| Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to | | | | events. The plants offer us the potential for |
| the Soul. The fifth and concluding part of | | | | deep soul healing so we can become stronger |
| this article explores this fascinating plant | | | | and more able to engage fully in the precious |
| brew from the Amazon Rainforest. Ayahuasca is | | | | gift of life. |
| the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It | | | | |
| is made from the ayahuasca vine ( | | | | Developing a personal relationship with |
| Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the | | | | Ayahuasca is within a background of an |
| Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two | | | | ancient body of practices. The oldest know |
| make a potent medicine, which takes one into | | | | object related to the use of ayahuasca is a |
| the visionary world. The vine is an | | | | ceremonial cup, hewn out of stone, with |
| inhibitor, which contains harmala and | | | | engraved ornamentation, which was found in |
| harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf | | | | the Pastaza culture of the Ecuadorian Amazon |
| contains vision-inducing alkaloids. As with | | | | from 500 B.C. to 50 A.D. It is deposited in |
| all natural medicines, it is a mixture of | | | | the collection of the Ethnological Museum of |
| many alkaloids that makes their unique | | | | the Central University (Quito, Ecuador). This |
| properties. | | | | indicates that ayahuasca potions were known |
| | | | and used at least 2,500 years ago. |
| In this context, the teacher plants can | | | | |
| provide a doorway to great and meaningful | | | | For example, there is a dietary regimen, and |
| insights in the adventure of personal growth | | | | prohibitions regarding libidinous thoughts |
| and healing. The growth and healing has | | | | and activity. These considerations need to be |
| therefore to be also in the physical world, | | | | respected and can not be ignored if one |
| thereby offering the opportunity to reveal | | | | embarks on a path of communion with the |
| our emotions, traumatic and turbulent | | | | plant. On observation and study (also called |
| experiences hidden or otherwise and so these | | | | trial and error), this regime helps us to |
| can be released and ourselves restored. This | | | | become more 'plant like', therefore |
| access to our soul companion (our greater | | | | increasing our receptivity to the |
| selves) , this flowing omni-present force | | | | plant-spirit-mind. |
| guiding our life which presents with what are | | | | |
| often called euphemistically "growth | | | | Many of my visionary experiences with |
| opportunities" for us to overcome. The plant | | | | Ayahuasca have led to a deeper understanding |
| teachers can show us these, where we can | | | | of my life and the role that various people |
| transcend linear time itself, and we journey | | | | had played in it. Sometimes I became those |
| within this eternal now at the very place in | | | | people, lived their lives, and came to |
| time where we experienced such a difficult | | | | understand why they did what they did, what |
| event or suffered a troubled pervasive period | | | | decisions they had to make in their lives. |
| in our life. We can re-experience this albeit | | | | These revelatory experiences invariably led |
| from a different perspective, learn what | | | | to some form of closure with that person, |
| happened, the reasons why it occurred and the | | | | like completing an open chapter, or a |
| subsequent impact and consequences on our | | | | profound healing of my relationship with that |
| life, and then to release any pain and trauma | | | | person. |
| locked within our being. This release within | | | | |
| the Ayahuasca experience is called 'la purga' | | | | Medicines like ayahuasca can help us along |
| our purge, when we literally purge this pain | | | | our path but we still have to do the work |
| from our being, it is not only the contents | | | | ourselves. My experience is that these kind |
| of our stomach which are being released but | | | | of allies can help us open the doors of |
| also the deeply stored bile and sourness in | | | | perception, but what we do when we get there |
| our bodies generated from these difficult | | | | is entirely our own challenge. |