Ayahuasca in our Masterplant Retreats
These days many people have heard about ayahuasca in some context. This was very different only 10 or 15 years ago.
In our retreats we use this medicine for learning and healing.
The way we work with the medicine is with much respect and honoring the step-by-step process to get in touch with these plants.
The ayahuasca we use has the Ayahuasca vine (MAOI: monoamine oxidase inhibitor) and the Chacruna (DMT plant) in it.
The Ayahuasca vine can be seen as a masculine energy, the Chacruna can be seen as a feminine energy.
Both together is called in Shipibo "Oni", which refers to Big Wisdom.
We don’t offer the medicine to you as just a psychedelic substance. Of course it has psychoactive effects, as this is part of the journey and part of these strong medicinal plants from the jungle.
Everyone develops a different relationship with ayahuasca. You are invited in our retreats to build up your own relationship with it, as long as you feel aligned with us.
When you choose this medicine to support and guide you over a longer time, the experience will have many different facets.
Most of our participants come with a certain spiritual connection and experience. They come to deepen their learning and healing journey with us.
Ayahuasca can be a gentle journey and it can be a very intense, challenging journey. Often it is a mix of both.
We never know how the journey will unfold.
Long-term effects from Ayahuasca:
This really depends individually.
Some common examples of long-term effects are: greater self-acceptance, more compassion, less depression, less anxiety, improved interpersonal relationships, less or no alcohol and drug abuse anymore, better health behaviours, cosmic shifts in worldview, feeling changes on a cellular level, feeling more connected to life, new understanding about love, positive influences on creativity, alignment, realisation about personal new meaningful activities in life.
With Ayahuasca we can heal deep-rooted trauma and limitations in our mental, emotional, somatic and spiritual field.
We can understand psychological patterns better, same as learning about the vastness of the universe and its energies.
There are people who healed through that as well physical manifestations, which appeared in symptoms, sickness or illness.
There is no promise we can make, and many things are possible.
Ayahuasca, Purging and Cleaning
Especially for people who come for the first time, this part is a very important one and is the start to connect with higher frequencies and energies.
Before the plant can be planted inside of the energy field of a person, this field needs to be cleaned.
Depression, pharmaceuticals, drugs, addiction energy, abuse, guilt, shame and so on will be started to be cleaned out of our system.
All dense energies need to leave before higher life-supportive energies can flow freely through us and support us in life.
The purging looks different for each one. Common purging is: vomiting, diarrhea, shaking, freezing, sweating, looping thoughts, intense emotions, nausea and so on....
This purging quality is a huge gift, as the plant helps us to become more pure and is cleaning our whole vessel.
For some people the purging is a quick thing and for others it can take a long time.
The manner in which people purge and release energy can be very different. It's through this process of cleansing that ayahuasca can act as well as a preventative for a variety of illnesses and imbalances.
Trauma and Ayahuasca
Especially for people who carry deep trauma energy in them, we start with very small dosages and go up very carefully, to not overwhelm, instead to give the chance to connect slowly and to build trust with the medicine and ceremonial space.
Ayahuasca can help immensely to release and move stuck emotions and trauma experiences.
This medicine can help to see and experience from different angles. When we experience expansion in our mind, in our heart and with our spirit, limitations can change, so we become more open and energies can flow in more directions.
The Retreat Process
We ask for silence time and fasting times.
People who just drink Ayahuasca with us are sharing the space as well with people who are participating in a plant diet with the tree (Sama).
The time between the ceremonies is similarly important as the ceremonies themselves. All you experienced in ceremony, you are asked to create a space for in between the ceremonies.
Silence and fasting are an important part to go deeper, to connect and to learn with the plants.
Summary
Ayahuasca used in the right way is a wonderful tool. It gives you the opportunity to work with your shadow as well as your light. The ayahuasca experience can bring hidden areas to the surface, giving you the opportunity to become aware of what you haven’t been aware of before.
Through this ability to expose what’s previously been hidden, Ayahuasca has the potential to facilitate growth in all kinds of new ways.
Our retreats can support you to live in your purpose, to bring your mind, your heart, your body, your spirit, and your actions into alignment. In my experience, this is the biggest gift that you can receive in life; the reawakening of reciprocity, of feeling connected with all that is, and feeling the heartbeat, the frequency of life and love in all (including yourself).
The effects go far beyond your immediate felt experience. That's why the integration time is so important. All kinds of feelings and/or thoughts which may come up need to be seen and accepted.
The “key” is to stay in the process, being present with all that comes up and shows up, and to deal with it all in an honest way. This counts as well for the time after the retreat.
If you take your preparation time seriously and if you create your integration mindfully, then there is a very high chance that this can be one of the most beautiful paths you can choose in honoring yourself and life.
Further learning and healing
To join an Ayahuasca retreat with us can be a first step for a longer path in learning with Sacred Plant Medicine.
We offer plant diets (Sama) with tree medicine for people who choose to go deeper on this path of healing and learning.
For returning participants we offer lower fees to support the long-term journey.
Also, we offer facilitator training after people were dieting (Sama) with us for a certain time.
Ayahuasca today and in the past Ayahuasca has been used in many different native tribes, predominantly in the Amazon region, for at least a few centuries. These tribes used ayahuasca for healing, magic, and to make social decisions within communities. In recent years Ayahuasca has become well known in the Western world. Many people now travel to the jungle to take part in ceremonies. The most important thing is that you drink in a safe setting with a trustworthy and experienced shaman (and facilitator). Shamans, psychotherapists, spiritual seekers, artists, religious people, anthropologists, physicists, neuro-brain scientists, medical professionals, etc. These professions have published many books about the different kinds of phenomena and effects related to Ayahuasca. There's a lot of research, many conferences, and more and more studies are happening to explore this medicine and its effects. Originally Ayahuasca was drunk by the healer to see the sickness of a person and to know how to heal them, or to see bigger visions which showed them how to help the individual in their process. It was also used to perceive, understand, and find solutions in other areas or projects. Sometimes young people in these tribes would drink Ayahuasca during a rite of passage as part of an initiation into adulthood. Today, many kinds of people drink Ayahuasca to heal, purify, learn, and to better understand life, its connections, and the universe. My perspective (coherent with the opinion of many indigenous leaders) is that now is exactly the perfect time for this medicine to be available to the rest of the world. The planet needs more consciousness from human beings, humanity needs to wake up in general, and Ayahuasca (or other entheogenic plants) can help us to expand our consciousness. The work of integration needs to be done by ourselves, so that the expansion in our consciousness can be transferred and transformed into new patterns which lead to lasting change in the physical realm.
Is Ayahuasca Safe & Legal? It's important to know that DMT, the chemical that the Chacruna leaf contains, is in most countries considered an illegal substance. In Peru, where we offer our retreats, it is a legal substance. This brew called “Ayahuasca” is not for everyone. Please read the medical guidelines and if you have any reservations you can contact me. It does not happen often, but it can cause a psychosis if the person brings the tendency of dissociation or had before an episode or had this happening in the family. To mix this medicine with other medications, substances, drugs or other plant medicine can be dangerous. We have strong guidelines which need to be followed, as well we have an application process. For our participants we offer preparation and integration material in the form of ebooks, videos, group calls and individual calls. True-Journey has been organizing Masterplant Retreats since 2018 regularly, so we are lucky to offer a certain amount of experience and we choose our team consciously to give you the best support. I offer different types of mentoring and guidance online or in person.