ayahausca

[shelley]

Hi Daniel,loved your book.My name is Shelley ,i grew up in the 60's & did every drug imaginable>I had some awesome experiences with psychedelics,their impact has stayed wit me over the years.I can remember the visions like it was yesterday!I have done iboga twice,to get off opiates successsfully.I am interested in doing ayahausca,Im wondering what you think would be a good way to do that.I agree set & setting are very important!Id like to have a guide.Please let me know what you think,your fellow cosmonaut-shelley

[Proteus]

Hi Shelley: Daniel might not have seen your post, but i've done nearly all of my tripping on aya. It is fabulous! (i've filed a trip report under the ayahuasca thread & some reflections on how the plant has begun to change my thinking.)

Since there weren't any guides available in my neck of the woods & since i'm unlikely ever to be able to afford an eco-tour up the Amazon (forget about spending a long apprenticeship there!), i just did a bunch of reading and made my own brew & have been letting the plant teach me the rest. i figured that at some point someone else had to do the same thing to discover the brew in the first place. So why not reinvent the wheel, since i can't buy one?

i get the sense that we don't talk recipes and other details on this list. But you can send me a private e-mail through the message board for more details if you like.

[neuroflux]

Shelley, if you *can* afford to take a trip to the amazon, these people seem good:

wasiwaska (http://www.wasiwaska.org)

When I went to the Altered States and the Spiritual Awakening (http://www.assacon.com) conference in San Francisco last summer, I attended a workshop by Eduardo Luna, the founder of Wasiwaska. He seems trustworthy. The website above is fantastic.

I'm planning to go to one of the wasiwaska conferences in a few months, so I can let you know if it's a good scene. The main conference center in the above website is quite expensive, but there is a more affordable one in Peru listed on the site (which is the one I'm planning to attend).

I could easily acquire and brew up some ayahuasca, but for my initial introduction to this particular plant teacher I strongly prefer to go to the source and do it with a shaman, if at all possible.

BTW, Daniel, it was great to meet you at Assacon and attend your workshop and lecture there. And thanks for recommending Rudolf Steiner; I picked up a copy of HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDS on my way out of SF and loved it! He is definately an interesting thinker.

[neuroflux]

The aforementioned retreat is happening in November; before that, in October I plan to use ibogaine. Does anybody here have experience with doing ayahuasca shortly after taking iboga or ibogaine? I know that ibogaine breaks down into nor-ibogaine, which persists in the body for long periods of time - I've heard people desribe still feeling altered from the ibo for months afterward (but in a good way, e.g. colors brighter, drug craving lower). So, has anyone, or anyone you know, tried ayahuasca within a few months of iboga/ibogaine, and if so was there any noticable change from ayahuasca you may have taken before you ever tried ibogaine?

I'm only planning to do a moderate dose of ibogaine in October - I don't want to have two bonemeltingly intense soul-slamming experiences too closely together. But hey, that's just me...

[neuroflux]

I have another, related question. Both ayahuasca and ibogaine are used by people to help kick addictions; both are used for deep spiritual journeys; and both are used to gain personal psychological healing and insight. Yet the effects of each are described very differently. If anyone here has experience of both, how would you compare and contrast the effects and after-effects, particularly as regards contact with spiritual realities, and insight into personal issues?