Many people have sent us their stories of their own awakening.

Although some of these stories have come from past workshop participants, we encourage anyone to send us their own story.

We have just recently updated this section and invite you to read these Redemption Songs.

I am not looking for sympathy here only an understanding of what prompted me to take part in Ayahuasca ceremonies after learning that the medicine was a great healer.

This process allows you to relive the experience to gain new understanding and insight enabling resolution or closure. It often results in re-evaluation of your life course with strong tendency and resolution to pursue positive changes to improve your life with renewed purpose and mission. Now I have peace...

Ayahuasca has confirmed to me that this world is an illusion created by mass thought. Sadly I believe the collective thoughts of the human race have been hijacked by a very deceptive force and we live lives that the hijackers want us to live. I believe we can change this world by changing mass thought and if the majority of minds can wake up to what is really going on then a massive spiritual shift is possible and we will reconnect with the paradise world that I have been shown and seen.

Aya does generate different responses because each drinker possesses a distinct psychological predisposition. Yet the results are the same. One result is the lessening of the false self, ego, or conditioned thinking—that sneering voice inside our minds always ready to take over the driver’s seat in our life-car. A second result is an opening to greater energy, clarity, and love, and, for some, entry into exotic psychic dimensions.

A Safe, Friendly Embrace by Big Brother Aya

Our Global Community

There is a story we would like to share with you. It is about people from all walks of life, faiths, and beliefs coming together with a higher sense of purpose in their lives. Over the years we have met many people who were brave enough to step into the unknown. As their lives changed so did the lives of the people around them.

Many of the people we have met returned again with a friend or family member to share with this experience. We began to see a community emerge that transcends countries and borders, that exists in the feeling of belonging to a world family.

Our global community has been from 48 different countries (and counting)! On this interactive map you can have fun looking for your home location, explore the surface of our world, and find all the people that have joined us on this experiential journey. We are still testing this and have several hundred more locations to add to this map. So please be patient and check back again soon!

Here's What People Say about their experiences...

Our own first experiences with Brazilian shamanism were a new beginning and opened up a whole new world of experience to us. Brazil indeed holds secrets that can only be approached and experienced first hand.

Even as we departed Brazil on that first trip, we knew that we would return and decided to create a way for others to share in this experience. There is such an incredible sacredness to the teachings and medicines of the Amazon.

We offer one and two week workshops in an extraordinarily beautiful setting along the coast of Bahia, located approximately 700 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. This is where modern Brazilian history began. When the Portuguese first arrived in Brazil, April 22nd 1500, they landed on the soil known today as Bahia. In many ways, Bahia could also be characterized as the cultural heart of Brazil. Samba music has its roots in here. Caipoera, both a dance and a martial art is a pure expression of Bahian culture.

Photos From Our 2006 Ayahuasca Workshops

Perfect

I am perfect, meaning what? we are always told to be the best we can, strive to be better.

We are told we have to do good in school, if we show any interest in sports or extra activities we have to work hard to be our best. We are told in order to be a success in this world we have to be smart and go to college right after we spend 12 years of our life in school we are pushed to continue right away,do not take a break you will fall behind. We are told we should know what we want to (be) and work towards that. We should take class after class,study and learn as much as we can. Then if we have trouble in math or our slant is not going (the right way) when writing or when our spelling is wrong or the way we write a sentence is not good enough, we are labeled. If we do not want to join a team or play an instrument,or do extra activities we are labeled. If as a child we are sitting alone playing and talking to our (imaginary friend) we are labeled and if we just don't want to (fit in) and are ok with being a lone we are labeled. Then as we grow up we continue to do all these things we are told we should do but we do not want to do, every time we do not achieve what others say we should be achieving we feel imperfect.

My Experience in Barbados

Heart of the Initiate - Barbados - January 2002

An experience of my life I will never forget. Looking back at it now - two months later - it is more clear than ever how this has been the major turning point for me. I have a pre-Barbados life and a post-Barbados life. Both are so different. In the pre-Barbados life - I was often sad - alone - withdrawn - and so stuck in pain. Most of all - my Heart was closed. The hardest thing in the world for me was to really be close to people - really be open to them.

Then I came to Heart of the Initiate. My good friend Ralph had contacted me a few months before, when he saw a post on a discussion forum that I had written. He saw the pain, the fear but also the deep desire I had to open my heart. So Ralph invited me to Barbados - to come and experience the heart energy for the first time in my life. I knew I had to go - I felt it in my Heart. The seminar really began at that moment - when Ralph contacted me. Because whenever I chatted with him on the Internet - or whenever I spoke to him on the phone - I literally felt my Heart Chakra so strongly. It blew me away - I had never experienced anything like that in my life.

Who Am I Without It?

The pain has become like a veil. I can no longer tell that it's separate from me and I wouldn't begin to know who I am without it shrouding me, protecting me, loving me.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but I've been searching all my life & even though I've run across a few people and a few techniques, I've still to unlock the veil that now imprisons me and I'm scared. It's been so long since I've been without it. It has a life now. It has a memory. It nourishes me.

Have you gone down that road too? Jesus! I knew when I came here that all the sentient beings here could choose, that's what they told me. But I didn't realize that in choosing there comes consequences of attraction by MASS! Once you make a mistake, it's like all the ghouls on the fucking planet find you. The scent glands of the carnivorous are truly an amazing creation. They can sniff you out no matter how hard or where you try to hide. They're everywhere!

Density

In the Density of Denial lies the seed of change
Remember the original trauma, relive the Pain
Release the Shame
No guilt, no blame
Forgive the Past, be free at last
In the Density of Denial there's a tiny light
Remember, relive, release, realize
Ignite the Flame and burn it bright
Because Darkness can't exist in Light.

My Story

Dear Ralph and All:

Although I have never met you, at some deeper level a connection has been made. I will share my story with you, may it serve and perhaps even inspire:

I came from an abused background (verbally, physically and sexually) and "living" was a foreign concept to me until recently. I was scared of everything, fear was the ruler of my world, and at I was at it's clutches. I felt helpless and even victimized, I started living in a world of sheer fantasy. All throughout my adolescence and youth, I felt as if out of place, not belonging and at times all I wanted was death to grip me and take me away. At the time I thought that as I entered adulthood that somehow that the pain, bitterness, frustration and even the fear would somehow fade away. Surprise! It did not!

Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have: Redemption songs;

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.

- Redemption Song, Bob Marley

Many people have sent us their stories of their own awakening.

Although some of these stories have come from past workshop participants, we encourage anyone to send us their own story.