Loic Le Meur's Podcast

Hi everyone,

I just updated the list of stories I wrote in the spirit of writing a book with them. Today, I published 32 real stories about what I lived in the jungle. Please look at any you missed and subscribe to receive the next ones. If you feel a friend might be interested, please invite them to subscribe!

The visions have always fascinated me the most with plant medicine ceremonies. It’s like suddenly switching to an entirely new world. It’s like switching on the most advanced virtual reality machine I could ever imagine, and it’s right there in my head. It’s like flying in the cockpit of the most advanced plane or rocketship ever without needing anything else than what you already have, your body and some tea.

When I see the ads about virtual reality and try some of the gear, I laugh. There is no comparison.

We are obsessing about creating intelligence with machines and getting there with technology, but it is all inside of us and has always been. Its “definition” is better than what I see with my own eyes. I can look in all directions and zoom in or out as much as I want; there is always more to see, and it is infinite.

The visions in plant medicine are so immersive that there is often not even a “me” to look at or observe anymore. I could experience what people call “nonduality,” being one with everything. There is no “me” observing anymore; I am that.

The body and face paints induce visions. I could not learn this more clearly that day.

One day in the sacred village, a Yawanawà woman painted two snakes on my chest, and here is what happened next.

Here is the story of one of the strongest and most meaningful visions ever for my paid subscribers.

I have teachers. I love them and admire them.

I need teachers like a baby needs his parents to prevent him from falling onto stairs while he does his first steps. We can learn a lot on our own or that we remember we knew, like walking. It’s inside of us. Babies know how to walk; they do it spontaneously; they remember it suddenly. That doesn’t mean they don’t need their parents.

Accessing “that which words cannot describe,” as J. Krishnamurti would put it, has been, in many ways, becoming a baby again. I took the medicine and I remembered how to walk. Then I fell, and I fell again. I fall less and less, but I still fall sometimes, rarely, hopefully.

I fall today when I forget humility. The medicine is always here to remind me how important is the most profound humility on this path. The more advanced I feel or get, the more brutal the reminder.

Each time I fell, I stood up again, sometimes after laying down nearly dead on the floor and crawling back to the ceremony space, where healing took place.

One of the teachers I admire the most is Putanny Yawanawà. She is the first woman of her lineage, with her sister Ushahu, to have had access to the medicine while it was forbidden to women, twenty or thirty years ago, I am not sure exactly. Putanny demanded to drink it to the men, and they put her to a harsh test, to drink a huge full cup of it to prove that she could handle it. Putanny told me that story once; it was powerful.

Putanny is a true master. She is not a woman of many words, but she delivers the truth like a sword when she speaks. Putanny gave me one of the most precious pieces of advice I have ever received in my life and I have been very fortunate that she accepted to teach me directly during my hardest dietas.

She taught me humility, but my ego was so big that I needed many lessons. She doesn’t give me many lessons anymore, and I hope I finally learn by myself. It is the highest lesson, letting the baby walk by himself once he has received the necessary tools and teachings. If I make a mistake today, and I do sometimes, I am human; Putanny does not tell me what I did wrong. I need to find out by myself and remember the right way alone. I also need to correct whatever or whomever I disturbed on the way.

There are no mistakes, only opportunities to learn. The spiritual world teaches directly in a very harsh and brutal way. I often miss Putanny’s words to prevent me from making such mistakes sometimes, but so it is. I need to walk by myself now after all her teachings and those of the family of the Yawanawà “Sacred Village.” I was like a kid learning to walk the spiritual world.

In my previous story, I described a little the opening of my “Naneuh” dieta; it was the hardest I had received at the time before moving on to even more brutal initiations. It was challenging and demanding. I got scared. I lost a lot of weight. I had trouble balancing the force I was receiving and needed many healings to go through it. She was always there for me and still is.

I saw in my visions complicated representations of my past trauma or near impossible-pass obstacles.

Yesterday, I started a thread available for everyone here (see the “chat” tab at the top) asking for feedback on my writing. The thread is open, and I would love to receive your feedback. I write here from my heart, and I love receiving comments from you from your heart, so please do.

One of my readers, Xavier Châtellier, asked this question:

“One of the topics that is important for me these days is the topic of trust: trust in myself, trust in those I love or have delicate/important interactions with, and trust in the Universe. Sometimes I have doubts whether I am fooling myself and being delusional, especially when it comes to « magic »: synchronicities, the reality of some conscious forces (spirits, God,..) that have the potential to be co-creators of our lives... at times things happen in my life that really seem incredible, and other times I wonder if they are just « coincidences » and I am making up the whole narrative around them... and possibly making dumb decisions as a consequence... so I am particularly curious in hearing stories that relate to the reality of the world of spirit and its power in action in our lives.”

Thanks, Xavier. I asked a similar question to Putanny during my Naneuh dieta, and I want to share it here as the answer might help you as it helped me.

So, here are some of Putanny’s rare words to me during my naneuh dieta. Enjoy and hopefully find some answers and trust in yourself in them, as I did.

Entering the House of God.

“Ask the Medicine “

“Show me the colors, the designs, the animals. Give me faith, strength, and power to go through the darkness, to heal myself, and to help heal others.”

Your head is like a home. You need to clear your house for the divine to come in and leave enough space for the medicine to guide you.

The medicine gives you access to the House of the Divine. It is a privilege to be able to see it. You need to respect her, and she will always show you more.

Focus on your singing and your music.

Sing all the time, and she will show you the way.

-Putanny Yawanawà.

On November 9th, 2020, I entered the “Naneuh” dieta, my second long dieta after the Kaizuma I wrote about last time. I dieted with a fruit the Yawanawà call “Nauneuh,” also known as “Genipapo.” This was a three-month dieta with the same food and drink restrictions I described, such as no pure water, no sweets, and no sex but also isolation in the jungle.

Genipapo is a dark blue fruit from the Amazon jungle that the Yawanawà use to paint their faces. Some call this dieta the “Avatar” dieta as we turn blue, like in the Avatar movie… Chief Nixiwakà and Puttany met with the Director of Avatar, James Cameron and he financed a ceremony place in the village to thank them for their visit.

Chief Nixiwakà opened the dieta “in the pot,” a large pot full of dark fruit that would activate with special prayers. They are not standard songs; they are very complex old Yawanawà prayers that feel so strong everyone is asked not to drink too much plant medicine during the prayers. It was an occasion to verify the power of prayers as the medicine activated in a way I had never felt before. I only had one cup of plant medicine but was feeling a powerful force that would usually require me to drink much more of it.

The ceremony ended late, but that was just one part of the initiation. The next day, I would have a completely unknown experience drinking the dark fruit the Chief prayed on for breakfast!

In this dieta, my whole body was about to get painted with the naneuh and I also drank a full cup of it.

It isn't easy to drink with an indescribable taste. It was thick with a solid “earth” taste. I felt like I was drinking pure ink.

“Do not vomit it!” They said. “Most Yawanawà who drink it end up purging it, but please do not if you can.” I held it in my stomach, refraining from a massive purge many times.

After drinking it, my spiritual teacher Peù painted my whole body with it. He was very serious and very concentrated, and so was I. I was already going through the strong reactions it was creating in my stomach but focused on staying calm while Peù was painting me with the fruit juice.

For the Yawanawà, the Naneuh is an essential initiation for babies to open their spiritual path. The whole body of the babies gets painted (lighter than adults), and they receive just a few drops of the fruit in their mouth, not a full cup as I did. I would say I drank about half a liter of it.

After drinking Naneuh, I passed out in a hammock for about eight hours straight with very vivid dreams. Naneuh is said to open the dreams of those who want to get on a spiritual path. Dreams are significant for the Yawanawà. They give access to the same spiritual space they access with plant medicine; they receive guidance in them, talk with spiritual guides, or even receive new songs for themselves or for others to sing.

The beverage was so strong that I went into sacred geometries and visited many sentient beings or “spirits” the whole afternoon. When I woke up, I could only find the force to walk to my bed and sleep some more as the night had taken over. Millions of animals started singing; I could hear birds, thousands of insects, and many frogs. I could not tell what was real or what was a dream anymore.

When the sunrise came, I could hear hundreds of parrots flying around; they were in my dream, too; I could see their eyes closed.

I woke up laughing as hard as I had ever laughed. I dreamt that someone gave me an elephant horn to wear around my neck. It was so big I could not stand up with so much weight around my neck. I laughed at my ego. I laughed so hard at myself for picturing myself with the most significant and heaviest animal part I could have dreamt of. “This way, I can show everyone how big my ego is!” I laughed so hard. I could not stop laughing. I stood up and laughed some more. It’s good I was isolated in the jungle because my laugh was so loud it would have awakened the entire village.

Whether we like it or not, indigenous people work with spiritual objects of animal teeth, feathers, seeds, and symbols. I love them. I love them a little too much, so much that I can laugh at myself when I wear them. Indigenous take them very seriously, and they are part of the dieta work; they symbolize protection, and I often feel many energies wearing them.

My dream of an elephant horn was not far from the truth; a few days before taking the naneuh, I received from Vinyà, who is one of the best artists in the Yawanawà tribe, a huge crocodile tooth. It is so big it is nearly unwearable. I found it so big that instead of wearing it, I hung it by my bed, and it entered into my dream, turning into an elephant horn, as if a crocodile was not strong enough… What was I thinking…

The Amazon Rainforest crocodile is a caiman in the alligator family. The Yawanawà hunt them and often eat them for breakfast. They are also endangered, so I have seen indigenous breed them and release thousands of baby crocodiles in the river.

I never wore this Caiman tooth, but I still have it. I like feeling its power. I have worked constantly with my ego since I worked with plant medicine. I rarely wear much in ceremonies anymore; I feel too much like demonstrating ego if I do. Putanny once told me that the most advanced masters do not wear anything; only those who need power outside themselves do and show it off. A good way to do it is to work with these objects during dieta, by myself, but not in public, or hide them under a shirt. That tooth is challenging to hide, even under a sweater. These spiritual objects also tend to scare children and possibly give them scary dreams.

The boa is one animal that most Yawanawà don’t like approaching anything about. I saw some work with boa skin or bones and received some collars made with boa bones, but I never wore them.

Do these spiritual objects carry any power, or are they just a representation of our ego or lack of ego seeking protection from powerful animals? When I touch these objects under plant medicine, I feel energy from them. Sometimes powerful, sometimes nothing at all. I can also often feel the energy of those who prepared them. Sleeping next to them can give me powerful dreams. This can sound entirely wild for you; I understand that. I will never know what is true or what is just imagination.

I can never say for sure that these objects “do something” or that they are just random symbols, but they seem to have an energy of their own. Indigenous and spiritual masters from around the world and any culture or religion have been working with such objects, so if they don’t do anything, then our imagination is powerful.

Back to the big laugh.

I often laugh at myself. Sometimes very loud. It happened to me to laugh very loud at myself in the middle of a ceremony. I don’t do that anymore as I learned to control the force and keep these emotions to myself, especially to avoid distracting or disturbing those around me. In my experience, the correct behavior is to be always in meditation and quiet unless there is a specific task to perform or a specific song. Everything I do or say must be done with intention and consciously. If it is just spontaneous, I lose control of myself.

This post-naneuh laugh was, without any doubt, the longest and strongest laugh of my life. It was like an awakening to my ego.

Why did I like so much receiving these powerful objects and wearing them?

The equivalent in our world would be to show off a diploma on the wall of your office. We see it in doctors’ offices worldwide; it is also widespread in the U.S. to enter a businessman’s office and find it full of a collection of photos and souvenirs of a company going public, distinctions of any sort, etc. The French still distribute the “Légion d’honneur” to thank some French citizens for what they did for their country. Some who received it will wear a small symbol sewn on their jacket.

What does this have to do with wearing teeth or feathers in the jungle? Some of those objects are also rewards or symbols for a work achieved. After completing four Sundances, sun dancers receive a "baston” or a wood stick. I received feather headpieces after my dietas, and many indigenous believe they can only be worn if the person went through long and demanding dietas. One cannot ask for them or buy them; they are gifts. They are symbols but objects “a person of knowledge” can work with. For the Yawanawà, they are tools. “Once you are in the force, they give direction.” I saw many things with mine on plant medicine; I saw them connect to my brain.

Feathers and spiritual objects are powerful reminders of the teachings and the work done.

They are dangerous in a way, too, when taken out of the Amazon jungle.

I occasionally wore them in ceremonies in Europe, and they first triggered the “whites” who started thinking all kinds of negative things about me. “Who does he take himself for? ", “Cultural appropriation!” “He needs so badly to look like an indigenous person. He must be so wounded or traumatized.” It was almost each time an avalanche of criticism. That’s how the feathers are so powerful outside of their context. Even indigenous people get triggered when they see a white person wearing them if they do not have the context of all the work accomplished. I talked to a master I did not know much and asked if I could wear mine. He said, “If you did long dietas, yes.”

Feathers made me an immediate target outside of the jungle.

Do I need them? No. Do I like them? Yes. That is how I learned, and I wore them in the jungle for about a year. They were gifts for my work. Facing all the judgment and destructive thoughts of my fellow Western “tribes” was an excellent occasion to ignore criticism, though. It is very white, the “you should or should not do this.”

Kuauhtli, a good friend with a lifetime of experience with the medicine, told me once, “I don’t have a problem with people thinking I should not be wearing feathers. It is their right to think this way but their problem, not mine. If people tell me I should not wear feathers, I ignore their problem.”

Kuauhtli calls it “Cultural appreciation.”

I don’t wear them much outside of the jungle anymore, only when I do my work. I don’t need to be more visible than I am. They create too many negative reactions. Maybe I should wear them only when I am sure that I want to create such reactions… In my village, I never get any negative reactions; my friends there gave them to me, so they like me wearing them.

The commerce of such objects is not suitable for preserving nature. Nobody should be buying feathers and animal teeth as it will create a business of people killing them just to make art. I talked with a few Chiefs about this practice and even suggested it was time for it to stop since most of these animals are endangered. I received this answer each time: “We have been working with these feathers and objects for more generations than we can remember; it is not up to non-indigenous people to tell us what we should do or not.” They increasingly understand that the forest and the animals that go with it are disappearing, and some regenerate the jungle and breed animals.

Yet, I cannot help thinking about the Buddhist model of “no killing of animals.” The Buddhists also work with powerful symbols, but they are not made with dead animal parts; they are painted or made of metal.

We abuse the Earth everywhere, not only in the Amazon jungle. In Ibiza, there is a place called “Crystal Mountain,” with giant crystals carried worldwide and brought there. The Kogi from Colombia I encountered a few times says that crystals are not meant to make necklaces or be extracted from where they were. They are energy sources, and that is where it is for a reason. The range of human belief is unlimited. Leaving things where they are is the best practice, as humans are often the problem, not nature.

We don’t need any of that stuff and can find our strength inside of ourselves, but I must admit I like wearing them now and then, especially those objects given to me when I completed a dieta.

I found myself entirely black the next day. The paint would last about three weeks. It felt like becoming someone else.

I started the three months diet with the classic Yawanawà dieta food, some green boiled banana (not sweet), and some corn. I was going to lose about 10 kilos during this diet.

Dietas are hard as we spend weeks with little food and no pure water in small quantities. I was hungry all day long.

I received many healings from Chief Nixiwakà and planted many plants and trees. We consume plants and receive from nature; we also need to help nature. In dieta, we also bury any remaining food from what we eat so that animals don’t eat it.

In the Yawanawà tradition, if animals eat any remaining food, we lose some knowledge of the diet, so we must be cautious. This is also why we cannot look anyone in the eye or touch anyone, as information that was for us could be lost, or energy that we should not receive might get in us, sometimes for a long time. We also clean regularly using white smoke from a resin of a tree they call “Seuhpa,” similar to “Copal” in Mexico but with a strong scent from the jungle. I love it.

I stayed in the “dieta houses,” little houses made for isolation. Hundreds of cockroaches, insects of all kinds, spiders, and even rats entered the houses every night. I got used to them as it was useless to try to remove them. If I wanted to remove them, more would return, so I gave up and learned to walk around and live with them. I got no bites apart from mosquito bites, but my body was getting used to them, so I got almost no allergies or marks anymore. It also seemed like the whole body paint was protecting me from them.

Beautiful “borboletas,” or butterflies, visited me constantly, symbolizing transformation.

The Naneuh dieta that opened was a profound learning period, and I would receive many teachings during ceremonies with Chief Nixiwakà and the whole tribe.

I was even learning songs from little children. Here is Isku Kua teaching me some!

More teachings from the dietas to come in the following days!

Last week, I wrote about receiving an indigenous name, “Yawà Mashkuru” (the bald Yawà, Mashkuru was a tall bald warrior elder in their history) as I arrived in Chief Nixiwaka’s village, the sacred village. Today I will write about my first Yawanawà dieta, a training centered around discipline and self-control.

I wrote hundreds of pages of notes during my stay in the Amazon jungle and reread the ones I wrote in 2019. I realized I received my first Yawanawà dieta during that first trip, it was unplanned, and I had no idea what it was.

The principle of a Yawanawà dieta is straightforward.

The minute it started, I was not allowed to drink pure water (only water with manioc powder making a strange “milk”), no sex (including alone), nothing sweet in my mouth, so basically no sugar but not only, just nothing sweet (not even fruits except lemon and pure açaï because it’s either acid or bitter), no meat (at least the first months, then some monkey, birds or chicken might be allowed), no salt and there are no cows in the villages so no milk or derived products either such as yogurt.

No substances of any kind, such as coffee, for example, are allowed, except rapé.

Complete isolation is also required for a while. I could not talk to anyone except my teachers, Nixiwakà, his wife Puttany, and the spiritual leader, Peù. I could not connect to the Internet or have calls with the outside world, even with my family. Also, there are no books… movies, or TV; there is none.

The dietas are an intense period of learning with a plant and learning songs or ancestral techniques.

Oh, and I forgot, as it is so apparent to me now, absolutely not a single drop of alcohol is allowed.

The primary purpose is to learn to control any impulsions from our body, such as the appeal or “need” for sex, one of the strongest we have, or sweets. It is also about teaching our minds to control those needs.

It is about learning “true will,” a standard critical training of any spiritual practice. I wrote about the vision quest, including no food or water for four days. It is a different tradition from North America but trains the same, the will.

The process of the dietà in the Yawanawà tradition has only recently been opened to non-members of the tribe, and even then, it was not open to anyone. It is generally a reward for helping for years in ceremonies, helping in other ways, or for someone who wants to become “a person of knowledge.”

Those who enter the dietas are interested in deepening their knowledge of working with the medicine to serve it themselves after many years. Most people entering dietas do not have the goal of serving the medicine and can use the dietas to learn to sing or heal themselves, but there are many other reasons to enter a dieta.

In the Yawanawà tradition, the dieta is opened during a special ceremony where instead of just singing regular songs, the Chief prays for an extended period (sometimes more than an hour) into a unique pot containing the plant the student will be dieting with. Plant medicine is always present at the ceremony and throughout the dieta but another plant is introduced.

The indigenous tribes believe that each master plant teaches specific knowledge to the student who follows the dieta correctly. Students will also take plant medicine almost daily, sometimes multiple times daily, during a dieta. Plant medicine acts like a “microscope,” which will help reveal the messages of the master plant we diet with. The microscope is always on if the diet process is followed during the diet. Once the dieta is closed, the period of study is finished. The dieta is stopped immediately if the student fails to observe the rules, especially having sex which is completely forbidden.

The quantity of food is also reduced. I lost about 5 kilos or 10 pounds in my first dieta, much more in the next ones, and none of my pants were holding up anymore. I still own that “dieta belt,” and after a few dietas, I had to make new holes in it with my knife so my pants stay up!

In my case, during that first trip to the village, the Chief did not pray into the pot. [This is continued for paid subscribers; please take a subscription to keep reading.]

On October 15, 2019, Biraci Nixiwaka Yawanawã invited me to his "sacred village" for the first time. I had sat in many ceremonies with Yawanawà leaders, but this was my first time through what I call “the portal.”

To arrive at the sacred village, I flew from Brasilia to a small airport in the state of Acre called “Cruzeiro do Sul.” From that little and ugly last city before the jungle, we took a two-hour drive and an 8-hour boat ride before entering indigenous land. The boat is slow, and the trip is long; it is not precisely teleportation…

I have always followed my gut and had yet to do any research about who Nixiwaka was. I just trusted. I only knew he was the “Chief of the Yawanawà.” My only contact with his tribe was through ten or fifteen California ceremonies, as they had been touring for many years. Their songs and presence made me feel like learning more and trusting them.

It was much more than just a ten-day trip to the Amazon jungle.

I call it the portal because, in many ways, it was a trip to another world. A world of millions of animals and thousands of plants, pristine nature, and indigenous peoples who live and think entirely differently than us. I did not imagine it would also be the start of a four-year training.

In just a few hours, I was greeted by an army of mosquitoes that bite hard despite the repellant I had bought. The mosquitoes are the most annoying part of the trip, and there is no way around them. They’re like the first initiation I had to go through. I was covered with hundreds of bites. In the future, I would go with mosquito net-type pants found online that help, but I also noticed my body got used to the bites. After many trips, the mosquitoes were still annoying but did not leave the vast allergy marks on my body anymore. I guess after a while, we develop some natural protection for them.

The jungle is not for everyone; I am not saying this because I spent time there but because anyone who wants to learn there “needs to earn it.” The mosquitoes are a first natural challenge. There are many others, but it’s one of the most disturbing, especially during the rainy season.

We arrived at the village, and the first people I met were already interesting to look at. This person was wearing intriguing weapons on his back, which I later learned were the traditional Yawanawà hunting tools. They used to use such wood-carved weapons to kill animals. Ancient-style weapons on top of a t-shirt with an ad for a dot com service, the old meets the modern there in a way I had never seen before.

The same day I arrived, I got some face paint. Face paints differ entirely from tribe to tribe and are used for “protection in the spiritual world.” The women are generally painting people from their visions and what they feel we need. The ink is made from a fruit called “naneuh” and lasts about ten days.

Yawanawà face paints generally reproduce snake patterns but can also be fish, butterflies, and other animals. The snake, particularly the boa, is a very sacred animal for them, a guardian of ayahuasca, and a symbol of transformation. I was preparing to change my skin.

I felt funny, and everyone was smiling, but trust me, when you wear such face paint for ten days and go through ceremonies with it, it does have a strange impact on me, much more than a fun experience. You feel it.

It was not the first time I received face paint, and I made the mistake of posting them without much explanation on my social networks. That was a big mistake as I scared friends and family with those photos, which I later took down. I feel okay now posting them in the context of telling my story, but it took time.

I received a new name, “Yawà Mashkuru.”

When I arrived at the village, Chief Nixiwaka told me: “You’re not Loïc, you are Yawa Mashkuru, you just don’t know it yet.”

I looked at him, intrigued. “Also, nobody can pronounce your name anyway here, so this way, they can remember your name.”

That sounded very practical. “What does this name mean, Chief?” I asked.

“Yawà is for Yawanawà and represents that you’re now part of our tribe, and Mashkuru was an ancient, very powerful warrior, also tall, which is unusual for us. Mashkuru means “bald.”

“Oh, cool, so now I am the bold Yawà, thank you,” I said with a smile.

I was honored and found it a bit funny, but since I did not know the ways of the Yawanawà, I had no idea if it was something special or if the Chief was giving names to all the visitors. I later learned that it was indeed very special.

At the same time, my mind went on, I did not ask for anything, especially a new name…

I could not help thinking that I already had a name, Loïc Le Meur, given by my parents. Nobody ever decided my name was inappropriate for me and chose a new one.

What was this about? What gives anyone permission to rename me this way? Would my mother and father, who passed away many years ago, would appreciate that?

It started a whole train of thoughts in my mind. What is a name anyway? Am I even Loïc Le Meur? Isn’t that the name my parents chose for me, but is this who I am? Am I this body? Who am I, regardless of any names I was given?

The magic of the sacred village had already started working on me. I was there only for a few hours, and some strange transformation already started.

I shared none of these thoughts or interrogations with the Chief, who ever since called me “Mashkuru,” introduced me to everyone with this name, and very fast, hundreds of Yawanawà people would only know me by that name, not even finding it weird.

I was and remained just “Mashkuru” there, forgot about my interrogations, and stayed on the feeling of being honored.

I then encountered “Peu Yawanawà,” with whom I had previously sat in a few ceremonies. Peu was about to become the spiritual leader of the tribe as well. I always felt a profound connection with Peù; he started teaching me very early.

Peù would become one of my primary teachers. Peù is young but has more than twenty years of experience, dedicating himself to teaching their spirituality to the Yawa kids, holding ceremonies around the world, making medicine, and being one of the most advanced healers.

The sacred village was the first “contact” between the Yawanawà ancestors and the white colonialists. Battles and murders ended up in the indigenous to be enslaved to the Portuguese colonialists.

Their spirituality and medicines were forbidden for many years, a Church was built in the center of the village, and they were forced to learn our religions and collect rubber…

The sacred village’s history is heavily loaded with an unfortunate past.

The village was abandoned for many years as it was considered haunted by the spirits of all those who died in battles there. Two elders kept the knowledge of plant medicine and their sacred songs secret; their names were Yawà and Tatà. They lived more than a hundred years each, a testament to the power of their medicines to keep them healthy.

In the early 2000s, they returned to the village only for a visit and their most advanced work, the dietas. I am glad I saw the village first in 2019; nobody was living there yet; there was only a ceremony center gifted by James Cameron, who produced the movie Avatar, and a few huts for those who stayed there a few days.

The village is entirely different today.

I met Putanny, the Chief’s spouse and one of the first two women with her sister Ushahu to drink “Uni,” as they call plant medicine in Yawanawà, for the first time. Plant medicine was only for men in the past; it is only recently that women started drinking it.

After years of considering the sacred village “haunted,” Putanny was first to receive in a dream that she needed to move to the sacred village and make it her home. Their home was “Nova Esperanza” at the time, and there was no other reason than a spiritual dream to leave that village to give birth to the sacred village again.

In the heart of the Amazon jungle the ceremonies were way stronger than anything I experimented before. The medicine was made in front of us so it was “fresh” and that made a difference as well as the wonderful sound of permanent animals around us, especially the birds. The most special though are the spirits of the place which sometimes appear in visions…

I told the Chief and Puttany that they lived in true paradise, surrounded by the most pristine and alive nature I had ever encountered.

The Chief showed me “his garden” which contains 3,000 medicinal plants. We barely know ayahuasca, but they have plants for everything, particularly to cure diseases. They also have plants for any possible snake bite and -they say- even a plant for those who need to fall in love… It was a real privilege to spend some time in this village only with the Chief and his wife before it was built, it looks very different today.

I stayed in the “dieta” houses, the only ones that were ready there at the time. This was my first and last time in the village as a simple visitor; the Chief immediately offered to start a “dieta”.

In all Amazon forest traditions, the training to work with plant medicine starts with “dietas.” It is a period of study with ayahuasca and another plant teacher. In the Yawanawà tradition, the dietas are long, one to three months, and up to one year for their “ultimate” dieta, the most advanced.

During each dieta, the student works on one specific skill and plant that will teach him.

During four years, I completed six dietas, all the main Yawanawà dietas, and the cleansing “Kambo” short dietas, only a week or so, which I did many times.

It has been an incredible adventure, and I will write each training story as of now.

I hope you are all doing great! I am getting into a second phase of my writing now, writing the stories that happened in the heart of the Amazon forest, where I kept going with my physical and spiritual cleansing and started training to “work with the medicines.”

It’s like a plane. You can sit in the cheapest economy seat in the back next to the toilets, get a better seat in the middle, a business class seat, learn to be a flight attendant and serve passengers, or become a pilot. For some strange reason, I was still flying low-cost economy (as in barely able to go through the flights of the ceremonies) but knew I wanted to learn to be a spiritual pilot. Deep inside, I wanted to know how to fly the plane. Learning to be a pilot, which I did, takes many years and serious studies. The mystical plane takes even longer to learn to fly than physical planes!

The most advanced masters I have had the opportunity to learn from are mostly silent. They don’t answer questions much and never share their visions. They don’t share much about why we go through something (sometimes they do not know) and don’t warn about any potential consequences of our experiences, especially the dangers.

I was warned very early about the dangers of experimenting with them in person. There is no other way to learn. If you’re called to learn this mystical work, you must know and understand by yourself.

In 2019, I went to the Amazon jungle for the second time. I sat for the first time in a ceremony with mostly indigenous peoples. We were a group of white people coming for healing. It was the second time I took these strange, long little boats on one of the thousands of rivers around which indigenous villages are built. The boat driver they call “motorista” was a teenager. When we arrived in the village, about ten other indigenous teenagers carried our bags; they were very friendly, and I was very nice to them.

A very early teaching was that spiritual knowledge is hidden outside of ceremonies.

I later discovered when we sat in a ceremony that the same teenagers were all-powerful “shamans,” as we would call them. All these teenagers sat with us in the ceremony, and when they started singing, their knowledge became obvious.

During the day, they worked hard, not wearing any feathers or spiritual objects. At night, they wore beautiful dresses and sang like incredibly powerful birds. In the jungle, expect anyone to be a powerful spiritual being, especially when they don’t wear anything and do not look like one.

A strange Italian woman, Francesca, was in the group of white visitors. She did not talk much, and her energy felt extremely weird. She was never looking at anyone in the eye or taking part in conversations. Francesca seemed to be in her world. She always had her meals alone and did not connect much with anyone.

She appeared very dark, and everyone was consciously or unconsciously avoiding her.

The time for the ceremony arrived, around 21h. It was a night with no moon but plenty of stars. The “new moon” beautiful sky was stunning. We all started to drink the plant tea. It was the strongest I ever put in my mouth, almost unbearable to swallow. It felt more like gel; it was more like a difficult-to-keep-in-the-mouth thick liquid with an extreme taste. They were announcing a powerful night.

The songs were beautiful, but something I had never heard before happened.

About twenty indigenous spiritual peoples started singing different songs at the same time. In all previous ceremonies I participated in, when many people were signing, they sang the same song in harmony. The indigenous ceremony keepers always sat together, forming a “heart” and facing those here to receive. Here, it was like hearing twenty songs from all around the circle simultaneously. There was no heart or center. It was very disorientating, and I started thinking negatively: “This is horrible,” “Why do they sing different songs simultaneously?” I thought. It was hard.

The next day, I asked why they were not singing the same songs together as the heart of an orchestra.

“Go sit in the forest and listen. You will hear many birds and animal sounds. They all sing different songs with different voices. The harmony is the diversity of the jungle. Humans sing like nature here, anytime they want and the songs they want.” It took me weeks to adjust to this weird singing environment. I then realized how perfect it was.

It was also incredible training for my brain. When I liked a specific song, I had to train my brain to “ignore” the other songs running simultaneously. The “medicine” helped me develop that precious skill. Now, when conversing at a large dinner table with many people speaking simultaneously, I can focus more on a specific conversation or ignore one I don’t want to hear.

After a few hours and cups of magical tea, the ceremony was about to turn very dark and challenging. Our strange Italian woman, Francesca, suddenly stood up in the middle of the night, walked to the circle's center, and cast weird spells at everyone.

In such ceremonies, people are invited to stay in their seats and only move when they need to go to the bathroom or to purge. It is also a requirement to never sit at someone else’s seat as “spirit and energy works where you are and knows where you are.”

Francesca stood up and went straight to the center of the circle.

The center is always the most unique place, generally empty or with a fire-holding space. It is unique because “spirits appear” in the circle's center, especially when “people of knowledge” sing. Only the “master of the ceremony” will generally walk to the center and do a song or a dance, “taking the stage.”

Nobody is allowed to walk and sing in the circle's center unless invited or allowed to. What’s confusing for beginners is that nobody tells you the rules when you arrive at a ceremony, especially in the Amazon forest. Still, that specific rule is pretty easy to figure.

I continue writing story by story, the quite unbelievable events that happened to me in my spiritual quest. This is one of my strongest stories as I woke up in the jungle with a white snake on my shoulder.

As I wrote in my previous stories about the “red road,” I got to experience two strong Lakota vision quests (vision quest 1 1/2, vision quest 1 2/2, vision quest 2). Then, I decided to pause my work there and start working with another spiritual guide.

My partner Magdalena is a Moondancer, a ritual for women only. Men are only allowed to be around their circle as helpers, and I got to help there twice. It was an incredible experience to see hundreds of women dancing with the moon without food for four days. Their secret rituals are very powerful, and I will only write my experience of these unique practices with the approval of the Chief Abuela when the time is right.

I met Miguel there; he was coordinating the men helping. We were here only to serve the women and facilitate their work. I cleaned their toilets and helped collect wood for the fires.

There are people I met in my life where it was love at first sight. I am sure you know the feeling. I felt Miguel’s love and integrity immediately. Miguel had warned me about the “Heyoka” way of teaching based on harsh trickery. As always, I had to experiment with it for myself before taking any decision, and I had decided it was not for me, at least for now. I respect the time and methods my Lakota guide conducted on me, but chose love over lies and tricks. I told Miguel the stories of my two vision quests, and he laughed.

The vision quests and Sundances are popular in Mexico, and Miguel explained he was a Sundancer for more than twelve years, maybe fifteen, and he had approval from his lineage to open a Sundance. He immediately offered to organize a vision quest and a Sundance for me.

“As you saw, women are preparing themselves and getting stronger; it is time for men to organize better and do their work.”

We launched a vision quest and Sundance circle; it was only Miguel, myself, and a Mexican friend. Not far and connected to the Moondance Circle, which is unique, we started clearing up the jungle to create the Sundance Circle on April 17, 2021.

The world is intense these days, and suffering is everywhere. Nothing new; wars and massacres have been going on for 5,000 years since the transition from pre-history to history. The advent of written records marks the beginning of human history. In Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), the Sumerians were credited with developing one of the earliest writing systems around 3,200 BCE.

Adopting a broad eagle view of history and time to understand what is happening while our friends and family suffer or even die is extremely difficult.

When I did my first vision quest with my Lakota indigenous guide (previous story) -I call him “Thunder Hawk"- he said to me before I entered the initiation:

“I am going to redefine your perception of time forever.”

That is one of the gifts he gave me, which I would like to share with you; there is another very important one.

I find it increasingly difficult to know who and what to trust. What is “truth,” and who says it? How much should we or can we tell the “truth?” or what we understand as the truth?

As I approach my 52nd birthday next year, I can't help but reflect on the unprecedented prevalence of disinformation, falsehoods, and the apparent absence of accountability among political leaders today.

The rapid advancement of AI and the widespread reach of social networks have created an environment where the creation and dissemination of false information have become alarmingly accessible to anyone.

Lies are everywhere in the media, social media, and many people’s mouths.

Learning to see through lies might be the one most important skill we have to constantly, sadly, practice.

During my vision quest in South Dakota, I froze from the cold and almost hurt myself.

I redefined my understanding of time and truth.

I was told that vision quests are done over four years in Lakota tradition. In the first year, one can only vision quest for 24 hours. The second year, 48 hours; the third, 72; and the fourth, four days and four nights. So this one would be alone for 24 hours only with no food or water.

I arrived on a very dark night, around 9 p.m., on Bear Butte. The wind was so strong the “Inipi” dome barely held together. The Inipi is a half circle of wood or metal structure covered with skin, plastic tarp, or concrete. A depression is dug in the center into which hot rocks are positioned. Once you get inside, I was told, it is like the womb of Mother Earth. There is a half circle on the ground, and the other half is inside the Earth; it is mysterious; we cannot see it and only feel it.

The sweat lodge is a Native American healing ritual for purification, spiritual renewal, healing, and education.

I am an entrepreneur with classic Western business school training and had no spiritual or religious beliefs at the time, not even believing in a Creator. I believed only in what science could explain. I listened attentively but constantly took a lot of distance from what was said and put my mind in front of it. Yet, I was following the ritual with great humility and appreciation.

“Aho! Metakuye Oyasin,” - I was invited to say as I entered the sweat lodge. It means “we are all related” or “all my relations.” It is a prayer with all life forms: other people, animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, rocks, mountains, and valleys.

Many stones were put into a massive fire, and I was told each stone was an “Elder,” an ancestor that would come and visit as each stone entered the Inipi. Thunder Hawk, my spiritual guide, had arranged for his son to prepare the fire and get the “sacred” stones in individually.

As each stone entered the sweat lodge, we welcomed them as if they were alive. The stones were carefully carried in with large deer horns. Each stone entered the Inipi extremely hot; the temperature rose quickly. They were beautiful, and I could see many forms on them as they entered individually. I started sweating a lot. The Inipi is also called a “sweat lodge” for a reason. The temperature made it hard for me to remain seated normally; I wanted to lie down badly but stayed in position. Water was thrown on the rocks to create steam.

I was told from now on, the initiation of the “hanbleceya” or vision quest had started, and I could not drink any water anymore. The wind got stronger and stronger outside.

The sweat lodge was not too long and wasn’t too hard. My mind was entirely focused on my fear of being left alone in the cold and a building strong storm. It got really cold, near freezing temperatures.

We started walking up the hill in the dark. The moon was there, so it was not completely dark, but we needed torch lights to make our way through the bushes as there was no path to where Thunder Hawk had decided for me to stay. It was around 10 p.m., and the freezing wind strengthened. I carried my 403 tobacco prayers and five long wood sticks. They were rolled around my poncho. I also prepared seven flags with a big center with a knot filled with lots of tobacco, each for one of the seven directions: the East, the North, the West, the South, the Sky, the Earth, and the “center.”

Please get a paid subscription to read this story; I will use your funds to support more men and women doing the Vision Quest and the Sundance. Our Chief really needs it, and I wish more people had this healing experience. This story is one of the most epic in my life!

The events in the Middle East have been so strong for me, as they are for you, I am sure, that I paused writing for a week or so. I have never had so many daily conversations with friends going through very challenging times as well because they live in the Middle East, have family and friends who live there, or are deeply impacted and concerned.

I wrote my thoughts about the unbearable suffering going on in “I have only one nation and one religion, nature.”

I got two important pieces of advice from friends about writing recently.

“Write daily, even when it’s hard, and you do not feel like it, as if it is your job. Chronology is not so important; focus on that, and once you have written many stories, a structure for a book will come up.”

Writing is a muscle and a habit. The more I write, the more inspiration comes, but the opposite is true; if I pause writing, the flow gets narrower.

Here is another piece of advice I got from . It’s coming from an interview Charlotte did with Nicholas Powers.

“When I sit down, I start with whatever I'm the most scared to say. Whatever I'm the most ashamed to say, whatever I'm the most afraid to say - that's the lead sentence.

This is excellent advice. It’s always on my mind. It’s not easy, though.

After my beginnings with the Amazon plants, I will write a series of stories about the “Red Road,” the Vision Quest, and the Sundance in the next few days. I have never shared them before in writing and only told a few friends.

Vision quest is up to four days by yourself with nothing but your clothes in nature, no food, no water, and generally no “real” sleep. I have been through the initiation a few times and the Sundance and am now helping organize one in Bacalar, Mexico, next February. You can join our dedicated WhatsApp group if you want to join. We are going to close the list of participants soon.

On May 2, 2020, I headed to South Dakota for my first vision quest with the Lakotas, one of the native American peoples who are at the origin and still practice the rituals of the Vision Quest and the Sundance.

My goal was simple: I had built some experience working with the plants of the Amazon forest, and I was curious to start another spiritual path that involved no substances whatsoever. I knew a friend of mine I met in plant ceremonies who is a Sundancer; he completed the four-year initiations and told me I should do it and knew of a Lakota spiritual guide who could offer it to me. He had not done his work with him, but he came highly recommended. I will call him “Thunder Hawk” here to preserve confidentiality, but it is not his real name. I cannot disclose it.

I had heard of the vision quest before and am always curious. The vision quest is straightforward in setup, just a little space where I would spend time alone for up to four days and four nights with no food or water.

Vision Quest sounded like a supercharged meditation, so I wanted to do it.

The name “vision quest” is also intriguing as I have had so many visions with the plants I was curious to see if I could access the same spaces just by myself.

No water? This sounded pretty scary. I had done a few fasts with no food already, up to 7 days, but always with water. Google is full of warnings that “dry fasting,” as it is called, can be very dangerous, damage some organs, or cause… death if it takes too long. Water is our most basic vital need.

It was the first test of the vision quest; deciding to enter a few days fast with no water was a big decision, but I took it.

Thunder Hawk offered a first call. I would be doing it alone, with him guiding with his son. He did not give me many details on the phone; the conversation was brief. He gave me little guidance to prepare, plan for an entire week, and come on a specific day, May 2, 2020. After this call, I contacted him again to ask what I should do upon reaching the airport and did not hear back. It started being a bit strange already as all I had was “show up that day, to this airport,” no other instructions or “program.”

I rented a car in case and decided to go anyway without any idea where I would go from the airport or without much guidance on preparing. The process had started as it was already quite mysterious.

It is a Western thing to ask many questions and expect to receive complete instructions and schedules. I learned to trust and not ask questions in the Amazon, so I was not worried. I was concerned about being outside day and night without food, water, and cold. South Dakota can be cold, from what I heard. I only slept a little at night before heading there.

I landed the day we agreed at Rapid City Regional Airport, South Dakota. Thunder Hawk was there with his son, waiting for me at the airport. His presence was impressive. Thunder Hawk felt very powerful. We headed together to an Airbnb I rented for a week.

Thunder Hawk installed a colossal buffalo head skull in the middle of the living room and immediately explained that I would work a lot from now on. The first thing I had to do was “my prayers.”

The prayers consist of small tobacco ties of seven colors. Four colors represent the four directions: the North, the East, the South, and the West. Three more colors represent the sky, Mother Earth, and “the center.”

There are many ways of doing vision quests and colors mean different things and directions. Mexicans from the Maya tradition have different interpretations and directions for the colors; it seems there are as many ways as there are tribes and spiritual leaders. The worst place to look for an answer is likely the Internet, but if you Google or GPT for “Vision Quest color meanings,” you will find all different practices from post to post. Instead of trying to understand them, I decided to follow the guidance of my teacher at the time.

Thunder Hawk explained the colors to me this way.

“Black is the West and is what inspires you, what you want to finish. It represents the Jaguar, the death. It is also that which you want to understand.

Red is the North, where you are and what you want to transform. It is the feminine, passion, and love. It is transformation. It is where you want to go and what you want to purify.

Yellow is the East; it is what you want to know: past knowledge, the air, and mind. It is your childhood and what you want to heal from it. It is also the future, babies, everything that is new.

Green is the South, your will or your past lack of will. It is the truth. It is the earth, the rain, the heart.

Blue is the Sky, the celestial, the stars.

Purple is the Creation, the Earth, and the snakes.

Grey is the center.”

I spent about three days making hundreds of prayers to my family, my friends, all human beings, animals, nature, and the planet. I was still very much driven from my mind, so I prepared my prayers scholarly.

I took my journal and wrote 401 prayers on it. I started with my son’s names and then prayers for them. I wrote down hundreds of names of family, friends, teachers, people who helped me, or some who did good in the world. I ended with some prayers for me. I also wrote many prayers for the world in general. It was the beginning of the coronavirus spreading, so I wrote, “Coronavirus ends.” That prayer ended up happening, but many others did not or did not yet. I wrote some prayers that are pretty difficult to become true, such as “full respect for all indigenous peoples around the world” or “borders of nations disappear.”

It is exciting to look at this prayer list years after I wrote it to see what happened or not. I am also noticing the names I wrote, people I prayed for that I did not talk with for so long, and some I sadly lost touch with. So is life.

If I remember well, Thunder Hawk asked for one hundred prayers of each red, yellow, green, and blue, then one prayer of each blue, purple, and grey, which makes four hundred and three. I did the last two without writing them on my journal.

I cut four hundred and three pieces of textile, then spent many hours praying and doing a knot with tobacco inside a piece of the colored textile. The prayers tie together with a single line, and I carefully spread them around the room to avoid making a mess, then rolled them all around my poncho. That was a funny, creative move, as I later discovered the best way to arrange my prayer ties was around a simple cardboard piece.

This process is already fascinating. It was the first time I prayed, as I never had any religious or spiritual practice before.

Thunder Hawk then explained what I was going to go through. First, we would do an “Inipi” ceremony in the evening, then go up the hill of “Bear Butte.”

Bear Butte is a “laccolith” resulting from magma's forcible entry into cooler rock. The magma pushed up from the earth’s interior under the crust but never reached the surface. It is sacred to many Indian indigenous peoples, such as the Lakota, the Cheyenne, or the Sioux. Human artifacts have been found on or near Bear Butte that date back 10,000 years.

We went to see Bear Butte to prepare. From afar, it looks like a laid-down pregnant woman with her belly, bust, and face. We hiked it up the day before I was due to enter the vision quest, and Thunder Hawk pointed at the place he had chosen for me to stay with no sleep, food, or water.

Traditional Indian ceremonies have been held at Bear Butte for a long time. You can see buffalo at Bear Butte's base and prayer flags all over the trees.

I was ready for the vision quest and would do it no matter what. The weather was freezing at night even though we were in May and a big storm was announced. I was going to be very cold at night. I told Thunder Hawk about my concerns, and he said: “Do not worry about it; we will give you a Buffalo skin to cover yourself.” I was reassured. I also learned to work with the Amazon forest tobacco snuff, the “rapé,” so I asked Thunder Hawk if it would be okay to use it sometimes during the quest to give me some force. He said yes, you can use any medicine you like there. He asked me if I had some rapé with me, and I happily gave him and his son some and the little “kuripé” dispensers I had for them as gifts. The fact I could use it during my initiation came as a relief as it does give some force when used with good intentions.

I also received a “Chanupa,” the sacred pipe. The head represents the woman, and the wood stick represents the man. The Chanupa I received did not quite look like the pipe on this drawing, though, it was tiny, but I received it with love.

Thunder Hakw told me I had to hold it in my hands and arms up at all times during the Vision Quest, and it should never touch the ground. I immediately thought: “As if no food, water, and sleep wasn’t enough, now I have to hold this pipe up the whole time?” This sounded quite weird, but I decided to surrender to what I had to do and nodded to signify my compliance with the new rule.

I was scared, but I was going to do it. I will tell you how it went in my following stories in a few days.

When I launched the paid subscription to this newsletter, my main goal was to write to a small group of friends more interested in exploring the “great mystery” in a small circle where I could share the most difficult stories.

I will keep the following few posts about the Red Road for this circle; please take a subscription if you want to read this post and comment; thank you for your support and for joining.

Thanks for sharing this post with someone who might find it interesting.

It took me more effort than usual to write this as I feel pain and a heavy heart like everyone else. I have many religious friends, many friends who love their nations, and many Jew, Muslim, and Catholic friends.

To be clear, I am against any form of terrorism.

I now also have many indigenous friends who have been exterminated for generations and friends who believe in all kinds of things, so it is not easy to write this without taking risks to upset some of them, yet I want to write my truth from my guts. I say more in the audio if you want to hear me, as it’s easier to speak than to write, but here are some thoughts from my heart.

I’m interrupting the flow of my stories as I feel the energy and the pain so strong these days that I need to pause. This painting illustrates best “the world soul,” as Alex Grey called it.

The visual artist Alex Grey had this vision the day his daughter Zina was born in 1989. He completely forgot about a portion of the painting until someone made him notice when 9/11 happened that he had drawn the Twin Towers with two planes over them on the hell side of the painting. He also painted someone that looked like George Bush, a terrorist and a… dick embodying death. He remembered the future of 9/11 more than 12 years before the horrible events happened.

Men today are burning in the physical hell we created. Those who are not dying are immensely suffering.

My thoughts and prayers go to all my fellow human beings and friends closest to this horrible experience or lost family and friends. All of them.

Media and social media fuel the fire with unprecedented gasoline. There is so much flowing in our phones that the entire world is living it. Human history is sadly full of wars and destruction, but they were seen only by those suffering them in person, those who lived there. Today, social media and news organizations worldwide have never had so much material to spread immediately, as it is mostly the citizens who create them constantly. If they do not generate horror photos and videos, they spread them to everyone. It is impossible not to see hell always on your phone.

I was writing that it was like feeding your brain horror in my previous note, and every day, I talk to friends affected and recommend they stop looking at the news and their social feeds for a while.

Nature created the left side of the tree; humans “created” the right side by trying to control nature and destroying most of it. We made hell for ourselves, chose leaders, and bought stuff from businesses, creating death.

Every minute, we can choose between harmony and chaos, creation and destruction, life and death, beauty and horror.

Hate has four letters, and so does love.Enemies has seven letters, and so does friends.Lying has four letters, and so does heal.Cry has three letters, and so does joy.Negativity has ten letters, and so does positivity.

Life is two-sided. Choose the better side of it.

(Spotted here from a post from my partner Magdalena Sartori)

Nations are not needed.

A world government is needed. Unless we create a world government, nations will keep fighting.

We managed to do it with aviation. All planes worldwide follow the same rules and set of maps, or they cannot fly internationally and crash into each other. We managed to do it with the Internet with TCP/IP, one global protocol or language to move data regardless of borders or nations.

We can do it also to establish peace in the world. One nation, the world’s nation. Wasn’t this why the UN was created in 1945 post WWII? The idea was great; isn’t it time to give it real power?

Violence or killing is universal; everyone understands they should not be allowed. Protecting nature is universal, as humans will disappear if they keep going, regardless of which nation hurts nature the most. We all breathe air, drink water, and receive energy from the Sun. Everything we eat eventually comes from Earth, which does not know nations. Birds or rivers do not need a passport to cross our stupid borders.

Everything in nature is interconnected and global. Humans did not invent globalization. It has always been there.

Out of fear, we invented gods - Kirshnamurti

“Where there is fear, men inevitably seek something that will protect them because men are frightened. We invented all the religions, gods, and rituals. We put them all together by thought. Why do we accept religions without questioning them? Can we face our own fears, like a light being thrown on fears, without giving power to religious leaders?“

There is no need to go to temples, mosques, or churches. The whole existence is a temple, the temple of nature. The trees are continuously in worship, the clouds are in prayer, and the mountains are in meditation. Just start looking around.

How many thousands of years of war do we need to see how much trouble we created? Why should anyone be allowed to destroy other people’s lives in the name of nations or religions?

We don’t need any religious leaders forgiving us for what we did wrong.

We don’t need nation governments fighting against each other.

The only thing we have done wrong is following idiots.

The only way to stop war is for nations to disappear. The world should be one. There is no need for different flag colors on the map as much as there is no need to judge someone based on his skin color or race.

There is only one race, humans.

If we dissolve the nations, whom are we going to fight? If we stop giving power to religions, whom will we kill?

Religious leaders talk to us about heaven, but it is right here on Earth if we stop fighting and destroying nature. Politicians promise us a better future, but it is a constant lie. How long will we remain blind or NPCs? How long will we believe in the matrix and its rules that destroy everything? Wait until AI and machines become more autonomous, and the vision of the Matrix movie might become very real.

A civilized man is simply a man. He has no nation or religion. He considers all human beings equal and respects all life on the planet.

I have only one nation, the nation of a living being on planet Earth.

I have only one religion, the religion of protecting Mother Earth, that we are all equally the "native indigenous" of.

I have only one land I am from and a guest of, planet Earth, and so are you.

“My nation” makes no sense; any piece of the Earth existed before you and will be there after you die.

Nations and religions are an artificial and often dangerous human creation.

We need a world government to preserve peace, life, and planet Earth and fight terrorism in the name of humanity. just wrote a great post Apocalypse Archetype, asking about solutions.

Unity seems to be the only way.

We can all choose today to stop and choose the side of life, the left side of Alex Grey’s tree of life, and return in harmony with nature. We have much to learn from indigenous peoples who have remained the guardians of nature, especially the nomadic ones who are at home anywhere and move like birds where they need to be. They have not been able to move around much anymore.

Our borders will be unable to contain 8 billion people having to find a place to live because of climate change. In 2050, there will be 10 billion humans on the planet. At the pace we are destroying it, nature might not even be able to survive us, so we should unite and find solutions together, getting ready for that.

Utopia?

“Only those crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do” - Steve Jobs.

Why not start believing? We can continually transform ourselves. All we need is to decide and believe in it.

I want to share a beautiful message from the White Eagle, Hopi Indians, North American Tribe

“This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you.

If you repent of the problem and consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, you will fall into the hole.

But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal. Take care of your homes, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual House.

When you are taking care of yourselves, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis; have the eagle aspect from above and see the whole; see more broadly.

There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is a spiritual demand — the two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. But without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and lack of meaning. You were prepared to go through this crisis. Take your toolbox and use all the tools available to you.

Learn about resistance of the indigenous and African peoples; we have always been, and continue to be, exterminated. But we still haven’t stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire, and having fun. Don’t feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time.

You do not help at all being sad and without energy. You help if good things emanate from the universe now. It is through joy that one resists. When the storm passes, each of you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world.

You need to be well and strong. And for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy, and bright vibration. This has nothing to do with alienation.

This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you cross this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties.

The following is what is asked of you:

Allow yourself to take advantage of this time to perform your vision-seeking rituals. What world do you want to build for you? For now, this is what you can do: Serenity in the storm. Calm down, pray every day. Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day.

Good things emanate; what you emanate now is the most important thing. And sing, dance, resist through art, joy, faith, and love.

When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, creeds and classes, and who by these actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They shall be known as the “Warriors of the Rainbow.”

Joseph White Eagle Hopi Prophecy(thanks for sharing in our PAUA What’sapp, ).

We have been organizing for many years a quest for vision in the tradition described above; it is in February in Bacalar, Mexico. It is still possible to join our group that will fast in the jungle for four days and four nights; more information is in our dedicated WhatsApp group.

Only one word in the above text sounds off to me when Joseph Hopi talks about daily prayer. What does praying mean if there are no gods and religions to believe in other than nature? Praying to whom?

I believe in a universal consciousness that connects all life, and praying to nature makes sense; the power of thought makes sense, and that is how I understand praying. Praying is to clear my thoughts and focus on something good I want to “manifest.”

More on that another day. Thanks for reading.