I spent the first 6 weeks of my time after returning to Bristol looking for a place to live, staying at a variety of places in the meantime. I recall one B&B that was notable for its square toilets (I don’t know who thought they were a good idea; presumably someone with slightly different anatomy from the rest of us) and seeming automation: the only time I saw the owner was when the heat failed on a freezing February morning. At the opposite end of the spectrum was a place where none of the guests had keys, so we had to pay close attention to the owners’ schedules lest we be stranded out in the cold. And there were a couple of private houses I stayed in, one for a week and another for 6 weeks, while I waited to be able to move into my new place.

I got the keys on 30 March but the movers couldn’t get my things out of storage until 6 April, so I spent a week just sitting in my almost totally empty house, drinking tea and enjoying the luxury of being able to have a bathroom to myself again. Then once everything arrived, I had another couple of weeks to discover that I’d left various bits and bobs at strategic caches around Bristol. At this point I’ve got everything once again, at least as far as I know. There are still some books and such that I lent to people before I left, but that’s minor.

In the meanwhile, I’ve semi-inadvertently stepped into an administrative vacuum at a local charity that provides subsidised complementary therapies for adult survivors of abuse. I’d intended to just be a therapist with the program, but the lady who’s been running it for the past 13 years wants to step down and hand it on to new blood. This would appear to be me and my recruits – we’re basically restarting from the ground up. So if you’re interested in volunteering to do data entry/website admin or fundraising or event coordination/logistics or talking to local universities about collaborating, and within easy commuting distance of Bristol, please let me know! (I’m not putting the details up yet because the charity website is woefully out of date, and the previous chair doesn’t want to get swamped with calls from would-be clients before we’re ready for them.) We’re planning to have a paid part-time Development Officer position too.

I’ve also had an abstract accepted to Breaking Convention 2013, a biennial psychedelics conference to be held at the University of Greenwich from 12-14 July. I’m speaking at 9 am on Sunday the 14th, so I don’t expect the session to be packed… but it’s on ayahuasca, so maybe that will draw people.

With all the excitement and dislocation, I haven’t been doing much healing, but that will change as I settle in and reestablish myself. I’m not running off back to Peru for at least the next 18 months, and when I do, it won’t be for nearly as long as before. I’m eager to get going again, but I want to take the time to do it right.

So I’m still here, still going, and will be up and running in the near future.

We’d originally planned to drink on Weds night (23 Jan), but the two NC guys turned up on Tuesday asking us to wait until Thurs (they were going out into the jungle for a couple of days, since they were only in the area for a limited time). My teacher agreed to accommodate them, and so we changed plans. (This time my laundry problem was real, since I was leaving on the following Sunday – I had to somehow get my clothes there on Friday to pick up Saturday, as the place is closed on Sundays. In the end, I got my teacher’s wife to drop the stuff off for me.)

The Bristolian guy showed up Tuesday night, as that was one of our usual drinking nights, only to be told that we weren’t going to be having ceremony until Thursday. He seemed kind of unimpressed by us, and I was unsure whether he’d actually show up on the night. To hear him tell it, he’s been traveling all over Pucallpa and Iquitos for the past month looking for someone who could actually help him, with no luck at all, so that would explain the reluctance.

As it turned out, all three guys were present and accounted for on the Thursday night (24 Jan). The two NC guys showed up quite early, around 1100, when their jungle guide dropped them off at the house – the mosquitoes at the jungle camp were apparently ferocious and one of the guys gave up in despair before the appointed time. That was OK, though, because they were initially scheduled to turn up around 1700 – worst possible timing from my point of view, as I’d have to make sure they were settled in OK before being able to try and rest up before the ceremony. In the end, they dropped off their stuff and went away again, coming back around 1800. I did have maybe an hour to try and rest, but then the Bristolian guy wanted to take a shower and my and SA’s rooms were the only ones with water. (The house has recently gone on to municipal water instead of the well that they’d been using; the plus side is that I no longer have to buy drinking water, but the downside is that the supply is cut regularly and randomly. When the house has no water, they draw it off my shower. I was thinking that the next time, they could take it out of SA’s room instead.) So not much rest there, but I consoled myself with the thought that it was the last time for a while.

My teacher was up and around and talking to the Bristolian guy and SA before the ceremony – he seemed to be in good spirits, which was nice to see. Around 2045, I told him it was time and I went and summoned the NC guys. My teacher was very much in charge and he was giving his normal introduction to the gringos – I translated when they needed it.

I drank half a cup this time, because I knew how weak the aya was, and that was about right. I tried to investigate what was up with the Bristolian guy’s stomach, but kept getting distracted and losing focus. I felt the same when trying to figure out who, if anyone, was attacking as well, so I knew someone was throwing stuff at us. The same old bad guys throwing the same bad energy. I told my teacher and he had me sing to punish them, then I sang to remove the influence I had picked up. It was hard – when I tried to sing the exact song to remove it, I couldn’t find the tune. To get around this, I used a variant of the song to stabilize myself enough so I could sing the right one. That worked pretty well.

I kept singing as I examined the guy’s stomach again – he had an evil spirit in there, as well as a physical parasite. He needed to drink ojé to remove it, according to the Science. I also asked about a Peruvian patient that had come to see my teacher, but before I got the answer my teacher had taken care of that person so I didn’t have to. I checked in with the guy who’d had the stroke in the jungle and sang for him as well.

One of my songs started out being for one of my remote patients but ended up being for the Bristolian guy, to remove the evil spirit from his stomach. I saw it as a Tibetan demon, and it had an Indian-sounding name. When I was done, the guy thanked me, so I assumed either he’d felt the work being done, or had simply heard his name in the song. (Later I confirmed that he had felt it while I was working on him.) The other 2 guys also thanked me, though I don’t think they knew what was going on.Then my teacher did more healing on him. He seemed to feel better for it, which was good.

I asked when I was supposed to return to my teacher’s house and was told November 2014 – nearly 2 years’ time. That will be the longest break I’ve had since I started back in 2005, but I have a lot to organize in the meanwhile – finding a new place to live, starting on the path to establish the holistic trauma treatment center that I’m supposed to help create, etc. We’ll see what happens.

I examined the alcoholic guy remotely, at my teacher’s behest – along with the booze, this fellow had picked up 4 new evil spirits. I removed them and disposed of them as usual, but later on the guy himself appeared, drunk, wanting healing. My teacher got me to examine him and say whether he still had the demons (he didn’t have those 4 that I removed but there were new ones). Upon hearing this, my teacher sang for him.

The two tourists got their healings from my teacher – one of them had a lovely glowing energy, and my teacher told him this. They’d spent a fair amount of time outside after throwing up – SA had been feeling nauseated herself and had gone out just in case, but one of the guys kept trying to have serious conversation with her. She kept trying to tell him this wasn’t the time, but he didn’t take the hint until she just said she didn’t feel up to talking because she was feeling so ill. (I found this out later – I had been hoping she was telling them to shut up but couldn’t tell because I was concentrating on singing.)

Then my teacher did healing on SA, after asking me what she needed. I saw that she was very worried about the retreat she is organizing, and my teacher had me look into the future to see what would happen with it. I found that no great tragedy was in the offing but that two people would be complaining that there wasn’t enough food and that they were bored. My teacher said that they’d have to make sure there was plenty of food then, and that the ayahuasca was good and strong – if the medicine is strong, nobody complains of boredom!

Finally, my teacher gave me my final healing of the trip. I got 3 songs, one of which he said was to help me recover things I have lost. My first thought was, “Like my ex? I’m not sure about that!” but later I thought that it might mean useful things, like visual memory.

The ceremony was over around 0130, but people were still fairly bright and bushy-tailed. I made my excuses, took a shower and got my laundry ready to stick in the kitchen so it could be taken into town early in the morning. Then I lay down, but had absolutely no luck sleeping. This often happens after an intense ceremony, but I was so tired physically that it was really annoying. I hadn’t been sleeping well in any case, and it didn’t help to be unable to drop off until 0500. Breakfast, when it arrived at 1130, seemed far too early.

It was good to speak to the guys – one of the NC dudes had gone into town to try and change their plane tickets so they could stay for another ceremony. This was a good sign, but I was concerned that this fellow wasn’t following the diet and wouldn’t reap the full benefits of the ceremony. The other NC guy was fine, though, and it was fun listening to him and SA talking about life off the grid. I was also able to talk to the Bristolian guy and confirm that he was feeling better – quite gratifying. He was set to start with his ojé on Sunday, the day I was leaving – not one to hang about after spending a month searching for someone who could actually help him.

After we ate, I tried to go back to bed and sleep, but it was so hot that even with the fan I had no luck. I wanted to just rest all day, but I had a couple of requests for soplaying that I felt duty-bound to fulfill, even though technically we’re not supposed to do so on the diet. Eventually I was so tired that I was stumbling around, and excused myself. I did manage to sleep after that.

The next couple of days were odd in that all of a sudden I wasn’t on duty anymore. My teacher took charge once again, and I was able to take care of all the things I had been putting off. I was a bit at a loss as to what to do with all the spare time! I picked up my laundry Saturday as planned, and did last-minute preparation. I certainly appreciated the time far more than I would have if I’d not been working so hard for so long. By the time I left on Sunday evening (27th), I was more than ready for a long rest.

It was raining hard when I left the house, and I was a bit concerned that my flight to Lima would be delayed. It let up within an hour, though, and the flight went as scheduled. I took Peruvian Airlines this time, on SA’s recommendation, and it was perfectly adequate. The only problem was that they cranked the air conditioning so high that I was sure I was catching a cold then and there. I didn’t have any warm clothing with me, as it had been blistering hot for the last few days, and they didn’t provide any blankets for such a short flight (1.5 hrs).

I got into Lima on time at 21.40, but it took a while to get my bags. The official airport taxi I took to my hostel was rubbish – the driver had no idea where he was going, even though he asked people several times. It was theoretically only 5 min from the airport, but that assumed the driver knew how to do it. I was stunned at the price – going 5 min from the airport in Iquitos might cost 10 soles if you were unlucky, but the official price here was 25! And there was an extra 5 soles charge for using the toll road.

Not that it helped much. The driver eventually stopped and asked a mototaxi driver to guide him. The moto guy was drunk and smelled awful, but he eventually got us to the right place. I got my bags inside, and the driver had the nerve to ask for a tip! I told him it was his job to know where he was going, and that by all rights I should ask for my money back. It was funny, I could almost feel myself channeling my teacher as he went on one of his periodic rants.

The guys at the hostel asked me why I hadn’t used their pickup service – taxi drivers aren’t supposed to pick up strangers when they’ve got a fare, it could be dangerous. I said I didn’t know they had a pickup service – turns out the info was on the second page of the reservation confirmation, which I hadn’t printed out. Figures.

I got to bed around midnight, about an hour later than I would’ve if the driver had had the slightest clue. But I was up and at the airport in time for my flight to Madrid (my almost missing it was entirely my fault, and I’ve already told the story here.)

So now we’re all up to date. I hope you’ve enjoyed the trip.

Anyhow, we got a late start on the medicine because people kept interrupting my teacher while he was trying to start making it. By the time SA and I had finished breakfast, my teacher had barely started the mashing. We pitched in and helped, so it went faster, but then we had no firewood, so had to wait while the family obtained some. (I went into town to drop off my laundry, since there wasn’t anything interesting going on and I wanted it to be ready to pick up on Monday.) I was planning to drink on Sunday evening, since my teacher had left the choice up to me, and was slightly concerned about how I was going to retrieve my laundry – I wasn’t going to go into town on the diet, and was worried that if nobody claimed my stuff for 48 hours the laundry people would think I’d abandoned it. The simple expedient of telling the laundry that I might not be picking it up until Tuesday didn’t occur to me – but that was probably just as well.

When I got back from town, I noticed that the ayahuasca pot was sitting on the fire unattended. I had been taught that ayahuasca doesn’t like to be left alone; there should always be someone there with it. I therefore dumped my things in my room, told SA that I needed her to sit with the pot for a little while, and took up my post after freshening up minimally. To my surprise, when my teacher came along to check on the brew, he said that it wasn’t necessary to have people there all the time, but that a student learned better when staying with the pot. This was at odds with my previous experience: I remember our being out in the jungle, making medicine, and two guys who weren’t even going to drink were assigned to stay with the pot. I puzzled over this. SA came and sat for a while but then got bored and wandered off. This was annoying, as it’s handy to have two people (so one can use the toilet as and when necessary).

Eventually, SA came back and told me that food was ready. I replied that I needed someone to relieve me, as I wasn’t going to leave the pot alone (there was a visitor I didn’t like the look of staring at it – I put protection on the pot but didn’t want to leave it with just her there). My teacher later told me that technically one is supposed to make the ayahuasca in secret, so that nobody who isn’t involved in the preparation can see it. That was the first time I’d heard this prohibition. I asked why, then, did we make our stuff out in the open? He replied that people, that is, tourists, were curious and wanted to see. I asked if that couldn’t have a negative effect on the brew, the center, and on him, and he said yes, probably, but what could you do, people were paying and wanted to see how it was made. Patients came by as well – my teacher was seeing to them, so it was understandable that he couldn’t spend all his time with the pot. But why not tell SA to sit with it, or one of the kids?

Anyhow, the ayahuasca was done around 1715. None of the patients who had expressed interest in drinking showed up for healing that day, though, so we couldn’t tell them we’d be drinking the next night. Since this was the case, I decided we could drink that same night, Saturday. This would allow me to pick up my laundry as usual, and SA had a lot of stuff to organize on Monday as well, so it suited her. My teacher was planning to go to Barrio Florido on Sunday, so Saturday was really our only option.

Ceremony 300 started out like Ceremony 299, in that my teacher told me to go ahead and start without him. Since we didn’t know how strong the brew would be, I was conservative with my dosages: SA got a quarter of a cup and I got a third. As it happened, we could both have done with a bit more, but there was no way to tell at the start, and perhaps that’s the level of experience the spirit meant for us to have. Even though we’d both drunk ojé on the previous Thursday (17 Jan), neither of us had strong effects.

The medicine took quite a while to take effect, but when it did, I started to address various issues: were we under attack, and if so, by which of the bad guys? Was I personally under any kind of influence? (I’d been feeling quite negative and tired recently). What did people need for their healings? Should MC, the Spanish guy who had been staying at the house, write my teacher’s biography? When should I return to my teacher’s house? I got answers to these (yes, we were under attack by the same bad guy as in most of the previous ceremonies; I was personally under a spell; I was told various songs for various people; MC would get frustrated trying to get details out of my teacher and would give up after having wasted time and money), and then my teacher appeared.

I told him about the attacks and the influence, and the songs I was told to sing to remove them. He said I should wait until he sang the opening songs, which I was both surprised and happy to hear. I sang along with him, and then called the bad guys to punish them. (I should probably have removed the influence from myself first.) I did that, then sang to take any bad vibes off everyone at my teacher’s house, and finally to remove them from myself. My teacher then soplayed everyone and went out to do the grounds, which was great, and I continued to sing for people.

He returned, and asked me a complicated question about a motor for the boat he wants to buy. I got confused and gave him an answer to a different question, and he sang in response to that. Then he tried to explain to me again what he wanted to know, and I tried again. It was tough, in that I was only getting information when I concentrated hard, but I got something for him.

He then sang for several patients who have been coming to him for romantic problems. When he was done, I sang for some of my people and for SA as well. After having sung a whole ceremony the previous time, this felt almost like a vacation. It was a short ceremony, less than 4 hours long, and I didn’t do nearly as much work as I was expecting. That was probably good, because I’d been feeling really exhausted. This always happens when I stay for more than 3 months and don’t take a break.

Before I went to Peru, I moved out of the house I was living in and put everything into storage. I don’t actually have a home base at the moment, which is somewhat nervous-making. What’s even more so is that I have just spent two days in London visiting with a good friend while trying to readjust my body clock. I’ll be in a B&B in Bristol for another 2 or 3 days, then with luck will be staying with a friend for 10 days – 2 weeks after that. I’ll feel much more relaxed when I’m not having to pick up and move every couple of days. This is exactly the kind of travel I avoid on principle.

But hey, things could be a lot worse. It was much, much colder here the week before I got back, so at least that’s something. And I didn’t miss any of my flights on the way back, though it was a near thing in Lima.

I was sensible and flew in from Iquitos the night before, so that I wouldn’t risk missing the international connection if the domestic flight was delayed. I even spent the night in a hostel rather than trying to tough it out at the airport, arriving more or less rested and ready two hours before the flight was scheduled to go. Unfortunately, I was used to having loads of time to kill in Lima and my brain was still wired for it. I was making a leisurely tour of the place when I realised it was 1030 and the flight was supposed to leave at 1115. I ran for the departure gate and encountered incredibly long lines, as is normal when one is in a hurry. I threw myself on the mercy of one of the staff, asking if there was anything I could do. She said the airplane doors would close at 1100 and if I wasn’t there, I’d miss the flight (there were also signs stating that if passengers weren’t at the departure gate an hour before the scheduled departure time, their luggage would be removed from the plane for security reasons). I was panicking until I noticed that a whole lot of other people were cutting it fine in terms of time as well, but that was after I jumped the line about 4 times. When I finally got to the gate, I heard one of the agents tell another that there were still 50 passengers to come. I had figured at least some of the dire warnings were scare tactics, but that really hammered it home.

I will tell you now: avoid Air Europa. The flight out from Madrid to Lima was so bad that I tried to upgrade to business on the way back, just to make sure I had breathing room. I was told it was too late, and it was probably just as well – didn’t really want to give this company any more money. I have to admit the flight back from Lima to Madrid was better, even though I was in the 3rd seat of a row of 4 and therefore spent most of my time wedged in so tight I couldn’t stretch my legs (the seat pitch in economy is such that if the person in front of you reclines, their head ends up more or less in your lap). It wasn’t as unbearably hot though, which helped a lot. It was a cheap ticket, and now I know why. I won’t make the same mistake again.

We got into Madrid at 0500 Tues morning (29 Jan), to find that there was a cleaners’ strike in progress. The place looked like an amusement park at closing time, stacks of food containers everywhere. It was basically deserted until 0630, when some of the shops opened. That was when I found out about the strike – it had been a mystery up until that point.

The flight from Madrid to Gatwick was the nicest of the three I’d taken – it was only half full. Air Europa normally packs people in like sardines and then trumpets about how ecologically sound they are, but I guess they just couldn’t find enough warm bodies for a flight out at 0800 on a Tuesday. I wasn’t complaining. The downside of this was that they charged for everything, even water, though they did let me have a napkin for free.

We arrived into Gatwick right on time, even though we left about 45 min late from Madrid. I breezed through Immigration and Customs and was out maybe half an hour after landing. The friend who was meeting me didn’t expect me to be out yet and it took a few minutes to connect, but we got there.

I spent the rest of the day shifting my things into a B&B in West Hampstead and then walking around. It felt good after spending so many hours sitting. I crashed around 2100, fell asleep, but woke after a couple of hours. People in the room above me were copulating loudly. I put my headphones on, but the noise still came through. Eventually they finished and I was able to get back to sleep. In the morning, I tried to figure out which of the people at breakfast had kept me awake.

Wednesday went by quickly as I did some minimal shopping and logistical planning. My friend was working until about 1430. I had a nap and we met up around 1700 to do laundry – about half of the stuff in my luggage smelled like blue cheese because of the mold in Iquitos. The laundromat was surprisingly efficient. Then we ate and talked for a few hours before collapsing in our respective heaps – my friend had an early morning ahead of him, and I was still operating on a random sleep schedule. Either the couple upstairs had left or they were tired, because it was quiet last night.

I’ve packed up again, after shedding as much extraneous stuff as I could, and have checked out of my room. I’m sitting in the B&B lounge now, writing this while I wait for the cab to the bus station. I’ll be updating more regularly from here on, although I can’t guarantee how thrilling the entries will be.

- My room flooded for the first time this trip on Friday 4 Jan. It rained heavily for about three hours solid, and water came in both from the leaking roof and from the floor, where tiny holes in the cement were allowing it to filter in. This has now been fixed, and with luck it won’t happen again.

- We had a patient Mon 6 Jan with a case of what turned out to be demonic possession. He was shaking, rocking back & forth, crying, and saying he was seeing demons. I was called in first, to soplay him, which I did. No effect. I poured holy water on my hands and rubbed in on his head and neck, praying as I did. No effect. I sang four icaros to him while trying to massage his back so he would relax a little. No effect. I was going on the theory that he was just upset and freaking out about something and trying to calm him down. The family was wiping every available skin surface with garlic. No effect. When I tried putting some holy water in his mouth, he choked and spat it out – at this point I finally realised that he was actually possessed. That was when they called my teacher in.

He sang one song (one of those that I had tried) but using the chakapa (which I hadn’t), then put more holy water on the guy. Then he put a hand on the guy’s head, and prayed for about 10 minutes, in between telling the guy that he was possessed by a demon of lust and that this was what happens when you don’t believe in God. My teacher kept telling the guy to pray, and the guy kept saying he couldn’t. At last, the guy was able to choke out a few words to the effect that he wanted to be full of God and not of demon, and then he started to calm down. From the time my teacher came out to resolution was maybe 15 min, but I’d been working on the guy for over an hour beforehand. My teacher told me my faith still isn’t strong enough, and I’m inclined to believe him. It was pretty impressive to watch.

We had another foreigner, SA, arrive on Weds 9 Jan – she’s been here before and is preparing things for a group to come on retreat in February. She was originally supposed to arrive on the 5th, but was too ill to travel, so had to postpone until the Weds. She’s still weak and tired, but wanted to drink ASAP to recover more quickly. There were a few Peruvian patients who’d been asking about drinking as well, so we scheduled a ceremony for Thurs 10th.

As it happened, my teacher was perfectly happy for me to run the whole thing, start to finish. He appeared briefly at the start, to soplay around the house, but then he bowed out and left me in charge. I had plenty to keep me occupied: still trying to solve the problem of the guy who’s had the stroke in the jungle, still trying to keep tabs on the various bad guys who’ve been making life difficult for my teacher, still looking at patients like the woman whose husband had lost his penis and who had found someone else but didn’t want to leave her husband because he’s a good provider. I was also able to sing for various people at a distance whom I’d been meaning to help since the last ceremony before New Year.

The aya itself wasn’t very strong – I had the sort of ceremony where I didn’t see anything unless I was concentrating hard – but it was enough to get the job done. I was of course also examining SA, to help her recuperate quickly.

When I realised that my teacher wasn’t going to be singing, I turned off my sound recorder – at a couple of points I was glad, because my voice failed a few times in the beginning, but I regretted it later on, when I had a couple of good songs. Oh well, I expect to be able to sing them again.

There were some attacks by bad guys but nothing too major, probably because their main target is my teacher and not me. I’m grateful for that but a bit alarmed for my teacher on that account. It felt like a reasonably long ceremony – I had a long list of things to do – and I got nearly all of them done. When I got back to my room, I found that it had been almost 5 hours long. I wasn’t as tired as I’d expected, but I knew I’d been working hard – my right arm was sore from using the chakapa so much.

We had a relatively quiet day Friday on the diet – there was a bit of drama as the fish the family had bought initially fell out of the mototaxi and was lost; food was quite late as they had to go back and get more. But all in all it was a quiet day. Today there will be more patients to see – I have to get back as soon as I can so I can fit in some singing practise before they arrive. We’ll be cooking up more ayahuasca tomorrow and drinking again on Tuesday if all goes according to plan.

My time here is rapidly drawing to a close – just over 2 weeks left now. It’s both easy and hard to believe.

Christmas in the Jungle

It amuses me greatly to think of capybaras and giant anteaters in a Nativity scene…

The day passed here with the usual accoutrements: the kids flying on the hot chocolate given out for free by various shops and schools; the sparklers and small fireworks at the stroke of midnight; getting and giving hugs to everyone in celebration. I took a break from studying and didn’t practice singing on the 25th, and even ate some cookies and paneton! (Of course, I spent the 26th regretting it, but still…)

It was back to work again on the 26th, though. We had a couple coming to drink that night, and they were originally planning to do 3 ceremonies before New Year. It promised to be a lot of hard work but helpful in economic terms to my teacher and his family. The man was from the US and his girlfriend was Peruvian. He’d drunk before, with several different people here in Iquitos, while she was a first-timer. I really appreciated MC’s help in explaining things to them, as he could express things much better in Spanish, his native language, than I can.

Ceremony 298 was small again, though slightly bigger than the previous one. We had the usual disruption at the start as people settled down and turned off lights, but it didn’t last too long. There were some distant party noises in the background but not too loud, thankfully.

My job in this ceremony was to find a treatment for the guy who had been hit by the chullachaqui in the jungle – he still was suffering pretty badly. He’s OK when he’s moving around at a sedate pace, but if he sits or lies down too long or walks too fast, he gets light-headed and loses his balance.

I drank a bit more aya than the last time, because I wanted the effects to last longer. When it kicked in, I felt a lot of tingling in my face, which I hadn’t felt for quite a while. There wasn’t much in the way of visuals, though. I was able to connect to the Science and ask my questions (the location and disposition of our enemies, whether the various folks in the ceremony were under any bad spells, etc.), and I got answers, but I wasn’t entirely confident that I was actually connected to the Science because a couple of the answers were suspicious. I resolved to double-check before taking any action.

There was so much interference from bad energy that it took me about half the ceremony to get that confirmation. The couple made a lot of noise – the lady was having a very intense experience and needed lots of reassurance from her partner. When he had to leave briefly, she got really upset and didn’t even start to calm down until he returned. There was also general negativity about. I tried to call spirits to send to the Science and ask my questions, but had immense trouble concentrating. When I did manage to summon something, it turned out to be an impostor. This went on for quite some time.

I went out and soplayed myself, which helped some, and was eventually able to get a bona fide spirit and get my answers, but it was like wading through molasses. Eventually I was able to confirm that I was indeed under a hex myself, and sing to get rid of it. Things got easier after that. My teacher was doing all of the work up til that point, as I wasn’t good for much – the aya effects were so attentuated that when I went to the bathroom my vision was baseline, not even trails to be seen.

But after I sang a few songs, things began to improve. I ended up singing for the alcoholic guy and doing the healings for the couple. I’d been told to examine the lady to find out what her problem was, and I found that she was releasing trauma from a previous relationship – she hadn’t been able to do so until now for various reasons. Her healing was pretty intense – she insisted on her partner’s accompnaying her and wouldn’t hold still. I had to support her with one arm and use the chakapa with the other. It took four songs, prayers, and physically pulling stuff out of her before she began to calm down.

By that point, I didn’t have much energy left for her boyfriend. I put protection on both of them and then closed the ceremony. I now feel I should have done some exorcism on both of them, given that the effects were so intense. But that’s the way it goes, each ceremony is a learning experience.

They both stayed over for the diet the next day, which was good – the lady looked about how you’d expect someone to look after crying continuously for hours the night before, and her man looked older than he had the day before. MC was on hand for some of the time, but he’d gone to bed early because he was flying out the next day and had missed the couple’s healing. He left, amid good wishes from everyone, and my teacher took his seat at the table. He then talked for an hour or so about various things, which was fascinating.

Eventually I had to make a pit stop, and when I returned the table was empty. The couple had gone to make a phone call and my teacher was otherwise occupied. When the couple got back, they told me they were leaving – they wanted a shower and to rest (the water at the house was being worked on and there wasn’t any shower facility available at that precise moment). They promised to call and let us know when they wanted to drink next, probably Saturday (29th). This would mean they’d only get 2 ceremonies, but the lady was so exhausted that she felt three would be beyond her.

I had a feeling we wouldn’t be seeing her again, and I was right. On Saturday afternoon, the guy came by to tell us they’d decided not to drink again. (He’d tried calling but had been unable to get through). So it was unlikely that we’d be having a ceremony Saturday night, since our main clients had bailed out on us. Still, there was always the chance that someone would show up, so I stayed up waiting until about 2030. There was absolutely no evidence of a ceremony about to happen, so I went to bed (still slightly trepidatious that I’d miss something).

I missed nothing, as it turned out, except the sound of the neighbours partying until at least 0130. I tossed and turned for hours, until I finally drifted off. So Sunday was just another day, really, though I was still tired from not sleeping well the night before. I was grateful for the rest, if the truth be told – things have been pretty hectic here lately.

And today is the last day of the old year. I’m not at all sorry to see it go. Here’s hoping 2013 will be better for everyone.

Lest you think that I spend all of my time here in Peru visiting other dimensions, preparing for or recovering from same, I offer a little vignette of more normal pursuits here in Iquitos.

I had promised the family I’d take everyone out for ceviche for Christmas, and had originally planned it earlier in the month, to avoid the crowds and associated stress, but it just didn’t happen. Last Thursday (20 Dec), my teacher decided that was the day to do it, so we did. We’re talking about a group of 18 people, of whom about 7 are under age 10, so getting ready and going required some serious coordination. It was slightly complicated by the fact that I wanted to go back to a restaurant we’d visited about 3 or 4 years ago with a big group – they remembered the name of it, but I was unable to find any contact information for the place. I didn’t want the assembled hordes to get there and not be able to eat, so I looked for another restaurant online, which gave a phone number. Silly me, I trusted that it would function, or that we’d be able to call Directory Assistance if not. It didn’t work, and trying to get hold of Directory Assistance was a chore in and of itself. When we did manage to get in contact with the operator, it was totally useless – there was either no listing for the place or the operator couldn’t find it. We had to give up and hope for the best.

It took 4 mototaxis to transport everyone, and the bad news was that the place I’d found online wasn’t there. However, it was just down the street from the place I’d originally wanted to go! Synchronicity at its finest. We all trundled in and found the place very busy – there was a big group there already and they were keeping the staff totally occupied. Only about 4 of us actually ordered ceviche, with the others opting for various Peruvian-Chinese style fried rice dishes, known locally as chaufas. This was perhaps fortunate, because it took so long to get our ceviche that I was joking that they had to go out fishing to get the basic ingredients. Those who had ordered first – my teacher, his wife, and I – got our food last, some 40 minutes later. My teacher was unimpressed, and so was I, but there we were. The kids had gobbled up their chaufas and were playing in the back on a merry-go-round  there, occasionally running back and forth to the table to gulp more juice before returning to play.

The food was OK but not fantastic, and the portions were small for the ceviche at least. I think maybe next time I’ll try to find somewhere else, but everyone seemed to have a good time. The ladies who cook got a bit of a break, and the kids got to go out somewhere special, and I did get to eat ceviche. So all in all, it was a successful outing. It did make me realize how hard it is to plan anything here when the structures we’d rely on to do so aren’t working – no way to call ahead, no way to confirm that the place was still there and open, etc. From start to finish, the whole outing took about 3 hours, most of it spent waiting for food.

The next day, I was tired and disinclined to leave the house. I did go out to buy more water at one stage, but other than that, I stayed put. A couple of strange things happened: GB dropped by to say that she was planning to head back to the USA to deal with some family matters, and C who left in a huff in Ceremony 295 popped in to ask when we were having the next ceremony. I told him, and he left – no apology, no explanation, nothing. I knew then that he was planning something – I would be attacked by his agents soon, if I hadn’t been already (he doesn’t have the capacity to do it himself, but he could find people who can). So that was slightly disturbing, though silly of him to warn me (unless he gets his jollies that way).

On Saturday, the day of the ceremony, I was able to go for a walk for the first time in days, and despite my attempts not to, I overdid it. This wouldn’t have been too bad, but when I was getting ready to rest before the ceremony, a couple of foreigners showed up wanting to talk to my teacher about attending ceremonies. They were a couple, an American guy and a Peruvian lady – his Spanish was generally OK but he had trouble following all of the conversation, so I had to be on hand to translate. They seemed like nice folks, and they want to drink the day after Christmas as well as a couple more time before New Year – a lot of work, but they’re likely to pay for it. I only wish they’d showed up an hour or two earlier, because by the time they left and I’d finished soplaying the house, it was already nearly 1900. I didn’t have any time to lie down after I showered, and I knew I was likely to be taking a very active part in the ceremony that night – no help for it, the show must go on.

As it turned out, I wasn’t flying solo this time, so it was less demanding than I’d feared. My teacher was there and very much in charge, though he had me sing the opening songs and quite a few others. My first task was to determine whether the birds we keep hearing in the ceremony were natural or sent by bad guys. When the ayahuasca kicked in and I was able to investigate, I found that they were indeed sent by bad guys, two of whom have joined forces against my teacher at this stage. When I asked what songs to sing to get rid of them, one of the songs I was told was one that I’d only heard once before. I filed that for reference and then asked about attacks from C. There was one, as I had suspected, and he’d drafted someone else to do the actual dirty work for him. I was told which song to get rid of the zap, as well as what to sing to smack them both.

I was also checking out the alcoholic guy we’ve been treating – he had 4 new demons, with classical demon-y names mostly. I would deal with them as I had with all the previous ones. Then I looked at the guy with the chullachaqui -induced head problem, trying to localise it and determine whether it was natural or a result of a brujeria attack. (It turned out to be a combination, with the brujeria hitting an already weak spot. This happens a lot.)

I told my teacher about the song I didn’t really know, and he sang a bit of it for me but not the words. He told me to contact the spirit of the maestro who had taught it to him, and gave me the name. I called him and asked him to teach me the song so I could use it to punish the bad guys who had been messing my teacher about for such a long time, and eventually, I got the tune, though not the words. These I got on the spot from the Spirit. This particular icaro causes the bad energy that someone has sent to us to return to them in equal measure, and it’s only used in really serious, stubborn cases.

Then I sang to smack C and his brujo, and to remove their influence. I knew from the first time I met C that someday he’d have a go at me. This was personal, not aimed at my teacher for a change. If I had less protection from my teacher or in general, I’d have been in a bad way, instead of just a bit tired and out of it.

Pulling the demons out of the alcoholic guy, I was able to see them clearly – they were big, old, and scary-looking. I had to remind myself that they were just the same as the ones I’d been pulling out and neutralising in the last few ceremonies – this helped. My teacher and I sang as a team for this one – it was pretty cool.

I called the chullachaqui while my teacher sang to heal the man, and it came to help. When it had finished, I asked it if it could help make the coming earthquake in the Bay Area less severe (chullachaquis are masters of the earth, and have control over such things – I wasn’t allowed to prevent the quake altogether but could ask for it to be moderated). It said it would do what it could. My teacher also had me ask it to put protection on everyone with authorisation from the owner who goes to the piece of land in question, which I did and it said it would do.

With all this going on, I didn’t get a chance to sing for my usual suspects much, as I was super-tired, but there was plenty to keep us busy. MC, the Spanish guy, again had elected not to drink but was sensing all kinds of things anyhow. My teacher had me do his healing, and soon after, I was able to close the ceremony and go to bed. I was so grateful.

So today and tomorrow we get a break more or less, and then it’s back to work on Weds night. I hope the people who think I’m here on vacation are reading this.

Chullachaqui (jungle spirit)

Things have been pretty quiet since the last ceremony. I’ve been trying to help my teacher, to take the pressure off him as much as possible. We drank again on Monday night (17 Dec), in another small ceremony.

My tasks this time were to investigate further the case of the man who was nearly hit by lightning in the jungle and find out if the spirit responsible was actually a bad guy or just trying to defend itself from perceived threat. I was also supposed to look into the alcoholic fellow’s health, especially the state of his liver, and try to find a plant remedy that would help him. And there are always the bad guys that have been attacking – have to check on their status.

I was unsure how much I’d be singing this time, and nearly didn’t bother to record the ceremony. At the last minute I decided that if my teacher sang something I’d never heard before, I’d be kicking myself to have missed it, and brought my recorder with new batteries. This was an excellent move, as my teacher was singing exceptionally well this time.

At the start of the ceremony, I asked to see what was going on with the guy in the jungle. I saw wire cages everywhere, which represented the spell that the jungle spirit (chullachaqui) had put on him. I hadn’t been able to remove it in the previous ceremony because I couldn’t get a fix on the thing’s name.  I asked the Science to tell me, and it did, after which I was able to contact the chullachaqui and speak to it telepathically.

I explained to it that the guy wasn’t intending to exploit the land; on the contrary, he wants to build a house there and bring tourists to help preserve it and appreciate it. He will only cut down what he needs to do this. I asked the chullachaqui to check with the Science to verify that I was telling the truth, and it did. As a result, we were able to establish a tentative working relationship. In a flash of inspiration, I asked the chullachaqui if there was any plant remedy that could help the alcoholic guy. I was told that yes, there is: shimipampana (arrowroot). Arrowroot is very easy to digest and should help with the damage done to the whole digestive system. It also will help heal his liver (down to 79% capacity at this point).

I thanked the chullachaqui for this, and asked how to contact it later. It said we could say its name 3 times and identify ourselves, and it would come. It agreed to remove the spell from the fellow who had nearly been hit by lightning, and did so.

At this point, I told my teacher all about the conversation, and my teacher told me to ask the spirit to clear the whole area of bad spirits, dangerous animals, etc. (The chullachaqui is the representative of all the plants, animals, and spirits of a regions. There are good ones and bad; the good ones are powerful healers and great to have as allies, while the bad ones are worse than demons.) He also asked if the chullachaqui would heal the alcoholic guy and the man who’d nearly been hit by lightning – given that it was the chullachaqui who’d thrown the lightning at him to begin with, it seemed a reasonable request!

The chullachaqui agreed to lend me its power to do healing on the alcoholic guy, and I sang for him with extra oomph. Then it came itself to heal the man it had wounded, which was fantastic. It was sucking the bad energy out of the man’s head, really impressive.

After all this, I contacted the Science via another spirit to check on the disposition of our enemies. While my teacher was singing one of the opening songs, I saw the faces of giant rats – I told my teacher about it, and he told me to ask what they were about. When I did, I was told that they were spies for one of the bad guys, one that we hadn’t smacked in the previous ceremony. My teacher proceeded to smack him and then I dealt with him the same way that I had done to the other two bad guys in the previous ceremony.

I also asked about the earthquake that I was told about a couple of ceremonies ago. Yes, there will be a major earthquake in the Bay Area of California in about six months’ time. Consider yourselves warned.

My teacher was singing so well that I was able to ask him to record an icaro that I’d only heard once, during a really fraught ceremony. He also sang a tune I hadn’t heard before, an alternate version of one I do know already.

MC, who had decided to drink again, had an easier time of it this ceremony. He was happy about that, and so were we.

When my teacher called me up for my healing, it turned out I’d been under a spell myself. I had been feeling exceptionally tired and had been having trouble concentrating, but had attributed it to the work I’d been doing. My teacher told me I should have informed him, but I explained that I hadn’t noticed it myself.

It felt like a lot happened in the ceremony, but it actually finished pretty early, before 0100. This was a relief, since I had to get up and do another ayahuma bath at 0430. At least I got a chance to lie down and rest for a little while beforehand. I only have a few more baths to do, which is something at least.

Tuesday was a diet day, and would have been quiet if the neighbours hadn’t decided it was the perfect opportunity to do some weed-whacking. They started at about 0600 and kept going until about 1400. I tried to sleep through it, but it kept stopping and starting – eventually I gave up. I figured I’d sleep well in the evening at least. Not getting really annoyed about it was an interesting exercise in detachment.

I’d been planning to take the family out for cebiche, but it’s so close to Christmas that everything is packed. I spoke to my teacher’s wife and we agreed that it might be better to wait until after the holiday, given that the kids are running around to little parties all the time right now. There will be cebiche, though, by hook or by crook! I’m looking forward to a bit of a break for Christmas, I must say. We won’t be having ceremony for a few days, and I might even take the chance to not practise singing every day.

I’ve been taking on more and more responsibility as this trip has gone on, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before my teacher let me more or less take over a ceremony on my own. He’d been away earlier in the week, out at the jungle camp, seeing what needed doing and doing it – when he got back, he was pretty tired. I’d made sure to practise the icaros every day and on Monday finally had a breakthrough with one that I’d been struggling with up to that point. So when we drank on Thursday night (13th), I was expecting to have an active role.

It was a small ceremony. My assignment for the night was to examine one of the patients and determine whether he’s had a small stroke or if it was just the weather causing his dizziness, numbness on one side of the face, etc. and if so what to do about it – also, there had been a message from T, who had been here back in October, saying he needed help with negative energy from his housemate.

But when my teacher told me I was singing to open the ceremony, I knew I needed to find out what was going on with everyone else in the room, too, plus checking on the alcoholic we’ve been treating as well.  I managed to examine everyone in the first stages of the ceremony, while the effects of the aya were still strong, and got a wealth of information that I struggled to remember.

The first guy had indeed had a micro-stroke, too small to show up on the medical scan he’s had. This was the result of bad guys throwing stuff at him, so there were songs to sing to clear their influence, plus the actual healing of the damage. One of these bad guys is a forest spirit called a chullachaqui; it seems the man was working in the jungle, cutting wood with a chainsaw when there was a big storm with thunder and lightning, making everything very dark. A bolt of lightning struck within centimeters of his head, apparently thrown by the chullachaqui, who was annoyed at the noise and at the apparent destruction of its home. My teacher told me that we need to try to negotiate with the chullachaqui and explain that the guy wasn’t there to destroy the place, only to cut enough wood to build his house and then live there to keep the place safe from others who would destroy it, maybe converting it into an ally for the guy. If we can’t work with the spirit we’ll have to remove it so the fellow can work and live in peace there. This will be difficult, as chullachaquis are very tough, more than the demons we’ve been fighting up til now. The healing song requires that the guy rest up for a week afterward, and this is extremely unlikely: he considers himself the mainstay of his family and doesn’t believe in delegation. This is problematic not only because he’s already weakened from the stroke, but because when a person doesn’t follow the instructions given by the Science, their condition often worsens. But there’s nothing we can do about that; we just tell people what they need to do, and then it’s up to them.

T needed to have his house cleansed of the bad stuff, so songs were sung to do that and to protect him against further intrusions. He also needs to physically clean his house and use salt water in the mix, to eliminate lingering nasties.

The alcoholic man had picked up a few more demons, as is his wont. Songs were sung to remove them and reuce them to powder, as with the other demons. I asked if there was any way to keep the man safe from more demon infestation, and was told not as long as he keeps inviting them in. This was discouraging but not unexpected.

MC had chosen not to drink this time around and was just sitting in ceremony, though I learned later he was having visions all the same. He got more removal of accumulated bad vapours and protection against more of the same.

C the would-be apprentice has been problematic from the start. He seems to think he already knows more than we do, and isn’t shy about saying so. When my teacher had to leave the room for a while, this guy’s lack of respect came into full force. He was making distracting noises, complaining when he wasn’t called for healing immediately, etc., and when he did receive his healing, he argued with me about everything I had been told to tell him: that he needed to change his attitude, that nobody knows as much as the Science, that we have to humble ourselves before the Spirit. It came as no great surprise when he interrupted another song I was singing to tell me that he was leaving, that he would find another teacher and wouldn’t be back. This whole exchange threw me slightly off-balance but I recovered relatively quickly.

I ended up singing the whole ceremony, start to finish, on my own. My teacher was there to supervise at the start but was then called away, so it was more or less a solo affair. Apart from the contretemps with C, it was a fairly tranquil night, f0r which I was very grateful. I wasn’t even totally exhausted by the end, though this was probably because it was a cooler night temperature-wise and the ceremony only lasted about 4 hours.

I didn’t sleep too well afterward – I had to go around the house blowing smoke right after the ceremony, and this meant another 3 mapachos’ worth. My brain was still buzzing. I also had to get up again at 0400 to do another ayahuma bath, which didn’t help my ability to relax. After the bath, I got to sleep for about 4 hours, but ambient noise kept me from sleeping any more. I tried to drift off again but only tossed and turned until about noon.

I saw my teacher while I was preparing garlic lemonade and malva, and we spoke for a while. He was telling me about chullachaquis and how tough they are. He also gave me some more instruction about the alcoholic guy. It seems my singing has improved substantially, which was nice to hear. From there, my teacher launched into a full-on speech, covering some of his own history as well as various aspects of curanderismo. I got about 2 hours’ worth of recording. I ate, and then MC ate – he was on lunch while I was on breakfast. By the time we were both done and my teacher was though talking, it was about 1545.

Then the lady who’d been having vaginal bleeding showed up for a soplay – my teacher indicated that she was my responsibility, so I did my job. Then I went around and soplayed the house again. By the time I was done with all this it was about 1700. I finally got the chance to sit down and write up my experience before eating again around 1900. MC joined me and we talked until 2030, when I showered and went to bed. Not the most relaxing diet day ever, but very useful all the same. The plan is to drink again on Monday.

Ceremony 293, on 5/6 Nov, was relatively small and tranquil. There was a new Peruvian guy there, C, who said he wants to study with my teacher. He’s attending university here in Iquitos, pretty young – and he said he doesn’t want to learn so he can heal people, he just wants to be able to drink safely on his own. He’s already drunk with lots of other people in the area, which is always a worrying sign. He was asking me lots of questions about my experience and such, which put me on my guard, but I figured he’s young and male and probably wants to feel like top dog – but I was still really careful with my protection just in case.

This was a good move, as there had been some evidence of bad guy activity already – both my teacher and I had had dreams implying that we were under attack in the preceding day or two, and there was an initial attack by the bad guys in the ceremony. My teacher and I dealt with it, but it was distracting of course.

I had visions of a flooded landscape with loads of man-made artifacts rotting in the water – I tried to get the sun to come shine and dry it all up, and there was an interval where it worked. I could feel the power of the light working, and all the people around cheered and celebrated, but then it dissipated and there was the flooded landscape again. My teacher later told me this was a measure that I had managed to cultivate some faith in God, but it was still weak, and that I should soplay (blow consecrated tobacco smoke around) to make the negativity go away.

Later I had a vision of a shop full of plastic boxes containing all kinds of ordinary things – I asked the Science what this meant and was told it was symbolic of people in the developed world who seal themselves up in their cocoons of privilege so they don’t have to cope with the state of the world. But that was about to change, I was told – there was a big earthquake coming that would shake everyone out of their boxes. I asked for more detail and was told it would be in the Bay Area, with the epicenter in Pacifica (the San Andreas Fault was due to go off again). This was supposed to happen in about six months’ time. I knew from previous experience that I needed to confirm this in subsequent ceremonies before getting all upset, so I just filed it away for reference.

My teacher and I removed a demon that had been persistently bothering one of the people who comes to drink with us – this time we decided to reduce it to powder before suspending it in a matrix so that none of the bits of powder could touch each other and let the demon re-form. This took a while but we managed it eventually.

I was better able to see what my teacher was doing while he was singing – I got images of him fighting his enemies, of him removing spells from a patient, of him binding the spirits of people together in a love spell. This was fascinating, and I was grateful to be able to observe for a change.

The most surprising thing for me about Ceremony 293 was that my teacher said I’m much farther along than I had figured. He’d said before that the full training takes 5 years, full time. I’m at about two years so far, spread out over the past seven, but he said I’m about 85% there already. That was good to hear but hard to believe. I can only assume that he’s been pushing me along faster than I realise. Also, it seems that the last 15% takes as long or longer than all the rest, which figures. Maybe you never get to 100%, as that would be perfection and we’re none of us perfect.

So that was Ceremony 293.

For Ceremony 294, on 8/9 Dec, we had more people – the two ladies who had been coming before, both with man problems; C, the new guy who wants to study with my teacher; and another foreigner, MC, who arrived Thursday, along with me and the guy whose demon we froze in the previous ceremony.

We started very late, not til about 2200. Things have been tense here because Chile and Peru’s long-standing maritime dispute is now being heard in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and people are afraid that it can’t be solved peacefully. My teacher talked about that for a while at the start of the ceremony, saying that if it came to war, it could easily escalate and turn global. With that happy thought, we drank and started the ceremony.

Again, we had an initial attack by the bad guys, which my teacher and I countered. My role in this was to call spirits to grab the bad guy and turn the spirit’s head around backwards before imprisoning it. I also checked on the disposition of the demon from last time – it was still in pieces, but the guy had managed to pick up 3 new demons in the interim. My teacher removed those, and we treated them the same way as the previous one.

The new foreign guy, MC had an intense experience, vomiting a lot and getting rid of his bad energies. He was a bit overwhelmed initially but settled down after my teacher sang to reduce the effects for him. Later he said that he found it all very useful and cleansing, but much more intense than he’d expected.

I sang a lot, as my teacher was otherwise occupied. I’m getting better at staying in one register, but still need more work. More meditation and vitamins for me!

One of the women was having unexpected vaginal bleeding – my examination showed irritation of uterus. My teacher did a spiritual operation on her to fix it, and I was able to see the cell structure he was working on. While he was doing this, I also saw a black pterodactyl-type thing hanging around her – it said it was her guilty conscience but as that isn’t really a name, it could have been an evil spirit. I’ll check again next time.

The lady who’s trying to get husband back had a hex on her from her mother – the mother was upset with her daughter for leaving the family home, though there was no whammy on the husband as the lady had thought. Said husband has moved back in with his mother and seems utterly uninterested in getting back together with her. My teacher told her to accept that he was gone and find someone else but she was determined to keep trying to retrieve him.

There were two attacks by massed Forces of Darkness (TM), probably associated with the Chile-Peru situation and the countdown to 21 Dec. They were driven back but it took some concentrated effort.

That was pretty much it for Ceremony 294. I felt pretty good afterward, maybe because it was cooler than usual, because I’d certainly put in a lot of work. Maybe all the singing helped. We’re supposed to drink again on Wednesday. My teacher has gone to inspect the jungle camp and will be out there a day or two, but he should be returning with fresh ayahuasca to cook up.