Hey, I'm Liam. I'm 27 and I currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada with my wife. We met 10 months ago in Pucallpa, Peru, while both working with the ancient visionary plant medicine known as Ayahuasca. This is us in Cusco, Peru.
Given the nature of this community I will assume that many of you have done some research on ayahuasca, and perhaps some of you have tried it. For those who haven't I will give this brief explanation.
To me ayahuasca is a spirit which can be ingested with the intention of gaining profound teachings about oneself and the world. Ayahuasca experiences can be captivating, blissful, terrifying, confusing and everything else in-between. However, once one has had adequate time to integrate, it is always useful and enlightening. The experience lasts between 4-8 hours and is often called the strongest psychedelic experience known to man. It is something entirely different to using LSD or mushrooms. The active entheogon contained in the medicine is DMT.
My journey with ayahuasca began in 2014, during the summer of my second year of University. At the time my life was chaotic and I was carrying a very heavy heart after a relationship failure. I gained a lot of healing and much needed clarity during that first visit to Peru. I drunk 3 times. Here is a photo of the group I stayed with.
In the following months after my trip I fixed a lot of things in my life. It would be more accurate to say, actually, that my attitude changed. I sold a lot of the possessions I was hanging onto, I stopped drinking, I began reading a book a week, my relationships improved, and I generally felt like I was making better decisions.
I decided that I would definitely be heading back to South America to continue the work with ayahuasca and whatever other plant medicines I was drawn to. I did, however, have my final year of University to finish. At this point I was utterly apathetic towards school. The entire system, content, structure, etc. seemed stupid and pointless to me. I don't think it's necessary to get into how broken the schooling systems are, as most of us are aware.
I made the decision to leave University during my final semester. My grades were good and there wasn't much left to do in the grand scheme of it all, however I just said to myself: "fuck this, I don't want to continue with any bullshit for another single day of my life", and that was that.
In the summer of 2015 I made my way back to Peru, this time to volunteer at the camp I had visited the previous year. The months leading up to my departure were not the most constructive. I had gone back to drinking, most days now, in fact. I was partying again and having casual sex with multiple partners. I was playing in high-stakes poker games I probably shouldn't have been in. You get the idea. I really needed to regain some discipline and focus.
All in all, I lived at the retreat center for 6 months. During that time I drunk ayahuacsa 14 times and facilitated the experience for other 100 individuals. I saw a lot of interesting stuff and met a lot of amazing people during my time there.
I would like to mention though that it was not all some magical and mystical experience. Life is different in that environment and you have to adapt. You are also working through a lot of your own shit that inevitably comes up when working with powerful, introspective entheogens. You are also helping people through there own shit (I did quite literally once, in fact), which isn't always easy. I was also present to help my own mother and cousin through the experience.
Anyway, I don't wish to get into too much detail about my life and experiences in the jungle, as I would like to leave ample room for questions. I hope that I can provide valuable information for anybody thinking about trying ayahuasca. I am also happy to just give open-hearted accounts of whatever anybody is interesting in hearing.
I'll leave you all with a few more photos from my time there.
I also have a website - www.liamobtv.com - where I share my favorite books, foods, and videos plus articles that I find useful.
Enjoy and thank you for reading.
What are your thoughts on playing poker after drinking Ayahuacsa? Think about trying it myself someday. Seems it could benefit me and my mind after getting Meningitis last year.
Go for it!
Great question. I played poker for a living for a number of years, and still do actually, just not with the same tenacity I used to. When I was younger poker was simply an outlet for my competitive nature and love of games. I wasn't really in it for the money. As time has past my world view and priorities have changed, and ayahuasca has played a big role in that.
A poker player is simply not delivering any value to society. For one person to win, another has to lose, and that is not a paradigm I wish to see here on Earth. Poker for me right now is a tool I use to bring in money, however I see a time in the not-too-distant future where I will no longer need that tool. My wife and I's main goal is to set up our own retreat center in South America, and that is what we are working towards daily.
Aside from the philosophical side of it, ayahuasca definitely made me a better poker player. Mindset and emotional regulation is HUGE in poker.
Liam
Sounds great. Thank you for your reply and I agree. Mostly I love playing poker for the challenge and dynamics of the game.
Did you find a difference in experience depending on the age of the person?
I found older people often had a harder time. Not always, but there was definitely a pattern a recognized. I guess that may be because they've had more traumatic experiences in life and their belief systems are more deeply ingrained.
Interesting. My experience in two groups was that I and other older ones were less impressed with it than younger ones. My assumption was we had already worked through our stuff, including with mushrooms and LSD and lots of therapy. However, I may have been too conservative in what I took, and I didn't like the use of tobacco in the ceremony.
How to joint thid retreat? How much cost to live in this community. I am interested in gong there to live there for 3 months or so.
http://www.nimeakaya.org/
Have you drunk ayahuasca before? This community will only except people as volunteers who have been previous guests of theirs.
Thanks for your reply.
No have not drank ayahuasca. Open to it.
Be free always, all ways.