November 5, 2021 • 49 mins
In this episode, we approach plant medicine from a yogic perspective. And we explore how yoga and sacred plant medicine are complementary practices with a long-standing symbiotic tradition; how yoga can be a powerful preparatory and integrative practice when working with plants; and how yoga can also be a powerful alternative to working with plants—not everyone needs to work with plants.
It’s Native American Heritage Month so I just want to acknowledge the debt we owe to the native people of this land and all sacred lands, and the importance of respecting all indigenous traditions in joining sacred plant ceremonies and working with sacred plants. I think it’s important to engage only in ceremonies that preserve traditions and have the blessing of indigenous curanderos. The world needs these sacred traditions, and they should be spread far and wide, but with a deep respect for their roots.
I will be offering a plant medicine integration yoga class as part of the upcoming Belize International Yoga Festival on December 4. It will offer a taste of the kinds of yoga integration practices I share with students and clients. You can learn more here.
Full show notes here.
Want to talk about how Chad can assist you with your own transformation?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chad Woodford (00:00):
It grew dark and quiet in the old, colonial,
stone convent that had beenconverted into a ceremony space.
Somewhere in upstate New York. Ihad just downed a sizable cup of
ayahuasca. Before long thefamiliar whirring at the edge of
my hearing signaled thebeginning of the inner journey.
(00:22):
Suddenly, I found myself in alarge carnival or circus tent
facing a stage, framed by heavy,dusty brown curtains. A large
man in tails and a top hatmounted the stage and began to
speak. "Ladies and gentlemen,introducing Chad Woodford, a man
(00:44):
who doesn't like to feel hisfeelings!"
Raucous applause came from anaudience I couldn't see. And of
course, he was right. At thatpoint, I was terrible at feeling
my feelings. I knew then that itwould be an interesting and
powerful night. Eventually, Idid have to move to the "VIP
room" to feel my feelingsbasically, or at least try to.
(01:08):
They seemed to be stuck at thattime in an enormous ball of
energy in my gut that wouldn'tmove. I was shaking and unsure
what to do with myself.
Eventually, the shaman came intothe VIP room and sang me a
traditional icaro. And I learnedin that moment to receive this
outpouring of love, through herenergy and her song and her
(01:29):
love. She helped me to movethese feelings up and out and to
receive that nurturing love.
(01:50):
Welcome to Spiritual But NotRidiculous, a podcast that
explores the world ofspirituality, from a grounded
and clear eyed perspective. I'myour host, Jayadev, a yoga
teacher, Vedic astrologer,attorney, and technologist.
(02:15):
So I wanted to share this littlepersonal story to sort of bring
us into this topic, this monthof yoga and plant medicine. And
in the ways that these twomodalities, these two practices
sort of go together as almostlike a, you know, almost like a
helix formation. In thisepisode, we will approach the
(02:38):
topic of plant medicine from theperspective of a yoga teacher
basically. And so I'll talkabout how yoga and sacred plant
medicines are complementarypractices with a long-standing
symbiotic tradition, actually.
So we'll explore briefly, forall you yoga nerds out there the
yoga scriptural references tothe use of plant medicine as a
(02:59):
means for achieving unity,essentially. And then we'll talk
about how yoga can be a powerfulpreparatory and integrative
practice when working with thesesacred plants. In short, yoga,
in my experience is perfect forpreparing you to work with the
plants, for serving as a helpfultool during the process of being
in ceremony, and then forintegrating that experience
(03:21):
afterwards. And then we'll talka little bit about how yoga on
its own can be a powerfulalternative to working with
plants. Not everyone needs towork with the sacred plants.
So I wanted to open with a quotefrom Wade Davis, this Harvard
ethnobotanist, writing in 1996,in his book, One River, where
(03:43):
he's speaking of his experienceswith the Kofán tribe, working
with ayahuasca. So here's WadeDavis, "Ayahuasca was far more
than a shamanic tool. It is thesource of wisdom itself, the
ultimate medium of knowledge forthe entire society. To drink
Ayahuasca is to learn. It is thevehicle by which each person
(04:05):
acquires power and directexperience of the Divine." And
so it's this direct experienceof the Divine, I think, that
tees up so nicely, this wholediscussion because ultimately
yoga isn't is designed to, anddoes, provide you with that
direct experience. Increasingly,people all over the world are
(04:27):
experiencing deep transformationeither voluntarily through
working with entheogens, likeAyahuasca or San Pedro or MDMA
or psilocybin mushrooms, orinvoluntarily through just being
human during the COVID pandemic,right? I think the COVID
pandemic is actually sort of aglobal sacred ceremony that
we're all going through andexperiencing. And there's no
(04:49):
doubt that more and more peopleare curious about or exploring
or working with plant medicinesof different kinds as tools for
healing and transformation.
So in this episode I want toexplore the role of plant
medicines from the perspectiveof a yoga teacher, and see how
they can fit into the broaderspiritual path. I want to
explore the commonalitiesbetween yoga and plant medicine,
(05:11):
and how they can be woventogether into a cohesive
practice, one that can providethe direct experience of unity
consciousness. In this episode,I will also explore how yoga can
be a viable alternative toworking with plant medicine,
especially the holistictransformational style of yoga
that I teach. In my experience,yoga in plant medicine are
complementary modalities. Theyare both aimed at helping people
(05:33):
to identify more with the heartand soul to feel and integrate
all their emotions andultimately to experience true
freedom and joy. And they arealso both essential practices, I
think, for helping humanityduring this time, to transition
gracefully into this dawningWisdom Revolutionar or
Consciousness Revolution, thatpeople like Peter Russell and
Stanislav Grof, and others havetalked about. And it's
(05:57):
interesting to me too, it'lltalk about this more later that
advanced yoga and meditationpractices, the way they're
working on the physiologicallevel is they're granting us
access to the pituitary, andthen the pineal gland. And this
is where DMT naturally residesin the human body. And so it's
interesting because these plantmedicines, especially ayahuasca,
(06:17):
contain this psychoactive agentDMT. And then, you know, in this
episode, too, I want to describeor at least preview a little bit
some of the integrativepractices that I offer to my
students and clients. I'llactually be exploring and
sharing some of these practicesin depth as part of the upcoming
Belize International YogaFestival that is taking place on
(06:39):
December 4th. So check that outat the links in the show notes.
So yeah, so there's no doubtthat psychedelics and
theologians, Ayahuasca, SanPedro, psilocybin, and DMT in
all its forms are having theirmoment right now, you know,
these are being talked about ina kind of, revitalized way, and
(07:00):
especially around the topic ofsort of healing and doing this
kind of transformational workand using these things as tools
to grow, expand and healourselves.
Okay, so before we continue, Ijust want to mention a couple of
quick notes, quick reminders. Ifyou enjoy the podcast, you can
(07:20):
buy me a coffee atelemental.yoga/podcast, or I'm
trying this new thing kofi. Soif you like Kofi instead, you
can go to ko-fi.com/jayadev. Andyou can, you could donate a few
bucks there if you if you enjoythe podcast, or you can just
(07:40):
leave me a rating on ApplePodcasts. You can find me on
Instagram at @elementalyoga. AndI just wanted to say next month
to nice tie in here. Next month,I'm interviewing Sophia Rokhlin
about plant medicine, so lookfor that in your feed too.
(08:06):
In preparing for this episode, Iwent back to my old journals
from my first Ayahuascaceremonies in the Peruvian
jungle some five years ago. AndI've been reflecting on my own
experiences with ayahuasca overthe past five years, and the
ways that that has sort of tiedinto my my broader spiritual
practices. So I just wanted tomention a few things, a few
personal anecdotes to give you ataste for what my experience has
(08:28):
been like. And maybe for peoplewho are new to these medicines,
these these plants, you know, itgives you an idea maybe of what
the experience can be like. Sothe first thing I love about it
is it's a sacred ceremony. Sothis is something that we also
work with and practice in on theyoga side is the sacred rituals.
And like yoga, you go into it,setting intention. So I think
(08:50):
like any experience in life, themore you approach and experience
with conscious intentions, themore that experience can sort of
benefit you in conscious ways,right? So my experience of the
plants, ayahuasca in particular,is that there is this wise
intelligence that seems likeyou're communicating with, it's
(09:13):
like this wise intelligence thatcan read your every thought and
answer your every question. Andit does so with a gentle
firmness, but also a wickedsense of humor, at least in my
case. For example, one time Ithink it was my very first
ceremony I was thinking aboutthis book I had read years ago.
Why Does the World Exist? by JimHolt. It's this book by this
(09:34):
physicist, that explores thequestion of why there's
something, why there'sexistence, rather than just
nothingness. Which is kind of afunny question if you think
about it, but I was thinkingabout this book for some
strange, random reason. And Iimmediately receive sort of like
all these guffaws and snickersfrom this unseen audience off to
the side. And if you remember mylittle anecdote at the top, that
(09:54):
seems to be a theme in myceremonies, or at least it was
for a while this this kind oflike, audience that would react
yo my thoughts. But yeah, thenthis, then this disembodied
voice said, "Nothing? Lame!" andanother voice made the raspberry
noise, right? You know, it'slike, I don't know, in the
beginning of my experiences, itwas like a comedy bit you know,
(10:16):
but it was also very wise andthere was just like wise being
that was just pulsing and likebreathing and this kind of
shifting, loving presence, veryplayful very patient to. And so
much of my experiences was asort of remembering, like
remembering where I and everyoneelse had come from remembering
(10:36):
that there is this quiet,powerful force animating
everything that loves us andsupports us and watches out for
us at remembering that we arethat we are powerful, and we are
the ones that we've been waitingfor. I also received a lot of
messages and feelings andunderstanding that life is not
(10:59):
meant to be a struggle. Youknow, it's like, I don't know if
you guys are Bjork fans, butthere's that song she has: Undo.
You know, life is not meant tobe a struggle, "if you're
struggling, you're trying toohard," you know. And that was
something I came away from myceremonies with. And I want to
just talk about this oneexperience I had, I think it was
the first ceremony ever, in thedeep end Amazon in Peru, with
(11:19):
the Shipibo tribe. So one thingthat they advise you to do that
the shamans or the curanderos orthe vegetalistas advise you to
do is to ask the medicine or thespirit of ayahuasca these
questions, right. So one topic Iwas exploring at this time was
love, romantic love, but alsospiritual love. And so I asked,
(11:41):
gently requested the medicine,the spirit, to show me how love
feels. And there I am in themaloka, this structure in the
middle of the jungle, and myheart, immediately swelled with
a orangish, reddish kind ofenergy that spread my entire
body. And it came on in thesesoothing waves. So then I asked,
(12:04):
"How big can love be." And thenit laughed. And I could feel my
heart, expanding slowly atfirst, but quickly, my whole
body became filled with thisorange, red swirling light. And
it felt as if my body was thesize of the whole jungle. And
then this loving voice in myhead said, "Don't you know that
(12:26):
the entire universe loves you?"That's how much love there is.
And then I felt infinite love,like the size of the entire
universe. And I just, I canremember thinking to myself,
"the universe loves us." It wascreated as an act of love, just
like the classic Tantrikas 1000years ago talked about. I just
(12:47):
kept saying to myself, "it'sinfinite, it's infinite." I was
sort of incredulous that therecould be that much love. You
I think especially because Ididn't maybe have so much love
know,in my formative years. And then
another big part of myexperience with Ayahuasca has
been this sort of shedding ofconditioning and identities, you
know, shedding those personasthat were based on what other
(13:08):
people seem to want from me orwhat society wanted from me. And
I started to lose this knowingkind of arrogant, ironic air
that I used to carry and, andall these defense mechanisms
that I had. And I started tolearn, like I said, at the top,
I started to learn how to feelmy feelings, maybe for the first
time in my life, truly, theseenormous balls of repressed
(13:29):
emotion, were moving up and outof me in these ceremonies. And,
you know, sometimes it would belike silent screams that would
come out as it was moving out ofme are very loud screams that
it's part of why I had to gointo the "VIP room." And so in
this process, I was releasingall this anger from a long time
ago and all this shame. Youknow, I grew up Catholic and
(13:51):
yeah, just all this, like, deepsadness that I was carrying
around with me. And so muchdisappointment, you know. For
entire ceremonies for like ayear, I had to sit inside the
feeling of disappointment forhours on end. And that was
really challenging. But but sonecessary too. Yeah, at one
point, I turned into a firebreathing dragon. And, yeah, so
(14:13):
these are the kinds of thingsI'm just trying to give you a
sense for the kinds of thingsthat you can experience or
benefit from these ceremonies.
But, but part of why I'm sayingall this, too, is to convey how
intense and revelatory and sortof raw these experiences can be.
And so as a result, it's soimportant to integrate these
(14:36):
experiences. You know, it's noteasy to just process them on
your own. You need support, Ithink and what's great about a
lot of these temples andceremony spaces is that they do
offer as part of their offering,integration, support and
integration practices. But in myexperience, I've not really
encountered so much this yogicapproach to integration. So
(15:00):
we're going to talk about thatin this episode.
(15:34):
First, I want to explore theinterwoven history of yoga and
sacred plants a little bit. Idon't want to get too
sidetracked. But I just thinkthis is interesting. I think
these are two keys that open thesame transcendental door. And
these are the kinds of thingsthat people like Ram Dass have
talked about. So Ram Dass, Ithink is a good entry point
here. Because, you know, asyou're probably aware, in the
(15:55):
20th century, there was thispsychedelic movement right in
the 60s especially. And for alot of people the psychedelic
drugs were the entry point intoexploring yoga Eastern
mysticism, spirituality and allthat, right. And so we here we
have Ram Dass kind of likeleading the charge Ram Dass and
Timothy Leary, and all thoseguys. And you know, Ram Dass
(16:15):
credited psychedelic mushroomswith his discovery of and
passion for yoga. Through yoga,he was trying to achieve the
same transcendental states thathe was experiencing with
mushrooms especially. But thisconnection between the two
modalities is not new by anymeans. In fact, I think there is
this long-standing tradition,and I want to talk about that.
(16:38):
But I think we're talking abouthere too, is this perennial
philosophy that Aldous Huxleytalked about? Aldous Huxley, in
his beautiful book by the samename, talked about how every one
of the world's spiritual andreligious traditions share a
single metaphysical truth. Thisperennial philosophy is most
succinctly expressed in theSanskrit formulations tat tvam
(16:59):
asi, or Hari Om or even So Hum.
Basically, this is that or that,as this, you know, is what
they're saying? Ain't that thetruth? Right? So another way to
state this is that there is asubtle, unitary underlying
reality to everything thatconnects everything, and that it
is possible for us to know thatexperientially, this is what we
learned in yoga, right. And infact, the explicit purpose of
(17:22):
yoga is for us to access thatstate consistently, and to
experience unity directlythrough the practice of yoga.
And in my personal experience,working with plant medicine
offers that same experience. Ipersonally have had the direct
experience of what I've beentrying to achieve achieve for a
long time through yoga, and hadonly managed to catch the
(17:43):
briefest of glimpses of here andthere. So my experience is going
back, you know, starting fiveyears ago with plant medicine,
Ayahuasca in particular, madethis state of yoga that the
ancient Yogi's talked about, itseemed like more of a real
possibility. And so then I wasmotivated to seek that out and
to find yoga traditions, yogicpractices that could offer that
(18:04):
provide that. And again, itturns out, there has been a long
symbiotic relationship betweenSacred plants and yoga. So
let's, let's explore that for amoment. I think this section
will be especially interestingto yoga teachers, but for
everyone, really.
So there's this ancient yogicsage Patanjali, possibly a
(18:25):
mythical figure, who was said tobe half man, half snake, who
wrote possibly the most quotedand cited and studied yogic
texts in the modern era, theyoga, the Yoga Sutras, every
yoga training in the West,assigns this as reading, right.
And so in this book, he actuallytalks about using Sacred plants
(18:46):
to achieve state of yoga. So Iwant to open this section with a
quote from yoga sutra 4.1, whichis where he talks about this.
Here's Patanjali (18:55):
"The state of unity may be attained through
Dharmic birth, the use of sacredplants, Mantra, tapaha or
Samadhi. So this is the mythicalPatanjali circa 400 BCE, or 400
CE, depending on who you talk tothe dates of when he wrote this,
(19:15):
and when he lived or actuallydisputed, but sometime around
2,000 years ago, he's talkingabout this. And he's listing
these five means to becomeaccomplished in yoga or to
experience the state of yoga. Sowe have again, meditation /
Samadhi, mantra, which is theyoga of vibration, tapaha, which
is a couple of different thingsdepending on how you look at it.
(19:36):
But basically, it's the fire orintensity of practice of the
yoga practice. It's the fire or,or the benefit of consistent
self discipline, and it's thefire that comes out of having a
dedicated yoga practice. Sothat's tapaha. And then he talks
about being born with readyaccess to the state of yoga
because of accumulated punya,where you're drawing on
(19:58):
spiritual effort from past pastlives. So here you'd be acting
more from a dharmic state than akarmic state, right? You're more
relatively free from karma andmore acting in a state of flow
in a state of yoga. But thefifth one is, Sacred plants or
oshadhi, as it's written in theSanskrit text.
(20:21):
So I want to just explore whatthis might mean in the context
of the Yoga Sutras. You know,few yoga teachers are willing to
discuss or interpret these,these latter two chapters of the
Yoga Sutras. There are a fewexceptions, but generally people
avoid them because they seem soesoteric and and, you know,
fantastical, right? These, thesetwo chapters basically talk a
(20:42):
lot about how to achieve theseyogic siddhis, right? These
yogic powers, basically, youknow, things like levitating and
reading minds and becoming largeor very small, and that kind of
thing. So these things, youknow, they sound kind of
ridiculous are kind offar-fetched. So I think people
generally don't talk aboutthese. Part of it, too, is a lot
(21:02):
of teachers will tell you, youknow, if you're, if you're
you're focusing on achievingthese cities, you're being
distracted from the yogic path,right. So they seem almost
irrelevant in this day and age.
But nevertheless, I think it'sinteresting to, to ask the
question, you know, why isPatanjali talking here about
Sacred plants? And what doesthat mean? So Patanjali does
this thing in 4.1, that he doesa few times throughout the
(21:26):
Sutras, where he sort of drops aconcept or a word on you, and
then says nothing else about it,right. We see this with asana.
He doesn't really talk aboutasana in the Sutras, which is
interesting, because we have allthese yoga teachers who are
primarily studying asana,studying a text that doesn't
really discuss asana, butnevertheless, he also does this
with kriya, he mentions kriya, Ithink once in the Sutras, and
(21:49):
doesn't really say what it is somuch. So yeah, he does this
thing, or she does this thingwhere he or she is introducing
this term, and then sayingnothing more about it. So we
have the same thing with oshadhihere, right. But let's look at
oshadhi as much as we can. And Iwant to just say I'm not a
Sanskrit scholar, but I'll do mybest here. So oshadhi. One
definition of this is to makeknown or to reveal something
(22:13):
surprising, oshadhi the word isbased on the root osha, which
means "light bearing." But herewe have basically, then an herb
or a plant that brings clarityor fosters increasingly greater
values of light, which is oneway of defining enlightenment,
increasing values of light. Sothis interpretation suggests
(22:35):
that what these plants reveal tous from a yogic standpoint may
be surprising. So what wassurprising about what they're
revealing, right? Maybe it'sthat the direct experience of
unity is available to us alwayshere and now. Or maybe it's that
our true nature is bliss, orinfinite love, or that all we
need is already here if wesimply allow it to be. So
(22:56):
understandably, a fewcommentators have been willing
to explore the significance ofthis sutra. Part of the reason
might be a relative lack ofpopularity of the use of plant
medicines at the time that theywere writing, or just their own
personal lack of experience withthese things. But let's just
look at a couple examples. Wehave BKS Iyengar, writing in
(23:17):
1993. And his commentary on theYoga Sutras, he tells us that
there was a sage, Sage Mandavyaand King Yayati, who attained
the state of yoga, and somepowerful siddhis through the use
of this mysterious elixir oflife that Patanjali is talking
about. And more recently, in2009, we have Edwin Bryant, just
(23:40):
mentioning in passing, that thesubstance that Patanjali is
probably talking about here isthis mythical and mysterious
Soma, which we'll talk moreabout in a moment. And then my
favorite one, we have SwamiSatchidananda, in 1978, telling
us that Patanjali also gives ussome clues about the people who
"get some experiences throughtheir LSD and marijuana." And
(24:03):
this is a sentiment that is sortof effervescing out of the mid
1970s For me, right? Like, itjust makes Satchidananda sound
very square. Those are just acouple examples. I mean, nobody
really tries to understand whatPatanjali is talking about here.
And nobody knows with certaintywhat plants he would have been
referring to. I think he doesthis thing in the Sutras where
(24:25):
he only mentions a tournamentpassing because those terms were
familiar to his readers at thetime. So he didn't need to
explain them. So there's anargument here, I think that he
mentioned this in passingbecause oh shot he was such a
well known practice 2000 yearsago in India. Okay, so let's
explore a little bit more whatthis substance might have been
(24:48):
by going back in time to thetime of the Vedas, the Rigveda
in particular, which is datedsomewhere between I think
3,500 years ago and 7,000 yearsago, you know, when you go back
that far, it's based on an oraltradition. And, and oftentimes,
these scriptures were writtendown on palm fronds which are
(25:10):
then you know, disintegrating sothey have to recopy them. So
it's hard to date these things.
But there's an entire mandala inthe Rigveda called the Soma
Mandala that's devoted to thismysterious substance. In there,
there's 114 hymns devoted toSoma Pavana, "purifying Soma,"
the sacred potion of the Vedictradition. And these hymns are
(25:31):
interesting, you should readthem if you get a chance. They
attest rapturously that "half ofus is on earth, the other half
and heaven. We have drunk Soma,we have drunk soma and have
become immortal. We haveattained the light, the gods
have discovered." It'sfascinating stuff. And so keep
in mind that for these Yogi'simmortality is often the
(25:53):
realization of our oneness, andthe consequent knowledge that
death is nothing to fear. It's asimple transition from one state
to another. So when they sayimmortality here, I think it's
just these, this knowing thatreally, in a way, our lives are
just part of a long continuum.
Okay, so the other thing that'sreally interesting to me about
(26:14):
this Soma Mandola is they speakat length of mashing the stalk
of a plant with stones toprepare this Soma. And it's, you
know, sort of similar to howAyahuasca is prepared by
pounding the Ayahuasca vine inadvance of brewing it with the
chakruna plan. So some scholarshave also tackled this Soma
(26:36):
Mandala, this section of theRigveda. And there's been some
conjecture about what thesubstance might have been. It
may have been a mixture ofpoppy, Chinese ephedra, and
cannabis, which to me, doesn'tsound too exciting. But that
also shows how narrow minded andinexperienced some of these
scholars may have been with anykind of sacred plant, right?
(26:57):
Another possibility that peoplehave suggested is that they were
a psychedelic mushrooms which ispossible, or wild rue, which
contains a lot of the samealkaloids as Ayahuasca. So
that's plausible, too, althoughI've never taken wild rue
personally. In any case thisveda is describing these plants
in a way that is reminiscent ofplants like Ayahuasca. So that's
(27:18):
really interesting to me. So thebroader point here is that using
Sacred plants, was obviously awell known practice in
Patanjali's time, 2000 years agoin India, and was apparently a
common part of people'sspiritual practice. But in any
case, I don't think we needscriptural authority to, to work
(27:39):
with these plants, right? It'sjust interesting. There's this
long-standing history thatpeople don't necessarily know
about. Part of why I wanted tohighlight this too, was that I
have had a lot of yoga teachersin the past who were vocally
opposed to the use of plants, aspart of any kind of practice.
Maybe they felt like it was athreat to their own authority or
something. But you know, in myexperience, they go so well
(28:01):
together. And you know, hey,maybe some of you out there are
the type of person who has feltresistance to working with
plants. And now that I've toldyou about Patanjali is
authorization to use it is hisencouragement to use it. Maybe
that'll push you over the edge,maybe that's enough for some
people to give it a try. But I'mnot here to convince anybody of
(28:24):
anything really, I'm just, I'mjust talking. So I think you
know, I think using plants toaid your evolution will appeal
to some people, especially thosewho prefer the Terence McKenna
approach to life, you know,avoiding gurus and following
plants. Or, you know, yoga andmeditation will appeal to
others, or, you know, maybe ablend of some kind for some
(28:45):
people, different practices fordifferent folks, basically. And
I do think, over time, relianceon plants in general, probably
falls away as you naturallyprogress along the spiritual
path. But, in my opinion,there's nothing wrong with
asking for a little boost alongthe way. And for many people,
plants can be that boost. Afterall, the ancient Yogi's tell us
(29:08):
that nature is infinitelyintelligent. It's a self
organizing consciousness farbeyond our wildest imaginations.
And so for this reason to Ithink there can be no harm in
communing directly with naturethrough its various expressions,
including these plants. In myexperience, nature seems to want
us to.
(29:53):
Now, I want to talk a little bitabout weaving yoga and plant
medicine together in anintentional way. I think yoga
ultimately is a practice ofintegration. We're integrating
Atman and Brahman, right, we'reintegrating the self and the
other. Yoga is a process ofmaking us whole at every level.
(30:14):
So given the similarities thatwe've explored between the state
of yoga, and visionary plantmedicine, it's no surprise that
yoga can be the perfectcompanion to working with sacred
plants like Ayahuasca. For me,having a solid yoga practice,
going into my experiences withplant medicine, allowed me to
have both a more groundedexperience and a deeper
(30:37):
experience with the medicine forseveral different reasons. First
of all, ceremonies or thesejourneys, these plant journeys
can last for hours at a time. Soat a basic physical level, I was
able to sit more comfortably ona mat on the floor for longer
periods of time, because my hipswere more open and my body was
used to sitting on the floor. Soyou know, this is where the
(30:59):
awesome portion of the yogapractice can really benefit you.
Not only that, but in a lot ofthese more surrendered purgative
ceremonies, I was in a sort ofmodified Child's Pose, you know,
like, surrendering into thepurging with a bucket in front
of me, you know, so I think thatto having the yoga asana
practice, can can let you spendmore time on the floor in a
(31:21):
comfortable way, basically. Butmore importantly, having all
this yoga practice going intothe ceremonies, it I was able to
bring with me a deeply rootedsense of trust. Yoga has
instilled in me a deep certaintythat no experience is too big
for my soul to handle, like itdid for Arjuna in the Bhagavad
(31:42):
Gita, that kind of thing. Andthis inner knowing can come in
handy during these intenseceremonies, right? When you're
like, what is happening, you canreturn to this, this sort of
like felt sense thateverything's gonna be okay, no
matter what. And then also,during the more intense phases
of an Ayahuasca journey, you candraw on specific yogic
practices, like energeticpractices like pranayama,
(32:03):
breathwork, even mantra, to helpto ground or stabilize or
soothe. And I've certainly donethat many times in my
ceremonies. I've even used Asanasometimes to help to ground me
during particularly emotionaltimes during the ceremony. So
yeah, so you can use simpleAsana postures on the mat, or in
(32:26):
another room, you can just havea simple breath awareness
technique. Or you can you candraw on some kind of mantra and
this is where I think it'suseful for people to to memorize
some some mantra before they gointo a ceremony. This is a lot
of what I work with, with myclients and students you know,
so just a couple examples youcould work with a mantra like
(32:48):
Aham Shraddha which is a mantrathat basically is invoking this
attitude of surrender, right? SoAham Shraddha. You can work
with a grounding mantra likeGreen Tara or Parvati, right?
(33:11):
Green Tara mantra sounds alittle bit like this: Om Tare tu
Tare Ture, So Hum Om Tare tuTare Ture, So Hum. Tare tu Tare
Ture, So Hum. Or you might workwith a Ganesha mantra to remove
(33:35):
obstacles or to help ease atransition. Om Gang
Ganapataye Namaha. Om GangGanapataye Namaha. There's so
(34:00):
many options here. You couldwork with Medicine Buddha. I
have chanted this in ceremoniesthat I've facilitated towards
the end to sort of bring ahealing bhava into the space,
you know, or you could work witha fierce mantra if you wanted to
cut through some kind ofblockage, right, some energetic
blockage, Durga or Kali orsomething, right. So these are
all you know, and obviously,you're working with these
(34:21):
mantras silently to yourself asa thought, you know, you're not
doing it in this space, right.
But these are the kinds of toolsthat I oftentimes will share
with pasajeros, you know, withthe people who are voyaging in
these journeys, the ceremoniesthat I'm facilitating, right,
you know, people will oftentimesask for a facilitator or an
angel to come over and help themout and it's helpful to have
these tools to offer as well.
(34:42):
And the place where you get themost benefit from bringing yoga
into the plant medicine space isintegration. This is where
energetic practices designed towork with the subtle body can
help us to ground and integratethese intense emotional
experiences. Yoga here can helpyou to connect more deeply to
(35:03):
your center and your higherself. It can recirculate the
prana and Kundalini that's maybefreeing up in the ceremony in a
holistic and restorative way.
And sure, I think yoga isperfect for preparing to work
with the plants for serving as ahelpful tool during the process
and for integrating theexperience afterwards. And so I
do offer these individuallytailored integration practices
(35:26):
for students, and for people whoare working with plant medicine.
And it's, you know, it's alwaysa customized sequence or
customized sadhana that I'mgiving that some combination of
grounding practices, restorativepractices, healing practices,
and sometimes devotionalpractices. And these practices
are helping the person toaddress both their physical body
(35:47):
but also their energetic andemotional body. And they can
include meditation practice, youknow, having I think having a
consistent meditation practicecan be immensely helpful in both
entering a plant medicineceremony, but also in
integrating that ceremonyafterwards. Meditation after
all, is a practice and growingquiet. So it allows you to
(36:10):
deeply listen and enter a stateof total self acceptance, which
can be huge for integration. Imay offer people restorative or
Yin practices breathwork,pranayama. And then lots of
kriyas. Kriyas, I think, are themost integrative practice in
yoga. So there's healing kriyas,grounding kriyas, devotional
(36:33):
kriyas; forgiveness kriyas arereally powerful. And kriyas that
can bring you into more of astate of bliss can be helpful
too. And so through all thiswork, all of this breath and
mantra and mudras, we'rebalancing the lower chakras and
awakening the upper chakras, andrestoring and strengthening our
(36:56):
general energetic body. Anotherintegrative practice that I
love, and that I oftentimes willgive to people is developing
some sort of sacred ritual foryourself, or I might even do a
sacred ritual for some people,right? Because it's a nice
mirror of the sacred ceremonialspace that happens with plant
medicine. Through both of thesemodalities were accessing
(37:18):
different layers of reality andof ourselves by working with the
various elements of nature. Sobecause of that, sacred rituals
can be essential to sort oftuning into the intelligence of
nature and developing a powerfulvulnerability and a devotional
kind of attitude towards life.
(37:40):
The benefit here, I think ofsacred rituals, too, is that
most of us live in thisabstracted mental world of
concepts, where we'redisconnected from the sensual
world, from the elements. Sothese rituals can help us to
reconnect with both the groundlevel reality and meet that
fully, but also with deeperlevels of our own being. I think
the more that we can cultivate asense of the sacred in life, the
(38:03):
more we can become our trueselves. Again, plant medicine
and yoga are both only everputting us in more direct
contact with the unity ofexistence. And this is done
especially through sacredrituals, through the heart, and
not the head throughsurrendering, not forcing or
(38:25):
controlling.
So some of the sacred ritualsthat come from the yoga
tradition are puja, which can bedone in the morning before
meditation. There's yagyas,these traditional fire
ceremonies, there's moreadvanced practices like Bhuta
Shuddhi, which can be used towork with the elements in a more
advanced way more elevated way.
And so again, these are helpingus to access our higher and
(38:45):
deeper selves. And so throughthe five elements of nature, we
can access these differentqualities in ourselves. So
that's a little bit about whatthe specifics of an integration
practice look like. Now, I wantto talk about how yoga can sort
of serve as its own alternativeto plant medicine, you don't
have to work with plant medicineas I said.
(39:24):
There are advantages anddisadvantages to rely on plant
medicine to do the hard work ofself inquiry, and the shadow
work. I mean, it can be a greatjumpstart for people. It can
open you up to parts of yourselfthat you had previously had no
contact with. It can get you outof your head and into your
heart. And it can shift you fromover analysis to more intuition.
(39:44):
More of an intuitive approach tolife. And like I talked about
before, plant medicine just likeyoga can help us to feel intense
emotions in the safe containerof a sacred ceremony. Sometimes,
plant medicine can even cutthrough a tendency for spiritual
bypass, you know, I think somany people sort of want to want
to change instead of actuallychanging, right. So that can be
(40:06):
a nice, sort of like cuttingthrough of that tendency.
Basically, plant medicine can belike a system reset, that then
sets you on a path ofpotentially exploring yoga in
greater depth. It's extremelyheart-opening. Plant medicine is
referred to by shamans andcuranderos and, and traditional
indigenous people, as a heartmedicine. And so it can be very
(40:28):
heart opening in that way. Andthat's been my personal
experience with it. And plants,like ayahuasca, are also great
for working on our subtle body,the part of us that holistic
yoga practices, alsospecifically target so there's
this again, this parallel,there's these benefits that come
from both practices. And it'sjust more matter of personal
preference and intuition andthat kind of thing. But
(40:52):
sometimes I wonder for certainpeople, if maybe plant medicine
is a shortcut, or maybe too muchtoo soon, right? Ram Dass
actually asked this question inhis commentary to the Bhagavad
Gita. He wonders if people whostart their journey like he did
with psychedelics before yoga,are getting ahead of themselves.
(41:13):
He likens it to this section inchapter 11 of the Gita, where
Arjuna is asking Krishna to showhim his true nature. But here
Arjuna has gone through theprevious 10 chapters, and had
Krishna systematically teach himyoga. So he was on some level
prepared for this vision. Butalso, he was overwhelmed by it,
(41:35):
right. And so he sees Krishnahis true nature, and he asked
him to please stop. So. Somaybe, for some people, it can
be like that, you know, you needto first go through the first 10
chapters of Krishna teaching youyoga before you can do the plant
medicine. And that I guess, in away, that was my experience, I
had done 10 years of yoga beforegoing into working with plant
(41:55):
medicine. And again, here's RamDass talking about his guru Neem
Karoli Baba and, and Neem KaroliBaba's perspective on these
medicines, LSD in particular.
Here's Neem Karoli Baba talking
about it (42:08):
"These medicines will allow you to come and visit
Christ, but you can only staytwo hours, then you have to
leave again. This is not thetrue Samadhi. it's better to
become Christ than to visit him.
But even the visit of a saintfor a moment is useful. In the
end, love is the most powerfulmedicine; for love slowly
(42:31):
transforms you into what thepsychedelics only let you
glimpse." So, again, it seemslike it's it's a personal
preference. It's whatever youseem to need, and you just got
to feel into it right.
But I just want to talk a littlebit about some of the advantages
of yoga over plant medicinehere. First of all, not everyone
(42:57):
has the luxury of traveling toSouth America or risking an
illegal ceremony in their owncountry. I mean, plant medicine
requires financial resources,large chunks of time and a
certain tolerance for intensephysical and emotional
experiences that are far outsidethe norm. plant medicine
ceremonies also require a lot ofconcentrated time and energy,
(43:17):
days, weeks, sometimes months ofdedicated ceremony and
integration time. Not everyoneis ready for or wants to dive
deeply into their trauma andtheir darkest emotional states.
Many want a practice that letsthem feel their feelings
gradually in more manageablebite sized chunks perhaps. And
so I think yoga can also be thatmore sustainable long term
(43:39):
practice, especially a holisticstyle that combines energetic
practices and devotionalpractices and that kind of
thing.
These holistic yoga practicescan be seamlessly woven into
your daily life, you don't haveto run off to the jungle for an
intense retreat period, and thenintegrate all that you know, and
make a dietary change for amonth and all that you know, and
(44:00):
this is actually how Idiscovered Elemental Yoga in the
first place these practices thatI learned in the Himalayas were
giving me the same experiences Iwas having with ayahuasca and so
this is why I was so excited tobring these back and to share
these techniques. So throughholistic yoga, like like
Elemental Yoga, you can realizethe same benefits that you
realize in an Ayahuasca ceremonyby working with prana and
(44:24):
Kundalini, which is naturallyarising in the human body and
tapping into the DMT thatnaturally arises. And maybe
these practices can help us tobypass spiritual bypass and they
can install like deep insideyour heart and soul this
unshakable knowing that you aresoftly, quietly invincible. So
(44:45):
yoga is more accessible, it'smore adaptable, and it's
available in small portions ifyou like. You can do 15 minutes
a day or two hours a day. Youcan go on a yoga retreat too.
And everyone has access to youknow, pretty affordable yoga
now, especially online. Anotherbenefit of yoga over plant
medicine is that if you do enterinto these deeply transcendental
(45:07):
states that can come out ofthese practices, you can then
pull yourself out of it if itbecomes too intense, or if you
need to deal with mundanereality. I mean, of course,
having said that, there may be abenefit to the lack of control
and surrender that's required byplant medicine. So again, I'm
just kind of going through thedifferent pluses and minuses
here. And it's up to you todecide. So even though Patanjali
(45:30):
is talking about working withpsychoactive plants in the Yoga
Sutras, I think at some pointyou have to leave the plants
behind. I think Patanjali wouldhave agreed, given how little he
talks about these plants in theyoga sutras. In the end,
everything you need to accessyour inherent bliss, nature is
inside of you. And yoga can helpyou to more consistently enter
(45:50):
the state of yoga at will. Itcan give you the tools to become
more yourself. There is no oneway maybe some people are the
jump right in and work backwardstypes. But you know, some people
may want a more gradualapproach. Sometimes you need the
inspiration of the grand visionsfrom an Ayahuasca journey to set
you on a dedicated and steadypath of yoga like Ram Dass. But
(46:14):
you know, you start where youare, you follow your intuition
and you do what calls to you.
For me it was yoga first, thenplant medicine, and then both
together, and now they'reinterwoven like a beautiful
helix for me. There's nomistakes. There's no correct
path. There's only grace andlove and practice. In my
experience, a holistic yogapractice that works with a
(46:38):
subtle body can help tointegrate or take the place of
plant medicines like Ayahuasca.
The two modalities can work sideby side in an integrative spiral
of change, a returning home tooneself. My yoga offerings,
elemental yoga is heavilyinfluenced by these ancient
(46:58):
elemental shamanic practices. Asmy students know, a lot of my
yoga offerings, my classes areheavily influenced by these
ancient elemental shamanicpractices. I'd like to bring a
sense of ceremony to all myofferings, and to work with
certain kinds of rhythms thatcan support the inner journey
that we take. Yoga and plantmedicine are both ultimately
(47:22):
paths of love. These healingmodalities are simply helping us
to open our hearts and to havethe direct experience of unity,
which is so crucial at thistime, I think there's so much
strife, but also we live in atime that's so pregnant with so
much possibility. So that's mymy take on yoga and plant
(47:44):
medicine, the love story. Andonce again, I just want to
remind you, if you enjoy thepodcast, you can buy me a coffee
at elemental.yoga/podcast,ko-fi.com/jayadev. I'll put
these links in the show notestoo. And if you like my podcast,
feel free to leave me a ratingon Apple podcasts. You can find
(48:06):
me on Instagram at@elementalyoga, and again next
month. I'm so excited. I'mtalking to Sophia Rokhlin about
plant medicine. So look for thatin your feed.
Remember, all you need forwholeness is already inside of
you. Hari Om Tat Sat
It grew dark and quiet in the old, colonial,
stone convent that had beenconverted into a ceremony space.
Somewhere in upstate New York. Ihad just downed a sizable cup of
ayahuasca. Before long thefamiliar whirring at the edge of
my hearing signaled thebeginning of the inner journey.
(00:22):
Suddenly, I found myself in alarge carnival or circus tent
facing a stage, framed by heavy,dusty brown curtains. A large
man in tails and a top hatmounted the stage and began to
speak. "Ladies and gentlemen,introducing Chad Woodford, a man
(00:44):
who doesn't like to feel hisfeelings!"
Raucous applause came from anaudience I couldn't see. And of
course, he was right. At thatpoint, I was terrible at feeling
my feelings. I knew then that itwould be an interesting and
powerful night. Eventually, Idid have to move to the "VIP
room" to feel my feelingsbasically, or at least try to.
(01:08):
They seemed to be stuck at thattime in an enormous ball of
energy in my gut that wouldn'tmove. I was shaking and unsure
what to do with myself.
Eventually, the shaman came intothe VIP room and sang me a
traditional icaro. And I learnedin that moment to receive this
outpouring of love, through herenergy and her song and her
(01:29):
love. She helped me to movethese feelings up and out and to
receive that nurturing love.
(01:50):
Welcome to Spiritual But NotRidiculous, a podcast that
explores the world ofspirituality, from a grounded
and clear eyed perspective. I'myour host, Jayadev, a yoga
teacher, Vedic astrologer,attorney, and technologist.
(02:15):
So I wanted to share this littlepersonal story to sort of bring
us into this topic, this monthof yoga and plant medicine. And
in the ways that these twomodalities, these two practices
sort of go together as almostlike a, you know, almost like a
helix formation. In thisepisode, we will approach the
(02:38):
topic of plant medicine from theperspective of a yoga teacher
basically. And so I'll talkabout how yoga and sacred plant
medicines are complementarypractices with a long-standing
symbiotic tradition, actually.
So we'll explore briefly, forall you yoga nerds out there the
yoga scriptural references tothe use of plant medicine as a
(02:59):
means for achieving unity,essentially. And then we'll talk
about how yoga can be a powerfulpreparatory and integrative
practice when working with thesesacred plants. In short, yoga,
in my experience is perfect forpreparing you to work with the
plants, for serving as a helpfultool during the process of being
in ceremony, and then forintegrating that experience
(03:21):
afterwards. And then we'll talka little bit about how yoga on
its own can be a powerfulalternative to working with
plants. Not everyone needs towork with the sacred plants.
So I wanted to open with a quotefrom Wade Davis, this Harvard
ethnobotanist, writing in 1996,in his book, One River, where
(03:43):
he's speaking of his experienceswith the Kofán tribe, working
with ayahuasca. So here's WadeDavis, "Ayahuasca was far more
than a shamanic tool. It is thesource of wisdom itself, the
ultimate medium of knowledge forthe entire society. To drink
Ayahuasca is to learn. It is thevehicle by which each person
(04:05):
acquires power and directexperience of the Divine." And
so it's this direct experienceof the Divine, I think, that
tees up so nicely, this wholediscussion because ultimately
yoga isn't is designed to, anddoes, provide you with that
direct experience. Increasingly,people all over the world are
(04:27):
experiencing deep transformationeither voluntarily through
working with entheogens, likeAyahuasca or San Pedro or MDMA
or psilocybin mushrooms, orinvoluntarily through just being
human during the COVID pandemic,right? I think the COVID
pandemic is actually sort of aglobal sacred ceremony that
we're all going through andexperiencing. And there's no
(04:49):
doubt that more and more peopleare curious about or exploring
or working with plant medicinesof different kinds as tools for
healing and transformation.
So in this episode I want toexplore the role of plant
medicines from the perspectiveof a yoga teacher, and see how
they can fit into the broaderspiritual path. I want to
explore the commonalitiesbetween yoga and plant medicine,
(05:11):
and how they can be woventogether into a cohesive
practice, one that can providethe direct experience of unity
consciousness. In this episode,I will also explore how yoga can
be a viable alternative toworking with plant medicine,
especially the holistictransformational style of yoga
that I teach. In my experience,yoga in plant medicine are
complementary modalities. Theyare both aimed at helping people
(05:33):
to identify more with the heartand soul to feel and integrate
all their emotions andultimately to experience true
freedom and joy. And they arealso both essential practices, I
think, for helping humanityduring this time, to transition
gracefully into this dawningWisdom Revolutionar or
Consciousness Revolution, thatpeople like Peter Russell and
Stanislav Grof, and others havetalked about. And it's
(05:57):
interesting to me too, it'lltalk about this more later that
advanced yoga and meditationpractices, the way they're
working on the physiologicallevel is they're granting us
access to the pituitary, andthen the pineal gland. And this
is where DMT naturally residesin the human body. And so it's
interesting because these plantmedicines, especially ayahuasca,
(06:17):
contain this psychoactive agentDMT. And then, you know, in this
episode, too, I want to describeor at least preview a little bit
some of the integrativepractices that I offer to my
students and clients. I'llactually be exploring and
sharing some of these practicesin depth as part of the upcoming
Belize International YogaFestival that is taking place on
(06:39):
December 4th. So check that outat the links in the show notes.
So yeah, so there's no doubtthat psychedelics and
theologians, Ayahuasca, SanPedro, psilocybin, and DMT in
all its forms are having theirmoment right now, you know,
these are being talked about ina kind of, revitalized way, and
(07:00):
especially around the topic ofsort of healing and doing this
kind of transformational workand using these things as tools
to grow, expand and healourselves.
Okay, so before we continue, Ijust want to mention a couple of
quick notes, quick reminders. Ifyou enjoy the podcast, you can
(07:20):
buy me a coffee atelemental.yoga/podcast, or I'm
trying this new thing kofi. Soif you like Kofi instead, you
can go to ko-fi.com/jayadev. Andyou can, you could donate a few
bucks there if you if you enjoythe podcast, or you can just
(07:40):
leave me a rating on ApplePodcasts. You can find me on
Instagram at @elementalyoga. AndI just wanted to say next month
to nice tie in here. Next month,I'm interviewing Sophia Rokhlin
about plant medicine, so lookfor that in your feed too.
(08:06):
In preparing for this episode, Iwent back to my old journals
from my first Ayahuascaceremonies in the Peruvian
jungle some five years ago. AndI've been reflecting on my own
experiences with ayahuasca overthe past five years, and the
ways that that has sort of tiedinto my my broader spiritual
practices. So I just wanted tomention a few things, a few
personal anecdotes to give you ataste for what my experience has
(08:28):
been like. And maybe for peoplewho are new to these medicines,
these these plants, you know, itgives you an idea maybe of what
the experience can be like. Sothe first thing I love about it
is it's a sacred ceremony. Sothis is something that we also
work with and practice in on theyoga side is the sacred rituals.
And like yoga, you go into it,setting intention. So I think
(08:50):
like any experience in life, themore you approach and experience
with conscious intentions, themore that experience can sort of
benefit you in conscious ways,right? So my experience of the
plants, ayahuasca in particular,is that there is this wise
intelligence that seems likeyou're communicating with, it's
(09:13):
like this wise intelligence thatcan read your every thought and
answer your every question. Andit does so with a gentle
firmness, but also a wickedsense of humor, at least in my
case. For example, one time Ithink it was my very first
ceremony I was thinking aboutthis book I had read years ago.
Why Does the World Exist? by JimHolt. It's this book by this
(09:34):
physicist, that explores thequestion of why there's
something, why there'sexistence, rather than just
nothingness. Which is kind of afunny question if you think
about it, but I was thinkingabout this book for some
strange, random reason. And Iimmediately receive sort of like
all these guffaws and snickersfrom this unseen audience off to
the side. And if you remember mylittle anecdote at the top, that
(09:54):
seems to be a theme in myceremonies, or at least it was
for a while this this kind oflike, audience that would react
yo my thoughts. But yeah, thenthis, then this disembodied
voice said, "Nothing? Lame!" andanother voice made the raspberry
noise, right? You know, it'slike, I don't know, in the
beginning of my experiences, itwas like a comedy bit you know,
(10:16):
but it was also very wise andthere was just like wise being
that was just pulsing and likebreathing and this kind of
shifting, loving presence, veryplayful very patient to. And so
much of my experiences was asort of remembering, like
remembering where I and everyoneelse had come from remembering
(10:36):
that there is this quiet,powerful force animating
everything that loves us andsupports us and watches out for
us at remembering that we arethat we are powerful, and we are
the ones that we've been waitingfor. I also received a lot of
messages and feelings andunderstanding that life is not
(10:59):
meant to be a struggle. Youknow, it's like, I don't know if
you guys are Bjork fans, butthere's that song she has: Undo.
You know, life is not meant tobe a struggle, "if you're
struggling, you're trying toohard," you know. And that was
something I came away from myceremonies with. And I want to
just talk about this oneexperience I had, I think it was
the first ceremony ever, in thedeep end Amazon in Peru, with
(11:19):
the Shipibo tribe. So one thingthat they advise you to do that
the shamans or the curanderos orthe vegetalistas advise you to
do is to ask the medicine or thespirit of ayahuasca these
questions, right. So one topic Iwas exploring at this time was
love, romantic love, but alsospiritual love. And so I asked,
(11:41):
gently requested the medicine,the spirit, to show me how love
feels. And there I am in themaloka, this structure in the
middle of the jungle, and myheart, immediately swelled with
a orangish, reddish kind ofenergy that spread my entire
body. And it came on in thesesoothing waves. So then I asked,
(12:04):
"How big can love be." And thenit laughed. And I could feel my
heart, expanding slowly atfirst, but quickly, my whole
body became filled with thisorange, red swirling light. And
it felt as if my body was thesize of the whole jungle. And
then this loving voice in myhead said, "Don't you know that
(12:26):
the entire universe loves you?"That's how much love there is.
And then I felt infinite love,like the size of the entire
universe. And I just, I canremember thinking to myself,
"the universe loves us." It wascreated as an act of love, just
like the classic Tantrikas 1000years ago talked about. I just
(12:47):
kept saying to myself, "it'sinfinite, it's infinite." I was
sort of incredulous that therecould be that much love. You
I think especially because Ididn't maybe have so much love
know,in my formative years. And then
another big part of myexperience with Ayahuasca has
been this sort of shedding ofconditioning and identities, you
know, shedding those personasthat were based on what other
(13:08):
people seem to want from me orwhat society wanted from me. And
I started to lose this knowingkind of arrogant, ironic air
that I used to carry and, andall these defense mechanisms
that I had. And I started tolearn, like I said, at the top,
I started to learn how to feelmy feelings, maybe for the first
time in my life, truly, theseenormous balls of repressed
(13:29):
emotion, were moving up and outof me in these ceremonies. And,
you know, sometimes it would belike silent screams that would
come out as it was moving out ofme are very loud screams that
it's part of why I had to gointo the "VIP room." And so in
this process, I was releasingall this anger from a long time
ago and all this shame. Youknow, I grew up Catholic and
(13:51):
yeah, just all this, like, deepsadness that I was carrying
around with me. And so muchdisappointment, you know. For
entire ceremonies for like ayear, I had to sit inside the
feeling of disappointment forhours on end. And that was
really challenging. But but sonecessary too. Yeah, at one
point, I turned into a firebreathing dragon. And, yeah, so
(14:13):
these are the kinds of thingsI'm just trying to give you a
sense for the kinds of thingsthat you can experience or
benefit from these ceremonies.
But, but part of why I'm sayingall this, too, is to convey how
intense and revelatory and sortof raw these experiences can be.
And so as a result, it's soimportant to integrate these
(14:36):
experiences. You know, it's noteasy to just process them on
your own. You need support, Ithink and what's great about a
lot of these temples andceremony spaces is that they do
offer as part of their offering,integration, support and
integration practices. But in myexperience, I've not really
encountered so much this yogicapproach to integration. So
(15:00):
we're going to talk about thatin this episode.
(15:34):
First, I want to explore theinterwoven history of yoga and
sacred plants a little bit. Idon't want to get too
sidetracked. But I just thinkthis is interesting. I think
these are two keys that open thesame transcendental door. And
these are the kinds of thingsthat people like Ram Dass have
talked about. So Ram Dass, Ithink is a good entry point
here. Because, you know, asyou're probably aware, in the
(15:55):
20th century, there was thispsychedelic movement right in
the 60s especially. And for alot of people the psychedelic
drugs were the entry point intoexploring yoga Eastern
mysticism, spirituality and allthat, right. And so we here we
have Ram Dass kind of likeleading the charge Ram Dass and
Timothy Leary, and all thoseguys. And you know, Ram Dass
(16:15):
credited psychedelic mushroomswith his discovery of and
passion for yoga. Through yoga,he was trying to achieve the
same transcendental states thathe was experiencing with
mushrooms especially. But thisconnection between the two
modalities is not new by anymeans. In fact, I think there is
this long-standing tradition,and I want to talk about that.
(16:38):
But I think we're talking abouthere too, is this perennial
philosophy that Aldous Huxleytalked about? Aldous Huxley, in
his beautiful book by the samename, talked about how every one
of the world's spiritual andreligious traditions share a
single metaphysical truth. Thisperennial philosophy is most
succinctly expressed in theSanskrit formulations tat tvam
(16:59):
asi, or Hari Om or even So Hum.
Basically, this is that or that,as this, you know, is what
they're saying? Ain't that thetruth? Right? So another way to
state this is that there is asubtle, unitary underlying
reality to everything thatconnects everything, and that it
is possible for us to know thatexperientially, this is what we
learned in yoga, right. And infact, the explicit purpose of
(17:22):
yoga is for us to access thatstate consistently, and to
experience unity directlythrough the practice of yoga.
And in my personal experience,working with plant medicine
offers that same experience. Ipersonally have had the direct
experience of what I've beentrying to achieve achieve for a
long time through yoga, and hadonly managed to catch the
(17:43):
briefest of glimpses of here andthere. So my experience is going
back, you know, starting fiveyears ago with plant medicine,
Ayahuasca in particular, madethis state of yoga that the
ancient Yogi's talked about, itseemed like more of a real
possibility. And so then I wasmotivated to seek that out and
to find yoga traditions, yogicpractices that could offer that
(18:04):
provide that. And again, itturns out, there has been a long
symbiotic relationship betweenSacred plants and yoga. So
let's, let's explore that for amoment. I think this section
will be especially interestingto yoga teachers, but for
everyone, really.
So there's this ancient yogicsage Patanjali, possibly a
(18:25):
mythical figure, who was said tobe half man, half snake, who
wrote possibly the most quotedand cited and studied yogic
texts in the modern era, theyoga, the Yoga Sutras, every
yoga training in the West,assigns this as reading, right.
And so in this book, he actuallytalks about using Sacred plants
(18:46):
to achieve state of yoga. So Iwant to open this section with a
quote from yoga sutra 4.1, whichis where he talks about this.
Here's Patanjali (18:55):
"The state of unity may be attained through
Dharmic birth, the use of sacredplants, Mantra, tapaha or
Samadhi. So this is the mythicalPatanjali circa 400 BCE, or 400
CE, depending on who you talk tothe dates of when he wrote this,
(19:15):
and when he lived or actuallydisputed, but sometime around
2,000 years ago, he's talkingabout this. And he's listing
these five means to becomeaccomplished in yoga or to
experience the state of yoga. Sowe have again, meditation /
Samadhi, mantra, which is theyoga of vibration, tapaha, which
is a couple of different thingsdepending on how you look at it.
(19:36):
But basically, it's the fire orintensity of practice of the
yoga practice. It's the fire or,or the benefit of consistent
self discipline, and it's thefire that comes out of having a
dedicated yoga practice. Sothat's tapaha. And then he talks
about being born with readyaccess to the state of yoga
because of accumulated punya,where you're drawing on
(19:58):
spiritual effort from past pastlives. So here you'd be acting
more from a dharmic state than akarmic state, right? You're more
relatively free from karma andmore acting in a state of flow
in a state of yoga. But thefifth one is, Sacred plants or
oshadhi, as it's written in theSanskrit text.
(20:21):
So I want to just explore whatthis might mean in the context
of the Yoga Sutras. You know,few yoga teachers are willing to
discuss or interpret these,these latter two chapters of the
Yoga Sutras. There are a fewexceptions, but generally people
avoid them because they seem soesoteric and and, you know,
fantastical, right? These, thesetwo chapters basically talk a
(20:42):
lot about how to achieve theseyogic siddhis, right? These
yogic powers, basically, youknow, things like levitating and
reading minds and becoming largeor very small, and that kind of
thing. So these things, youknow, they sound kind of
ridiculous are kind offar-fetched. So I think people
generally don't talk aboutthese. Part of it, too, is a lot
(21:02):
of teachers will tell you, youknow, if you're, if you're
you're focusing on achievingthese cities, you're being
distracted from the yogic path,right. So they seem almost
irrelevant in this day and age.
But nevertheless, I think it'sinteresting to, to ask the
question, you know, why isPatanjali talking here about
Sacred plants? And what doesthat mean? So Patanjali does
this thing in 4.1, that he doesa few times throughout the
(21:26):
Sutras, where he sort of drops aconcept or a word on you, and
then says nothing else about it,right. We see this with asana.
He doesn't really talk aboutasana in the Sutras, which is
interesting, because we have allthese yoga teachers who are
primarily studying asana,studying a text that doesn't
really discuss asana, butnevertheless, he also does this
with kriya, he mentions kriya, Ithink once in the Sutras, and
(21:49):
doesn't really say what it is somuch. So yeah, he does this
thing, or she does this thingwhere he or she is introducing
this term, and then sayingnothing more about it. So we
have the same thing with oshadhihere, right. But let's look at
oshadhi as much as we can. And Iwant to just say I'm not a
Sanskrit scholar, but I'll do mybest here. So oshadhi. One
definition of this is to makeknown or to reveal something
(22:13):
surprising, oshadhi the word isbased on the root osha, which
means "light bearing." But herewe have basically, then an herb
or a plant that brings clarityor fosters increasingly greater
values of light, which is oneway of defining enlightenment,
increasing values of light. Sothis interpretation suggests
(22:35):
that what these plants reveal tous from a yogic standpoint may
be surprising. So what wassurprising about what they're
revealing, right? Maybe it'sthat the direct experience of
unity is available to us alwayshere and now. Or maybe it's that
our true nature is bliss, orinfinite love, or that all we
need is already here if wesimply allow it to be. So
(22:56):
understandably, a fewcommentators have been willing
to explore the significance ofthis sutra. Part of the reason
might be a relative lack ofpopularity of the use of plant
medicines at the time that theywere writing, or just their own
personal lack of experience withthese things. But let's just
look at a couple examples. Wehave BKS Iyengar, writing in
(23:17):
1993. And his commentary on theYoga Sutras, he tells us that
there was a sage, Sage Mandavyaand King Yayati, who attained
the state of yoga, and somepowerful siddhis through the use
of this mysterious elixir oflife that Patanjali is talking
about. And more recently, in2009, we have Edwin Bryant, just
(23:40):
mentioning in passing, that thesubstance that Patanjali is
probably talking about here isthis mythical and mysterious
Soma, which we'll talk moreabout in a moment. And then my
favorite one, we have SwamiSatchidananda, in 1978, telling
us that Patanjali also gives ussome clues about the people who
"get some experiences throughtheir LSD and marijuana." And
(24:03):
this is a sentiment that is sortof effervescing out of the mid
1970s For me, right? Like, itjust makes Satchidananda sound
very square. Those are just acouple examples. I mean, nobody
really tries to understand whatPatanjali is talking about here.
And nobody knows with certaintywhat plants he would have been
referring to. I think he doesthis thing in the Sutras where
(24:25):
he only mentions a tournamentpassing because those terms were
familiar to his readers at thetime. So he didn't need to
explain them. So there's anargument here, I think that he
mentioned this in passingbecause oh shot he was such a
well known practice 2000 yearsago in India. Okay, so let's
explore a little bit more whatthis substance might have been
(24:48):
by going back in time to thetime of the Vedas, the Rigveda
in particular, which is datedsomewhere between I think
3,500 years ago and 7,000 yearsago, you know, when you go back
that far, it's based on an oraltradition. And, and oftentimes,
these scriptures were writtendown on palm fronds which are
(25:10):
then you know, disintegrating sothey have to recopy them. So
it's hard to date these things.
But there's an entire mandala inthe Rigveda called the Soma
Mandala that's devoted to thismysterious substance. In there,
there's 114 hymns devoted toSoma Pavana, "purifying Soma,"
the sacred potion of the Vedictradition. And these hymns are
(25:31):
interesting, you should readthem if you get a chance. They
attest rapturously that "half ofus is on earth, the other half
and heaven. We have drunk Soma,we have drunk soma and have
become immortal. We haveattained the light, the gods
have discovered." It'sfascinating stuff. And so keep
in mind that for these Yogi'simmortality is often the
(25:53):
realization of our oneness, andthe consequent knowledge that
death is nothing to fear. It's asimple transition from one state
to another. So when they sayimmortality here, I think it's
just these, this knowing thatreally, in a way, our lives are
just part of a long continuum.
Okay, so the other thing that'sreally interesting to me about
(26:14):
this Soma Mandola is they speakat length of mashing the stalk
of a plant with stones toprepare this Soma. And it's, you
know, sort of similar to howAyahuasca is prepared by
pounding the Ayahuasca vine inadvance of brewing it with the
chakruna plan. So some scholarshave also tackled this Soma
(26:36):
Mandala, this section of theRigveda. And there's been some
conjecture about what thesubstance might have been. It
may have been a mixture ofpoppy, Chinese ephedra, and
cannabis, which to me, doesn'tsound too exciting. But that
also shows how narrow minded andinexperienced some of these
scholars may have been with anykind of sacred plant, right?
(26:57):
Another possibility that peoplehave suggested is that they were
a psychedelic mushrooms which ispossible, or wild rue, which
contains a lot of the samealkaloids as Ayahuasca. So
that's plausible, too, althoughI've never taken wild rue
personally. In any case thisveda is describing these plants
in a way that is reminiscent ofplants like Ayahuasca. So that's
(27:18):
really interesting to me. So thebroader point here is that using
Sacred plants, was obviously awell known practice in
Patanjali's time, 2000 years agoin India, and was apparently a
common part of people'sspiritual practice. But in any
case, I don't think we needscriptural authority to, to work
(27:39):
with these plants, right? It'sjust interesting. There's this
long-standing history thatpeople don't necessarily know
about. Part of why I wanted tohighlight this too, was that I
have had a lot of yoga teachersin the past who were vocally
opposed to the use of plants, aspart of any kind of practice.
Maybe they felt like it was athreat to their own authority or
something. But you know, in myexperience, they go so well
(28:01):
together. And you know, hey,maybe some of you out there are
the type of person who has feltresistance to working with
plants. And now that I've toldyou about Patanjali is
authorization to use it is hisencouragement to use it. Maybe
that'll push you over the edge,maybe that's enough for some
people to give it a try. But I'mnot here to convince anybody of
(28:24):
anything really, I'm just, I'mjust talking. So I think you
know, I think using plants toaid your evolution will appeal
to some people, especially thosewho prefer the Terence McKenna
approach to life, you know,avoiding gurus and following
plants. Or, you know, yoga andmeditation will appeal to
others, or, you know, maybe ablend of some kind for some
(28:45):
people, different practices fordifferent folks, basically. And
I do think, over time, relianceon plants in general, probably
falls away as you naturallyprogress along the spiritual
path. But, in my opinion,there's nothing wrong with
asking for a little boost alongthe way. And for many people,
plants can be that boost. Afterall, the ancient Yogi's tell us
(29:08):
that nature is infinitelyintelligent. It's a self
organizing consciousness farbeyond our wildest imaginations.
And so for this reason to Ithink there can be no harm in
communing directly with naturethrough its various expressions,
including these plants. In myexperience, nature seems to want
us to.
(29:53):
Now, I want to talk a little bitabout weaving yoga and plant
medicine together in anintentional way. I think yoga
ultimately is a practice ofintegration. We're integrating
Atman and Brahman, right, we'reintegrating the self and the
other. Yoga is a process ofmaking us whole at every level.
(30:14):
So given the similarities thatwe've explored between the state
of yoga, and visionary plantmedicine, it's no surprise that
yoga can be the perfectcompanion to working with sacred
plants like Ayahuasca. For me,having a solid yoga practice,
going into my experiences withplant medicine, allowed me to
have both a more groundedexperience and a deeper
(30:37):
experience with the medicine forseveral different reasons. First
of all, ceremonies or thesejourneys, these plant journeys
can last for hours at a time. Soat a basic physical level, I was
able to sit more comfortably ona mat on the floor for longer
periods of time, because my hipswere more open and my body was
used to sitting on the floor. Soyou know, this is where the
(30:59):
awesome portion of the yogapractice can really benefit you.
Not only that, but in a lot ofthese more surrendered purgative
ceremonies, I was in a sort ofmodified Child's Pose, you know,
like, surrendering into thepurging with a bucket in front
of me, you know, so I think thatto having the yoga asana
practice, can can let you spendmore time on the floor in a
(31:21):
comfortable way, basically. Butmore importantly, having all
this yoga practice going intothe ceremonies, it I was able to
bring with me a deeply rootedsense of trust. Yoga has
instilled in me a deep certaintythat no experience is too big
for my soul to handle, like itdid for Arjuna in the Bhagavad
(31:42):
Gita, that kind of thing. Andthis inner knowing can come in
handy during these intenseceremonies, right? When you're
like, what is happening, you canreturn to this, this sort of
like felt sense thateverything's gonna be okay, no
matter what. And then also,during the more intense phases
of an Ayahuasca journey, you candraw on specific yogic
practices, like energeticpractices like pranayama,
(32:03):
breathwork, even mantra, to helpto ground or stabilize or
soothe. And I've certainly donethat many times in my
ceremonies. I've even used Asanasometimes to help to ground me
during particularly emotionaltimes during the ceremony. So
yeah, so you can use simpleAsana postures on the mat, or in
(32:26):
another room, you can just havea simple breath awareness
technique. Or you can you candraw on some kind of mantra and
this is where I think it'suseful for people to to memorize
some some mantra before they gointo a ceremony. This is a lot
of what I work with, with myclients and students you know,
so just a couple examples youcould work with a mantra like
(32:48):
Aham Shraddha which is a mantrathat basically is invoking this
attitude of surrender, right? SoAham Shraddha. You can work
with a grounding mantra likeGreen Tara or Parvati, right?
(33:11):
Green Tara mantra sounds alittle bit like this: Om Tare tu
Tare Ture, So Hum Om Tare tuTare Ture, So Hum. Tare tu Tare
Ture, So Hum. Or you might workwith a Ganesha mantra to remove
(33:35):
obstacles or to help ease atransition. Om Gang
Ganapataye Namaha. Om GangGanapataye Namaha. There's so
(34:00):
many options here. You couldwork with Medicine Buddha. I
have chanted this in ceremoniesthat I've facilitated towards
the end to sort of bring ahealing bhava into the space,
you know, or you could work witha fierce mantra if you wanted to
cut through some kind ofblockage, right, some energetic
blockage, Durga or Kali orsomething, right. So these are
all you know, and obviously,you're working with these
(34:21):
mantras silently to yourself asa thought, you know, you're not
doing it in this space, right.
But these are the kinds of toolsthat I oftentimes will share
with pasajeros, you know, withthe people who are voyaging in
these journeys, the ceremoniesthat I'm facilitating, right,
you know, people will oftentimesask for a facilitator or an
angel to come over and help themout and it's helpful to have
these tools to offer as well.
(34:42):
And the place where you get themost benefit from bringing yoga
into the plant medicine space isintegration. This is where
energetic practices designed towork with the subtle body can
help us to ground and integratethese intense emotional
experiences. Yoga here can helpyou to connect more deeply to
(35:03):
your center and your higherself. It can recirculate the
prana and Kundalini that's maybefreeing up in the ceremony in a
holistic and restorative way.
And sure, I think yoga isperfect for preparing to work
with the plants for serving as ahelpful tool during the process
and for integrating theexperience afterwards. And so I
do offer these individuallytailored integration practices
(35:26):
for students, and for people whoare working with plant medicine.
And it's, you know, it's alwaysa customized sequence or
customized sadhana that I'mgiving that some combination of
grounding practices, restorativepractices, healing practices,
and sometimes devotionalpractices. And these practices
are helping the person toaddress both their physical body
(35:47):
but also their energetic andemotional body. And they can
include meditation practice, youknow, having I think having a
consistent meditation practicecan be immensely helpful in both
entering a plant medicineceremony, but also in
integrating that ceremonyafterwards. Meditation after
all, is a practice and growingquiet. So it allows you to
(36:10):
deeply listen and enter a stateof total self acceptance, which
can be huge for integration. Imay offer people restorative or
Yin practices breathwork,pranayama. And then lots of
kriyas. Kriyas, I think, are themost integrative practice in
yoga. So there's healing kriyas,grounding kriyas, devotional
(36:33):
kriyas; forgiveness kriyas arereally powerful. And kriyas that
can bring you into more of astate of bliss can be helpful
too. And so through all thiswork, all of this breath and
mantra and mudras, we'rebalancing the lower chakras and
awakening the upper chakras, andrestoring and strengthening our
(36:56):
general energetic body. Anotherintegrative practice that I
love, and that I oftentimes willgive to people is developing
some sort of sacred ritual foryourself, or I might even do a
sacred ritual for some people,right? Because it's a nice
mirror of the sacred ceremonialspace that happens with plant
medicine. Through both of thesemodalities were accessing
(37:18):
different layers of reality andof ourselves by working with the
various elements of nature. Sobecause of that, sacred rituals
can be essential to sort oftuning into the intelligence of
nature and developing a powerfulvulnerability and a devotional
kind of attitude towards life.
(37:40):
The benefit here, I think ofsacred rituals, too, is that
most of us live in thisabstracted mental world of
concepts, where we'redisconnected from the sensual
world, from the elements. Sothese rituals can help us to
reconnect with both the groundlevel reality and meet that
fully, but also with deeperlevels of our own being. I think
the more that we can cultivate asense of the sacred in life, the
(38:03):
more we can become our trueselves. Again, plant medicine
and yoga are both only everputting us in more direct
contact with the unity ofexistence. And this is done
especially through sacredrituals, through the heart, and
not the head throughsurrendering, not forcing or
(38:25):
controlling.
So some of the sacred ritualsthat come from the yoga
tradition are puja, which can bedone in the morning before
meditation. There's yagyas,these traditional fire
ceremonies, there's moreadvanced practices like Bhuta
Shuddhi, which can be used towork with the elements in a more
advanced way more elevated way.
And so again, these are helpingus to access our higher and
(38:45):
deeper selves. And so throughthe five elements of nature, we
can access these differentqualities in ourselves. So
that's a little bit about whatthe specifics of an integration
practice look like. Now, I wantto talk about how yoga can sort
of serve as its own alternativeto plant medicine, you don't
have to work with plant medicineas I said.
(39:24):
There are advantages anddisadvantages to rely on plant
medicine to do the hard work ofself inquiry, and the shadow
work. I mean, it can be a greatjumpstart for people. It can
open you up to parts of yourselfthat you had previously had no
contact with. It can get you outof your head and into your
heart. And it can shift you fromover analysis to more intuition.
(39:44):
More of an intuitive approach tolife. And like I talked about
before, plant medicine just likeyoga can help us to feel intense
emotions in the safe containerof a sacred ceremony. Sometimes,
plant medicine can even cutthrough a tendency for spiritual
bypass, you know, I think somany people sort of want to want
to change instead of actuallychanging, right. So that can be
(40:06):
a nice, sort of like cuttingthrough of that tendency.
Basically, plant medicine can belike a system reset, that then
sets you on a path ofpotentially exploring yoga in
greater depth. It's extremelyheart-opening. Plant medicine is
referred to by shamans andcuranderos and, and traditional
indigenous people, as a heartmedicine. And so it can be very
(40:28):
heart opening in that way. Andthat's been my personal
experience with it. And plants,like ayahuasca, are also great
for working on our subtle body,the part of us that holistic
yoga practices, alsospecifically target so there's
this again, this parallel,there's these benefits that come
from both practices. And it'sjust more matter of personal
preference and intuition andthat kind of thing. But
(40:52):
sometimes I wonder for certainpeople, if maybe plant medicine
is a shortcut, or maybe too muchtoo soon, right? Ram Dass
actually asked this question inhis commentary to the Bhagavad
Gita. He wonders if people whostart their journey like he did
with psychedelics before yoga,are getting ahead of themselves.
(41:13):
He likens it to this section inchapter 11 of the Gita, where
Arjuna is asking Krishna to showhim his true nature. But here
Arjuna has gone through theprevious 10 chapters, and had
Krishna systematically teach himyoga. So he was on some level
prepared for this vision. Butalso, he was overwhelmed by it,
(41:35):
right. And so he sees Krishnahis true nature, and he asked
him to please stop. So. Somaybe, for some people, it can
be like that, you know, you needto first go through the first 10
chapters of Krishna teaching youyoga before you can do the plant
medicine. And that I guess, in away, that was my experience, I
had done 10 years of yoga beforegoing into working with plant
(41:55):
medicine. And again, here's RamDass talking about his guru Neem
Karoli Baba and, and Neem KaroliBaba's perspective on these
medicines, LSD in particular.
Here's Neem Karoli Baba talking
about it (42:08):
"These medicines will allow you to come and visit
Christ, but you can only staytwo hours, then you have to
leave again. This is not thetrue Samadhi. it's better to
become Christ than to visit him.
But even the visit of a saintfor a moment is useful. In the
end, love is the most powerfulmedicine; for love slowly
(42:31):
transforms you into what thepsychedelics only let you
glimpse." So, again, it seemslike it's it's a personal
preference. It's whatever youseem to need, and you just got
to feel into it right.
But I just want to talk a littlebit about some of the advantages
of yoga over plant medicinehere. First of all, not everyone
(42:57):
has the luxury of traveling toSouth America or risking an
illegal ceremony in their owncountry. I mean, plant medicine
requires financial resources,large chunks of time and a
certain tolerance for intensephysical and emotional
experiences that are far outsidethe norm. plant medicine
ceremonies also require a lot ofconcentrated time and energy,
(43:17):
days, weeks, sometimes months ofdedicated ceremony and
integration time. Not everyoneis ready for or wants to dive
deeply into their trauma andtheir darkest emotional states.
Many want a practice that letsthem feel their feelings
gradually in more manageablebite sized chunks perhaps. And
so I think yoga can also be thatmore sustainable long term
(43:39):
practice, especially a holisticstyle that combines energetic
practices and devotionalpractices and that kind of
thing.
These holistic yoga practicescan be seamlessly woven into
your daily life, you don't haveto run off to the jungle for an
intense retreat period, and thenintegrate all that you know, and
make a dietary change for amonth and all that you know, and
(44:00):
this is actually how Idiscovered Elemental Yoga in the
first place these practices thatI learned in the Himalayas were
giving me the same experiences Iwas having with ayahuasca and so
this is why I was so excited tobring these back and to share
these techniques. So throughholistic yoga, like like
Elemental Yoga, you can realizethe same benefits that you
realize in an Ayahuasca ceremonyby working with prana and
(44:24):
Kundalini, which is naturallyarising in the human body and
tapping into the DMT thatnaturally arises. And maybe
these practices can help us tobypass spiritual bypass and they
can install like deep insideyour heart and soul this
unshakable knowing that you aresoftly, quietly invincible. So
(44:45):
yoga is more accessible, it'smore adaptable, and it's
available in small portions ifyou like. You can do 15 minutes
a day or two hours a day. Youcan go on a yoga retreat too.
And everyone has access to youknow, pretty affordable yoga
now, especially online. Anotherbenefit of yoga over plant
medicine is that if you do enterinto these deeply transcendental
(45:07):
states that can come out ofthese practices, you can then
pull yourself out of it if itbecomes too intense, or if you
need to deal with mundanereality. I mean, of course,
having said that, there may be abenefit to the lack of control
and surrender that's required byplant medicine. So again, I'm
just kind of going through thedifferent pluses and minuses
here. And it's up to you todecide. So even though Patanjali
(45:30):
is talking about working withpsychoactive plants in the Yoga
Sutras, I think at some pointyou have to leave the plants
behind. I think Patanjali wouldhave agreed, given how little he
talks about these plants in theyoga sutras. In the end,
everything you need to accessyour inherent bliss, nature is
inside of you. And yoga can helpyou to more consistently enter
(45:50):
the state of yoga at will. Itcan give you the tools to become
more yourself. There is no oneway maybe some people are the
jump right in and work backwardstypes. But you know, some people
may want a more gradualapproach. Sometimes you need the
inspiration of the grand visionsfrom an Ayahuasca journey to set
you on a dedicated and steadypath of yoga like Ram Dass. But
(46:14):
you know, you start where youare, you follow your intuition
and you do what calls to you.
For me it was yoga first, thenplant medicine, and then both
together, and now they'reinterwoven like a beautiful
helix for me. There's nomistakes. There's no correct
path. There's only grace andlove and practice. In my
experience, a holistic yogapractice that works with a
(46:38):
subtle body can help tointegrate or take the place of
plant medicines like Ayahuasca.
The two modalities can work sideby side in an integrative spiral
of change, a returning home tooneself. My yoga offerings,
elemental yoga is heavilyinfluenced by these ancient
(46:58):
elemental shamanic practices. Asmy students know, a lot of my
yoga offerings, my classes areheavily influenced by these
ancient elemental shamanicpractices. I'd like to bring a
sense of ceremony to all myofferings, and to work with
certain kinds of rhythms thatcan support the inner journey
that we take. Yoga and plantmedicine are both ultimately
(47:22):
paths of love. These healingmodalities are simply helping us
to open our hearts and to havethe direct experience of unity,
which is so crucial at thistime, I think there's so much
strife, but also we live in atime that's so pregnant with so
much possibility. So that's mymy take on yoga and plant
(47:44):
medicine, the love story. Andonce again, I just want to
remind you, if you enjoy thepodcast, you can buy me a coffee
at elemental.yoga/podcast,ko-fi.com/jayadev. I'll put
these links in the show notestoo. And if you like my podcast,
feel free to leave me a ratingon Apple podcasts. You can find
(48:06):
me on Instagram at@elementalyoga, and again next
month. I'm so excited. I'mtalking to Sophia Rokhlin about
plant medicine. So look for thatin your feed.
Remember, all you need forwholeness is already inside of
you. Hari Om Tat Sat
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