When people ask me this, they’re usually asking one of two things;
1. What will the effects be?
The effects very much differ between people, but I’ve come to realize that everyone gets what they need from it depending on where they are on their path. Expect a shift in perception and the bringing up of unresolved feelings and memories, ready to deal with and release for good. Visions and insights often come like bolts from the blue, and purging (vomiting or otherwise releasing past trauma and baggage) is common. There’s often giggling, laughing, smiling and singing when people start to relax and stop taking it so seriously! The ceremonies are conducted in a beautiful space that provides ample room for people to move elsewhere if something going on around them is disturbing them.
2. What will I get out of it?
In this sense, the plant medicine doesn’t do anything in itself, but opens the space and state of awareness, providing you with the option (strong encouragement) to do the work in being open, honest with yourself, and willing to experience and release whatever comes up. The medicine opens the heart, shines the light and opens the doors. Drinking in ceremony with the idea that the medicine is going to magically bestow gifts and universal knowledge whilst ignoring the issues closer to home will lead to disappointment. These things come later down the line.
Spirituality is not visions from other galaxies, God-like knowledge or powers, or talking to the dead. To live in Spirituality, start with cleaning the house and opening the space for it.
The plant medicine is a mirror – reflecting that back to us those things that we want to see and those that we don’t. The real work in my experience, and this takes practice, is taking the middle path as it’s referred to in Buddhism – being in ceremony and experiencing anything that may come up – thoughts, sensations, emotions and visions neither resisting those perceived as negative nor becoming attached to those perceived as positive. This is how you come to learn your mind and it’s many subtle and not-so-subtle layers.
