The Light

DOSE: T+ 0:00 30 g oral Banisteriopsis caapi (ground / crushed) T+ 1:00 40 g oral Psychotria viridis (leaves)

       BODY WEIGHT:
   150 lb
     

It was friday night, Shabbos. My girlfriend E and I were visiting my parents' home at a time no one else was there. This was a very safe and comforting place.

Before the tea, I was already filled with excitement and awe about the upcoming sacrament. It was as though the insight was beginning before the ingestion. E was pretty excited, but also pretty anxious about la purga. Her nausea also began a little before the ingestion.

The Strength:

I took out the extracted material (see below for prep info), which was separated into the Strength(caapi) and the Light(viridis). We opted to take the Strength by rolling the extract into balls and swallowing with water, which was pretty easy.

We then decided to take a walk up to a park near my house. The sun was setting and it was drizzling a little outside, but it was a very pleasing drizzle. When we got to the park, I started noticing birds everywhere. Not that there were a lot of birds, rather I happened to connect with and notice every bird within my immediate surroundings effortlessly (or intentionally on their part). I took this as a very good sign. E and I both didn't notice any overt effects aside from the a slight rippling of the trees that was more than usual. As we walked back, E said she did feel different, but that it was difficult to explain. However, when I questioned her a little more she said that she felt like the trees were walking with us or we were making the world move while we were staying still. This instantly reminded of Ken Wilber's description of One Taste while running, which seemed to give E a sense of validity to her experience.

The Light:

When we got back home, E said that being inside forced her awareness inside and this forced her to focuss on how strange her body felt. Within minutes she was hovering over the toilet, purging a small meal she had eaten two hours previously. Still feeling sick, she asked if we could postpone taking the light a little so she could lay down. I brought her to a dark bedroom and began to give her a mix of massage and reiki. After about fifteen minutes, E said she was ready and we went to the dining room.

One candle was lit as we sat face to face at the dining room table. The Light filled two glass mugs (~6 oz. each) and looked like a dark cappuccino. We both began to drink the light, E gulping quickly while I sipped it slowly. Immediately, E jumped up and threw up on the floor. I went to help her and clean up and then I went back to finish the tea. I told E that I would leave a little so that she could try again later. In total I think I drank about 70% of the intended dose.

We went back outside and started walking to a different park. E was a little dissapointed that she hadn't been able to keep any of the Light down and was very busy asking me to describe my experience. At first, it was difficult to find something happening until I sat down and closed my eyes. At this point (maybe ten minutes after the Light) I could get into a deep meditative place easily. Then I openned my eyes and realized that things were not as they usually are anymore.

We left the park and strolled through the neighborhoods. I started to notice cats in a lot of the windows in a very similar way that I was noticing birds before. As we walked, I experienced incredible time and space dilation as one block seemed to take forever to walk. Then I started to see the Light as an undenyable glowing off my sweat shirt.

We returned home, but we stayed outside. I started to tell E all kinds of stories about my backyard and how I would play in the creek on this and that rock. I became flooded with childhood memories and I began to re-live some of the imaginary games I used to play. I was amazed at the detail and reality of the memories and how I had gone so long without accessing them.

We sat down on a bench and I rested my head on E's shoulder. I knew she wasn't experiencing the light like I was, but she was still incredibly with me and loving. I asked her to talk to me and she began to talk about a presentation she did in a film class. As she described the plot line I would be flooded with imagery and emotions about little moments in the story. One in particular that stands out revolved around sex and all of my feelings, memories and attitudes towards sex.

Then, a dog of Light approached me on my left side. It's not quite clear whether I could see him better with my eyes open or shut, but I knew he was a creature of the Light. I kept thinking about the idea of making contact and how I could feel this creature and communicate with him (I mean, the same as you can communicate with a real dog). It was nice.

I then noticed electric, flashing light, neon sign, cartoon, lighting bolt, LSD types of imagery. Media stuff, video games, commercials, sky scapers, glitter, technology etc. and I wanted to move to a more natural type of experience beyond all this stuff. And slowly behind the Time Square, Las Vegas flashings, I found the forest and the soul of the forest life, but these digital, man-made, archetypes kept coming into my awareness.

La Purga

We headed inside and all of the sudden it came to me very matter of factly, 'I have to throw up.' My head over the bowl, I began to see disgusting images of blood and dirt and puss and dead things and remebered being in high school and worrying about how acne made me look ugly. All of these ugly thoughts of myself and all of the things I felt guilty about, I regretted doing, all of my self directed negativity was concentrated into every heave into the puke filled water.

(A voice in my head said, 'That was great.')

After that, I found myself, clean and pure, new and innocent. I sat up on the bathroom floor and I was an enlightened prince sitting in a field of bright green grass on a sunny day. I was glowing from head to toe and I realized that this is who I always am and that all that junk in the toilet is just a self imposed illusion. I felt fine with leaving it there. I soon noticed E by my side and she was my princess. It was beautiful...

But we were on the bathroom floor with a toilet covered in puke, so I got up. E cleaned up this one as I went to lie down under a blacket on the couch. The electric patterns came back and this time I just accepted them as part of me, as natural. I accepted that my thoughts and rationality and the video game of life included the electricity, included the media, computers and information and that these are natural as well. They quickly started to give way and move into something I really don't have a good language for...

It was a journey...E suggested we go upstairs and lie on a bed. she was still just feeling sick, no vision no light. As I lay with her, I was traveling and there was just so much I cannot begin to talk about it, but this was the heart of the journey. At one point I got up to do a great round of Tai Chi. And then we were just laying there.

I would feel myself through E and see myself as her. I felt her holding on to the sickness, tensing up. At this point, I suggested that we finish the Light and get her through this sickness. She groaned and proposed that we have some marijuana first. A couple breaths brought me in touch with this ally and then we headed downstairs.

I told her to just face the sickness and watch it dissolve. I said, 'You'll drink this Light and then you will throw up and then it will be over.' A strange kind of calm came over her and she drank the Light and then threw it right up and then she was cured. She took on a glowing smile and couldn't believe she had spent so much time holding on to the sickness, which revealed itself to be of little substance. She smiled so beautifully.

I also drank some more light, but this did not manifest as anything as it was probably too late after the Strength...(~3.5 hours) The two of us went upstairs and I shared some of my experience. Then we drifted to sleep easily and peacefully.

Preparation:

(via HCl method-during this dream I often thought about how effective this method is)

~105 grams of whole leaf peruvian Psychotria viridis were placed in a large pyrex pot with britta water and a small amount of muratic acid (pH ~4.5). This was heated to a simmering/boiling temperature for about 2 hours stirring occationally with a wooden spoon. This was filtered with a t-shirt and placed in another pyrex pot, which was set to boil to reduce volume. Then the leaves were soaked again in britta water + muratic acid (pH ~4.5) and heated for an hour, then filtered and combined with the other solution. One last wash was done to the leaves and then combined to the reduction pot. When the liquid in the pot was down to about 6 oz. it was poured into a pyrex dish with syran wrap covering the bottom. This was placed into an oven set at 220 degrees for two hours. I then turned the oven off, but let it sit over night in the cooling oven. When I awoke, I would turn the oven on for a little and then off letting it sit. It stayed in the off/on oven for about two days (on for one hour/off for eight to twelve) and this succesfully took out all of the water and acid leaving a hard extract which could easily be recovered by lifting the syran wrap.

~65 grams of Banisteriopsis caapi were prepared in exactly the same way, except the vine was first beaten and shredded with a hammer and knife before the brewing began. The caapi resulted a thick tarlike extract which could be rolled into balls.

Add hot water to these extracts and you've got tea.

Exp Year: 2001ExpID: 6520 Gender: Male Age at time of experience: Not Given Published: Apr 28, 2001Views: Not Supported [ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]

Ayahuasca (8), Psychotria viridis (170), Banisteriopsis caapi (169) : Small Group (2-9) (17), Nature / Outdoors (23), Glowing Experiences (4), Preparation / Recipes (30), Combinations (3), General (1) -->