The History
I recently shared an article with some friends on the plant called
ayahuasca. I had done some research on this drug and found that several articles call it
a plant that has potential to help alleviate PTSD, suicidal thoughts, and
severe anxiety. Other articles are less complementary and caution that it
can cause death. My thought is that once again white folks are playing
with indigenous medicines and they don't really understand how they work.
I wonder if this, like other practices, is both misunderstood and
misused. I was curious about my friends’ thoughts on this and on any
articles, publications, or writings they might direct me to.
One friend who had 30 years ago visited the Amazon
replied that although he had not taken anyahuasca he was aware of it and had
considered taking it. He had spent a few
weeks in Iquitos, Peru where the writer of the article I had shared had her
experience with the drug. No information
there, but I thanked him for his reply.
Interestingly Iquitos is a major city along the Amazon
that is only assessable only by plane or boat, but here in the middle of the
jungle is this thriving city.
A couple of days after my sharing this article my friend
emailed me saying he had a dream he wanted to share with me and wondered if I
would be okay with that. Dreams are
important to me; my own and others, and I have helped many people recall and
understand “The Sacred Language of Dreams”; so I emailed him that I would like to
hear his dream. He then emailed this
dream to me.
The Dream
“Ok...I
hope you get a kick out of it. I don’t know if there is a meaning to it. Maybe
you will have an idea.
Anyway I think one thing that
triggered it was when you sent me the email about the ayahuasca.
Anyway my dream was I went back to
Iquitos to see a Shaman about erectile dysfunction. I went into the hut and he
had me lay down on a table like the one you use for Reiki. He started chanting
and blowing smoke and shaking this grass type thing at me just like he did last
time I got a protection ceremony from him. Then a woman came out from behind a
curtain wearing a grass skirt and it was you and you had a single long feather
in your hair. You had that tuning fork you use and tapped me down there and
bingo…I was cured…LOL...Then I woke up.”
The dream intrigued me. My initial thought was this dream, like the
ayahuasca, was taking him on an inward journey to heal, and there were deeper
symbolic meanings to his journey. On the
surface the shaman’s ceremony and my using the tuning fork had cured him, but
my sense was there were deeper layers to his being “cured”.
I replied to his email saying I
needed some time to think about this, and after considerable thought I again
replied:
The Dream Interpretation
The dream is
interesting. It contains 3 people, the Shaman, you, and me. If this was
my dream I would consider that all 3 of these people are aspects of me and all
are there to facilitate healing. You are seeking a healing for your
erectile dysfunction and the Shaman begins a ceremony like you have experienced
before. I then appear from behind a curtain with a feather in my hair and
holding a tuning fork. I use the tuning fork, touch your genitals, and
the problem is corrected. To me this says that your higher self, the
shaman, directs you toward healing, and I, your feminine self, am called
forth to assist with this.
The article I sent you the other day reminded you of the ceremonies you
experienced in the Amazon, but the essence of healing is your journey, and
begins when you acknowledge the various parts that make up you, and ask them to
assist you in this healing. The shaman's smoke, rattle, and chant awake
this part of yourself, and me and the tuning fork, which is another sound
vibration like the chant and the grass rattle, allow you to achieve an
erection. It s my thought that this desire comes from you, and your dream
shows you how allowing the various parts of yourself working together you can
accomplish what you seek.
Some folk’s journey to far off places to experience ceremonies and
the ayahuasca, but the ultimate journey is when you realize that what you
seek lies within yourself. This dream gave you this experience and if it
was my dream I would focus on developing a waking relationship with these parts
of myself. Your shaman self and your feminine self will work with you in
assisting your correcting this issue. Your dream indicates that you want
to correct this problem and is instructing you as to how you might do
this. The tuning fork, smoke, rattle, and chants are just the window
dressing of the dream; the important element is you’re seeking assistance and
allowing the different parts of yourself to integrate, or come together, to the
healing of the whole of you.
Well, that's my 25 cent analysis, hope it is helpful. If you have
questions please be in touch.
He responded with comments and questions and said that
the elements of his dream and how they were sewn together was up to him; I
agreed. He said he had been thinking about Peru a lot lately,
had recently been asked to tell some stories about it, and then I had sent him the
article.
I replied to
him via another email:
A conundrum which I feel is the essence of the dream
time. In the end it is for you to decide what it means to you. You
have apparently been thinking about Peru lately, and the article I shared with
you certainly could have triggered your thoughts, recall, and memories...but
the content of the dream is, I feel, personal to you, and in the end subject to
your belief as to what it means.
I appreciate that you felt comfortable in sharing it with me and you are
correct in that I don't judge you. If you want to talk further on this I
would be happy to read/listen and give my input. Dreams hold truth; it is
that sometimes we have to move beyond the obvious and into the more subtle
realms of our unconscious.
I once led a dream class with a group of women at a church. The class was
in the sanctuary; a beautiful appointed room with wonderful symbols on the
walls, but the women couldn't grasp the difference between dream symbols
and waking life; so I asked this; "have you ever had an amorous dream
about your pastor?" Well, they giggled uncomfortably, some faces
flushed, and a few heads nodded slightly. I then said that more than
being a dream about passion or inappropriate love, this could be a dream about
wanting to merge with a deeper spiritual part of them, and the pastor might be
a symbol for this. This led to a more meaningful discussion with the
class...
I offer you this example as a way to consider my appearance in your
dream.... We have been friends, have shared events in our lives, and you
trust me. I could be a symbol for your deep feminine energy and perhaps
this is a part of you than can help you address the issue of your erectile dysfunction....
Just a thought....but something to consider as you sew the elements of your
dream into a pattern.
His response was “these
are the elements and how or why they are sewn together will be something for me to think about.” His thoughts on
the story that I shared about the dream class were: "Yeah kinda like crushes on a teacher
or fantasies about a girlfriend’s sister. Then again some aren’t to me
inappropriate but just a human experience that was more of an “encounter” in a
sense that can be exciting."
He considered
my comment on the inner feminine and said: "I have always believed we all have both male and female
sides and most don’t agree or explore them. Why the
dream was about erectile dysfunction is probably a mix of that being a symbol
for some reason and just wondering."
I replied that I
would put a star by this in your dream book, and check back to it
once-in-awhile. It could be a dream of important change in your
life......
He asked why I suggested that and I answered: It's
about a change in how you perceive and relate to the world; not sexual,
although that could be a part of it, but about your sense and perception of
things around you. Maybe, and this is just my thought, less through
your camera lens and more through your direct perception of all that you
encounter. Sex can be a total experience of mind, body, and soul; to want
to be able to experience this again, especially in later years of life can also
be a desire to engage more fully in all encounters in your life. Again
just my thought but it could be food for thought.....
He followed
with this thought: "Sounds very reasonable to me and makes
sense especially when you get older maybe and look back and forward to what one
has experienced and may or may not again."
To which I
said: Yes, plus I find that as I get older fears no longer
control me; especially about what others think. There is a freedom in
this that makes even the things I may not do again feel more vibrant and alive
for having the experience.
He then
shared: "I know I have no regrets. I always said I
never want to wind up on a front porch rocking back and forth wondering “What
if” I have had many, many experiences and I’m not dead yet I guess. Like that
song goes, “I’m not as good as I once was but I’m good once as I always was...”
Well I guess that’s not totally true either...LOL otherwise I wouldn’t have had
the dream."
I said: The
dream is just offering you the opportunity to feel more alive here and now in
the moment. Regrets are wasted energy; you do what you do, learn, and
move on. That is, to my thinking, a life well lived.
I am remained of the symbolic nature of sex in
dreams. Like my statement to the class
in the church’s sanctuary sex often represents our desire to merge with the
characteristics that we perceive are present in the symbols presented in the dream. The
article I had shared with this person spoke to the author’s recovering and integrating
with a part of herself through her experience with the ayahuasca. I
wondered if my friend was experiencing the same attempt to merge with the
symbolic parts of him represented by the shaman and me in his dream.
My understanding of ayahuasca is that ultimately it is a
journey into the self, and although there may be dangers from the drug’s
reaction to the human body, it can be healing to the participant. It may allow the user access to his/her
unconscious and unlock the secrets she/he is searching for. Sometimes this search is dramatic other times
it is subtle. Like the author of this
article, Britany Robinson, says: “Perhaps it was bold of us to expect an
ancient practice, so ingrained in the culture of those who spent their entire
lives on this river, to take root in our psyches. For me, the effects would have to be more
subtle. Ayahuasca did not inspire the
dramatic reaction that I expected. But this place was so beautiful, maybe it
didn’t have to.”
Like dreams the dreamer often
needs to look at the hidden, underlying symbols of his/her dreams. Rather than anticipating the wild ride of the
effects of ayahuasca the dreamer might look beneath the obvious of the dream
and realize there is a very quiet and subtle voice that directs the course of
the dream’s wisdom if she/he will slow down and move beyond what appears to be
the obvious.
I am unsure if my thoughts on
his dream were helpful to my friend; I hope they were. They reminded me of the importance of
dreams. They are often triggered by a
current event in our lives, but if we take the time to explore the subtle
message there we often find the healing qualities that those seeking the ayahuasca
experience are looking for. I know
people who are always off stalking adventure and they never are satisfied so they
seem to be on an endless quest. I think
that my friend who had this dream was like that many years ago until his life’s
circumstances caused him to bring to a close his physical searching. If I am correct I wonder if he has found a
way to continue on with this questing and perhaps find what has eluded him
before. Again, I hope so.
