The Time Is Now: The Teachings of Ayahuasca

By Isa Mea

ABOUT THE BOOK

Author Isa Mea shares with us her personal journey, navigating altered states of consciousness through working with the sacred plant medicine Ayahuasca and other teacher plants of the Amazon rainforest for over a decade.

She explains the relevance and importance of plant dietas as a means of establishing connections with guides and teachers from other realities. These plant spirits teach us about ourselves, our place in the world and how to heal our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wounds. The potentials of these plants were discovered by Indigenous cultures, as they developed the practices of communicating and learning from other realities.

By the principles of giving and receiving, the time has come for all cultures to unite and afford indigenous peoples the recognition and respect they deserve for their knowledge, their right to self-determination and the protection of their environment. Only then can we fully appreciate and understand the true meaning and importance of their knowledge.

United as one human family, evolving through wisdom and understanding of the interconnectedness of all things, we may finally reach harmonious ways of living, enabling us to grow and expand the life force of the planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: May 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781480862579

Isa Mea

Isa Mea traveled to Peru in 2006, where she accidentally encountered ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant mixture capable of inducing altered states of consciousness. Since then, she has been studying the teachings of Amazonian plant kingdom. She has been working for environmental NGOs and advocates the transition to circular economy, global equity in the distribution of natural resources, and the related attitude to indigenous communities. She currently lives in Slovenia.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Isa Mea.

Translation by: Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko

Cover by: Ariel Tai Churchill

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Archway Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6258-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-6257-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018905207

Archway Publishing rev. date: 05/04/2018

Contents

Chapter 1 Other Realities and Ayahuasca

Chapter 2 I Know Many Secrets

Chapter 3 Let Your Roots Run Deep

Chapter 4 You Have a Voice, Do You Not?

Chapter 5 If You Wish to Follow This Path

Chapter 6 The Time Is Now

Chapter 7 The Message of the Whales

Chapter 8 Awakening

To Kevin and Percy

About the Author

Isa Mea traveled to Peru in 2006, where she accidentally encountered ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant mixture capable of inducing altered states of consciousness. Since then, she has been studying the teachings of Amazonian plant kingdom. She has been working for environmental NGOs and advocates the transition to circular economy, global equity in the distribution of natural resources, and the related attitude to indigenous communities. She currently lives in Slovenia.

1

Other Realities and Ayahuasca

M y first encounter with ayahuasca came ten years ago in Peru, seemingly by coincidence, though it’s recently become clear that the whole process had been carefully planned and coordinated. Before my first ceremony, I’d never encountered psychedelic substances firsthand, and I’d certainly not thought of them as tools for spiritual and personal growth. I believed in alternative medicine, but it hadn’t even occurred to me that I might one day work in the field myself.

In those ten years, I’ve learned from several ayahuasqueros in Peru, specifically in the mountains and in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin. First was the Irishman Caoimhín¹ in Cuzco, who introduced me to ayahuasca’s worlds of knowledge. Caoimhín is one of the best healers I’ve had the privilege of meeting. He died a year after we met. During my last ceremony with him, I was invited into the rainforest by White Ayahuasca. I wasn’t seeking the knowledge to lead my own ceremonies. I didn’t imagine that I was capable of mastering such powerful energies, especially as they originated from a culture that was completely unknown to me. My intent was merely to discover a path for myself that would be both personally fulfilling and allow me to make a living.

After a month in Cuzco, Caoimhín arranged for me to visit Pancho, under whom he had been a student himself. To begin with, I would spend three or four months in the rainforest and then a year or so at home, and then I’d go back to the rainforest. Eventually, however, I came to the realization that ayahuasca had been showing me a path all along, giving me the knowledge and foundation for my later work with ayahuasca and other plants. It led me to a friend—I will name him Jaguar—who became and has remained my teacher. Eventually, everything aligned, and I was able to stay with him for two years, devoting myself to an intensive process of dieting and learning. In those two years, with great care and patience, Jaguar brought me to a point where I was able to lead my own ceremonies. Three years ago I passed the test and became a maestra ayahuasquera. I am therefore qualified to lead ceremonies independently and recognized as such by every authority so capable—by Jaguar, by ayahuasca itself, and by all my teachers from different realities. Despite knowing a great deal about ayahuasca and its worlds, I am constantly aware that there are yet many other secrets still hidden from me.

It took ayahuasca ten years to deliver on the intention with which I first drank it. The path was right in front of me. I was walking it all that time, without even realizing that I was only expecting different answers. Not long ago, however, it granted me one more gift—the knowledge of my mission in life, of why I exist, and of who I am.

These ten years gave me the opportunity to observe how quickly ayahuasca was making the leap from the rainforest into our culture. I noticed that the motives with which we receive it, understand it, and use it, however, do not always seem acceptable. At least not to me. People seek contact with it for many reasons. Those whose only goal is a psychedelic experience see in ayahuasca nothing but a novel high. Then there are those who seek spiritual and personal growth. Others are looking for answers to questions about themselves, about the world that surrounds us, and about the universe. Yet others wish to achieve a physical and energetic balance or to settle matters with their loved ones.

Oftentimes they go about it with gullibility and naïveté. In comparison to what I read and hear about other methods, by which we may achieve an altered state of consciousness,² ayahuasca rapidly transports us to different realities, where we receive information and visions. But this does not necessarily equate to knowledge, still less wisdom. The goal of ayahuasca is not to feel universal love but to live our everyday lives in concert with it. The path that leads to this goal is always long and difficult. Those visions and information that we receive but fail to transfer to our own lives are empty.

Because ayahuasca allows a relatively easy transition to an altered state of consciousness, you might think that all you must do during the ceremony is sing as nicely as you can. After all, ayahuasca will simply do its thing. An increasing interest in it, on the other hand, is opening the door to the commercialization of ceremonies. Those who seek contact with ayahuasca must realize that ceremonies—in both South America and the world generally—are now conducted by people with very different levels of competence. Just because certain people have visited different realities does not mean that they understand them or understand ayahuasca and its transitions.

Increased demand, of course, drives increased supply. Knowledge that only decades ago was consigned to the periphery of society is now sought by increasingly many people from our parts of the world. In the countries where ayahuasca originates, that often means turning a healthy profit, and therefore, there are increasingly more people working with it who are not qualified to do so. Meanwhile, ayahuasca is also penetrating further and further into our culture, where the situation is typically even worse. Before participating in a ceremony, it is therefore crucial to inquire into the who, where, and how.

It is also important to trust the person leading the ceremony. If there is no trust, then it is better not to participate, and you should consider different options instead. But trust does not mean blind naïveté. We must be aware that a good healer (or shaman) respects the physical as well as the energetic integrity of the participants.

With this book, I want to stress that ayahuasca is not something to take lightly. I believe it is important to mark the distinction between people who merely use ayahuasca and people who learn its ways in order to guide others down that path. A skillful hunter, for example, might employ the knowledge and experience she has gained through practice. If she also utilizes knowledge gained from other realities, she might become an exceptional hunter. But that does not yet mean that she has mastered those realities and the transition to altered states of consciousness or that she is capable of guiding others.

The book is aimed equally at those of you still thinking about an encounter with ayahuasca and those for whom that first meeting has already occurred. To the former, I offer information that will help you decide whether ayahuasca can assist in finding what you seek; to the latter, answers to some of the questions posed by more experienced travelers to other realities. At the end, I also touch on broader knowledge and understanding about the world that we are all experiencing on this planet. Though the experience of ayahuasca is always personal, it also transcends the tales of any of us individuals.

Ayahuasca isn’t for everyone. I would not recommend it to people suffering from serious cardiovascular problems, chronic hypertension, psychiatric difficulties, recent broken bones or operations, acute infectious diseases, epilepsy, or who are pregnant.³ Some forums and organizations warn against using ayahuasca in combination with certain pharmaceutical drugs, especially those that contain MAO inhibitors or SSRIs. It is also recommended not to take ayahuasca at least within two to four weeks of taking recreational drugs. There may be a particularly high risk associated with synthetic or semisynthetic opioids. With pharmaceutical as with recreational drugs, it is good to first consult the person leading the ceremony or your doctor or therapist.

Ayahuasca has a lot to offer our culture. This is demonstrated by an ever-greater number of studies in a variety of fields, including modern medicine. However, when working with ayahuasca, a healthy measure of common sense and caution is crucial. Thoughtless and uncritical use undermines the opportunity in our culture for a mature, serious discussion about the benefits that we can reap from altered states of consciousness and teachings in other realities. It also demonstrates the potential dangers. Recklessness can quickly halt the studies that have again become viable in the last two decades—to the detriment of us all.

There is an inherent awkwardness in trying to describe ayahuasca, altered states of consciousness, and other realities because our means of expression are adapted to life in the material world and are often not up to the task of describing other worlds. I will therefore attempt to clarify some terminology.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew consisting of at least two different plants. The base is always the liana ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi), from which the brew takes its name. The second is usually chacruna of the genus Psychotria (most often Psychotria viridis), but it can also be chaliponga or chacropanga (Diplopterys cabrerana). Both plants contain DMT (dimethyl tryptamine). If DMT is taken orally, it is broken down in the stomach by the MAO enzyme. Beta-carboline in the ayahuasca plant functions as an MAO inhibitor, allowing the DMT in the chacruna or chaliponga to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

Several substances in ayahuasca are structurally similar to neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which occur naturally in the body and affect the central nervous system. Such neurotransmitter-like molecules often occur in nature. Much has been written on the chemical properties of the ayahuasca preparation. Interested readers can sate their curiosity online, in books, and in numerous scientific studies. In particular, I recommend two organizations—ICEERS and MAPS—that are dedicated to the study of ayahuasca and other psychedelics from many different perspectives, ranging from their potentials in medicine and psychology to legal policy and safe-use guidelines. Both organizations have a Web presence.

In Peru, where I learned about ayahuasca myself, healers often add other plants to the brew. These are typically teaching or healing plants. This widens the scope of the brew’s effect on healing. I use the term healing in the sense of establishing a balance on both the physical and energetic planes.

Nowadays we are seeing the rise of different plant brews that contain MAO inhibitors and DMT and are therefore named as ayahuasca, ignoring the fact that ayahuasca is grounded in the energies and spirits of the plants. These have their own names—names that are significant in other realities. After all, even a friend would not turn to us in the street if we called her by the wrong name.

I deliberately avoid the terms shaman and shamanism. These are concepts with origins in the anthropology of our own culture. In Peru, those who lead ceremonies only recently began calling themselves shamans. Instead they used the terms curandero (healer) or brujo (roughly corresponding to what we might call witchcraft). Because I was taught by healers, that is the term I will use throughout this book. In doing so, however, I must strongly emphasize the following point: Today, ayahuasca is used in many parts of the world for therapeutic and religious-spiritual purposes and for personal growth. But there are scarcely any countries that officially recognize it as a medical or therapeutic method. Ayahuasca is not a substitute for medical, psychiatric, or psychotherapeutic methods. It can, however, complement these therapeutic processes and support the individual’s personal growth.

In the traditional medicine and spiritual praxis of the Amazon, use of the psychedelic brew was not an end unto itself. It was used as a tool for transition to altered states of consciousness. This does not merely allow us to visit and learn from other realities. An experienced healer can play an active role in them. To achieve that transition, cultures around the world developed a variety of tools—lucid dreaming, meditation, prayer, ritual drumming, ritual saunas, not to mention the use of psychedelics.

To understand what is meant by an altered state of consciousness, let us first consider how we perceive and understand the material world in which we live. In an ordinary state of consciousness, we use five senses—hearing, sight, smell, touch, and taste. Each of our senses has a limited spectrum of sensitivity, which means that we can only sense a limited portion of everything that surrounds us, specifically that which we name the material world or physical reality. Birds