):( O ): || = || :( O ):(

l u z e n c a n t a d o r a (enchanted light)

2008-12-10T23:11:58Z

paintings by A l e x a n d r e S e g r e g i o

Excerpts from Enlightened by Hoasca :: Enchanted Journeys with the Sacred Tea
by Annelise Schinzinger
from the Issue No.78 of Shaman's Drum magazine, 2008

Countless moments of ecstatic joy, sublime bliss, and cosmic "ah-has" have punctuated my trajectory with Hoasca. However, it is the deep, transformative inner work facilitated by the tea that I have come to appreciate most, and that I want to highlight in this article. This plant teacher has an uncanny ability to focus attention on aspects of our lives that are ripe for growth and healing. It has certainly helped me face and transform negative personality traits and habits, such as self-doubt and blame.

Looking back now, from my present age of fifty-two, it seems like lifetimes ago that Hoasca helped me overcome a debilitating eating disorder. During my early twenties, I suffered from bulimia. It was painfully obvious that I needed to put an end to my destructive cycle of bulimia - and that it was up to me to do so. But I needed a reason and an awareness far greater than my myopic self, in order to break my addiction. I found it ironic that the spiritual group I was drawn to in Brazil uses a sacrament that prompts purging as a form of psychospiritual and physical cleansing. It didn't take long before I grew disgusted with the correlations between my purging in sessions and my vomiting at home.

In a few sessions, Hoasca had managed to instill in me a deep appreciation of our ultimate interconnectedness and a deep reverence for the sacredness of creation, compelling me to have more respect for the living earth and myself. Hoasca also helped me see that my behavior was an offense against nature, and I was struck with the need to assume full responsibility for my thoughts and actions. The profound psychospiritual insights facilitated by the tea, as well as my newfound appreciation of our Divine nature, made it possible for me to face and heal my eating disorder.

I have learned that the spiritual state of consciousness facilitated by Ayahuasca empowers us to confront and shake loose the shackles of self-defeating beliefs, and to reprogram our behaviors so they are conducive to personal and planetary health. The tea functions as a truth serum par excellence, helping us face our inner demons and the probable consequences of our addictive behaviors. By bringing memories of traumatic experiences into consciousness so that they can be relived, the tea heals and transforms the emotional defenses that underlie our imbalances and addictions.

This sacred tea has the amazing ability to take us on transformative journeys through unresolved past experiences. Sometimes it invites us literally to get under another person's skin and experience that person's feelings. For example, a friend who had betrayed his wife told me that he had experienced merging with her being and feeling the agonizing pain that his actions had caused her.

Hoasca engenders a profound sensibility that helps us connect to all creation and that seems to awaken our compassion and concern for the welfare of others. As we learn to trust the expanded state of consciousness and the exquisite sensitivity that is induced by the tea, we are able to surrender ever more deeply, allowing us to shed layer after layer of protective armor until we discover a fresh, untainted being underneath.

Working regularly with Hoasca helps us become aware of and grow familiar with the transcendent nature of consciousness. Many times, I found myself, and even the entire group, in an all encompassing field of clear light. Once, in a small ceremony held on the banks of a tributary in the Amazon, I saw a marvelous being of light, and I was transfixed by her wisdom, beauty and clarity. She appeared as a feminine presence who knows all and who has full access to everything. She taught me that consciousness can access everything - past, present, and future - in the timeless now, allowing us to be present in one time or another, all depending on our focus.

One obstacle to becoming more aware and present is that the Western mind has been conditioned to focus on the finite, material orientation of reality, thus emphasizing our physical manifestations. We have created the illusion of the primacy of time in order to facilitate consensus reality. In contrast, Hoasca opens us to other realities by facilitating our access to other realities by facilitating our access to past lives and future occurrances.

One of the marvelous transpersonal experiences afforded by the tea has been the gift of experiencing Gaia as a sentient living being - and as an extension of myself. Hoasca is sometimes referred to as a "religion of feeling," because it opens us to the realm of feelings, enabling us to sense and feel more deeply. By engaging the senses, it not only primes the body to experience colors, scents, sounds, textures, and tastes more fully, but also helps us open and attune in subtle ways to the Divine presence inherent in our bodies. Over the years, I have been given many opportunities to embody Gaia - both in her feminine glory and in her pain.

The first time I experienced Woman as an embodiment of Gaia was on the wedding day of close friends, celebrated in a session in Sao Paolo. In an expanded state of consciousness, I experienced the awesome, pristine, virginal beauty that suffused Gaia's paradise of forests, rivers, and waterfalls before the heavy-handedness of humans upset the balance. I was invited into the sacred place accessed through the inner garden of Woman, and I was shown that it is the portal to Gaia's womb.

During that session, I realized an old truth - that the human body is the temple of our consciousness in physical existence - and a new truth - that as guardian of the womb, the source of creation, the woman is the guardian of this treasure. I was shown how women are given the responsibility of embodying and taking care of this sacred garden, the chamber of creation, and how it is a blessing for spirits to be invited to dwell in the garden of creation with Love.

c o n s i s t e n t i n s p i r a t i o n

2008-12-10T22:02:48Z

Your task is not to seek for Love,
But merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.
.: R U M I :.

If God's secrets are unknown, don't despair.
Behind the mystery-curtain is a love-affair.
.: H A F I Z :.

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
.: D a w n a M a r k o v a :.

Ours is a religion of Love,
and yet it is not a religion
in the way that you understand religion.
We do not do our practices in order to come to realize God,
but rather we accept the Unity of God first
and then everything follows from that

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

.:.

Those who have awakened live in a constant state of amazement.

.:.

My religion is simple; my religion is kindness.
.: H.H. the D A L A I L A M A :.

Ultimately what we're touching is the invisible, all-pervasive Intelligence that surrounds us and penetrates us. It is grooming us to be able to tolerate its splendor. It can't just reveal itself openly because we would be forfeited; we'd never know what hit us.
.: T e r e n c e M c K e n n a :.

( +++ )

paintings by T o m P e r k i n s o n

gratitude to K a l a W r i g h t

s e r p e n t f e a t h e r s

2008-12-05T08:25:15Z

k a

d r e a m

h a l l e l u j a h

2008-12-01T05:38:06Z

. : .

"The shaman seers of the Fourth World generally agree that those who tenaciously cling to the past will fall into mass insanity. The serpent power of the Aquarian Age is upon us. The Kundalini of Gaia is about to awaken. No one can avoid being affected. Most human beings may go out of their minds; others will go beyond mind."
— John Hogue

love is revolution

2008-11-18T01:14:25Z

May You Soar In Peace
Sokhak Peng
.:.

s e l f l o v e h e a l i n g

2008-11-10T22:07:09Z

( +++ )

t r u s t t r u t h

2008-11-10T22:04:32Z

Art by Dennis Konstantin

( +++ )

TRUST * TRUTH

Trust = Totally Receiving Unconditional Support Today
Truth = Touching Reflections of Unlimited Totality & Holiness

GObama! Go!

2008-11-04T07:36:42Z

Painting by Alex Grey
(( big gratitude to both visionary geniuses ))

( +++ )

may you channel the cosmic yearning
of a million frustrated hearts
whose trembling frustration with a malignant government
have succumbed to the loss of democracy
at the hands of exploitative power elite

may you bring democracy back to the people
may you bring the vision to the future
may you be the voice of 21st century transformation
as we walk away from old paradigms that no longer serve us.

may our opportunities expand
towards sustainable alternatives and healthy environments
towards healthy communities and compassionate foreign relations
may our country be an example
of our highest ideals of equality, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness

may we walk boldly into the future
where paradigms of prejudice are as quaint as crinolines and horse'n'buggy
may we walk boldly into the future
with our vision set upon the seven future generations
may we walk boldly into the innovative future
emboldened with our genius creativity allowing sustainable technologies
to create dramatic pathways forward toward whole planet wellness.....

may we be blessed by your coming
and the footsteps of thousand generations coming
behind your trailblazing vigor

in all love and gratitude!!!!

BARACK THE CASBAH!
( +++ )

the great awakening

2008-11-04T07:15:15Z

art by KA

. +++ .

As foretold by the ancient prophecies of many indigenous peoples, we are now living in the tail end of this current world age era. As huge cosmic cycles are aligning and shifting, all life everywhere is affected. Upon the backdrop of complete uncertainty, relentless challenges and unfathomable universal sufferings, the Light is pouring into the inner domain of all willing souls. For those receptive beings, a new dimension of awareness is dawning - we are collectively awakening to a divine remembrance of who we are in our true nature as cosmic beings; warriors of love, truth, compassion and humble empowerment. This remembrance is the medicine our species needs to heal the dysfunctions and errors we have incarnated as children on this sacred earth. This remembrance is landing upon our planet, emanating throughout our universe, and catalyzing the illumination of our human consciousness and actions. This remembrance is guiding our journey of redemption, evolution and transmutation into our highest potential as awakening beings.

.:. 13 Moon .:.

divine yogic feminine

2008-11-04T07:03:29Z

. ::: .

align to magnify affinity with divinity

2008-09-30T19:32:18Z

. : : .

"Let me remind you who you really are: You are one of the chosen ones. You're a luminous being. A primordial miracle. A resplendent avatar. You are a deity in disguise--not a Buddha or a Christ, but of the same lineage and made from the same mojo.

I want to be sure you get what I'm saying. You're an immortal messiah. You have been around since the beginning of time and will be here after the end. Every day and in every way, you're getting better at playing the mysterious master game we all dreamed up together before the Big Bang bloomed.

Let me put it another way. You're a rebel creator longing to make the whole universe your home and sanctuary. You are a dissident bodhisattva joyfully struggling to germinate the seeds of divine love that are packed inside every moment.

It's time to remember. You are a shimmering burst of spiral hallelujahs that has temporarily taken on the form of a human being, agreeing to endure amnesia about your true origins. And why did you do that? Because it was the best way to forge the exquisitely unique and robust identity that would make you such an elemental force in our 14-billion-year campaign to bring heaven all the way down to earth.

You and I are freedom fighters scrambling and finagling and conspiring to relieve all of our fellow messiahs from their suffering and shower them with more blessings than they know what to do with. "

......::::: Excerpt from Pronoia by Rob Brezsny ::::::......

. : : .

p r e c e p t s

2008-07-09T05:13:31Z

f a i t h
h u m i l i t y
g r a t i t u d e
t r u s t
p r a c t i c e
d e v o t i o n
s u r r e n d e r
l o v e
b l i s s

/ ||| \

g o c o m p l e t e l y w i l d

2008-06-13T08:21:16Z

j a r a h t r e e

~ "We were born to fully be embraced by bliss" ~
Bradford Keeney ~ Podcast Interview

s t o n e . s p i r i t . w i s d o m

2008-06-10T21:02:07Z

. . : : : + : : : . .

q u o d o u s h k a

2008-06-10T09:47:47Z

. : : .

Quodoushka Interview Podcast With Ina "Laughing Winds" Mlekush

. : : .

You did what a lot of us do and that is we separate spirituality, life force energy and sexuality. Life force energy is what gives us the energy. You want to jump out of bed in the morning and hit the day running and we’re passionate about our careers and our families. That’s all sexual energy. That’s all spiritual energy. We really cannot separate that, that our sexual energy, our life force energy and our spiritual energy are actually the same. What we have in our culture is it’s been separated so that to be spiritual and to be sexual become two different states of reality when in fact, they are not.

What we need to do is we need to take the word sex or sexual and expand it beyond intercourse. So obviously, intercourse is a very powerful expression of our sexuality, especially when we learn through the Quodoshka that there are five levels of orgastic state and what happens in each of those five levels. But, if we simply just look at that, sex is much more than lovemaking and intercourse. Our sexual energy is our relationship to everything. Our relationship to other humans, to other animals, to the plant world, the mineral world, the human world, the spirit world. So, when we divide it, what we forget is that our sexual energy is more than jumping into bed and making love.

We are connected to everything. There is a Meridian gridline, we’re connected to everything. Now, there’s a difference between walking up to a beautiful tree, putting your body or your chakra against the tree, hugging the tree, breathing with the tree and finding your body go into an orgasm. You’re not – as you said it – boinking the tree. You are merging energy, life force energy. You can do the same thing with the boulder. You can do the same thing when you’re petting your cat or your dog, that there is a mutual energy connection.

If one is open to it, to allow the energy to flow out through what is called, from the native tradition, the fire from within, and the more concrete tradition, it’s called the kundalini, to allow that vortex of energy to flow through each of the different wheels – made for American term for chakras -- one can actually enter into an orgastic state through breathing. That orgastic state does not reach a climax like in ejaculation or what we call an orgasm for women, though women do ejaculate also. But, to reach that state means that you can plateau built, so like a pyramid, you can retire and heighten states of orgasticness that is a body, mind, spirit connection that you can experience with everything. It’s very respectful, and it actually does not have much to do with erections and genitals and in the physical engagement. It more has to do with the life force energy of one thing connecting to the life force energy of another thing and with no blocks, guilt, blame, shame, sexual repression with no violence that has been done to us in childhood, this energy will flow naturally into states of joy and orgasticness.

Read Full Article / Podcast

r y a n j o h n s o n

. : : .

m i s t a k e - a b i l i t y

2008-05-03T17:19:46Z

\\ |:|:| //

M i s t a k e - A b i l i t y
By Wahkeena Sitka Tidepool Ripple :: 2008

. : : .

We make mistakes. We are human beings; imperfect, unconscious some of the time, selfish and not thinking wisely always. Other human beings tend to look at us and make judgments about our lack of integrity. This I have come to accept is one of the primary rules or by-laws about living as a human being; that you must come to accept that other people will judge you. I feel that ultimately we all want peace of mind, which comes through a sense of integrity. But sometimes our integrity slips, and we act out of lack; we steal, we tell lies, we cut someone short, we fall through with our agreement, we don't do the dishes, we are late, etc.. The human story is one of drama, the drama of our experience, and our shared experience with other people. So many times, the story of "the drama" is a continuing saga of people frustrated with each other's lack of integrity; judging each other, holding each other accountable, and creating grudges. Thus creating psychic energies that have to be dealt with, healed, released, and oftentimes painfully evolved through.

We are imperfect human beings, we make mistakes, and we want to be loved. We want to be loved and accepted because ultimately it makes us happy and feel good about life and ourselves. Being loved gives us a sense of wholeness that we often feel we lack, and we look to the relationships in our lives to bring us that state of wholeness and completion in our being. But then those that love us, witness our lack of wholeness, witness our lack of integrity and our mistake-ability, and begin judging us and withdrawing their love bit by bit. We feel hurt, we feel abandoned, we feel betrayed, we feel confused, we feel judged. We become angry and seek vengeance on those we loved.

Withdrawing into the caverns of ourselves, we erect boundaries, self-protective measures, elaborate booby-traps to detect invading heart predators who might try and come too close to our vulnerability. Our hearts have created complex, unexplainable methods of sabotaging ourselves from receiving the love we desperately desire. We project our insecurities onto those around us, blaming others for our fears and we lose sense of our ownership for our experience. But we still want to be loved. We want to find that bridge back into the realm of blissful radiance. We want to feel nurtured and cared for. We want to relax into feeling connected to those we care about. We seek the perfect energetic relationship connection. We look for the bridge out of our cavern, so that we may walk from our heart into the heart of another.

But we do so with fear, knowing they will witness our lack of integrity; our mistake-ability. Ultimately afraid of not being accepted keeps us separated, with our hearts torn and broken, looking for that bridge forever. We cannot hope to be loved and accepted under conditions that we act a certain way, look a certain way, maintain rigid compliance to a set of behavioral patterns, follow rules, maintain responsibilities and schedules. Because we cannot be loved & accepted when we are trying to fit another person's image of what being perfect looks like. Since we are shamelessly, imperfectly human beings, we will always fall through somewhere, and despite our best attempts at lying and covering up our weaknesses, our mistake-ability will be discovered - it is only a matter of time.

So, it's time to be honest, mostly with ourselves. We have to be able to love and accept ourselves, despite our lack of integrity, despite our mistake-ability, because we will never be perfect and we will never appear perfect to another human being. Being glorified and put on pedestals of adoration does not equal being a perfect human being. Being enlightened does not mean you are perfect, it means you have attained a state of self-knowledge and can channel divine source-love to others from a space of compassion. An enlightened person loves and accepts themself, because they know they will never be perfect, knowing that in order to have peace of mind and to attain mindfulness clarity, they must love and accept themselves as they are; with their mistake-ability. No one will ever be perfect, so why hold others to standards and levels of expectation you cannot hope yourself to attain? Some people feel that you must put others through intense scrutiny, examining all the layers, waiting for that booby-trap moment where they show their lack of integrity, so you can judge them and mark them as imperfect; and thus not enlightened, not perfect, not equal with Jesus Christ, and not good enough to be loved.

The truth is, we are all good enough to be loved. When we decide to accept someone else as they are, despite their emotional process, despite their lack of integrity, despite their mistake-ability, we bring them into our hearts with unconditional love. This is the salve that mends our desperate, broken, torn hearts. We must be willing to be compassionate towards another person, letting go of the need to expect another person to be perfect, in order to be worthy of being loved. When we drop judgments and witness another person as they are, still able to express our perspective of imbalance, when we are able to nurturingly care for those we are in relations with; we embody the beauty of the Divine Mother. Forgiveness is the crucial key in this relationship, forgiving ourselves, accepting ourselves and loving ourselves as we are in totality - we are thus able to forgive others, accept others, with unconditional compassion.

When we enter into this realm of unconditional acceptance and non-judgmental compassion towards those we are in relations with, we are re-creating the sacred circle of wholeness with those we are surrounded with. We are reaching out and co-creating the magic of a unified love field, a circle of positive energy, where people feel comfortable being their free:ky selves, accepted as they are. Where people come together to celebrate the bliss of community, the support and love of people who see each other and accept each other despite our mistake-abilities, and give each other the hope and nourishment that our soul longs for. We come home, and we relax into the peaceful surrender of being received, being met, being nurtured, and being seen for who we are. Thus our heart weeps joy, and we know for fact within every cell of our bodies that love is the true medicine.

j a g u a r m e d i c i n e

2008-04-17T18:54:58Z

. : + : .

J A G U A R M E D I C I N E
An Excerpt by Alberto Villodo

During those years traipsing around the Amazon, inspired by McIntyre's discoveries, I came across the opportunity to study with many shamans and healers. Many of them were masters who worked with the ayahuasca vine, a plant with hallucinogenic qualities that is used ritualistically in their culture, which fascinated me. I remember observing one of these shamans, don Ramon, during his nighttime healing ceremonies, as he would load his pipe with jungle tobacco and turn to one of his patients and "sing his jaguar down from the tree." I asked him what he meant and he explained that like many people, the patient lived in constant fear, and that this fear was the result of a trauma experienced early in life that had not healed. He said, "This man's soul is like a terrified cat who escaped danger and quickly clambered up a tree, where it remains, hissing at anyone who comes near. The cat must come down, relax, and resume walking on the terra firma of the rainforest, or there will be no healing of the illness this fear has engendered in him."

As he worked with his patients, don Ramon would speak to them softly, reassuring them that their family was safe, that they were safe. Sometimes, he would massage a patient's belly, explaining to that "here is where the jaguar resides within each of us." I told him that in the west, we call the primitive, fearful response to trauma the "fight-or-flight" response, because it causes a creature to run away from danger or lash out in self-protection. The old shaman nodded, and said, "Yes, but when the danger has gone, an animal no longer holds on to its fear, while people will often remain in this state for many years."

The more I thought about it, the more excited I became about the potential of don Ramon's jaguar medicine. His explanation made total sense. Resetting a fight-or-flight response could free a patient from the devastating physiological effects of stress. While the fight-or-flight response can save our life in an emergency, we know that it is damaging to remain in that state for an extended period. During fight-or-flight the body produces and releases cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, hormones that shut down noncritical functions in favor of high energy bursts, enhanced alertness, quickened reflexes, and faster blood clotting, all of which are needed in times of danger.

The danger is that our physiological response to chronic stress is the same as during instances of danger. Our fight-or-flight hormones continue to wash through our system, and we soon have an oversupply of cortisol and adrenaline. Excess levels of cortisol break down tissues in virtually every corner of the body, accelerating the aging process. High cortisol levels weaken ligaments, muscle, blood vessels, and bone and can cause elevated blood sugar levels and high blood pressure, eventually leading to easy bruising and thin, nearly transparent skin that we associate with the elderly. Abnormal function of the fight-or-flight system has also been correlated with inflammatory diseases and deficient immune function. While in this state, the body suppresses the healing hormones we need to recover from stress. And while most animals have systems that allow them to shake off the fight-or-flight response as soon as danger has passed, we humans seem to have lost that ability.

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Until 1971, it was thought that the Nile was the longest river in the world. That year, National Geographic explorer Loren McIntyre, along with a local Indian guide and a friend who owned a pick-up truck, set out to discover the source of the Amazon. On October 15, 1971, McIntyre and his party reached a summit 18,200 feet in altitude, an icy ridge called Choquecorao from which they spotted a body of water 1,000 feet below them. Thirsty, they decided to descend to this small lake, and as they looked at the five brooks that trickled outward and down the mountainside, McIntyre realized they had found the origin of the great Amazon. This daring expedition would lead to the revelation that the twisting and turning river is longer than the Nile by nearly 100 kilometers, and would stir interest in uncovering the mysteries of this region of the world that had been almost completely hidden to westerners.[1]

McIntyre was an old-school explorer who relied more on guts, brawn, and instinct than on technology to help him navigate. I remember meeting him near the town of Pucalpa, Peru, the last navigable Amazon port. It was late in the spring of 1979, and I was an eager young man with a fresh PhD looking for an unexplored niche in anthropology. I had already spent nearly six years traveling to the Peruvian Andes and Amazon and had become a regular in the "Last Friday" club, a once-a-month gathering at the last waterhole in the jungle that served cold beer. At that time, many of us westerners who had come to the edge of the unexplored Amazon were searching for the legendary Mayoruna, a shy and elusive people who foraged and hunted in the deep jungle, so that we could study their ways. What made the Mayoruna so exotic to us was that they believed themselves to be jaguars who inhabited the bodies of men and women, and who tattooed their faces to look like jungle cats, even wearing whiskers during their ceremonies. Moreover, we were enticed by the rumor that they were able to "beam," transmitting their thoughts telepathically to each other.[2] The possibility that we might uncover and understand the secrets of the Mayoruna was exhilarating.

The only way for us budget explorers to launch an expedition to the remote regions where there were reported Mayoruna sightings was to hire one of the Irish pilots who worked at the local Christian mission to fly us on their seaplane on a Saturday, their day off, and pick us up the following week at the same spot. These extraordinary flyers risked their lives, and ours, as they landed their aircraft in turbulent river waters where logs the size of trees floated by. By far the biggest challenge, however, was getting them to remember the following week where they had dropped you off, as this was before GPS technology existed, and every bend in the river looked exactly like the next. We used to carry an emergency flare that we hoped would be dry enough to light the following week when the buzzing of the single engine plane circling above could be heard again. Needless to say, McIntyre not only found the Mayoruna before any of the rest of us did, he traveled with them for many months as they sought the source of their own river and what they called "the beginning of time itself."

During those years traipsing around the Amazon, inspired by McIntyre's discoveries, I came across the opportunity to study with many shamans and healers. Many of them were masters who worked with the ayahuasca vine, a plant with hallucinogenic qualities that is used ritualistically in their culture, which fascinated me. I remember observing one of these shamans, don Ramon, during his nighttime healing ceremonies, as he would load his pipe with jungle tobacco and turn to one of his patients and "sing his jaguar down from the tree." I asked him what he meant and he explained that like many people, the patient lived in constant fear, and that this fear was the result of a trauma experienced early in life that had not healed. He said, "This man's soul is like a terrified cat who escaped danger and quickly clambered up a tree, where it remains, hissing at anyone who comes near. The cat must come down, relax, and resume walking on the terra firma of the rainforest, or there will be no healing of the illness this fear has engendered in him."

As he worked with his patients, don Ramon would speak to them softly, reassuring them that their family was safe, that they were safe. Sometimes, he would massage a patient's belly, explaining to that "here is where the jaguar resides within each of us." I told him that in the west, we call the primitive, fearful response to trauma the "fight-or-flight" response, because it causes a creature to run away from danger or lash out in self-protection. The old shaman nodded, and said, "Yes, but when the danger has gone, an animal no longer holds on to its fear, while people will often remain in this state for many years."

The more I thought about it, the more excited I became about the potential of don Ramon's jaguar medicine. His explanation made total sense. Resetting a fight-or-flight response could free a patient from the devastating physiological effects of stress. While the fight-or-flight response can save our life in an emergency, we know that it is damaging to remain in that state for an extended period. During fight-or-flight the body produces and releases cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, hormones that shut down noncritical functions in favor of high energy bursts, enhanced alertness, quickened reflexes, and faster blood clotting, all of which are needed in times of danger.

The danger is that our physiological response to chronic stress is the same as during instances of danger. Our fight-or-flight hormones continue to wash through our system, and we soon have an oversupply of cortisol and adrenaline. Excess levels of cortisol break down tissues in virtually every corner of the body, accelerating the aging process. High cortisol levels weaken ligaments, muscle, blood vessels, and bone and can cause elevated blood sugar levels and high blood pressure, eventually leading to easy bruising and thin, nearly transparent skin that we associate with the elderly. Abnormal function of the fight-or-flight system has also been correlated with inflammatory diseases and deficient immune function. While in this state, the body suppresses the healing hormones we need to recover from stress. And while most animals have systems that allow them to shake off the fight-or-flight response as soon as danger has passed, we humans seem to have lost that ability.

I watched don Ramon and other shamans "bring the jaguar down from the tree," during their healing rituals and saw the immediate difference in their patients, who were visibly more relaxed and energized. Later, the healers would employ certain core processes including what they called "extraction" and "soul retrieval."

The extraction process draws out the "heavy" or noxious energies that have settled in the patient's body or his "luminous energy field" (LEF): the energetic envelope, or information field, that surrounds the physical body. This is the detoxification stage of healing, and it sometimes also involves ingesting plants that induce vomiting or herbs that cleanse the GI tract. The shamans explained to me that these illness-causing energies were often the result of envy or anger that had been directed at the patient by someone else. When lodged in the LEF or in the outer layers of the skin, these energies had to be sucked out of the patient. The shaman would place his mouth over the affected area of the body, suck audibly, then turn and spit out the invisible poisons. Sometimes, the shaman would even vomit fiercely as his physical body rejected the noxious energies he had removed from his patient. Other times, the shaman would using a stone or crystal to extract and contain them.

Many of the shamans I studied during my tenure in the Amazon, and later in the Andes, explained to me that the (LEF) contains a blueprint for how we will age, how we will heal, and how we might die. Encoded within this matrix are all the gifts and ailments we inherit from our parents, as well as data from all the traumas we have suffered in our lifetimes. Stories of betrayal, abandonment, and loss are stored in a holographic fashion in the tides and streams of life-force swirling about in the luminous field, creating dark, heavy spots among the whirls of lighter energy. If we have a family history for heart disease or breast cancer, this information is encoded in our LEF until we are healed of this legacy. In the Amazon, they refer to such legacies as "generational curses" handed down from parent to child to grandchild. The shamans explained to me that when a sorcerer wants to inflict harm on a victim, he merely needs to activate the codes in the LEF to manifest a generational disease in that person. Conversely, a healer could also trigger the gifts latent within a clients LEF. In effect, these shamans believe that the LEF provides instructions to our DNA to express certain genes.

For many years, I considered their stories about creating health or disease in others to be implausible, but then I wondered, if diet, exercise, meditation, and stress can inform gene expression, couldn't intention do the same? What about the well documented power of prayer to heal? Could someone with a malevolent intention send that toxic desire to exploit another's weaknesses, in the same way that a benevolent prayer could heal?

After the resetting the fight-or-flight system and the detoxifying the patient, the shaman practices what is called "soul-retrieval." This process summons the parts of the self that the patient has lost as a result of previous traumas. Don Ramon believed that these events, which the shaman called susto or "fright," may have split off parts of the patient's soul when she was an infant, or even in utero. Jealous spouses or competitors could also have stolen these soul parts – the confident self, the trusting self, the self who loves freely and feels worthy of being loved in return – in the patient's adulthood.

To retrieve these talents, possibilities, and potentials that have retreated to the hidden recesses of the patient's psyche, the healer will enter a trance state and allow his consciousness to temporarily depart from his body and journey to the "lower world," or what we might identify as the collective unconscious. There, the healer can discover and bring back those qualities of the personality that have been disowned, and that will allow a patient to embark upon their destiny. At this stage of the healing, the shaman will also prescribe certain herbs and foods that will help the body to rebuild and restore physical health.

Shamans say that the soul has such a longing for wholeness that it will recreate the conditions that caused the soul loss, because it hopes that another opportunity for healing will result in our integrating these fragmented aspects of the self. Unaware of their soul's wounding, the person will change jobs but end up with a similar boss, move to another city and wonder at how she ended up with neighbors who are just like those she left behind, or divorce the abusive spouse and end up in an identical marriage. If the shaman can discover the source of the original wounding, he can heal it, and break the self-destructive patterns. He does this by recovering the quanta of life force that was lost and returning it to its rightful place in the patients LEF.

Shamanic medicine is not a panacea, and shamans themselves will go to the emergency room when they have an acute condition. Western medicine remains the best trauma medicine that we know. Yet shamanic healing, with its emphasis on treating the body, mind, and soul as inseparable and continually influencing each other, can offer us fresh perspectives on dealing with the chronic conditions that afflict so many.

Recently, I invited a small group of travelers with me on a trip to the Amazon. Among these was a retired neurosurgeon who had suffered a stroke several years earlier and had lost significant motor function on the right side of his body. He was unable to set his right heel down, and had to walk very slowly with the aid of a walking stick. After a session with a renowned jungle shaman, he was able to set down his right heel for the first time in years. The following week, he accompanied me in an expedition to the Andes where he hiked up a mountain at 10,000 feet altitude unassisted. When I asked him what had happened, he simply said, "I have my stride back." The lost self who could walk forward confidently and unimpeded had returned, and his body was reflecting this profound change in the state of his soul.

f e m i n i n e e m b o d i m e n t

2008-03-18T07:26:21Z

a m a n d a s a g e

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a w a k e n e d b o d y

2008-02-13T20:15:55Z

d a r

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"Unconditional receptivity in the unperceived will open infinite possibilities. The dream mind does not speak. It only experiences. The dream mind does not question any experience. It lives them fully."

"The logical mind projects its preconceived imagery from memory over the environment that is familiar. During this projection, the dream mind is pushed away. Since it is the dream mind that can see the unexpected, during this projection you overlook the unexpected. But if you walk to the temple along a path that you haven't traveled before, you don't know what to expect or to look for. Then you see with awe and clarity. When the territory is unfamiliar, the sensory patterns are also unfamiliar. Then you can see things. This is because the physical mind has not yet categorized those unfamiliar perceptions and it does not push aside the dream mind. But in daylight, when the physical mind is assertive, it will soon define these unfamiliar perceptions."

...:::: Medicine of the Light by Amarananda Bhairavan ::::...

g r e a t g a l a c t i c m o t h e r

2008-02-13T20:06:36Z

i l l u m i n a t i o n d e s i g n

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a n d r o i d a n g e l

2008-02-13T19:28:04Z

a n d r e w j o n e s

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r e m e m b e r

2008-02-13T19:24:23Z

v i s u a l l y . o r g a s m i c

2008-01-21T04:31:29Z

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e m b o d y i n g d i v i n e i n t u i t i v e f e m i n i n e

2008-01-13T04:58:45Z

L C a r u a n a

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"When the (masculine) mystic in invoking the dream mind and assimilating the lesser (subconscious) selves, what remains inside is the intuitive feminine self. Though the mystic has a male body, his insides now are saturated with the essence of the Divine Mother. Similarly, the female mystic's insides are saturated with divine Shakti. At the right time, when these two join in a mystic union, the Shakti in one unites with the Shakti in the other. When Shaktis join, Divine Mother Kundalini wakes up in both and with the inner realms purified, awareness ascends, carrying the mystic's self-identity into the heart of the Divine Mother."

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"In a human with a masculine body the feminine self is usually repressed, and in one with a female body the masculine self is usually repressed. Generally, in normal people of both sexes the intuitive feminine self is repressed. Be they male or female. Only in mystically awakened men and women is this intuitive feminine self dominant. There are women who are as gross as some men are. The instinctive female, however, has a powerful presence in normal people of both sexes. She is required for the normal operation of all biological functions and for self-preservation. In mystics though, the intuitive female has a substantial presence. And almost no masculine self - this depends on the level of surrender to the dream mind. Intuitive feminine self is almost pure Shakti while the masculine self is almost pure matter. That is why, as the self-identity of a mystic ascends, he or she can take on any form with their pure awareness. They are not locked into matter like a gross male."

...::: Excerpt from Medicine of Light by Amarananda Bhairavan :::...

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t h e b e l o v e d

2008-01-13T04:39:42Z

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