The Visionary World of Ayahuasca – Plant Spirit Shamanism in the Amazon
Ayahuasca – Plant Spirit Medicine of the Amazon
“We are not talking about passive agents of transformation, we are talking about an intelligence, a consciousness, an alive and other mind, a spirit, which of course we have no place in our society. Nature is alive and is talking to us. This is not a metaphor.”
Terrance McKenna
From earliest times it has been recognized that knowledge goes beyond sensory awareness or the rational way of understanding the world. Entering into a communion with the Plant consciousness or Spirit is a way that can take us directly to an experience that can show us that there is no such thing as an inanimate object. Everything in the universe is alive, possesses an awareness, and has a spirit.
It offers a significant challenge for the rational Western mind to come to terms with the plant spirit consciousness, and a leap of imagination is required to incorporate the ‘otherness’ of the plant. The magical world to which we are transported by plants is not accessible through the verbal rational mind but through dream language or an expansion of the imagination. Thus dreams and the power of our imagination act like doorways and allow us to be in communion (in the true sense) with the plant spirit consciousness.
For many people, drinking ayahuasca is the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery and transformation. This process can continue indefinitely even if one never drinks ayahuasca again. One thing is sure, and that is that every person gets a unique experience.
After being virtually ignored by Western civilization for centuries, there has been a huge surge of