hello jonathan.

my first ayahuasca experience occured during two consecutive nights in the northern california coastal region. the first night was minimally engaging; i slept often throughout and recalled three very distinct visual flashes, only one of which comes to mind currently. a darkness, disrupted only by the side profile of a sharp toothen face painted in fire. my ego barring itself? my interpretation. the second night was the most cosmically activated experience of my life. I was transported to an earthen molar floating in the sea. Covered, it was, in luscious green jungle foliage, dripping and teeming, literally buzzing with life. a presence (god if you will) over my left shoulder encouraged me, "go on, make plants" and I sat, reaching and grasping, bending and folding, fusing green life and radiating it forth. This exceptional experience, accompanied by waves of nirvana continued for some time. pleasant as it was, i expressed that i sought to "do the work" and judged my experience as playful yet delinquent. i became ominously distraught, devoid of light. old stone statues surrounding. voices commenced to speak all around me. requesting my return to Love, beckoning me to accept their requests. I persevered in my choice not too. I remained jaded and skeptical. questioning their motives and intent for me and this "Love". i was rebuked and there was great weeping. wailing, "millions of years! millions of years we've waited! we've waited so long." implied it was and also directly acknowledged that I had made the "wrong" choice. countless recollections of historical events then began. past and future history. emphatically detailed and seemingly endless. I remained catatonic for many hours thereafter. dawn had passed. I then slept briefly into midday and awoke to many uncertain but empowering feelings.

Some conclusions have I drawn regarding aspects of this experience, but I intentionally temper them with uncertainty. In the days to come, an icaro did indeed present itself to me, and remains a very powerful ally in my current experience.

Grateful I am for having this interaction; motivated and awakened in many ways. thank you for presenting this opportunity to reflect.

well, i'm not really that sure there was an eden to begin with. i think that the various ideas of a perfect state from which we fell distorts the sentiment of how and why we need to go (back) to a perfect state.

Thanks for your story Nykolas, Sounds like you've had some powerful, transformative moments with the spirit vine. One of my favorite parts of your story was the following....

"Love". i was rebuked and there was great weeping. wailing, "millions of years! millions of years we've waited! we've waited so long." This reminds me very strongly of my second journey on ayahuasca. Could their really be an intention behind evolution - pure, ecstatic love; enlightenment. Is this where we're heading, and if so, does this, like in your own experience, involve making a choice if you're going to pursue the more positive, "connected" outcome or something else?

Your podcast inspired a flurry of thoughts in me that I'm still sorting out. I first got all excited about Jonathan's mention of Lakoff's "Don't think of an Elephant" and the theory that language is in fact the basis of the Republican's ability to sway the voting public despite their incompentency to lead. Now, I haven't read his book, but I'm not sure if "argument framing" is the complete answer. I believe that interpersonal relations and humanization is the way into swaying the mainstream rather than our current approach of reasoning, "framing" and use of exotic stunts. I base this on an interesting lecture by Social and cultural psychologist Jonathan Haidt, that provided what to me was a fuller and more effective analysis of the current state of politics and morality. In fact in a Q+A session at the end, he mentions Lakoff and that is why the name stuck out to me. He agrees with the analysis of language but believes (and I agree) there is almost always something to be learned from our political opponents' argument. (http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2007/haidt) I definately reccomend that everyone go check it out and consider what he has to say. I think his approach of respect and curiosity for the conservatives in the country is wise and admirable. I think such an approach will wield peaceful and effective results. As far as the Garden of Eden myth is concerned, I somewhat agree with your notion of it being this being a "mistake". However, I see it a bit differently. According to John Lash, who recovers and restores the gnostic myth of the Earth Goddess, Sophia (now called Gaia) in his book "Not in his Image", The myth bears within it historical truth. Now, I am in the midst of listening to his series of podcasts so my knowledge is not complete, but it is my understanding that these gnostic religions were much more in touch with the environment and our role as human animals within it. It was the Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) religions that began this "salvationist" fervor that disconnected humanity from the Earth through these "mind-virus" beliefs. (i.e. There is a God in heaven- not of this Earth and that we are sinners who need to devote our lives to him so that we may be worthy of his gifts, etc.) So, in my eyes, humanity "bit the apple" when we decided to go with the Abrahamic religions and live this life that requires us to work with no end in sight. (think of our capitalist/consumerist cycle of never-ending production and consumption at the expense of our environment and our souls) Also interesting to note is that Mr. Lash compares certain aspects of these gnostic religions to Buddhism. In my introductory studies of Buddhism, I understand that it is very much based in dealing with the reality that is present before you and eliminating false ideas or ideals (such as those presented by Abrahamic religion). I mention this because of your mention of Yoga and its understanding of energy fields through chakras. I don't know enough about all of this but I suspect I will find that they are all getting at basically the same thing. It seems that various other cultures and religions (Mayans come to mind) have been hip to these ideas with their own interpretations and manifestations of it for a long time now. I also have this feeling, that while this 2000+ year journey of humanity into salvationist religion has had more than its share of terrible suffering and destruction, I nevertheless believe that it had to happen otherwise it never would have. As a result, we are now at a point at which humanity can begin to see this historical truth and decide how much of this way of living is worth maintaining and how much needs to be left behind. On a different note, I'd like to say that many of the ideas presented on this site, in this fourm and your podcast are very interesting and full of a lot of deep truth, but I fear that in our search for the big ideas and the paradigm shifts, we sometimes lose objectivity and practicality. Being on the fringe of society and mainstream thinking, we tend to associate mostly with like-minded people and become guilty of the same groupthink we criticize our political and ideological opposites of. It is important that we maintain humility and openness to ideas and criticism from any and all sources. Don't get me wrong. The work that our Modern Shamans are doing is invaluable and worthwhile. The people of the world NEED spiritual renewal and a connection to all aspects of reality- especially those that are now becoming clearer to many of us doing this intense work. Nevertheless, if this spiritual and ideological movement is going to survive and sustain, we will need practical solutions for our global challenges (ex. Colin Beavan's "No- Impact Man" experiment in NYC), and organizational structures that formalize and communicate our findings to a large-scale (and eventually mainstream) audience which we will all inevitably need on our side.They need to understand us and we need to really understand them. I believe that old traditions like the gnostic traditions and Buddhism mixed with some of the efficient ways and means of experimentation, analysis and marketing that our current culture has devised may bring about such transformation. If we are all truly connected and there really is no enemy other than ourselves, then let's be sure we live it rather than only talk about it. I say this to myself first, knowing that I have a long ways to go before I am living by the values I aspire to I say this to all of you who may very well be more active than I at this moment. This site in itself is an excellent first step towards these goals. I hope those coming to this site will be inspired to congregate and propgate this better way that we are discovering.

I think that in the Universe - in ANY possible universe - there is a Universal Imperative toward compassionate stewardship of life and consciousness. When I think about the human evolution and our present destructive tendencies, I think that there must have been a reason that we were allowed to persist at the expense of so many eco-systems.

 

I am sure, Jonothan, from the experiences I hear recounted by you in the podcast, by Daniel in Breaking Open the head, and also by close family members and friends of mine as well as my own experiences, that this world is plainly not under human control. I think that, as we can perceive our environment more comprehensively than, say, a praying mantis does, so to are we blind to the beings that are concerned with our world. Those beings perceive a range of phenomena relating to our world that we cannot because we do not possess (in normal circumstances) the apparatus to do so.

 

The very simple tenets of Buddhism lead me to believe that the only attitude a more form of life more evolved than us can take, unless it is embroiled perpetually in its self-preservation, is universal compassion.

 

If that is indeed the case, then stewardship of life and consciousness on planets and in energy systems invisible to planet-dwellers, AND in dimensional planes invisible both to energy-system dwellers AND planet-dwellers, and the eventual integration of ALL of those persepectives into one mutual understanding --- that can be the only universal imperative for existence - beyond self-preservation, I think.

 

Protecting nature and life wherever one finds it to yield the greatest multiplicity of happy, perceiving entities in the widest range of possible forms.

 

That's what I think the next step for humanity is, we join that process. We become the compassionate stewards of life and consciousness; we pay forward that great favour done for us to which we owe our existence.

 

Jonathan and all of you at RS, I am truly grateful to have had an opportunity to express these ideas; they're not new, I guess, but at least I got them out of me.

 

much love, B