I recently enjoyed a very interesting article entitled Ayahuasca and the Concept of Reality: Ethnographical, Theoretical and Experiential Considerations. Here is a short excerpt where Luis Edwardo Luna ponders question not yes answered about the effects of ayahuasca:

The most important questions have not been answered. What is the nature of the worlds and the entities one may encounter in such experiences? What is their level of reality? Are they simply “creatures of imagination”, as proposed by Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975:5)? Do they have any kind of reality outside our own experience? Are certain plants really intelligent, and able to communicate with us through real “communion” (more convincing than the Catholic eucharist)? Are the supernatural powers residing in these plants “organic chemical constituents that allow mortal man to communicate through visual, auditory and other hallucinations with the spirit world that controls every aspect of man’s earthly existence”? (Schultes 1975). Is the brain more a receptor that the originator of all experience? Are we really able to communicate with normally unseen intelligences, perhaps in other dimensions? Are spirits real? Is there a multidimensional ecology of beings? What is the relationship between mind and healing? What about those very common motifs, the serpents for example? Are they part of our mind, and therefore universal?

I recently came across the unique Canadian NGO called One Sky. They are practicing international environmental conservation and sustainable development with an integral approach. As someone who is very interested in integral philosophy it is exciting to see it put in action.

The integral movement is a fast growing community of people who are taking the integral philosophies of Sri Aurobindo, Ken Wilber and others and putting this inclusive world view into action in the world. In brief, integral theory takes the position that every tradition from spiritual to cultural to scientific has a slice of the truth. Using a four quadrant model with different levels in each quadrant, each truth has it’s place and relationship with the whole.

One Sky is using this-in my opinion, brilliant-model as the central part of their work. Rather than the traditional approach which often focuses on a narrow field such as conservation, development, or social issues, their work is taking all aspects and all perspectives into account when creating a new program.

An example of the four perspectives in an integral conservation and development project are:

•       Rainforest conservation activities based on environmental science
•       External community needs such as health care and teacher training
•       The shared internal cultural values of the community, respecting tradition
•       The internal personal and spiritual experiences of everyone involved

They have a project quite close to Cusco, so hopefully one day I can go and visit. They have an interesting video highlighting their philosophy and their project in peru. Here is their website: http://onesky.ca

On this page I plan to share my knowledge of ayahuasca resources for my friends. It grows weekly.

Ayahuasca Retreats

If you are interested in participating in ayahuasca ceremonies in peru, here is a list of people that I can recommend:

• Blue Morpho Tours – Hamilton now teaches from the non-dual perspective, very integral and well respected place.
• chinchilejo-tours.com - If you’re going to Iquitos look Alan up, he can recommend trusted shamans there
• ayahuasca-wasi.com- Diego has beautifulceremonies and workshops in the sacred valley

Some friends that are also working with the medicine that have websites; good people: ayahuascaprajna.com, nixipae.com, spiritmedicine.net, I’ll expand on this list as time goes on to include more traditional ayahuasceros.

Ayahuasca related websites and forums

• forums.ayahuasca.com – very active ayahuasca forum
• ayahuasca.com – Lots of excellent articles here
• Ayahuasca.tribe.net

I plan to update this post in the future with more details.

Good articles on Ayahuasca

• The Walrus – Plants with Soul - How a mind-bending plant-based drug made its way from the Amazon jungle to the US Supreme Court

Other Resources

Ayahuasca Conference: I’ve not been, but this looks like a really good yearly conference in Iquitos:
soga-del-alma.org.

more to come…

While wandering the streets in San Blas, Cuzco, Peru, I came across an elegant pottery shop. The pieces were exquisite, crafted by artisans with years of experience with designs inspired by Inca, Nazca, Paracas, Moche and Chavin culture. 

When I saw the bizarre designs of the Nazca and Paracas inspired pieces, I was shocked with how they were perfect depictions of the ‘energy beings’ that one experiences on ayahuasca. The owner told me that they were not his designs, but they were copied from traditional Nazca pieces. My immediate idea was that these ancient people used the sacred plant medicine and from their visions, they created this incredible art. Things get even more interesting.

The Nazca are the same people that made the lines in the desert that can only be seen from the sky. They are also the people that elongated their skulls. All these seems to point to a relationship with aliens. There is also recent research by Rick Strassman and others that point to the similarities between the DMT experience (the ingredient in ayahuasca tea that produces the visions) and stories of alien encounters. 

Doing bit more research I found out that images of the cactus San Pedro (known as Wachuma in the Quechua language) are found in ceramics of these cultures, along with images of shamans. The active ingredient in San Pedro is mescaline, known to produce equally powerful visions sometimes similar to ayahuasca.

So my theory is that the Nazca people were taking San Pedro cactus, having profound visions that led them to their bizarre art and practices. With a little more evidence that theory could be accepted by academia, (and perhaps already is.) But I have an even more radical theory, that the Nazca people were actually in contact with alien-like beings – the ones depicted in their pottery – via the hallucinogenic cactus. And these aliens exist in other dimensions of reality beyond our familiar world of space and time, and they are as real (or as unreal) as ourselves.

(Note: This post was updated on Aug 24, 2009 to include the San Pedro Cactus.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a short video I put together highlighting some of my experiences in peru over the last year. I hope you like it. And some photos highlights as well below: