Amazonian Shamanism: The Ayahuasca Experience

I went back again just a few weeks ago with another group for six days and I am continually amazed by the deepening richness available by returning to the same sacred place. An increasing wealth of information comes through with direct relevance to whatever it is we are seeking when we go out on a quest in a good way.

Part of this has to do with the phenomenon of bioentrain- ment. The primary energy coming into us during the quest is directly from nature. Gradually we become attuned to the rhythms of nature and begin to function as natural beings in a natural world. One of the ways that is noticeable is when we hike back out of the mountains a week later. As we get closer to civilization we start running into rhythms and patterns that are not in harmony and balance, more people, garbage, noise and pollution. We start to get irritable, as if we're going through a withdrawal of some kind and in fact we are. The whole notion of bioentrainment is fundamental to understand- ing shamanism. For the shaman knows how to willfully change channels of awareness and entrain themselves into state spe- cific knowledge available therein. Our culture teaches us but a few of these changes. The shaman knows many.

One of the experiences on this last retreat was looking back on how many of my blood relatives had died recently. I missed them. Yet on a quest I noticed how the rocks, the trees, the mountains, the lake, and the same circle I sit in seeking that deeper vision over all these years were all becoming increasingly familiar to me. This time they spoke: We are your aunts and uncles, your relatives, your family. We are your true Elders, the old ones. We have much to teach you when you take the time to really listen. I have been listening and in this article I want to share my "conversation" with one particular family of Elders--power plants. In the traditional cultures I've spent time with, including the Huicholes of Mexico since 1981, and more recently in the Amazon jungle, and the Andes mountains with indigenous shaman there, the use of power plants as Elders is integral to their shamanic ways. The plants are considered gifts from Mother Earth's body that have specific purpose. If you come into the right relationship with them, with respect, they can take you through the "nierika," the doorway, into mystical states of transpersonal knowledge and power.

Yesterday, I was reading an interview with a mathematician who was talking about the notion of different dimensions in space called "worm holes." The article discussed the theoret- ical possibility of entering those "worm holes" to travel from one dimension to another. The Huicholes and Amazon sha- man have been doing this experientially for thousands of years. Through right relationships with power plants in sacred ceremony they move through the doorway into the Great Mystery to gain guidance and power. In the shamanic tradition, it is important to emphasize that the work with psychoactive plants is not for the purpose of escapism, denial or irresponsible acting out behavior. Rather it is for the purpose of getting hold of something to bring back to the people, not just for yourself. You bring something back for your people. This was for the purpose of your journey, to get something useful and practical that can make a difference in your life and the betterment of the lives of your people and all your relationships. Todos unidos! All united, the Huicholes say over and over again.

The plant people are respected Elders revered much as devotees feel toward their guru. My experience with the Huicholes and some of the people in the Amazon is that they have the same kind of love and awe for their plant elders, their medicine teachers and guides, as followers of Christ or Buddha have for theirs!

So I want to say a few words about one of these Elders, yage or ayahuasca, which is used in many parts of the Amazon. It is actually a drink, a mixture of several different plants. The pharmacological sophistication of the shamans of the Amazon is incredible. They are living in this richest area of psychoactive plants in the world. Until the last 100 years they were pretty much left alone. So we're talking about an unbroken tradition, handed down from generation to gener- ation going back ten, fifteen, twenty thousand years or more of research and development, where the gains that are achieved by one generation are passed on to the next and then built on. Depending on what the shaman wants to facilitate in terms of the experience, he takes a bit of this leaf; with another experience he takes a little bit of a different leaf or newer. They have a highly developed understanding of the synergy of these plants that in various combinations can facilitate the kind of healing experience they want to pro- duce for an individual.

The vine ingredient of the ayahuasca brew, Banisteriopsis caapi, is considered to be the masculine energy and the Chakruna leaves bring the feminine. The shaman fine tunes the mixture with varying quantities and add-mixtures depending on their goal. Ayahuasca is not an easy experience. It has a strong purgative effect so that you can be cleaned out on both ends. It is not mild or gentle. It can be projectile vomiting. It can be tough. The native people welcome the cleansing. With all the intestinal worms in the Amazon, it cleans you out that way. They also feel it produces emotional, psychic and spiritual cleansing as well. Children take it too. At one particular session, there were three Indian children with us who had not had an ayahuasca experience. They had their first experience standing there with family and the rest of us, vomiting. The Indians believe the purging opens the doorway to visions, so they welcome it. It is fascinating that the shamans say one of the ways they learn about new plants is through the guidance from ayahuasca.

In my first experience with ayahuasca, plants of the jungle did appear before me and speak, just as the shamans report happens with them. The problem was that I did not under- stand their language! I knew they were giving me informa- tion but I wasn't conversant in their language and so didn't get it. It takes a period of time to learn the language of the plants. Most shamans were introduced to the plants through their own illness or wounding. They were ill or injured in some way when they were young and were introduced to ayahuasca through a healing ceremony. It was not a teacher for them until a number of sessions took place over time. Then the spirit of the plant opened up to them and began to relate to them as a teacher. Part of this process was learning the language. Another part is enduring the repeated purges. It is not easy.

A Brazilian ayahuasca group I've worked with says that you cannot have light without the shadow. It is a full circle. If you step into these ways, you have to pay some dues. You cannot take without giving. This has a grounding effect.

I am especially interested in the "intelligence" of the power plants like ayahuasca. It is prelinguistic intelligence connected with transcendent realms of knowing that do not fit easily into western thought categories.

One ayahuasca vision showed me how every level of existence, including material and non-material levels as thoughts or feelings, have vibration, or sound underneath their sur- face manifestation. If one can reproduce the sound, vibra- tion, or "song" of that which you are working with, you can enter into it and change it around! The shaman does just this using themselves as an instrument to effect the joining.

This information came in handy in a recent experience working with life threatening illness. Through this work I see that real healing always takes place through joining. When we are able to dissolve separation to experience our one- ness, healing is the result. My ayahuasca experience showed me one away, a most ancient way to gain entry and create joining. Once you are "in," the question becomes what do you want to do; what is your intentionality, your purpose in being there to begin with. I have explored this experience of joining through chanting, drumming, prayer, ceremony, med- itation, and most recently through song. I want to share one of my recent explorations on this realm with an AIDS patient. He was a 40-year-old artist, very bright and animated. When I first met him, he was terribly frightened of being alone, of death and that he was going to be put in a black box forever. He was paralyzed by his fear and in tremendous pain, taking enough morphine to kill three or four people but still not working for him. He was full of anger and felt abandoned by friends and family. He'd also alienated the medical staff in one hospital to where they would not let him in without a guard for the nurses. Underneath this all he was a wonderfully sensitive person with deep integrity who wanted to find inner peace so he could die with dignity and without fear. I worked with him for six months, visiting him at home or in the hospital up until the day before his death.

On what was to be our last visit I watched him laboring to breathe with an oxygen mask on his face, exhausted from the ravages of disease and disoriented by pain medication and sedation. I focused all my attention on opening my heart and extending love. I visualized myself as a section of pipe hooked up to the "Great Generator," just playing my part in the linkup process. The pipe gets blocked when we think we are doing it all. But when we get ego mind out of the way we really can be a channel for a healing love force.

While silently holding his hand and sending him love, I began to enter a trance state. Up from the depths of my mind came the words of a song that I'd learned in Mexico years before while on a pilgrimage with the Huichole Indians, I adopted it as my "death song" and had used it once before as a dear friend was dying. Now it felt like the song wanted to be sung again. My first response was not to do it. "How will he receive it?" I worried. Then I remembered the ayahuasca teaching from the Amazon about joining through sound. The guidance grew stronger. "Just sing it, just share the song," it said. '1Tust send it to him, without any pressure or attachment. Sing it to him with love and let it go," said the inner in- structions. So softly I began to hum. Slowly the humming shifted into singing, soft at first, then louder, As I sang louder, I could hear him trying to hum along. Then to my total surprise, he took off his oxygen mask and began to sing along with me. He had barely enough strength to breathe, but somehow found strength to join me in singing. Singing together our voices became one as we both sang louder. Then a phase shift occurred and there was no separation between us; we were one! His eyes came to life, his face now radiant. For the first time since I knew him he was joyful. He was experiencing what he had been so desperately seeking so that he could die in peace--release from fear and union with spirit. It was a transcendent experience for us both. Our hearts and souls joined together in a timeless moment of absolute bliss. This was the culmination of our work to- gether We stayed in silence for several minutes enjoying the awe of what had just touched us both so powerfully.

Shortly thereafter, it was time for me to leave. Previously he would become very anxious whenever I would leave after one of our sessions. "Make sure you come back. You are coming back, aren't you?" he'd ask worriedly. This time he released effortlessly. We gave each other a long hug and said goodbye. He smiled as I left the room and died the next day. The teachings from the "Elders" had served us well.