Ayahuasca Diaries: The Sounds Of The Possessed Ceremony Hut.
When I take ayahuasca, I am a pretty quiet person.
With the exception of puking a rainbow... I am often pretty quiet. So quiet, people sometimes don't realize I am still next to them. If I'm not rocking my chair, they may think I've fallen asleep.
Everyone purges differently.
And, again, with the exception of puking the rainbow, my journeys into the medicine space are outwardly quiet.
But I am always listening. To the icaros. To my internal voice. And to the demonic and possessed sounds emanating from others.
And there was a lot of that during the week of the retreat.
Laughter. Loud and elongated yawns. Vomiting. Shower running. Crying. Sobbing. Random sounds of song coming from people. Conversations people are having out loud with themselves. Animals being unleashed from within the body.
In the meantime, during all of this, you have the icaros being sung and the instruments being played.
It's a lovely symphony.
The two most memorable demonic sounds from the past week still have me in awe and happy. Not say that when they were being purged by the people who were experiencing them that it wasn't rough. I am sure it was plenty rough. But I find it to be a happy experience - afterwards - because this kind of purging leaves you better off than when you came into ceremony.
The first was from a lovely and spunky woman from here in the States. She had been on the Sanango tour immediately proceeding the ayahuasca tour. And the Sananago medicine works differently than the aya medicine. Sanango works more deeply. It does interesting things to the mind and body, from what I understand.
Well, this woman would lay on her mat in ceremonies and work very hard to cleanse. And you could tell how hard she was working by her sounds. Mostly words.
"Maestro!" she was in a very loud, clear whisper. It would be elongated... "Maaeeessstttttrrrrooooo!"
When I first heard her saying it repeatedly in ceremony, I was a little worried for her. But then I realized it was a good thing. And the first three nights of ceremony, she would burst out with it from time to time.
Her mat was on the floor in the first row, right in the center. This meant Malcolm and Maestro Don Alberto were directly in front of her, about six feet away.
"Maaaaeeeessssttttttrrrroooo!" she said one time.
"Hola chica!" Maestro Don Alberto said to her, playfully, in Spanish... Causing us all to burst out laughing, mid-ceremony, in the dark.
"MMMMaaaaaeeesssttttrrroooooo! You are THERE and I am HERE!" she randomly said one time.
I laughed at that one. The second sentence was precise and sharp. Factual.
I was inspired and a little envious of her purging.
The second interesting sound I experienced was that of an animal sound. Just two seats away from me in ceremony sat a gentleman also from the States. Part way through the fourth ceremony, I heard growling coming from him. It sounded like he was a legitimate tiger in the jungle. It scared me at first too. The growling got stronger and stronger with the icaros. Till eventually it died down.
Post ceremony, he apologized to us sitting near him for the sounds.
"No way!" I told him. "It was cool! You sounded like a tiger!"
"Actually," he told me, "it was a dragon inside of me."
WHOA!
I felt all kinds of jealous. My purges and journeys were very tame in comparison. I wanted to tell him, "You're like fucking Khaleesi!"
I've never been scared of the ceremony. It's always been a beautiful experience, ultimately. But you appreciate what people go through in it. Especially when you see/hear them going through it. You are ripping off layers and exposing yourself very raw in an emotional space.
You're getting all that tries to possess you out of you.
With the exception of puking a rainbow... I am often pretty quiet. So quiet, people sometimes don't realize I am still next to them. If I'm not rocking my chair, they may think I've fallen asleep.
Everyone purges differently.
And, again, with the exception of puking the rainbow, my journeys into the medicine space are outwardly quiet.
But I am always listening. To the icaros. To my internal voice. And to the demonic and possessed sounds emanating from others.
And there was a lot of that during the week of the retreat.
Laughter. Loud and elongated yawns. Vomiting. Shower running. Crying. Sobbing. Random sounds of song coming from people. Conversations people are having out loud with themselves. Animals being unleashed from within the body.
In the meantime, during all of this, you have the icaros being sung and the instruments being played.
It's a lovely symphony.
The two most memorable demonic sounds from the past week still have me in awe and happy. Not say that when they were being purged by the people who were experiencing them that it wasn't rough. I am sure it was plenty rough. But I find it to be a happy experience - afterwards - because this kind of purging leaves you better off than when you came into ceremony.
The first was from a lovely and spunky woman from here in the States. She had been on the Sanango tour immediately proceeding the ayahuasca tour. And the Sananago medicine works differently than the aya medicine. Sanango works more deeply. It does interesting things to the mind and body, from what I understand.
Well, this woman would lay on her mat in ceremonies and work very hard to cleanse. And you could tell how hard she was working by her sounds. Mostly words.
"Maestro!" she was in a very loud, clear whisper. It would be elongated... "Maaeeessstttttrrrrooooo!"
When I first heard her saying it repeatedly in ceremony, I was a little worried for her. But then I realized it was a good thing. And the first three nights of ceremony, she would burst out with it from time to time.
Her mat was on the floor in the first row, right in the center. This meant Malcolm and Maestro Don Alberto were directly in front of her, about six feet away.
"Maaaaeeeessssttttttrrrroooo!" she said one time.
"Hola chica!" Maestro Don Alberto said to her, playfully, in Spanish... Causing us all to burst out laughing, mid-ceremony, in the dark.
"MMMMaaaaaeeesssttttrrroooooo! You are THERE and I am HERE!" she randomly said one time.
I laughed at that one. The second sentence was precise and sharp. Factual.
I was inspired and a little envious of her purging.
The second interesting sound I experienced was that of an animal sound. Just two seats away from me in ceremony sat a gentleman also from the States. Part way through the fourth ceremony, I heard growling coming from him. It sounded like he was a legitimate tiger in the jungle. It scared me at first too. The growling got stronger and stronger with the icaros. Till eventually it died down.
Post ceremony, he apologized to us sitting near him for the sounds.
"No way!" I told him. "It was cool! You sounded like a tiger!"
"Actually," he told me, "it was a dragon inside of me."
WHOA!
I felt all kinds of jealous. My purges and journeys were very tame in comparison. I wanted to tell him, "You're like fucking Khaleesi!"
I've never been scared of the ceremony. It's always been a beautiful experience, ultimately. But you appreciate what people go through in it. Especially when you see/hear them going through it. You are ripping off layers and exposing yourself very raw in an emotional space.
You're getting all that tries to possess you out of you.
Comments