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What is Ayahuasca?
Part 5 - The Songs

In order for shamans to be effective in the spiritual work that they do, as described in the past blog entries, they need to gain knowledge, skills and power.


The Dieta

The dieta is the principal form of strengthening the soul and the self, and for gaining power. It involves eating nothing but boiled rice and a few boiled vegetable, and the special "master plant" you are dieting with for extended periods - often months on end. During this time all sexual activity is entirely prohibited; absolutely no salt, sugar or oils are allowed to be consumed; and dietas are usually conducted alone, in isolation in the jungle.

The concept of 'dieting with a master plant' is that there are a number of teacher and healer plants with curative properties existing in the Amazon jungle, and that one can gain the power of the plant by consuming it with a diet that finely tunes your senses. Undergoing sexual and social deprivation, in combination with eating foods that are relatively tasteless and do not activate the senses, allows one to be more in tune with our non-physical senses, and to establish greater contact with the non-physical world - particularly the master plant with which one is dieting.

During the dieta, the shaman will also drink ayahuasca. The ayahuasca journeys he takes while dieting is said to put him into direct contact with the spirit of the plant he is dieting with, and it will teach him a song (an icaro) so he can call it anytime he needs it. (NB Icaros are also learned directly from other spirits, such as animal spirits, while in the ayahuasca trance without having to undergo a dieta.)



By the time the shaman has completed his dieta with a certain plant, he should have gained it's power, and learnt how to call it's spirit to help heal other people. (NB, likewise it is possible to diet with harmful plants, and use the spirit of that plant to harm people, which is the work of a brujo.)

The calling of the spirit and the healing work is done through song.



The icaros
Icaros are magical melodies used to effect our physical dimension, and they are sung throughout an ayahuasca session by the shaman for healing, protection and to guide the trance of his subjects. They are also known as medicine songs. Often they are described as 'telephone numbers' with which one can call certain spirits to bring in a certain energy for doing a specific type of spiritual work to affect a patient. For example, if someone has been bitten by a snake, then if the shaman has dieted with the plant used to cure snake bites, he will be able to call in the spirit of that plant using the songs he learned on the dieta, and cure the bite.

Below is a collection of all the healing icaros I can find online. Most of them have been recorded in ayahausca ceremonies in the jungle. Please download and enjoy!

Pages with icaros for download
http://www.ayahuasca-wasi.com/english/icaros.html
http://www.yage.ru/icaros.htm
http://ayahuasca-shamanism.co.uk/icaroperfume-mp3.htm
http://www.musictherapyworld.de/
http://www.biopark.org/peru/icaros.html

YouTube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMexZqK51YI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXez5rP7UTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdhbHROV1JI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtBJf_pmPtw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jP5SzG6klY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STt5_pg_euw

Some direct links:
http://www.journeywithdarpan.com/music/Ayahuasca_Healing.mp3
http://www.biopark.org/peru/Rober-1a.mp3
http://www.biopark.org/peru/Rober-2a.mp3
http://www.biopark.org/peru/Rober-3a.mp3
http://www.biopark.org/peru/Rober-4a.mp3
http://www.wanamey.org/jahuanchi.mp3

Streaming Audio:
http://www.releasethereality.com/mp3/ssfs/elmundomagico/emmicaro1.ram
http://www.releasethereality.com/mp3/ssfs/elmundomagico/emmicaro2.ram
http://www.releasethereality.com/mp3/ssfs/elmundomagico/emmicaro3.ram

Here are my favourite icaro CDs available for purchase online:
Luis Pandero Vasquez:
Ayahuasca Songs From The Peruvian Amazon

Woven Songs of the Amazon:
Healing Icaros Of The Shipibo Shamans

Don Juan, Icaros Vol 3
Healing Songs From An Ayahuasca Ceremony  

What is Ayahuasca?
Part 4- The shamans

In the Amazon, Ayahuasca is used within a ritual, ceremonial context. At the head of these rituals is a shaman - the one who makes the ayahuasca, and the one who has experience and knowledge of working with altered states of consciousness, and with the spirit world, to affect changes in our physical world.



It is said that when one drinks ayahuasca, one is opened up to the spirit realm, and becomes vulnerable to the actions and intentions of the entities that exist there. Thus, for the inexperienced, a shaman is needed when drinking ayahuasca principally as a guide, but also as a guardian and protector against the potential dangers that reside within that realm.



The word 'shaman' is an umbrella term, and there are actually many, many different types of shamans. Within the context of ayahuasca shamanism (ayahuasquerismo), there are many different specialists who each have a very different set of tools and work that they do. For example, there are 'Vegetalistas' who work with plants to heal specific illnesses, or to attract certain energies; there are 'Perfumeros' who make and work with perfumes and incenses for protection or healing; there are 'Encanteros' who work with magic stones, as well as many others types, such as Paleros, Espaderos, Tabaqueros, etc.

Despite the wide variety in tools and practice, the shamans of the amazon are usually classified as either a curandero (healer), or brujo (sorcerer). The curanderos use the plants and the spirits to heal, and the brujos use the plants and the spirits to do harm and to kill.

But within the context of a normal ayahuasca ceremony, people go to a curandero to get healed of sickness. From headaches, to AIDS, to anxiety, to cancer, curanderos work with spirits to remove and heal any form of illness. And despite the negative conceptions we have about tobacco, in the Amazon it is the principle medicine used in all healing ceremonies.

So this is how shamans are known within the context of an ayahuasca ceremony, however, these shamans also have an extended role within society. In the Amazon, magic and shamanism are very much a living part of the culture. Often, when two families get in an escalating argument or fight, they will employ the use of brujos to inflict harm and illness on their enemies. The other family can then hire a curandero to protect them, or another brujo to cause harm to their attackers. In this way, shamans are often hired as mercenaries of magic.

There is a huge amount of rivalry among the shamans, and so their fighting extends beyond neighbourhoodal feuds. All the curanderos in the Amazon talk about being under constant attack from jealous and angry brujos, and they all claim to be in a constant spiritual war with each other, like something reminiscent of Star Wars.



To inflict harm, the brujos will often use something called a 'virote'. A virote is a magic dart - either physical or spiritual - that is infused with negative energy and poison and is used to harm or kill it's victim.


To protect themselves and the sick people who come to them for help, and to cure illness and the work of brujeria (sorcery), the shamans work with their helper spirits, through the medium of song...  

What is Ayahuasca?
Part 3- The effects



Ayahuasca is called the 'vine of souls' because those who use it report that is brings them into the spirit world, and into often into communication with dead people.

There is a commonality behind the ayahuasca experience that transcends simple explanation. Almost everyone who drinks sees and experiences remarkably similar things. Typically, within 45 minutes of drinking, geometric patterns and colours begin to appear behind closed eyes (entoptic phenomenon). After some time, these patterns begin to take shape and form.



Often - though not always - the drinker will begin to feel that the things they are seeing are real, living spirit beings, and may begin communications with them.



What is bizarre about this is that no matter where you're from, which culture you belong to or what you know about ayahuasca, it is almost certain that your visions will contain snakes and reptiles. Snakes that radiate intelligence and wisdom.

Though the visions can be incredibly and indescribably beautiful, it is not usually the visions that one seeks when drinking ayahuasca. Behind the visions, usually - but not always - one feels there is an entity, a presence, a spirit or something external that is providing the visions. People experience this feeling to different degrees. Some say they feel like maybe there might be something there, while others say they go into direct contact with a plant spirit that lives in the Ayahuasca vine - a healer and teacher spirit.

The spirit of ayahuasca is encountered in many forms, but they usually follow a common theme. The spirit is said to be female, extremely intelligent, wise, incredibly loving, caring, healing and wishes to teach her visitors how to live their lives better, with more love and respect. She can appear as a snake, as a serpentile mass, a puma, and also as a beautiful woman, amongst other things.



Aside from meeting the Ayahuasca spirit herself, people report to interact and communicate with a limitless array of other spirits in all shapes and forms.




True to it's name, the shamans say that ayahuasca allows us to enter the world of spirits and the world of the dead without ourselves actually having to die. I've heard many accounts of people meeting deceased relatives on ayahuasca, and I personally have met my own grandfather on a number of occasions in ayahuasca visions.




Drinking ayahuasca is said to open one up to the spirit world and interaction with spirits. However, shamans the world over give us the same message, that the spirit world - much like our own world - is inhabited by both good and bad entities, and that people need to be guided and protected through the ayahuasca experience. And this is where the shamans come in...

  

What is Ayahuasca?
Part 2 - The Ceremony

Ayahuasca has been used ritually in the Amazon for many thousands of years, and there are many different types of ceremony that have grown out of the ancient shamanic practice of ayahuasca use. These include the organised religions such as Santo Daime and Unio de Vegetal, as well as the smaller scale neo-shamanic and folk gathering ceremonies that are beginning to spring up all over the world.

But the original, and still the predominant system used for Ayahuasca ceremony is the shamanic method, which is the one we shall focus on in this blog entry. And though the ceremony differs across geographical location, and even from shaman to shaman, there is a relative consistency that has divergently evolved into what we know as Amazonian ayahuasca shamanism.

Each ceremony is held and led by a shaman - someone who has spent their life learning to navigate the ayahuasca realm, and has learnt how to work there with spiritual forces in ways that can be used to manifest effects in the physical world which we inhabit. We will go into greater detail about the work and purpose of a shaman after the next blog entry.

A typical ceremony goes as follows:
After the shaman has prepared the ayahuasca brew, he will make a gathering in a room or hut, or even in the jungle, after the sun has set and it is dark. The people who attend the ceremony are usually local villagers who are sick or diseased, and need help, and a typical ceremony will have about 10 of these people. The ayahuasca is then served, usually one by one to each of those attending.


All lights are then cut out, and all the people in the ceremony are given about 30 minutes to sit in silence and integrate the medicine into their bodies.

It is usually within about 30 minutes of drinking that two things happen:
i) the shaman begins singing icaros (sacred medicine songs, which will be explored and explained in part 5 of this series)
ii) people begin to feel nauseous and start to vomit.

The vomiting is an important part of an ayahuasca journey. Not everybody vomits every time, but when you need to you will. For those of us in neo-capitalist cultures so divorced from our spiritual heritages, the idea of vomiting is disgusting and associated with feeling ill. With Ayahuasca, the vomiting is a means of cleansing the body physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. After the vomiting, almost everyone feels much cleaner and purer than they have felt in a long time. This is why in parts of the Amazon, ayahuasca is called "La Purga" (the purge), and is used to remove illnesses of all kinds from the body.

The shaman continues singing his icaros throughout the ceremony, which typically lasts for 5 to 6 hours. During this time, he will often go to each of the ill people who are in the ceremony and sing medicine songs for them while doing spiritual healing on the person.


After the effects of the brew wear off, the ceremony ends. The next morning the visions each person had are shared in a group, as often people are given messages during their ayahuasca journey that apply not to themselves, but to others around them.

The shamans then use this information to tailor their healing work on their patients...  

Part 1 - The Chemistry

Ayahuasca is, typically, a brew made from a concoction of two plants from the Amazon jungle. The first is Chacruna (Psychotria Viridis), the second is the Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis Caapi).



The chemistry works as follows -
* The Chacruna contains DMT (Dimethyltryptamine), which is an extremely powerful psychedelic chemical, which also happens to be secreted from our pineal gland.

However, when ingested orally, the DMT is broken down in the stomach by enzymes called Monoamine Oxidase enzymes. They destroy the DMT in the stomach before it can enter your blood stream and induce hallucinations

* The Ayahuasca vine contains something called a MAOI (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor) that deactivates the enzymes in the stomach that destroy DMT. However, the ayahuasca vine alone contains no strong psychedelic chemicals.

What this means is that individually, either plant taken alone will have no effect. But when combined, they produce a powerful psychotropic brew.

However, simply chewing on the plant material will not produce effects. The plants have to be brewed together for 10 hours under carefully monitored conditions in order to produce a small quantity of an active brew.



The mysterious question arises of how the people of the Amazon made this discovery. Out of 175,000 different species of plants, randomly selecting two from them that when combined and brewed for 10 hours are able to produce these incredible effects is something extremely unlikely to happen by chance. When asked how their ancestors made this incredible discovery, the shamans always say the same thing - "The plants told them"...  

For a long time I've been suffering from a problem with my spine. There's been a twisted vertebrae in my neck, which has been causing me pain and giving me headaches. Every time I felt some tension in my neck, I always snapped my head sideways and made my neck *click*, which gave me temporary relief. I'd been doing this over 10 times a day for almost a year, slowly grinding away at that most vital of body parts.



The last time I drank Ayahuasca, I had an extremely strong experience. The sacred brew took me far out of my body, into the spirit world and into the dimension of the Ayahuasca spirit. She greeted me in one of her more usual forms - as a serpentile mass, writhing in the space around me.



She showered me with divine, unconditional love. She taught me how to deal with the issues affecting my life at that time. She showed me that the only thing that really matters in the universe is love, and that everything else is illusion. I could write an entire book about just one single Ayahuasca experience, but I would like to keep it short so I will not go into details here. But one thing that Ayahuasca taught me is this:
When you have a problem, or a pain, or an illness in your body, it is because your body is trying to communicate with you. You have every right to ignore this attempt at communication, but your body will duly suffer.

Modern Medicine acts by attacking the symptoms of illness, and generally completely ignoring the root causes. Most of the time this is stress, and taking pills only stresses the body more. Doctors should not act as drug dealers, handing out prescription medicines to people who come to them because of suffering. Often they'd be far better off sitting their patient down, giving them a massage, then talking to them, relaxing with a cup of coco. De-stressing and relaxing alone is often a better cure than a modern, relatively untested, chemical medicine.



The Ayahuasca spirit told me that I'd been ignoring my neck, not listening to it. I'd been showing a lot of hate towards my neck, being angry with it, wanting to go to a chiropractor to jam the bone back into position. I took her advice and listened. My neck said to me "I have a problem because you are not sitting with a good posture. If you maintain a good posture, my problem will go away".



Ayahuasca told me that when you have a problem in your body, you must show it love. You must listen to it, and you must respond to its needs. When you have a headache, don't take an aspirin - ask yourself why you've gotten a headache and remedy your behaviour. Maybe drink some water, or relax, or eat some food, or stop drinking alcohol(!).

Since listening to my neck, the problem has completely gone away, almost as if by magic. I no longer have neck pains or headaches, I no longer need to click my neck.

I thought I'd share her advice with you.