 Our story begins thousands of years ago, deep in the Amazon rainforest. The ancient legends say that the first instructions to make the ayahuasca brew came from the plant spirits themselves, who guided the Native American shamans to gather two particular plants together and combine them into a thick brew. Upon drinking this murky concoction, the shaman would then experience a transcendent perception of reality for the next four to eight hours. A heightened level of sensitivity and connection to all things would overtake them, and they would have visions of geometric patterns, spirits, or supernatural formations that would unfold in the mind's eye. In this experience, they would even receive wisdom and guidance from beyond the veil. From here, the shaman would then use this heightened awareness to learn and gain knowledge of the world and use this to guide their people so that the whole collective could thrive together in their little pocket of early civilization. To many in the world today, the story of ayahuasca's origin may seem rather far-fetched. Because for the story to be true, we have to accept both that plants have souls and can communicate with people. Then again, there are over 80,000 species of plants in the Amazon rainforest alone. So how is it that these ancient people came upon such an unlikely combination to produce such a remarkable brew? Today, one of the most incredible mysteries in the world is the unique and mystical experience of ayahuasca. Growing to be known for its powerful role it can play in helping to overcome disease, addiction, depression, and anxiety, it's no wonder that in today's world, which is ever struggling with its varieties of sicknesses, so many are turning to shamanic plant medicines to see if it can be the answer they are looking for. But wait, wait, wait, hold up! We might be getting ahead of ourselves here. What exactly is this ayahuasca stuff anyways? Let's start with the basics. Ayahuasca is a brew, like a thick soupy drink created primarily from two plants, the leaves of the psychotria viridis, and the vine of the banisteriopsis capi. The psychotria plant contains a large amount of DMT, a molecule produced by our brains in small amounts when we're dreaming, and in larger amounts both when we're born and when we die. This molecule is also found in nature, but generally has no effect on the human body when consumed. This is because our body breaks down the molecule with an enzyme called monoamine oxidase, commonly called an MAO. However, the vine of the capi plant contains an MAO inhibitor, which allows the DMT of the psychotria plant to pass through the stomach and into our bloodstream. When it reaches the brain, it causes an activation of the pineal gland, producing a state like lucid dreaming, except you don't have to be asleep in the slightest. This is, in a nutshell, the essential science behind what's happening with these ayahuasca journeys. However, the actual experience itself is something else entirely to behold. Ayahuasca is often described as a concentrated dose of nature, designed to help us reconnect with ourselves and the natural world. It illuminates one's consciousness, aiding any seeker to look deeper into themselves at the source of their trauma, disease and pain, and helps them in healing these ailments from its source. From this state, we also then learn to perceive reality at deeper, more fundamental levels, and ayahuasca even helps in letting go of the personal identification with modern cultural and social systems, in which so many of us have become trapped. It is for this reason that ayahuasca, along with its brother and sister plant medicines, such as iboga and peyote, have become known today as sacred plant medicines, as well as great teacher plants. While many modern medicines today treat illnesses, depression and the like on a symptom-based level, these master plants go deeper and allow anyone to dive to the root of their challenges and solve them for good. Illness, addiction, depression and the like all fade away when our consciousness is illuminated, shining bright on the subconscious ego that is damaging us without even knowing it. What I personally find especially remarkable about ayahuasca is that once you experience it, the concept of the human soul, your own spirit becomes very conceivable and directly experienceable, and it opens up a space of curiosity within you to try and understand it deeper. Of course, it's critical to note that this experience of ayahuasca only comes out when there is an intention to match it. For anyone who is familiar with the medicine today, it is well understood that these experiences are to be treated as sacred and with great reverence. It's very important to use it properly because ayahuasca opens us up to a dream state of connection with the world, and without the support of energy of a shaman, it's very possible to become lost in the journey, which could even be damaging to the psyche. This is not to suggest that ayahuasca is inherently dangerous. No more than a hammer can be used to either build a house or smash a window. But truly, this medicine helps to teach us to understand that intention steers the reality you experience. Going into an ayahuasca journey with the intention of creating healing versus going in with the intention of just having a party will yield two very different experiences. Today, with thousands of testimonials of people having tried ayahuasca and emerging all over the world, the results seem to demonstrate that this sacred brew can provide us with an experience of self-discovery, spiritual reconnection, and a healing of our hearts, provided that we use it in the right way. To many, the ayahuasca experience sounds too good to be true. A magical plant drink that cures anxiety, disease, addiction, and improves overall quality of life across the board? Is this even possible? In this very movie, we're going to find out. Sit back, relax, and journey with me today to Costa Rica and see for yourself what happens when someone participates in a plant medicine ceremony. Now, when I arrive in Costa Rica, there's going to be so many amazing people to meet. I'm certain of it. But to make things interesting, I've invited my friend John to come along for the ride. We've been friends since we were only 11 years old, and he thought it sounded like a wonderful experience. So before departing, I invited him to the Spirit Science Office, and we filmed some preliminary interviews for this adventure. Well, I've only done mushrooms before, and I've gone camping and done them as a teenager, and also out at the cabin with some friends. We'll do that probably every summer, and then with you, we've done our ceremony before, and I found them to be really fun, and they very mind-opening experience, and they make my mind really wander. The first psychedelic I actually really took was LSD on 11-11 of 2011, and that opened my eyes to so much more than I was ever really aware of, and it quickly just became like, I was like, okay, I have to try them all now. Over just over the course of the years, I've had, you know, several ceremonies, some with LSD, some with mushrooms, Peyote and San Pedro, and it wasn't until Rhythmia until I tried ayahuasca. I wanted to evolve to the highest possible level that I can. You know, using the ayahuasca journey in this way will really help when I come back to this world and go to make more videos and go to do the work that I do in my daily life, and I really want to be able to take and absorb or learn as much as I possibly can so that I can bring that back to the world. Evolution, I think, is at the forefront of my mind in that regard. I'm looking for self-reflection, and a lot of maybe I'm going at it with an open mind. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to experience, but I know it'll be something magical. Change my perception. Come back a different person. Maybe a little bit different. We'll see. I'm sure, like, you know, mushrooms for the first time. I imagined one thing, and it was completely different, so I kind of think this will be the same way. Like, I'll have maybe have some imagination. My mind will start to wander and try to figure out what it is, but I imagine once I actually, you know, have the ayahuasca, it'll be a totally different experience than I imagined. So I don't know what to expect, but that's okay. I think that's exciting. Let's go on an adventure. Excellent. Awesome. Thank you very much. You're welcome. The destination of our journey today is a place called Rhythmia. You might have heard of it. It's been growing in popularity the last few years with an endless stream of miraculous healing stories coming out of it. The whole space is beautiful, designed from the ground up and the top down to facilitate a deep, transcendent healing experience for anyone who goes there. Rhythmia features workshops, organic buffets, massages, colonic cleanses, the works. But of course, all of this is designed around these four potent ayahuasca ceremonies, each honoring a different tradition from different parts of Central and South America. When we first arrived, we went to the orientation workshop on Monday morning, and it was here that we got to meet Rhythmia's founder, Gerard Powell, though everyone just calls him Jerry. He begins the class with an introduction and tells us the story of Rhythmia. For most of his life, Jerry was a pretty mean guy. He struggled with some really nasty addictions and was cruel to everyone that he knew. There was even a time when he acknowledged his struggles and tried to correct his attitude towards the world. But despite getting help from world-class psychologists, nothing seemed to make a difference. Then everything changed when he was invited to Costa Rica to try a plant medicine called iboga. Iboga is another entheogenic plant medicine native to Central and South America, though it's worth noting that it's a very different experience than ayahuasca. Upon arriving at that retreat, Jerry was filled with doubts about this helping him at all. The shaman had him write down several of the most important questions he'd like to have answered, but even as he wrote them down, thoughts of leaving filled his mind. But before he could get a chance to duck out, his shaman invited him to take the medicine. Jerry looked at the shaman, looked at the medicine, and took it straight away. Then he followed the shaman's instructions to lay down and put on a blindfold. Once he acknowledged he was seeing visions, the shaman sat by his head and began tapping on Jerry's forehead. He spoke in a calm voice. Jerry-man, tell me when you see my finger. Jerry began to respond, that's ridiculous, I'm wearing a blindfold. How could I possibly see your fooo-a-a-a? All of a sudden, he could see the shaman's finger tapping on his head. His hands shot up to his blindfold and was even more amazed to realize that it was still fully there, covering his eyes. I-I-I see it! Jerry responded confused, and the shaman said, take a look at the ceiling. Jerry saw the ceiling of the temple through the blindfold, and the shaman commanded him, make it disappear. Within moments, Jerry watched as the ceiling vanished, and soon all that he could see were the stars in the night sky. Pick a star, and jump to it, the shaman instructed, and Jerry soon found himself leaving his body, shooting through the sky, flying into outer space. He heard the shaman again. Can you see the moon? Jerry turned and saw the moon. Fly to the moon. Following the shaman's instructions, Jerry shot towards the moon, until everything went black. A television screen appeared in his inner vision, one of those really old school TVs. It turned on, and he saw two things. One was a text cursor, looking like an old MS-DOS screen. On the other side, he saw an image of the moon with two little feet sticking out of it. They were his feet, he realized, and after flying to the moon, he had actually shot straight into it and got stuck inside. Hi Jerry, the cursor typed. This gave him chills, and he soon discovered that he was talking to the spirit of the moon. Jerry learned that the moon could help him understand why he was so cruel, but he'd have to go and find his soul first, and so off he went. His soul appeared as a child version of himself, and took adult Jerry on a journey through his past, and showed him the roots of his cruelty today. As a young child, Jerry had suffered a horrifying abuse at the hand of a family member. The impact that it had on him was so intense that it disconnected him from the world and himself. This caused his heart to sour, and then rot. His soul then guided him to face those responsible for his childhood trauma, and to forgive them. This very act set the stage for everything to come, because the forgiveness itself liberated Jerry from the pain of his past. After this experience, he was able to return to the moon. As he landed, he saw that the TV was there, along with a pair of hands. His shaman guided him to ask the moon for help. She pointed at his chest, and he knew he had to pull it open, and he pulled out his own heart. It was black and dead. Once again, the shaman guided Jerry to ask the moon for help, and she put her hands together and produced for him a new heart. He put it in his chest and closed it up. The moon typed, I'll be seeing you Jerry, and he said, okay, flying off back to his body. When he returned to the physical dimension, his shaman pulled off his blindfold and looked at him with a big goofy smile and said, happy birthday man. And so Jerry received a new heart, and for the first time since he was a boy, genuinely felt love inside. The next morning he was a changed man, and he found himself acting differently than ever before. Normally, he wouldn't care about anyone around him, but he suddenly found himself talking to the other people at the retreat, learning their stories. He was amazed by the miraculous change that he'd experienced in just one night. Over the next year, Jerry did countless ceremonies. He tried the various shamanic plant medicines, from peyote to ayahuasca, and through his experiences, he came to understand who he was and saw the bigger picture of the human story. Jerry was guided by the moon to abandon his existing business plans and to do something meaningful with his life. He would become an instrument of healing and was guided to create a space that would provide the highest quality of healing ceremonies he could and help raise awareness about the value of shamanic plant medicines. The moon told him where he would find the land to do it, what it would be called, and what it would look like. She also said that the best medicine to work with in a group setting would be the ayahuasca brew, and so this became the plant medicine for the space. All of the instructions flooded into his mind, and when he came out of his ceremonies, he went to work. Following the moon's guidance, he sold all of his worldly possessions and resources he had into buying the land and building the place that would one day become the spiritual nexus called Rhythmia. What I love about Rhythmia most of all is that it's a fusion, this beautiful fusion of this old shamanic tradition that goes back for thousands of years, fused with a really a modern, luxurious setting. You get to have the organic all-you-can-eat buffet, the very wonderful accommodations for your room where you sleep in, and then you get to have this very traditional shamanic ayahuasca ceremony that is just, it takes you back and the majesty of the jungle and everything just takes you to this place of transcendent beauty and awe. And then when you finally come back, it's like you're not so far removed from the world that you came from. It definitely is a nice balance for anybody who's just sort of wanting to jump in, but maybe isn't quite ready to go as deep as you can into the jungle. And so it's a really good first step in that regard, and I really honor and respect what they've done with that space and that energy. It's absolutely beautiful. I think it was the second question I ever asked the moon was I asked her, what's the secret to happiness? And she typed out the word truth. And she typed it a thousand times if she typed it once all in a nanosecond. And at the end like down this whole page the last word was the word authenticity. And I read it and I said to her I said, well how do I become more authentic? And she said stop shining a light on the things that you're not. Going through an ayahuasca journey isn't always easy, but at Rhythmia, Jerry, the shamans and the whole staff go above and beyond in supporting and preparing everyone for their journey and transformation. During his orientation Jerry gives everyone an explanation of how an ayahuasca experience works. He describes that there are four main types of journeys. The first kind is called a body journey. Essentially the medicine goes into your body and will identify what blockages are within you that stop you from fulfilling your healing intention. Then it will help you remove those blockages through a process called purging. Now don't worry purging is not as scary as it sounds. It's a very natural part of the ayahuasca experience where we release old stagnant emotions within us. These energies can be released in a number of ways laughing, burping, yawning, dancing, going to the bathroom or even of course throwing it up. In order to explain why we need to purge in the first place, Jerry explains it with this analogy. Imagine the following scene When this event takes place, the boy here is essentially swallowing his emotional turmoil. All of the anger and frustration from this experience is pent up and sealed away inside. And don't be mistaken there is sealed up pain in the father too. As the boy lives his life, experiences like this happen in a number of ways. Maybe there are bullies at school, his boss yells at him, his partner cheats on him. Whatever it is, these traumatic experiences build up over time which paves the way for all manner of life problems. While these experiences may seem like temporary events, they have long lasting roots that dig into our subconscious, silently affecting our thought process, decisions and even our health throughout our lives. So what ayahuasca does is help you pull up those roots, releasing the emotional trauma that was built up within you. And as mentioned, there are a number of ways this can happen. There have been a few instances where I've heard people say things like, oh yeah I was yawning for an hour straight and felt so much better afterwards or even I danced the night away and now I feel amazing. Then again, sometimes it can get pretty crazy. Personally, I've had my share of violent purging to be certain. However what I've learned is this, while it can sometimes be painful to go through, once that energy is out of you, healing and love quickly comes to those old wounds and you are free from the pain forever. With all of that said, purging is only one of the four types of journeys. The second and third types are very connected. The second is called a pinta which is where you begin to see visions. There's literally no limit to what you can see. Maybe it'll be swirls of light and color. People often see sacred geometry. You might even see people you know or animals you've had in your life. But if one of your visions makes contact with you and begins to talk with you, now you've moved to the third type of journey which is called a consult when the subject of your vision is now engaged with you in some form of communication. And now the final type of journey is extremely rare and is considered to be the most prized. It's called a nada and what happens is that the medicine essentially puts you to sleep and you don't even seem to experience anything. The Colombian tradition believes that what is happening here is that the spirit of the medicine puts you to sleep to go deep through your ancestral lineage in your genetic history and repair trauma and huge events from your past lifetimes or those of your family bloodlines. When you come out of it, you may not directly experienced any visions or purging but you may suddenly find yourself knowing something new or feeling more evolved than you previously had. After these orientation talks, there is always much anticipation for the first ceremony. People are engaged in mindful conversations and thoughtful contemplations preparing themselves for the journey to come. Soon the day grew to evening and the first ceremony was about to begin. People lined up in front of the Maloka ready for anything. Tell us, how are you feeling for this first ayahuasca ceremony? I am feeling and that's what it is. Pretty excited. I'm just scared, that's all I have to say. Just poor fired. Really great, just had a cleanse and a shower and ready to get in contact with the divine. Excellent. I don't want to label it as excitement or nervousness or anxiety but just rather ready to do it and trying to not have any expectations about what's going to happen just embrace it with my observation. Seriously, I'm humbled I'm nervous, I'm grateful and I'm just ready. I'm just ready to go just ready to try it. I just want to see what ayahuasca show me and tell me connect with Mother Earth. Do you have any intentions or thoughts or questions that you're hoping to be answered? No. No, I just want to I kind of want to just go inside myself and just see what happens. As a rule of rithmia and most ayahuas ceremonies this is a cell phone and camera free environment. The shamans sometimes make a joke saying we're here to meet God, not meet them on Facebook. Fortunately, there's no rule animating an ayahuasca ceremony so get ready for some more cartoons. Throughout the week, John and I filmed short interviews with ourselves and others, and when the week was over we took a look back to see what we had captured. Last night was great. I had a really fun time and kind of lost in my thoughts but in a good way a lot of really nice positive thoughts reflecting on a lot of things that I love a lot of people that I love and I was digging the music and I felt like dancing but it didn't really feel like it was part of a night but when the music really came on it was really fun to let loose. I didn't have any feeling after the first shot until I had a first perch which was going to the toilet came back and then I started feeling it and the first thing that came to me was I was a bug, like a little bug and then I felt like all this sensation is a bug in my body and like oh my god I was looking at my hand like a bug like everything it was a great feeling and then I spelt all the wind and trees and plants other bugs, animals talking to me and it was a pleasant feeling and then the next thing I realized was I became an animal I don't remember what animal I was but I was an animal, a hairy animal same thing, I was talking to the nature and then another thing happened was I became a wolf I remember that because I saw my children my family next to me it's like a husky looking wolf I was in Siberia like looking over the like stars and like at night on the snow and then I realized I could be anything in the nature like anything that's living I can be any of this it felt so good and I had another perch so I had to go to the toilet so it kind of paused came back down again and I became my boyfriend I was him and it felt so good and weird and like interesting like oh my god I had an exact same hand that he has I felt just like him and I felt how much he loves me which sometimes we doubt you know like do our our parents or my partner really love me sometimes like completely cleared and then the next thing I was Alberto the really really nice dude that we met like I love Alberto and I became him like oh my god I even had his accent Peruvian-Spanish accent I'm like oh my god and then this came to me I am you I'm everyone I'm anything in the world and if I don't like something that other people do to me it's because I have it in me just me all the good things all the bad things I have everything and I'm one and we are all one that's the best experience I've ever in my life and after that my journey ended and I felt such a good feeling like this is it I figured yeah that was my best experience ever in my life Mother Ayahuasca the whole time she was just sort of trying to get me to be still and in a lot of the ceremonies I just didn't move at all I just stayed very very still and very centred and throughout all my life from maybe being 5 years old or so I'd been diagnosed with really severe anxiety and also depression I found the depression pretty easy to manage but my anxiety for most of my life was pretty out of control and all my thoughts would always be very aggressive and intense and just constantly repeating and after my first ceremony by Ayahuasca I felt so still for my whole presence and everything in my body just was in a complete stillness I can't even describe how amazing and how beautiful it felt to truly be still for the first time in my life and it was just so amazing to have my anxiety cured in a single night in a ceremony so I think I've sort of changed and I feel that I'm able to be still and be present it began with a deep spiritual rebirth there was this moment where I was split into two bodies one was a very defeated masculine boy and one was a dead body of a female we were put into a pot by a great being and boiled to a crazy inferno that created all of this smoke that shot off all of the energy of residual of those two parts of myself were destroyed and alchemically reconstructed into a new body and then a being was over me over this new body and blew into my nostrils and in my life I emerged as an awoken new creature as a new thing as a new human and standing over me were actually two beings one was Thoth and the other was Enki and they were smiling at me being like welcome welcome to your new life Enki left me and Thoth's care and Thoth and I stayed together for so much of the ceremony and he guided me to be wise and I also had a lot of visuals last night I would take my glasses off and things are blurry but instead of just being blurry those blurs would turn into really interesting geometries which was pretty wild and I start seeing that kind of mind would wander and sort of imagining all these these things and there was other visuals too last night there was one point where I was laying on a hammock just in awe by the stars and I thought I saw this bird fly and then it just disappeared and what was really neat is that after I told Shane about that he was like hey I was out on the hammocks at the same time you were on the hammock and I felt like I was getting attacked by a bird so it was kind of neat to have that connection of like I saw bird go by and it crashed into Shane which is pretty funny I had an experience where my intention was about letting go it was about why do I always feel the need to like do so much or hold on to things or like you want to do all this stuff and halfway through the experience I get this sharp pain in my back and my back starts seizing up but there was a point in this experience where I just kept getting worse and worse and I felt like I needed help and I remember saying Jesus Christ like my back hurts and all of a sudden Jesus pops into my awareness and I'm like wow and he wasn't like the Jesus you would expect was like robes and like the throne crown of thorns he was like a cool modern day Jesus and I was like Jesus is that you and he was like yeah you know it's me and I'm like what do you ask Jesus and I'm instantly taken into this experience where I'm being crucified on a cross and my back pain is just getting more intense but as I'm realized because I first didn't realize what was going on but as I'm ascending and I'm feeling this feeling I can see a crowd of faceless people but I can see their energy bodies and I can see this feeling of nothing but compassion and forgiveness that was the only feeling and there was zero pain there was zero pain as long as my awareness was on that there was zero pain it was about totally letting go and that was the teaching and so then I think did I meet Jesus did I what did I experience what he experienced but I think maybe maybe not who knows but I do know is the medicine provided me that experience that I needed to understand what I was asking for and that was the best way I could communicate to me was by having that experience and seeing it was nothing but pure love and forgiveness and compassion and then the same night I ended up meeting John Lennon and Buddha and this wild sort of change of events but both of them had the same message Buddha was just like you don't get it just let it be it's just about let go it's just about being try to explain this in thousands of texts the same thing just let go and John Lennon was like let it be by the end of that we're all singing let it be meet Jesus and Buddha and it was I was laughing I couldn't believe what was going on it was like a mix of like I wasn't sure if this is my imagination or is this really happening or am I creating this this is like a part of my imagination when I came to conclusion was it's all part of this learning that I needed to have it was creating that experience that would be most impactful and memorable for me right so was after that whole thing did your back still hurt no oh it was totally gone yeah no back pain at all it was like by the end of it it was gone like as soon as I started realizing what the teaching was right where I was probably holding on to something before that oh it was interesting it was a profound experience being here I thought it was a vacation very very over worked at work I said I'm just going to take a nice vacation in Costa Rica and relax so when I got here it was amazing everything was beautiful I was feeling better already and I was so excited to go in my first ayahuasca ceremony so so wrong it is not a vacation but it's so much better than a vacation my first experience was terrifying but I learned so much my second experience was one of the most profound and mystical experiences of my life I went past my comfort zone and I kept hearing the message say you know go to what's hard don't go to what's easy the universe rewards bravery so I went up for a second drink and I knew that that was the thing I had to do but I was so scared and so weak but I crawled and I knew I had to do it I just crawled and I found my courage and I stood up in front of the shaman and I'm like hey guess what you know I'm not afraid anymore and he goes he looked at me and he goes happy birthday and he gave me my other drink and I drank that and I thought that this has to be the cap of my experience but it wasn't it wasn't it was a world wind of like ego beating throughout the rest of the ceremonies I learned so much about humanity and what drives humanity and what exactly the earthly plane is and on the last day was the purging day I was a bit scared but I knew I could handle it I was kind of sick of really bad scary intense experiences that I said I just want to have fun and so I took the thing and I didn't purge for a long long time until the shamans dusted me off with feathers and circle and all of a sudden I could feel myself dying I became so enraptured in everything all at once it was so surreal I couldn't stop it because usually before I just opened my eyes but I couldn't open my eyes and everything was just then dying I fell to the floor softly and then all of a sudden I started thrashing my legs around I had to carry me out and I didn't know what was happening at first but then I don't know what happened and I was pinned to the ground not by anyone but by my imagination and I started going seeing through lights and lights and lights and my whole body turned to energy and lights were everywhere and I could feel someone orchestrating like a shaman a particular shaman orchestrating experience and I felt my body being renewed at the time at that time which was amazing and everything collapsing expanding collapsing expanding and then going from one consciousness to the next and and every single answer in the universe was being revealed to me one by one I flipped over another answer flip over another answer another answer and then everything was just connected and everything had an order and everything had a reason and I knew that everything was connected nothing happened by accident I was so so certain about that and I could feel all this love around me that was me and I could also feel like the shaman and his love like guiding the whole process it was more like feeling a safety that I could experience this for myself and when I woke up I just felt whole like completely whole and certain that I've ever ever ever felt my life that I've ever felt my life on plant medicine on ayahuasca I think the most amazing thing I've ever seen is the castle of divinity it's a it started out as a snake and it turned into a woman that her beauty transcends description and then from that it turned into a palace and in that while looking at that palace it showed how life works a part of it was focused on the earth and it was focused at the smallest minutia and you could see people hating each other and then it went up maybe 10,000 feet and then it looked a little different and it keeps the further you get away from it the more peaceful it becomes and it might look crazy but it's perfectly orchestrated like an ant colony I can't hurt you without hurting me and I can't help you without helping me and that the overriding glue that holds the whole thing together is love even though it can look like so many different things even like even anger is a shade of love and how there's this one soul that we're all from and that anything that happens to us is even beyond good or evil it's of this divine order and even though it doesn't look it it doesn't look and I hate to talk like this because it's it seems fragmented and shit but even the worst most horrendous crimes are still under the arc of love it's crazy to understand and we're all playing our part and it's up to us to decide when we no longer want to play the part that we're playing we want to play something different and then we move that and then someone else moves into it it's just crazy thing dude after the whole week of experiences we were amazed by the transformation that we saw take place with every person we talked to we heard stories like these of the beauty and majesty of what had been created there in just one week throughout the week we also made it a point to interview some of the Rhythmia staff and ask them about the nature of the work that they do there when somebody re-merges with their soul the change in their affect and the way that they're being is priceless and I get to see that 1600 times a week and to that person it's the single most important story in the world that we treat each one of these people as if it were ourselves because once you do the medicine you see that it is you and it's easier to do that it's easier to treat that person as an extension of yourself and that's this whole place when people say when they leave they say it was a pretty place but the real thing was the way that they were held why they were here so the breath work and the plant medicine the breath work can really help in a gentle way open us up to start feeling some of our feelings that maybe we've tucked away for a while like maybe decades and then introducing us into the plant medicine where things can get a little bit more intense and then using the breath work through your plant medicine ceremonies to really keep you calm and keep you centered so when things get a little bit crazy, a little bit intense a lot of things are coming up in the plant medicine always returning to your breath to keep you in a calm grounded place and then we also like to end the week of ceremonies here with a more intense breath work session and it's amazing how it can really tie up loose ends for us so things that have happened during ceremony and maybe there's a little bit of confusion or maybe a little loose ends and the breath work can help to pull that together and it can also help you take some of those experiences back home so it's a tool that you can use everyday back home The late great Terence McKenna he likes to say that the shaman is a mixture of the doctor the scientist and the artist somebody who has put themselves through healing and has gone through those situations and has done the medicine enough to that they can show that to other people as well and there's a lot of shamans out there if somebody has an inkling in their heart that they're a true seeker knowing that they're not alone in this world never then there is a path for them and the medicine really wakes us up to that the shaman within The most amazing thing is the ceremony and it's always just seeing all the love and the healing it's always that there's nothing more than that it's just I'm always blown away just the pure love and the connection and the energy and the healing that that provides for everybody if you look around and you look at the nature of the trees everything is in perfect order it's always in perfect harmony but us as humans somewhere along the line we got out of that harmony through going to school and learning about having a career and this and that but like if you go to the jungle they live like they live one with nature they live in harmony so the medicine is helping us to remember that us too as humans were nature and bringing us back to that harmony at the end of the week there is a closing group workshop designed around the process of reintegration after entering such a high vibrational state going back into the world you came from can be a little challenging fortunately Rhythmia provides excellent support for the people going back to their homes and their lives there is this adjustment period in how it works there's a beginning a middle and an end and the moon told me so I said to her I said well why why did I feel like I didn't think I wasn't sure if I got it here and then when I was over here I got this feeling that I got it and she said she said it comes down to worthiness that in the first after you get it there's this worthiness thing that you go through that am I worthy to hold this and I asked her I said how long does it last and she said you can't undo it you can only re-screw it you can't undo the connection you can only screw it up again and she also said that at last if you keep this clean that even death does not take it away from you when you take the medicine you may come out with a deeper knowing about the importance of meditation eating well daily spiritual practice and things like this going back to the world it's important to keep up our spiritual efforts in order to maintain our higher vibration otherwise it's possible to fall back to a denser state of being with poor habits or being unengaged with yourself and your life however even despite this after just one week of these ceremonies we hear overall that there is more faith more knowing and more connectedness than ever before even if some old habits return which is entirely on us there is this deep knowing that everything that happens in our lives is all a part of some bigger picture and in this way we learn what it truly means to be connected to everything that society's screaming for somebody to see the truth capital T truth so instead of getting entrenched in it we try to see possibilities then as you just said we ask what is it that's mine to do that will alleviate suffering and so everyone here can't do the same thing because everyone has different gifts everyone can't do everything but everyone can do something so we have to ask what does my gift allow me to do you pull out from the undertow you hold a high space and then you ask what is it that's mine to do and as an artist that's what you have to do you have to speak of possibility you have to speak of purpose you have to speak of the next stage the answer that's trying to happen one by one, two by two we come together to create that field for the emergence of the next stage after we returned home from Rhythmia a week later I invited John to the office and asked him a couple of enclosing questions ending with the sun coming up was a surreal experience but I think having such a long night and really having the medicine kind of compile over the few days inside of me it was super introspective like I felt like every night there was more and more visuals so I've seen lots of really interesting patterns lots of colors on things just kind of taking a new look on things and really coming to terms with some things and I would say not even just the fourth night but the fourth night kept it off but I do feel like after all of that I'm a better person after this experience made me really sort everything out in my head you know like if there's anything I was kind of doubting about maybe what I want to do in the future and you know I mentioned already what makes me happy it really kind of sorted out it put things in a very clear lens so I kind of really sure about what I want to do and like just how I want to live my life and just yeah I think that's probably the best way to put it it really helps put things in perspective yeah really like it's like a jam-packed mega reflection therapy session on your brain and stuff and the visuals yeah as for me when I came home I found that my evolution experience was only just beginning there was a shift within me for so long I'd been playing the role of a kid who makes videos on the internet it was a role I'd been playing for so many years now that was my comfort zone the rhythmia the professional within me came alive I realized that in order to truly live my dreams of having a large video production studio and creating spirit centers across the world it was time for me to step up into a higher place of leadership and responsibility in my life with this newfound evolution the people in my life began to change too I naturally began to attract other conscious and spiritual experts who could help me grow my spirit signs to the next level at the end of the day this was the evolution I experienced and it's still going on even as I make this movie but really one of the most humbling lessons I've learned above all else is that it's not about me it's about all of us learning and growing together healing together and a massive change for all of humanity we're not doing this for the same thing that motivates most people to start a business so our initial motivation is different because of that growth is not a real high priority to me I want to get always get better at what we're doing so if it gets a little bigger it gets a little bigger what I'd really like to have happen is it to become a huge success and so other people open them up not me so that other people open them up all over the world and it does so well and when I say so well I do mean financially but I also mean that the healings that occur are so deep and so many that people in conventional medicine and government has to say look at this look what happened here and then starts a movement away from traditional healing centers more to centers like this where to not have a headache for a day but removing that headache for the rest of your life like that's the this is real this is really real one of the most memorable things is there was a woman who was purging a lot and then after she was done purging I was there for her, got her some tissue give her a sip of water and then she wanted to go out and watch the stars be outside so I helped her outside like it was the first time she's ever seen the world and then she told me, she said I just purged out my cancer and then after she went home she ended up going to the doctor and the cancer was gone and then she still comes back and she still does more work because there's always more healing to do the medicine isn't just a doctor but she is a teacher and there's always more healing, revealing getting back to who we truly are the importance of plant medicine is that we're moving into union with a consciousness with the energy, an energy in a union that we have lost right, in 1850 Wordsworth writes, the world is too much with us getting and spending late and soon we lay waste our powers little we see in nature that is ours we have given our hearts away assorted boom this is the connectivity that the plant provides us we get back into the connections and rhythms of life and nature we see the truth of something beyond what we see with the eyes and ears we see the invisible we hear the inaudible and it allows us to do the impossible that's really the connection and the simplest form I think most people are run by their subconscious mind and most people are in a fight and flight state most of the time because of society because of work, the way we're brought up and we're so lost and when you have an ayahuasca experience it peels back all these layers at once so you can really see the true essence of yourself and what's really important and it gives you that opportunity to then make changes ayahuasca is not going to change your life by itself it'll give you the opportunity to change your life it'll present that opportunity to you and a place like this gives you all those other support mechanisms the cleanses, the classes, the breath work to really give you that push and opportunity to make those changes and it's up to you, the lessons that you learned how are you going to integrate that into your daily life now once you step off this place and there's also amazing tools that really provides for that too but the ayahuasca in general will do that it makes you really want to support nature to give back to sort of connect with people and that's what's going to make the world a better place people opening to that awareness of what their true nature is and the more people that can do that it's happening ayahuasca spreading across the world right now plant medicine is coming into the awareness because I think the planet is raising the vibration saying hey we need to sort of wake up here because we can change things like that if everyone is on board saying hey let's change the way we operate let's change the way we treat each other and the planet and I think ayahuasca is one of the greatest opportunities as a catalyst for change I straight up believe that anyone would benefit from going to Rhythmia or at least doing ayahuasca having that kind of ceremony and I think it's super important that it's in the right setting and you have the right people the right shamans or caretakers helping you through the experience but I think anyone would help from therapy and I kind of see it the same way but it's almost like super therapy so I think the world should do ayahuasca so where do we go from here? Rhythmia is available to you right now if you're ready for this click the link in the description and take action now when you take action you pave the way for the whole world to heal and that's real your own shift and healing has an enormous effect on global consciousness ayahuasca has made that clear that's how connected we truly are now you might be thinking I can't afford it and if that's the case right now it's okay let me show you how you can because the key is within you instead of saying I can't afford it which is limiting ask yourself how can I afford it which opens the door of possibility for your own energy have faith and be patient Rhythmia is a part of a much bigger picture for all of us and if you set your intention to make it happen there's nothing that can stop you I've met people of all walks of life at Rhythmia there was even a 19 year old pizza delivery boy who saved up his money for several months to go and he said it was the best decision he'd ever made so I stand with Jerry in hopes and dreams that one day places like Rhythmia will exist all over the world in abundance and the world leaders with power over social systems will see the value without question I mean really what would happen if these guys were to try it before I came here my sisters never let me touch them I would always kind of try and hug them they'd go away but the second day I received the most hugs I've gotten from them as long as I can remember it was almost what they call a nada it was not much happening but there was a lot happening I could feel that the medicine was working there was a few subtle visions and things like that that was helping me to see a little bit deeper into the fabric of who I am and what's been going on but at the same time it was more about being able to be present to the gratitude of life in general just being open to love open to gratitude, open to grace, open to bliss at the end of the night there was sort of like a purge and I asked what that purge was for and it was just to purge those toxins from my system that are not serving me or my life and today I actually feel clearer even though I didn't get a lot of sleep or anything like that I feel more clear in my being which is pretty awesome considering that I never would have anticipated something so simple to have such an interesting effect on the following days consciousness and feeling and that sort of stuff so day one was pretty cool I'm very grateful and humbled I asked for gentle and I got gentle we as a species we're coming now into glimpsing so many people have started to receive their things throughout their ceremonies but we're starting to come to a point where we're receiving this deeper understanding about how everything works we have this this perspective through science and through our religions and stuff of the way that the heavens in the world and universe operates but it's so much more intricate and magical than we can possibly understand at this point but through experiences like this through meditation through plant medicine ceremonies we're starting to get glimpses of something bigger something beyond and activate our DNA and with this higher activation it turns on something within us it changes us to be able to see and know and receive higher truths beyond anything we've been able to know in the last 13,000 years and that's so amazing thank you