Some of mother earth's greatest teachers are plants. Entheogenic plants have been documented and used in indegenous cultures for 5000 years. Plant medicines have the power to expand the human spirit, teach, cleanse and heal in remarkable ways. Exploring those inner regions we gain greater perspective, expanding our understanding of ourselves. In those deep levels of our true being it is possible to initiate powerful transformation in patterns of behavior and in our experience.
One of the greatest challenges in any path of personal healing and development is working to integrate that perspective into daily life. This is often particularly true in working with Ayahuasca, as shifts in awareness happen quickly. A great undertaking, this work can last a lifetime and can be very difficult. Many people describe the work as the most challenging and equally rewarding things they've done.
With this in mind, it is essential for people who approach Medicine work to cultivate practices and strategies by consciously embracing integration beyond the experience itself.
Establishing the connections between healing with plant medicine and the critical supportive work is required to understand and capture the unique opportunity for growth that comes from these transformative experiences. Combining a series of processes that are particularly beneficial in clearing obstructions before and grounding in the powerful learnings after working with entheogens is a critical step that is unfortunately overlooked by many people who take this path. In addition, this approach lends to healing the entire system as a single unit while supporting integration with the physical body and in nutrition.
Drake attended his first MAPS ethnobotanical conference in 1996, working with an array of entheogens and beginning a long exploration of the connection between plants and spirit. His journey brought him to the mountains and jungles of Peru in 2015 where he began intensive study with a Shipibo Grandmother shaman for more than 3 years. It was at the end of his first month-long dieta in the amazon when he heard the call to be of service to those embracing plant medicine work.
Modern medicine is finally starting to catch up with our ancient ancestors. Studies conducted by Dr. Jordi Reba have shown that ayahuasca works by hyper-activating the brain's neocortex where we create reason and make decisions. The medicine also activates specific areas where early emotional memories are stored (specifically traumatic ones) and where states are generated.
Powerful events experienced in our lives, especially in early childhood create imprints or pathways in the neurological system. Repeated events cause those pathways to reinforce their connections, binding with protein, and build up the connections like scar tissue. When we experience something new the brain processes based on previous experiences, causing the pathway to become highly generalized throughout life and activated when we encounter anything associated with the original experience.
These repeated experiences massively impact, or even totally dictate our story and identity, creating behavioral patterns and emotional suffering that can last a lifetime. The hyperactivation caused by Ayahuasca allows the conscious part of the brain to temporarily override the existing pathways. This creates a window where new connections can be made, essentially recovering choice in how the experience occurs to us. This could be the neurological explanation for those who take these powerful plants in describing a ‘healing’ that produces new perspectives on past experiences and deeply rooted patterns of behavior.