Colombia, located next to Peru and Brazil. It’s a country that is part of the biggest rainforest of the world, the amazon.
In the amazon all plants and animals are different and much bigger than everywhere else.
Did you also know that the Amazon has the most variety of plants and species of all forests and jungles?
That could be one reason why the indigenous people in this area are so connected to Mother Nature and use the plants for different manners. The Amazon has plenty of plants that works as a medicine for the body. The experts and herbal medicine mans, who are working with this herbs already for more than 5000 years, are called shamans.
One of their most famous ceremonies, which is prepared with a hallucinogenic wine, is called Ayahuasca.
Or also Yage. It’s made out of different plants from the Amazon.
This medicine gives you the possibility to connect to Mother Nature, to your true inner being, your spirit. It forces hallucinogen circumstances, but not like chemical drugs as LSD with movie sceneries where you you are just an actor without big influences.
It’s more that you have visions and can ask your spirit what you want to change, who you are and what your mission is on this planet.
As a spiritual and rebellious adventure lover I was playing already for more than one year with the idea of taking Ayahuasca. Firsts he plan was to do it in Costa Rica.
But in the end I hadn’t enough time. So when I’ve been already in Colombia, I decided I want to take Ayahuasca with original shamans in a country, where it comes from.
So I found the weekend retreat with Camino al Sol.
We met on a Friday afternoon in Medellin, to get a shuttle to the community farm in the mountains, one hour from there, I was together with 10 other spiritual seekers in the same age in the bus to our retreat.
In the bus one guy had a Ukulele, like me. So we started with a small music session in the bus.
The mood was already good and I felt very safe and was looking forward to it.
Of course before I was a little bit afraid of the unknown medicine and it’s different experiences and effects of people.
I had many doubts the days before.
But once I sat in the bus, I was sure it was the right decision.
When we came to the simple but beautiful small community with a traditional “boye”, the ceremony hut, we got a quick introduction and could choose a bank bed in the house.
There was no dinner in the night, because it’s said you shouldn’t eat something after 2pm anymore before a ceremony.
So we got some tea, fruit juice and water.
My first Ayahuasca session
At around 7pm we started the ceremony with a cleaning therapy. We should clean our body with a warm special herbal bath. While we were taking the bath as a shower bath, we should focus on our intention, what we want to achieve with Ayahuasca 
and want to ask our spirit.
After the herbal bath we had to go into another room, where we got a fire treatment with candle light buy one of the shaman helpers. Always with the focus on our intention.
At around 8pm we started the ceremony with the circle of words, where the shaman chose a topic to talk, share and discuss in the circle. The topic of the first day was about all the bad energy and vibes right now on earth. How can we change the earth by producing and spreading more love on this planet to limited the evil side.
After one hour we got our sacred medicine, the Yage wine.
Each of us took a small cup of the wine and we sat down in our chairs in the circle around the warm fireside. But they also offered us to lie down on the ground, if we preferred.
I decided to sit in the chair, because I was already tired and afraid I would fall asleep.
The light turned of. Just a small fireside in the middle. It took around 15 minutes when the first of our group went out to vomit. Vomiting is a ritual of cleaning the body. I didn’t vomit at all.
Either my body didn’t want to let it go or I was already very clean by my healthy nutrition.
Anyway, while a lot of the group went out and one started even to cry right next to me, I didn’t feel anything than cold and tiered and queasy.
Suddenly after 1,5 hours, my stomach rumbled and after that the visions started. Very decent first, than stronger. But I saw everything always like a snippet on a screen in front of me, when I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I was back in reality.
I asked two questions to my spirit. First one to guide me to the light and the second regarding some happening in my past. I had not the chance to experience a lot of visions of my past life. All visions that came up were far away from my personality and ego. It was about the truth of life, our planet earth, about ancient history and culture, about the universe, the existence and intelligence we are after all made of. Very abstract. But I felt always safe and still the director of my thoughts and conscious mind.
You just can’t choose the visions; you can just change your questions and intention, what you want to know.
The spirit will give you the answer.
Even though you might have bad experience or visions. It’s just a process and way to connect with Mother Nature and your own spirit. Everyone gets what he needs and can receive.
After the first round of Ayahuasca the shaman medicine men gave the men in our group a special treatment on their naked upper bodies.
Women should become one outside, but maybe they forgot it.
Then we started with the second round of Ayahuasca. Followed by 1,5 hours silence and darkness again.
The darkness and silence should help you to focus on your visions.
At around 4am they started to play music. It’s where you find back in community and harmony, enjoy your visions and constitution and connect to mother earth, your environment and the people around you.
It’s filling you with love and most of us are all happy.
In this very late part at the end, you can also lay down to sleep. Otherwise you sing and celebrate till the morning light, when the ceremony officially ends.
A day to recover
After a sunny morning and a breakfast most of us went to bed to sleep for a few hours. I couldn’t sleep very long. So I decided to go for a slow run or more active walk. I had the desire to connect more with the nature. The sun was brightly shining and suddenly I realized that the colors of the nature were so must stronger and intensive.
I went alone to connect 100 percent without distraction and had a enough to think about my visions from last night.
The day between the second Ayahuasca sessions was supposed to be the day of relaxation and discover from a long night. And you have the time to prepare yourself for the next session. So that’s what I eventually did.
Each of us became a few individual herbal treatments with massage, acupuncture and herbal preparations.
My second Ayahuasca session
The second Ayahuasca session happened almost after the same procedure. Just that the personal result might be completely different. And it was also for me.
I was preparing myself the previous two days to set the right intention, to ask the right questions, and especially to try to have a lighter vision.
I wanted to experience more love. I saw so much evil in the previous session that I asked my spirit now for more love. Just to know its there and I am still in believe this still can be a positive, light and lovely place in the future.
And what I got was a 4-hour-disco in my head with laugh, lots of colors and lovely warm feelings. In the beginning I started to ask questions to my spirit, but the figures I saw dancing in front of me where just smiling and said, “let’s dance”. Colorful tribals, funny animals, dancing figures were all in front of me. If I would compare my visions and feelings at that time it was maybe like on a LSD trip and MDMA together.
In the beginning I was a little bit disappointed, because I had such clear and strong visions in the first session, even I saw a lot of darkness, it was so real and true. And that’s what I was looking for with taking Ayahuasca. It was for me a spiritual experience; I was not there for taking any drugs.
But it must have had a reason. Maybe because I was asking for more light and love or maybe I was not ready for more visions. So I tried to let go and to enjoy this experience right now.
I smiled almost the whole time, I couldn’t really move or talk, but felt just like a baby in the stomach of a mother. Protected, warm, little light in this soft dark night. Until I fell asleep in my hammock, with a big smile and lots of love inside of me.
Namasté! Gracias mi espíritu! Gracias medicina!
The visions you may have are always different. No Ayahuasca session is equal.
It depends on how you are prepared for it and if you are ready for it. Ready to connect with your spirit, set your intentions and the followed the recommended diet in advance.
You might have no visions at all, because you are not really seeking for a spiritual experience.
Like this Asian guy living in America, who was working the whole time during this retreat and even in our holy Ayahuasca session, he was sitting next to me with his iPhone in the ceremony and was playing on his phone while he was waiting for his visions. Poor guy!
He always ask our shaman for more Ayahuasca, but he just smiled at him with the words, that’s not about the amount of taking Ayahuasca, it’s about how ready you are for the reality and your spirit. He definitely wasn’t.
Or you can have a personal experience like Sam.
He saw in his visions a meat factory where they where killing animals and produced grocery meat out of it.
After that intensive vision, he told me afterwards, he feels like he wants to become a vegetarian.
Wow, isnt it impressive that this medicine can change a person just in one night?
You can easily change your habits and values rapidly, depending on your intention and questions.
In general I can recommend Ayahuasca or other shamanic sessions next to meditation.
It brings you back to the source of the truth, of how you really are and connects you with the nature, earth and our universe.
But you need to be ready for it. Ready to drop your ego and enter a different level of being.
If we are not trying to understand the endless universe where we live in, we might miss a great opportunity.
LIVE YOUR LIFE 