Hi peeps, I've touched on this before, but I wanted to make it the topic of its own post as I thought it was interesting, and I'd like to know what Nexians make of this, and whether any have had any similar experiences. Over the Christmas and New Year period I was out in Peru with family and a good friend, and we partook of a few ayahuasca ceremonies with a shaman. The third and final ceremony (and the third one in a week long period) took place on Christmas day night under a full moon.

I knew it was my last ceremony and last chance to connect deeply with ayahuasca...part of me had wanted to connect with something seemingly beyond myself, or something I could not explain. But I never got this, to me I seemed to be surfing the waves of my own inner consciousness...constantly moving patterns of various shades of light, woven onto canvases of darkness, ever moving. Interestingly, in the centre of my vision (third eye kinda area) was a constant very bright light. The really intense part of this experience started very soon after I purged my second serving of the night. The experience was akin to a cosmic consciousness rollercoaster, it was toe curlingly, near panic inducingly intense, my heart was really going for it, but I'm glad I went deep with it. It was however very chaotic and without obvious insight (it seems even seasoned ayahuasca drinkers experience this at times, and only notice the benefits after the ceremony). On a personal note, I think my time with ayahuasca is over now, I feel I got some kind of closure, I'm very thankful to have experienced it but do not see the need to seek it out again, at least not for a long while.

Right after I purged, the experience began to build and deepen and intensity, so I decided to lie down. Right then, something quite bizarre started to happen. At the height of the experience, I suddenly started getting VAST amounts of fluid dripping down from the upper back part of my soft palette, opposite my nasal passages into my throat, my hunch is this was from the sphenoid sinus (i.e. it was definitely NOT from my nostrils or salivary glands...this was NOT runny nose mucus or saliva), as there is apparently an ostium/hole where it links up to the posterosuperior part of the nasal cavity (see attached picture). I have never experienced anything like this and the volume of liquid seemingly pouring out of my head was staggering, as I was needing to swallow every few seconds and for a fair old time (and the shaman could hear me doing it). I can't recall much of a flavour, but it was largely bypassing my tongue, running down the back of my throat. As I'm sure some of you are aware, the yogi's talk about "amrita" dripping down their nasal passages during states of deep meditation or when practicing kechari mudra. On a more personal note, it is important to mention I'd been practicing semen retention prior to this ayahuasca retreat, as part of physical/mental preparation, and I only found out later when I was back in the UK, that semen retention (as recommended by Kundalini yogi's) is considered a necessary precursor, or at least a major ally when it comes to amrita production. The taste has been described as something like a mix between ghee and honey, which may not actually have been far off from what I recall, only very milder than this in flavour...certainly it was not unpleasant like a large quantity of mucus might be! Anyway, this experience has stimulated an interest in advanced yogic practices, and my intention now is to learn to master kechari mudra as an aid to meditation, even if this a very long term project, to see where this leads.

I have a hypothesis here. Apparently the pineal gland is quite unique in that it is one of the few parts of the brain that falls largely outside of the blood brain barrier, and it has access to/is in contact with cerebrospinal fluid. My hypothesis here is that "amrita" could in fact be cerebrospinal fluid that is produced and secreted under special conditions. It is likely, or at least possible, that cerebrospinal fluid is going to be fairly biochemically complex, and this is how it may be able to produce the pleasant consciousness related effects. It is interesting as I have heard of a case of cerebrospinal fluid leaking from what sounded like a very similar place to what yogi's are referring to, and this required medical intervention.

Has anyone here had any experiences through psychedelics or yoga that resonate in any way with this description?

I haven't had a similar experience, but it's intriguing none the less. Keep us updated on your progress!