journey with your mind through our Blog
AYAHUASCA FOR DEPRESSION: WHAT THE EXPERIENCE CAN OFFER
Ayahuasca works to diagnose issues on an extraordinary level. When the medicine is consumed, it enters your body at a cellular level. Reading your DNA, your memories, your ancestry. It finds the energetic patterns that are out of balance within your system and helps to purge them from the body. It cleanses memories and assists in closing trauma loops living in the nervous system.
BIRTH - THE MOST MYSTICAL INITIATION
In this episode of Behind Our Eyes, host Liane Grimshaw sits down with an old friend - someone who knew her back in her party days in Manchester, and whose life has also taken one of the most extraordinary turns imaginable. Fiona Kirwan is now a plant medicine facilitator living in the rainforest on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. She and her husband Neil co-founded Sowa Soma, a trauma-informed ayahuasca retreat centre, after Fiona walked away from the PR agency she'd spent years building.
WILL I HALLUCINATE FROM DRINKING AYAHUASCA?
This is a question we get asked frequently.
For us there is a distinct difference between hallucinating and what you experience when you drink Ayahuasca. Here we share our thoughts on what happens when we drink this sacred brew.
WAYS TO GROUND AFTER PLANT MEDICINE JOURNEYS
Grounding Part 2
Grounding is an essential part of integration process post any modality of energetic work. Our bodies and minds benefit from feeling the repetition of the mundane - the movement and sensations in our bodies, the physical contact with others. If we always want to escape and live in the ether, we are running away from the work of what it is to live the life of a well balanced human.
Here we share some very practical tips on what this could look like.
WAS YOUR AYAHUASCA EXPERIENCE SPIRITUAL DELUSION OR DIVINE GUIDANCE?
Grounding Part 1
Our minds play an important role in discerning what is delusional and what is actually guidance when working with plant medicines. It is a fine line between taming our egos only to gain a spiritual ego, as we experience the vastness that these plants offer our consciousness. Grounding back into this reality is fundamental to any energetically opening work.
WHAT IS A MASTER PLANT DIETA?
A master plant diet is a sacred process of communion with a plant or tree practiced by many Amazonian tribes and their healers.
Done with the purpose of learning to become a curandero or prescribed to a patient as a process of healing, more often than not, dieting a plant involves a combination of learning and healing. Beyond the chemical compounds the plant offers through consumption, a master plant dieta allows us to merge consciousness with a plant and experience its traits and energetic signature.
PLANT MEDICINE INTEGRATION GUIDE | PART 3
Integration Series Part 3.
For us integration means alchemy. When we take those challenging lessons from our experiences and shine a light of truth on them. Having more awareness, love and compassion for ourselves so that we are able to create new outcomes in our life. Truly embodying those learnings in our everyday life.
What does integration mean for you?
PLANT MEDICINE INTEGRATION GUIDE | PART 2
Neil Kirwan, co-founder of Sowa Soma speaks about the afterglow of the experience having gone as we get into the mundane flow of life again. Months 1-3 (and beyond) are where those lessons learnt are put to the test. This usually comes with some mistakes and failings, but try not to be too hard on yourself. This is all part of bringing more awareness into our lives, choosing not to repeat old patterns and behaviours.
IS DRINKING AYAHUASCA DANGEROUS?
As more and more people come to Ayahuasca, an estimated 4m people (ICEERS study) around the world have experienced the potent Amazonian brew, so too has plant medicine interest piqued.
PLANT MEDICINE INTEGRATION GUIDE | PART 1
Neil Kirwan, Ayahuascero and co-founder of Sowa Soma talks about what happens 1-2 weeks following any energetic work, including Ayahuasca ceremonies or retreats.
WHY DO WE HAVE A SCREENING PROCESS BEFORE DRINKING AYAHUASCA?
Screening participants before and ayahuasca ceremony is an essential part of our practice.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING AN AYAHUASCA CEREMONY?
What happens during an ayahuasca ceremony? Knowing the general structure of how a ceremony works goes a long way to creating a sense safety for your first ayahuasca ceremony.
WHO OR WHAT IS AYAHUASCA?
The what is easy, who is Ayahausca is a much harder question to answer. Many refer to her as feminine or mother like whilst others disagree
SHOULD I DRINK AYAHUASCA?
Should I drink Ayahuasca? What do we need to consider when asking this question?
SOWA SOMA AYAHUASCA RETREATS IN COSTA RICA
Sowa Soma was co-created by husband and wife team, Neil and Fiona Kirwan when they moved to the Caribbean coats of Costa Rica in 2021. They wanted to create a safe environment for people to connect with Ayahuasca, with facilitators who fully respect working with Ayahuasca and other healing plants. The foundation of Sowa Soma is built around four pillars - ritual, respect, relationship and reciprocity, and guides all aspects of their work.
NON PSYCHEDELIC PLANTS FOR HEALING
Our connection with nature in the UK may not be on the same level as the tribes of the Amazon, but the plants are ready and waiting with the same vigour and healing power of their rainforest counter parts. And they have so much to say!
RECIPROCITY: WHY GIVING BACK TO AYAHUASCA IS IMPORTANT
Our culture can be extractive in its nature, however working with these plants with integrity requires the act of reciprocity. With my initial teaching in mind, it is clear to me that the western world is not happening to Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is happening to the western world. It is the spirit here that has the guiding hand.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLACE TO DRINK AYAHUASCA
A real point of contention that will often raise red flags on both sides for more experienced drinkers is the practice of drinking Ayahuasca in your own home Vs drinking in a group with a curandero/facilitator/shaman at a retreat centre.
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO DRINK AYAHUASCA?
After many journeys to the darkness, the abyss, the void I decided to write an article about my experience, What started out as an article turned into a poem, twisting and turning, moving and flowing.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AYAHUASCA & ANAHUASCA?
This analogue version of Ayahuasca is not Ayahuasca, it's a disservice to advertise these plants as such and misinforms retreat participants. That's not to say these plants don't have healing properties and. In many European retreat centres I see that an Analogue version of Ayahuasca is being served.