Hi all,

I've been working with entheogens and teacher plants in an intentional way for the past 7 or 8 years. It ramped up about 4 years ago with a trip to Peru to meet La Madre, then again a year later as I began working within groups more often—quarterly mushroom ceremonies and aya 2-4 times per year. More recently I've been working with San Pedro with a teacher I really like, with even more frequency. The changes are perhaps coming faster and faster, and it's quite a journey.

I've only experienced smoked DMT once, during an aya weekend, the day in between ceremonies. The effects were mild (probably did not inhale enough: some pretty, indistinct colors and an important emotional impact on the way back) but I got exactly what I needed.

For some reason the interest has come up, and when this forum was mentioned on the ayahuasca forums recently I came to check it out again... and this time registered. So here I am :-) Already impressed with the framing, content, and people I've seen so far.

Nice to meet you , what sort of things were incorporated in the ceremonies?

Would you say mushrooms can be just as powerful as DMT considering the right circumstances?
I have heard some people say setting is more important than the substance haha.

-Technique

Well the aya ceremonies were all in the mestizo tradition, so typical of that there were icaros, tobacco sopladas, etc. The mushroom ceremonies involved about an hour of shamanic drumming, then co-created, improvised, interactive time—talking, bodywork, poetry, etc. The San Pedro ceremonies often start with singha, a tobacco infusion that's taken up the nose from a conch shell, and can include haichas, which are the Andean sacred songs and as I understand equivalent to icaros, altar building, flower baths, lots of stuff. I've only done daytime SP work which is apparently different from nighttime work. I'm told the nighttime work is structured more like an aya ceremony.



Not sure I can say... if you're referring to smoked DMT, I only have the one experience and it was very mild. I never get visions from any of the plants really so I'm not sure about the role of DMT in my aya experiences so far. Part of my curiosity that led me here is wondering if working with smoked DMT might unlock the visionary aspects of these teacher plants for me.

Somatically/energetically I'd say the mushrooms can get pretty intense, but I am not sure it's as intense as aya can be. Of course everyone is different. As far as power... I think it might be a case that different plants are good at different things.

My experience is that the mushrooms will take you exactly where you need to go and exactly to what you need to face... but that doesn't always mean you know what to do/how to face it once you're there. That can be challenging, frustrating, and not necessarily productive in terms of moving forward very effectively/efficiently. I think this is one of the reasons people sometimes experience "hitting a wall" with mushrooms—they are hitting their own limitations in dealing with their "stuff". That kind of situation is where it's really good to have an elder present to guide you. Alternatively, I've found that switching to other methods like shamanic drumming journeying or other plants can help one get past the wall one has hit.

Hi, welcome to the forum, i guess that you speak spanish right? because my english its not bad but my real lenguage is spanish, so, where are you from? where did you find those experiences in peru?? cause i really want to start but i dont know where i can talk to someone..

Hi there... thanks for the welcome. I only know a little spanish; I'm from California. In Peru, I went to Iquitos and worked with Ron Wheelock. If you are interested in aya, the aya forums have a spanish forum at http://forums.ayahuasca.com/viewforum.php?f=33

Welcome to the Nexus Lagomorph. Sounds like you're on a great journey.

Peace

Macre