Spaceinthesky: I'm still in the earlier stages but I'm basing my treatment primarily off Buhners work. I'm also working with an LAc and just picking up bits and pieces of traditional herbalism as I go
Lol lets step back from the hysteria for a second. First off there are a number of contraindications that people don't pay attention to when taking ayahuasca. A big conflict is people who are bent on taking it often take antidepressants which are extremely dangerous in combination. Second off some shamans are scammers and include dangerous admixtures. This just means know your source. And third off when you're traveling to a place like the amazon you are susceptible to all sorts of deadly organisms. That's a risk you take or find someone who does it closer to home. As for ayahuasca itself, it can be mentally and physically brutal but long term negative consequences and particularly death are rare and i know people who have taken it 2000+ times and often in VERY large doses. Any psychedelic drug can cause "permanent hallucinations" but this is not the scary thing it's been blown up to be. Mild increases in patterning, visual tracers, static, etc. Totally functional mild visual alterations that usually go away in time in all but the rarest cases. Some people welcome the change as a permanent line to the divine. Even then i've done DMT upwards of 50 times with none of the above in addition to a slew of other psychedelics. Any long term "psychic" problems are usually filed under the category of "unfinished business" and not a direct consequence of the substance itself. My first time i tanked into utter madness, basically stopped the ceremony and asked a bunch of strangers to kill me. Thought the stuff was poison. The guide told me i was just battling demons and i just kept saying they were all freakin crazy for drinking the stuff. Turns out the guide was right. Sort of stuff happens all the time. Consider it an emotional herxheimer. Something possessed me to try it again and i picked up where i left off and it turned my entire life around for the better. I basically worship the brew now days though i am admittedly terrified by it. The kind of people who shame ayahuasca are often the kinds of people who've never been to hell and back before. You all know what lyme disease is like. Basically the bottom of the freakin pit. The point where you can't go any further down without being consumed by the darkness. It's do or die. Find the light and climb out. Don't be afraid to fall. Just keep climbing. Cause you know what's at the bottom and there's no place you'd rather be except far away from that. Well, ayahuasca is like a trip through life condensed into 4-8hours. It shows you where every path takes you. You can go to hell. Or you can go to heaven. If you go down the first path and have no idea what it's like to climb out and be on the other side, of course you think ayahuasca is a terrible thing because you don't realize that being there was your own choice. I see it all the time (and lived it personally) and ayahuasca gets a bad name because of the people who have unfinished business. They're still at the stage of placing the blame elsewhere and holding no personal responsibility to care for and grow the internal light they were given. But i have also stared into the face of god on ayahuasca and so certainly the brew can't be at fault.
Huddie i'm interested in what you mean when you said your friend almost died? I'm not saying it never happens. It is physically intense and i'm sure there are unique cases where one might be predisposed to bad outcomes. But it seems than many also conflate the experience of feeling like they're dying with actually dying on ayahuasca. I certainly thought it was trying to kill me at points. That said, i would never offer this up as a recommendation to anyone with lyme disease. If you want to get your trip on i'd say just stick to mushrooms until you're physically strong again. But i certainly don't want this substance to become shamed. The ceremony is undoubtedly the single most important experience of my life. Hallucinogens of any sort are no miracle cure for Lyme. They are, in my experience, the single most powerful form of energetic medicine and the single reason that i have any sort of light to align myself with in this Lyme madness.
"Angel Heart, Is this another ending or a start
Is there any way that they could be apart
In the end, we come full circle again
Gentle Soul, You know each daily trouble takes its toll
But every silver lining hides a seam of gold
In the end, we come full circle again
Angel Heart, Never be afraid to face the dark
If you are, you’ll never let the healing start
In the end, we come full circle again
Gentle Soul, Never be afraid to face the goal
Don’t you know the light you see
Is your own soul
In the end, we come full circle again
Special One, Set your ship to sail into the sun
And when you finally get there
You have just begun
In the end, we come full circle again"
Post Edited (Psilociraptor) : 9/4/2016 11:56:20 AM (GMT-6)