Five Weeks in the Amazon

 A backpacker’s journey: life in the rainforest, Ayahuasca, and a Peruvian shaman’s ancient diet 

PROLOGUE

At the beginning of the ceremony, nobody knows how the Ayahuasca will react, for them or anyone else. Even though I couldn’t see anybody else in the dark room, I could sense overtones of apprehension within the group. We were sitting there and waiting for the Ayahuasca to do its magic, wrapped in the darkness of the night.

Before anything happened, enough time had passed for me to enter a state of internal calmness. I had been practicing my breathing techniques, trying to enter calm and meditative states for as long as possible during these ceremonies. I tried to observe, instead of control, my Ayahuasca experiences.

Without warning, an explosion of sound and light shook the entire house. The startling interruption made someone gasp, and I heard a quick squeal from somebody else.

The sky crackled to life. I knew at that moment why long ago people thought thunder was the sound coming from the gods fighting.

When it’s that bright, and that loud, and so close it’s right on top of you, there’s no escaping it. I imagined Zeus hurling thunderbolts towards the earth.

The small room became lit again and again by blasts of purple light. Thunder exploded at the same instant as the lightning flashed and I knew the storm was right on top of us. It shook the wooden house with every strike towards the Earth and I could feel the sky’s energy pouring into the room.

Through the door, I could see the jungle illuminated with each white-hot flash of light. The room was still electrified and loud when the Ayahuasca began to start working. People started to vomit, Otillia started singing icaros, and the sounds became mixed together…

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