Travelling the land and opening the mind

By Ari | May 7, 08 12:49 PM

A friend of ours is traveling to a jungle in Peru to take ayahuasca and is getting ready for the trip in his usual thoughtful style:

What helps us plug in, and stay plugged in, to stories of reality that disempower us? Certainly all forms of media, including advertisements and billboards. But I'm guessing that on a deeper level the very structures of our lives, the very things I'm supposed to miss such as electricity and toilets, keep us plugged in to a "modern American" reality that is simply our story, a story not shared by everyone on the planet.

I really identify with this idea. I found that the trip Shira and I took to India was eye-opening in ways I never expected. There's something about flushing your toilet with a bucket, taking cold showers, and being sold handmade items in bags made out of recycled newspaper instead of plastic, that makes Western environmental activism and "conservation" look woefully inadequate. It was that trip that made Shira and I get into low impact living, waste reduction, and drastically reduced consumption with more depth and enthusiasm and understanding than we ever had before. Today these practices are a huge part of our lives, but it was traveling and seeing different ways of living firsthand that turned everything around for us.

Combine a trip like that with ayahuasca and I imagine the effects must be even more profound. Keep an eye on Bunnykitteh's blog for updates.


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Comments

I've heard ayahuasca/yahe is a sort of cottage scam run by Peruvians nowadays: It's this weed that grows everywhere and yet gringos come out of the woodwork to pay good money to sit in hammocks and guzzle this stuff they can make for pennies. Somebody said, "There never used to be so many 'shamans' here before all the Anglos came and started asking for it."

Posted by: J | May 11, 2008 09:16 PM

I think in a lot of cases you're right - but if you can find someone to give you the real deal, it's reportedly worth every penny. Read Daniel Pinchbeck's "Breaking Open the Head" for a critical but ultimately positive account of an ayahuasca trip.

Posted by: Ari Moore | May 12, 2008 11:37 AM

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