugs and other amazing animals, loud jungle sounds, no windows, no chain stores, people with the heart on the right spot and much more. For me, this is priceless. Talking to locals, learning how they do things, how they think, feel and act, how they use natural plants for healing, watching them use the machete to do almost anything, their art of building huts of naturally available material, climbing up round roof constructions from the inside up to 30 feet and higher round roof structures to repair the palm-leaf roof – all these have been unique impressions. Also, being part of an Ayahuasca Retreat center you get to meet amazing people from all over the world and share precious time together, feeling very connected. Thank you all!!!

The first Ayahuasca blogpost was 3 months ago. Being on a work exchange at a natural Healing Retreat I had the chance to explore this healing and teaching plant intensively.  Conclusion: it is definitely a healing and teaching plant!  Becoming nauseous doing Ayahuasca helps to let go of  attachment to the body. Feeling sick, you let go easier, observe rather than identify with the body. At least that was my experience. Secondly, it helps to let go of the ego mind thinking predominantly, at some point. For some this point comes earlier, for some later. It feels like letting go of thinking and opening up your local mind to the bigger “mind”, the space we are connected to and can tap in if we know how. Some do it with meditation, others with plants, others never lose the connection.

People talk about “Mother Ayahuasca telling them…” For me, there was no external entity telling me something, but I was part of something bigger that showed me, taught me, explained to me, changed in me, made me understand and see the bigger picture. I am part of “it” and “it” is part of me. One big “mass” of energy, life, love, intention and magic. That was also part of my visions: everything is made of the same stuff. I think it makes sense not to tell too detailed what one experiences during Ayahuasca ceremonies in order to help the other person stay unbiased and open for their very own experience, rather than comparing with what other people express.

So, summary: one can experience healing from childhood trauma and abuse, feel and see the brain and other parts of the body changing, have unlimited creative visions, see fun stuff, scary stuff, pretty, ugly, just about anything, understand the laws of the universe, why we live in a body, how we are all connected and so on. For many people Ayahuasca ceremonies are hard on the body.  You seem to use a lot of energy during ceremonies. the mind seems to work high speed. It is easy to lose weight, there. I took extra Maca, Ghia and local power foods to maintain weight. Apart from own experiences I witnessed many people experiencing healing, physical, emotional and spiritual. Many “aha-moments” bringing clarity into situations and questions, old stuff solved or just enjoying bliss. Open questions answered. Everybody got their individual lessons and yet it all goes along the same lines. It is a magical remedy, tradition and ceremony. Personally, I would always choose a safe environment and people who know what they are doing, since you are dealing with energies. Experienced shamans protect the space and help people along the way e.g. with Mapacho smoke or by special Ikaro singing or other “treatments” in case of some kind of crisis. It is absolutely incredible what can happen when a shaman’s voice starts singing a specific Ikaro (song in native shipibo Indien’s language). You might start seeing visions or purge or feel beamed into a different space and time to live or relive and heal a situation. Some people take the messages they get too serious or too literal, not realizing that the conditioned ego mind might still be active when a ceremony has ended. A trustworthy shaman can help sort things out and help understand to what extend this is important to a person’s actual situation. My personal intention was to bring those learnings into daily life, implement the information, “update my software”, learn to become the “Rider of the ego Horse” in everyday’s life, not just eliminate it during ceremony.

If you ever had a psychosis, this is not for you! It can really make you totally lose it. Also, I don’t think this is something to do regularly for the rest of your life, unless you want to get into the shaman business and become a professional Ayahuasca shaman. In that case, this is the way to do it: special diet and continuous “study” taking Ayahuasca and getting access to information of “the big database” or “the big mind”,(all that information that does not relate to what you have stored in your local brain as a result of study or experience in this lifetime, information you cannot possibly access by pondering or plain thinking).

People who are prone to addiction can heal from addictive behavior. Understanding underlying issues that urge them to behave in a certain way in the first place and feeling these issues deep inside as if it happened right now can free people from addictions. Saying that, there seems to be a slight risk for some people using Ayahuasca as a substitute for learning to listen inside, reading one’s own body, mind and soul and connecting with themselves. I clearly felt, when to stop taking Ayahuasca. I knew, this is it for now. Done exploring and experimenting. I kept on meditating when the other’s where in ceremony and accessed a “field” of total peace just by intention during meditation.

Now it is time to live all that was learned, healed, understood.

I still went back one more night for a special occasion: together with two friends we went into ceremony with the same intention/question. We wanted to find out, how we can access that “field” in everyday’s life, be there all the time, not just during Ayahuasca ceremony. Everybody got an individual answer.

Today, it is easy to be there. No need to meditate for hours or make a big fuzz. I am really grateful for that and focus on staying “tuned in”  to make this part of me “sticky” 🙂  It feels like an irrevocable process.

In case you have any questions or need references, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, here in public, so other’s can benefit from the info, or in a private message to emailmanuela@gmail.com. I am happy to assist!

Coming soon: “Camino de Santiago” guided pilgrimage. Let me know if you are in! Much love, Manuela