Holding cat's claw cancer curing herb
Drinking Ayahuasca was the last thing I considered as a treatment choice for cancer but when the opportunity came for me to venture into the Peruvian jungle to a shamans clinic, offering herbal detoxification and ayahuasca, off I went without hesitation. I was excited about my journey to South America, not thinking that it might be a risk or a bold move to take. Sometimes extreme measures can help to stabilize extreme conditions and trauma.
A few years earlier, I acquired multiple spinal injuries in a serious car accident that left me bed bound for most of my twenties. The spinal injuries healed over time with Chinese herbs, acupuncture and acupressure massage by a practitioner from Chengdu, China, but my integration back into the flow of life was halted when my physician diagnosed me with thyroid cancer. He told me I developed cancer because my previous doctor used outdated x-ray equipment to examine my neck after the injury.
Chinese acupuncture used to heal spinal injuries
I Initially signed up at an alternative medical facility for a two week whole body detoxification process. My body was oxygenated, cleansed and nourished through the veins with nutritional IV therapies. I opted out of surgery and the needle biopsy scheduled to confirm my prognosis. Instead, I chose a non-invasive early detection device called BioMeridian that owes its origin to the practices of electrocardiogram technologies. My diagnosis was good but needed more integration to fully recover.
Body traumas can continue to haunt us until we find a way to release the memories of the pain. Emotional and physical traumas are trapped subconsciously within our nerve tissue and can hold us hostage for a lifetime if we are unaware and ill prepared. And so for this reason I came to South America, the land of yagé, also known as ayahuasca: an intensely hallucinogenic potion made from boiling woody Banisteriopsis caapi vines with the glossy leaves of the chacruna bush. Me, then in my early thirties, grieving over the trauma from my bed bound years and lost twenties, was starved for experience. I was seeking truth and hungry for answers about the secrets of the cosmos and the mysteries of my undiscovered self.
Brewing herbal medicines
We flew to Pacullpa, a small logging town located on the Ucayali River in the Amazon Rainforest. The shamans casita was built high on a hill overlooking the marsh communities. His staff prepared a beautiful vegetarian feast the night before our morning journey deep into the jungle.
marshlands in the Ucayali Province Peru
It took a full day of driving , canoeing and hiking before we reached our destination situated in a Rainforest preservation camp near the river Rinquia. The shaman, Don Jose Campos, wanted to preserve the land for soul seekers wanting to experience the jungle in its pristine state, while doing the traditional Dietas that involve deeper ayahuasca work.
Our full day journey to the river Rinquia
I arrived with nothing except my toothbrush a journal and a bottle of Burt's Bees insect spray. I lived like the Shipibo indigenous peoples and ate the traditional shamanic diet. I washed with the wayusa leaves that arrived every morning outside my tambo and soon became acclimated to the jungle. I drank liters of medicinal tea brewed from the barks of the trees from the Amazon and between the herbal cat's claw brew and the ceremonial sips of ayahuasca, the thyroid tumor began to shrink.
Barks from the trees of the Amazon
The Peruvians diet consisted of fruits and vegetables and their bodies were firm with muscle and sleek with shiny black hair. They paced the mountain ridge with rifles protecting us from jungle predators. The only time I encountered any danger was when a long thick green snake came up behind me at the latrine. I froze and hissed at it like a snake, as I watched it jump and race away.
innocuous snake paying me a visit
At dusk we gathered at the main Maloca for the ceremonies to begin. Each night Don Jose would play his musical instruments as we drank from the sacred plant. During four hours each night, the plant ayahuasca revealed the world of infinite dimensions surrounding us, as we listened to the sweet sound of music and the jungles symphony orchestra.
*Community Maloca for ceremonies *
One night during ceremony, I was very present in the moment when a sensation from the back of my spine rushed forward to the front of my skull. I resisted these emerging thoughts at first but ayahuasca had me thinking about my mom. My family was conflicted with dysfunctions that had nothing to do with me. My essence was pure and clear energetically and I realized that remaining in a matrix full of vice, for the sake of the bloodline, would only be confusing for them and eventually unhealthy for me. I made peace with the tribe and my decision to move on in virtue as I joyfully purged into the bucket nearby.
Night after night as the jungle philharmonic played, I peeled away the layers to reveal the past. It was hard work and I found myself beginning to take longer to come out of the medicines effect. One night after ceremony, mother ayahuasca had followed me home. This time more gentle as before, she revealed to me the essence of true beauty and encouraged me to blossom as a young lady. I expressed my gratitude as I continued to process and puked late into the night as her presence began to fade. It had become obvious to me that my body was having to work too hard.
tambo dwelling
I came to the Maloca the next evening and participated in the ceremony but this time without drinking ayahuasca. The medicine was slightly active in me from the night before as I enjoyed the musical talents of the shaman and his work as a healer. Through the guidance of Don Jose and the plant medicine I found success for what the medicine was there to help me heal.
This was our last night in the jungle and I was eager to end our fast. We had plans for a big healthy breakfast in the morning and lunch before our departure. I look forward to my return visit to the forest one day but for now my body needed the nourishment. Besides, I had a lot to work with becoming a young lady not to mention filling a matrix full of virtue. Wish me luck!
Kissing the shamans pet squirrel
https://www.facebook.com/ResponsibleDetoxification/
http://donjosecampos.com/
Hello I am part of a group of med students who are trying to learn and provide this network with information that is adequate for certain topics.
This post I was very interested on, has a lot of material that i might want to read further as I am interested on the chemistry of the brain and how drugs act.
I am following you and upvoting this post!. I hope you are okay with feedback in the future from me.
Hi @hipollo nice to meet you. Im so happy that you were able to benefit from my experience. I would be happy to connect with you again on this subject matter so I will follow you so that we can stay connected. Thanks again for the feedback
May I suggest to repost this article to have it on hand for future reference @hilpollo. We can stay connected during your important work. Good luck with your research!
Thanks for sharing this story, it´s very interesting. I might go to the amazon myself one day.
Upvoted and followed.
If you do decide to go to the amazon @kooshikoo you may want to connect with Don Jose. The experience that he provides with his camp is very authentic. Thanks again for your support, I appreciate it!
Very interesting story and fun looking trip. Up voted and followed already.
Thank you, I started following you as well. I appreciate the vote!
@allyinspirit , thanks to your encouragement I thought you might enjoy this article about healing with herbs from the Amazon.....thanks again!
There is also powerful ingredient in ayahuasca. It's peganum harmala a promising cure to diabetes. You can find out more on pubmed.
Interesting!!! thanks for sharing that nugget about diabetes.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=peganum+harmala
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4848417/
Those sources might be useful to you. It's a very interesting plant.
So Peganum harmala is wild rue and is native to Asia. I've never actually heard of it being an admixture to ayahuasca, is that linked with a particular indigenous/church tradition of ayahuasca recipe? Oh, hold on, a five second google search indicates that people use it instead of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, crazy, does that even still count as being ayahuasca? In my books anything with DMT isn't the same thing as ayahuasca.
Dmt is a primary ingredient of ayahuasca, banisteriosis caapi is a MAOI. Caapi makes dmt active in human body. Caapi contains almost the same substances as peganum harmala - harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine. So caapi can used for the same purposes as peganum harmala. Caapi by itself produces low psychoactive effect. Those magical trip reports are always about MAOI + DMT + different plants that shamen decides to add. Those additional plants are considered as spiritual guides. Almost all of them has also curative effects so it is very important to know as much as we can about them from shamens.
I'm not sure I'd say that DMT is an ingredient as such, whilst it is possible to extract it in a pure form I would say when talking about 'ingredients' for ayahuasca that it is the 'active component' of the chacruna ingredient (or other DMT-containing leaf/bark such as Mimosa tenuiflora). Banisteriopsis caapi vine is the MAOI that inhibits the MO enzyme in the stomach thus allowing the DMT in the chacruna (or other mystic leaf/bark) to do it's work. I'm aware that various admixtures can be added in and swapped about. But I guess my question is, at what stage does it cease to be "ayahuasca"? If you have completely swapped out the Banisteriopsis caapi vine for something else, and let's say teh chacruna is swapped for something else as well, is it still ayahuasca? It's an interesting question considering the big question mark over sustainable harvesting of the vine.
As far as i know the effects are quite similar but yes it is quite a reasonable question if it is still ayahuasca.
Congratulations @andreaalexandria! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about this award, click here
good story!
I think you should like this article https://steemit.com/art/@kayros/man-receives-sacred-woodworking-instructions-during-ayahuasca-trip