MIND-BLOWING JOURNEYS
The mind has a limitless capacity for journeys. If your conscious mind directs you to open up and take a trip, whether it is a physical or spiritual journey, off you go. The more you are willing to open up, take new paths, go farther, and go deeper, the more you will travel the world, both outside and inside yourself.
Today we take a look at a few introspective and mind-expanding journeys, meant to both widen and deepen your knowledge and experience. They offer you a chance to learn more about yourself and your connections to everything else in the universe. They are sacred journeys of healing and self-realization.
Photo: Carlos Hernandez. Peruvian Jungle.
There is a rising popularity of psychedelic tourism. People are seeking new connections along with an increased awareness of the connections they already have.
South America and the Southwest United States hold the physical destinations for many of these mind and spirit journeys, where indigenous cultures have been practicing for millennia. Peru and Ecuador, in particular, are attracting an increasing tide of mind and spirit travellers, offering them guided tours.
Photo: Courtesy of Ayahuasca_Pix. Ayahuasca Flower.
Plants, harvested freshly from the surrounding jungles, offer transportation and facillitation. They are considered spiritual medicines by those who partake. And they are administered, ceremonially, by local shamans.
Ayahuasca vine and San Pedro cactus are two of the plants used.
Photo: Courtesy of Ayahuasca in San Francisco. Ayahuasca before brewing.
The Ayahuasca vine grows profusely in the Amazonian jungle. The leaves and roots are harvested and boiled to make elixir that you drink during the ceremonies. It was discovered by the West in 1851, when legendary British botanist, Richard Spruce, explored the Rio Negro Basin and was introduced to the vine by the Tokanoan Indians.
Mid-twentieth century chemists who isolated the active properties of the vine called their compound “telepathine.”
Photo: Lydia Glassman. Ayahuasca brewing.
The plant contains various harmala alkaloids, which act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). One compound, Psychotria viridis, contains the powerful hallucinogenic chemical Dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.
Image: Courtesy of North Atlantic Books.
Rak Razam presents a comprehensive exploration of Ayahuasca in his new book, “Ayahuasca in “Aya Awakenings: A Shamanic Odyssey” (North Atlantic Books, 2013). The book delves into both ancient and contemporary practices, presenting extensive scientific and anthropologic research.
Photo: Julio Trazzi. Ayahuasca drink.
The “Hoasca Project” in the 1990s, studied church members of groups. like União do Vegetal (UDV,) who drink ayahuasca as part of their syncretic Christian-jungle religion. What they found was that regular ayahuasca use flushed the brain clean and improved receptor sites, suggesting the vine could be a "medicinal goldmine."
Photo: Courtesy of Stephen Gray Vision. Maloca Temple
The ceremonies are typically held in a traditional but comfortable ritual settings, inside a building called maloca (temple), screened from the insects.
Ayahuasca ceremonies are typically held at night.
One aim is to open up to blockages, traumas, suppressed emotions, creativity, and sexuality. Ayahuasca offers a physical, mental, and emotional purge. People report that it is unquestionably the worst thing they have ever tasted. Many people vomit. It is considered part of the detox. You have to just accept that it may happen if you want to try ayahuasca.
Photo: Courtesy of Scoop.
People have described the experience as a kind of death and rebirth. They describe a fusion of plant and human, in a symbiotic relationship, with the plant giving the human exactly what is needed at any given moment.
Photo: Courtesy of Paradigm Shift Central.
Razam describes his experience: “I’m starting to come on slow, a warm billowing headspace enlarging to take in the whole maloca and the spirit zone phasing in. My head is awash with the psychic detritus of my own mind: past loves, mistakes, issues from my life all flash before my eyes, but I’m not sure if my brain’s just hyperactive or if there’s something deeper going on . . .”
Photo: A. Davey. Ayahuasca Shaman.
Indigenous ayahuasca shamanism has quickly become the most profitable business in the jungle. Numerous jungle lodges and retreats have sprung up across South America to cater to the influx of rich tourists. You can now find hundreds of ayahuasca websites, chat rooms, and forums.
Photo: Courtesy of D Health Store.
Razam reports that Ayahuasca is now being used by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of indigenous peoples throughout South America and that it has also become one of the world’s fastest growing religions, with branches of Brazilian churches like Santo Daime and União do Vegetal springing up in Europe, Britain, Australasia, America, Japan, and elsewhere. People sometimes even include their children in ceremonies.
Photo: Retina Funk. Ayahuasca Ceremony Alter.
Ayahuasca not considered a recreational drug. It is legal in the US. In January 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people had a constitutional right to be allowed to legally practice their ayahuasca ceremonies under the freedom of religion law. It is illegal in France.
Video: Eye of the Needle | An Ayahuasca Journey from Daniel LeMunyan.
Watch an ayahuasca journey, as experienced by filmmaker, Daniel LeMunyan, in “The Eye of the Needle, An Ayahuasca Journey.”
Photo: Courtesy of La Familia Medicina.
You can access these ceremonies yourself through a range of retreats. They are an excellent way to experience Ayahuasca in its original habitat.
Many of these retreats offer a series of shaman-guided ceremonies along with local excursions to see surrounding natural settings and indigenous culture, many offer body work, such as yoga and massage, and additional mind work and therapies. Many offer lodging and food.
Here are just a few samples:
Photo: Courtesy of Ayahuasca Journeys.
The Amazon Ayahuasca Dieta Retreat, offered by Ayahuasca Pranja, within an authentic simple jungle setting, in Iquitos, Manati, medicinal plants (Dieta) offers a program let by native curandero (healer-shamans) as a traditional way of healing the body, cleansing of the mind and reinforcing one’s spirit. The experience is facilitated by a strict diet and connecting with the teacher plants and amplifying the effects of the medicinal plants of the rainforest.
All the treatments are done under the guidance of an expert healer-shaman, namely Don Bechin, who has more than 20 years experience in the field of healing with traditional Amazon plant medicines.
This Plant Medicine Retreat also aims to work on the nervous, articular, circulatory and immune systems. It can effectively treat diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, gastritis, kidney problems, hepatitis, and it can help to resolve other disorders that were treated unsuccessfully with conventional methods.
Photo: Courtesy of Ayahuasca Recipe
Amazon Ayahuasca Journey Spiritual Retreat with Tobias Lars offers a different kind of Ayahuasca experience -- on the beach. "We wanted to take the plant out of the insectoid terrors of the jungle, and away from the heavy warrior/battle energy of the Shamans."
Photo: Courtesy of Sacred Familiar.
And the 11 Day Full Moon Spiritual Retreat with Know Thyself is carefully designed utilizing the joint experience and knowledge of the team of professionals, Shaman, Ayahuasqueros, therapists, guides and facilitators to provide you with individual care and a complete and comprehensive healing and learning experience.
Set in a magical hideaway, in an environment of intense natural beauty, the valley is an enchanting place of peace and tranquillity. Waterfalls, hummingbirds, parrots, monkeys, and butterflies abound. Enjoy the mediation temple, swinging in the hammocks, perusing the library, and wandering through the expansive gardens.
Photo: Courtesy of Shamanism & Visionary Art. Sunset at Mishana.
Read more about Beautiful Journeys, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact in our posts throughout this week, including Beautiful Journeys in Film Now, Epic First Ever Journeys, Juniper Journeys, The Art of Journey Continues, and Beautiful Time Travel Now.
Get busy and enter the BN Competitions, Our theme this week is Journeys. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 12.08.13.
Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.
Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. And we can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!
