by Ross Heaven
We were visiting the area during December, the rainy season of the Southern Hemisphere, and the hills and mountainsides were green and lush. It was the perfect place for us to discover the secret truths of our souls.
We arrived at the Mountain House at approximately 11:00 a.m., and after settling in we commenced our ceremony with San Pedro. La Gringa had prepared a beautiful spot for us in her garden, a protected, walled sanctuary with many plants and colorful flowers to delight the eyes and senses. There were areas on the periphery where the San Pedro cactus grew in patches and clusters. San Pedro is a single-stalk cactus that grows tall in a beautiful star-formation pattern. Some grow in six-, seven-, eight-, and nine-pointed stars along its central axis of growth, and La Gringa told us that the different numbers of stars have an effect on its potency and visionary properties. Today we would be drinking a seven-star cactus, which according to La Gringa is her favorite to work with.
We gathered around an altar space in the garden where several colorful blankets had been laid out for us to sit on. Then, after a brief talk and a few short prayers to the spirit of San Pedro, we drank our glasses of the unusual light-green liquid, thick and similar to the juice of aloe vera. It had a slightly bitter taste and was somewhat pungent, but it went down relatively easy for me, although for some it was more difficult.
In our group that day there were four of us including La Gringa. There was Isabella, our group leader and tour guide from Southern California, an attractive blond woman in her midforties; Mary, a devoted wife and healer also from Southern California; and Ken, a fortyish unmarried architect also from Southern California. Ken was new to shamanic work and was at first a bit hesitant about using medicine plants, as he had no previous experience with them. Yet after hearing everyone’s amazing stories he became eager and ready to try them. He was a good-natured fellow who spoke very good Spanish and had become our unofficial interpreter for most of our journey.
After about thirty or forty minutes the medicine began to take effect, and I noticed that the colors around me began to look more vibrant and intense as I gazed at the flowers and plants in the garden. I could also feel subtle changes in my perceptions as I looked at the plants and the blue sky above me with its wispy clouds that began to resemble animals, people, and angelic beings. Quite naturally we all found our own little place to sit and come in to this new energy that was quickly becoming more and more evident with each passing moment. I could feel its pulsations as the medicine began to become stronger.
I had heard that San Pedro comes in waves that rise up in great swells that overtake you and carry you deeper and further with each passing set. A wave will come, rise to a crest of intensity, and then subside gently into a period of relative calm and ease. This is what was happening to me. With each wave I would get more energized and activated. I felt the need to move some of this energy by walking, and so I ventured out into the open landscape to explore the Temple of the Moon and its surrounding valleys.
The day was cool and rain was threatening, so I bundled up in my fleece jacket and waterproof and as I walked and took in the view of my surroundings, I found it difficult to hold back a grin. I was definitely getting very altered. Visually I was overcome by the beauty of what my eyes were seeing. There seemed to be light emanating from all the plants and emerald hillsides that surrounded me. Before coming on this trip I had lost my expensive Ray-Ban sunglasses. I took this as a sign that perhaps I was not to have sunglasses on this journey so that I might be able to fully absorb and receive the light and color of the Andean countryside. And now as I stood there looking out on this gorgeous view with its vibrant waves of energy that seemed to permeate my whole body, I realized why I was not wearing sunglasses: to me, it was because they would have blocked out the ultraviolet spectrum of light, which corresponds to the third eye and the crown chakra. It seemed to me that the vibrancy of the color was very rich in the ultraviolet spectrum of light frequencies, which were coming into my retina to the optic nerve and stimulating and awakening parts of my neocortex. I could feel my pupils dilating in order to take in more light, as if my eyes were feasting on a rich banquet of luminescence and iridescent Technicolor pulsations from the rocks, plants, grass, and hillsides as well as the cobalt blue sky overhead. It truly was like being in a psychedelic dreamscape.
At one point I began to have visions of past times as I looked at the Temple of the Moon, intricately carved with stairways and altar places. I had a remembrance or imagination of ancient times when there would be large celebrations where all the people would take San Pedro during the various seasonal festivals. I imagined colorfully adorned people standing on all the rocks across the valley and dancing to the music of drums and flutes that reverberated throughout the valley and highlands. This must have been the original “rainbow gathering!” I could feel the joy and festive atmosphere of this ancient celebration.
As this beautiful vision intensified I was overcome with a feeling of being embraced by the Earth Spirit or Pachamama as she is known in the Incan cosmology. It felt like the feminine spirit of the Earth embracing me with beauty and healing energy. I could feel her and almost hear her voice as she spoke to me like a mother to a child. I felt her desire to nurture and take care of me and provide me with the sustenance of her harvest. I also felt her pain because humanity had forgotten her conscious spirit and could no longer hear her voice. After decades of environmental degradation and destruction, Pachamama felt almost at the end of her capacity to deal with this destruction, yet she continued to embrace and love me unconditionally. The knowledge of this was very healing to me on many levels, and I felt a renewed connection to the planet and her spirit.
I then climbed a high rock outcrop that overlooked the valley. From there I had a commanding view of the Temple of the Moon with the twenty-thousand-feet Andean peaks in the distance. It was breathtaking! I sat there in contemplation and experienced intensifying waves of hallucinogenic euphoria, but I also began to struggle to catch my breath. Two days before I left for Peru I had contracted a respiratory infection with the symptoms of a raspy cough and runny nose, and I had been struggling with my breathing ever since I arrived in Cusco. Now as I sat on my eagle’s perch my symptoms began to intensify and my breathing became more rapid and difficult.
Instinctively, I reached for the small bag of coca leaves in my backpack, which supposedly counteract altitude sickness. Chewing the leaves up quickly I sucked their bitter green juices in the hope that they would bring me relief. Unfortunately it did not work quickly enough, and I became concerned that I was having an asthma attack like I used to as a little boy. To compound this I started to feel my heart race as I became overcome with anxiety from my shortness of breath. Over the years I have had various episodes with my heart and I wondered now if perhaps I would have a heart attack. I decided at that point that it might be wise for me to make my way back to the Mountain House. I did not want to be alone in case I went into some sort of critical situation.
Focusing on deep breathing and staying relaxed I did my best to remain calm as I made my way back to the sanctuary of the garden. As I entered through the heavy wooden gate I could see the others from the group sitting and laying in various places around the garden, all deep in their own experience. I immediately went to La Gringa and told her my predicament and she fetched some cans of oxygen that she kept for emergencies like this. As I inhaled I immediately felt a relief and my breathing began to stabilize.
As I sat there trying to regain composure I started to have memories of childhood. I remembered how when I was a small child, maybe five or six all the way up to my teenage years, my mother, who was a heavy smoker, would light up in the car with all the windows closed forcing me to breathe her smoke. I developed asthma when I was seven or eight due to this unfortunate situation. For years I struggled with my breathing, especially when I would exercise. My parents sent me to doctors who prescribed various inhalers that I would have to carry with me and use from time to time. Not once did my
doctors or my parents consider that perhaps my symptoms were caused from breathing the exhaust from my mother’s smoking. As these memories resurfaced now, I experienced an emotional release and I began to get angry and cry from the memory of my childhood struggle. I went with it realizing that perhaps it was just “old stuff ” being cleared out of my emotional body.
After a few moments I got up and moved inside the house and found a comfortable place to sit. I told La Gringa that I felt like I was dying, as I was overcome with more waves of anxiety and fear due to my problems in breathing and the potential I felt for a heart episode. She looked at me and smiled and said, “Yes, perhaps you are dying!” I understood in that moment that this is the teaching of San Pedro. Perhaps I was meant to have just this transformational death experience. I surrendered to the increasing waves of anxiety and stress and asked La Gringa to put on some music that might help calm my nerves. Instinctively I requested the music of Deva Premal, who is a beautiful channel for the divine feminine through sacred mantra and Sanskrit chant music. As her angelic voice began to sing to my soul, I brought my hands to my heart in prayer and embraced the feeling of dying that continued to overtake me. Once again I felt the spirit of Pachamama holding me and I began to connect more deeply with the spirit of the Earth, with my own mother, and with all the past loves of my life.
I’d recently ended a three-year relationship and my heart was still tender from the end of our affair. I could feel an upwelling of emotion at this, connected to feelings of remorse for this ended love and every other ending over the years. I began to cry healing tears of deep release as I lay on the floor in fetal position. La Gringa watched over me and Isabella stood by as well as my crying intensified and I began to wail and sob uncontrollably. Even though it was painful to access this type of emotion it also felt incredibly healing. I realized I had not cried like this in many years and I embraced the opportunity to access the pain that was obviously stored within me.
After perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes of this I looked up and saw La Gringa looking down at me with a gentle smile and eyes full of compassion and understanding. Sitting up, I asked if she would hold me. She said yes and I moved to the couch where I laid my head in her lap and began to sob more deeply than before, releasing the greatest pain that I have ever felt. This went on for perhaps an hour. Occasionally I would look up at La Gringa and Isabella with snot running down my face and my eyes red with tears. I was a wreck! Yet also I was grateful for what was to be one of the deepest emotional healing experiences of my life. As I lay in La Gringa’s lap and she stroked my head I felt the comfort and nurturing of a Divine Mother like I had never had before. I had no conscious memory of ever being held like this by my own mother or any other woman. It was wonderful and liberating and healing at the deepest levels.
After a while my tears subsided and a feeling of deep peace overcame me. Thank God it was over. I felt cleansed, healed, and renewed. It was like being reborn. I looked up with a feeling of gratitude for what had just transpired and happily said, “Yay!” I told La Gringa that I thought the pain I had just released I would take to my grave, but that the alchemical combination of the wachuma, the garden healing sanctuary, and the spiritual presence of Pachamama had all combined to facilitate one of the deepest healing experiences I’d ever had. I had waited many years for this moment but now I knew that I was forever changed.
After a short period of time I collected myself and decided to take another walk out into the beautiful green countryside. I strolled through tranquil valleys with trickling streams where the birds sang as the sun broke through the dancing clouds to shine warm golden rays on my face. My senses were enlivened to where it seemed I was seeing, smelling, and hearing everything in a way I never had before. There was a vividness and aliveness to things, and I felt filled with peace, joy, and love like the radiance of a divine and holy light.
As I walked, each step had the feeling of sacred presence, and my soul seemed present in my body like never before. I felt extraordinarily and deeply connected to the Earth and sky and to all of God’s creation. It radiated from my heart in all directions simultaneously. It was like I had been awakened and rewoven into the very fabric of God through my newly enlivened senses. How thankful I am for that healing and for the grace of God, the Divine Mother, and San Pedro.
As the sun began to set over the horizon and the stars began to twinkle in the sky, our group gathered again while hot soup and fresh bread were served to us after a long day of fasting. One by one we shared our beautiful stories of the healing brought by the sacred medicine. Everyone was radiant with the spirit of love and transformation.
Looking at one another we realized how lucky we were to be able to share such a potent moment in our lives. Looking at La Gringa I felt tremendous appreciation for her medicine work and wondered how many others had sat at this table feeling the same as I did now. I also sensed the unbroken lineage of shamanic teachers and guides that have used this medicine through the centuries to heal the hearts, minds, and souls of men and women who have found their way to San Pedro.
I knew in that moment that some day I would share this story with others and hopefully inspire them to journey to their own healing San Pedro experience. As I share this story with you now perhaps you may hear the call of the ancient ones and the spirit of wachuma. May you, too, be guided by the angels and great beings of light and love who encourage us now more than ever to surrender all that does not serve us so that we might make room in our hearts for the illumination of divine love. This is my prayer and my wish for you.
17
The Songs of San Pedro
Ross Heaven
The shamans of Peru insist that plants are alive, sentient, aware, and that their intention is to assist the growth of human consciousness. They are not only able but desirous of helping human beings, easing the flow of energy in certain situations, and providing us with more evolutionary potential. Plants are the conduits for spirit, healing, and “good luck.”
This is exciting news if we choose to believe it—but they are also extraordinary claims. To compound the problem, if you were to ask the shamans (as I have done many times) how they know that plants behave in this way or have these qualities, “personalities,” and intentions, it is likely that they will say simply that “their spirits told us.” For the Western mind this can be rather deflating. We’d like proof before we place our trust in a statement like that.
The more that you work with plants and drink the great teachers like San Pedro, the more you come to understand and appreciate that the shaman’s view is fundamentally, absolutely, directly, and very obviously true. It can be frustrating for those starting out in this work, however, since it seems to make no sense and is in opposition to the Western rational model and to the way our minds have been taught to explore the world and receive information from it. It would help us if there were scientific evidence to support the assertions of the shamans that plants have personalities of their own or can communicate with us and act purposefully. Luckily there is.
RESEARCH INTO PLANT COMMUNICATION
Cleve Backster was a scientist working in the field of lie detection and interrogation techniques, specializing in polygraph testing, who decided more or less out of curiosity one day to attach the electrodes of a lie detector to the leaf of a plant to see if the device was sensitive enough to pick up reactions from a nonhuman subject. Further, he wondered if he might elicit some reaction from the plant if he burned the leaf to which the electrodes were attached.1
As soon as he thought this, before he had even picked up a match, there was a dramatic peak in the tracing pattern on the polygraph chart (a signature that he would come to recognize as fear). Intrigued by this he continued his research, testing almost thirty different plants in the same way: attaching electrodes to them and thinking of some action he might take toward them. The results were always the same.
It was significant that the plants reacted before any action was taken, leading Backst
er to conclude that not only are plants as sensitive (or more so) as human beings but are capable of precognition and able to read emotions and intentions because there is a form of psychic connection or affinity between plants and people. This might be interesting for further study in terms of the current research into San Pedro and precognition by David Luke and others. What if plants are naturally capable of precognition as Backster’s results suggest and by drinking certain plants like San Pedro that quality passes at least temporarily into us. . . ?
As his work progressed, Backster realized that plants react not just to threats but to presences or movements in their environment. He demonstrated to a group of Yale University students, for example, that the movement of a spider in the same room as a plant caused changes in the trace patterns of a polygraph to which that plant was attached. The plant had a sense of the impending results and was attuned to intention before the movement itself. “The spider’s decision . . . was being picked up by the plant,” said Backster.
Backster’s other results show that plants have memory, emotions, and very humanlike reactions as well as “psychic” abilities. In one of his experiments, six students randomly drew lots to see which of them would destroy one of two plants in a room. The person chosen would commit the killing in secret so not even Backster and the other students knew his identity. The only witness would be a second plant in the room. When the destruction was done, Backster attached a polygraph to the second plant and paraded his students in front of it. The needle went off the scale when the murderer appeared.