After a sleepless night, in the Hotel Maranon, I nervously turned up at the 'Blue Morpho' tour office in Iquitos, at 8.30am, and met the others. They looked mostly 'normal', although I did hear some conversations about 'spirits', which sounded quite bizarre. No new age fruitcakes although a few ex cons and junkies surprised me. After a few hours chitchatting, we got on a bus to the camp some 55km into the jungle. After a brief tour of the surrounding area we relaxed at the camp - Tomorrow night is our first Ayahuasca session, and I'm looking forward to whether it will change my life. Or not.
The shamanic diet started today. No soap, toothpaste or any 'western' things. No salt, sugar, milk, caffeine or condiments. Breakfast is rice with 3 hard boiled eggs. Lunch was a burned piece of chicken with rice and there is no dinner before the first Ayahuasca ceremony. At 5pm we have to drink from a fermenting bottle of this nasty tasting tree bark which according to the Shamans, 'gets the tree spirits to come and live permanently in my body to keep me healthy', who needs doctors? This sounds as plausible as Santa Claus but anyway let's see...
All the talk in the camp is about visions and spirits and people being possessed. The frightening thing is that everyone seems to believe it. Everyone that is, but me.
At 8pm we will take the Ayahuasca, in a special large hut called the ceremonial house. There are 6 toilets for 30 people, 2 showers, and everyone has a mattress, a basin to be sick in, a cup of water to gargle away the taste, or to wash the face/mouth, a roll of toilet paper, a pillow and blanket as it seems it's normal to stay there most of the night. I can see that this stuff definitely has a strong effect on people (by the crazed look in the veteran psychonauts eyes) but whether it will be this DMT chemical giving me crazy dreams, or whether it is 'spirits' lets see. Since many of the 'head spirits' appear as specific people/creatures then it will be a good way to prove it as such.
It's really hot and sweaty here, made even worse by the Shamanic diet, and I need to shower in cold water (there is no electricity here or hot water) about four times a day.
So there we were, 30 people sitting on our mattresses around the three shamans. They have crystals and other new age junk around them. I was feeling comfy on my mattress, thinking about if I will be sick much.
The shamans began to sing their 'Icaros' to the small cups of Ayahuasca that we prepared earlier. These are the chants that channel the good spirits into the room. One by one we all come up to take our Ayahuasca. It tasted like the vomit of a Balti Jaam (Tallinn train station) drunkard. Then they put out the lanterns so it was pitch black, apart from the odd lightning bolt courtesy of a thunderstorm outside. Nothing happened for 30 minutes, it was nice to hear the Icaros, and relax. After 30 minutes people started being sick. After 45 minutes I began to see some colourful shapes, tiny snakes in front of my eyes, as I tried to focus on the Icaros being sung, I was sick in the bucket. A horrible poisonous taste came up. I didn't see any 'visions', except vivid colours and a general pleasant feeling. I felt then, listening to the Icaros, that I needed to shit, so I went to the toilet. Things then really started to happen. I started seeing memories of me getting younger, images flashing through my head and, and as this happened, I felt a sharp 'squeeze' on both ends, and I puked (there are basins in all the toilet cubicles) and had diarrhoea at the same time. It felt good being surrounded by the helpful little snakes. I became a four year old, feeling totally happy and content, and had all the thoughts that a young child would have.
Then I was in the throat of a large benign serpent, sitting there, in a kind of nest or womb. After some further puking and shitting, I became aware of my surroundings (in darkness, on the toilet pan!) I heard a girl sobbing and making sexual noises in the cubicle next door. God knows what she was going through. I felt my way out along the hallway and back to the main room. The place was a total lunatic asylum. People were banging, making weird chicken noises, neighing like horses, but most of all vomiting, howling like goblins. It was dark except the odd small light of a dim torch so people could see their way to the toilet. In the odd light you could sometimes see people beating their own chests, and one guy standing up gesticulating wildly. There was mostly a happy feeling and there was the odd bit of trippy laughter around.
As I sat down and settled into a pleasant experience of being a little boy, some guys behind me were now banging a lot, and one guy kept walking into the wall (which was just a flimsy screen that separated the toilet area) he almost broke it down. Both guys had to be restrained and I thought that one guy had died as there were a whole lot of attendants around him.
Now I was sweating a lot, as if I had a fever, but couldn't puke much more (I'd puked a lot) and so I just hung out with the snakes in a very pleasant dream, and was thinking of my friends and family in a good way, and how lucky I am. A girl with cancer (I think it was her) kept on asking for more blankets.
This must have gone on for 3 hours, with the odd distraction from some crazy guys. The guys were much more noisy than the girls, and the Americans were noisier than the Europeans (except me, I puked quite loudly) Anyway, now, the next morning I feel fine and refreshed, like I had a good sauna.
It seems that many people didn't have such a nice time. The guy who walked into the walls went nuts, and has left the camp to go home. He was totally freaked out. Mr Chicken Noises and the other farmyard animals are still here. I found out the next day that one guy had become paralysed in the seance, albeit temporarily. Some of the stories were horrific and truly terrifying, some were blissful.
This shamanic diet is already beginning to get to me. No salt or flavour means the food is awful, and you have no energy unless you drink this disgusting root drink, even the smell of it makes me sick. So I will stop drinking it and just make sure to eat all the meals. I fell asleep in a talk this afternoon, and kept breaking out in a sweat. Tonight (in one hour) is the second Ayahuasca ceremony. It's powerful stuff, I really don't know what's going to happen, I hope I don't have a bad 'vision' tonight - from seeing some of the other guys it looked terrifying.
Alan Findlay
mar 24 '10
1 contribution
Alan Findlay was born in South Africa, grew up in Glasgow, and after a long stint in London, he now lives in Talllinn Estonia for most of the year. An ex Stockbroker, gambler and businessman, boredom often takes him to dark corners of the world where he writes whatever comes into his mind at the time.
published • March 24th '10
mar 24 '10 18:30
James canning-cooke
Nice one Alan. Didn't have you down as the Shamanic type. Still waters....