In November of
2009 I spent ten days in a Peruvian jungle where I took part in a series of
four ceremonies in which over 40 people drank Ayahuasca, a tea made from a
plant used by the shamans of South America. This plant has been used for
centuries to induce visions that allow the shaman to provide spiritual guidance
and do healing for his community.
This adventure was an extraordinary and wondrous experience
that took me beyond the farthest reaches of my imagination. I was left with
insights that seemed to come from a place so beyond my ordinary experience of
reality that to even begin to adequately describe them occurs as an exercise in
futility. I must therefore allow the Ayahuasca experience to remain forever in
the realm of the ineffable and trust that the transformative effects will speak
powerfully through my being rather than my words.
People come to this experience from all over the world and
out of their own specific motivation. I was there for a spiritual experience,
but many of the others came for healing, both physical and mental. Regardless
of the initial motivation I have no doubt that everyone there experienced
something personally unique and extraordinary.
I have spoken to several friends about my experience and did
a presentation and slide show. Invariably and most frequently, the question
that I am ask is “Was anyone healed?” It is clear to me that what they want to
know is if blind people miraculously begin to see or did crippled people throw
down their crutches and begin to walk. And I tell them no, nothing like that
happened. But I also tell them that great vistas and vast landscapes were
opened before me which I saw without the use of my eyes. And that I traveled to
great heights and distant lands without legs or wings.
Because we believe so completely that we are our bodies and
minds we feel broken when our bodies and minds fail to function the way we, and
others around us, have come to expect and demand. What is the real affliction?
Is there really anything “wrong” in the universe or is it that we have chosen
to reject and suffer with “what is so” rather than be grateful for our lives as
they has been given to us?
Yes, I can say absolutely that there were miracles and
healing that came out of the Ayahuasca experience. Is it not a miracle to come
to know that we are more than our bodies, greater than our thoughts and
emotions, and infinitely beyond our fears and doubts? Is it not a miracle to
remember that everything we have been given is a task we chose, maybe even before
we had a body, to work with in order to become more conscious and experience
the fullness of what it is to be a human being? Can any true change or healing
take place in our bodies or minds without first we see and feel the perfection
of our lives just the way they are and the way they are not?
At the end of each ceremony the shaman asked us to sing as a
group. One of the songs that I chose to lead the group in was Amazing Grace. It pretty well sums up
what this experience provided for me. I quote the first verse here.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see”
A man was suffering from profound melancholy. He had seen the best doctors available and none were able to help him. He finally was referred to a physician famous for his powers to heal the soul. The doctor suggested that the man could find solace and end his melancholy in love. The man told the doctor that love was not the problem, that he was loved by many, many people.
