At AyahuascaCostaRica.org we work with two main sacred medicines: Ayahuasca and Kambo. Usually both are part of our retreats experience. Each plant accomplishes specific goals at different layers, helping our friends to improve integrally, or in other words physically and spiritually. Despite the fact that sacred medicines are natural and given by Mother Nature as a gift for us, it is important to experience their power and benefits next to experienced facilitators that help you and guide you through the process.
Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian plant brew which has been used for millennia by the indigenous people of the Americas, for healing purposes and for spiritual exploration.
The Ayahuasca effects and benefits vary greatly from each Ayahuasca experience to another. This is one thing you need to know: No two ceremonies are ever the same, and no two people ever have the same experience.
The Ayahuasca brew contains: Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and Chacruna (Psychotria viridis) or Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana) leafs. The vine contains harmine and harmaline which are MAO-A inhibitors, and tetrahydroharmine which is a weak serotonin uptake inhibitor. The leaves contain dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the strongest entheogen known to man. Ingested, the combination of these plants lead to the uptake of DMT by your brain where it will open your perceptions with an awakened state of consciousness.
Effects, Experience And Benefits
Ayahuasca’s effect is a state of altered, amplified consciousness that is experienced after drinking the Ayahuasca brew. The process with Ayahuasca principally is that of a physical cleansing or detox and of a psycho-emotional release. The physical cleansing is accompanied by nausea and eventually other emetic effects or purging: throwing-up, diarrhea, sweating, shaking, etc.
On a psychological level, the sacred medicine of Ayahuasca amplifies all feelings and perceptions making the experience of thinking, self-reflection, reaction and belief more vivid and intense. Not only does the inner experience of one’s mind gets more amplified, the part of us that is conscious and aware becomes able to draw clearer connections between the thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
This results in an experience of seeing the full picture of parts of our life, our relationships, our difficulties or so called “problems,” leading to insights about oneself and deeper comprehension of one’s reality. Essentially in the Ayahuasca experience not only our inner world is lit up and illuminated, but the capacity of consciousness is also amplified and expanded.
The visions
Ayahuasca is part of the family of sacred medicines that give us the chance to reach higher states of consciousness. The visions associated with the Ayahuasca experience, whether chaotic, confused, or vivid and intense, serve to show us the totality of our life: the in-s and out-s of the conscious and subconscious mind, our emotional reactions and behaviors and how they affect our relationships. On the other hand, the visions often are just another factor of cleansing, allowing us to process visual imprints, the impact from the mass media, TV, Internet, and other psychosomatic and emotional blockages.
In respect to a person’s spiritual aspirations, the Ayahuasca experience occupies a role of a spontaneous teaching. Without claims of a particular phenomenological status of what is the source of these teachings, an Ayahuasca practitioner can have very profound insights, revelations and even sense of being guided. Based on this, the Ayahuasca experience deserves to be approached with the utmost respect, so that one’s attitude or the intention is that of going to meet a spiritual master or teacher.
Kambo
Kambo is one of the sacred medicines we work with. It is the secretion of a frog called PhylloMedusa Bicolor which lives in the Upper Amazon and is also known as “Sapo”, “Dow Kiet” or “Vacina da Floresta”. The Giant Green Monkey Tree Frog is considered the King of the Forest by many Amazonian tribes because it has very few natural predators due to its potent secretion.
Traditionally kambo is used by tribal people to improve their hunting skills as they experience clarity and inner strength with the help of Kambo. It has also been used as a medicine for malaria, fever, infections and snake bites. On a spiritual level it was used as a powerful cleanser to clear out negative energy called Panema. Kambo is legal all over the world.