I appreciated reading about your experience! I just had my first journey and wrote at length about it on here too. But I whole heartedly encourage you to ground the mystical— it’s much needed in a landscape of spiritual posers!
It takes courage to communicate with our "plant teachers." I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go there again, perhaps even more so after reading your experience. I suppose it is human arrogance that brings forth the need to explain everything on heaven and earth. Then again, "what happens when I die?" is perhaps based on a deep longing to continue with our journey. Do I return to earth consciousness and become part of a much larger "being," do I maintain my own identity as a nonphysical being or ghost, do I fade into nothingness, or none of the above? There is also a joy in trying to piece some of the mysteries together and I look forward to reading your future posts!
Our bodies are designed to be temples of the Holy Spirit and we have physical wiring that lights up in the presence of spiritual beings. So physical substances can affect that wiring. Decades ago I became enamoured with the herb Angelica archangelica. A common name for it centuries ago was The Root of the Holy Spirit. I grew a bed of the herb and it grew into splendid five foot tall plants. It is a member of the celery/fennel family and has thick celery like stalks and a fragrance like celery crossed with frankincense. One day I was slicing a pile of the stalks and the air was filled with the fragrance. Suddenly I was filled with the sensation that I term the Holy Place Feel, that can happen when the Holy Spirit manifests as a felt presence in a group of people in prayer. It lasted only for moments and I said to myself, “So that’s why they called it the Root of the Holy Spirit” for it had touched that part of me that responds with a feeling in the Presence.
You probably know that the word translated as “sorcery” in the New Testament is pharmakeia - enchantment with drugs.
Yes, there are marvels both good and bad that modern western thinking has difficulty accommodating in its system.
I have absolutely no experience with any psychedelics or drugs of any kind. I haven't even ever smoked a cigarette. (Saint emoji!) And I am pretty sure I never will - I just don't feel any need for it. These days I feel very much like the odd one out! But some things I've heard said in recent times confirm for me why I feel like this. In these times where I believe we are learning to step into our own authority and not outsource it to external parties, and speaking purely for myself, I see ingesting plant and other substances for spiritual purposes as being all part and parcel of this outsourcing. Most people I know who have had mind-blowing psychedelic experiences are very sure it was the substance that made them possible, and yet I do wonder if there was really no other way? One intuitive who talks about this is Gigi Young.
And have you come across Jaqueline Hobbs, otherwise known as "Oracle Girl"? She's recently been talking about the plant world and drew my attention to the fact that plants are part of the land where they grow. They grow in symbiosis with the soil life around them. So if we even drink a herbal tea made with plants that grew far away from us, can we know what we are really taking into our bodies and its full complexity and what interaction it will have with us?
Also, what are we trying to control by going down this path? Could it be part of that ultimate addiction Rami Shapiro writes about? Is the perception that handing oneself over to the plant is actually letting go of control? I've heard it described that way and at the same time is there not a control impulse behind the desire to do it? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
yikes. that sounds like an unfairly challenging setting for an ayahuasca journey, and an inexperienced shaman. if the only place to see clients is an apartment with no space to spread out while they're turning themselves inside-out—why not just do one-on-one sessions? why cram a bunch of strangers in together? and "chill the fuck out, you're bothering people" is THE WORST thing to say to somebody on *any* psychoactive—even something as mild as cannabis!—let alone *ayahuasca*. christ almighty. i'm sorry you had to go through that.
thanks for sharing this, and i can't wait to read more of your explorations in this direction.
I appreciated reading about your experience! I just had my first journey and wrote at length about it on here too. But I whole heartedly encourage you to ground the mystical— it’s much needed in a landscape of spiritual posers!
Thank you for this, Rebekah.
It takes courage to communicate with our "plant teachers." I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go there again, perhaps even more so after reading your experience. I suppose it is human arrogance that brings forth the need to explain everything on heaven and earth. Then again, "what happens when I die?" is perhaps based on a deep longing to continue with our journey. Do I return to earth consciousness and become part of a much larger "being," do I maintain my own identity as a nonphysical being or ghost, do I fade into nothingness, or none of the above? There is also a joy in trying to piece some of the mysteries together and I look forward to reading your future posts!
Our bodies are designed to be temples of the Holy Spirit and we have physical wiring that lights up in the presence of spiritual beings. So physical substances can affect that wiring. Decades ago I became enamoured with the herb Angelica archangelica. A common name for it centuries ago was The Root of the Holy Spirit. I grew a bed of the herb and it grew into splendid five foot tall plants. It is a member of the celery/fennel family and has thick celery like stalks and a fragrance like celery crossed with frankincense. One day I was slicing a pile of the stalks and the air was filled with the fragrance. Suddenly I was filled with the sensation that I term the Holy Place Feel, that can happen when the Holy Spirit manifests as a felt presence in a group of people in prayer. It lasted only for moments and I said to myself, “So that’s why they called it the Root of the Holy Spirit” for it had touched that part of me that responds with a feeling in the Presence.
You probably know that the word translated as “sorcery” in the New Testament is pharmakeia - enchantment with drugs.
Yes, there are marvels both good and bad that modern western thinking has difficulty accommodating in its system.
Thanks for sharing this, Rebekah.
I have absolutely no experience with any psychedelics or drugs of any kind. I haven't even ever smoked a cigarette. (Saint emoji!) And I am pretty sure I never will - I just don't feel any need for it. These days I feel very much like the odd one out! But some things I've heard said in recent times confirm for me why I feel like this. In these times where I believe we are learning to step into our own authority and not outsource it to external parties, and speaking purely for myself, I see ingesting plant and other substances for spiritual purposes as being all part and parcel of this outsourcing. Most people I know who have had mind-blowing psychedelic experiences are very sure it was the substance that made them possible, and yet I do wonder if there was really no other way? One intuitive who talks about this is Gigi Young.
And have you come across Jaqueline Hobbs, otherwise known as "Oracle Girl"? She's recently been talking about the plant world and drew my attention to the fact that plants are part of the land where they grow. They grow in symbiosis with the soil life around them. So if we even drink a herbal tea made with plants that grew far away from us, can we know what we are really taking into our bodies and its full complexity and what interaction it will have with us?
Also, what are we trying to control by going down this path? Could it be part of that ultimate addiction Rami Shapiro writes about? Is the perception that handing oneself over to the plant is actually letting go of control? I've heard it described that way and at the same time is there not a control impulse behind the desire to do it? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
yikes. that sounds like an unfairly challenging setting for an ayahuasca journey, and an inexperienced shaman. if the only place to see clients is an apartment with no space to spread out while they're turning themselves inside-out—why not just do one-on-one sessions? why cram a bunch of strangers in together? and "chill the fuck out, you're bothering people" is THE WORST thing to say to somebody on *any* psychoactive—even something as mild as cannabis!—let alone *ayahuasca*. christ almighty. i'm sorry you had to go through that.
thanks for sharing this, and i can't wait to read more of your explorations in this direction.
for whatever it's worth, my first thought on reading this was 'I've never felt so glad I'm not a woman.'