All language subtitles for The Song

>> Look at all the people.

[music playing]

>> [non-english speech]

>> Part of me thought that I'ddo it and everything will be

magically fixed for me.

>> It's really hard to definehow these experiences impact

your life because they
do in so many ways.

>> There was a before, and therewas an after and a very clear

line.

And a line was ayahuasca.

[non-english singing]

>> [non-english speech]

>> It's interesting
because in medical school,

we're not taught about
energies or about spirits.

So doctors can't fix
what they can't see.

So it's almost like
there's a different lens

that the shaman is bringing in,
one that we're not necessarily

seeing.

>> Science is very good,
but is very limited.

So the implications
of this is there

are many other ways to know.

There are other forms of
knowing that are not scientific.

Yet they are valid.

>> [non-english speech]

>> I have sat with probably
about 65 shamans or so, maybe

a few more, but I've never
experienced the craft

at the level of talent that
I've experienced with the really

good Shipibo shamans.

>> [non-english speech]

>> The Shipibo, they
are already connected.

They have been raised
in the knowledge

of the spiritual world.

This is a reality for them.

They know that they
can learn from plant.

So they're going to go directly
on this level of how to learn

and how to heal.

>> [non-english speech]

>> These teaching plants are
the channels from which Gaia

or the spirit of nature
conveys what you need to know,

and somehow or other, these
plants, particularly ayahuasca,

has an uncanny sense of exactly
what it is you need to be--

what needs to be
revealed to you.

>> When I turned 40, I hita place in my life that I

immediately defined
as a midlife crisis.

And so for my
birthday, I decided

to give myself a special gift.

And a good friend of
mine was mentioning

magic mushrooms in Mexico
and Oaxaca with a shaman.

I was like, wow,
how cool is that.

When I decided to go to Oaxaca
to do the magic mushrooms,

I mentioned this to my mom,
and she did not like this idea.

>> [non-english speech]

>> She thought it
was the worst idea.

She actually said to me,
aye, mijo, why don't you

just go to a beach and get
drunk all day and chase women.

And I'm like no, no.

That's actually-- I'm trying
to get away from that.

I can't say that that
particular ceremony shifted much

in my life.

But one thing that where I am
now seems just magical to me

is that the next day after doing
this ceremony with the shaman

in Oaxaca, he said now that
you've met the children,

you've got to meet the mother.

And I'm like who is the
mother, and he said ayahuasca.

I'm like I don't know--

I don't know what that is.

And he said don't worry.

When the time is right,
she will call you.

Nine, 10 months later,
I felt the call.

>> I was in my 20s whenI first met the medicine.

I was-- I just
graduated college.

I was a student
athlete at USC, and I

was a professional swimmer.

I was PAC 10 champion,
national champion.

I was coming from a few
years of successful--

of being a successful
sports man.

And so I had this
thing with success

that was a bit in conflict
with another side of me,

which was the artistic side
of me that had been cultivated

also since I was a little kid.

And so I went to the
medicine a little bit looking

for clarity, struggling a
little bit with direction

because a part of me, the
competitive part of me

wanted a career,
wanted to make money.

But there was also
the other side of me

that was the creative one, the
kid in me that just enjoyed

painting and being creative.

And so I went to the medicine
looking for clarity and help.

>> I had a friend and she told
me about ayahuasca and she was

actually going to Peru.

She also told me that it
produces hallucinations,

and part of it is vomitingand having diarrhea.

And I didn't think much of
it aside from a little bit

of judgment like why do it.

After she came back, I remember
we took a walk through Central

Park, and as she was telling
me what she had experienced,

I wasn't so much interested in
the context of the experience.

But there was energy
around her that--

sense of purpose and joy and
just overall content that

was so new, and I
thought to myself maybe

that's the thing I've
been looking for.

>> I got an email with all ofthe preparation that one has

to undertake-- no red
meat, no oils, no--

it's very limited.

I followed the diet
very, very closely.

Some things I couldn't really
explain, but I was like, well,

let me just go with it.

But the one I found interesting
was that no masturbation

and no sex.

And I was like, OK, purity.

I see the whole purity thing.

I can go with that.

>> [non-english speech]

>> So there is a practicein the Shipibo lineage when

you're coming to drink ayahuascathat takes place now as taking

a vomitivo in advance
of drinking ayahuasca.

>> And this is one spoon of and
we'll just the second one now.

>> OK.

No.

>> Only one?

>> Sorry, we don't know.

It's still gonna work right?

>> Yeah, it's going to work.

It does normally.

So just your tummy's
gonna be a bit sensitive.

But then you would just add one.

>> Just add one.

>> All right.

>> I was a little shocked to
hear that one of the first

things that they give you is
this thing called the vomitivo,

and it's this milky white
substance that they make from

two plants called
azucena and oje.

And it's-- you just chug it,
and you drink it as fast as you

can.

And what happens is once
you get it all down,

it will come right back up.

[retching]

>> Vomitivo is taken in part
because people may not have

dieted, and maybe they have
things in their system that

they shouldn't
coming to ayahuasca.

So it's a safeguard.

It's a safety measure.

But also it's a purging of this
stringy, mucus-y, sticky stuff

that we have in us.

So when we clean, we
have a clear container

to receive the ayahuasca.

We have a clear container
to receive the master

plant that we're dieting with.

>> [non-english speech]

>> [non-english speech]

>> The idea is to remove anyinterferences that are around

us so that we can connectdeeper to the master plants.

>> Certain plants they do
refer to as master plants,

those plants that are
whether they're trees,

whether they're flowers, or
whatever-- they're vines--

they regard certain
ones of these plants

as the big plants that deliver
a particularly powerful healing

force and assistance
once you have

a good relationship with them.

[music playing]

>> I was seeking help in terms
of connecting on a deeper way

with my artistic side in order
to be able to bring forth

a project or a body of work that
was going to be meaningful not

just for myself but
for the community.

They still have prescribed me
a diet with pina colada, which

is this little plant that grows
everywhere in the village.

And she told me to pick
the leaves of this plant

and in the meantime
to talk to the plant

to ask for assistance, to
ask what I was looking for.

Because one thing is ayahuasca
and the visionary psychotropic

world of ayahuasca but
to do it during the day,

to talk to a plant that
you're picking its leaves

was a different
kind of suggestion.

But I did it.

>> For me as a doctor,
I would say, yeah,

that sounds pretty strange.

I didn't believe that
or understand that.

But then in doing
that, I learned a lot.

I went through the experience.

I decided to enter
this mystical school

and try to see what I can
learn based on what I had seen

these shamans and these
healers doing, how they

were performing, and the kind
of results they had with people.

>> First of all, passing
that block of how do I talk

to a plant, for me, it was that.

A plant's teaching me?

I'm used to opening a book.

>> [non-english speech]

>> The first night that
I was doing the diet,

I woke up from a dream, and in
this dream there was this giant

red snake coming down from
the sky, the same color--

the red-- the same red
as the pina colada.

This snake was coming down
from the sky singing a song,

and I woke up.

It wasn't intimidating.

I wasn't afraid of the snake.

It was a friendly presence, but
he was such a peculiar dream,

that I woke up.

So in the morning,
Estella, the first

question that she asked me
is how did I-- how I slept.

How did I sleep?

And I told her
that I slept good,

but I did wake up
through this dream.

And she told me that this is
how plants very often show up

to establish the
connection with the people,

the diet, this plant.

>> The plants are
always connected to us.

I believe that it is
more about our awareness

of that connection,
and what helps

to bring that awareness online
is when the food is removed.

The social activities are
removed either completely

or significantly where you
retrieve from your life

and make the relationship
with the plant

your primary relationship.

>> And what happened a month
later is that I had filled up

a notebook this big of ideas
for art projects, for scripts,

for all sorts of different
projects that were inspired

by the dreams that I would
have throughout the night,

and I would wake up in the
middle of the night and take

notes.

These people, the Shipibos
are pharmacists of the jungle.

They have so much
knowledge and not only

about the plant to give
you if you cut yourself.

They have a plant
for your depression.

They have a plant they can
diet for your creativity,

for your reproductive system.

[non-english singing]

>> [non-english speech]

>> When you invite plant energy,
they teach you attitudes,

and they give you intelligence.

You understand.

You understand.

And there is concept,
spiritual concept.

Then your visions
open bigger when

you know what is the meaning
this type of healing including

the spiritual part.

Open you up to something new.

So you start to facilitate.

Then you do one diet
and another diet.

And then your knowledge,
understanding open up.

And then you get to the point
to become Onaya, which is means

literally the person who knows.

>> [non-english speech]

>> I kept working with the
medicine for a year after I

went to Peru.

Second time, a year
later, I went back

to the same center, and
again my last ceremony there,

I had this vision
with the medicine.

And it felt like-- so much like
a yes, like absolutely yes.

There is like an
invitation of some sort.

>> [non-english speech]

>> [non-english speech]

>> [non-english speech]

>> Ayahuasca is the only
combinatory psychedelic

in the world.

That is it takes two plants it.

Takes the vine, and it
takes a leaf to make.

>> Ayahuasca vine and
typically chacaruna,

and that is the monoamine
oxidase inhibitor and then N,N

DMT --

dimethyltryptamine.

Dimethyltryptamine
has also been shown

to increase BDNF brain-derived
neurotrophic factor, which is

like Miracle Gro for the brain.

And so that will also
allow for increased

neurosynaptic connections
and neurogenesis.

>> Ayahuasca is a plant
that contains many mysteries

including what is its mechanism
of action both biologically

and psychologically.

>> Now we have this portal that
through our hearts and through

our-- in our emotional being,
we can feel into this energetic,

into the mystery.

People have mystical
experiences.

They feel it.

They feel it in their body.

>> It is something that will
utterly change your entire way

of thinking about healing,
what's possible for the body

and mind, and it has the real
potential to shake up medicine

like no other agent on Earth.

>> The first time that I heard
about ayahuasca was when I was

in my early 20s.

This was in the early 1970s,
and we started hearing reports

from Brazil about
this strange drug

from the Amazon, which was
having very interesting effects

in the culture.

So a bunch of the
psychologists went down there

and started doing studies,
and they came back

blowing everybody's minds
because they were showing

that this was perhaps the
healthiest psychological

cultures that they
had ever come across.

>> In 1993, along with my
colleagues Dennis McKenna

and Jace Callaway, we went to
Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon

and conducted a fairly
substantial phase 1 biomedical

psychiatric evaluation of the
health of long-term members

of the UDV who utilize
ayahuasca in religious ceremony.

Twice monthly, we had
a match control group

that was matched on
socioeconomic lines, education,

all parameters
except for the fact

that they had never been
exposed to ayahuasca.

>> Their first ayahuasca
sessions were usually quite

terrifying and quite unsettling,
but they were also revelatory

in the sense that they became
quite afraid but then there was

a redemptive moment.

There was a period during these
difficult early experiences

where they saw a way
to change their life

and have a better outcome.

>> When we did structured
psychiatric diagnostic

interviews, we found that quite
a number of these ayahuasca

church members had had
histories of some significant

psychopathology prior to the
time they entered the ayahuasca

church.

After their entry
into the church,

they actually rather
radically transformed.

>> On the biochemical
side, we were doing various

measurements.

We found a surprising
thing, which

is that the levels of the
serotonin transporters,

not receptors but
the transporters,

were significantly
elevated in the drinkers

compared to in the age matched
control of nondrinkers,

and we thought, well,
that's interesting.

There is a clear difference
between the drinkers

and the non-drinkers.

They have these elevated
levels of the transporter.

What does this mean?

We didn't know what it
meant, but then, of course,

when you don't know, first thing
you do is go to the literature.

And we went to the literature,
and we found a whole spectrum

of publications having
to do with deficits

in the transporter being
associated with alcoholism

and homicidal tendencies,
of suicidal tendencies,

depression, exactly
the kind of thing

that the UDV people were facing.

>> [non-english speech]

>> Everything changed.

I felt so much love for not
only myself as a sentient being

but for all other beings.

The awareness of my own
body and my own body's needs

was so much more clear.

I seem to be--

to have more regulated
sleep cycles.

I got up early.

I had much more energy.

I couldn't hold a grudge.

I got mad.

Stuff would happen.

But I couldn't let go of
this because somehow I

understood that if
I started giving

in to the grudge and
the anger and things

like that this open connection
that I had to the heart

would just close.

But I lived that way for
an extended period of time,

and drinking and smoking
was part of that.

These things just fell away.

It was beautiful, and
everybody around me saw it.

My sister, Vivian,
decided to go to Peru,

and she's had her own
experiences with ayahuasca.

And my good friend
Geoffrey, who's

been my friend of
30 years, one day

he said, brother, I think I
want to go meet the mother.

>> I really am aware of my own
depression in the last couple

of years of my mother's
being sick and passing.

I even went on medication
for a little bit

that had me walking
around like a zombie.

But to see these people
that have actually

come back from this experience,
and it's in their eyes.

It's in the way they
carry themselves.

It's in their attitude
about life now.

It's really something to see,
and I want some of that, baby.

Give me some of that juice.

>> For some things, Western
medicine is not good at.

So there's things
we're great at,

and then there's things
that we're not very good at.

And in particular, chronic
pain, fibromyalgia, depression,

anxiety, PTSD, there are not a
lot of good treatments for it.

>> These problems are quite
often rooted in some kind

of emotional disturbance.

And when somebody has been
through some serious emotional

trauma, they do end up
having physical symptoms

and associated problems.

And when they go through
a spiritual healing

and you see a resolution
of physical symptoms,

well, now we can say
that something happened.

>> I grew up with a
tremendous level of abuse.

It was emotional abuse,
the physical abuse,

and sexual abuse.

These experiences were
something that were just

like blocking me from the
world, and I couldn't you

could physically feel that.

>> A lot of the therapeutic
potential of these psychedelics

is you hear a lot of talk these
days about the default mode

network, and that's a model.

Your brain synthesizes and
takes all the sensory data

that we're getting
through eyes, ears,

all our sensory channels takes
that, integrates it internally

with many other things--

memories, associations, and
creates this model world

that we inhabit.

Psychedelics temporarily
disrupt that.

They blow it apart.

That gives you the chance
to look at yourself

from a different perspective,
almost as though you're not

the same person and you can--

their identify may be habits or
presumptions or various things

that are contributing to
this destructive, non-helpful

behavior.

>> I'd heard it was kind
of like miracle drug,

like that it could heal any
sort of mental problem you might

have.

So I had some
problems with anxiety,

and I kind of have an
addictive personality.

So I thought maybe
it would cure me.

>> Most of the people that
doesn't really want to go

in the spiritual world.

They're not enough,
very enough many stories

that it's fine for us
just to get the healing.

You have to be brave
to drink ayahuasca.

>> There are individuals
who just do not have the--

that inner strength
and fortitude

to be able to handle
this experience.

>> Not everybody is suitable
for psychedelics in general,

no matter whether it's
mushrooms, peyote, San Pedro,

LSD, or ayahuasca.

Fragile people,
people who are manic,

people who are
schizophrenic, people

who have profound mental
and emotional problems

should not be
drinking this stuff.

>> [non-english speech]

>> It's good to
have two options.

You don't to.

We have good experiences
here with people

who had a master plan dietand never drink ayahuasca

and felt great, and
they had awesome dreams.

And so they're both options.

Then everything I said is true.

If you are also looking
into your own darkness,

it can be very scary.

And not everybody is
ready for that that way.

>> Never in my life would I
have ever thought that my mother

would drink ayahuasca.

But one day, I was on
the phone with her,

and I was planning
a trip to Costa Rica

to drink some ayahuasca.

And she said to me I
wish you'd invite me.

I'm like what are
you saying, mom.

Are you saying that you
want to drink the medicine?

And she says yeah.

And all I could
think of was why.

And she said because
I've seen what it's

done for you and your sister.

>> [non-english speech]

[drumming]

>> The tradition
is very important,

and the intention
behind this plant.

And I think about it hadto be grown and harvested

and brewed and prayed over andtransported and then delivered,

and the intention every stepof the way really matters.

And that intention matches the
intention that whoever's taking

it is bringing to it.

>> I find a very, very important
component of doing work with

ayahuasca is formulating
an intention,

to really focus it ahead of
time why are you doing this.

Because for it to have
any lasting value,

it's got to be more
than just kicks.

It's got to be more than
a recreational experience.

And it really-- the
experience in and of itself

goes to the core
of that individual.

[non-english singing]

>> Very commonly experienced
by the people that come here,

they realize oh my God, I
thought it was going to be

about the ayahuasca.

I thought it was going
to be about this.

It's about the songs.

>> I had a terrible,
terrible experience.

I thought I was dying.

I thought I was dead.

And one of the
helpers came up to me.

I asked for help, and she said
I will take it to the shaman

and they will help you.

And to myself to be honest,
I thought what a bunch of BS

like who's going to help me now.

And I don't-- can't even explain
to you what's happening to me.

By the time she broughtme in front of the shaman,

I couldn't even sit up.

I just collapsed on thecushion that she put me on.

And as he started
singing, there was

something so
incomprehensible happening,

like I was understanding
what the song was

about beyond the words.

It was doing something that I
couldn't even imagine possible.

And by the time he was done
singing to me, I got my bucket,

and I was able to walk back
to my mat in complete peace.

[non-english singing]

>> When I was working
with the Shipibo,

they said really clearly thateven though we recognize that

ayahuasca is the real curandero,or the medicine, the healer,

it's icaros that tell itwhat to do and where to go.

>> [non-english speech]

>> For Shipibo shamans
saying that in a dieta,

the icaro out of the plant.

The plant talked to me
and taught me the icaro.

Someone else may say
being on ayahuasca,

I was inspired to feel
and hear this melody,

compose this melody.

I think they're
one and the same,

and it's very, very complex.

But there are
different narratives

and different ways of talking
about what's going on.

It's far more complex
than we can conceive

that it can accommodate aninfinite in different ways

of talking about the processes.

>> Where we're receiving
from is a mystery,

but I've definitely had the
experience of something just

feeling like it's coming through
another dimension or some

people say being channeled.

>> The medicine brings us a
lot of different metaphors.

So if they saw a
bear in somebody,

they would see their anger
or a lion in someone,

they would see their anger.

So if they're working
on a big dragon,

they wouldn't necessarily sing
really strong to that dragon.

They would go really quietly
and move into that energy

almost to trick it to get
in there to do the cleaning.

>> One time I--

where I was just beginning
into shamanism, I looked over

and I saw a shaman
singing to somebody.

And I saw this energy
vortex come out of there

with the song, the icaro.

It was this tunnel of energy
that had this vibration moving

through it.

And then it came to
the person's body.

And in that moment, when they
merged and were interacting,

it opened a little window.

I could see over the
shaman's shoulder.

I saw a little
like a television.

I could see inside
the person's body

like the way you can
with the surgery,

open and look and look around.

[non-english singing]

>> The song is affecting
us on the emotional level.

It's impacting the
autonomic nervous system

helping it shift from
sympathetic to parasympathetic.

It's allowing us to establish
contemplative, meditative,

transcendental, mindful
state, requires the mind.

>> [non-english speech]

>> Experience with
ayahuasca with the icaros is

a correction, is a
realization to how we got lost

in the misguided perception into
going into the inception of how

this sense of loss was caused
by a traumatic experience,

by conditioning or PTSD, and the
correction comes from within.

[non-english singing]

>> My duty as a professional
athlete was to win the races.

I was very unconsciously
attached to success.

If I didn't win,
that was a failure.

[non-english speech]

[non-english singing]

There was this ceremony
which the magazine showed me

a particular episode of
when I was a junior swimmer.

And I went to the European
junior championships

and I took prelims as
a joke and I ended up

missing the final for
one cent of a second.

I went to this championship
so ready to win,

so I can't tell you
how disappointed I was.

You know, I felt like I let
down my world at the moment.

The ayahuasca showed me how I
was still carrying the sadness

at being the disappointment in
my father's eyes, in my coach,

in all the people that were
there had an impact on me.

At that particular
moment in my life,

that had so much
hype and expectations

and me not being able to live
up to those expectations, that

influenced me later on also.

That shock was
preventing me also

from being more daring
in life, for example,

because of my fear of failing.

>> I was born with a condition
called congenital amputation.

And there was not
a lot of education

around that, so I've
experienced a lot of shame

and a lot of a
treatment like I was not

human enough or capable enough.

And unfortunately a tremendous
part of that thinking

came actually from my family,
from people who raised me.

And so my coping
mechanism was built

around the identity of provingpeople wrong about myself.

I realized that no matter what
I could achieve, no matter

how well-educated
I was or informed,

the feeling was still there.

And the realization that
even though I spent so much

time and energy proving
other people wrong,

deep inside I took
on those beliefs.

And I knowingly lived my
life out of that place.

[non-english singing]

>> In one ceremony, I found
myself sitting with five other

guys, and they were all me.

And they were all parts of
me that I either ignored

or rejected or suppressed.

And it was a very
difficult thing

to do to be sitting with
apart of me that is vengeful,

the part of me that's lustful,
the part of me that is envious,

the part of me that
is destructive,

the part of me that
wants to steal.

I couldn't even
look at these guy--

I couldn't look.

I could just sit there, and
I knew that I couldn't leave.

But it was my choice.

I stayed.

And it was incredibly difficult
to even look at these guys

because they were all me, and
they were all pretty awful.

>> I started the bawl.

All I could hear was my sorrow.

I realized during the song
that my anger was my weakness.

It was like kryptonite.

It stole my power.

It took away from me
everything that was strong.

>> [non-english speech]

>> That happened to me a couple
of times when I got scared

about the power
of this medicine.

And then it just brings me down
very quickly, and I feel bad.

I feel nauseous.

>> As soon as I
drink it, I felt hot,

and then pretty soon
after, I puked it up.

So I haven't gotten
the full effect.

[non-english singing]

>> There was the spirit of
the medicine caressing me,

telling me there wasn't a
big deal to lose a race.

You know what I mean?

That kind of consoling,
loving energy,

I didn't experience that time.

And so the healing
arrived in which

she helped me understand thatthen my sense of worthiness

had nothing to do with winninga race or winning anything

or losing anything.

It's something that goes beyond.

But also at the same
time in that release,

I felt like space was created,
and that gave birth basically

to a feeling that was
a lot more fearless.

So I defined the massive
plants opened the gate for me

to reclaim my creative
love, creative force.

>> The unfolding of that journey
was actually getting in touch

with vulnerability and receiving
something rather than giving

something and receiving
something when I didn't have

that wall because I was so deep
in my fact and I did not have

the coping mechanism that I
could grab on to to go back

to my original safe zone.

And that was one of the very
challenging and very healing

things that happened
during the ceremony.

>> I started to feel more
OK with these other people.

It felt a little somehow safer.

After some time, the most
magical thing happened.

They were all little
boys, and they were me.

And for the first time, I
felt love and compassion

for those parts of me that I
had just rejected for so long.

And to just be able to embracethem as little children,

I cannot describe to you whatthe wholeness that has resulted

from being able to
choose to do that.

If I cannot love and
accept my own dark parts,

I will never be able to accept
the dark parts of another,

which means I cannot love them
because love is exactly that.

>> [non-english speech]

[vocalizing]

[non-english singing]

>> They can be very
difficult sometimes.

That's part of it.

I can say I witnessed that many,
many, many times when people

are very terrified and
frightened and stuck

or they're in pain or all
the different things that

can happen.

And then through
support in the ceremony

by advanced practitioners,
more often than not,

we could get people to
progress and evolve past

where they were stuck at.

>> I felt [exhaling] the sense
that God was watching me--

[sniffling]

And loved me no matter what,
that I should love myself

first.

>> Well, my experience
has mainly been puking,

puking a lot.

>> Ayahuasca shatters
our defenses.

It's like the only
choice is surrender,

and it's in that moment
that all the things we've

been holding on to, all the
things that we've been taught,

and all the ways in which
we have been instructed--

you have to be this way--
fall away, oh my God.

Because in surrender is
when the liberation comes.

>> It creates an opportunity
to renegotiate the experience

so as to be able to gain
something different from it.

The experience itself
doesn't change,

but my relation to the
experience changes.

>> I was preparing to thinkthat dangerous highway,

and I was getting--

I was ready.

My body was ready to manifestto suffer from that fear

that I had about the highway.

And so I'm a holding
onto my wheel,

and I realize that
I'm not afraid.

>> There is a potential of very
powerful healing that happens,

and there's many,
many stories of that.

But we cannot downplay the
reality that in most cases,

the integration process
is extremely crucial

to the success of the healing.

>> You can drink ayahuasca 100
times and still be in the same

place.

>> I got homework
from the mother.

She told me in a
ceremony that I had

to do a celibacy
diet in order to get

to where I needed to get to.

That's the long story.

We won't get into that.

But that's what I needed to do.

And she said a year.

And that night I
was like a year.

No.

This is crazy, a year.

How about six months?

And then she said nine.

I was like OK.

So we settled on nine.

>> You blow apart this
default mode network.

You disrupt these bad
behavioral patterns.

But the default mode
network is very resistant.

So if you blow it apart, but
it will fall back together.

It will collapse back together.

>> The experience of that
celibacy dieta was to integrate

all of those parts of myself
that have been exposed and had

risen to the surface
through ceremonies.

>> Emotional intelligence and
understanding our emotions

and navigating our emotions,
that's not the realm

of the mind.

And so the common thread that I
see is disengaging from what we

know and willing to step
into something that cannot be

explained but can
only be experienced.

>> I spent a lot of time alone.

But for the first time,
it wasn't intolerable

and even enjoyable at times.

>> The healing I believe is in
bringing the heart into a state

and vibrancy and taking off the
flakes of everyday life that

puts limitations on how deep
one can feel love or forgiveness

or gratitude.

>> Ultimately, it's only about
that that we have all of that

life quality.

>> The measure is not how much
you can drink and how often

and who you saw and
what you experienced.

The measure is how
healthy are you.

How healthy are
your relationships,

your intimate relationships,
your family relationships,

your friends, your community,
your society, your ecosystem?

That is the measure of health.

[music playing]

>> My relationship with success
if before success for me was

to meet the expectations of
people and my own expectation,

now success has nothing to do
with the thrill of a victory.

We are helping the community.

Family is healthy.

Your body's healthy.

Your relationships are healthy.

That's where my happiness is.

Just like ayahuasca uses
a symbolic language,

which is the visionary
world of your psych

to convey certain
messages to you

and use a symbolic language
which usually is inspired

by the natural world,
to convey a vision

and messages that
perhaps can facilitate

an inner dialogue in the
viewer that may help arise

a personal revelation
about interconnectedness,

about being one with
nature, about the nature

of consciousness, about
what it means to be human.

>> [non-english speech]

>> In terms of the
difference that it can make

in the culture, when you
look at the corruption,

the banking schemes, all
the propaganda in education,

the fake media, and the
toxic food and the toxic

pharmaceuticals, it's
everywhere you look.

It just isn't human
beings being true to life.

>> The Shipibo started
to see the world was--

it really in need of healing.

And their local villages.

They're not really
moving around globally,

but the information they were
getting within their ceremonies

was that the Westerners
are going to come.

Start sharing the medicine
so they can bring it forth.

>> Ayahuasca is a powerful tool
for assisting the individual

in actually finding that inner
truth and then living that

truth.

And as each of us do
that as individuals,

it builds a culture where not
only can we support each other,

but it becomes harder
and harder for those

who aren't being true to
themselves to actually get away

with it.

>> I know for a fact couple
of years ago I would not be--

I would not be able to
sit in front of a camera

without a prosthetic arm.

Today, I feel so much more free.

And it doesn't mean
that I still don't

get the looks or
awkward questions,

but I feel like if I can do it
and I can be the stand, then

I hope that it serves other
people as an encouragement

in believing in themselves.

>> [non-english speech]

>> [non-english speech]

>> These Indigenous people
are the bearers of the great

mysteries of the past, and I
think we need to respect that

there may be something to their
medical models that we can

learn from.

>> Ayahuasca, it's been used by
shamans for thousands of years.

So they have their own paradigm,
and their own model about it.

>> A spiritual practice
of ayahuasca ceremony,

it is a form of
spiritual healing.

And in that sense, it is a
form of spiritual practice.

>> I like working with
people because I love being

the witness of the
transformation,

and there's no greater reward
than seeing somebody coming

back to themselves.

>> If my first time to Peru
was a vision at the top

of the mountain, the
second time in Peru,

she knocked me off the
mountain all the way down.

It's been very
difficult at times,

but the difference is I'm back
at the top of the mountain

but with the experience
of climbing it.

>> Ayahuasca is making
her way around the world,

making her way to people
so this is happening.

>> I think the spreading of
ayahuasca in the world has

to do with a shifting
consciousness that is happening

all throughout.

I am very hopeful, and I believe
that ayahuasca and these master

plants, they're going to
assist us in the shift.

>> In one ceremony, the
mother showed me the Earth.

And then from a
little spot in Peru,

a tiny little light
emanated and then started

shooting up towards
North America and then

another and then another, and
it started covering the world.

But then from
those other places,

lights started emanating.

And before you knew it,
there was this Earth

that was covered in a completely
beautiful grid of light.

And as I'm seeing
this beautiful thing,

she whispers to me this is how
I'm going to change the world.

[drumming]