February 2015Huancabamba... San Pedro Mescaline doors to heaven and hell, insight into infinite interconnecting holographic grids running through the multiple dimensions of the unknown multiverse. Nay. A piss-head 'Shaman' who downs perfume by the bottle, chants incoherently for hours in between bouts of falling asleep, burping and farting, and charges us 150 Soles (about 36 quid) each for the trouble. The town may well be famous for it's mythological connection to the Pedro cactus and shamanistic practices but I'll always remember it for lots of extremely drunk folk falling around the streets in the middle of the day, a bit like Scunthorpe high street in the 1980's.
In Jaen a few days later it was our last couple of days in the town so we thought to have a go at brewing some cactus juice ourselves. Took a trip down to the local market and bought a 1Kg cut of San Pedro for 7 Soles (about £1.70). It was peeled, chopped and boiled for about 4 hours, with the liquid and remaining cactus squeezed through cloth to extract all the stuff. The next day was spent trekking the mountains on San Pedro; a long, euphoric and mellow psychedelic trip, it lasted about 10 hours. Gave the brain a well needed scrub, not quite an opening of perceptional portals but well worthwhile all the same, maybe next time... |
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I left the teaching position in Jaen a month early to go on the road for a bit, we made arrangements to get someone else in to cover the job. After leaving and saying goodbyes, the next plan was to head to the jungle via Iquitos to have a go at the Ayahuasca. All the mountain roads were closed due to the heavy rainfall and landslides so I had to catch a bus back to Lima and then fly out to Iquitos. I spent a couple of days in a hostel in Lima full of drunken cokeheads; a Scottish bloke named Johnny, an Australian, three Americans and a Norwegian, two days was enough.
In Iquitos a couple of days were spent doing touristy stuff whilst looking for a good option for the Ayahuasca, the main motivation being to avoid 'Ayahuasca Touristico' places and find an 'authentic' experience, whatever that is. I ended up doing exactly what the guide books say not to do; go into the jungle with a random person you met on the street. The next four days were based at a lodge about 30km outside of Iquitos, there were other tourists staying for wildlife excursions but none of them for Ayahuasca. Carlos the Shaman and Chryia the guide were my help for the time in the jungle, they turned out to be top fellas really, we had a steady few days around the area annoying the animals and searching for plants. The main mode of transport for the time was a small wooden boat with a lawnmower-like engine and a hole in the bottom. Carlos drove the boat with the lawnmower engine whilst my job was to use a small bucket that also had a hole in it to scoop water out so the boat didn't sink into the river; traditional. I spent the three nights drinking Ayahuasca.
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The two main ingredients in the drink are a DMT containing plant, usually Mimosa Hostilis or Psychotria Viridis, and the 'Ayahuasca' vine, Banisteriopsis caapi. On this occasion the DMT element came from the leaves of the Psychotria or 'Chacruna' shrub. DMT is the ingredient that produces the visions, (or hallucinations, depending on your preference of terminology) but it can't be taken on it's own orally as the compound is broken down by the digestive system before it reaches the brain so has to be mixed with the Caapi vine, which contains an MAOI inhibitor, a compound that prevents the enzymes in the body from breaking down the DMT so it can reach the brain intact and produce the desired effect. DMT is widely considered to be the strongest known psychedelic substance, and when you smoke it pure there seems little reason to refute this idea. Reports are to be found far and wide of people stating they have met and communicated with: aliens, celestial beings, future and past versions of the human species, souls in between lives, inter-dimensional 'elves'... the list goes on. Some reckon these visions to be imagined hallucinations instigated by the the DMT, and existing purely within the confines of the physical brain. Others have suggested that the entities are quite real, somehow existent elsewhere in other dimensions or times that can only be accessed when the brain is in the altered state enabled by the substance. This may sound ludicrous to some, but one thing's for sure; the experiences certainly seem very real, they seem more real than a great deal of things that occur in everyday waking life, so I see the best approach to be to refrain from judgement and have a go regardless. If there are aliens or any such entities trying to speak to me, be they 'real', 'imagined', or anything in between, I want to listen to what they have to say, it could be important, it could be madness, whatever it is, I want to hear it. When DMT is taken with the Caapi vine as Ayahuasca, in general the visuals are not as extreme, but the effects last much longer.
When the two are combined, a number of other physical affects accompany the visions, not all pleasant, often including what is refereed to as 'purging', or more commonly known as projectile vomiting. Ayahuasca tastes considerably worse than you might imagine used bog water would taste. |
I've tried it on a couple of occasions previously. Once at home in Leeds with a friend, and twice in Portugal, with the same friend. So far the experience has been very intriguing but nothing massively awe-inspiring, although the 'purging' aspect is certainly something to write home about. I always find it leaves a feeling like the brain has been de-fragmented, as with a computer, a kind of de-fragmentation of the human bio-computer if ye like. Old broken thoughts and memories that clog up the nervous system and prevent it from running properly, most of which we aren't consciously aware of, are cleaned out; not rejected or denied, but transcended. For this purpose it is often sought after to treat emotional traumas, psychological troubles, addictions (although Iboga is now more well known for this purpose) etc... and with a great deal of reported success.
I did three ceremonies on consecutive nights. It wasn't anywhere near as psychedelic as I had hoped, but there was lots of purging, this left me thinking the mix of the two main ingredients was a bit out. Too much Caapi and not enough DMT leaf, it's not how I would have done it anyway, but it was definitely strong enough with regards to the purge. For the first and third nights I was the only person to take the drink, on the second night three other tourists from a nearby jungle lodge joined us, it wasn't pretty. There was lots of puking and screaming, lots of it, for hours, mainly coming from the young-ish bloke, but the two girls weren't far behind. It was hard work, and made the whole thing more difficult than it already was; I ended up stumbling to my feet and wandering off to my room after a few hours, barfing repeatedly into the sick bucket on the way. At some point on the second night it seemed something akin to 'ego death' occurred, there are many different descriptions as to what ego death is, but it came to me like a complete dissolution of perceptions of individual agency, accompanied by total physical inability, a bit like being asleep, or dead, but not.
In terms of having been purged/ de-fragmented , the Ayahuasca accomplished the intent, although the visions weren't very prominent. Not sure about the Shamanism stuff now mind, my thoughts were that if there are traditions dating back thousands of years primarily based around experimenting with the altered states of consciousness induced by the compounds in the plants, then the people involved in the traditions i.e. the Shamans, might know how to manipulate the 'set and setting' (environment and perceptions of) in order to bring out the best results, possibly something like a psychedelically enhanced psychoanalyst; this idea is yet to be supported by experience. Out of the three times I've been in contact with a Shaman, twice they've been pleasant, friendly folk who knew how to make a good brew, but nothing struck me as being exceptionally profound. The music can be pretty special sometimes, as it was in Portugal, but then again lots of music can be pretty special. Carlos in the jungle was certainly a genuine man of the woods who knew the land and the plants well, but still, it was all about the plants. The third guy, in Huancabamba didn't have much to offer either way. Judging from experience thus far I reckon if a person were to carry out a 'ceremony' at home with the same brew, and with the same discipline with regards to dietary restrictions, they could get results of equal quality, not the same results as it's never the same twice, and the experience varies a lot depending on where you are and who you are with, but I don't think the quality would necessarily suffer, although I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
I did three ceremonies on consecutive nights. It wasn't anywhere near as psychedelic as I had hoped, but there was lots of purging, this left me thinking the mix of the two main ingredients was a bit out. Too much Caapi and not enough DMT leaf, it's not how I would have done it anyway, but it was definitely strong enough with regards to the purge. For the first and third nights I was the only person to take the drink, on the second night three other tourists from a nearby jungle lodge joined us, it wasn't pretty. There was lots of puking and screaming, lots of it, for hours, mainly coming from the young-ish bloke, but the two girls weren't far behind. It was hard work, and made the whole thing more difficult than it already was; I ended up stumbling to my feet and wandering off to my room after a few hours, barfing repeatedly into the sick bucket on the way. At some point on the second night it seemed something akin to 'ego death' occurred, there are many different descriptions as to what ego death is, but it came to me like a complete dissolution of perceptions of individual agency, accompanied by total physical inability, a bit like being asleep, or dead, but not.
In terms of having been purged/ de-fragmented , the Ayahuasca accomplished the intent, although the visions weren't very prominent. Not sure about the Shamanism stuff now mind, my thoughts were that if there are traditions dating back thousands of years primarily based around experimenting with the altered states of consciousness induced by the compounds in the plants, then the people involved in the traditions i.e. the Shamans, might know how to manipulate the 'set and setting' (environment and perceptions of) in order to bring out the best results, possibly something like a psychedelically enhanced psychoanalyst; this idea is yet to be supported by experience. Out of the three times I've been in contact with a Shaman, twice they've been pleasant, friendly folk who knew how to make a good brew, but nothing struck me as being exceptionally profound. The music can be pretty special sometimes, as it was in Portugal, but then again lots of music can be pretty special. Carlos in the jungle was certainly a genuine man of the woods who knew the land and the plants well, but still, it was all about the plants. The third guy, in Huancabamba didn't have much to offer either way. Judging from experience thus far I reckon if a person were to carry out a 'ceremony' at home with the same brew, and with the same discipline with regards to dietary restrictions, they could get results of equal quality, not the same results as it's never the same twice, and the experience varies a lot depending on where you are and who you are with, but I don't think the quality would necessarily suffer, although I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
After getting back to Iquitos I needed some kip, three nights of Ayahuasca barfing and not a great deal of food left me weak in the bones. Didn't rest long mind, went out on the town the following night and ended up going round some drinking gaffes. There were loads of street parties happening for the annual carnival, a tradition for this is a city wide water bomb and paint fight, I was water bombed and shot with a (water) pistol a number of times so went looking to buy a pistol to see if I could make some small children cry, no such luck. I proceeded to go drinking with some local folk round a few bars and a club complex with a live groovy-cheesy Samba dance band. After a few hours we went to a house party type place a few miles out of the town, there were Peruvian tunes playing through an oversized 80's style boom box. People were out on the street dancing round a wooden pole and hacking at it with an axe as part of the carnival. It looked a bit like Peruvian maypole dancing, but with the dancers using an axe to chop down the maypole. I'd had enough around 11 o'clock so jumped in a mototaxi back to the Hobo Hideout hostel. I'm not a hobo, well maybe a bit, but I'm not hiding out, it's just a name.
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