Zone Zero Zero

In Permaculture they talk about ‘Zones’ referring to zones of activity, from zone 5 to zone 00  for example Zone 5 would be a zone that is not used or visited very often such as wild land surrounding a farm, zone 4 might be an area that is used to grow long term materials, building timber for example. Zone 3 might have some cattle etc ect, Zone 0 is the home, the place that see’s most of the day’s activity . This categorization is a useful, practical tool used in Permaculture design in order to help organise a piece of land efficiently. The most important zone it could be said however is zone 00; your mind, thought, consciousness. Without a change in zone 00, nothing happens . In these times of change this Hippie talk of consciousness is becoming a common topic, as more and more people are becoming aware that their reality is somehow not right; there is something wrong, a disconnection, a misalignment.

Ayahuasca

Last week I met up with a friend  who is studying and exploring the world of Shamanic medicine, I was invited to spend a few days on a beautiful piece of land belonging to a practicing ‘neo shaman’ a few hours south of Bogota .  During these days I was invited to take part in a traditional native American ceremony centred around a medicine named Ayahausca, In combination with another plant called Mimosa,  when these two plants are combined a chemical is released named DMT . That this discovery ever happened is a mystery, the process is very complex and was unlikely stumbled upon by pure coincidence , many indigenous Amazonian people say that these instructions were received directly from the spirits of the plants themselves . DMT is a chemical found in many species of flora and fauna, including us , it is found in the Pineal gland , in the centre of our brains . It is thought to be the chemical that is responsible for our dreams; It is also thought that this chemical is released in larger quantities at birth and at Death. It has been used as medicine in many indigenous cultures all over the world for thousands of generations and It is quite possible that the discovery of medicines such as this one may have been responsible for rapid growth spurts in the evolution of the human brain . The Ayahuasca is very difficult for the human system to digest and is very common for it to induce vomiting during the experience, many cultures believe this is an important part of the process as it symbolises a release of negative emotions and energy built up over the period of one’s life. It has positive effects both physically, by cleansing and detoxifying the body and mentally, by cleansing and detoxifying the mind .  There are no known long term effects from this substance . In the west DMT is categorized  as a class A drug, essentially you are experiencing this substance every night when you sleep, It is obviously not dangerous, or addictive, it makes absolutely no sense that this should be illegal. Except maybe to prevent the general public from a spiritual awakening and rebellion to this complex system of slavery we are all unwittingly trapped in.

I don’t think I am capable of effectively describing my experience with this medicine in words, even if I could conjure up every word in existence from every language under the sun I would have a hard time . Some words given to me before taking the medicine resonated with me during my experience and do a good job of describing the purpose of this medicine; from the time we are born we are being conditioned, conditioned by our parents, by society, by religion, TV, magazines... Everything . We develop certain methods for coping with situations based on this conditioning, which become reactionary and habitual and prevent us from seeing and experiencing things how they truly are . Right now your conditioning is probably telling you that everything I am saying is a bunch of hippie nonsense and you are probably reacting with denial. This ancient medicine helps to break this conditioning and helps you to see everything a new, allows you to react purely . A necessary process for the evolution of the human consciousness, something that many people are trying to achieve through many different methods and this is just one of those methods. Anyhow my experience certainly had a positive effect.

a waterfall on the land

When the medicine kicked in I started feeling an intense admiration for everything, at first I noticed a blade of grass, as if I had never seen it before, my vision was impressively sharp, like I was viewing life in super high definition. The way the light interacted with the fibres on the blade was infinitely beautiful, and filled me with absolute awe. After an indeterminable amount of time a beetle crossed the path of my vision, my heart almost stopped, I felt so privileged to witness such beauty,  the array of colours reflecting from its back were infinite and reflected all of existence back into my eyes. It’s easy to say such things but I don’t know how to describe how genuine these feelings really were . For hours I experienced reality as if I had never before , I could talk for ever in detail of the whole afternoon and everything I saw and experienced but I will bore the hell out of you I’m sure . In conclusion, what needs to be said is this; I felt more connected to nature than ever before, I was made of the same fabric and I was only experiencing myself in a different form, I felt overwhelming love for everything, every plant, every creature, every sensation. I even watched lovingly as a mosquito bit me, I admired the mark it left behind, and the sensation I received from it . Everything was new to me, as a child does, I could react to everything with a fresh thought process, without prejudice, without preconceptions, without any of those reactions caused by my 24 years of conditioning . In essence I was experiencing life in its purest form, no hallucinations, just reality but from a pure perspective. It was beautiful.

If we are to elevate our collective consciousness we need to break our conditioning, we need to unlearn rather than learn and this kind of thing is a very effective tool in order to experience what that actually means.

Until next time!