Can Ayahuasca or any other Plant Medicine create an impact on our lives so that there is an irreversible transformation?
There are countless myths and legends surrounding plant medicine, many of them resembling reality, others not so much, and in many cases, for the sake of business, these are advertised as magical substances that have the chance to make us perfect in one night. That couldn’t be further from reality, and to give a simple answer to the topic of discussion in this article, the answer is “No!”. Plant medicine cannot transform us, it is delusional to think that a plant can change us automatically. If that were the case, everyone would be flawless and ideal after the first Ayahuasca ceremony! Fortunately or unfortunately, that is not the case, and that is not the nature of plant medicine.
Then, it’s intelligent to mention that we are not saying that plant medicine cannot help us in our healing journey. When we drink medicine we are permeating ourselves with the information of a very pure energy, this information is received by our mind in the form of guidance, visions, insights, and it is also received in our body; medicine is flowing in our veins awakening all the cells of the body, tunning them with the rhythms of nature (if they have forgotten how), alleviating pain, forming new neural pathways, trying to eliminate toxicity from the body, helping the body release unprocessed emotions and a number of other amazing healing benefits. There are countless cases of people that have found genuine healing to severe health conditions and that have deeply transformed their lives through the experience of plant medicine. Our point here is that even though medicine can bring enormous benefit to our lives, itself alone cannot do the work for us, because it is our life, our present experience and past experiences, our patterns and habits, our likes and dislikes, our propensities and dispositions and so on. Deriving all our responsibility for human development to an external source such as a plant, a therapist, a coach, or a doctor, it’s nonsense. Again yes, all of these can catalyze healing and evolution, can help us improve and be a source of knowledge and inspiration for our journey, but the work is still ours, and to expect that just by rubbing the lamp the genie will come and fulfill all our desires it’s irresponsible.
Every single person that has gone through a plant medicine journey (that I know of, and I know many) finds that the post-ceremony process is actually the hardest. This is because medicine can show us unbelievable capacities and very evolved versions of ourselves, but once the effects of the medicine wear off… ups we are humans again! and all of our propensities, patterns, and habitual tendencies that we have trained for our entire life are still running, the same program is still running. At least now we know of something different, that gives us the chance the rewrite the story of our lives. That adventure begins with very small willful and conscious changes that will create a ripple effect on the ocean of our hearts and will manifest as giant waves of genuine transformation.
Let me finish with a quote from one of the founders of western psychology, Carl Jung:
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”