(We recommend you read/watch the previous parts!)

Number Three:

The post risks:

Let’s say you went to a good place, your mind came up in a better condition, your emotions.

You had a liberating process and you were in the hands of a Shaman that was trained, a facilitating team that knew how to deal with you, how to support you, guide you.

Now, the dark side, perhaps the most common of them all is having a problem with integration, with responsability.

By now i have drunk Ayahuasca probably more than a hundred times over a few years and assited in a lot of retreats where there’s hundreds if not thousands of people that have come and gone.

Something that is quite common is that people have such a profound transformation that when they come home they feel like they don’t quite fit in, this can be scary and it can create a lot of anxiety.

It’s very common because the person that sometimes leaves is not the person that comes back, it’s like a square peg in a round hole, it no longer fits.

If you try to feel it you’re gonna destroy either the peg or chip the hole, this process can be very, very challenging for a lot of people.

Because it means that they have to change jobs, let go of relationships, surrender friendships, bad habits, it’s a beautiful process of the caterpillar breaking its cocoon and becoming a butterfly.

The cocoon must be broken, the issue is that the cocoon was very comfy, there you knew what to expect and what it was, this shell of safety, although safety is not what ensures that a life is lived fully.

A life lived enough in its full expression has risk in it.

This is the dark side/risk, because in most medicine houses, there’s no invitation towards integration, the Shaman gives you the medicine, you drunk it, then you go home and deal with yourself, hopefully you stay in touch with the people that you went to the retreat with and you text each other.

You made some friendships that can hold you accountable and support you in your transitions, however, ideally…

Look for a medicine house/place where the Shaman, his facilitating team or his assistants offer some sort of integration process, whether that is through calls, someone trained in somatic movement therapy or in actual therapy.

Seek a modern approach, perhaps even a coach or an accountability system that is offered to you, you want a modern system that allows you to integrate in a very practical way, to implement what you learned.

This is a risk because i have seen a lot of people drink Ayahuasca, especially the locals in Colombia, they come a month after another and 2-3 years after i’ve met them they’re still dealing with the same thing, this is the biggest risk and it is bypassing.

It’s easy to come in for the high, to see different dimensions, the astral realms, to come face to face with God, to understand the beauty and the bliss of who we are, that’s all great.

But we come down to a human experience and thats where our work lies, a lot of people get very intoxicated/enamored with the experience of those, let’s call them; celestial, blissful, loving vibrations… and that’s great.

Those are gifts that the plant medicine can give you, sometimes it can also take you through what seems like literal hell, that’s also a gift.

However, at the end of the day, it is what you do with your life, when you come home, what truly matters.

Ayahuasca can give you the lessons, the guidance, a big push can clean your body, your mind, your energy so that making change is easier, you can create a context that makes transformation almost unavoidable.

A very fertile soil for your soul, however, you still need to water it daily.

Bypassing is something that is very common in people that choose plant medicine as one of their tools in their journey of growth, it’s so easy to come for another high after another, feeling like we’re doing the work (and I include myself here).

I’ve done this in the past until I realized that if you have a great teacher and they give you a lesson, yet you haven’t acted upon it, then why would you come for another one? just to pile them on yourself and look at them, look at the messages, the guidance you received…

Yet your life is the same, that’s why this is the biggest risk of doing Ayahuasca.

You may assume that it’s a magic fix/tool, it is not.

Or that the people that are inviting you into this experience tell you that this will solve anything for you, it will cure you from whatever it is, and that’s not it.

It can help you a lot, as i’ve said or mentioned in previous videos/blogs, it can really support you and it can make a transformation very, very unavoidable, however, at the end of the day, you have to do your work.

Hopefully the people that are guiding you to this experience talk to you about this and support you in doing your work.

To wrap it up;
There’s 3 risks of doing Ayahuasca.

• Internal Risks:
  That your mind might go crazy, that you may end up more traumatized, your emotions may be chaotic, you avoid this by going to a place where the set and settings are appropiate and where things are doing with integrity.
  
  For that, you do your research.
  
  
• Other Risks:
  The assisting team, the Shaman may take advantage of you either through mixing your medicine with something so that you become addicted to it or through actual physical abuse, crossing your boundaries.
  
  Once again, you avoid this by doing your research, making sure that you understand a little bit more who is this person leading the process; Whos the team facilitating? What do i feel when I look at their faces?
  
  Maybe look at a picture, then make your judgement, trust with your heart.
  
  
• Post Risks:
  The biggest one of things that may happen after a ceremony.
  
  Nothing happens, how do you prevent this? You go to a place where they offer some sort of accountability, some sort of coaching or integration process and above all, you make sure that you hold yourself accountable.
  
  

Everything in life can kill you, breath itself does, if you put too much oxygen in your system then you will die.

If you use, let’s say, sex, which is a very sacred and beautiful experience, it can kill you too with the wrong people, wrong circumstances, it can create a lot of disease.

Food, nature’s gift to us for our survival is what kills the most amount of people in today’s time.

Anything can be negative and the same thing happens with Ayahuasca.

Your job is to find a place that you trust and to above all, trust your heart in the decisions that you make.

If you feel the calling to sit with Ayahuasca, in a container held by Colombian shamans at a sacred temple in the middle of the mountain forests, please check: www.ayahuascacolombia.com/retreats