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Trip Report - Ayahuasca Ceremony In Colombia
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» PoiSoNeD_CaNdY a répondu le Sun 7 Sep, 2008 @ 5:32pm |
 Coolness: 91670 | At the English institute in which I work, Paul stands out. A mixed Colombian-Brit of 30, Paul has a gregarious manner, and a way of flirting with the ladies that makes him instantly likable. When, during a conversation about alternative medicine, Paul mentioned that he had participated in ayahuasca ceremonies with a shaman from the Amazon, I let him know that I would be thrilled to be a part of the next one.
So, last Saturday afternoon, we packed on a bus heading from the bustling, dusty city of Barranquilla to the village of Puerto Colombia, situated on the Carribean coast where the deep blue waters meet the lush green mountains of the sierra nevada range. By the time we disembarked from the bus, nightfall was quickly approaching and we were forced to hike to the ceremonial site in the darkness. It was a steep hike up a mountainside, made more difficult by the darkness, and I had to take my sandals off and walk barefoot to get a suitable grip on the slick rocks. The ceremonial site was a circular clearing about 20 metres in diameter, surrounded by dense foliage. The trees branched up to form a canopy above the clearing, so that only a small patch of open sky allowed the light from the stars to illuminate the site. In the midst of the clearning a fierce bonfire roared, and arranged in a circle around the bonfire, the people had arranged plastic tarp and blankets on which to spend the night. There were about thirty Colombians participating in the ceremonony, most in their 20´s and 30´s, and all adorned in ¨hippy¨ clothes - homespun shoulder bags, baggy pants, bright t-shirts. Several participatns had brought instruments, and sat around chatting in anticipation of the ceremony. A few of the people spoke English, and everyone I talked to expressed an almost feverish devotion to the use of ayahuasca - it would change my life, it would allow me to see spirits, it would open my eyes. I never met a group of people so enthusiastic for psychedelics, displaying none of the ambivalence that I´ve often seen in people who trip. The shaman began delivering a sermon. It was in Spanish, so I couldnt understand very much, but he spoke of the significance of the journey we were about to undergo, the unique portal of energy we were situated on, and the sacredness of the ayahuasca plant. The ceremony had the air of a religious event - people chanted hymns to pachamama, the spirit of mother earth, raised their hands to the sky, and bowed their heads to the earth. The prayers complete, we formed a line in front of the shaman to receive a blessing and to down a cup of ayahuasca. The plant brew tasted thick and sweet but not unpleasant. I sat down on my blanket waiting for something to happen. Within thirty minutes, I began feeling a pit of energy build up in the stomach, and an intense feeling of joy at the scene in front of me. The beat of the drums, the singing of the shaman, stirred something within me, and I started dancing with abandon. I was not prepared for what would happen next, however. All around me, people began vomiting terribly. The night air was filled with groans, curses, and screams, as it seemed that dozens of streams of vomit were being launched at once. It felt like walking into the emergency ward of a hospial during a cholera epidemic. I still felt pretty good, and my ego fooled me into thinking I could control my growing sense of nausea and not purge. But it was no use fighting it. The feeling of sickness grew and grew and grew, until I realized I couldnt hold back anymore, and was soon hunched over along with everyone else emptying my guts into the ground. The trees around me started breathing in and out wildly, and I became dizzy and overhelmed at the hallucinations filling my field of vision. I lay down in the dirt hoping to regain my sense of balance, hunched in the fetal position, and began drifting in and out of consciousness. I heard the beating of drums, screams, cries, laughter, and the uncontrollable sobbing of a woman that seemed to go on forever. I heard a rasp voice screaming in English, ¨Make it stop! I can´t take this anymore!¨ over and over. I would regain consciouness momentarily and try to sit up, but the feeling of dizziness overhwelmed me and I puked into the earth again and again. I remember ruminating about my life in endless thought loops. I tried to understand how on earth I had ended up here, in this county, in this state of weakness and pain. In my mind´s eye, I could see the face of the girl I had started dating a week earlier, and I realized that I had began to fall for her - and I tried to harness all the lessons I had learned over the years from failed relationships to keep this one from collapsing. I thought about Sam, whose death I had learned of the day before, and thought about death and how it constantly lurked in the shadows waiting to pounce. I wondered if there was a moment that Sam realized that he wasn´t going to make it, and how he felt as he entered the void. Panic? Resignation? Acceptance? I gradually began coming to and realized that the peak of the ayahuasca trip was well over. It seemed that the cries, misery, and pain of the previous hours had begun fading away, and those that were still awake were dancing joyously once more. I looked up through the canopy above and could see dozens of stars shooting through the sky, liberated from their fixed location by the hallucinations of the ayahuasca plant. I began regaining my composure and allowed my mind to fixate on the beautiful voice of the shaman as he sang hyms to Pachamama. As I drifted off to sleep, the sky began turning the bright pink of dawn. The ceremony had come to a close. I was woken up after only two hours, but felt strangely well rested. I looked around at the people around me, illuminated by the soft morning light. Everyone´s clothes were full of dirt, eyes wild with the experiences of the night before, but almost everyone seemed amazingly calm and at ease. We packed our belongings and began trekking back down the mountainside. Illuminated by the morning light, the foliage appeard amazingly rich and vivid. We came to a lookout point, and for miles in front of me the rolling green jungle spilled down in the blue ocean. It felt like my eyes had been cleared of a layer of film that had obscured the overwhelming beauty of my surroundings up until this instant. A new moment was born. |
| I'm feeling loco right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» the_rider a répondu le Sun 7 Sep, 2008 @ 9:38pm |
 Coolness: 42225 | Thank you for sharing your experience. It was really well written. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini a répondu le Mon 8 Sep, 2008 @ 9:58am |
 Coolness: 145180 | what kind of a plant is Ayahuasca? |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» PoiSoNeD_CaNdY a répondu le Mon 8 Sep, 2008 @ 10:28am |
| Coolness: 91670 | "Ayahuasca is a term most commonly used to describe a combination of plants and/or chemicals usually consisting of at least some harmala alkaloids and some N,N-DMT. The word 'ayahuasca' is from the Quechuan language and is used for both the harmala-containing vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the medicinal/divinatory brew made from it. The brew is a traditional South American preparation most commonly combining the Banisteriopsis caapi vine (harmaline/harmine as MAOI) and Psychotria viridis leaves (DMT). This combination is important because N,N-DMT is broken down quickly in the body by the Mono Amine Oxidase (MAO) enzyme and so it is not orally psychoactive unless combined with an MAO-Inihibitor, such as the harmala alkaloids.
Ayahuasca is traditionally prepared by boiling or soaking the stems of B. caapi along with various admixture plants, most commonly the N,N-DMT containing leaves of the Psychotria viridis bush. The traditional brews can also contain many other plants including tobacco, brugmansia, datura, and a long list of others." |
| I'm feeling loco right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Ashigaikha a répondu le Tue 9 Sep, 2008 @ 9:30am |
 Coolness: 73815 | I am probably doing Ayahuasca soon, bummer I can't go all the way down in the amazon but I know it will be a great experience. Ive had the reagents for a while but I have been scared a bit. Now im just extremely anxious to do it =) |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» AliceInAcidLand a répondu le Mon 15 Sep, 2008 @ 10:33pm |
 Coolness: 180070 | It sounds like an amazing experience, but I don't know about the whole vomitting part. |
| I'm feeling grrrrrrrr right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini a répondu le Tue 16 Sep, 2008 @ 11:20am |
| Coolness: 145180 | all the very best psycedelic experiences begin with vomiting. |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» AliceInAcidLand a répondu le Fri 19 Sep, 2008 @ 11:28am |
| Coolness: 180070 | i spose |
| I'm feeling grrrrrrrr right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» WhiteLight a répondu le Wed 1 Oct, 2008 @ 8:38pm |
 Coolness: 50360 | Well...I wouldn't say that they ALL begin with vomiting...but it's part of the experience. Ayahuasca is a medicine created to cure. Vomiting is the sign that you rejected the sickness. |
| I'm feeling ecstatic right now.. | |
Trip Report - Ayahuasca Ceremony In Colombia
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