Insects, Yoga, and Ayahuasca
“Fold your wings like this, dear, and tuck them underneath you,” said an unfamiliar, though kindly, voice that seemed to emanate from inside my head.
“My wings?” I asked aloud, confused by the instructions. “Do you mean my legs?”
“Yes, yes, bend your legs ... and your other legs too.”
And so began what can only be described as a yoga asana lesson taught to me by a startlingly large praying mantis-like creature during an ayahuasca ceremony in the Peruvian Amazon.
Paying little heed to a nagging injury that would normally prevent such movement, I did as I was told and suddenly I found myself in a surprisingly deep series of backbends, fit for the pages of a yoga magazine. Before the mind could protest, I moved spontaneously from pose to pose with a sense of ease and playful power. Upon rising, I was amazed to find my body retained all of its newfound strength and suppleness. And with no sign of the old injury, I demonstrated for my duly impressed partner what I’d learned from the praying mantis: a group of backbending poses known in Ashtanga Yoga circles as the “insect series.”
As a longtime proponent of the whole yogic lifestyle thing (no meat, alcohol, caffeine, or late nights for me, thank you) I was initially reluctant to participate in the ayahuasca ceremony, despite the Amazonian tea’s reputation as a sacred plant medicine of the highest order. Like many, I had heard horror stories about violent ayahuasca-induced purges, and on a practical level, I wondered how I would do my morning yoga practice if the all-night affair left me nauseated, weak, and sore. I also had lingering concerns that the psychoactive brew could somehow undo years of disciplined practice and virtuous living, destabilizing my physical and energetic bodies – not to mention what it might do to my calm mind.
Though curious, I waited almost five years before I agreed to experience ayahuasca for the first time. The change of heart came after a meeting with an internationally-renowned yoga teacher who drew a strong parallel between ayahuasca and the mythical ritual drink Soma, which is described in the Rigveda as nothing less than the nectar of immortality: “We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered” (8.48.3, as translated by R.T.H. Griffith). “Well,” I thought, “if it’s good enough for the Gods, enlightened beings and celebrity yoga teachers…”
The praying mantis yoga lesson was the first of many yogic teachings that have come to me in ceremony. Sometimes the ayahuasca makes me move around – mostly wild inversions and heart-blossoming backbends – and sometimes it puts me into deep states of meditation where my breath all but disappears into the stillness of my being. Even the dreaded purges feel good and cleansing in a way, not so different from the seemingly strange purification practices prescribed in the ancient yoga manual, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
Perhaps most significantly, I was initiated into the practice of Nada Yoga (the yoga of sound) during a ceremony. It happened when I began to perceive what yogis call the inner music, the primal sound signified by OM, which came at first in a dazzling symphony of clanging bells, snare drums, and cosmic sitars. During that same night, the hinge joint of my jaw popped wide open and music and poetry flowed unstoppably from my mouth for several hours. The telepathic message I received (this time from a cheering chorus of insects and amphibians) was that, as a yogi, I have an obligation to literally open my mouth wider and speak out on behalf of those who can’t.
Ayahuasca took my yoga off the mat and made my practice practical. At one time, I did poses such as locust, scorpion, cobra, dog, and tree without thinking too much about their correlates in the natural world; they were little more than exercises with fanciful names. Now it seems obvious that before there were yoga studios, designer yoga-wear lines and sticky mats, the yogis took their teachings from nature. The first yoga teachers were the plants and animals – and yes, the insects, too. They say the practice of yoga is directly informed by nature. Now I finally get on a cellular level why yogis have such a close friendship with the earth: because we’re not separate from her.
Much like yoga practice itself, ayahuasca and other plant medicines have the ability to reunite human consciousness with natural and supernatural rhythms. Taken with the correct intention, they can help catalyze a profound shift in our all-too-limited take on things. With the radical deepening and broadening of perspective comes a new brand of happiness – the real stuff that lasts. Experience teaches that when I stop thinking about myself and connect to the other (even when the other is something as alien as a giant praying mantis) I put some space between my mental afflictions and myself. What flows from that space is the taste of freedom.
In the Yoga Sutras, the sage Patanjali explained that spiritual attainments leading to liberation can arise from drugs or chemical means, as well as from yogic practices such as mantra recitation, performance of austerities, and samadhi, which is union of individual consciousness with divine consciousness (Book IV, Sutra 1). Interestingly, practices such as pranayama (breath control) and asana (physical exercise) – the two most important components of modern yoga practice in the West – are considered chemical means, according to Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, because they work by causing biochemical changes in the body and mind.
One of the primary psychoactive ingredients in ayahuasca is DMT, a powerful hallucinogen that scientists have discovered occurring naturally in the human body. It is reportedly released by the pineal gland (what yogis refer to as the third eye) and stored at the base of the spine, where kundalini shakti is said to lie dormant until activated. Yogis have long known that transcendent experiences are accessible through certain yogic practices. Certainly the “yoga high” is what keeps me and, I’m sure, millions of other yogis coming back to the mat day-after-day.
While some may scoff at the notion of seeking enlightenment through stretching and psychedelics, the reality is this stuff works. It’s not just talk – it’s experiential and tangible, and it taps me into something big and juicy. As one of my teachers likes to say, "Plant teachers aren’t exclusive to South America, and India doesn’t own the rights to yoga." As a modern-day seeker, it feels like I’m just now coming into my spiritual birthright – it just took a giant insect to show me the way.
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Bravo! What I've found
Bravo! What I've found interesting after working with the plant spirits of the Ayahuasca brew in Peru--which is of course so much more diverse in biochemistry and plant adds than just chakruna and dmt---is the way in which the plant teachers seem to steer me away from all other entheogens.
I recieved a deep teaching in ceremonies a year ago or so about using entheogens without the guidance of a shaman. I was shown that our astral or energetic bodies are being opened when we enter these spaces and that, without guidance and defense training, we become very susceptible to illness and psyche-danger. It's not that the other plants are bad---it's just that the defensive spirits in my body don't seem to want me fucking around in the astral without proper protection.
The thing that startles me about ayahuasca in the United States is the way that the brew is made at home with the emphasis being placed on the transmission of dmt through some ancillary maoi and a dmt plant. If the bugs can teach yoga of indidivudal being, then the plant spirits of Ayahuasca, hundreds of different ones used, certainly know how to teach the yoga of preparation and practitioning as well.
There is a yoga to ayahuasca that transcends the chemicals of dmt present in our bodies or in the chakruna leaves. Which is, like you were maybe before you went to Peru, maybe a bit "purist"??
Stay tuned--I have an interview with the owner and master shaman of an Ayahuasca lodge in Peru and some other cool Ayahuasca stuff coming up.
Really eloquent piece of writing---making me excited to return in December for another dieta!
As they say in the jungle--"the plants have pull."
Adam Elenbaas
jungle
Padmani - fun & wonderfull!
Adam - My feeling is one can work with Ayahuasca without a shaman. Indeed many curandero has had no teacher, except for the plants themselves. This does require utmost respect and is of course, hard work.
While there is a tendency for people to fixate on the "light bearing" plants, like Chacruna - it is with the vine that one so often begins to form a deeper relationship.
There is the notion that the vine is the cave and the Chacruna the torch that illuminates that cave.
Of course, it is possible to adjust one's eyes to see in the darkness.
Fun and Wonderful? No
Fun and Wonderful? Yes, actually.
Greetings,
While I do understand the need to have respect for the plants, their intelligences, and the cultures that are their context, I also feel that things are now too dire for anyone to be deciding the worthiness of others' sharing of experience.
More and more in my work, I am being told "all past rules/religious hierarchies/structures/taboos aside, you must share this work openly". I have worked with these plants long enough (16 years) to know without doubt that those who are not ready will not connect with them. Who am I to say who does and does not deserve wisdom? The best I can do is let it flow through me to all, landing where it will. That is my side of the partnership with the green intelligences.
As for fun and wonderful, I have actually found all of my Ayahuasca experiences to be just that at their core. I've worked with this brew traditionally and through my own Spagyric extracts, and although the surface events of the journey can sometimes be harrowing, the core of the experience is always beautiful and benevolent.
White Banisteriopsis, in particular, has a sublime sense of humour in how the wisdom is presented, and I have more than once fallen over laughing from her jokes, sometimes at my expense but always with a lesson I need. Often her humour is dark, but like a spark in vision's periphery, she has illuminated things for me that could not be seen when looked at directly.
I know this is more often the experience with Chacruna, but it is what I have received from my time with only the Vine in me, and it has been a gift. Moreover, it has been a gift that I have earned, led to by only the plants and my own growing insights- no teacher, no guru, no master.
Strength & Wisdom,
Al-Qemi
www.al-kemi.com
The 60's and LSD
Just remember what happened in the 1960's with LSD and what is happening with Salvia now. Don't add Yage to the list. LSD 40 years later has still not recovered from the damage created by Timothy Leary's "Tune in, Turn on and Drop Out" garbage.
Treating it lightly and promoting will only encourage people who are not ready for a serious experience to experiment. Yage is potentially dangerous because of MAO inhibition. A recent Stanford study indicated that " More than 50 percent of Americans have taken a medication for depression at some point in their lives"
Anyone taking those and mixing Yage is going to get hurt. This is not to be taken lightley. Again, I ecourage you to be responsible and learn from history of entheogens and what happens to them when they gain popularity. Stupid people do stupid things. Like mixing and matching which can lead to a severe life threatening situation.
Be responsible -- it has MAO inhibition
There are lot of stupid people around who get stupid ideas and act on them.
It is not for trivial pursuits. It is not for fun. It is powerful and it should be repsected. The west has proven itself incapible of handling anything that the indigneous cultures were able to integrate, because the modern culture lacks a system and framework to deal with these things responsibly. Finally, it is highly irresponsible of you to not mention the dangers of MAO inhibition and what can happen. There are plenty of people out there who will read this and think it is something like LSD or other light substance. If you eat certain foods and do this, you can get seriously hurt.
You've wrapped it up in a cushy New Age metaphor "While some may scoff at the notion of seeking enlightenment through stretching and psychedelics, the reality is this stuff works. It’s not just talk – it’s experiential and tangible, and it taps me into something big and juicy."
You've approriated a Sacrament from another culture and spun into juicy new age instant enlightenment. This almost always ends in disaster. Tobacco is sacred to the native americans and profane everywhere else.
It is not right to promote the use of this so light-heartedly. You are karmically bound to whomever you influence with this article. Did you think about that? You only told 1% of the story here. You left out the full spectrum of experience.
I strongly suggest you go back and ask the plants if they want to be trivialised thusly.
Diet, people must follow a careful diet
Diet, people must follow a careful diet. Certain foods are contra indicated.
Dutch Consider Magic Mushroom Ban
Working without a shaman
I agree that one could advance into the role of an Ayahuasquero without the aid of a shaman---clearly it was just plants and individuals at the start of all of this. Even at the lodge I drink at in Peru---the oldest maestro in the lineage began on his own in the jungle.
However, I think we have to be really careful how we throw this idea around intellectually. It's one thing to say that its possible to work solo with Ayahuasca, its another thing to say that one is ready or even knows what being ready for something of that calibur means.
I mean---I think its safe to say, for example, that if you work with Ayahuasca with an idea of learning medicine that you will most likely have to confront some witch-craft at some point.
I guess my point is just to suggest that we should be very careful with Ayahuasca. This isn't lsd, and it's not something to mess around with in anything but a reverant setting---at least in my mind.
These substances, to me, are mostly medicinal or sacred. I see the 60's consciousness shift as something that stalled in large part because of an inability to know this fully.
Granted, I don't judge people who mess around with brewing on their own----but I think its really gotta be said that Ayahuasca medicine brewing is vastly different than dmt plus maoi. My experiences with Toe mixes of Ayahuasca have been vastly different than my experiences with white Sonongo---like Morgan said about the humorous teacher----we just need to know that each plant has animate intelligence.
We just have to be careful not to objectify the plants we invite into our bodies. They seem to want established relationships with people who know that they are real teachers. I'm also admittedly a bit of a snob----I've watched a number of people come to Peru to drink saying "I love Ayahuasca, I mix at home and wanted to see what its like with a shaman."
A ceremony later and most of these people, like I was when I first got down there, are on their hands and knees expelling shit too dark for me to know how to speak of. They usually say that they have had to puke out psychedelic baggaged from previous, unaided experiences. These astral spirits, once in, are hard to get out.
But hey---what do I know. I'm only in my third year of consistent work with the plants and diets. I'm sure I'll be puking out more arrogance and judgment in a few months when I go back for another dieta! :-)
Just have had too many tender and tremendous experiences to see Ayahuasca be talked about flippantly by the Sam Goody crowd of pscyhonauts.
Am I totally snobby for that?
What it all comes down to for me, in every ceremony, is returning to a place of love in my heart. Maybe that's all that really matters of what I know from the plant teachers.
Adam Elenbaas
No you are not snobby
The Vine Bends Over Backwards for You
I guess my point is just to suggest that we should be very careful with Ayahuasca. This isn't lsd, and it's not something to mess around with in anything but a reverant setting---at least in my mind.
Yes, Adam I would like to reinforce this as well - Ayahuasca is not child's play. It is not recreational, it is not easy. While it may be considered safe in and amongst reverent respectfull envinronments. There is a whole lot to learn and consider before going that down that forest path. As Padmani relates; she investigated ayahuasca, aknowledged it for 5 years and engaged in much discipline before actually experiencing it.
This is not a drug.
It's not really a 'psychedelic' either.
It is a medicine.
I mean---I think its safe to say, for example, that if you work with Ayahuasca with an idea of learning medicine that you will most likely have to confront some witch-craft at some point.
here I would disagree. Actually in some sense it's not safe to say that witchcraft would happen automatically. Perhaps that would invite witchcraft into your world. I think the Jacques Mabit video explores the situation of evil coming 'from outside' rather well.
Just have had too many tender and tremendous experiences to see Ayahuasca be talked about flippantly by the Sam Goody crowd of pscyhonauts.
I can see your concern. But most people I know who've had encounters with ayahuasca generally never went to 'sam goody' (or where ever) and if they did go to such a place, perhaps after ayahuasca they would have a change of heart. The vine is pretty good at doing things like that.
I think you're right to
I think you're right to suggest that the witch-craft from the outside isn't a given, and my goal wasn't to be prescriptive about that.
But I have seen people from the Santo Daime, for example, come to recieve healing from ceremonies with the SD where things were picked up from the astral or someone was attacked by a demonic spirit of some sort. I mean--in my visions I've actually seen these things come out of people and then spoken with people about how and what entheogen or SD ceremony or whatever they were in when the attack came.
I agree that, to some extent, there is a way in which any of these experiences can be percieved as simultaneously internal and only ever personal, but I don't see the utility in limiting the experiences of witch-craft to only one or the other: internal/external.
Do I hear you right, Morgan--- you're saying that while external attacks exist that they can also be percieved as solely internal? We shouldn't percieve them as one or the other? My reason for saying that enduring witch-craft seems to be a necessary part of the experience of training with the medicine is based on my observation of the jungle during ceremonies.
If someone brews long enough, coming into conversations with thousands of different plants, different brews, different patients, etc, then it seems like you're going to be doing the things that curanderos do: exorcisms, healings, dialogue with the plant teachers (not all of whom are nice), etc, etc.
I don't see how a person could avoid the external and animate nature of intelligence foriegn to the individual psyche when things like these are going down on a regular basis in the jungle. Plus, these shamans go at each other pretty frequently down there. I've known these fights first-hand--watching.
Anyway---get me talking about the medicine and I won't shuttup! I love it! Gracias Medicina!
Adam Elenbaas
de monde
My feeling is that first and foremost, one will encounter their own demons, if they've got them, and most do. One will encounter the witchcraft one has crafted on one's own self.
Do I hear you right, Morgan--- you're saying that while external attacks exist that they can also be percieved as solely internal? We shouldn't percieve them as one or the other?
Perhaps it is a bit of both? With ayahuasca the line between near and far, internal and external, the living and the dead is hard to discern. Yes, malevolence shows its face - but is it a test? Do you give in, do you succumb to the evil, to the horror, to the attack. You must decide. A shaman must dance with the jaguar and not be ripped to shreds in order to gain wisdom.
Is the jaguar attacking or offerring a chance to learn?
You must decide.
...enduring witch-craft seems to be a necessary part of the experience of training with the medicine
In a contemporary world, allow me to offer the example of Luke Skywalker meeting with the illusion of Darth Vader while training in the swamp in The Empire Strikes Back. He must kill Darth Vader, strike him down, which he does - only to learn it was a projection brought forth by his (little green) teacher, Yoda.
In any event, the illusion of attack was there to strengthen "the force", the wisdom, the knowing, the doing.
Certainly there are all manner of spirits; benevolent and malevolent and everything inbetween. But, as is being discussed elsewhere on RS, talking up fear and evil and war and witchcraft - eventually makes it so. Eventually offering 'power' and bringing such things into this and other worlds.
External attacks may exist, but one should ask "What is my role in this attack? Have I provoked, instigated, projected, been careless etc?" nothing is uncalled for, nothing is unannounced.
My feeling is that one can make friends with all types of spirits, transform all types of evil. Mapacho is a good way to befriend spirits. It is easy to be seduced by evil, fear, attacking and defending and so forth - but there is something beyond all of that.
I've had visions of demonic, evil beings staring me down while walking across a stage - but at the very last second, before walking off the stage- they revealed their true face. They removed the evil masks they wore to show faces erupting with hilarious laughter.
Red magic that moves within our blood,
Green magic that moves beneath the sea and through all the firmament,
White magic that fills the sky,
Black magic that dwells within the earth,
Protect us from all evil spirits,
Guide us to the other realms,
Teach us of the things that live on the other side.
The Vine's Character(s)
I've had visions of demonic, evil beings staring me down while walking across a stage...They removed the evil masks they wore to show faces erupting with hilarious laughter
So much like one of my journeys, the one that really clued me in to the White Vine's sense of humour.
I kept seeing different cartoony-freaky cliche "scary faces" pop out at me, and each one narrated by "does this scare you? No? what about this?" on and on. Most of them were hilarious, like something out of a Hallowe'en cartoon episode, big fangs, claws, bulgy eyes, but so overdone, I was laughing hysterically.
Then, I hear "what about THIS?" and I get a faceful of what really scares me- headlines from newspapers, TV news disaster scenes, the archons of our horrific government leering at me.
That's when I really had to work to hold it together, to hold to that place of joy and mirth that I felt before. Once I managed to bring back that spark of delight within me, the doom & gloom images dissolved into light and a deep feeling of bliss came.
Then I really laughed- at myself for being scared so randomly by some things and not others. All that I had been shown was just as real or unreal, just as scary or funny, and just as entrenched or fixable, it was just my pickiness in accepting the vision that had changed. The things that are hardest to laugh at need it the most, including ourselves, I saw then.
That Ayahuasquero song lyric is beautiful, by the way, I will remember it when I am thinking about the different vine colours, and the colours the visions bring.
Strength & Wisdom,
Al-Qemi
www.al-kemi.com
Witchcraft amongst the SantoDaime
veiwing a 'demonic' attack is always from the self, because a curandero cannot be attacked if his vibration is high enough the spell would merely swing back to the caster(karmic truth), but if he seeks to attack other curanderos in duel's then he is asking directly the help of a demon to inflict pain and or suffering upon his differentiated self. therefore the spell will eventually come back to him in the form of the demon hanging around the caster or invocater. the proper handling of an 'attack' is the same as a bad hought; one simply flips the coin to (or channels upward to)love. but in a santo daime setting the curandero may just be banishing the demon from a fellow churchgoer with positive light conducting vibrations.
all is love, and may that force be with you.
I think I mostly agree with
I think I mostly agree with you, but even in the Star Wars films there is a clear distinction between the projection lesson of the cave and the real battle between Luke and Darth---whereby love is used as a real ally in a real fight that is a part of a real drama going on for real people who are really concerned about their freedom from the evil imperial death star.
Talking about withcraft in fear might manifest it, I agree, but suggesting that we take practitioner training and shamanic guidance seriously because of these real engagements that do in fact happen is another thing, yea?
It's like saying that had Luke had no use for Yoda or Obi-Wan, when clearly he did. They were there to teach him how to handle his own battles---whether they be battles of the physical nature or battles that require transcendence and release from engagement---they are both shown as tactics on the way to a mastery of knowledge that is serving the suffering.
We have to be careful to say that fighting or engagement or external, objective reality and absolute truths do not exist--absolutely. Absolute truths do exist, absolutely. It just happens to be the case that there are an infinite number of them that can be engaged. It's similar to what we are doing with global warming---are our efforts to peak consciousness on this website over such things, including 2012, a product of fear and projection or concern over a real thing that is happening? Both?
That was a beautiful bit of poetry or lyrics at the end of your last post, Morgan. Where is that from? Very very beautiful and has been stirring in me.
Thanks for this good chat--it's great grit to grind out a lot that has been on my mind lately, and I appreciate your willingness to share space with me.
peace
Adam Elenbaas
Dark and Light
the real battle between Luke and Darth---whereby love is used as a real ally in a real fight
hehe it gets complex when talking about ayahausca!
But, Darth Vader was of course Luke's Skywalker's Father. Light and Dark - of the same family.
Those lyrics translate an Ayahuasquero's song
That Whitley Streiber talk
That Whitley Streiber talk with Daniel shed a lot of light on this discussion for me. I listened to it tonight. In showing a level of concern and conviction for what I hold to be sacred----I am learning to project and uphold love as I go. Apologies if I sent any negative shockwaves out to anyone in this conversation.
The truth is that I am often afraid. Afraid that Ayahausca will not be understood by the masses in some unforseen scenario that shortly awaits, afraid that, by extention, I will be lost in that misunderstanding. When I do this I idolize the plant medicine and allow fear to dictate the flow of the energy moving through me.
I am---learning to love.
I am---a young man.
I am---releasing.
Thanks for the soft guidance Morgan. Whether it was deliberate or not, I have come to learn such an important lesson from the conversation in this piece--however trivial or flashing it might appear.
Adam Elenbaas
You are correct as history
agreed! Adam Elenbaas
agreed!
Adam Elenbaas
The Core of it All is Compassion
As written above, quoting :
"when I began to perceive what yogis call the inner music, the primal sound signified by OM, which came at first in a dazzling symphony of clanging bells, snare drums, and cosmic sitars. During that same night, the hinge joint of my jaw popped wide open and music and poetry flowed unstoppably from my mouth for several hours. The telepathic message I received (this time from a cheering chorus of insects and amphibians) was that, as a yogi, I have an obligation to literally open my mouth wider and speak out on behalf of those who can’t" -
That last sentence is the point of the ephiphany - the entire message of all the masters.
Wrestling with one's own shadow and other spiritual phenomena are only beside the point, or lessons along the way.
It's beautifully stated here, that we're all One, and that we're here really to speak for the helpless.
There are so many routes to enlightenment, and if drugs lead some there, that's great, since enlightenment in only noticing that we're meant to express and to live compassion in everything we do.
If we do consider all life in everything we do, we will heal ourselves, heal others, heal our planet, and make sure life will begin again to offer some quality of life for all.
Ocean
http://www.OceanVibe.com
Also, for more on compassion for everyone, including our insect brethren, read this:
http://www.LoveInsects.com
someday
i once had a dream recently where i saw the word 'Ayahuasca' in these beautiful letters and it is the only dream that has ever stuck with me where I saw a word in a dream like that.
i have never even tried Ayahuasca and although I don't think I am ready to try Ayahuasca yet in my life as I still have some inner work to do, I hope one day down the road it will come to me when the time is right and I am interested to see what it has to offer/teach to me
Thank You, Padmani...
Really want to thank you for writing this, Padmani, it was very helpful to me, and I've sen it on to some of my yoga students here in Naples, Florida.
I also wanted to let everyone know I've startedto write a book on Yoga & Plant Medicine (entheogens, psychedelics, etc.), and to requestsuggestions and ideas from anyone out there who might have some specific information. I actually have quite a bit of material gathered and have begun writing, will submit some of it to RS soon.
I would like to mention the name of Ganga White, who talks about taking Ayahuasca and the possible role of Plant Medicine in Yoga in his recent book, "Yoga Beyond Belief" (well worth reading).
I found Brahmananda Sarasvati's view that asana and pranayama are also to be seen as chemical inducements to the siddhis/Samadhi be very interesting, and would love to know the source for that specific perspective.
If you read this Padmani, I would also love to communicate with you further about things. My email is allowah13@gmail.com, and main website is www.allow-ah.com.Namaste, Allowah3~' Shanti
Yes