AYAHUASCA CEREMONY OVERVIEW

How We Guide Our Ayahuasca Ceremonies at Nimea Kaya

Thank you for your interest in attending one of our traditional Ayahuasca retreats at Nimea Kaya. We recommend reading through the following information on how we facilitate our Ayahuasca Ceremonies, as it will help guide you on your journey with this plant medicine. This is a beautiful, powerful and serious healing journey you are about to embark upon. It is of utmost importance to us that our guests are clearly informed about the process of working with this sacred plant medicine.

First and foremost we want to convey that you will be working with a master teacher plant and healer, Ayahuasca.  This work is for deep multi-level healing and is not for recreation, curiosity or amusement. Ayahuasca is not a “cure all” medicine yet it can provide deep healing, profound insights and powerful teachings so the participant can learn how to reach their highest potential. It is important that you feel the call in your heart to work with this medicine for genuine healing, expansion and growth in your life. This process will require great courage, determination, trust and surrender to reach the levels of healing desired. Proper retreat preparation will support achieving long lasting benefits.

Ayahuasca is believed to have been used within shamanic practices for hundreds of years for healing & divinatory purposes. Now, in this time of great change on our Mother Earth, this beautiful plant medicine is availing herself to anyone seeking genuine healing. Ayahuasca is known for healing through a multilevel process. Also known as “La Purga”, many common ways of purging will be through vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, shaking, crying, yawning, laughing, etc. Often the medicine will begin the healing process first by cleansing the physical body. Ayahuasca will then move more into the emotional, psychological and spiritual areas for further healing.

Here is an overview of how we facilitate our ceremonies. Guests gather in the ceremonial Maloka by 8pm. There is always 5-6 western staff members in each ceremony along with two Shipibo Curanderos (healers). A smudging and cleansing is performed by the facilitators for the guests with sage or palo santo. The shaman guiding the ceremony will sing/whistle their special Icaro (medicine song) into the bottle of Ayahuasca to bless the medicine, charge it with positive loving energy, call in benevolent spirits, etc. The doses of Ayahuasca will then be handed out to each of the participants. The ceremony will typically last until about midnight, yet the effects of the medicine can last much longer. So, we encourage our guests to sleep in the Ceremonial Maloca where the shamans stay until the morning. There will also be two of facilitators that will remain with the guests late into the night to assist in anyway needed.

The sacred journey each participant will go through will be unique unto them personally. Each ceremony will be different than the other ceremonies as well, as it is considered a “journey” of healing. Often times the medicine will work first by cleansing the physical body of toxins via the purging process. Once much of theses layers are shed, the medicine may then take one deeper into the realms of emotional, psychological and spiritual healing and expansion.  Ayahuasca often will take one into realms where their shadow side must be faced. It is here where deep healing takes place. In our western societies, we learn how to suppress emotions and traumatic experiences. This ultimately holds us back in life from living in the balance and harmony we seek. Ayahuasca allows for the opportunity to cleanse these accumulated imprints and unhealthy patterns in life. By going into the roots of these issues and bringing them to the surface, Ayahuasca allows them to be purged out. Since Ayahuasca is an intelligent plant spirit and can work within multiple dimensions, she often will work symbolically and metaphorically during the healing process. Experiencing ones consciousness becoming disorientated is normal and common. This could be considered symbolic of releasing the ego that will then allow particular purges/releases to follow. This is a beautiful opportunity to witness oneself from a different perspective that allows for deeper transformation.

Visionary experiences during the ceremonies can be very powerful as well. These visionary realms may include geometric patterns, bright kaleidoscopic movements of energy, seeing into the plant and animal kingdoms, seeing spirits, etc. Although this may come on very early for some guests and not for others, the visionary aspect is not the focus of the experience as often the healing takes place on much deeper levels. The experience that unfolds is ultimately up to how the Medicine will work with the participant and is dependent on the unique personal experiences that one has accumulated in life.

It is normal for the “processing” of energies and purging to continue in between the ceremonies throughout the daytime. This work can be exhausting on the physical body so it is good to make sure you rest well during the day.  We provide fresh coconut water and electrolytes to support hydration and further cleansing of the body.

During this healing journey it is best to not come with any expectations. It is helpful to set intentions for the healing work yet the need to surrender and accept how the medicine works with you is paramount for successful healing. We see the healing with Ayahuasca as a recapitulative process where one experiences that which one is releasing. So, in a sense, in order for one to release blocked or suppressed negative energies, they will often experience these related emotions during ceremony.

After participants move through releasing these layers of dis-ease they will often experience feelings of gratitude and love. Profound realizations are revealed regarding one’s life and how events in the past could have been approached differently.  Insights are gained on how to proceed in life to live a more fulfilled, harmonious, and healthy lifestyle. Guests may reach higher states of consciousness where communication with the spirit world, their guides and angels, or loved ones that have passed over may occur. The variety of experiences are vast, including feeling intimately connected to the Universe, feeling their DNA upgraded, experience a Kundalini activation, seeing into past lives, divine cosmic connections with the plant and animal kingdoms, or simply the raising of energetic frequencies.

The process of integrating the ceremonial work after the retreat is essential for successful healing in ones life. Ayahuasca will be with you long after you leave the jungle. The tools, insights and teachings that you have gained can then be applied into your daily life which will lead to more harmony, creativity, health and peace. Integration often times requires a reevaluation of the circumstances in one’s life that can result in many changes that lead to a healthier lifestyle and environment. Dissatisfaction with the old routine is common in that you may realize how it no longer serves your highest and greatest potential. It is common as well for “tests” to surface in ones life so that you are able to apply these insights to maintain a higher vibration that will resonate and uplift yourself and those around you.  Post retreat integration support is provided to assist our guests so that they will be able to carry the teachings and tools as they continue forward on the path of life.

~ Thank you for considering taking this step in your life to heal yourself as it also helps heal the “whole”.  Blessings ~