How important is dieting before an Ayahuasca retreat?
The effects of Ayahuasca during a retreat. Several people who had taken Ayahuasca for the first time were nailed to the ground. One might think this is just another experience. But it is quite complicated because Ayahuasca will strip bare your fears, fantasies, and terror. It takes at least 40 minutes to 1 hour for the Ayahuasca to start assimilating in the body.
Purging and assimilation of the Ayahuasca
The Ayahuasca brew slowly works its way into the mainstream while you are leaning against the wall or lying on your mattress. In the Beginning, often the first hour, one starts to feel sleepy, yawning; it is a fairly animal-like feeling. After a while, the brew does something very particular it causes a kind of drunkenness.
Drunkenness that gives you a new perception of your body, of the movements, allows the participant to feel the body’s organic nature. As the Ayahuasca moves in the bloodstream, it provokes drunkenness which is a state of particular sensitivity.
The participant starts to feel nauseous, and here is where purging starts; this is scary because you feel sick, so aim for the bucket and keep your ass above and your head down.
The effects of Ayahuasca during a retreat. Ayahuasca stimulates that part of the brain where one feels fear. When a person drinks Ayahuasca brew, it forces the participant to encounter the feeling of death, even if it is only within oneself.
The mind is still going to perceive it. The mind will perceive the mortal organic mechanism that will be unplugged one day, scaring the participant even more. Learning to cross this stage brings you back to life. It gives you more life in fact.
The Ayahuasca brew is something that affects the stomach. In the meantime, science tells that the brain, which is in the skull is connected to one million neurons. That constitutes the autonomous nervous system. The brain goes from the solar plexus into the skull, and it so happens that Ayahuasca begins by affecting your stomach and everything that goes with it.
After the Ayahuasca purge
The amusement ride feeling is entirely normal during the first hours; after the purging is gone, the participant jumps into a state of relaxation.
Part of the purging neutralizes the ego and the participant’s presuppositions, releasing things. At this stage, the individual’s mind will try to cage memories, traumas, or fears, but they cannot be contained.
We describe this as a battle between the organic body and mind control. Eventually, the brain is going to fight the Ayahuasca and feel the arrival of fear; the Ayahuasca is going to make you feel fear that comes from far away.
At the end of the battle, the mind surrenders and dissolves itself into a maelstrom of emotions. The mind can no longer control the body, and the participant will pass into something deeply human.
Ayahuasca is a very formidable agent for altering consciousness opener; the charm of this kind of experience is that it makes you feel the complexity of things.
