I think it might be helpful to the community at large to have one place where you can go to get information about all the various shamans and ayahuasca retreats around the world. This could be sort of a wikipedia type one-stop-shopping for info about shamans and retreats.
Each retreat center and/or shaman would have their own page. Like a wiki, anyone can contribute to that page (as long as it stays civil) and at the bottom, people are welcome to post comments, have discussion, and even rate their experience (ie. value, authenticity, comfort, personal care, etc). These pages could be categorized by country, location, style, etc. And the site could include other types of authentic shamanic retreats such as san pedro, peyote, mushrooms, etc. [click to continue…]
The idea is quite simple: Canadian Liberals, NDPs, Greens – get over your differences and form an alliance in order to defeat the conservatives in the next election. Liberals: your glory days are over, you need need this more than anybody else. NDP: even with all your excellent policies, will you ever be able to form a government? Greens: even if you finally win that one seat, your voice will be much larger as part of the government.
Rather than mixing red, orange and green and get the Canadian Brown Party, get creative. Perhaps parties could retain their unique flavour and still be part of an official alliance. The new alliance could be called something like the New Canadian Party and you’d have the Canadian Party Liberal, Canadian Party NDP and Canadian Party Green. Riding candidates could be strategically allocated based on candidate popularity and previous voting numbers. CP-Liberals would run 52% of the candidates, CP-NDP would run 36% and the CP-Greens 12%.
With this kind of cooperation, the new party is surely to win the next election. And the Greens and NDP finally get to form part of the Canadian government. The only problem is the parties’ instinct for self preservation and pride, especially the NDP. But after this latest loss, I hope they will be able to get past their differences and get it right.
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:
Some friends that are also working with the medicine that have websites; good people: shamanic-explorer.com, nixipae.com, spiritmedicine.net, I’ll expand on this list as time goes on to include more traditional ayahuasceros.
[click to continue…]
This plugin works fine with the latest version of WPMU: 2.8.6, and will probably work fine in future versions as it did not break going from 2.7 to 2.8. Another plugin: New Blog Defaults also offers default categories, and much more.
This plugin allows you to set default categories for new blogs. It also allows you to add these categories to existing blogs. Lastly, you can do a search and replace for category names. The search works with exact match only, and is case sensitive.
To activate the plugin, add it to the wp-content/mu-plugins/ folder. Go to Site Admin -> Category Defaults to set the number of default categories as well as set the categories themselves. Then when you create a new blog, the categories are automatically added.
Download the latest version of the plugin here (1.2): defaults-categories
Send any paypal donations to deryk@bluemandala.com. Thanks.
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. [click to continue…]
This is an insightful TED Talks by Jonathan Haidt on what makes liberals and conservatives different. For me it was a real eye opener that helps boot me out of the rightous view that liberals are ‘more’ right. He show how 5 measures of morals (which I believe he should weight somehow) are valued differently by each group. Watching the video helps me to see that in order to move forward, one really needs to think of the other groups’ perspective. powerful helpful stuff. I wonder what the conservatives think about it. Interestingly, he uses eastern religions as a model for how to move forward out of this dualism.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html
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:
I recently enrolled in the Independent Studies program at University Waterloo to complete my Bachelors degree so that I can attend a Masters program in the future. What is amazing about this program is it’s flexibility: you can literally create any program or course that you could imagine. For example, for this semester my self-created courses are as follows:
- Bodhisattva Path – taken via Ngedon School online
- Mahamudra – also via Ngedon School
- Meditation Practicum – a 15 day solitary retreat
- Spanish Intensive – self study, and local courses here in cusco, peru
- ayahuasca cosmology – I plan to interview local shamans about their view on the nature of reality
Next semester, if I get more involved in conservation and sustainable development, I can create courses to reflect the work that I am doing in those areas.
The staff there are wonderful—very helpful and supportive. Too bad, at present it is only an undergraduate program. This small program really is a jewel. I would highly recommend it to anyone is has unique ideas they would like to explore that fall outside of the regular university curriculum.
well, this is my first post in my new blog/online journal. For years I have wanted to enter the world of blogging but for one reason or another I just never got around to doing it. I think I was a little too focused on making an amazing blog, and that got in the way of just doing anything. [click to continue…]
I think it might be helpful to the community at large to have one place where you can go to get information about all the various shamans and ayahuasca retreats around the world. This could be sort of a wikipedia type one-stop-shopping for info about shamans and retreats.
