This one is a little bit close and personal, a relevant one – Ayahuasca and religion/spirituality.

Can i drink Ayahuasca if i’m Christian/muslim/atheist?

These are great questions.

Ayahuasca is not a religion/belief/philosophy, its a science, what do i mean by this?

Math is a science, not a religion, whether you believe in Jesus/Buddha/Nothing at all, whether you’re happy or miserable, math works.

1 + 1 = 2, it’s a science that will stand it’s ground no matter what you believe in.

Gravity works in the same way, it doesn’t work for some people in certain areas and in others it does – If you’re in a desert you will be bound by gravity, even if you’re not a human being – Ayahuasca is the same.

Sometimes people get the wrong idea that because this is linked with spiritual journey/growth they think “What do these people believe in? Am i going to be indoctrinated? Is this against my religion?“

It’s a question that a lot of people have:

“Am i going to be forced to think or believe in something that i don’t agree with? Even though i don’t know it, i don’t wanna drink Ayahuasca because they told me that this is bad, the priest, my church told me that this is pagan, satanism, black magic.“

Certainly the case, it has been marketed here in Colombia, where i’m from. Where Catholic and Christian churchers are at their peak.

Or they were already there, slowly decaying, but most people were Christian or Catholic, plant medicine is tilted of paganism, indigenous religion and whatnot.

I was surprised to find our Shaman, the first time that i went to ceremony, he had a little altar and in it he had the medicine, Yage, Ayahuasca and a statue of virgin Mary.

On the north side there were some buddhist figures, then behind there was this big picture of Jesus.

I was a little bit put off by that because i thought i’m coming to an indigenous Shaman, i’m expecting him to be praising nature, the moon or the sun, maybe some weird looking goddesses.

This was my assumption of what indigenous spirituality would be like.

Then i was troubled, like “Woah, why is he preaching and praising to mary, Jesus and buddha?“

“How about he makes up his mind?” I was hesitant.

Because i thought “He’s probably just been indoctrinated, colonized and he believes in this, and i’m just gonna be sitting in another sunday morning sermon.“

Which i had to be at and go through for all my childhood, i didn’t consider myself religious nor believed in any god, i was a self-proclaimed atheist for a while.

Then i thought: “There must be something else to this life, i don’t know what it is and i do not think it is what people are teaching (Not the Muslim/Christian/Buddhist/Hinduist).“

Because everyone is fighting and everyone says God is love, how can you be loved and then be constantly fighting?

That, to me, felt ridiculous.

A lot of people confused Ayahuasca as medicine that requires for you to believe in something, it doesn’t matter whether you believe in it or not, it is a science that is going to work.

It’s a science of consciousness, sharpening your ability to see clearly that which is inside your heart, inside your mind, inside your body.

For this, you can believe in Buddha, Allah, Mohammed, in nothing whatsoever – you can worship God/yourself, it doesn’t matter.

The medicine is going to allow you to pay attention to your depression, your anxiety, your broken relationships, your childhood trauma, confusion around your purpose, your sense of being stuck, your spiritual growth/path.

It will shine light on that, it will allow you to see it in a clear way.

When you can see with clarity then you know what to do, it’s very easy and self-evident, for this, you don’t have to believe in anything, however, when you see clearly you also realize that there’s an energy field that permeates all of life.

Some people call it God/Great spirit/Source of creation/Universe/Creator, something else…

When you drink plant medicine, it’s very likely that you get in touch with it and you feel it, not think about it or somebody teaches you about it, but you feel it.

You have a personal experience of the divine, of that which is subtle in essence.

I always laugh to a degree about people who don’t believe in anything and he’s like:

“Hey, do you believe in Wi-fi?” – “No i don’t believe in it, it just works.” – “Can you see Wi-fi?, is it coming into this room right now? i’ve been looking everywhere and i can’t find it.“

To me, it baffles me that we can talk to a screen, blasting that across the world, holding the information. You can see my face, hear my voice because there’s satellites that are outside of earth, blasting invisible waves of stuff.

And we still believe that there’s nothing more than the physical to reality, that’s kind of silly in this age, when we have proof that there’s way beyond what we understand and see.

That includes God, whatever God you believe in doesn’t matter, it’s an energy, a field.

Ayahuasca allows you to tap into that and make your own conclusions.

Not because the Shaman is telling you something, not because your facilitator is sharing his thoughts, his views, no – but because you had a direct experience.

Can i drink Ayahuasca if i’m Christian/Muslim? If my priest says this and that? if it’s against my religion?

Well, just think about it, Can you use wi-fi if you’re Muslim/Christian? If your priest says this or that? If it’s against your religion?

Sure you can, it’s a personal choice, a science, a tool that you can use, the tool is not going to bring you a new God, it’s not going to sell your soul to some imaginary devil…

The tool is not going to make you less of a believer, it’s not going to ruin your faith, in fact, you might bring it up for reflection, attention, deeper connection between you and what you believe in, in the best of cases.

In most cases, you will stop believing and you will know, this is the fundamental healing that happens for people that drink plant medicine, before they believed in God and then they experience it.

Since they experienced it, nobody can take it away from them, nobody can convince them otherwise.

Once you have felt it, once you put your hand on top of the fire and it got burnt, then you know that fire burns – you may not believe that fire burns.

Someone could come and tell you that it doesn’t exist, the fire is in your imagination and if you pull your hand you’re going to be fine, you can still listen to it and giggle, “I know.“

I don’t need to believe, i dont need philosophies or religions, because i had a direct experience with that, that medicine allows you to do the same.

Let me tell you a quick story: My mother used to be a very, very fanatic Christian, she would say “Lord” or “Jesus” between every other word.

So the fact was that it was a little bit annoying for my sisters and i, she had a lot of health complications and things that brought her to a point of desperation, when she decided to give this a shot she said:

“Okay, let’s see, i’ve seen the change in you so maybe you have something good for me.“

Long story short, she had a profound experience with the medicine, she saw different deities, egyptian gods, hindu gods, buddhas, and she was thinking “What is this?“

Only Jesus and his Father were the only ones she believe in, she was troubled because she was a fanatic Christian, the way they were taught Christianity is “The way” and the only ones, everybody else is wrong.

So, she came to the Shaman afterwards and asked: “I saw this and that, what does it mean?“

The Shaman looks at her, smiles and asks her: “Are you a religious woman?” shocked, she said: “Yeah, i’m Christian.“

Then he giggled and said:

“Well, it seems like what the medicine was showing you was that the God you believe in has a lot of different expressions and that every culture, every religion has found a way to represent those different archetypes, embodiments, different flavors of the same energy that you believe in and the medicine was showing you that what you believed in is not the only truth.“

So, if you’re hesitant around doing Ayahuasca because you think that it might go against your religious beliefs.

I hope you remember it as a science, we’re not going to tell you: “This is what you have to believe in.” We’re not going to try and force any kind of thought upon you.

We don’t want you to change your habits, we want you to change your spiritual practices, what we do want is you to be an intelligent person that experiments and uses science as a way of growing.

A person that uses tools the same way you use a cell phone to be more efficient in your work, uses a car to save time in their journey, from one place to another.

Ayahuasca is a tool that saves us time in the process of getting clarity, understanding and healing parts of ourselves, there’s no religion, there’s no doctrine, there’s no teaching associated with that.

The plant teaches you by allowing you to see clearly that which before was confusing by allowing you to wake up to things that were blind spots in your life.

That’s pretty much it, i hope that if you’re hesitant, this allows you to ease your worries, to understand that you’re not here to do anything that goes against your beliefs.

We’re not going to ask you to believe in anything, just try and experience for yourself, see how that goes.

There’s nothing to be lost, and a lot to be gained, in the best of cases.

You lose who you thought you were and what you thought you believed in, you gained deeper clarity into God, life, who you are, your peace, your beliefs, your purpose, your direction, your mission.

Living from this place in life is very friction free, effortless, aligned.