Ayahuasca & Cultural Appropriation-How to Honour the Medicine.
From the earliest days of mankind, we have been eating plants for health and evolution but not just for our physical evolution.
For example, the brain's neuroplasticity - which is really the brain's ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to its experience. From the tobacco leaf to the ayahuasca root, both plants have had subtle and robust effects on the human body.
Researchers say psychedelic drugs actually help neurons in the brain sprout new dendrites, which look like branches on a tree, to increase communication between cells. “These substances can increase neuronal outgrowth, they can increase this branching of neurons, they can increase synapses.”
Creating new ways to tell our story helps heal "the story". It creates a new framework to design it in - an empowering concept. Researchers say psychedelic’s actually help neurons in the brain sprout new dendrites, which look like branches on a tree, to increase communication between cells. “These substances can increase neuronal outgrowth. They can increase this branching of neurons, they can increase synapses.”
Psylocibyn is definitely a more easily obtainable plant in North America. Our wet Spring and Autumn weather make it an ideal environment for these powerful medicinal mushrooms to grow. Ayahuasca is indigenous to Brazil and Peru. The climate of South and Central America is where the Banisteriopsis Caapi grows.
The plant above, Banisteriopsis Caapi, aka Ayahuasca, Caapi, Soul Vine, or Yagé. Yagé is of the family Malpighiaceae. It is one half of the plants in ayahuasca (psychotria viridis, also known as chacruna, chacrona, or chaqruy is the other one). Ayahuasca has had a long entheogenic history. (a psychoactive substance that induce alterations in preception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behaviour for the purposes of engendering spiritual development used in a sacred context)
Travelling to the land in which this medicine is harvested and brewed, honours the culture, the spirit of the medicine and the people who have prepared it.
Appreciation of the culture and making an effort to understand the story of the medicine helps us understand its power. Understanding helps keep us integral when sharing the message/medicine (our experience with it). It helps correct the way in which we share, which tends to be appropriation. So by honouring and acknowledging the people and place from where it comes, we honour its culture.
Ayahuasca (pronounced ‘eye-ah-WAH-ska’) is a plant-based psychedelic. Psychedelics affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions. They can cause a person to hallucinate—seeing or hearing things that do not exist or are distorted.
Ayahuasca is a decoction (concentrated liquid) made by prolonged heating or boiling of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with the leaves of the Psychotria viridis shrub, although there can be a variety of other plants included in the decoction for different traditional purposes.1 The active chemical in ayahuasca is DMT (dimethyltryptamine) It also contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).
Mescaline is a plant which nearly faced extinction due to its decriminalization of it. The Huichol people now protect the plant, Hikuri (Peyote), by having designated farms for harvest and having it removed from the ballot of decriminalized plants.
A young women, Sarah from a Mayan tribe up in the mountains, performing a temescal with her family for our Peru retreat. Feb 2022
Honour your healing journey by making an effort to do something different for a change. The longer the lesson takes to learn, the harder it will be to forget.
Soul School Peru Ayahuasca + Biohacking Luxury Spa Retreat
Soul School's 12- Day, 11 Nights Peruvian Yoga Retreat offers you the opportunity to practice, discover, expand and embrace your highest self while being surrounded by the gifts that nature has to offer.
For the aspiring yoga practitioner, our vision is connecting you to the elements, earth, water, fire, and air that reflect the different dimensions and aspects within you—leaving you with the gift of greater self-awareness.
Peru is abundant with nature's offerings, we ensure to incorporate activities in our program to have the most negligible impact on Peru's ecosystem. You will experience a different side of nature by learning the power of cold water, sun, and various plant medicines to detox and create cell regeneration.
Whether you're soul searching or sharing your experience with a group, everybody's experience will be a unique and life-changing connection with mother nature in our transformational, detoxing 12-Day Peru Yoga Retreat.
Our Soul School courses are inclusive, and they focus on holistic living principles that integrate mind, body, heart and, spirit. All our courses strive to be at the heart's center of excellence in medicinal teachings, meditation, and traditional yoga teachings.
For over a decade, the Soul School's course creators have been practicing and living the art of holistic and alternative medicine. Their mission is to produce a ripple effect by building a safe and loving community for aspiring yoga practitioners and soul seekers to embody emotionally solid aspects in their day-to-day lives.
Keep your vitality flowing through detox.
This transformational and detoxifying yoga retreat will be led by three of our powerhouse soul school guides and a local Peruvian shaman Andres, with 45+ years of spiritual practitioner experience and holding plant medicine ceremonies.
During the retreat, you will learn to be in tune with your biochemistry through mindful detox. Whatever headspace you're in, our goal is to remind you of all the powerful tools you carry within while giving you enough room to feel comfortable and safe through intuitive teachings.
Our intuitive teaching process will help you recognize your body's cues during the daily yoga practices helping you discover the unconditional love and natural gifts your body provides you.
After eight days of connecting with your mind, body, and spirit, you will have the option to experience being reborn with the powerful but healing plant "Ayahuasca," in the last four days of the retreat.
This transformational and detoxifying yoga retreat will be led by a local Peruvian shaman and a dear friend of the Soul School Team - Andreas, and his team. He has over 45+ years of spiritual practitioner experience and holding plant medicine ceremonies. His vibe is down to earth, grounded, wise , and sweet.
