Ben, Thanks for sharing these experiences. i had heard about the misuse/disrespect, kinda drug tourism. Also, i had a virtually same experience many years ago - tho not drug/herbal/plant related - when first meeting a man who would become a dear friend and mentor. After the brunt of a small gathering he came up to me and said something about my life-journey which i had contemplated for a while and never said a thing to anyone. So i knew right away he was tuned in deep!
I'm really enjoying your account with the ayahuasca ceremony. I think when people often say that we're "spiritual beings having a physical experience" we don't understand the full import of this statement many times. After participating in Gigi Young's forum for a while, (She's a psychic who studies Steiner and supports the re-emergence of the feminine mystery schools.) I began meditating in addition to my Buddhist chanting. I found/find the meditation takes me places which, before Gigi, I would have brusquely discounted but don't these days. We're taught from our birth to discount all experience which isn't clearly "rational" and "empirically/scientifically driven." This mindset shapes our view of the world at a very fundamental level. I've come to believe many other experiences exist for us human beings which are outside of empirical scientism.
Ben, Thanks for sharing these experiences. i had heard about the misuse/disrespect, kinda drug tourism. Also, i had a virtually same experience many years ago - tho not drug/herbal/plant related - when first meeting a man who would become a dear friend and mentor. After the brunt of a small gathering he came up to me and said something about my life-journey which i had contemplated for a while and never said a thing to anyone. So i knew right away he was tuned in deep!
I'm really enjoying your account with the ayahuasca ceremony. I think when people often say that we're "spiritual beings having a physical experience" we don't understand the full import of this statement many times. After participating in Gigi Young's forum for a while, (She's a psychic who studies Steiner and supports the re-emergence of the feminine mystery schools.) I began meditating in addition to my Buddhist chanting. I found/find the meditation takes me places which, before Gigi, I would have brusquely discounted but don't these days. We're taught from our birth to discount all experience which isn't clearly "rational" and "empirically/scientifically driven." This mindset shapes our view of the world at a very fundamental level. I've come to believe many other experiences exist for us human beings which are outside of empirical scientism.
I never did Buddhist chanting myself but it always sounded cool when I heard the monks at the temples in Thailand doing it all in unison