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My first Yawanawà dieta, the Kaisuma, learning to control body and mind
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.loiclemeur.com
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.]
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By Consciousness and EntrepreneurshipThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.loiclemeur.com
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.]