The Immense Results of a Plant Diet

(Hint: For best results read all the way through even if you are not interested in plant diets.)

Two days ago I returned from two weeks with some Shipibos, an upper Amazon tribe in Peru who supervise plant diets. I was there to do another of many plant diets, seven days in a row of drinking the juice from one of a number of special plants Amazonian tribes take to make them strong, help them heal others, and offer them protection. These plants must be taken in a certain order, starting with tobacco, moving on to the rennequia, then bouasca, albaca, camalonga, and chiric- sanango. Others follow. On this trip, there was a small group of us each dieting with different plants but spending each day in a hammock receiving the teachings and assistance of the plants.

Some are sometimes surprised when they do not receive direct intellectual instructions or downloads from the plants but that is not the way they work. The truth is, the benefits come over a period of weeks and months and while taking them one might feel a variety of emotions, physical sensations, sleepiness, or exceptional clarity of mind. It is not unusual for some to sleep a good part of the day and then again at night so for some it may be very restful while for others it is stimulating and may be accompanied by intense reading, meditating, or listening to music.

In my own experience, dieting with the plants is like a roller coaster throughout the days. With some days being uncomfortable, as I run into layers of resistance, while breakthroughs and intense insight characterize other days. Some plants create physical discomfort as in nausea or stomachaches while others are benign and are accompanied by a sense of tranquility and well-being.

We begin about five thirty AM with good hydration because after the sun arrives at around six one can no longer consume any water until after about three PM in the afternoon. Some diet masters don’t allow drinking until after the sun goes down around six PM but the ones I work with are more benign in their diet approach. Whatever the case, the diet has challenges because most days are very hot and humid and there is a great deal of sweating. Just getting up to go to the bathroom or simply turning in the hammock produces loads of perspiration. On cooler days, when there is much rain and wind outside, one can be cool enough in the Maloka (large round ceremonial hut) to cover with a blanket or wear a light fleece.

Now there is no requirement that someone do all the plants or even more then one. Many who go to the jungle do only the foundation diet with tobacco and that is enough for them. Sometimes they are simply not fond of the jungle with its insects and inconvenience of heat and mud or it is difficult to take repeated trips to do more than one diet. Others feel a commitment and a great desire to continue the process because they simply get so much out of the experience.

It is sometimes challenging to explain to others and convince them that the trip and experience is worth the discomfort. If you tell someone that that they would be going to the hot, humid, jungle to sleep within a mosquito net and spend their days taking an unpleasant tasting plant concoction while taking no water or food much of day and sweating profusely, most would look at you like you are nuts. There is simply no way to explain that the experience produces extremely powerful but indescribable beneficial results that can literally change ones life for the better in many, many ways. What are those benefits? Well for one, your body gets stronger, for another, you are protected from negativity as never before in your experience. Other benefits include the ability to perceive much more clearly and accurately and diagnose illness in others better than ever before whether you be an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, a doctor, nurse, psychotherapist and so on. In fact, many people who go again and again are nurses or doctors of non-traditional medicine. Many who participate say that they become better than ever at quickly creating what they want in their lives in a miraculous sort of way. In this way, they are able to return over an over even though there are airfare costs and time away from work.

Now each dieter determines how they spend their time during the diet. Some listen to inspirational material on their ipods, ipads, or smart phones while others voraciously read material they have been wanting to get to. Others like myself tend to concentrate on the study of a particular spiritually oriented book. There is nothing like the diet to really do some intensive and comprehensive spiritually oriented work. Read, contemplate, meditate, and write in a journal, sleep, and then do it all over again is a typical day. I happen to love it because at home I am so busy I cannot often afford the luxury of the time the diet offers.

While many places that offer diets in the jungle have wonderful eco lodge surroundings and give each person their own individual tambo (little ceremonial hut), I do my diets in a larger round maloka with a high thatched roof. There is central pole that many hammocks are attached to (up to 16) and there are just two outside individual tambos for those preferring the outdoors and personal space. I like the larger group space because I find there is nothing like the energy created when ten to 16 people diet together in absolute silence throughout the day. It is something like a vispassana or zen meditation retreat where everyone meditates together in silence for days on end. People go out to use the outhouse, or sit, or sometimes to take short walks in the jungle to commune with Pachamama (mother nature).

During some of these walks, I have some of my most powerful experiences. Sometimes a whole icaro (sacred song) will come to me, or other times nature herself will give me her gifts. Many times I have been visited by huge butterflies, colorful birds and insects, or an eagle flying overhead. These are usually accompanied by a powerful message about something I have been contemplating. Sometimes the visitations are more internal. Because of the diet and the effects of the plant medicines, one tends to be more sensitive than usual to visions and to inner messages. One time, in my mind’s eye I saw a group of little people who seemed to be dancing all around me. Later when I mentioned this to my diet guide and mentor, he laughed and said I was very fortunate to be visited by these short folks whom these indigenous see rather often. He said they were the spirits of the plants I had taken. Another time, in the same fashion, a Jaguar showed up who offered me a song. I sang the song and later that night, many saw a large Jaguar come in and take charge of the special ceremony we were participating in.

Outside the maloka there is a special shrine to a former teacher and mentor who passed, where her gravesite is located. Although I am not a person who visits gravesites, I often visit her grave during the dieting days, bringing her a tobacco and offering some prayers for her wellbeing as she often shows up. I see her in my minds eye and she is always singing her favorite icaros and some new ones. She always brings with her many ancient ones from past generations who sing in a chorus with her. She often does specific work with me or has some of the others work on my energy field, sometimes inserting various healing objects or extracting things that should not be there. At times, she gives me specific messages about what I need to do to make better progress or how I can clear away a habit that is in my way. I often find myself in tears because of these experiences. I stay until she gives me permission to go back to my hammock. I am always enriched by these powerful visitations.

On the other side of the maloka there is shrine created by an Incan shaman who visited this tribe some years ago. They had a big ceremony and something powerful was buried in the ground there. Now the shrine is eroded away but the power of the buried sacred objects is still quite palpable so I often visit the site during the diet. I find I receive a great deal of insight and information during these visits, sometimes receiving direct messages about my next step or something I need to know about other people and my relationships with them.

On this trip, as I was standing out in the jungle well into the diet, I began to feel the ground moving beneath my feet. At first I thought it was the effects of the chiricsanango I had taken, but then the movement became unmistakably strong. At first, the movement was up and down as if I was on a trampoline but then it shifted to a strong movement from side to side. The ground was spongy where I was standing and this made the effect rather pleasant but it was clearly a rather strong earthquake. I hurried back to the maloka to make sure everyone was okay but found most people asleep in their hammocks. Later some people told me the whole maloka had shaken and they knew they were experiencing an earthquake. Later we found that the electricity had shut down in the village for many hours as a result of some damage to the electrical grid in that area. The tribespeople told us they were used to strong quakes being so close to the Andes.

Even though the event was a natural one experienced by many, I always pay attention to what I am thinking, feeling, or experiencing just before an event such as this. It’s like nature’s exclamation point, a sign of affirmation or a warning, something to be paid attention to. I have learned never to dismiss these messages. In this case, the earth was reminding me to expect great changes in the near coming times. This was not so much a warning as simply a reminder that we are now in a great window of change and this change is necessary and good in the long run. It was not by chance also, that the elections were occurring in the states as this quake took place. It was rather nice to be in the remote jungle during the craziness of elections. We did not hear the outcome until two days later when one of the villagers told us Obama had won. He had gotten the news from the local internet café.

During the diet there are usually about three additional plant ceremonies that support and enhance the work of the plant medicines we are taking. The first one opens the psyche up to the plants, the second one enhances the progress being made, and the third one is dedicated to integrating all the work that has been done. Each ceremony has icaros specifically dedicated to the work at hand. As I mentioned earlier the diet is highly impacted by whatever reading material or listening material each dieter is focusing on. During the last diet in the jungle, I had brought Paul Selig’s book I Am The Word, a book that had a big influence on me and one that I found to have incredible impact. This time I brought his second book, The Book of Love and Creation, a book I would highly recommend for anyone seriously interested in expanding their consciousness, especially during these times. While these channeled books are impossible to summarize, let us say they represent the latest in development of the technology of imbedding invisible information into the visible text. The net result is an encyclopedia of information and an even greater and faster experience of the information.

During the third special ceremony I had a profound experience related to the material in the book and in relation to other information I had gathered over the years from the Michael Teachings . In his channeled books Paul Selig’s guides focus on the power of the word. They emphasize that the word “word” contains the frequency or energy of the action of spirit, the doing, creative aspect of the universe. Perhaps you recall from past articles that the universe is comprised of three distinct aspects, truth, love, and energy? The word would correspond to the energetic aspect, that aspect that makes things happen or is the power behind creation. The love aspect coalesces things or brings them together and the truth aspect provides the knowing or intelligence. God or Spirit could be said to be that which knows, loves, and creates from that knowing and loving. All three working together would be the “I AM That I AM”.

Remote Healing

Each month, around the new and full moons, Jose, Lena or Anna leads a remote shamanic healing session. These approximately 30 minute sessions are designed to be experienced in a quiet, safe place free from distraction. Even if you cannot join live they can be very powerful, and always include a good clearing and beautiful icaros. Recording access is included for a short time afterwards. See the product description for dates and times.

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During the ceremony, I decided to examine the results of saying certain phrases suggested in the book. For example, the book suggests saying, “I am word through x, y, or z”. One might say, “I am word through all that I see before me; I am word through my knowing; I am word through this ceremony; I am word through my loving” and so on. I wanted to see what happened as I said these words in an enhanced state. As I stated various “I Am” phrases coupled with “word” and then “through” something, I found myself experiencing an intense electromagnetic frequency that I could not describe as emotional nor was it anything I could say was totally familiar to me. These words were powerful in and of themselves like a special code that could open doors like the old abra cadabra of storybooks. I also noticed that if I let my mind stray, the frequency immediately went unconscious. If I repeated the phrase the frequency immediately returned to awareness.

I saw that the frequency was not personal and not confined to me. The frequency was everywhere in the space including in everyone and everything. I or anyone, could call up the frequency using these words. The frequency was also transformative in that it was informing everything around me, myself included, of what it was, God stuff or Spirit. I saw that just through the use of key words and my intention, that the world could be transformed in the wink of an eye. It could just as quickly be transformed back to ordinary when the usual amnesia kicked in.

I tried saying the same phrases in Spanish to see if the same effect took place and it made no difference whatsoever what language was used, as long as the intent and the meaning were the same. It had the same effect exactly. I could say, “soy la palabra dentro de todo yo veo” and I would feel the same electric frequency within me and instantaneously within the space. Of course, one could say, that this experience or sensing could be entirely personal. Having no actual impact on the world at all, but according to the text and my experience, this was definitely not the case. When one expresses this idea using a decree it does impact the world at large because everything is connected. The thought that it doesn’t represents old thinking that we are all in our individual bubbles, not having any effect on the world whatsoever. According to new physics, this is just not the case.

The implications of this are enormous and most gratifying. Each one of us has the power to restore everything we encounter to its true value, its’ true frequency and in this lies the key to each person saving the world one by one. When one great teacher two thousand years ago did this, the effects were enormous. What might happen if thousands or millions were to do the same thing? The effects would be infinitely more rapid, more penetrating, and more comprehensive. One need not worry about any details like “Well what about those axe murderers out there?” or “What about wars?” “What about crime?” and so on. Those kinds of questions reflect a lack of understanding about how things actually work as if the world could still be divided up in ways that one thing cannot affect another. Everything affects everything else for the better or worse. Why affect it for the worse? Why not reintroduce, or better yet, remind everything of its original and exceptional frequency? When that happens, miracles occur beyond what anyone could imagine.

With this in mind the real question is “How can we fail to restore the world to a paradise?” It is inevitable and there is no possibility of failure. NONE WHATSOEVER. To contemplate failure leads to failure. Why would we want to do that? To contemplate what can be is to move toward it rapidly. Why would we not want that? It is well within our reach because we have the built in hardware to do so. Every great teacher that ever lived has told us so. Duh.

So what would keep us on the dreary path we have been on?

Laziness.

Discouragement.

Fear of disappointment.

Perverse dedication to being a curmudgeon.

Sadistically wanting to punish self and others.

Lack of forgiveness.

Lack of courage.

Lack of vision.

Fear of being powerful.

Fear of being punished for heresy and arrogance.

Sheer inertia.

And what would help us to move ahead?

Having total dedication and commitment to be free once and for all.

Being willing to be totally inspired by knowing what is so.

Having courage in the face of old fears of pain and suffering.

Letting go the low frequency gratification of being right about being miserable.

Being completely willing to forgive self and others so we can move on.

Having a powerful and clear vision of what is possible, total freedom.

Being willing to be as powerful as we were created to be.

Being totally willing to let go of fear of being punished by an old fashioned version of a punitive God.

A willingness to face down the control freak in self and around us who would want to keep us mentally and emotionally enslaved to the past.

So without any apprehension or caution I am going to state unequivocally here that the Tsunami we are about to experience and have already begun to experience on this planet is a revolution in consciousness. This revolution will spread quickly from one person to another, from a few to the many because that is its nature, to remind each of us of what we are and what we can do. If you knew that you could wave a magic wand and begin to transform everything in your vicinity to gold you would be waving your wand all the time. Well, this is what more and more people will do with their intent and their decrees until no stone is left unturned. In sixty years time the bulk of that work, if we can call it that, will be done. Of course there will still be younger souls that have to learn their lessons. Yet even they, if guided properly, will learn those lessons with less difficulty, with less pain and suffering than the millennia prior. Will there be bumps in the road? Of course. Will there be resistance and efforts to set back the clock? Of course. Will it mean anything? Of course not!

The world will not be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust or any other way. The world will not become a hopeless heap of rubble with a few straggly people. We will not be enslaved by the old guard of fascists that have actually been us. NO. The world consists of truth, love, and energy. That is what it is and that is what it will be. There is only one purpose, to know, to love, and to create through our words and decrees. Remember that some of the most powerful decrees are actually questions. “What if the whole world is waking up rapidly to truth, love, and energy and transforming as if by a million miracles into a golden time experienced by all of us in a golden state of consciousness?”

Finally realize that the planet itself responds to the frequency of the action of Spirit, or in other words, the Word. The planet can be restored to a garden if that is our intent. Not to worry about chem. trails and such. That is a true energy leak. Oh, and one other thing, the Anti-Christ is nothing more than our old belief in separation.

See what value one plant dieta can have.

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José Stevens

José Luis Stevens, PhD is the president and co-founder (with wife Lena) of Power Path Seminars, an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and indigenous wisdom to business and everyday life. José completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol (Wixarika) Maracame (Huichol shaman) in the Sierras of Central Mexico. In addition, he is studying with Shipibo shamans in the Peruvian Amazon and with Paqos (shamans) in the Andes in Peru. In 1983 he completed his doctoral dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies focusing on the interface between shamanism and western psychological counseling. Since then, he has studied cross-cultural shamanism around the world to distill the core elements of shamanic healing and practice. He is the author of twenty books and numerous articles including Encounters With Power, Awaken The Inner Shaman, The Power Path, Secrets of Shamanism, Transforming Your Dragons and How To Pray The Shaman’s Way.