Hi everyone,

Preparing to head to the jungle for a 2-month dieta in April/May and wondered if anyone has any clothing material recommendations? The last time I went, I wore polyester and found it to be so clingy and uncomfortable, I also have concerns about the toxicity of wearing plastics. I'm curious to hear what more experienced dieters wear for long stays in the jungle?

Thanks! 🙏

I've browsed the sub for weeks trying to enter in the right keywords in the search bar and I'm still without an answe, please help.

I work a very mentally demanding job in child protection and the legal field, I am currently taking 50 mg of stratera and a 100mg of ephedrine daily in order to focus. I'm not in a financial position where I can quit my job, and since I work with humans, I cannot afford to be mentally unavailable a month before my ceremony. Also, I am unable to take more than 2 weeks off. I know it is recommended to stop taking ADHD medications at least one month prior to sitting in ceremony, however, I also know that I will not be able to do my job properly without being able to focus.

So what I would like to know is if I am able to do a 7 day detox cleanse from vitamin cottage or something as opposed to being without these medications for a month.

I am not interested in advice about putting off the ceremony, until I am mentally ready to get off all of my medications, I am ready mentally, I want to be able to live without pharmaceuticals entirely, but realistically I know that I could put people at risk of serious harm if I am not focused at my job.

This dude was a vendor on nearly every market that ever existed and sold more DMT than anyone on any of them. He was a legend and then got busted. Seems he kept his mouth shut until now. He has gone public and has a documentary being made about him. Apparently Wired Magazine is about to feature him in an upcoming issue.

Hail the GOAT!

https://dustymindspark.com/2024/11/30/the-rise-fall-and-redemption-of-akasha-a-dark-net-vendors-journey/

[moderator approved post]

Hi - I’ll be going in my first ceremony this coming weekend. I hope to get answers and resolve some things. I’m nervous about being stuck in an hours long trip but understand I can take a “light dose” for this first ceremony and ask madre to be gentle. Any experiences with that?

Article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00660#

Summary:

The study looked at how certain drugs, like DMT and harmaline, might help with PTSD. In tests with rats, these drugs reduced brain stress, calmed inflammation, and helped brain cells grow and heal. The results suggest these treatments might work for people with PTSD too. Scientists think this could lead to new ways to help people with stress-related problems.

So my sister is coming with me to a Aya retreat on Dec 13th. She is on effexor. Is that a problem?

Ran across this, curious what you guys think. Radiant Farms sells "banisteriopsis caapi chews" , claims 64mg alkaloids per. My interest was in using this for the MAOI 60 mins before Ayahuasca to potentiates the first cup, which otherwise might lose much of the DMT. Not sure if 64mg of alkaloids is a significant enough dose or not?

I'm an agnostic person and ended up having a very intriguing experience when I was invited to take ayahuasca at an Umbanda It was my first time taking the medicine and my second time in contact with Umbanda (afro-brazilian religion). I accepted the invitation because I'm very close to the person who wanted me to know this place, so I went with an open heart to see what it was all about.

After drinking a dose of ayahuasca and meditating for a few minutes, I felt unable to control my movements, so I got up and started spinning. When I stopped spinning I started to hear a voice talking to me. Then, without control of what I was doing, I walked towards a circle where a kind of "cleansing" was happening, so I put my hands towards a girl who seemed a little disturbed. Someone from the temple intervened and said that I shouldn't do that, but I said that I couldn't control my body, but she insisted that I could regain control and talk to the voice that was talking to me. Still without control of my body, I knelt down and put my forehead and hands on the ground for a few moments. When I lifted my eyes they were half-closed and there was a voice talking to me about my life. While she spoke, she guided me to an altar where there were some statues, and told me that I am a daughter of Oxossi. I was very scared and worried about everything that was happening, so she said that I wouldn't have to go through this again, said that I am a soul of light, that I am here to seek joy and follow my dreams. Many insane and frightening things happened that night after the second and third doses of the tea. It was all very complicated to deal with, since I don't believe in supernatural things, even though I was open to exploring. After the experience, I was traumatized for months, feeling random dissociations while talking to people, feeling afraid of supernatural things while about to fall asleep and experiencing intense dreams. A year later, I took courage and went to a terreiro to try to learn more about this experience, and talked to a preto velho, who said that the place I went to was not legal and that I am a medium and could explore that if it was my will. Coincidentally, out of the blue, in my first swimming lesson, the teacher said that I am a medium and that I should be careful with people's energy in general. Today I choose to believe that all this is connected to my subconscious, as I have many memories of my family talking about spirituality during my childhood, and I don't feel that I am able to truly believe in anything outside of rational logic.
However, I am still curious about everything that happened and would love to know how people who experience Umbanda interpret these events.

Hello guys, I went in a 11 day ayahuscua retreat back in April 2023, poor childhood and adult issues led me there (24male)

I felt that straight after the ceremony it felt like the best thing in the world and it was all I needed but as time has progressed even more questions and uncertainty has arisen, I feel like I have more new questions then I got answers from it.

I had a complete rebirth during the ceremony and pretty much stripped naked during it! I can make sense of it all nowadays

I've been interested in Arkana and found this video of beautiful icaros. Do you think that the icaros themselves have healing properties? I recall the first time I sat with aya that during rough waves the icaros helped ground me. I'm wondering if I listen to icaros without the aya if they can help with healing or do they only work when you take aya?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VE9Xj3l3xY

A good friend or mine who is really into psychedelics is offering me to go to a retired location with shamans to do an ayahuasca trip but IDK if i should go cause it seems like a fucking crazy experience and im a bit scared by it.

I have taken shrooms socially multiple times and enjoyed it, once I took 3.2 gr on a "healing" enviroment with eyes closed and I actually really liked the experience and had some profound insights and experiences.I never really felt overwhelemed cause I always had a mentality of "letting the shroom take the wheel" while in the trip. But Im not sure if im ready for ayahuasca.

I consider myself a really introspective person and really in touch with my thoughts so it maybe be a good idea to do it or maybe not, im scared of it cause ive heard is strong stuff.

Edit/honest question: Is it really as strong as people say? How could it compare to the 3.2 gr shroom trip i experienced? In terms of intensity

Hello everyone i have depersonalisation déréalisation and i think about doing ayahuasca is there any advice from you !!!!

I was looking for a while for extended break through methods and it seems the is only MAOI + smoking DMT. but that would give 30-40 minutes of break through at max.

Would a high dose of Pharmauasca would give a break through experience? Cheers!

I understand that with smoking DMT the worst case would be black out. But when drinking mimosa tea I found 3g was stronger than I anticipated and the only way I was able to go through it is having a video of shaman singing that plays repeatedly ( which I recommend a lot)

But what the worst thing that can happen if I Increased the tea to 5-6g?

I appreciate the insights. Cheers☀️🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

Currently living in Medellin and would desperately love to experience a ceremony before I leave Colombia. Does anyone have any recommendations for where to find a good place to go?

They‘re super wild like a circus and not very comfortable. But they feel very powerful and energetic in my body, like a dozen hands moving around everywhere re arranging a jigsaw puzzle. Is this common with ayahausca practitioners?

I understand that "All of the above" would probably be the best answer here, but in your opinion what's the WORST one of all that would almost guarantee the worst outcome?

If you have another reason that isn't in the list of options, please write it in a comment below...

Thanks all

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Hello dear friends. I just booked a retreat to sacred valley Peru for what will be my first time sitting with the medicine.

I fly to Cusco, Peru on New Year’s Day. I can’t think of a better way to start the new year!

I’m looking for any and all advice on preparing this next month, specifically any book suggestions that will help open my heart and mind to best receive the experience.

I have one full day in Cusco before traveling to the retreat center. Any suggestions on how to spend that day and where to stay in Cusco?

I'm on the tail end of a flu virus and I could have probably driven down today to go to my retreat but I wouldn't have had the physical capacity to do this one justice and I wouldn't want to have given this to others even though I'm feeling mostly better if not 100%. I'm trying to get to the bottom of my ancestral rage which is linked to my own direct experiences of sexual abuse, compounded by possibly other family members.

Just hoping to gain some advice from anyone who has had to forgo a ceremony due to illness, words of encouragement, etc. Really feeling a deep sense of FOMO right now even though I think I've done the right thing. What do you learn from missing out on retreat, if anything at all, and what does Mama Aya teach even when you're not with her in ceremony?

Hi, I'm two days prior to the ceremony, and I found out that you can't take decongestants. It's silly of me that I haven't checked that, taking much more serious medications that I have stopped long before the ceremony in the preparation for it, I should have been more wary. When I got a cold couple of days ago I only thought about fixing myself before the ceremony and I drank a few lemsips and used a nose spray. Today I saw at the back of the lemsip that you shouldn't take it within 14days of taking MAOIs. Now, I tried to find out what exactly is the reaction between the two, but I can't find any information online apart from higher blood pressure. Has anyone mixed these two in a few days prior to the ceremony? Or has anyone got more information on this interaction and dangerous it is?

Hi everyone,

My maestra said something very wise when I was beginning my first diet with her. She said "during the diet, only read books that you want to become."

Do you have any books you'd recommend for diets?

I'm currently preparing for a soft Rose diet, so I'm ideally looking for books with themes of love and sex (Rose medicine) but open to anything really. I read 'Belonging' by Toko-Pa Turner during my Noya Rao diet, which was underwhelming.

I'm looking at doing Kambo & Bufo and have found a practitioner offering to do Kambo in the morning and then Bufo later on in the day. They also offered to do Kambo in the morning, Ayahuasca in the night and then Bufo the next day. From what I have read, this seems a bit packed? I will give the aya a pass but would love to do Kambo and Bufo but I am concerned at the proximity

They seem to be a well reviewed (100+ Google Reviews) with many video testimonials and 15+ years experience, so I mean it seems what they're doing is working, but it is just a bit worrying to me

"The very first time I took ayahuasca, early into the experience, I remember seeing a massive anaconda wrapping himself around the outside of the maloka. When I asked the shaman about this the following day, he told me this was more than just a vision — he told me that he routinely calls upon the spirit of the anaconda to create a protective barrier between the energetic chaos of the raw jungle and his participants inside the maloka.

A few nights later, we had a session under a moonless sky. Within about two hours of taking the ayahuasca, the entire maloka descended into chaos. The shaman lost control, and many participants (including myself) had an extremely challenging experience. One participant even wandered out into the jungle alone (he claims to have been lured). My own experience was so overwhelming I could barely bring myself out of bed the following morning. After speaking about it in the group session the following day, the shaman admitted that he was unable to call upon the spirit of the anaconda that night due to the absence of the moon."

excerpt from a post in the Tripsitter Subtack

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I have no interest in drinking alone but makes me wonder how people protect their space if they do practice with grandmother alone.

I'm looking at doing Kambo & Bufo and have found a practitioner offering to do Kambo in the morning and then Bufo later on in the day. They also offered to do Kambo in the morning, Ayahuasca in the night and then Bufo the next day. From what I have read, this seems a bit packed? I will give the aya a pass but would love to do Kambo and Bufo but I am concerned at the proximity

The retreat has 100+ google reviews, many video testimonials and lots of info so that builds trust, but yeah just seems like a lot for a day/weekend...

I am a 30 y/o female with a history of chronic health issues. I had a crazy health crash a couple of years ago and was bedridden for some time. I’m doing better now but my health has never fully recovered.

I have worked with Ayahuasca and other plant medicines in the past on my healing, but I haven’t found a shaman I really clicked with. Many of my ceremonies were with an untrained shaman, and my other ceremonies actually left my health in some ways worse than it was when I came. I still believe in the power of Ayahuasca and still have experienced healing from many of my ceremonies, but I think I need to be more discerning about the shamans I work with.

I have gotten insights from my ceremonies that a lot of what I’m dealing with is due to dark energy that I am struggling to purge. I’ve also felt like there’s something inside me resisting being purged out. I believe I need to work with a shaman who is powerful and experienced enough to help me release whatever darkness is weighing me down.

Does anyone have any recommendations they can share for shamans that I might want to work with? Cost and location are no issue. I would appreciate any guidance you can offer at all.

About 7 years ago, landing from a ceremony, there was background music and in between this piece with nature sounds and a story. I've tried googling for the story several times since, but found nothing. I'm hoping someone recognizes something from the bits I remember, and can maybe point me to the original recording, or at least the track it was used in... I'll try to paraphrase it as best I can:

We lay in the grass, staring up at a night sky filled with life's mysteries. A skein of stars scattered across the heavens twinkled down at us as if to say "greetings, cousins". So far away and yet so close - living in their own time and, we imagined, playing their own ponderous games that peyote night.

Does it ring any bells?

Have you done it? Any effects on dreams? Helps sleep or not?

A friend of mine is studying to become an integration practitioner, and is seeking individuals with plant medicine experiences that might be interested in a free session.

I have battled against depression and anxiety since I could remember. Went to therapy as a child and all through my life. I always had a feeling I had something wrong that I couldn't explain.

April this year I went to my first shamanic ritual. I was an atheist but I believed that even if it was all in the mind it could be helpful. I live in Brazil in the interior and it's kinda hard to find good reliable places to take the medicine (that aren't super expensive for our income)but a doctor I trust recommended this place. I looked it up and it was a small shamanic house and umbanda(a Afro Brazilians religion) temple. I talked to the shaman and said I didn't want none of the religious side, only take the medicine, he said it was no problem as both things didn't happen on the same day.

Three days before the ritual I had some strange stuff happening. Found a thing I had lost 6 years ago, had weird dreams, and had to get his of a bunch of old pappers at my job, some a decade old.

When I took the medicine, I had a super strong anxiety attack, I started seeing a million things a second, mostly bad stuff, I felt so much physical pain, It was like a billion needles piercing every cell of my body repeatedly, it almost felt I was being sucked into a black hole and every time my atom broke, they instantly regenerated. The shaman kept saying "you are hurting yourself, you have to let it go" "you are holding it inside you have to let it come out" but I was so lost on the force I couldn't even understand the words leaving his mouth (but after I could remember) meanwhile I saw a old black man with a white stained cotton shirt, the old man said "there is a dark energy inside of you I take it out" but I was afraid of what would happen, what if this energy is part of me and I was forever changed? So I was still holding, the man started pulling a tug of war with me trying to remove the energy, when he pulled really hard I puked the first time, just a small amount. Then the shaman came with a tipi, and rapé (it's a wooden tube used by the south America natives to blow tobacco ashes inside the nostril which unclogs the energy flow) while the shaman was blowing the rapé in my nose, the old man said "I can't removed it alone, it will have to be him", and when he spoke the word "him" I had shivers all around my body, and I kept foreseeing something bad.

A tall man, in a 1800s suit appeared in the dark, where I could barely see him. He had a cane under his arm and a top hat and white gloves, and every time he came near the light he used the hat to block his face. The only thing I saw from his face was his smile, a deep bright smile I could see even in the darkest spot, with a few golden teeth. The man became almost like a black mist and tried to get inside of me, from all of my knowledge and prejudice I thought the man was the devil and he was trying to possess me, but the shaman was calm, and also the black man. After fighting him a while, he got inside of me, and after a few seconds I passed out, while I was falling and closing my eyes I saw him leaving, holding a dark energy thing with red eyes, as he tipped his hat almost like he was saying "you are welcome". I woke up about 1 hour later, the ritual was over, I was trying to process everything and I wanted to talk to the shaman about but he said it was to soon, I had to rest and have my own though or his would influence mine.

After that, I spent a few days researching, the black old man, is a 'preto velho' a type of spirit guide that the umbanda horses (mediuns) incorporate to help them on life problems, I had never heard or saw nothing about it before (where I live there is a lot of prejudice and racism around umbanda, many Catholics say they work for the devil, I never felt they where bad but I also never had any interest in it), yet even not ever knowing about I saw him. The other one is a Exú or in yoruba Esú, a spirit of light that works in the shadows, he dresses apart so evil spirits won't notice him, he is like a messenger and at the same time a guardian, he protects people from evil forces and takes their prayers and wishes to higher forces. He looks like our image of the devil because missionaries that went to Africa picture the devil in his image, to try to push the tribes away from their old faith. In America slaves were prosecuted and punished for following their traditions.

I always thought all of this supernatural and stuff was bullshit, and people were prone to see what they believed in. I was made to bite my tongue, and after that I saw so many things I would judge impossible before. I never again had anxiety and I am for the first time in my life truly happy.

Since then I became friends with the shaman and started going to the umbanda rituals and meetings.

In January I will start training under the shaman. I will train first in the umbanda tradition to strengthen myself and my spirit and after I will train in plant medicine and pajearia.

And just to be clear, the shaman did not in any way, interfere or tried to push on me or even taught me about his religion, the guide spirits felt free to help me because the energy there was good for them to manisfest as they always do there on the umbanda rituals, and because I have a calling for working with these spirits(any one who wants can work with them but some people have a predisposition kinda like some people are born with a predisposition with football or whatever).