I’m driving south on I-5 heading toward Encinitas. Portia, from the foundation, asked me if I would go there and check out an Indian medicine man who claims he can cure depression, anxiety and addictions using an herbal remedy and conducting a guided ceremony. “You always said you were interested in medicinal plants” she says with a grin. I arrive at a suburban house where I’m led to a backyard ‘Ashram’ where I’m met by Truenos, a Peruvian medicine man. He greets me at the door with a bow and says “come in come in ..we’re about to begin” I detect the sweet nature of serenity, like walking into a Buddhist sangha ..reinforcing my belief that Indians and Asians have a lot in common. Truenos stops, looks me in the eye and kindly suggests that I leave my preconceived notions behind. I clench my teeth and wonder whether I thought that or said that. Either way who cares. I join a circle of people sitting on cushions around a big brass table. There are feathers, candles, water, stones, and in the center, a large hookah. So naturally, the next thought running through my mind is how similar this looks to the time I was in college ..when suddenly I hear Truenos say that this will be like nothing we have ever experienced before.
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Scenes from my life flicker by like images on a movie screen. Each one leading nowhere. Snakes crawl out of the patterns from the Persian rug I’m sitting on. Brought to me courtesy of my reptilian brain I suppose. Just then I hear our guide say “Pre-suppositions may get in your way .. like stones in the road.” Appropriate metaphor I think. Then I hear him say “Words are just a child banging on a drum .. the rhythm you hear is actually a loop playing inside your head” and I go, hey, another cool metaphor. Then I stop and think, how many times has that phrase looped through my head today ..then [poof] I don’t remember anything after that. Afterwards he explains to me how your own thoughts determine where the drug will take you ..and how often that can be nowhere.
3 comments:
yea... so you don't remember anything after that... so what were your impressions of the whole experience. Did it serve you in some way that you can put words to? Curious.
Steven ..! Yeah ..Don’t do this at home..! I think there is value to hallucinogens if they’re taken as part of a guided session ..instead of recreationally. I remember the chanting ..that was soothing ..my mouth going numb ..and laughing at my own rationalizations ..especially the ones that kept trying to convince me that this was a better idea than spending the day in the surf at Cardiff.
I suppose if I had addictions to kick ..any rationalizations sustaining them would have seemed awfully silly.
Thank you Steven
Interesting, indeed. When my husband killed himself, I went to an American guy who is initiated in a Peruvian form of shamanism... medicine man style, I suppose. He does mind-body stuff/therapy... dang, I can't remember the technical term for his healing arts form. There was no hookah, but there was some sort of healing water that he sprinkled me with, before we began our Journey. I was intrigued with the little prayer mat that he showed me days before we began the Journey, and all the little totems that surrounded it... and yes, of course, there was a snake. I was more taken with replica of a little old woman, with really long, white hair. The Journey was interesting, to say the very least.
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