366 thoughts on “Ayahuasca: Bad Medicine”

1. Taking any substance that takes us ‘out of our bodies’ is telling us that we have a serious problem with being in our bodies. The more honest that we can be about this, the greater the possibility that we can do something about why we do not want to be in the very vehicle that is a true support for us.

2. Great blog. There is so much here to be discussed. My first thought when you mentioned about Graham Hancock using ayahuasca to stop smoking marijuana, among other things was well is that not the same energy, using one drug to stop another!!! Nothing is truly being healed here. In fact I would consider ayahuasca to be worse than marijuana. On the same note absolutely how on earth can we be contributing to the healing of ourselves and humanity when we are completely overriding the body with the mind .. which is one of the reasons we are in such a mess in the world anyway!!!! And finally “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” I think this sums it up.

3. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” This is a simple, powerful one liner that says it all. To choose to not take drugs or alcohol we really need to develop our sense of self- worth and esteem.

4. I find it hard to believe that so-called ‘intelligent’ people can sit around and partake of a drink that is going to make them vomit. How far gone do we have to be in order to abuse our bodies to that extent?

5. To stop and take a pause to feel the dissatisfaction and emptiness in our lives, is the beginning of more awareness as to how we numb and separate ourselves by using various substances – be it drugs like ayahuasca, alcohol or medical morphine based drugs that check people out into hallucinogenic state very quickly = we are in total separation from the body and thus God.
   “Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else. Make truly different choices and our lives change not just for ourselves, but for those around us too”.

6. “the visions and thoughts that the ayahuasca brings, and that this will bring healing and evolution to the participant and to the planet at large…” This is quite something!… thank you for your sharing as it completely deconstructs this myth!!

7. A brilliant article Naren that exposes the truth of how recreational drugs are simply a way of keeping us disconnected to the truth of who we really are, because of the complete disregard and lack of willingness to understand the overall impact they have on the body. How can anything that seperates us from staying connected to, and feeling our bodies be in anyway ‘positive’?

8. I have never taken either ayahuasca or marijuana but have met people who have and their defensive attitude is exactly as you say – from where they are living it feels like a benefit, they think they are evolving, deeply connecting inside. My feeling is that they are deluding themselves with thoughts being fed by another consciousness that wants to keep them in ignorance of who they truly are.

9. Ayahuasca is definitely not what will help us to reclaim the divine beings. It cannot be, because it is a glorification of the astral plane, even if it helps us to deal with our addiction to avoid fiery energy through the use of any addictive substance. It is prana helping us with prana. It is a set up to continue choosing prana in the name of divinity.

10. There is a vast intelligence we can connect with through being more aware of and honouring our body; bringing our mind back to being aware of and listening to our body is truly evolving for us, rather than dis-connecting our mind from it…

11. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves” – this is so true. And meeting ‘like-minded people’ engaged in the same activity justifies and gives identification to our choices, and comforts the loneliness and the lovelessness we are aching inside.

12. ‘So I decided that after trying so long to change things by doing the same thing, I was going to do something different. I chose to take responsibility for what my life felt like and let myself feel it. And everything changed’. And that is how we can change our lives – when we are so fed up with the ‘same old’, we take off the dark shades if you like, and with the light of awareness we begin to get honest with ourselves, showing us the truth of our past choices and how we have created everything in our lives up to that point.

13. How can something that makes you physically sick be any form of medicine?

14. I have engaged with recreational drugs in the past, the sense of relief we can get from them is second to none. Perhaps thats why we often hear people say I am flying high, because for the time while we are intoxicated we may not feel our wounds and feel weightless. However, these never disappear, they do not heal by being ignored – they simply get cemented deeper into our body until such time that we are ready to deal with it.

15. As I connect to my body more, it’s become more obvious that living by the disconnected mind doesn’t work, quickly fizzles out or blows up in my face. And yet I still do follow that lead. As you’ve shared Naren, the key to all of this is to feel life. My feelings are a much truer guide than the mind, but allowing it full control of life has not yet occurred.

16. Wow Naren, in this short blog you have brought amazing clarity to the energetic results of these mind altering substances and how easy it is to fool ourselves that we are addressing a source of humanity’s suffering.
    ” I would put forth that it stems from the intellectually mind-driven human being who is disconnected from the rest of humanity and acts without consideration for his fellow man… and more importantly, without consideration and love for himself.

17. Wanting the answers but not being willing to do the work to truly access them and instead going the short-cut route…only leads to more emptiness under an illusion of enlightenment.

18. We have a track record of eulogising experiences which we then get to see are super poisonous to our body. Our capability to override what we feel is clearly extreme. At least if we accepted this as a fact, we’d be able to admit that life may not be as it seems. Thank you Narren for this stunning blog.

19. Just the word ‘ayahuasca’ is enough to send me running for the hills! Interesting how we can feel this and yet can be dawn or pulled into experimenting with substances we know really aren’t healthy for us. I remember being in Fiji at 21 and being asked to try some kind of “authentic” drink that made your lips go numb. I didn’t really want to drink it but didn’t want to look like nerd for saying no in amongst a group of people. The sense of emptiness underneath (and the need to belong as a consequence) can run so deep that we can override this knowing and only bitter experience can teach us what we knew all along. As shared here – what about simply connecting to what is already there? Since committing to this I have much more of a lived authority from a foundation of true self-worth.

20. It is interesting that if you ask any of those who do drugs or go to the extent you did Narren how they feel about themselves, most if not all will say that they feel they do not like themselves. Is this not where the keys lie in healing the issue?

21. To feel and consider the whole of our being rather than entertain the wondrous solutions that our minds come up with to make us feel temporarily better is indeed true medicine, and a healing rather than a cure of symptoms.

22. When we push ourselves through life by ‘getting on with it’, we miss out on the magic life can bring. We are so focused towards a goal and achieving that we miss opportunities that come our way. It requires an enormous amount of effort/energy to suppress our expression, that it is not a bit of wonder that we take substances to shut it down, all because we simply chose to align to a belief or ideal (intended) that does not serve and support us.

23. We are fooled indeed when we consider any drug to be the medicine in restoring our true nature in life. Fact is that we are fooled by the way we are living from the given ideals and beliefs that we have adopted as the reality and in that we have comfortably forgotten that there is another way that is already housed in our inner heart. The Way of The Livingness when lived, is to me the medicine we have been looking for and available to us in a very simple and practical way.

24. “Whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place”. Einstein also spoke of this, that we cannot use the same thinking or we end up with a different solution but same flavour and still spinning in the same thinking. Using drugs to get out of the situation we find ourselves in in society is clearly not the answer. Although those who use drugs champion them at the time, the onlooker can see that this is not ‘it’. Drug use comes from the same pool of thinking that got us into the current mess in the first place.

25. Whether we admit that this is happening or not, a mind that acts in disregard to the body that it is enhoused within, hands the body over to the unseen forces that will then have their ‘wicked way’ with it. For us to champion this as ‘evolution’ is one of the greatest acts of involution when we consider that our evolution is a return to Soul (love) that is dependent on the mind and body working in harmony with, and not at odds to, each other.

26. I love how this article totally debunks the illusion that we can find enlightenment and evolution through the use of a hallucinogenic drug. Healing – if we want to be real about it – cannot be in parts, in the fragments of our mind going on its own ‘enlightened’ trip. Healing encompasses the whole of us, our body included. The intake of ayahuasca is a poison to the body and in the illusion that this is enlightening us, it actually takes us even further away from our Soul.

27. If we are seeking a connection with God/the universe/ourselves then we have to look no further than within ourselves.

28. You totally nailed it here Naren by exposing that if you have to separate the mind and the body to evolve, it is not true evolution because true evolution cannot have separation in it. True evolution is for everyone and must consider the whole.

29. Correct Martin – thing is, you’ll be surrounded by God’s wisdom which includes you feeling the choices you are making and continue to make. You see your whole life before you, and how it might not be as true as it can be. A hallucinogen will conveniently not offer you that discomfort, but the illusion that you are healing. Healing can only come from awareness and responsibility – the awareness that it has been our choice to walk away from the wholeness of our being, and then the responsibility to acknowledge that and simply make the choice to return.

    1. And I should add… in that choice to return, no hallucinogen can be on par to the sheer glory and joy that we feel.

30. A brilliant article that cuts down any ill-conceived illusive notion that mind-altering drugs will help us heal. As you so eloquently point out Naren, what they do is make us hide from life even more.

31. Well said Martin, there is no evolution at all in these psychedelic trips, people fall for it as it offers them a sense of connection that is not from truth and ignorantly to many has a devastating effect on their being-ness.

32. I too experimented with ayahuasca as a way to find solutions for the issues I had with living life but eventually found that it was just another distraction or diversion in my life away from myself but in this case much more severe because of the force that ayahuasca works with, not only on the psyche, but heavily to the physical body too.

33. When using these substances the dialogue is based on the love of the taste or effect these product have on our confidence etc – it is certainly not about loving ourselves in any way as we are actually imbibing poison straight into our body.
    “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”

34. ‘What was so bad about me that I thought that inhaling marijuana smoke into my lungs every day was going to make me better than who I was without it?’

    Naren, what a superb set of questions you asked yourself during the process of walking away from your addictions. This is where the true medicine is to be found.

35. It’s interesting that, in our desire to expand our conscious mind with drugs and alcohol, we also end up taking on a whole new set of consciousnesses – the belief that drug and alcohol experimentation is a good thing to pursue, that ‘natural’ drugs won’t harm us, that it’s OK to smoke and or drink every day, that enlightenment can be found via a trip experience… and so on. We then have to dismantle each of these beliefs, as well as wean ourselves off our drug/s of choice. What a lot of unneccessary baggage to take on and have to deal with! But that’s the nature of the thirsty human spirit, always looking for the next experience, the next solution… and rarely within.

36. If a drug such as ayahuasca would leave us putting a hideous smelling, tasting and looking liquid voluntarily into our body and throwing it up is thought to be a surrendering process to its “healing” qualities, then this drug has successfully kept us in the consciousness of enormous ignorance and a total separation from the body. It is really that simple.

37. Thanks for sharing Naren. I have found in life, one of the difficulties is that people have come up with solutions as to how to make their life more bearable by using drugs, alcohol, food or whatever. Very few have come up with the truth as you have expressed here, the way one lives makes ones life, it can be joyful or bearable .

38. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” So the question is: what are the choices you have made that prevents you from feeling good about yourself? The answer might include the drugs and alcohol.

39. “There is nothing in life worth burying, no matter how bad it is.” So true Narren, and when we do not bury we can deal with what is in front of us and in my experience it is never as bad as we thought it would be.

40. Substances like Ayahuasca, change our perception of life where we think we are moving forward in our evolution and becoming more loving and understanding but in fact we are stuck in the thick of illusion that is very difficult to separate from unless we receive a correction that allows us to consider another way which is true and healing for our soul.

41. There is no doubt that ayahuasca is one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet and what makes it worse is that is it seeped in illusion that this drug will somehow make you more enlightened, unfortunately for all who take it it is involution step in their development rather then an evolutionary one.

42. I agree it is quite nuts to think that smoking marijuana every day is going to make us better than who we are without it? From my own personal experience this was not the case. For the 20 years I smoked I disliked myself intensely but continued because the numbness I felt when stoned was easier then taking responsibility for my life.

43. Something that is good for us can never cause a negative reaction in us. Bad does not bring good.

44. Reading this article I still feel a slight unease in my body of all the experiences I have had with ayahuasca. The apparent dissatisfaction my body was feeling and my stubborn overriding it and the consequences that led to so much trauma for myself and others around me, coming into acceptance the stupidity and accepting this without further judgement on such choices I have made, requires a deep breath. But when I breathe gently and steadily, what I feel is an undeniable love within me, and with that, yes I can accept all of this in honesty and keep moving on.

45. There is a great deceit in any thought, ideal, belief or substance that promises to ‘open our minds’. We don’t need to open our minds any more than we need to open a door when there is a fierce wind blowing outside, we simply need to open our hearts and by virtue of this surrender be able to see the real openings we create when we give our power over to a force that is external to us.

46. Very intelligent piece of writing Naren, and most importantly a great true support in how to heal from the body naturally within yourself. You can’t ever completely fix things from the mind – “any practice which requires us to override and to disregard any part of our whole being, will only ever continue our dissatisfaction with life.”
    We have a very intricate WHOLE bodily make-up and to simply feel (instead of thinking) we can discover how to be fully responsible for it. Feeling the body by deeply caring and loving it through both pain and feeling well shows you which choices are healing or harming.
    I did all sorts of drugs too. I knew of no way or tools to look after myself. I was not aware of how to be responsible. I injested drugs to numb down the intensity of everything that I was feeling. My deep pain was me not honouring what I had always felt and openly being myself and expressing what I was feeling. I did not give myself space in my body to feel and express. “The trustworthiness of any guidance back to our divine self has to be determined by feeling how it feels in our bodies in every way, not by ignoring our bodies in any way.” Creating the space to allow yourself to feel what you ALREADY know starts with you by holding and supporting the precious you.

47. I have not taken ayahuasca but this is probably only because it was not in the circles that I was in at the time when I was also looking for ways to disconnect and not feel everything that I could feel. It amazing how many different substances we find to ultimately disconnect and yet we do not often stop to consider the true consequences.

48. Thank you for sharing Naren I love this line; “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” I can understand how this stopped you in your tracks, once we come to know and feel the love we are by making loving choices into our life there is no way we could go back to these self abusive behaviours.

49. It is so interesting for me to read what consequences those drugs have and in some sort I also have thought we need to expand our concsiousness and went to spiritual healers and courses.
    What I learn with Serge Benhayon is that we already have got everything and that expansion is our natural way of being. So the only thing what we can do to stop this expansion is to think we have to do or take something in order to expand, when in truth we already have it in us. How crazy is that and how far away have we separated from our natural being?

50. A great article Naren that clearly and simply spells out the reasons for avoiding any sort of substance or activity that is harmful to the body. Your first hand experiences of these substances and where you were then, in contrast to the beautiful tender and sensitve man that you are today cannot be underestimated. Your wise words could potentially help so many others who have yet to understand the depth of harm that they are doing to themselves by taking part in such rituals.

51. We must question what drives the desire for ‘access’ to such apparent knowledge in the first place… I have also watched Graham Hancock’s videos on use of ayahuasca over the years, and personally, I do not discern this man to be one who is connected to the love of his soul.
    My reading on this, is that such forays – which can occupy one for lifetimes – only take us further away from the love of the Soul and of God, and not closer to Him. Although the proponents of such dark arts would I know say otherwise, to me they have entered into levels of illusion that will keep them blinded for many a year.
    Thing is, is the love truly in their eyes? That’s for us all to discern…

52. Powerfully said Naren Duffy. How indeed can causing harm actually offer true good and benefit to all? On has to question just what the visionary experiences and the rest offered through such forays actually contain (in terms of universal truths), and exactly where such visions are ‘fed’ from…
    A body that has been rendered incapable of discerning true energetic difference between that which harms and heals, loses its capacity to discern truth.

53. We are free to be our true selves but that would never involve harming another in any way at all.

54. thank you Naren for bringing the reality and the truth of this drug. so many swear by the insights they receive, that they think they are getting closer to understanding the truth, which is in fact them getting trapped deeper into the illusion. that is the most harmful thing of all.

55. Beautiful sharing Naren, full of humility. I have found that when we are living in pursuit of the next fix, whatever that may be, we are taken away from the innate truth of our being. Now connecting to truth may not sound very exciting but what it is in my experience is joyful and this joy emanates naturally from within not needing any external stimulation to trigger or initiate it. If we seek thrills and excitement then such things come from outside. But if we choose joy, then we need to come back to ourselves and what we already are in our fullness within.

56. It is so great to have your lived experience of the deeply destructive and harmful impacts such drugs can have – to expose the false promises that such drug experiences try to offer. Many are seduced into these drugs through seeking the very thing that is already living inside them, only their effects will guarantee that access to this truth will be further lost in the darkness and fog of the illusion..

57. When we feel hurt we have a choice to heal or override it. ‘With ‘getting on with life’ we learn to manage and mask the hurt pretending we’re ok when in truth we are not. It is through making self loving choices that we begin to heal the root cause of our hurt and no longer are the drugs, alcohol or in my case the dramas needed in life to delay and keep us in our comfort from living who we truly are.

58. This is super insightful Naren, and it’s interesting to compare this to our (humanity’s) other ‘vices’ and habits e.g. drinking, smoking, drugs, sugary foods, binge watching television etc., because they all follow a very similar pattern… In order to escape reality and distract ourselves we choose to do things that cause a great deal of harm to our body; some with short term ‘relaxing’ effects, others which are naturally not actually enjoyable, and this suggests that there is a pretty huge elephant in the room that we do not want to address meaning that the quality of our lives is far below joy or contentment. But what if the best ‘remedy’ for this was to take it head on? What if the elephant was an ant in disguise, and if we were to embrace seeing it for what it truly was, bring MORE purpose to life and more love to our relationships and body then we would find our way back to a place where joy was NATURALLY our everyday?

59. “If we are going to change our consciousness, does it not make sense to do it in consideration of all of us, and not part of us?” In this context it is our body that is being referred to, but it also refers to the whole of humanity. We cannot change our own consciousness just taking into account ourselves, for this simply perpetuates the division and individualism we have in society. True change is when anything we do say or think takes everyone into account – no-one is left behind. How many of us do that? It really highlights the responsibility we have not to indulge that part of ourselves that is looking for distractions and numbing and wants to be irresponsible.

60. “from the mind, which is acting in disregard to the body that it lives in. And it is the disconnected mind that has caused the devastation we are currently having to deal with on this planet.” Spot on here Naren, spot on. What you share here shows it on a micro/one on one level that when you disconnect from your body and the mind takes over, it can make decisions that your body has to endure. If all of us are doing that to ourselves and each other, I agree that this is causing great devastation on the planet.

61. Reading your blog I was saying to myself ‘WHAT on earth!!!’
    So thank you for your honesty about what it is like to take ayahuasca, and great that you could ask yourself this question;
    “What was so bad about me that I thought that inhaling marijuana smoke into my lungs every day was going to make me better than who I was without it?”
    It’s the same as drinking copious amounts alcohol to forget our woes but when we wake up with a throbbing headache we still have the issue we were trying to escape from but worse we feel ghastly too. Taking drugs alcohol or gorging ourselves on food is not the answer to our problems. And until we start to address them they will never go away.

    1. Exactly Mary but the problem is that many people do not want to deal with the underlying issue of why they are addicted, so they will continue until their body says enough is enough and they get ill. Even this does not stop many. When I pass by the Lismore Base Hospital I often see the lung cancer patients with their drip attached to them outside the hospital smoking a cigarette and coughing at the same time.

62. It strikes me that in taking a drug like ayahuasca, people are looking for answers, but also trying to escape from what they actually already know, but don’t want to deal with. Ayahuasca is an extreme example but many of us do exactly the same thing with our preferred method of escape. I totally agree, “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”

63. There is such simplicity in living in and responsive to our bodies and the all that they communicate with us. The shift from thinking ourselves through life (where we often complicate and keep ourselves in cycles of behaviour born out of habit and tradition) rather than feeling and discerning (where we respond to the real and immediate sign posting in our body) is a big one.

64. This is such a powerful piece of writing Naren. The wisdom and absolute comon sense shared here is immense and so needed for a world that still believes drugs or alcohol are Ok for us.

65. This is such a deeply wise piece of writing. It can be applied to anything that we use in life to dull ourselves. Overriding the body with the mind can have devastating effects, not only to ourselves but for the people around us and also for the world at large. The responsibility that you speak of is paramount to making the changes that are needed for a more healthy and harmonious world.

66. Awesome to read this story Naren. I imagine it speaks to many many people. Whilst drugs have not been a part of my life, I’ve certainly made choices to escape who I am because I’ve not been happy with who I was. The choice to start to appreciate yourself when you come from a place of complete self loathing is a difficult one. But if it’s even a slight consideration to change the way you feel about yourself, then you’re more than half way there. Because the truth is we all have choices, and we know what doesn’t work for us, we just love to be stubborn about it.

67. A great read Naren on choice and our responsibility to say yes or no to love and how our life can unfold from those said choices. Thank you.

68. I love every word spoken in the article, and this morning when I read it, this particular sentence stood out for me: ‘whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place.’ Once humanity acknowledges this, humbly concedes to this, only then will we start to see real and sustainable change and perhaps much needed questions to the calamities taking place the world over.
    Until that point we will fudge and try to fix, and ingest crazy substances and ideas to avoid the questions that are staring at us blatantly in the face – why do we blatantly and so obviously keep repeating the same thing in a different flavour and colour, but all along not change the quality or energy of what we do, and then arrogantly expect a different outcome? An outcome that will never eventuate – until we look at healing from a very different place, from an energy that as you say Naren, considers the whole of us and nothing less.

69. “What is needed is a change in consciousness, this is true, but it is very important to be clear on what consciousness we want to change to, and from where will the change come?” – Great point and well said! What if our access to the divine is within us, if the particles of our body are innately divine and so it would be a matter of using our mind to re-connect within to that source of consciousness rather than disassociate from our body on a drug-induced head trip…

70. Thank you for sharing this article Naren. I have done ayahuasca ceremonies in the past and it has given me a chance to be honest — that was a period when I was extremely unfulfilled about myself, my whole life was a mess and I did not want to feel it. But that is not truth, as within myself I know I am love, in fleeting moments I could even feel it, but I have not made the choices to truly be love. When I truly surrendered because there was no other option, I gave myself the chance to accept first and foremost that yes I am love. And therefore, no matter how it is not easy, I will commit to the small steps consistently to not stop myself from feeling this truth. I am nowhere near perfection as there is no destination to love, but this consistency is inspiring me every day to keep walking–knowing there are so many people who are just like myself.

    1. Thank you Adele for sharing this and bringing the reminder that we are love and nothing can eradicate this, only our choices separate us from this truth.
       “When I truly surrendered because there was no other option, I gave myself the chance to accept first and foremost that yes I am love”.

71. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”
    There is no need to elevate or glamorize ourselves when we feel the love of who we are inside our bodies. It may not be drugs or alcohol, it could be unending projects or food or the way we communicate…the list goes on and on how endlessly we seek to find ourselves. But nothing from the outside could ever show me the truth of who I am, only from experience I have learned this truth. The simplicity for me now is to feel — feel everything — if my body agrees with it and I could feel love, then and only then is it a yes. I am not perfect on this, and it is okay to be imperfect, in the process of accepting what is imperfect, it allows deeper understanding towards myself and many many others. To me, this is the process of returning to love, which we are all heading towards and supporting each other on.

    1. This is very clear about how we can support ourselves to live in a simple and loving way, it also helps me with the gentle understanding required to ‘undo’ all the habits and disregarding things that I do without even thinking.

72. I have had personal experiences of a number of substances, and some of those were fairly intense experiences. During these times I placed myself at risk in various ways, that when I was not ‘under the influence’ I would never even consider doing sober – ever. Anyone who has caused themselves serious harm or anyone who has been with someone who has done so, will never speak positively about these behaviours, especially when faced with the reality of the consequences of taking these substances. Drugs that are deemed to be safe because they are ‘natural’ or part of ‘traditional culture’ (so they must be ok) I would consider are the most dangerous, because of the false sense of security we get from those beliefs we carry. I can certainly understand that someone may want to numb their experiences of life, but with this we heal nothing and actually bury our hurt even further. When we heal our hurts we begin to see that we are not our hurts and who we are is worth cherishing more than we could ever imagine.

73. “No-one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves”. This makes sense but I never would have considered it in the past. I used to look forward to a Friday night party and having quite a lot to drink and would have considered someone who said this to be incredibly boring.
    However, now when I look back – all those times never came from a true place of feeling good about myself, it gave me a false sense of life and it was this numbing that I enjoyed but in truth knew it never supported me.

74. I have taken ayahuasca, and it was just another step away from myself. Looking outside of myself for answers. Not taking responsibility for my life. Still wanting to blame something out there or get answers out there. I want that and I will not carry on until I get it.

    I have accomplished lots of things in my life but I realize now that I have done them with this sense of not ok that has colored it all. Doing things for the wrong reason. I am now working at surrendering to life and trusting that things will be OK. Doing deep self care and beginning to trust myself more. No more looking outside of myself for answers, feeling I already have everything I need. Yes, just let go and be myself, like I was when I was a young child.

75. It is interesting to feel the consciousness or bunch of ideas we subscribe to with such things as ayahuasca. Your comments on if we ate a food that tasted foul and made us throw up combined with needing to override our bodies natural ability with the MAO inhibitor illustrate ridiculous the whole thing is. But it doesn’t seem so ridiculous when we are held by the beliefs that come with it. When we subscribe to ideals and beliefs we become held and bound by them and from the outside looking in, it is absurd.

76. Thanks Naren, for highlighting some of the many different avenues we as a society use as so called fun or a spiritual experience. The ones you mentioned here are often given the ok because they are “natural” and don’t do much harm appearingly so on the surface. But as we look a little deeper there is a whole lot of disharmony that occurs to the body, family and wider community from the use of these substances.

77. If God is real, then it should not take a mind altering experience to recognise his presence. Surely there is another way, and if one does require one’s mind to be altered so that they can experience a different reality, then once again one has to question the validity of the experience.

78. Absolute wisdom here Naren. You remind me that any choice I make that does not consider and respect my body is a step away from love and responsibility.

79. I find it interesting the way people can relate a cathartic experience to that being healing and supportive of their evolution instead of honestly looking at their lives and take responsibility of how and why they got to where they are in the first place? the use of Ayahuasca is totally unsafe both on the physical and energetic level of a person and can only propel someone in their involution.

80. Thank you Naren; ‘These are ways to hide from the truth of life, not to connect to it.’ Reading your blog I realised the truth of these words and yet we are choosing to run away from the very thing deep down we are missing and want so much – connection.

81. Learning to discern what is true and what is not from soul is the key here, as it is only then that we will know and understand the damaging effects of such ‘medicine’ as being nothing else but a false and dangerous substance that keeps us living in the illusion by giving our power away at the expense of our bodies and soul.

82. Thank you Naren, it’s interesting that the ayahuasca creates distortions in the mind and we think that’s the next level of finding answers, when as you say it’s being mind driven that’s caused the issues anyway. It does feel like by attending the ayahuasca ceremony human beings are just trying to check out of life more and focus on something distracting. I have had some experiences in shamanism and I would say it was about not dealing with how life was, looking for answers and for what I felt was missing, yet I had to completely override how scary the energies of shamanism felt to investigate it. For me there was a real given up feeling that allowed me to let in the harm of what I now realise shamanism is in its quality of energy.

83. Looking back at my years when I used to drink and take drugs, I know how awful I felt. I remember every single time before I went out looking into my mirror and not liking what I saw, trying on 100 different outfits and didn’t feel good in either one of them. Now, and this is not all the time, however I have had days when I’ve felt beautiful in my gym leggings, with a hoodie, and my hair tied up. Oh how great love feels!

84. It is interesting how many methods exist that supposedly change our consciousness, but in fact bury us deeper into the illusion. It takes a true reflection and a body that can serve as a marker to support us to make the quantum leap out of one dimension into another that is fuelled from a totally different source of energy and therefore truly shifts our consciousness and opens our eyes to a different reality, allowing us to see what is truly going on on this planet.

85. This is a very powerful line Narren…. and is one to stop us in our tracks, “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” It’s a simple one liner that tells us how it is. True, if we are throwing up and are ill because of something we have eaten, drunk or ingested then clearly the body is saying this can’t be good for us!

86. That we could even think of ingesting such poisons into our bodies for some crazy form of enlightenment is beyond me! Our bodies are the precious house of our Soul while we are on earth .

87. It seems crazy to take a substance that the body very loudly tells us it is not enjoying and is definitely harming and overriding what we are feeling, amazing the power of the mind to destroy our bodies where our truth lies. How simply beautiful that with opening up to the power of self love we can find our true self living within our own bodies.

88. Wow Naren what an amazing turn around, it shows that we do know and it comes down to a choice of when we are going to choose ourselves again. This was a big stop moment even reading it, “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” Gee it puts it in to perspective doesn’t it!

89. It is these false thoughts that are fed to us in which we think that we can ignore the body and in that can use substances in our quest to reach other states of being we think will give us the answers to life. We may have great revelations and insights while in that intoxicated state of being but as you say Naren, do we ever question ourselves where these visionary thoughts come from in the first place? To my experience alcohol and drugs did bring me that other state of being but in that never gave me the true answers to life that now come to me by simply connecting to my body and to commit to that divine connection in full.

90. In my spiritual quest, I used to think that going through challenging, intense and at times fear-inducing experiences was the key to breaking through this world of illusion. I wonder why there are quite a few shamanic practices that are supposed to be ‘natural’ yet rather unnatural to our physical body.

91. How often do we seek harm as a way of dealing with something that has hurt us? And we do this unaware that we live in an enormous body of love, a whole universe filled with it, and that our very essence within is also love. Love is always there waiting for us to choose it.

92. This is a brilliant article. I love what you share Naren about the disconnection from the body, the momentum of the mind in override and how hallucinogenic drugs and drugs in general, are all part of the same gambit.

93. The false highs and elation of a sports match are no different to those that are drug-induced – in the haze and the fog we get a semblance of what we deeply miss while in simple reality we have removed and separated ourselves even more from the unity we truly seek.

94. You unpack the massive illusion around this very dangerous drug Naren, which does not evolve those that use it in any way.

95. “. . .any practice which requires us to override and to disregard any part of our whole being, will only ever continue our dissatisfaction with life. These are ways to hide from the truth of life, not to connect to it.” This is good commonsense and logic and yet we so often fool ourselves and indulge in practices that are so disregarding of our body. It becomes a vicious cycle as we numb ourselves to not feel and then substitute something so that we get a sense of false identity which gives us a temporary high and then lets us down only to start it all over again, be it alcohol, drugs, coffee, movies, food – whatever distraction we choose. It’s not until we are ready to take steps towards being more self-caring and take responsibility for ourselves that we start feeling honestly what we are doing to ourselves and then such practices naturally drop away.

96. What a brilliant blog, what you have shared here is absolutely amazing. I have had moments in my life where I would be rolling a joint while my whole body is screaming “please, not again” but I would go ahead and numb. A need for recognition and social acceptance fuelled my want for marijuana and that was devastating me.

97. “Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else. Make truly different choices and our lives change not just for ourselves, but for those around us too. The trustworthiness of any guidance back to our divine self has to be determined by feeling how it feels in our bodies in every way, not by ignoring our bodies in any way. True divinity is indivisible and encompasses the all-ness of us as beings on every level. Any less than that and we just end up with more of what we have already got.” Absolutely!

98. Thanks Naren, you blow the lid off the use of this horrific drug. I have known people in the past who have used it for ‘personal growth’ but never saw any evidence that this was effective in any way. Just the fact the body reacts the way it does… with vomiting and diarrhoea soon after ingesting says it all really.

99. It amazes me the lengths we will go to in order to claim something is good for us when clearly all the signs point to the opposite, the example here of ayahuasca is shocking. A substance that makes someone that sick is still be being used. As you and others have shared drugs are not done because we feel amazing but used to cover up a feeling of something is missing. In that desperation it is safe to say we may not be considering the full effects of something we do.

100. “Because if we feel our life and the truth of it in both its ugliness and its glory, then it is ours, and we don’t want that responsibility.” I can relate to this part quiet strongly as well as the fact that nothing I have chosen in life is so bad or too much glory that my body cannot cope with feeling it, because when I do feel the result of my choices, yes they can be horrible at times, but I know where I stand, likewise when I feel amazing I know where I stand. And yet it feels like there has been a very familiar and comfortable reaction I have used of believing that I cannot take responsibility for my life and what I feel. But when I stop to register what responsibility feels like I can’t deny that it is far healthier and supportive than trying to patch up the flaws in life from the perception that they have just occurred and I have not hand a hand in their creation, and the bigger one I feel I am avoiding, is that the moments of glory in my life do come from my choices, and that this is at my fingertips already without even having to try or wait for someone or something outside of me to come by and bless me with; it’s all right here already.

101. People are desperately looking for something out there that will get them closer to truth, Ayahuasca and other shamanic practices allow the person to open up to other levels of consciousness. However, people are not able to discern to what they are opening up and what they are aligning to and that is the reason such practices can take us further away from our true essence of love.

102. Re reading your article Naren is a clear indication of just how much people want to check out from not feeling where they have let life take them too. The moment a choice is made to no longer live this way, immediately different thoughts begin to enter our bodies and we begin the first step in a life long commitment to caring deeply for the body we live in. Any drugs or behaviors that affect us are chosen less, until they are not chosen at all. This is a moment to truly appreciate the power of love, care and the grace of understanding that lies deep within us all.

103. “But this medicine clearly does not work in harmony with the body.” – Absolutely, Ayahuasca is all about being dis-connected from our body, as though this is a necessity to become enlightened or closer to God (as in the news recently). In my experience developing awareness of my body and honouring it actually brings deeper connection.

104. Naren, this is an incredibly honest and open account of what you have experienced in your life. It is very powerful for someone who has gone through such an experience to be able to come through the other side, and be able to talk about it from both perspectives. Because you have been there and had first hand experience of using the drugs and at the time being convinced that it was a positive experience, and then having weaned yourself off them and come to the realisation of the damage that you were part of, there is a unwavering quality that you offer any reader of this blog. You stand clear with your body saying that these drugs do not actually do what we get fooled into thinking they do. For anyone to read this, they can learn much and be inspired. Thank you for putting yourself forward, risking the criticism of those who disagree and perhaps are still caught in the sticky delusional web that you too were once a part of. Thank you for being here as a now true beacon of light to show people that indeed we can leave behind a way of being that does not support the body and the rest of humanity, that we can light the way by learning to really appreciate and care for who we are.

105. Many years ago I read Carlos Castaneda books where he shares his experience of ayahuasca. At that time, I found them fascinating. I just looked at a picture of him and felt into it. Clearly, he does not radiate like a person that went through a process of divinity expansion thanks to this drug.

106. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” Such a profound statement, yet drinking alcohol is ‘normal’ in our society. Are we a world of people who don’t feel good about ourselves in this case? I know many students of Universal Medicine who have left that paradigm and feel infinitely better about themselves, lead amazing lives and don’t drink alcohol. Could there be a lesson here for humanity?

107. We can only go for ‘more’ if we are feeling ‘less’. Thus, the endless search for ‘bigger and better’ and if that doesn’t work then we go for something that allows us an avenue of escape from this under the guise that we are ‘evolving’ and ‘expanding’ our conscious. But – to truly evolve simple means to make choices that help us return to the love that we are. Therefore, any choice that takes us further from this love, the absolute essence of who we are, is exposed for the complete set up it is on our behalf to not bring more of our true and Soul-full selves into all that we do.

108. Thank you Naren, there are so many pearls of wisdom on offer through your experience and words shared. This paragraph is gold, pure revelation and deserves to be written in bold, if not printed on billboards, shared on social media and displayed through our various screens for all the world to see. We as a humanity need to wake up to what is really at play when we are making choices:

     “The problem is that, whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place, otherwise we just end up with a different flavour of the same issue further down the line, as history can attest. What is needed is a change in consciousness, this is true, but it is very important to be clear on what consciousness we want to change to, and from where will the change come?”

109. Why do we choose to have an outer body experience to become more in touch with our selves? Never made sense to me with drugs, but certainly was led to other distractions that had the same resulting effect in just a more subtle acceptable way. It all results in the same lack of connection to our essence and the quality we are and not willing to embrace for many reasons we find too painful.

110. Starting with responsibility for every facet of our lives, turns life from the focus out there to connecting to our self and listening to our ‘ drummer.’ This is power full in returning us to a life we choose rather than one we follow and fall into.

111. Naren, I love how I found your blog today, having overeaten and feeling horrible with it, and yet as I read, I got to feel and see how that action and it’s aftermath do nothing except continue the abuse of the body, and the questions you raise here pertaining to drink and drugs apply in all other areas of life. That lie you speak of that we have to get on with life is so insidious, the truth is we are to feel love in all of it’s ugliness and glory and you’ve reminded me not to shut down to what I feel and to allow it all. Thank you.

112. Blows my mind the lies we are taught about certain practices/religions etc. How on earth can Ayahuasca clear you of your ills? Seriously…it sounds utterly evil to me.

113. It’s amazing how perfectly designed marijuana and alcohol are to distract us and fool us into thinking that they are perfectly normal and accepted by our bodies…after all, they are natural substances right? The quote that stuck with you Naren is spot on. How can we be ok with ourselves if we are ingesting such poison? But the reaction such a quote evokes from those not ready to look at how they really feel about themselves is extremely strong. It’s very confronting, as it’s asking us to be responsible for ourselves and our choices. It’s actually a hugely supportive question, one that gets us thinking.

114. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”
     This is such an absolute truth. If we approached consumption, ingestion, inhalation of any thing from this understanding then perhaps we have the key of why people are so keen to participate.

115. This is interesting to read, and to realise how lost we must become that we over-ride our own natural feelings of alarm, and the signals of the body that this is not something true for us to partake of such substances, because we feel that we are missing something that the drug may bring us – the experiences, the answers to our questions on life, numbness etc. What if we had all the answers available to us within and were taught how we can hold on to that connection to ourselves and to read truly what is going on in the world . . ? Then no drug in the world would be worth taking compared to losing that wisdom and all-knowing that is available to us all.

116. I have heard users refer to Ayahuasca as the “teacher plant”, for the reason that they believe they receive great revelations under its use as to our higher nature. What is worth pondering on however is this – how do you know that such an experience is real, given that it required hallucinations in order to be experienced? And if our higher nature was such as was experienced, why would we be asked to take such a poisonous substance in order to achieve such a state of being? It is for this reason that such forays into the spiritural world can actually incarcerate one actually deeper into the illusion of what is our true nature, for they offer false hope and a form of spiritual stimulation that is in many respects blissful and similar to the actual connection of Soul that we truly seek, but in every way still a false impostor. And it is the fact that it seeks to so closely mimic the experience of Soul connection that makes it so dangerous, for in such bliss you do not seek to question its authenticity. And that is why the Ageless Wisdom has always said that such spiritual forays are actually a way of embedding one onto the path of illusion, and as such the highest form of evil. For it is easy to see the evil of murder and rape. It is much harder to see evil that for all intensive purposes presents itself as love, connection, and the essence of God.

117. Most people attending these Ayahuasca ceremonies don’t have an understanding of how energy works and the different sources of energy for if they did they would understand the harm and severe and dangerous consequences of taking part in these.

118. It is only until we understand what self-responsibility is that we will see the different ways we have been managing life do not work and are in actuality harming our bodies in the illusion that we are transcending to being better human beings. Taking responsibility of dealing with our hurts and the way we choose to move and care for our bodies is the way forth in our evolution.

119. Isn’t this a telling problem when we replace one addiction with another? When we try and ween off what we know is not loving and find another substitute to tick us over? Isn’t true healing all about looking at why we have addictions in the first place – what has led to this becoming so paramount in our lives and ultimately what are we not wanting to feel?
     This blog shows exactly the harm of substitution and calls us to be responsible for our behaviours.

120. A great exposure of the ways in which we can hide from our dissatisfactions in life under the illusion of enlightenment… yet ignoring the simplicity in just connecting to and feeling the choices we make on the path of our choosing.

121. I don’t know much about ayahuasca, but it seems like taking it to combat drug addiction or emotional problems would be like pouring oil on some flames. We have many possibly responses to situations where we feel helpless, addicted or lost, but the only true one I can see is where we accept that underneath any problem we are amazing, not forever addicted but just making choices for whatever reason. It is disempowering in the extreme to be convinced for instance that we will always be an addict, that type of thinking is what limits us to the type of life so many of us lead. We are restricted only by the thoughts we choose to have, so a great starting point is to start to choose a way of thinking that loves ourselves. I love the line in this that exposes that no-one takes drugs if they feel good about themselves, it is just that we need to be more honest about what it is to actually feel good, and what experiences have we suffered that don’t allow us to enjoy life without needing a drug to take us away.

122. In contrast to the high of the drug, life becomes dull, a reason to repeat the drug. Innately we know that life can be amazing, not from something we ingest, but by living from our essence. Instead we replace this with something artificial. It could be a drug, highly stimulating or comfort foods, a driven work ethic, arguments and issues, sport, anything that becomes more important than that natural high of being alive. You are totally right Naren, you do not take drugs when you feel great about yourself. And this can extrapolate to treating our bodies poorly in all our lifestyle choices. When we feeling loving towards ourselves, we only chose love in our lives.

123. Today I read your words again Naren, but heard them a different way. I used to think of drugs and substances like Ayahausca as illicit dangers I was safe and free from having always abstained. But now I see that I have just used food, work and relationships to achieve the same effect. For what is profound about what you say is how “true divinity is indivisible”. So any day we forget, any time we trip out, any day we neglect to live knowing and feeling connection really we are off on an equivalent hallucinogenic trip. Thank God for Universal Medicine and the Esoteric modalities which help us come back to the bigger picture reality,

     1. That is a pretty incredible comment Joseph and in reality it feels very true. When I leave my connection to my inner heart I literally do feel like I’m on a mind trip. There are so many ways we harm ourselves but the biggest harm is the trip we make away from ourselves to be in separation to our connection….everything else after that, whether it’s drugs, overeating, etc, are different flavours of that original separation.

124. “…No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves…” Checking out from life can be done not only with drugs and alcohol, but also with entertainment, sport, shopping, porn, and hobbies. Art was my particular drug for many years. While I was absorbed in that I could pretend that everything else was ok when it actually wasn’t. When I came out from behind the art ocassionally, everything outside of it was waiting there for me and nothing had changed, so I relate completely to what you have described Naren. I’m ‘clean’ now and me being me is an art in itself :-).

125. I have also seen a documentary about the effects of ayahuasca and the physical effects are horrendous – clearly the body signalling that it is deeply toxic and destroying to the body. It is worth also hearing the presentation by Serge Benhayon about the energetic effects of this drug, and the deeply harming effects it has on our being far beyond the physical damage. Many who have recovered somewhat from a history of taking this drug would fully concur.

126. With the uptake of hallucinogenic drugs on the increase again it beggars the question – why? Why are we feeling the need to check out so completely, to draw artistic inspiration or enlightenment by chemically altering our bodies. In my experience all that we need to know is reflected to us in our homes, and in the quality relationships we have. Maybe it is the truth we are not wanting feel.

127. Hiding from the truth of life does not sound like any kind of enlightenment. What you say makes perfect sense Naren. Drugs may take you away and make you feel better for that moment but they are a dead end solution (no solution) containing no truth.

128. You make it very clear and from my own observations I can confirm that those who take drugs do not do it because they are feeling great about themselves or their life.

129. Thanks Naren ,for your honest and very important article about drug /substance use and how it has been justified as healing,transformational and evolving the individual, through out history . We have been tricked by the consciousness of a fragmenting spirit that thrives on drama , emotion and excitement with no respect or care for the body it is in . I totally agree that it makes no sense to choose to be involved in such harmful pursuits that our bodies naturally repulse from , i.e. throw up ,feel nauseous and ill or hallucinate etc .But it is a sad fact that these pursuits are championed by so many different groups races and individuals ,with rituals to encourage this behaviour like sculling the yard glass of beer on your 21st or birthday and trying not to throw up in the process , whilst half your friends hope you do ,for entertainment value . Whenever there is a music festival around Byron bay where I live ,there are so many drug and alcohol casualties that are lovingly dealt with by the St johns ambulance service I always wonder where is the fun in that ? Why aren’t those statistics openly shared as part the advertising campaighn for the festival to get people to understand the dangers of poor choices what those binge festivals bring as human casualties .

130. The reliance on our mind as the ultimate power to decide our destiny is more powerful than ever. The mind is the place where fear can grow, it is the place where doubt can take hold and it is the place where “you” are over there and “I” am over here and all I let myself see are the differences between us. It is the publishing house of the illusion.

131. I used to be fascinated by indigenous culture and tried all kinds of things, but looking back now I feel like I was just collecting stamps on a passbook as you would do at a theme park each time you get on a ride. And some of the things do make you feel very uncomfortable or even unwell in your body, but I stood by them for the sheer excitement and the fact that I could hack them made me feel special. Amazing how we can choose to disregard what our body is telling us loud and clear as long as it offers a momentary relief from the reality of misery we are living in and desperate to avoid feeling.

132. Why is it that we can seemingly look at everything and anything as a possible solution to the problems of this world; and yet, the things that can offer us a true and simple answer have been so violently attacked and dismissed, as history has shown us time and time again…
     It seems we are comfortable with different flavours of the one food – yet, not so comfortable with a change of energy source altogether, especially when it comes with the R word – responsibility.

133. I love your clarity on this Naren.
     A few years ago, a friend of mine began taking ayahuasca. I witnessed them slipping further and further away from reality, from responsibility and from who they were. I still remember the acidic stench that hovered around them during this time; and the way their eyes completely changed. Fortunately, for us all, they chose to make a true change and leave that path forever. It seems absolutely foreign and absurd now to consider that that was even a choice my friend could consider; knowing the level of love they live with today. We are all capable of choosing to live so so far away from our potential if we allow it; or, like you have shared, we can step into it in full and enjoy the endless possibilities that a life of love can bring.

134. Thank you Naren for highlighting the extent of harm ayahuasca and marijuana, including alcohol, has on the body and why people become addicted to it, despite the body trying to rid itself of the toxins by causing vomiting and diarrhoea.

135. I used to get questioned about my need to drink – and often binge drink – by a member of my family who could not understand why people need to write themselves off. At the time I could not understand what they could not understand because I was completely hooked by alcohol. Now not drinking for over 5 years, I can see so clearly why that family member was questioning me, because I am now free of its hold. Thank you for sharing the hold this drug can have on people, and to start this conversation.

136. The answer to addiction is in this blog Naren – a worldwide problem that’s increasing as more and more of us feel literally uncomfortable in our own skin, in our bodies and seek to escape from ourselves with substances and whatever else may be at hand and on offer. We seek to escape from our bodies, whereas it is from our bodies that we can truly feel at home, deeply rested within ourselves.

137. Our mind is a very powerful thing if given free rein over our lives. It can tell us what is true, possibly even prove it through careful application of logic and evidence. BUT it is a mere shadow compared to the wisdom and truth that is immediately available to us through the connection to our body. Our body does not lie to us. The only time when it does not tell us the truth is when we have used our mind to trick it, and that only happens when a deliberate choice has been made to do so.

138. It really makes absolutely no sense what so ever to take a drug like this with a clear response from the body that it is in no way shape and form good for it. And it does this clearly through the vomitting, sweating and many other physical symptoms we champion as a “good thing”. Wow, the need for escape in our modern day for some people must be far greater than the feeling of discomfort, sickness and dis-ease that is otherwise felt.

139. I am so glad I did not stumble upon this drug in my hay day, one of those tents with buckets and people sweating and vomiting sounds creeper than the night clubs I use to go to. I think what really irks me about it is that people trick themselves into thinking that it is a medicine and is somehow evolving them as human beings, craziness to me, the whole thing.

140. Absolutely awesome article Naren. The authority with which you write dispels any of the arrogant and disconnected arguments (because that is what they are) about Ayahuasca and mid-altering substances being what is needed for humanity to get somewhere we need to get to. Ayahuasca takes us further and further away from our soul, not closer to it.

141. Awesome article Naren. I too took a number of drugs when I was younger – still looking on the outside to make me feel better, and also giving my power away. Now I am more aware of being connected with my own inner heart and taking responsibility for what I do.

142. Humanity is struggling to change what is going on in our heads we need to change what is going into our heads and I have learnt this is supported by how we move our bodies. Creating giant and extreme physical reactions creates a distraction but not true healing.

143. “humanity is struggling” no one can doubt the truth of this and that trying to drown this truth with mind altering drugs, alcohol, excess food that the body has to work overtime to digest, the see-saw emotions of sport and other distractions only takes us into deeper struggle and conflict with ourselves and others. Universal Medicine presents a way of living that brings harmony back into the body as we reconnect to the love that we naturally are and realise the struggle is our choice to resist the divine beings we all are.

     1. Yes Mary…. it’s amazing to consider this but it’s so very true. We will go to extreme after extreme to not feel how precious and amazing we are just by being. Because if we were to let ourselves feel this we also have to feel how much we’ve been ‘had’, by our own making. And so deeper and deeper we go as humanity at this point in time into our self-created illusion, and the extreme behaviours with drugs, pornography, tattoos and so much more, are a clear sign of how much we have this addiction to smash ourselves to oblivion so as not to feel who we truly are.

144. Absolutely awesome blog Naren – I love your point that anything that requires you to over-ride the body lands you in trouble, vomiting after ingesting something is clear sign that our body has identified something that is not right – that’s simply common sense – but it’s amazing that no matter what we can convince ourselves of our bodies are always completely honest.

145. What a fascinating blog to read Naren; thank you for exposing the the rather bizarre world of mind altering substances. I had never heard of Ayahuasca and happy to say have never experienced its impact, although I know alcohol to have different but similar effects.
     I enjoyed reading and learning from your blog but choose to stay with the simplicity that allows access to our inner wisdom.

146. Naren I love that you have exposed the completely false belief “that the way forward in humanity’s evolution is by using mind-expanding substances with the intention to evolve our consciousness and reclaim our destiny as the divine beings that we are.” I too was once under this false impression. There was no evolution in taking drugs and from where I stand now, I can much clearly see that the drug taking was to avoid feeling how much I missed my connection to God, my connection to myself and true and meaningful connections with others. I used drugs to numb and distract myself from all of this.

     1. It seems to me that the reason that anyone does drugs, especially hallucinogenics is because they miss their connection to God and think that through them is the only way back to Him, and to ourselves. That in itself is a huge indictment of the way that we teach each other about our own divinity. Divinity is more often spoken about as a way to escape the world, as a utopian ideal instead of a reality that is a part of our every breath, every step and every word.

        1. Great point Naren. Connection to God and the universe is also often misinterpreted as a feeling of bliss, which is just as you described – an escape into a utopian ideal about how life should be. Our divinity and connection to God can be lived very simply and very practically, moment to moment.

        2. Just for the sake of my curiosity and the impulse that came to me, I looked up the etymology of ‘simplicity’. In Middle English there was the word ‘simplesse’ meaning ‘wholeness’ or ‘unity’. It is from the Latin ‘simplex’ which is made of the sanskrit ‘sem’ meaning ‘as one’.
           In short, simplicity is oneness. Oneness is divinity. There is no need for the complications that we bring to our relationship with God. With each step into complexity we step away from that which we are in truth unable to escape from, our divine self.

        3. Well I have to say, I am glad you followed that impulse to look up the etymology of simplicity Naren. A word that naturally describes who we are – in our divinity, our oneness with God. Being simple, is being real, genuine, grand, worldly and other worldly all at the same time. Being simple can sometimes also be considered as not being intelligent. However simplicity, which is oneness, allows us to access an intelligence and wisdom that can only be described as divinely universal.

        4. This brings a whole new understanding to the term ‘simple minded’.

     2. I can very much relate Vicky. Drugs would give me a semblance of what I was truly seeking, and in doing so they would take me further and further away from my connection with myself, and with God. So much so that at one point I thought that the so-called ‘connection’ I would have on drugs was not humanly possible without mind-altering substances — I didn’t think I could ever possibly feel as good without a magic mind-altering pill. How wrong I proved myself to be…. our inner-most connection which we all have is beyond any enticing high of any drug or substance, and instead of it losing its potency over time as do the drugs, our inner-most connection just keeps deepening and deepening. There is no end to dropping deeper and deeper to the love we actually are.

147. This is a divinely powerful blog and one that I will come back to often. The main message that stands out to me today is that anything that harms my body, be it food, drugs, or even moving my body in a way that is not loving can only cause harm to others.

     1. And moving in a way that is loving, putting things into our body that supports that love, will show others that there is a way to live that is naturally graceful. The need to escape or to intoxicate ourselves is then shown for its jarring and unnaturalness to our lives.

        1. Beautifully said and lived Naren.

148. it is interesting to read the ideas accompanied with hallucinogenic drugs, that it will evolve us to the divine beings we are… I feel that is already a sign of how far we have wavered from the path back to our heart, when we can make a choice like that based on nothing more than a minds construct of false reality. Overriding all the signs of our body that clearly are presenting the truth, that there is nothing beneficial in those substances..

     1. Very true, Benkt. The biggest illusion in these drugs is that if you have a positive experience while on the drug (besides feeling initially very ill) you can walk away feeling that your life has actually changed. However, the change has not come through choices that you have made by connecting to yourself through your everyday life. It has come through a singular experience had while intoxicated, and the drug basically gets to take all the credit for any changes that occur. This ends up reinforcing the idea that we are not able to take control of ourselves, or change our own life through just being us.

149. The mind-set that overrides the body’s reaction to ayahuasca is one that doesn’t truly value our body and the wisdom we have innately within us, in our whole body and not just our mind alone.

     1. Well put, Fiona. Choosing to ignore that wisdom is done at our own peril.

150. I’ve never used it but I found reading your experience with using ayahuasca very interesting, and the message you have relayed that if whatever you are taking takes you away from yourself, or feels and tastes bad to the body. then it most likely is.

     1. Our body knows what complements it and what insults it. It is really pretty simple when we don’t make it complicated.

        1. We are looking for an answer to why our lives are full of struggle. But this search is usually all conducted outside of ourselves. We have a cosmos of wisdom within us, and the first step towards that wisdom is knowing our body by occupying it fully with awareness.

151. “The problem is that, whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place, otherwise we just end up with a different flavour of the same issue further down the line, as history can attest.”
     My trauma began in-utero and was solidified by numerous traumatic experiences that occurred before I was aged 10. I will never try to heal my situation by seeking out abuse! However, have self medicated for 30 years. I know understand that my amygdala has been seriously effected by the trauma and that the cannabinoids helped but only to a degree. Now that I have had loads of therapy I want to be free from cannabis. But the anxiety I feel is excruciating. I am considering ayahuasca for the same reasons I have considered MDMA in a clinical setting or even a hyperbaric chamber; to get into my amygdala and rewire it!! (I know I could sit in meditation for years and possible get the same result but I’d rather not give up my family!) Not all of us can fix whats inside all alone. Ipecac also works. And makes you vomit. Maybe there is something important in that purge.

     1. Hi Jenny,
        Changing our lives is a step by step process. We are sold the idea that things like ayahuasca, or even therapy will change us and take away all of the things that we struggle with right away. I found that my life changed when I started to just pay attention to how I felt, and realised that the way I felt was down to what I was choosing. A really powerful tool in this for me was the Gentle Breath Meditation (moderator: please insert link: http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/on-meditation/gentle-breath-meditation-tips-for-beginners.html). It itself was not the thing that changed everything, but it presented me with the choice of whether I wanted to make that change from living my life and being me, or continuing down the road of reacting to the things I was struggling with and being ruled by them. This was a choice I which I had never realised I had before.
        It is up to us to make the decision to change, and lasting change will come from making the small choices that slowly start to shift the momentum our life has been on for so long. I can see from your comment that you really want to turn things around, and the way you choose to take your next step is up to you. But by simply acknowledging that you want to change is a huge step in itself.

152. This is a really important blog Naren, so thank you for writing it. You really spell out the non-sensicalness of the way we abuse our bodies, through ingesting things that if we’re honest we know are just not good for us.

153. Maybe it is that lack of trust we have in ourselves that leads us to these substances in the first place? Unfortunately, all they do is reinforce that lack of trust by showing you things that are so fantastical that they are not a part of our real lives. So, we end up relying on these things to get to where we think that we cannot get to ourselves, thus we do not trust ourselves to be able to access the wisdom that is inherent within us.

154. A well written blog.

155. Absolutely the idea of placing drug/chemicals/toxic substances in our bodies that our bodies clearly try and remove as soon as they are ingested is a sign, a big Sign that the body is saying no…why do we feel that the way back to return connection has to be pain/purge/suffer, our bodies are already in pain and suffering, what is required is regaining trust in ourselves, feeling love and gentleness, this has been what has opened me up to true and sustainable healing. And responsibility, with everyday choices that build a quality of life.

156. I know I spent some time avoiding, not wanting to see and feel it all and there are still moments when I seek to not feel all there is to feel, “Because if we feel our life and the truth of it in both its ugliness and its glory, then it is ours, and we don’t want that responsibility.” When we reconnect with love it is essential to be open to it all and feel it, it is not about rose tinted specs; if our awareness increases that so does all that we see and feel. Learning to observe irresponsibility and lack of love is an essential part of living with more love and responsibility. Feeling that Love reconnect and grow holds us and so we are able to observe without reacting, it is a divinely confirming experience to learn to self initiate back to Love and Responsibility.

     1. Absolutely Samantha. In fact, when we reconnect to the love that we are we can get overwhelmed by just how much we and others live without love in the way we all live. In the reclaiming of that love, we are able to really feel the deep need that we all have for it, and that the lack of it is what is continuing the mess that we live with all the time. Love is the way, it really does not matter how we do it, but it is that thing we crave, because it is our very essence and therefore the most natural of all our expressions.

157. Totally agree – to just be is truly beautiful.

158. ‘What kind of evolution is this bringing?’ It seems that it is evolving disharmony between mind and body and perhaps the state of health in humanity is a powerful reflection of the fact.

     1. Yes, it is a demonstration of the fact that we are looking farther and farther away from our own responsibility to care for ourselves and choose the life we want. Delving into the deepest parts of the jungle for the answer to the suffering we are feeling is trying to run as far as we can from ourselves. An impossibility.

159. Reconnecting to my body, rather than believing that it is just a ‘carriage for the mind’ has been a great revelation. To feel the return to the fullness of who I am is better than any mentally stimulated experience I have ever had. It feels to me like the mind is aligned with a particular level of awareness or consciousness but not to the fullness of who we are. The Gentle Breath Meditation – http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/gentle-breath-meditation/what-is-gentle-breath-meditation.html – has been a true support in this process of reconnection for me. Once experienced the difference between this mental stimulation and knowing the fullness of being can be deeply felt.

160. This is a wonderful blog Naren Duffy, thank you. I was party to a discussion about Ayahuasca recently and didn’t know what it was so I am grateful for your description here. Somehow, and thank God, I have never felt tempted by such things – but I do understand the deep desire in us all to find a way to ‘fix’ ourselves. After 30 years of looking, I am with you 100%. Love is the way and this begins with loving ourselves. The ingestion of any sort of substance is unnecessary – and I would add – having drunk alcohol at least, and eaten excessive amounts of foods to dull my awareness – that ingesting such things can only delay our return to being the Love that we are.

     1. Thank you, Richard. Yes, the road of seeking our truth through ingesting hallucinogenic or other psychoactive substances is one big cul-de-sac. If we are looking for answers they will be found within, in how we walk and talk in our every day. Not in a singular experience which might be thrilling or temporarily expansive, but is just that, temporary.

161. “…No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves…” This is a great stopper bringing a truth and question to the momentum of drug taking.

162. Ayahuasca is bad medicine. This is a truth my body knows too and I have abused my body to finally come to the knowing of this truth. The fact that I could not discern that ayahuasca was bad during the times I took it, is not that my body did not know, but that there was a part of me that overrode what my body was feeling and telling me. There was a waywardness that leads me away from any connection I feel with the body, and without this connection, the mind can control by basically telling me anything. Every abuse we say yes to begins with us losing the connection with ourselves.

     1. The mind wants to fix what is wrong in our lives so badly. It sees that we suffer and struggle, and wants to find a way to stop that. But it does not want to entertain the idea that the way it is used is the root of the problem, not the solution, and it does not want to see that its solutions cause more problems than remedies.

163. Thanks Naren, I enjoyed a re-read of this blog. What stood out for me this time was your comment that regardless of how bad things get, examining what we are feeling is still better than trying to bury it. It is clear that the majority of society is living in avoidance of feeling anything other than some of the better moments and are very scared of anything that pops up asking them to look deeper, even if it does crop up over and over again in their lives. Your article poses several questions that stops the reader in their tracks as it shows why the world is in the current mess it is in. Brilliant!

     1. Thank you, Helen. As you point out, there is a deep desire amongst many of us to try to avoid looking past the next point of excitement or stimulation. While at the same time as there being a desire to make changes in our lives, we also do not want to threaten those things that we hang onto as being the way we get through life, or those things that are in fact just coping strategies which have become part of our own identity. True change will only come about when we are ready to say that it is all up for grabs, and allow the vulnerability to admit that we might have been wrong all this time about what is actually working for us. Then there is the possibility for change, real change, to present itself.

164. “The problem is that, whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place, otherwise we just end up with a different flavour of the same issue further down the line, as history can attest.” I loved this line Naren as it really does show us that unless we are addressing or treating the root ill cause of our illness, disease or predicament that it can easily return or recur in another form. Support for people to address the root cause is so needed, and is indeed available through the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, as well as many practitioners over the world. Taking responsibility for going to this depth is our own choice to make, and as you describe Naren, a process that unfolds.

     1. True, Amelia. Unless we uncover and address what is going on behind the scenes, so to speak, of those things that are causing us to react in a self-harming way we will continue to suffer and ask ourselves, “why can’t I change this?” It is because we often only look at the surface behaviour, and try to change that. In some ways it makes sense because that is usually the most easily seen and obvious thing to address. If you have a splinter in your foot, you want to get it out. But if we keep getting splinters in our feet and don’t think to start wearing shoes we end up in denial of what is the true cause of our pain: our own choice to not honour ourselves.

165. I just re read this article and loved it even more than the first time, well written and covers everything, thanks Naren for sharing.

166. For every person interested in or taking any drug I would to give them a copy of this blog. Your lived experience Naren shows us all very clearly there is no evolution in these types of drugs.

167. Lastly…. I am just wondering if the Graham Hancock you are referring to in your blog Naren is the same one that wrote Heavens Mirror a book and a TV series I saw on the BBC while living in England in the late 90’s. If this was true it makes me extremely sad to hear he is taking any hallucinogenic substances at all. Why would someone so connected to the truth and so able to understand and connect the dots of past civilisations so clearly need anything more than this truth? Why on earth would he want to numb himself and think that there is a consciousness greater than his innermost wisdom, a wisdom he so clearly has access too?

     1. It is Suse. And I agree. This man is extraordinary in his capacity to see truth clearly and express it in the face of certain censure and contempt. That cannot be easy….and perhaps that reveals something of the reason for his choice…without excusing it. For he does not need drugs to do what he does.

        1. Indeed, Rachel. It reveals the pressure that is levelled at those who challenge the status quo, and the seduction that this drug wields with the promise to fill any opening left unattended.

        2. The problem with the drug taking is that it discredits him from being taking seriously and respectfully. So the messenger of truth effectively shoots himself in the foot. A great pity really, for what he delivers changes history and our relationship to it.

        3. I agree, Rachel. It is a shame, and I although was disappointed when I saw the lecture, I was also not that surprised. There is a element to ayahuasca that is of ‘exotic forbidden knowledge’ which I can see is enticing for someone who has dedicated their life to uncovering such things. However, it is unfortunate that he seemed to get sucked up into the common party line illusion of many a drug user: “if only everyone did this, the world would be a better place”, which you can read as “if only everyone chose to not face their choices, and ignored their body, there would be no one to show me how I am ignoring mine”.

        4. Yes, that drug has a mystique around it, and with that an appalling shroud of smugness and superiority. Ah! If only everyone was smart enough to consume a drug that induces vomiting, diarrhoea and risks psychosis. Truth is, they don’t want everyone to be so allegedly ‘smart’ for they hold that knowledge like a weapon over others…
           As you have pointed out Naren, what they are really crying out for is to not be exposed in their reckless disregard.

        5. And thus the extreme levels of defence that come up when anyone questions the validity of using ayahuasca to heal. There is a very high level of investment in it, which requires the user to not question what your body is actually saying to you. This is pretty common with any drug or alcohol, but with ayahuasca the signs of your body saying “Do not want, get it out” are glorified and seen as a part of the healing process, not the reaction of your body to ingesting something it considers toxic.

168. Seriously I do not understand why on earth people can think ‘that the way forward in humanity’s evolution is by using mind-expanding substances with the intention to evolve our consciousness and reclaim our destiny as the divine beings that we are’. What is more divine than simply being yourself…. No stimulation and no alternations required just a simple willingness to be you in all that you do. The truth is, our evolution comes from us being responsible and embracing the lessons we receive in the school of life all day everyday and by feeling and learning from our imperfections. To do that you need the clarity of a clear head which is the total opposite of where you are at when you take illicit drugs or alcohol.

     1. If we live a life which is contracted, held back, abused or abusive, hurt or vulnerable we can often look for a way to try to not feel those things that are ultimately our own responsibility, Suse.
        That can be drugs like ayahuasca or it can be religion too. If we have already started down a path not wanting to face our own responsibility, yet we also have the undeniable thirst to know who we truly are and where we come from, then drugs like ayahuasca are very enticing. It will show you amazing things that will blow your mind, and you do not have to take responsibility for making the choices to change, because the drug gives you the options, not you.

        1. It is that thirst that draws us into the cycle of seeking answers.
           We are taught from so very little that our needs are met outside of us, so little wonder that our eyes look to world for answers. And there they all are, lined up like so many battalions of toy soldiers wearing their different coloured uniforms – a thousand forms of religion, philosophy, drugs, sport, spirituality, academia, relationships, booze, cigarettes, career advancement, saving the world…..
           All of them tantalise our minds, engage and thrill us.. but surely if they worked we would not have such intense social discord….such intense personal discord?

        2. As they say, “the proof is in the pudding”. Our coping mechanisms are being shown again and again to not serve us or accomplish what we had expected them to. That is because we expect our battalion of crutches to save us from our responsibility for ourselves.
           But how can they do anything else but fail us, when we are imbued with a light that knows from where we come, and will patiently continue to pull us towards that being no matter what we try to put in our own way.

        3. As I read my above comment again Naren I realise how harsh and judgmental it sounds!! When we are hurt and carry these unresolved hurts, some days we will reach out to literally anything to numb and stop ourselves from feeling those hurts – thus it is very easy to understand how enticing drugs and alcohol and even food can be because they can easily dull and disconnect us from what we are feeling. But what we all need to realise is that we cannot and need not heal all our hurts on our own. Asking for support is the first step, and the second step is actually accepting that support. Sometimes this process may take awhile and you will go down a few wrong paths to find this true support but the pull to heal is always going to eventually lead you to the experience or person that will indeed support you to unravel all the hurts that you hold within that are holding you back from healing. And as this process of healing happens it allows you to live the true you more and more everyday.

     2. It seems to me we have fallen for a false premise that tells us that we all need fixing. Rather than ask ourselves whether this is true or not we have just got on with trying to find the fix and yet as you say Suse – what is more divine than simply being yourself. Perhaps we need to question the question itself.

        1. Indeed, Richard. The idea that we need to be fixed is one that is fed to us constantly. There is a continual stream of consciousness directed at just about all of us that is saying “you need to be better” and “just being yourself is not enough”. But the truth is that we jump on the “fix-it” bandwagon before we give connecting to ourselves a chance. We are seduced by the look of a particular way of life, compare it to the one we think we have, and ignore the fact that the picture we see in the ideal is often unachievable or even harmful to ourselves and those around us.
           So yes, what is the question that we are asking? Is it “how can I be better?” or “How can I be me?”

        2. Now that is great question Richard. It is the question itself that sets the agenda and influences the directions we take in addressing it. If the question is loaded with the notion we are inherently flawed, must improve ourselves, then the solutions will feed it.
           To question the question is bold. It is essential, given the fact that our answers to date have failed, resoundingly so.

        3. When is a question not really a question but a presupposition that does not truly allow freedom to think, or to be all that we are? Yes, it is essential in the truest of senses.

169. ‘The problem is that, whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place, otherwise we just end up with a different flavour of the same issue further down the line, as history can attest. What is needed is a change in consciousness, this is true, but it is very important to be clear on what consciousness we want to change to, and from where will the change come?’ The absolute wisdom you have expressed in this paragraph Naren is so true. True change can only come from the divine truth itself breaking the consciousness that has got us all to exactly where modern day society is today. This requires us all to be honest and take responsibility for the mess we have all played a part in creating by committing to clearing and letting go of all of the patterns and beliefs that resist this truth.

170. Ingesting this substance feels like horrible a horrible process Naren but thank you for delivering truth and awareness around ayahuasca. Anything that takes us away from our hearts and innermost can never lead to a consciousness or awareness that is bringing the truth that is going to assist humanity to evolve out of the mess it’s/we’ve created.

     1. ‘Anything that takes us away from our hearts and innermost can never lead to a consciousness or awareness that is bringing the truth that is going to assist humanity to evolve out of the mess it’s/we’ve created.’ I feel that we always know that such substances are not going to lead to any enlightenment – in fact in the end they only cause more and more unease as you are aware that you are actually trying to escape the truth and what can be felt, and therefore are living a lie that can no longer be perpetuated.

171. Same as you Donna, I have been revisiting this blog and found new aspects in it that helped me to get a deeper and much simpler understanding of why drugs are in our lives. For me I have used drugs because I was in the understanding that they would bring me the the full experience of life but on the contrary, they only took me further away from the true life I am living now, without any drugs, but in full connection with my inner most and my body, living the ordinary human life on earth in full every day to the best of my ability. I do not need any drug for that anymore as I can now see that I was looking for a solution but dit not had the courage to connect with the grandness in myself instead.

172. That’s a great point you make Naren, that when we invest so heavily in something being “it” – the answer to our issues and our dissatisfaction with life (and ourselves) – when we don’t get the payoff we can either step back, admit that it’s not working and take an honest look at our choices, or continue on the well-worn path of continuing to seek the easy (though ultimately more devastating) option of the “quick fix”, fooling ourselves that if we do it for a little longer, or take a little more, we will get there. The only place this path leads is further from ourselves.

     1. True Naren, once we stop and get honest about the hole we’ve dug ourselves into, we can then focus on building a ladder and climbing out 😉

173. It is as if by championing what we know deep inside is actually harming to us, we are able to cover up that fact with a lie which we use to convince ourselves and other that what we are doing is ok. The truth is that it is not and we know it is not. As you say, Simone, it is crucial we stand up for truth for all of us.

174. Indeed, Donna. We are divine beings, and are able to access that divinity simply by connecting to life. But if our lives are leaving something to be desired, then the intensity of experience that drugs bring becomes ‘better’ than what we are living, so it becomes an easier road to go down than actually facing up to our responsibility for the life we are living.

175. The power of this blog is in the deeply honest sharing of your lived experience and the changes you have made since choosing to take responsibility for your life and the understanding that you have come to that ‘True divinity is indivisible and encompasses the all-ness of us as beings on every level’. Awesome Naren thank you.

176. Great article Naren and your personal experience with Ayahuasca was informative, the point you have underlined about feeling and dealing with your unresolved hurts instead of burying them with different substances is the only way forward.

     1. Exactly Joe, “feeling and dealing” is the only true way forward.

177. Such a brave great blog Narren. I live in an area where thing like Ayahuasca, DMT, Marijuana etc are all seen as natural wonders, and spiritual tools to deeper understanding. But really, in my mind if you have to take something to take you there – then it really has to be an illusion. The depths of our Soul and all the wonders of our universe are right inside us – and in my experience anything that tries to offer us a shortcut, or a shiny bright amazing alternative – its simply a cheap trick and an illusion that keep sis further away from the truth.

     1. Thank you, simplesimon888. I was definitely a part of that crowd for quite a while, thinking that drugs were the way for us to find out who we truly are. But then this man came along and let me in on a little secret: that everything I was looking for was within me. I didn’t need to go looking for a drug to reveal it to me, it was simply there if I chose to see it and work on revealing it. That man was Serge Benhayon, and I have not looked back to drugs to provide me with that kind of insight since.

     2. So true simplesimon888, the promise of shortcuts and “quick fixes” is never fulfilled and only leaves one further from oneself.

178. I have found this in my own school when discussing topics related to choice of drugs and alcohol the peer pressure is to condone and allow or else you won’t be seen as “cool”. That is really strong in girls however I feel even stronger in the boys. There seem to be three extremes which all hurt the body. Either be super lazy, experimenting with drugs and alcohol or super fit doing all the sports and body building activities, or throw yourself into extreme academia and over exert yourself for the best marks. These three choices are most desirable and a safe bet if you don’t want to be singled out as weak, uncool or different. All these choices in excess are detrimental to building a balanced mind and body.

179. The drugs are not fun yet that is where society has lead us to believe it is. I have never seen anyone happy or having an amazing life who uses drugs or alcohol.
     Quite the opposite.

     1. Very true, Gail. There are thousands of cautionary tales of what drug use can do to a life in the media, or any rehab centre you could walk into. But what is rarely mentioned is the slow, hidden damage that the ‘acceptable level’ of drug use can do to a life. It is a slow working poison that lessens our ability to live the bright light that we are, and replaces it with an illusion of enlightenment.

180. Awesome blog Naren – I love how you have described the downward spiral ‘I was dulling myself because I did not like who I was, but feeling my dulled self made me like myself even less, so I wanted to dull myself more.’ This can be done with not just drugs but so many things, be it food, alcohol, even partners. Drugs/alcohol are dangerous though in the way they bulldoze a body’s natural physiology and destroy their energetic state of being leaving the person very vulnerable to attack. It is true we are not ever told we have everything we need inside, it only needs to be connected to and let unfold – so people continue to seek outside for something that will bring understanding. It is tragic that so many people realise fairly quickly that drugs are not the answer but don’t know any other way and so continue to destroy their lives for another 30 or 40 or 50 years, if they live that long.

181. I knew of a young man in my early 20’s who was addicted to marijuana. I spoke with him during a time where he was wanting to stop his addiction; he thought the answer to this would be found by going to a shamanistic retreat in South America. A retreat mind you that told him this would help him. He committed to saving the money for the retreat and the trip. Part of the rituals in this retreat involved taking Ayahuasca on a daily basis. At the time I didn’t have a great feeling about this choice, but also wasn’t aware of how harmful Ayahuasca is. Within 12 months of returning he was more heavily addicted to marijuana and heroin than even before and incapable of holding any relationship. Before long he died from an overdose.
     I felt the Ayahuasca rituals offered no true remedy in healing the underlying cause of his addiction. It is sad to feel something so harmful literally being sold to people as good solution. Having healed from drug & alcohol addiction myself I know the way to do it is not to hope on anything outside of yourself to take it all away from you, but to learn how to address everything in the reality you avoid feeling by taking the drugs in the first place. How can taking a substance that removes you further from reality actually support you to deal with living in reality? It simply can’t..

     1. Absolutely, Abby. And the most devious trap about something like ayahuasca is that we are fooled into believing that it or things like it are the only way that we can change. Never are we presented with the fact that we hold the answers to all we need to know without any need for anything else than the reflection of who we are from those we share life with.

182. A powerful exposure of a world suffering from the harm of lives being run by the mind, disconnected from each other and void of love or consideration of the effect of our actions… chasing illusions and escapes to not feel the end result of our choices. The world is a mess and the answer and healing needed will not come from drugs, but from responsible and loving choices made in consideration of the all.

183. Naren your ability to be so objective here is super powerful. Your honesty and lack of judgement make this blog utterly accessible to all. Thank-you for choosing to do something different, for trusting your body and allowing its divine intelligence to shine.

184. Thank you Narren, this is a great blog. ‘If a person was truly connected in full to himself and the rest of the people he shares this planet with, and then felt the devastation that might be caused by his actions to himself or another, that person would not do those actions.’ I absolutely agree with this. We are so used to being in our minds and letting them run the show that we have lost the connection with ourself and each other, namely our bodies. And thus the horrible actions and events that have occurred time and time again throughout history. Nobody in their right body would allow the devastation that we have on this planet.

185. “I chose to take responsibility for what my life felt like and let myself feel it. And everything changed”. This is a powerful realisation Naren. It’s amazing how long we live without recognizing the many things we do to numb ourselves. To wake up to this, accept that to stop numbing, is the way to change, is a massive turning point in ones life.

186. A deeply introspective blog Narren and one that with each paragraph of reading made me slow right down to a stop and allowed me to consider all the things I am willing to feel in my life, and all the things (by choice) I avoid.

187. “Any perceived benefit that comes out of such an experience will be from the mind, which is acting in disregard to the body that it lives in”. As this is so, then how lost must a person be to choose something to stimulates the mind at the expense of what it so obviously does to the body? As you say Naren “the trustworthiness of any guidance back to our divine self has to be determined by feeling how it feels in our bodies in every way” and this does not just apply to drugs but to everything in life. As a wise man said “the body is the marker of all truth” (Serge Benhayon).

188. ‘Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else.’ Simple and true. The responsibility and choice is up to us.

189. Naren there was a time when I thought that ‘the way forward in humanity’s evolution was by using mind-expanding substances with the intention to evolve our consciousness and reclaim our destiny as the divine beings that we are.’
     How else would we tap into our reason for existence?
     Then, and just in time, I might say, I met Serge Benhayon and began the gentle breath meditation. This changed the course of my life and soon I understood that anything that ‘alters’ the state of my precious body would never evolve me, only involve me.
     Now I know the way forth is The Way of the Livingness 😊😊

190. Great blog Naren, and it highlights the extent to which some people are prepared to go to in order to numb themselves, whilst over-riding what the body is shouting out to them.

191. How incredible the lengths we put our bodies through to avoid feeling and dealing with our hurts. This drug and the many others are just the more dramatic ways in how we do this. If we are willing to become more accepting of the responsibility we have to care for ourselves we will become aware of other ways we abuse our bodies, which may have been acceptable in the past but no longer serve us and it’s possible that we may reflect a way of being that others may be inspired by and choose for themselves.

     1. Deidre this is so true. These drugs are the more dramatic ways. We also avoid feeling our hurts through over eating, emotional drama, over exercising … the list goes on. Our responsibly to care for our bodies makes our choices very different.

192. At any level ignoring the body is a sure sign we are looking for a way to not take responsibility.

193. Great contribution, thank you. Mind-fully turning a foul smelling and revolting tasting substance into a so-called medicine is proof of the foolishness the mind can so easily buy into, and all at the expense of the body.

194. Great question Naren, ‘What kind of evolution is this bringing?’ Are we evolving into true beings, or involving back into the delusional hallucinations of existing beings?

195. There is a peculiar sense of honesty in taking drugs, in the sense that it shows us in the most extreme way that we know we are not coping with life, and as a result we can often be more open to healing. Society tends to judge drug use highly, and this is certainly not to condone drug use at all. It is an extremely damaging thing to do – emotionally, physically and spiritually. However, there are other more socially acceptable forms of numbing oneself that are never considered in the same breath – adrenaline sports for one. For many years I prided myself on the fact that I lived clean, that I did not take drugs, only to realise one day that adrenaline was my drug of choice, and it assisted to numb that which I did not want to feel in the same way that drugs would.Yet the indoctrinating aspect of this lifestyle was that it was considered to be “clean”, and so it was after many years of exhaustion and burnout that I even began to consider that I might need to look at the way I was living my life.

196. Thanks for the insight into the use of ayahuasca,I found it quite interesting. At least with illicit drugs everybody knows they are harmfull however with ayahuasca some people feel that they are evolving which makes this drug much more evil.

     1. Absolutely, Joe. The exotic-ness of ayahuasca, that it is traditionally taken as a part of a ceremony overseen by a shaman, all add to the impression that this is not a drug one is taking, but that it is medicine.

197. I agree absolutely. Also when one decides to ingest anything that’s going to be mind or body altering in some way, one must be very clear as to why they are possibly doing it.
     That could be something as extreme as this case or as simple as that next cup of tea you chose to have. It’s truly incredible to what lengths we will go to and some can be so subtle and seeming harmless, indeed in the temporal sense, passed off as completely normal. This article inspires me to ponder on my new normal no matter how harmless l think what l’m doing is. I’m also inspied to add the HOW l’m choosing to do what l’m doing.

198. What a brilliant expose on ayahuasca. You have offered so much wisdom and truth from your lived experience. What you have said here about the use of drugs in general is gold – ‘These are ways to hide from the truth of life, not to connect to it.’ I wholeheartedly agree. Thank you for sharing your story. And this is also what I have learned to be true, that ‘The trustworthiness of any guidance back to our divine self has to be determined by feeling how it feels in our bodies in every way, not by ignoring our bodies in any way.’ So beautifully said Naren.

     1. Thank you, Carola!

199. Thanks for sharing Naren – I had no idea what Ayahuasca was, never having even heard of it. The ritual you explained did sound pretty hideous to be honest, however, I used to drink a lot of wine and would frequently feel incredibly nauseous the next morning – so it’s pretty similar in that regard. Wine is also a poison that I put into my body which wasn’t offering anything nurturing to my body – in fact the exact opposite.

200. Goodness Naren what an interesting blog. I have never come across this substance and it does seem slightly crazy that we would put something in our body which is then vomited up, a clear sign it does not sit well. What we choose to use whether that be alcohol, or drugs or distraction is a clear reflection that all is not well in our world. Since this form of behaviour is fairly common, really all is not well across the entire world. Let’s hope many read your blog and agree with the conclusion that taking care of your body is the first step to a more joyful and loving way of life.

201. “Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else. Make truly different choices and our lives change not just for ourselves, but for those around us too.” I thoroughly enjoyed reading your dismantling of the myths surrounding expanding consciousness and mind altering substances, written from the authority of the life you have lived. Those two lines are a beautiful summing up. Very powerful Thank you.

202. Any one that has had small children or been around one will know what Projectile Vomiting (PV) is? PV even has its own medical name, but it says it is a pyloric stenosis. I feel that a lot of how things work in the body are still a mystery and names are given to a condition as to the action the body takes, but not much as to why. We do not have to have experienced a child doing the ‘Exorcist movie bit with the pea soup thing’. Adults while in their youth normally have witnessed and experienced PV. Remember the night you or someone drank wine, beer and shots followed up by some sort of food? Could it be that one of those combinations did not react well with something else already in the mix? The body, when it really knows what you have put in it, is not good for it, lets you know by removing it all in one go. What if, the child is just trying to tell you that the cows milk you have just given them is not what is good for their body?

203. Great wisdom in your words Naren. How true, we allow our minds to separate from our bodies. So then the answers/ actions that result would be in separation. I agree too that the perfect storm is brewing. We can not think our way out of this one. As our thinking has brewed it.

     1. Absolutely, Concetta. More thinking will just bring us more of the same stuff that got us in the predicament we are in now.

204. “There is nothing in life that is not worth feeling” – thank you Naren, this really rings true for me and has already helped me right in this moment.

     1. It is our way back to being ourselves again – feeling.

205. Naren, this article should be front-page news!

     1. I agree Hannah, there is far too much hype and glamour out there leaving people to be seduced into taking drugs. Naren’s blog is a huge reality check and brings the reality to what is really all about.

206. Taking ayahuasca feels like a very strong level of self-abuse. A bit like taking a hammer to one’s head and considering the resulting headache, nausea and hallucinations to be worth the hammering. Is it desperation that lets us do this?

     1. I’d say it is a combination of ignorance and desperation, christophschnelle. Two things that do not mix well. Ignorance of the deeper results of our choices, and desperation to alleviate the mess that we have created for ourselves, but of course our ignorance is not allowing us to see that we have made the choices which lead to the desperation, and around and around it goes…. Until we stop.

        1. Desperately trying to avoid taking responsibility for life in full.

        2. Exactly, Lisa!

        3. And using whatever we can to ‘cope’ with life rather than deal with what is in the way of us living it. We all have participated in our specific flavour of ‘coping mechanism’. Mine was anxiety, others can be food, or alcohol, or even holidaying/travelling. Until we stop and allow ourselves to feel we are only ‘getting by’ rather than living.

207. Wow, I really was not aware of the fact that there are people who use ayahuasca to stop smoking marijuana and other drugs. Thank you very much Naren for writing this article. I have learned so much from it about how hallucinating drugs work and why people are addicted to them.

208. Thank you Narren. This has been an eye opener for me to read your article! What shocked me the most to read was actually the fact that it was normalised to vomit afterwards! This is a clear sign that the body is rejecting what is put into it! Great to hear that people are vomiting from this as the body is at least still tuned into the basics of saying no. But to normalise vomiting as you have talked about shows how far we are stepping from what the body is telling us.

     1. It is amazing what can become ‘normal’ to us. Until recently I had accepting being subtly bullied as ‘normal’ because this was a common theme as I was growing up. I have realised it is in fact not normal and have now started to say no to it which is providing an enormous healing for me and all my relationships.

209. This is such a powerful blog Naren, and although I have never done ayahuasca, I can relate to what you share here about using something to dull and not feel ourselves, and to not take responsibility for how we are in life. The line “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” speaks volumes to me and I can confirm that the reason I drank and took drugs was not because I was happy! Thank you for sharing Naren.

210. A great blog, showing how all those substances does not bring more than a temporally relief of life, not feeling truly what is going on and take responsibility for this.

     1. Yes a temporary relief is all that these substances bring along with marijuana and alcohol. And this is part of the lack of responsibility. Not truly dealing with the underlying issues and instead just numbing them.

     2. Absolutely, Simone. It can be quite jarring to accept the breadth and depth of how irresponsible we can be, and it can be daunting to look at everything that we would like to change in our lives. But it is not about making, grand sweeping gestures that suddenly change our lives beyond recognition. It is about making the changes that we can handle and that we can take full responsibility for, it is only when we then stop and look at how far we have come do we appreciate just how much we have changed.

211. Great blog Naren. It doesn’t make sense to harm the body to address issues or overcome harming behaviours! Self Responsibility, Self Love and listening to our bodies is key.

212. As someone who has used drugs to get away from myself and enjoin others in ‘fun’ we don’t even really remember, I can now say, I did it all to avoid taking responsibility for myself. You have put it perfectly: ‘Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else.’

213. I’ve just read this blog for the first time Naren. Such a brilliant expose of some of the means we use to avoid taking responsibility for our lives, and written in such a loving way. I will come back to this often. Thank you.

214. Brilliant blog. Thank you. “Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else.” I especially love this line as it says so much about self-responsibility.

     1. it says it all really doesn’t it Robyn, its what we don’t really want to hear!

        1. And I have found that accepting this can be the initial challenge, Vanessa. But once accepted there is such an opening up to being able to make the needed changes to be more responsible with our lives.

        2. So true Robyn and Vanessa, so often the last thing we want to here when we are struggling with life, feeling the victim, is that we are responsible for it and the only way to change it is to stop doing what we’re doing that continues the self-destructive patterns. It’s especially hard to give up some of our coping strategies if we have invested in them and identify ourselves with whatever practice it might be – anything from taking ayahuasca to try to find enlightenment to bingeing on chocolate because it makes us feel better (in the short term). So often we so desperately want to feel good about ourselves but when confronted with the reality that this will involve dropping these crutches and letting ourselves feel the good, the bad and the ugly, we choose to remain dependent. It’s so worth learning to walk free of crutches though, and thanks to Universal Medicine, we now have many walking before us to inspire and support us to choose truly living life.

215. You’ve really tipped what people claim about an ayahuasca experience on its head. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” No one would feel the need for such an experience if they felt good about themselves nor would they put them through what sound like horrors when ingesting such drugs like ayahuasca. But no one seems to consider why they want to take the drug. The focus is on the perceived evolution and the disconnection that will happen. This disconnection is seen as a good thing and there is no real consideration of how deeply one must disconnect from their body. When making such a choice as this it would be wise to consider why you are making such a choice – a deep reflection as to why.

     1. Absolutely, Nikki. For someone to even consider taking ayahuasca in the first place, they are already seriously disconnected from themselves, and looking for an answer to their disconnection. However, they are looking outside of themselves, instead of turning their focus to themselves and taking responsibility for their lives. For most people this is no easy feat, and we must recognise this, however, ayahuasca joins the long list of substances and activities that are there to help us “cope” with life, but not to truly heal ourselves.

216. A very thought provoking blog Naren. I knew little about this practice so thanks for enlightening us all a little more. It is interesting that people are looking for solutions to their problems by escaping into their minds and running away or over-riding their bodies and thus are asking the mind to mend the mess the mind has created! It is never going to work. What if true wisdom was found by actually re-connecting to our bodies and our hearts?

     1. Yes the craziness of ‘asking the mind to mend the mess the mind has created!’ It’s amazing the twists and turns our minds can take in the pursuit of avoiding taking responsibility for the life we have created when the answers are always waiting for us when we choose to re-connect to our inner heart.

     2. What you share here Andrew is so true, the mind simply cannot mend the mess it has created itself. Running away and escaping into our minds merely means the truth of your inner heart just has a little further to go to catch up with you…. and we all know everything catches up with us eventually, so why fight it?

217. Thank you Naren, I never used Ayahuasca but have drunk alcohol and the line: “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” made me feel that I indeed never drunk alcohol because I felt good about myself. It was always out of a thought that I was not good enough without it, that I would be more fun after drinking alcohol. Now feeling totally wasted was never something I called fun… So I decided to stop drinking alcohol and now 4 or 5 years later I feel really great and am learning to love myself and feel I am more than enough just being me.

218. It was only recently that I heard about ‘ayahausca’, so no coincidence that this morning I came upon your article which really left me with no doubt that it is another substance put out there to distract from truly living our lives in full. You have shown that it is possible to make self loving choices and take back responsibility for you. Thank you Naren for sharing so much of your journey with us all.

219. After one experience with ayahuasca and seeing the people who were doing that on a regular basis, I knew for sure, I don’t want to have a drug determine how I feel.
     It is crazy to think now that I thought life would change because of that experience. I gave my power away to a force that seemed to come into my body and use it as a vessel making me believe I was increasing my awareness and evolution, while in fact it kept me away from the very thing I wanted, true connection to myself.
     There is not an ounce of love in taking drugs and having outer body experiences.

220. Taking responsibility for one”s life is the medicine to turn your life around, no matter what road you have traveled, no matter what age you are, it is never too late to chose differently, it is never to late to chose self care and self love.

221. Thank you for sharing your experiences here, Naren, and for not holding back. Your blog is inspiring and insightful and there is much to reflect on.

222. A fascinating blog Naren thank you. I knew little about Ayahuasca before Serge Benhayon spoke of it’s ill-energetic effect in the body a few years back. Your story is testimony to the fact that it is wholeheartedly rejected by the body, in fact we are designed to breakdown the active ingredient naturally… which says everything really. The ability to separate the body from our ability to become enlightened is already a glaring sign that the way has been well and truly lost.

     1. That factor, Jenny, that we need to override our body’s natural function in order to make ayahuasca even work was one of the first things that made me say, “this doesn’t seem right”. Why do we need to shut down a natural (and really important) part of our bodily function in order to make this thing that is supposedly going to heal me? Doesn’t make sense to me…

223. Hi Naren, I pparicipated in Ayahuasca ceremonies on a number of occasions and had many other psychedelic trips, believing as you did that this was the way forward, until I met Chris James and then in turn Serge Benhayon. I agree with everything you have said here. That whole way of approaching life was totally mind driven and done in disregard of my body. When we abandon the body and its messages we have no way of knowing the truth and the use of psychedelics was simply leading me deeper and deeper into illusion, providing temporary relief at best, and sometimes as you have said horrific experiences. There was bliss too, but never love, the answer was always seen to come from energy or beings outside of myself and nothing truly changed. I am deeply grateful for the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting the way to connect with the love in me.

     1. The Bliss Factor is one that is very powerful if you don’t have love in your life. For me, it was what I ended up chasing, having mistaken it for love and also for connection. When we already feel so empty, it cannot be underestimated how a “powerful” experience with a psychedelic can seem like it has provided the answer, but in truth all it has done is provided relief from your life, it has not actually changed it. That only happens when we make those choices for ourselves. The question is: what is going to be the impulse for those changes? Is it me and the love I am in equality to all others, or is it the continued seeking of relief from the pressure of life, which I don’t feel equipped to handle?

224. Naren I found your blog to be very interesting. Having never heard of Ayahuasca before it made me see how we can disconnect from our bodies and really abuse ourselves no matter what the costs are. Living from our wholeness and feeling into our bodies true divinity is where our truth lies and without that humanity will just continue on its crazy roller coaster of disconnect.

225. This could be on a slogan for a sticker:
     “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”
     How naive and dishonest are we all trying to sell these poisons to ourselves as being ‘from nature’? Our bodies don’t lie and talk to us constantly. All we have to do is listen, take responsibility and we will make different choices.

226. I found this a very interesting read, myself knowing very little about hallucinogenic drugs. I had some friends who took ayahuasca and I was presented with the opportunity but it didn’t feel right to me so I declined …. very glad to have trusted what I felt.

     “And it is the disconnected mind that has caused the devastation we are currently having to deal with on this planet.” I fully agree with what you have stated here and am finding through my own experiences, that joyful living comes from living with a fully connected mind and body.

227. To me those of us who drink too much for a long time look grey and it takes some time for that greyness to go even when we stop. Ayahuasca seems to be even worse – I went into a room where a regular user spent an hour and was already gone and the room ‘stank’ to me. There was no physical smell but it was as if somebody had been in there who felt really, hideously bad with that feeling just coming out of every pore of their body.

228. It is incredible to what lengths we are willing to go to, to avoid seeing and feeling the responsibility we have for our lives and everything that we bring to this planet in every moment.

229. Naren I found this blog so insightful. In my experience drug taking was used as a way to feel that there was ‘more’ to life that we just weren’t consciously aware of in everyday life. I observed others were willing to express things under the influence that they were not prepared to express while straight or sober. I fooled myself into believing this was ‘connection’. I now know there can be no connection without a connection to me first. Drugs and alcohol played havoc with my connection to me and had devastating consequences, I too am grateful that these substances are no longer a part of my life, and never will be again. Thank you for expressing so eloquently here Naren.

230. Naren a truly thought provoking blog.
     The stand out for me; taking any substance that overrides the body will not change the dissatisfaction in life. We are the only ones who can address how we feel about life and that starts with taking responsibility for our choices.

231. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” I haven’t felt good about myself for a very long time, that’s for sure. I did not want to see it that way because I needed the drug or the glass of wine, in order to not feel what was going on. I have been and still are very inspired every day by Universal Medicine and the support it gives me. This is the reason that I was able to let go off drugs, alcohol, tv etc. and truly start to love myself. Huge change and so much joy.

232. People think of some crazy things…
     But that is exactly what your blog is alluding to…
     We are thinking crazily, and the only way to change this is to think in a different way or, to what you explain, from a different source. We don’t just need more solutions to the worlds problems we need real answers. Until we look at how and why we thought we were right in the past we won’t be able to change the future.

233. “Despite all of the stresses and ‘bad things’ that have happened in my life, there is nothing in life that is not worth feeling.”
     An awesome revelation to arrive at Naren. Thank you for your honest sharing of your experience.

     1. I love this line too. Recently as I have allowed myself and made the choice to feel anythings I have not wanted to, I’ve realised that actually feeling them feels so much better than not! There is an honesty in it which feels exquisite.

234. To feel all of life is certainly another way of looking at the complexities we have created in life. I am really inspired by your willingness to do so Naren and will certainly take this into my day today.

235. Thank you, Naren, for your well-written, honest sharing about ayahuasca and drug/ alcohol use.
     What a great story about overcoming a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction and choosing to take a path of responsibility back to health. Simply by allowing yourself to feel your body, connect to life and truth.

236. Great question here Naren and one that humanity needs to ask – “If we are going to change our consciousness, does it not make sense to do it in consideration of all of us, and not part of us?”. It has been through my connection to all of me and all of humanity that I have been able to make those changes that I have been seeking for a long time and that are now truly long-lasting and beneficial for all. We need to be considerate of the whole and the effects of our actions – universally – and not just ourselves. But that takes – what you so rightly call out – responsibility.

237. “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”
     Your writing on this subject Naren is truly marvellous – eye opening and so clear – thank you for being absolutely on the mark here.

     1. Yes Lee, an absolute stand-out statement… and one that can be applied to so many things in truth, not just alcohol and drugs! I can relate this to the reasons I chose all sorts of things, including certain relationships (if not all relationships!) and dessert for starters, but the list goes on!

238. So many favourite lines in this that capture the truth so effortlessly. But this one is particularly golden:

     True divinity is indivisible and encompasses the all-ness of us as beings on every level. Any less than that and we just end up with more of what we have already got.

239. Great insight into a substance I haven’t even heard of before, thanks Naren. Regardless the substance or its affect, in effect, they’re all doing the same – as you’ve clearly laid out in your blog. “The trustworthiness of any guidance back to our divine self has to be determined by feeling how it feels in our bodies in every way, not by ignoring our bodies in any way” – I love this statement.

     1. I love that statement too. It’s essential that we don’t disregard what our bodies are communicating.

240. It’s amazing how strong the messages from the mind can be. If we don’t truly discern we can be led on a merry dance that does not consider the body at all. I have been very fortunate because each time I was close to trying ayahuasca something happened to stop me from doing it. The shaman got held up in Brazil. I had to be somewhere else when the Ayahuascan experience was due to happen etc. This was all a long time ago but unfortunately the taking of ayahuasca has become much more common now. I completely concur with you Naren and can see no sense in putting ourselves through such an ordeal – for what ? And it’s true ” No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves “

241. Thanks Naren for sharing this story. The single sentence, I agree, is definitely a game changer. For no matter how much you lie to yourself when under the influence, when high and in the euphoria of the drug… when you come back down the next day or the day after that, your body always feels awful….really awful, and it is then that one can no longer hide the fact from themselves that – “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.”

242. What an amazing piece and story here Naren, you break down ‘dis-connection’ so easily, it makes such complete sense. Your words “….that we do not eat something that is harmful to ourselves, and if we do, to get it out of us as quickly as possible” – is applicable not just to the specific drug or ‘medicine’ you were referring to, but to everything in life itself i.e. that ‘eating’ is not only consumed food or drink, it is also consciousnesses – education, culture, religion, business, so many… and that only through connection from a developed deep self-love, can we know where these consciousnesses are from and live, and so too how they govern our life. With honesty we start to get there. With self-love we start to connect back to our body, and the great truths it holds. With love we inspire another towards their own truth. In brotherhood we are all free.

243. Bad medicine indeed. How often in our lives do we override what we feel in our bodies with our minds? It is so true that you don’t do drugs because you feel good about yourself.

244. I have heard many defenders of Ayahuasca say that it deserves to be held in reverence because it belongs to a time honoured tradition passed down by the ancient shamans and elders of cultures long gone. But because a ritual is steeped in tradition, that does not on its own make it a ritual steeped in wisdom. Similarly, the argument that it is natural means little in truth. Whilst it may be derived from nature, no where in nature do we witness it being boiled and swallowed by any animal other than the human being. And we have only to look at the detrimental effects of it’s use to realise that such action is not one that is harmonious to the body. If it was natural to use it in this way, then it would be harmonious in the way it worked with the body, would it not?

     1. Absolutely, Adam. Ayahuasca is often touted as being “natural” by those who defend it. In fact, it is a product of humanity’s knowledge of chemistry. People figured out how to combine two plants, boil it and make this drink. It does not occur naturally. Likewise with the age-old debate around marijuana being “natural”. Yes, the plant my grow naturally, but it has taken humans to figure out that setting it on fire and inhaling the smoke will produce an effect. That is not nature at work, that is us at work on nature.

     2. ” But because a ritual is steeped in tradition, that does not on its own make it a ritual steeped in wisdom “. This is such a good point Adam, people give their power away to these rituals because they have been practised for generations and in that, believing it will help them in their own development and healing, but if people who take part in these ceremonies were to discern and truly feel what is going on energetically they would understand the true damage and disharmony they are creating in their bodies and lives.

245. This statement “no one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves” is a winner, I agree Emily. If we felt good about ourselves why would we want to alter our consciousness…. not really rocket science is it? I feel that as human beings many of us are very slow learners about common sense things.

246. That is a powerful sentence Naren – ‘no one does does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves’ super true. The whole blog was powerful. I didn’t know much about ayahuasca, but the body’s responses definitely leads me to know that we shouldn’t be ingesting it. What you have presented to the world about choosing a different consciousness is gold.

247. So much to agree with in this blog. How we override our bodies with our minds to do so many things without care or attention to our bodies. Plus how in the first place, we do not inquire, why do we need to alter our state? What is it about how we are living that impulses us to do this, even knowing our bodies will suffer an it will not change anything? I suppose the ultimate illusion about drugs like Ayahuasca is that people believe it can be a ‘teacher’ that will create change in one’s life. But as you have stated so clearly Naren, if the agent we choose is clearly creating disharmony in our bodies, it means we have gone into our heads to override the harm it is causing and therefore it is very easy to fool oneself that a lesson has been learned when it is actually mental and not embodied. I just feel that restating it for myself and perhaps others, helps unravel this big package of truth, that applies to so much of how many of us choose to live.

     1. Absolutely, Simon. There is much in that which applies to far more than just ayahuasca. It applies to so many human endeavours.

248. Like any drug, including alcohol, the body wants to reject it, but as we all know, this is over ridden by the mind justifying the outcomes. It is true, when we begin to live self-love, the harmful behaviours just melt away and one cannot ever imagine putting any drugs or harmful substances into their body. This include thoughts, deeds and words, which are all as poisonous as the drugs.

     1. Yes I agree Anna, the thoughts, deed and words are for me the worst and as poisonous and addictive as drugs and I still have addictions to these on a daily basis which I need to watch carefully.
        I found my self have feelings of disgust and horror when reading about the practice of ingesting Ayahuawasca. However, on deeper reflection, after observing such a strong reaction to it I realise…I am part-taking in a similar ritual, only mine is disguised by an office with others busily doing their jobs around me…my forms of addiction and self inflicted abuse come in the so called ‘civilised’ norm as words, thoughts and deeds…seemingly harmless yet probably most destructive.They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Words and thoughts can also debilitate and destroy our own lives if we let them rule our actions and if we let our thoughts override our feelings.

249. Thank you Naren, great blog! I have friends who are idealizing these supposedly mind opening dugs and they all have great stories to tell, but their daily life is a mess and everything is going on in their fantasies. We are divine and we don’t need anything toxic to connect to our divinity, we just need to connect to our heart, everything is already there.

     1. Absolutely, Rachel. Add ayahuasca to the list of “quick fixes” that allows us to ignore the mess we have created for ourselves, and pretend that by simply saying “But I’m divine” means that truly living life by taking responsibility for ourselves is not a part of being truly Divine!

250. “No one does drugs or alcohol because they feel good about themselves”

     The simple truth that when and if we choose to ingest a poison or harmful substance, the body saying ‘No’ and the mind overpowering and saying ‘Yes’, is a sure sign that we have disconnected from ourselves. When we are connected, it is very difficult to choose to harm ourselves. My experience also is that when I chose to fully commit to self love then the dependence on the external, whatever the form, started to and is still, dropping away.

     1. Very true. When we are connected to our bodies it is doubtful we would chose to harm ourselves.

251. Hi Naren, I was not familiar with Ayahuawasca and had only read the name or heard it mentioned but not what it does. Sounds revolting and as you said why would you put into your body something that causes such a physical reaction for one. I do feel that what you have written about your experiences should be available to educate people who may be considering putting such poisons into their bodies and may have a rethink. I know there is a risk also involved in sharing such knowledge that others may decide to take the risk and try it instead. I also realised that we could equate many things such as foods etc. that we keep eating that don’t agree with us and our bodies react to in the same light, poisoning ourselves. The answer is Love, we need to all be self nurturing and truly see our selves as the amazing beings we truly are. A very worthwhile blog Naren thank you.

252. Naren, I think you are so right. Humanity is in trouble in too many ways and no matter what we try the statistics for failing world physical and mental health, wellbeing and brotherhood are skyrocketing out of control. Therefore to arrest “the near perfect storm of difficulties on the planet we live on” we need to take a fresh look at the root causes of such devastating worldwide malaise, we need “a change in consciousness”.

     On the micro personal level doing this helped me reclaim a truer, healthier and more integrated life. With the help of Serge Benhayon and other Universal Medicine practitioners I have changed my understanding and outlook towards myself, the meaning of life, others and humanity. I used this new ‘understanding / consciousness’ to turn my own ill health, drug addictions and dysfunctional life around completely – so from my experience I think it is entirely possible that “a change in consciousness” is exactly what is needed in the big picture of humanity.

253. Wow Naren, this is a profound blog indeed! It all boils down to feeling the truth in our bodies and choosing to take responsibility to connect with our divinity or NOT. Thank you for the way in which you exposed your experiences to illustrate this truth.

254. Wow, there is so much in your blog, it relates to all methods of numbing and dulling.
     And the simplicity of the body as a marker for truth – I could hear a part of my mind protesting, justifying and being plain silly while reading this. That is the problem with humanity, we are so used to disregarding our bodies and living in a mental world, the mind finds it hard to give up its ruling power.

     1. So well said Regina. There is such a simplicity in the body being a marker for truth.

     2. Our mind is a very loud voice, but actually has very little power other than what we give it. Take that away, put the mind in its place, and true power comes forth. One that includes the mind, but is not run by it.

        1. Awesome Naren, very, very awesome!

255. Hi Naren, it’s brilliant how you distill your experience to the simplest form. What you say relates to us all: are we willing to be in reality and accept all we feel, or do we try to escape? When you put it this way, how crazy are we expecting our issues to go away while we make ourselves numb. Although I’ve never tried Ayahuasca I have used other methods to bury what I feel. The more I come to see my feelings not as inconveniences but as equally important jewels, the more my life has simplified. Thank you for a clear headed clarity you bring.

256. What a profound blog Naren. I love what you share here “No one does drugs or drinks alcohol because they feel good about themselves.” I know from experience how true this is. Fortunately from where I stand today that is not a part of my life and I can declare – ‘I already feel awesome’ – I don’t need anything outside of me to pretend I feel great.

257. Thank you for sharing your experience with ayahuasca. I have heard of it but never knew the details of the little vomit bowls and how you need to stop the liver from metabolising it. This clearly shows that the liver (if not the user of the drug) is acutely aware that this is a toxin, a harmful substance that needs to be broken down and excreted. How true that no one takes drugs or alcohol (or overeats or blobs out in front of the telly) because they are complete in their lives. This one sentence shows the power of words to reach into our souls and remind us of who we are.

258. Hello Naren, I found your description of ayahuasca ceremonies very interesting and educational as I have never had exposure to that scene. Thank You.

259. This is spot on Naren. A brilliant expose on Ayahuasca.
     I once was in the presence of someone who started taking Ayahuasca regularly, and the smell that their body would emit was toxic, and made me feel sick. I knew that there was nothing medicinal about this substance, because of the changes I witnessed in this person that were quite disturbing.

     1. Wow, that’s really interesting. It is so evident from what happens when ayahuasca is ingested that it is not medicine. The fact that it is so evident in the persons body to another after the evident is really telling. It is scary that something so toxic has become considered medicine by many.

     2. I also have observed someone who was taking Ayahuasca regularly and can say I observed the same… to me if it is to be given a title of ‘medicine’ I can only then conclude it is bad medicine! There was certainly no healing involved, and definitely some disturbing changes. Thank you, Naren, for such a powerful blog.

260. Feeling deeply and coming back to honesty, the truth of how much the body has to be disregarded for ayahuasca to be ingested and continuously so in my experience. But the knowing within the body, like you have shared Naren, has always been present. I remembered these experiences left me wanting to vomit even after the actual ayahuasca experience, but just seeing something related to it or reading this blog, would be sufficient to alarm the bells saying this is harmful to the body.
     Reading your blog has allowed me more honesty and acceptance and also understanding as of why this is practiced so extensively in certain parts of the world and why many people from around the world gets drawn to these practices. Thank you.

261. “The problem is that, whatever we choose to heal, the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place, otherwise we just end up with a different flavour of the same issue further down the line” This is so true, thank you for sharing your experiences and highlighting how we can use the mind to override how we feel as clearly demonstrated by the use of something which makes us physically sick and yet we try to justify why it isn’t so bad ….so we can go and make the same mistake all over again.

262. Naren from reading your article I came to see very clearly that all of my past ideas of getting to an enlightened place through harming my body with drugs was utterly ridiculous. It seems so beautiful and perfect to now be re learning that the natural feelings of joy and love that we all have access to are attained by deeply honouring the body and not harming it.

263. Thank you Naren for your honesty and sharing. It is so true that any one who has love for themselves will never take drugs. I too smoked marijuana daily for twenty years and it was through developing self-love that the self destructive habit just fell away. Developing self-love gives you an understanding and acceptance of life and that it’s okay to feel it all.

     1. Thank you for sharing, Andrew. I was speaking to someone recently about how I stopped smoking marijuana, and how it really did just drop away once I started to feel that I was worth it. Once I started really feeling myself, and how amazing that feels, I realised how less than that pot was making me feel. It was a no-brainer to stop. I just didn’t want to feel less than me anymore.

264. I had never heard of Ayahuasca before and the point where you said it was considered a good thing to vomit and that you were ‘surrendering’ to it.. made me feel sick in my stomach. How can something your body is rejecting be good for us…?

     1. I appreciated your description of Ayahuasca and how it affected your body and how it was used in ancient ceremonies.
        I agree with Rebekah that it’s crazy that something that is known to make you vomit, sweat profusely and hallucinate could be seen as good medicine.

        1. I feel it shows how desperate people are in wanting to connect to something bigger than themselves, that they are prepared to take this noxious substance, which is a poison to the body. Whilst visiting friends recently the subject came up of people who who regularly take Ayahausaca, and how, long term, this has extreme detrimental affects on their health. This medicine is obviously not good medicine, as the only way back to our divinity is through re-connecting to the place within ourselves called True Love, aka God.
           Hence –
           “True divinity is indivisible and encompasses the all-ness of us as beings on every level. Any less than that and we just end up with more of what we have already got”, and thank you Naren for sharing your experience, very powerful blog.

265. Thank you for sharing your first hand experiences I found it really interesting to learn about Ayahuasca. I love your statement ” whatever we choose to heal the situation we find ourselves in, cannot come from the same place that caused the problem in the first place, otherwise we just end up with a different flavour of the same issue further down the line, as history can attest. ” I feel like this can be applied to many situations and many remedies that I have sought.

266. Thank you Naren for deciding to take responsibility for your life and for exposing ayahuasca and marijuana for what they are, a poison to our bodies.
     Whilst reading your blog, I was amazed at the clarity and honesty of your writing. It speaks volumes about what is possible when we choose to listen to our bodies and live a more loving life…truly inspirational.

267. Very interesting. Maybe Kava from the South Pacific (Vanuatu) could be included in the list of non supporting drinks. Any substance that takes you out of yourself, gives escape or causes distraction is just delaying your journey not enhancing it. But at times the world is a miserable place and we feel all of that, the wonder is that more don’t drink to escape…we do still escape…into the garden, into TV, into food…less harming choices but still fuelled by the need to escape.

268. What you share Naren is quite profound, I previously knew little about ayahuasca but what you have shared shows this is indeed a “bad medicine”. To think to take such a substance one has to mentally override all the body’s indications that it is a poison shows the power we give to the mind. True evolution should never come at the expense of the body. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

269. We live in a troubled world indeed. We all know that people engage in constant action and abuse their bodies in their attempt of avoid feeling what they are feeling. Constant movement is the way. In that context, it is not uncommon to look for things that are ancient, are different, that appear to be unpolluted, slow paced, very contrasting. This is a parallel reality that also brings us further to a parallel sensory world. So why going there? I can only imagine two answers: to have an even more extreme sensory and speedier experience than normal or in their quest of ‘getting out of here.’ The question that came to me regarding ayahuasca is what are they really drinking? To me, even if it not obvious, what they are drinking is the confirmation, in one way or the other, of how they approach life in plain avoidance of the possibility of reimprinting how they relate to life so they can enjoy it. Could it be that the awful feeling they get drinking this hallucinogen is similar to the energetic feeling they get in their bodies from their own decision on how to stand in life?

270. I have never heard of ‘ayahuasca’ but what you explained makes perfect sense that to totally numb out with a substance that disconnects us from our bodies and clears the path for the mind to take over is leaving us exposed to whatever energy wants a puppet but also the damage that occurs when the body is that disregarded. A very interesting read for sure Naren thankyou

271. Thank you Naren, for your clear presentation of truth. To continue to hide, numb, consume anything that is to run our lives for us, does truly bring more of the same. How amazing and beautiful that it can be so simple, when we choose to feel and live who we are brings the love and joy we have been seeking – it’s been within all the time

272. I love this blog.. Quite profound reading.

273. “Our dissatisfaction with our lives comes from the ways we choose to live them, and nothing else”. I agree Naren. I have no knowledge of drugs, I never drank or smoked and thus thought myself pretty ‘lucky’. But looking more deeply I’m messed up in so many other ways. Self-abuse can take many forms such as letting others dictate your life. Thank you for a great blog.

274. Wow, Naren, what you have presented here is quite profound and covers so much rich material to reflect on. I have really taken away the message that we can’t compartmentalise things; everything is part of the whole and has to be considered/felt from that basis first and foremost. It is a really timely reminder to me as someone who is working on changing a long ingrained habit of using the mind to look for solutions. If they handed out Oscars for overthinking/over analysing things then I would be certainty to receive one!!. Thank you.

275. Thank you Rob for your interesting comment. I have never tried ayahuasca myself but I have been around indiginous South Americans where it is used as part of their culture. They are secretive about it ‘s use and certainly don’t seek to initiate Europeans into their ceremonies. It’s use in Australia is a sham, just another drug to get high on.

276. Yes – stories like that Abby are all too commonplace in relation to drugs like this, there’s that ongoing ‘search’ of the next thing that will be the solution to all that is ‘wrong’ in life and within themselves. I’ve had a past with hash and marijuana – thankfully, I didn’t get into anything else like Ayahuasca. Hash and marijuana was bad enough!

277. Rob you hit the nail on the head about drugs retarding your evolution and wanting to take a detour or short cut rather than face the truth as yourself.

278. I knew a gorgeous young man who went to south America I think for an Ayahuasca detox, as an attempt to cure his drug addiction. Very sadly it didn’t work and he died of a herion overdose (maybe a year) later.

279. Absolutely amazing blog. Spot on Naren. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. You have such a great way with words Naren, that I feel I could share this with people from all walks of life, and the truth in it could be felt by all.

280. Wow, I have lived a very sheltered life! Ayahuasca? Never heard of it, or of anyone using it. But, I have used marijuana many, many years ago to numb out from the way I was living my life and how I felt about myself. Thank you for your insights and inspiration.

281. I really enjoyed reading this Naren and in doing so it became immediately apparent the insanity we subscribe to when we use our ‘clever, intelligent mind’ to override the wisdom our body is so simply speaking. Perhaps there is much we need to re-learn in order to truly evolve. And these lines are gold: “True divinity is indivisible and encompasses the all-ness of us as beings on every level. Any less than that and we just end up with more of what we have already got.” Thank you.

282. Naren thank you for this informative and insightful article. It is so true how we override our bodies and kid ourselves that these experiences will somehow enlighten us. My most enlightening experience has been to finally take responsibility for my life, and not seek answers from substances, self-help books or slip into escapism, much as you have described.

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