Category

Shadow

When Ayahuasca Reveals Past Lives AyahuascaIntegrationPersonal ExperienceShadow

When Ayahuasca Reveals Past Lives

It's said that ayahuasca has the power to clean various disorders and misalignments at the root, supporting healing from the bottom up. What constitutes a deeper root than our past lives? Indeed, it seems ayahuasca can help us face the karmic consequences of past actions, be these from a previous incarnation or an ancestral inheritance. Let me unpack this a bit more here. We modern folks are in the beginning stages ...
May 8, 2026
We’re Not Made to Heal Alone IntegrationPersonal ExperienceShadowSociety

We’re Not Made to Heal Alone

We humans need other humans—to call us on our stuff, to name our shadow. To see ourselves as we cannot. To initiate us into new paths and practices. And to support us through the rough ride that ayahuasca can bring, the retriggered trauma and angst-y feelings that can arise. Let’s take shadow work first. By shadow I mean all the forgotten, repressed, unseen and un-integrated psychic material we’ve left behind in the process of growing up. Very often we need…
Jul 13, 2019
Family Secrets in Ayahuasca’s Light AyahuascaPersonal ExperienceShadowTrauma

Family Secrets in Ayahuasca’s Light

Seven days into an ayahuasca retreat in the Peruvian Amazon, I'm not liking—no, let’s tell it straight—hating the guy who sits across from me in the circle. Mike’s smugness, his closedness, his know-it-all vibe are driving me crazy. And I know, reluctantly but well enough, that the qualities I am triggered by are actually inside of me. La Medicina has been busy unraveling my tidy self-perceptions this past week, and I am overdue for a round of shadow work. Meeting…
Mar 28, 2017
Ayahuasca & Shadow AyahuascaIntegrationShadow

Ayahuasca & Shadow

Integration work means more than joining a sharing circle, starting a meditation practice, and maintaining a clean diet. One of its deepest aspects involves turning to face the shadow—the repressed, unseen and un-integrated psychic material we’ve left behind in the process of growing up. Conscious shadow work deliberately evokes that which we fervently desire to keep hidden. Needless to say, this requires a great deal of courage.We all have shadows, and we must meet them in full consciousness, or else…
Feb 19, 2017