radi a ntEARTH health.wellbeing.spirituality.consciousness
MAGAZINE August - September 2014
Vitamin D
Boost your mood with sunshine
Are you deliriously happy?
Adele McConnell Author of Vegiehead shares her favourite recipes
Ayahuasca
The ancient vine of the amazon
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adiant Earth Magazine is dedicated to giving back to our global community. Each edition we will be featuring an article on a charity, non-for-profit organisation or social entrepreneurs. For every 12 month subscription sold we will be donating $1 back into these amazing programs and projects!
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or the August/September issue we will be fundraising for the amazing 10 year old Jonah who is supporting Orang-utans. Jonah is passionate about raising awareness about palm oil and is currently trying to fundraise $10,000 to help release one of his furry friends back into the wild. We are sure you will enjoy reading about him in his article. 2 | Radiant Earth Magazine
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Colour and SOund
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Sacred INition in the temples of Egypt
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Modern Shaman 6 Crystal Consciousness
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Chakras 8
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Contents On the cover 6 Deliriously happy
Three steps to enhance your happiness
13 Ayahuasca The ancient vine of the Amazon 44 Vitamin D
Boost your mood with sunshine
53 Vegiehead Adele McConnell shares her favourite recipes
Every issue
Wellbeing 9 eight ways to reduce stress 11 Earthing 22 what is your purpose 28 Pain and suffering 30 sitting on the fence
Spirit 20 48 50
Creative Consciousness God: A Rose by any other name Feng Shui
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Health 24 39 36 47
38 41 42 57
Daily Spiritual Practice Conscious Beauty Junkie Book Reviews Chosen charity
Essential oil: Natures medicine Skin Wellness in the 21st century yoga for menopause 6 ways to use Apple Cider vinigar
Mind 31 34
Quantum Biology Pyramid Gravity Force
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
CONNECT TO MIND BODY AND SOURCE WITH REM There are just so many wonderful things nature has to offer. In the past I may have occasionally scoffed at 'the next best thing’, which often is just old knowledge recycled, whereas now I truly rejoice every time I rediscover the amazing power available to us and provided by our planet. I am so grateful we have such a great number of choices in natural healing solutions, with more being found every day. It allows us to all have complete and constant access to the wonders of nature in some form, regardless of where we live, how much money we have or what our personal tastes might be.
radiantEARTH
MAGAZINE
August - September
Publishers
Jessica Beard Joanna Curteis Lauren Curteis
Editor
Lauren Curteis
Art Director
Joanna Curteis
I am elated to be able to help in sharing peoples thoughts, knowledge and wisdom with others, on such a wide variety of topics. It truly is a blessing. If you or someone you know have an uplifting story, a piece of wisdom to share with others or an idea for something you would like us to investigate and write about, please contact us we're always looking for new ideas!
Marketing and Sales Jessica Beard
For article submissions please email editor@radiantearthmagazine.com For advertising enquiries please contact sales@radiantearthmagazine.com Radiant Earth Magazine is published six times yearly. Subscriptions can be purchased through our website or through Apple Newsstand via the iTunes Store. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publishers. The opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of our publishers. This magazine is intended as a reference volume only, not a medical manual.
Lauren Curteis
The publishers expressly disclaim all liability for any occurrence that may arise as a consequence of the use of the information presented in this magazine.
Radiant Earth Magazine Editor
ENJOY A FREE MEDITATION FROM THE RADIANT EARTH FAMILY. 5 | Radiant Earth Magazine
Photo by Dmitry Kichenko
Deliriously Happy
by Sue Krebs
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ore than a new age buzz word, happiness is a deep-seated desire within the human experience. I’ve come to believe positive emotions such as joy, happiness, peace and love indicate an inner alignment of all aspects of who we know as Self: body, mind and spirit. Like an inner compass, we repeatedly seek to align with this natural inner state.
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e all crave happiness; we gravitate toward it. There’s something incredibly compelling about uninhibited laughter, a warm smile, a positive attitude. We’re drawn to happy people like moths to a light. At a core level, we seem to recognise that each of us deserves to be happy. But rather than being something bestowed upon us by a benevo-
lent deity, favorable circumstances or the winds of fate, happiness is something we allow ourselves to experience by releasing all of the reasons we’re now using to hold it at bay. Happiness stems from an inner resolve to feel good, which for me equates to aligning with my spiritual self. Happiness is a choice I make over and over each day, often multiple times
a day. It is the declaration that how I feel is the most important thing in my life. It is a mindset with which I greet Life. hile it is unrealistic to expect oneself to be happy all of the time, most of us could be much happier than we allow ourselves to be. Here are a few quick, but maybe not so easy, techniques to increase the amount of happy in your day.
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Photo byEvil Erin
Artwork by Nikolai Kashirin click on the picture to go to his site
1. Make the decision that feeling good is the most imporant thing in your life
When faced with a situation that seems to be undermining your happiness, ask yourself if it is more important to be ______ (fill in the blank: right, angry, offended, martyred, or whatever word is appropriate) or to feel good? Sometimes it is more important to feel these other emotions. They’re not wrong or bad, but recognise it is a choice to indulge them or not. Sometimes people become offended when this suggestion is offered. Many of us have succumbed to the notion that someone else’s happiness is more important than our own or that
Photo by Amanda Tipton
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by choosing to be happy, we are somehow infringing upon someone else’s rights. There’s not a fixed amount of Happy that has to be divided up. There is more than enough to go around. In fact, we’ll never get to the end of it. Give yourself permission to really be happy.
2. Focus on
appreciation There’s no quicker way to find those feel-good feelings than to focus on the myriad of things in your life you already appreciate. Name them, talk about them, write lists about them and sing their praises to anyone and everyone. Rather than complaining about the latest ache, pain or disappointment, instead rejoice about the tiniest thing that brings you joy. Make focusing on what’s right in your life a habit and you’ll soon be one of those happy people attracting the attention of your not-so-happy acquaintances. You’ll become the light for those seeking joy in their lives.
3. Be fully present in your life. The now moment is all we actually have to work with. Right now. When we can keep our mind from wandering into the future, imagining all sorts of cataclysmic possibilities, keep it out of ruminating in the past, regurgitating and judging our past actions. We are able to experience the personal power we each wield to choose to be happy right here, right now. String together a whole bunch of happy right-hereright-now moments and pretty soon you’ve got a happy life going.
Photo by Funkybug
4. Forgive yourself Most of us are incredibly hard on ourselves. We use self-talk that would embarrass the most seasoned sailor. We berate ourselves for imagined transgressions and judge ourselves as impossibly flawed. We magnify our mistakes and view them as mortal wounds. I truly believe we never intended to come into this human experience to be perfect. This was never the plan or even the expectation. I believe we’re here to experience ourselves as the divine in human form. We came to learn and grow and this process often involves mistakes. In fact, if anything, mistakes were built into the system. So cut yourself some slack and let go of the need for perfection. Forgive yourself for your supposed errors and mistakes and let yourself have some fun with it all.
Photo by Dmitry Kichenko
5. Embrace the whole journey One of my favorite sayings has become, “It’s all good.” I’ve repeated it so often to myself that I truly believe it. Life is all good, all of it. We’re here to experience it all, to discern that which we prefer and then create more of it. We’re here growing, learning, messing up and expanding ‘All That Is’. When we can release the judgments that certain parts are ‘better’ than others, we free ourselves to enjoy all of it. Life is the grandest adventure of all. Allow yourself to feel the happiness which is your natural state. Express and experience your joy in all its beautiful facets. Open to the wonder of this life and let yourself be Deliriously Happy.
Soul Speaking by Sue Krebs
I invite you to experience the gift of this intimate dance and reunion with your soul. Readings are offered by phone or Skype and are recorded for you convenience. Readings last between 60 and 90 minutes and currently cost $150. To schedule your own reading, please contact me at sue@soulspeaking.net. I look forward to the honor and privilege of greeting your soul through the unconditional love of the Akashic Records. Phone 952-985-5059 www.fb.com/SoulSpeaking www.suekrebs.wordpress.com 8 | Radiant Earth Magazine
Photo by Randy Heinitz
EIGHT WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS Alison Nancye is an adult and children’s fiction/non-fiction author and self-help expert. Currently penning her latest novel Motherload, she knows all about stress. She's lived it, writes about it, and through her Speaking Engagements she helps people work their way through it. In this article she shows us how to look below the surface, questioning ourselves and our relationship with stress.
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tressed has become an overused word in any given person's vocabulary. Stressed about money, stressed about time (or lack thereof), stressed about the workload, stressed about the family load, stressed about the overload and the list goes on.
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ut what are you really stressed about? Look deeper at the root cause, or just peel away a layer or two. Question yourself, question the situation and be honest with your answers.
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re you stressed because your kids didn't clean
their room or are you really stressed because you are so seriously sleep deprived that tackling a child's messy room feels like climbing Mount Everest? Are you stressed because you can't find the energy to get through your workday, every day or are you really stressed because you hate the work you
do? Are you stressed because your partner doesn't give you what you want in your relationship or are you really stressed because you've lost sight of what you want in a partner?
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hen you start to ask yourself deeper and more honest questions, you
Photo by Jean Henrique Wichinoski
will begin to unravel the root cause of your stress and only then can you start to treat it.
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ow rather than get stressed about the potential toll stress can have on your life, you can do something and you can do it right now. It doesn't need to cost a lot of time, money or energy to lower your stress levels and increase your happiness hormones. It is just a matter of making a commitment to take care of yourself. Create and maintain a healthy mind, body and spirit practice and you are well on your way to creating a solid pathway of reducing stress and living a life you love.
8 WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS. 1 - Reduce alcohol intake.
feel in your body and at times in your mind. Some foods "Using alcohol to cope with agree with you and some don't, stress may actually make a per- so it's important to take note son's response to stress worse and act accordingly. Increasand prolong recovery" (Emma ing your diet of fresh food and Childs Research Associate decreasing the amount of proat The University of Chicago, cessed and sugar based foods, 2011) is a great way to experience a genuine difference in how you 2 - Meditate. feel on a regular basis. The value of taking a few minutes to breathe, relax and centre yourself before you launch in to your day or embark on an important or potentially stressful situation, is powerful beyond measure. 3 - Mood Food. Absolutely everything you put in your mouth affects how you
a child and how you enjoyed amazing how de-stressing it passing the time, let that guide can be just to have something you to your inner child today. joyful on the horizon. Put at least one holiday on your 5 - Exercise. event schedule each year.
The market is saturated with data to remind us that happy hormones are produced when you get the heart rate pumping and the body moving. Don't waste another second reading 4 - Do things which make you whether it's a good idea to exfeel happy. ercise or not - get off your butt and take a walk, ride a bike or You may not have a job you swim a few laps. love today but you can work towards it, make a start by 6 - Have something to look pursuing hobbies you love. If forward to. you are struggling to work out what it is you enjoy doing most, Do you know how happy think back to when you were people are when they have a significant event coming up or a holiday to focus on? It's
7 - Listen to some cool tunes. Music can be a really effective stress-management tool. It engages all the senses and gives you something to focus on other than what you may be worried or concerned about. It can help you to relax, unwind and feel calm. Try incorporating more music into your daily life. Perhaps when preparing meals, driving in your car, in the bath or shower or unwinding at the end of the day. 8 - Laugh. Half an hour with Ellen DeGeneres every day is certain to give you a belly laugh. Watching a funny movie, reading a funny book or having an outrageously funny conversation with a good friend are all great ways to increase those happy hormones.
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Photo by Donnie Ray Jones
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e all have stress in our lives at varying times and to varying degrees, but there is so much you can do to reduce everyday stress. Whatever you decide, make a pact with yourself to be happy first. From this place, you can start taking steps in the right direction
Photo by Bob Prosser
Artwork by D Sharon Pruitt click on the picture to go to his site
Earthing is a worldwide movement growing rapidly since scientific discoveries have been made about the great benefits of ‘grounding’ by placing our feet on the earth. Offering us immediate help for our health absolutely free.
By Robyn Wood
EARTHING H
ave you ever had the experience where something is in your face for a really long time and then it finally registers? Arguably the greatest healing energies ever known to human kind are right at our feet. Yes, the soles of our feet directly onto mother earth. Our modern lifestyles have increasingly steered us away from these profound healing and balancing energies. The humble shoe could be the greatest impediment to our health and wellbeing. We now seek a pill or some other kind of intervention to remedy all kinds of ailments which need nothing more than the free flowing electrons constantly emanating from the earths vibration.
tingling or uplifting feeling from walking with bare feet on the beach, playing on the grass in the park or in your own backyard. Maybe we’ve attributed our improved sense of wellbeing to being on holidays, or to having fun with the kids, when all along we have not been aware that it was the flesh to earth connection sending healing vibrations through our body. Thanks to the research initiated by Clint Ober and others who have followed, the evidence is now abundantly clear. The earth is a living source of energy constantly providing negatively charged free electrons at its surface.
We, as human beings are electrical in nature and when our bare feet meet with the earth’s Despite our disconnection surface our bodies immedifrom the earth, it’s likely at ately start to equalise to the some time we’ve all felt the same electric energy levels as healing energies; the pleasure, the earth.
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If you want to feel better, remove your shoes and socks and connect your flesh with the earth. Earths conductors of energy include: sand, dirt, grass, concrete, slate or paving. The effect, whilst almost immediate varies from person to person. The key is to make it habitual. Even do your own little experiment. Try Earthing for thirty minutes a day for one month and notice how you feel. Then go back to your old ways just to test it out. It won’t cost you anything and the potential gains are extraordinary. For the comfort seekers who don’t want to get cold feet in the winter months there are numerous ‘grounding’ products you can find for purchase if you google ‘Earthing’. Earthing could well be the way forward for our very survival as a species on this beautiful planet. When we ground with
the very being who provides all our resources for living in this existence, we begin to realise we are all connected and many of our actions and inactions are inherently damaging. Perhaps it will create a wave of awakening which will build love and respect for this universal nurturer of human kind. Then we may make the essential changes to current ignorant and abusive practices. Let’s spread the word about Earthing, to help everyone now and in future generations. Book reference: Earthing Clinton Ober, Stephen T.Sinatra, M.D. Martin Zucker
www.ntpages.com.au workhealthwisdom.com.au
What
does
earthing
do?
*Reduces or eliminates chronic pain. * Improves sleep. (in most cases) * Increases energy. * Reduces or eliminates jet lag. * Normalises the body’s biological rhythms. * Thins blood and improves blood pressure and flow. * Relieves muscle tension and headaches. * Lessens hormonal and menstrual symptoms. * Dramatically speeds healing and helps to prevent bed sores. * Lowers stress and promotes calmness in the body by cooling down the nervous system, lowering stress hormones. * Protects the body against potentially health disturbing environmental electromagnetic fields (EMF’s). * Accelerates recovery from intense athletic activity. * Defuses the cause of inflammation and improves or eliminates symptoms of many inflammation related disorders.
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Image by quixoticmystic http://quixoticmystic.deviantart.com/
Vine of Vision
Ayahuasca Ayahuasca is is an an ancient ancient hallucinogenic hallucinogenic plant plant medicine medicine used used traditiontraditionally ally by by shamans shamans of of AmaAmazonian zonian Peru Peru for for ritual ritual and and for for spiritual spiritual and and physical physical healing. healing. In In this this two two part part feature feature we we discover discover more more about about this this ancient ancient vine. vine. 13 | Radiant Earth Magazine
Image by snafupunk
Seekers of the Mystery Lima Airport, Peru Wednesday June 28, 2006.
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he clean white walls of the stall are tagged with graffiti: “We who solve mystery, become mystery,” alchemical wisdom handed down through the ages and now in the sterile men’s toilets at the Lima airport departure lounge. Scrawled, no doubt, by one of the tourists waiting out in the food court.
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psychedelic wave just before it breaks. Bright-eyed Westerners about to die and be reborn in the humid jungles of Peru, drinking the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca.
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yahuasca is a plant medicine that has been used by the indigenous people of South America for millennia to heal physical ailments—and, they claim, to cleanse and purify the spirit. It was discovered by the West in 1851 when the legendary British botanist Richard Spruce explored the Rio Negro Basin and was introduced to the vine by the Tokanoan Indians. Spruce gave the vine its scientific name, Banisteriopsis caapi; in different areas of South America it is also known as yagé or hoasca. For a while in the mid-twentieth-century chemists who isolated the active properties of the vine called their compound “telepathine.”
utside, milling under the ubiquitous gaze of security cameras, are bright splashes of colorful souls wearing crystals, beads, and Native American Indian paraphernalia; middle-aged academics with “Erowid” drug website t-shirts; and passengers that give you that odd conspiratorial smile that says, “yes, we are here for the conference.” And here we are chowing down on McDonalds and Donut King, getting esearch showed it conour last hits of civilization tained various harmala before hitting the jungle city alkaloids, which are boiled up of Iquitos and shamanic boot in a brew (also called ayahuascamp. ca) with a multitude of other plants, one being the leafy Psyt feels like some whacked- chotria viridis, which contains out reality TV show, a gen- the powerful hallucinogenic erational snapshot of a new chemical Dimethyltryptamine,
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also known as DMT. On its own the vine is only orally active at very high doses, but it also contains potent MAO (mono-amine oxidase) inhibitors that overpower the body’s own enzymes and allow the DMT to potentiate.
world it reportedly opens up. Those who drink say that each ayahuasca journey is unique. They say that the spirit of the vine comes alive, it guides and teaches, and on the other side nothing is ever the same. Or so they say.
the spirit of the vine comes alive, it guides and teaches, and on the other side nothing is ever the same
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cience has made cautious forays into the jungle to study the vine in its native setting or, as with the “Hoasca Project” in the 1990s, to study church members of groups like União do Vegetal (UDV) who drink ayahuasca as part of their syncretic Christian-jungle religion. What they found was that regular ayahuasca use flushed the brain clean and improved receptor sites, suggesting the vine could be a medicinal goldmine. But what science cannot explain is the psychic effect of this “mother of all plants,” the sense of the numinous and the spiritual
he native men and women who safeguard the knowledge of the vine and of the spirits it is said to reveal are the curanderos and curanderas—or, as the West would call them, shamans. Their role has been that of healer, priest, and traveler between worlds, acting as intermediaries between the spiritual dimension and this world on behalf of their patients.
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et the demands of the work and the rise of Western materialism throughout South America have seen a fall in prestige—and customers—for the curanderos. The profession, usually hereditary, was in danger of extinction before an unprecedented wave of Western gringos started coming in search of ayahuasca and the healing it can provide.
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ver the last twenty years or so a new gringo trail—this one a journey of the soul—has
freelance journalist, a gonzo reporter in the time-honored Hunter S. Thomson and Tom Wolfe style, freelancing on an academic-style conference with a pronounced twist: it was all about Amazonian shamanism, with a hands-on component.
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trange, to think that in the first decade of the twenty-first century I would be heading to the Peruvian jungles in search of a connection to the primal consciousness that indigenous wisdom revealed. Yet in a world of global warming and environmental collapse it seemed all the more urgent to reconnect with the planet in a visceral way. And in this age of reality television, blogging, and urban surveillance, being an embedded journalist was par for the course. Nowadays we’re all part of the story— and getting down-and-dirty in the far crevasses of consciousness was a prospect I was relishing.
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espite cultural diffidence back in the baseline world of war, mortgages, and climate change, I was willing been blossoming in the junfastest growing religions, with to peek under the covers gles of South America. Seekers branches of Brazilian churches of reality and embrace and and thrillseekers alike have like Santo Daime and União do try to understand the mythic been coming from the West for Vegetal springing up in Europe, pull of shamanism, one of a reconnection to the deeper Britain, Australasia, America, the last global archetypes reality shamanism connects Japan, and elsewhere. In Jan- that connects to a numinous one to—and bringing back uary 2006, the U.S. Supreme “Other.” Yet at the same time amazing stories of halluciCourt ruled in favor of a New it’s also one of the most nogenic trips, healing, and Mexico branch of the UDV, appropriated, glorified, and enlightenment. saying they had a constitution- repackaged brands embedded al right to be allowed to legally in the global consciousness. ndigenous shamanism has practice their ayahuasca cere- So much so that it now attracts quickly become the most monies under the freedom of thousands of Westerners each profitable business in town religion law. The U.S. governyear back to the disappearing and numerous jungle lodges ment immediately appealed, jungles and the plant mediand retreats have sprung up but the genie was out of the cines they provide. But what across South America to cater bottle. was the business of spirituality to the influx of rich tourists. doing to all these backpacking This has spilled over onto the ayahuasca tourists that dared internet as hundreds of ayato journey into the mysteries huasca websites, chat rooms, of creation? And what did it and forums have emerged to say about the growing Western crystallize a global subculture need for an authentic reconengaging with an indigenous nection to the planet? spiritual practice and seeding it back into the Western world. yahuasca was a mystery to me, and despite some s well as being used by people returning from last he mystery of ayahuasca hundreds of thousands, year’s shaman conference, I had left the jungle and perhaps millions of indigenous got the feeling that many of entered the cities, via religion, the ayahuasca tourists here peoples throughout South America, ayahuasca has also media, and the web. And here in the food court were in I was, a thirty-six-year-old become one of the world’s the same boat. We were all
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We were all chasing the root of the vine, eager for the secrets she might provide
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chasing the root of the vine, eager for the secrets she might provide, but like children in the ways of the spirit.
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n the hours before the plane leaves the ayahuasca seekers magnetize together, gently feeling each other out and swapping stories. Two big ladies from the States in Native American–inspired tribal wear come over and introduce themselves, as does a bald-headed guy from L.A and a young backpacker from Europe wearing a “Treehugger” t-shirt.
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s we finally board the early morning flight to Iquitos, filing down the departure gate aisle, it strikes me how different we all are. A few obvious “New Agers” for sure, but the vast majority of seekers here are remarkable for only one thing: their conformity.
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he ayahuasca network appears to cut across race, social class, and gender, a secret society of plant worshippers all united by the common experience of this potent hallucinogenic. And through them, the ayahuasca vine was spreading her tendrils across the world and a genuine “archaic revival” was underway.
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y bags were packed, the jungle beckoned, and the ancient mystery of the rainforest awaited. I wanted in on it. Excerpt printed with permission. The book Aya: Awakenings is published by North Atlantic Books and is available in all good bookstores and via Amazon.com: \
It has also recently been adapted into a critically acclaimed feature length film, for more info see:
http://www.aya-awakenings.com