Ayahuasca (aya) is one of the strongest, naturally occurring plant-based psychedelics from Amazon forest, maintained for thousands of years by indigenous tribes. A Psychedelic is a medicine, affecting all the senses, altering a person's thinking, sense of time and emotions, and giving a hallucinogenic experience.
Aya is medicine that is meant to give you an out of body and out of mind experience; and in the process helping you cleanse some physical and mental issues also. (It is also called a near death experience). Aya can help you connect with nature, the universe, see your subconscious, previous lives, and much more, varying from individual to individual. It is known to have helped people cure some mental health issues, physical issues, connect them with their roots, make them humbler, calmer and more surrendering to the universe. No two individuals will have the same journey after consuming the medicine, and the same individual will also not have the same journey after consuming aya at multiple different occasions.
My Aya journey:
When I had aya, within 20 mins or so, I started feeling feverish and the body was paining (somewhat similar to when you get a high fever). Within 30 mins or so, I could not feel my body, and lost my conscious logical mind. Remember: It is important to surrender to the process, go with the flow wherever it takes you, without knowing / understanding / controlling it; otherwise you may have a tough journey. Subsequently what followed was 3+ hours of pure bliss. I witnessed
- nature, forests
- universe, floated in the stars
- saw some things from my subconscious,
- many ideas / words / expressions from some other world (possibly from previous lives) which I could not comprehend well, then or yet
I purged once, and yawned a few times. They say it's the process of letting go of unnecessary elements from your mind and body.
My learnings / interpretations from the Aya journey are:
- It's a humbling experience to give up your mind, control (ego) and go with the flow of the universe and nature.
- I got the re-enforcement that there is a lot more when we go beyond our mind (all spiritual teachings emphasize it). The soul, spirit, oneness are way deeper parts of our inner journeys.
- Aya lets you hack through this portal of the universe (beyond mental comprehension) and you can see glimpses of unimaginable experiences.
- Aya is a tough journey, not for the weak hearted, it's like playing with fire, dont do it unless you are strong willed or definitely needing to do it.
- Eventually life may end like that experience only, when one leaves his mind / body and merges into the universal oneness. Aya helps you show glimpses of that, which may be useful when you come back to life and try to make more sense of it and live it with a wider / deeper perspective.
- We should try to live life by going with the flow, accepting all outcomes, many things we dont control anyways, and not carry too many attachments unnecessarily. If we can eliminate fear of the outcome, do what we love, and not carry any attachments - This is the mantra of peaceful life anyways.
- Aya experience does not make you spiritual. It makes you aware of what spirituality can lead to, the deepest inner journey.