the FOUND Side of Lost

Graham Hancock on His Most Recent Ayahuasca Experience

Such great insight. A wonderful read. I’m still working on putting together my notes on a couple psychedelic induced experiences from four/three months ago, somewhat of an unusual task for me to put into words. These notes leave me in complete awe of Graham’s ability to articulate the process that is essential to defining these sessions; that is, going into each session as an “I”, an observer for and of self…and leaving each session as “We”, thankful, loved and loving.

PS I don’t think these sessions are for everyone. I do believe that  experience can be had through the telling of these stories, as the case has been for thousands of years. At the very least, writing/reading these stories can do the brain some good. *Hear Cognitive Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga explain storytellings effects on the brain.

(my apologies about the links below, for some reason they can’t be fixed.)

——- please read the full text. it’s wonderful and fascinating, I promise!—-

This is the third of the series of articles I am posting about Ayahuasca sessions I’m presently participating in here in Brazil. Ayahuasca is a visionary brew that marries leaves containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with a monamine oxidase inhibitor contained in the Ayahuasca vine itself; these two primary ingredients are cooked together in water to produce a foul-tasting but highly psychoactive beverage that has been drunk for at least three millennia by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest, who value it as a portal to the spirit world. In the past decade it has begun to acquire a global reputation and has been described as “twenty years of psychotherapy in one night.” For those who missed the previous articles in this series I’m pasting them in at the end of this one as they provide context and background for what I have to say here. Meanwhile, since Ayahuasca is a potent psychedelic, and since its effects have a profound impact on consciousness, I’d like to share this short compilation video (in which I make a brief appearance at the end) on the subject of psychedelics and consciousness that was recently drawn to my attention by another poster here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3shL389L2EY .

So our latest session took place on the night of Monday 28 January into the small hours of Tuesday 29 January. This time I drank 80 mililitres of the brew in a single cup – as against three doses of 25 mililitres each on the previous session. With too small a dose of Ayahuasca it is perfectly possible to have no experience at all; with too large a dose it is possible to have an experience that is completely overwhelming – perhaps far more so that you would like. It is not an exact science and it is complicated further by differences in one’s own body chemistry from day to day that can result in widely varying effects.

I’m here together with a group of more than a dozen people and, as in previous retreats for serious work with Ayahuasca that I’ve participated in over the last ten years it is noticeable how close and trusting of one another we have become. The Ayahuasca experience has a very special way of doing this – of opening the heart and breaking down barriers so that you feel intense empathy and a deep connection with others at a level that is near to impossible in the often angry, often competitive, frequently loveless hustle and bustle and grind of daily life. It is a great privilege to be able to know this empathy and connection and reminds me that all of life could be like this should we consciously set out and be willing to do the work make it so. It is not oil, or water, or mineral deposits, or food, or land, or any other economic resource that is truly scarce or precious or “running out” in this bountiful Earth of ours. What we are short of as a global species, what we seem reluctant to manifest, what we are failing to express and act out, is simply love, and in a way this should be the easiest problem in the world for us to solve – for it is within the capacity and the power of each and every one of us to give love if we choose to do so.

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