The DietPaul Eijkemans If there is one single area within the world of the sacred plant medicines that causes tremendous confusion it is the diet that needs to be kept to enjoy a plant ceremony. I sometimes receive emails that have been sent in the middle of the night by people that are unable to sleep out of fear that they have eaten something for which the spirit of the plants will severely punish them. To prevent this from happening, or let alone that in the future they will start calling me at those times, I will elaborate more on the diet for Natem ceremonies. It is also good to know that, of course, these plants do not punish anyone. They are medicines. But let’s first talk about food and food intake. The other day I watched an Oprah Winfrey show with three really fat ladies who placed themselves on her couch. The couch could barely hold their weight. They almost even launched Oprah, who was sitting at the opposite edge of the couch and is not the smallest person herself, into the air. They chatted about their eating habits and one said that she only went for a Number Two once a week. I had trouble believing that, given her size and the probable enormous amounts of food that she consumed every day. Then again, maybe she was just about to do a Number Two and would have lost half of her size in the process; I secretly hoped that that would happen during the show. Can you imagine? Before the commercial break you have someone the size of the late Barry White sitting on your couch; and someone like Tyra Banks after the commercial break. Magical! David Copperfield could probably not have bettered that. Apparently this lady did not realise how strange, and how equally constipated, the infrequency of her bathroom visits were. She also complained about being tired and constantly unmotivated, but did not relate that in any way to the size of her humongous body and her non-lacking motivation to stuff it full of garbage all day. I was surprised that she did not have several milkshakes in her hands during the show to keep her going. It felt as if I was not watching the Oprah Winfrey show but a Punch and Judy puppet show instead; where everyone in the audience clearly sees the villain standing behind Mr. Punch but he does not see that himself. Generally in life it is wise to change your ways if things are not working out for you, or if you do not work out. You do need awareness to logically connect your behaviour with the desired or undesired end-results of that behaviour. It helps to cultivate that awareness because it can prevent you from becoming trapped into an unhealthy body! We live in a time when mankind ironically has more tools than ever to stay healthy. There are also an ever increasing number of people that have become disconnected with their bodies. I hope that you, as a potential upcoming plant medicine healer, do not suffer from such a disconnection: a deep and intimate connection with your body is necessary to do plant medicine work. The more you connect with your body, the more you can ground down into it. The more you do this, the further you can travel into the energetic space behind the physical and do your energy healing work. The only way to have an out-of-body experience is to have an in-the-body experience first; it comes with connecting deeply to your body and your bodily functions. One way of creating a great connection with the body is to optimise your diet. Unfortunately, the food intake of many people is of extremely poor quality, to say the least. There is a good reason to be careful with what you put into your system. we as humankind have indeed reached a new level of consciousness. the physical body. so hailed’ spiritual year of 2012. Leon Eisenberg. but I need science to build me an instrument to do so. and the energetic component of food is used to create and sustain your energetic body. People are rapidly becoming unhealthier. The brain is only there to make sure that this energy remains focused within this object-dominated world that we live in. please stop your senseless quest for enlightenment so that others do not have to become stupid and have to suffer because of you. The physical component of food is used to construct and maintain your physical body. and this includes children. It is so bad that in the ‘oh. In my view it does that by translating between the holographic-like energetic reality beyond the physical and the object-based reality within the physical. So. There are about 100 million of these neurons. An increasing number of them have Ritalin prescribed to numb them although the inventor of the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. but apparently the general opinion is that one cannot start too early with them. Loutish behaviour is of all times but the strong increase that I have seen in the past two decades is. I am talking about those who fill their surplus bodies with toxic fats full of chemicals. more than in the spinal cord or peripheral nervous system. With ‘fatter’ I do not mean plus-size people like the giant men from Polynesia or the ‘Big Mama’s’ that I have seen in Africa. but also plays an important role in setting . People are getting fatter and unhealthier much more quickly than they have ever done in the past. admitted on his deathbed that it is a fictitious disease and that he made it all up. These chemicals are just as damaging as most of the additives that can be found in the foodstuff that many people eat. Not that I believe that thinking itself is done in the brain. We also own something that can be called ‘the second brain’. that ultimately influence bodily processes and thus emotional wellbeing. in my opinion. If you are really smart and have a heart. Ritalin damages various organs and can cause psychosis and depression. but most people seem to think that it is normal that their food should contain chemicals. who are usually relatively healthy. It not only handles digestion. Vegetarians poke fun at pork eaters by pointing this out to them.Let’s face it. even in spite the fact that health food shops pop up like mushrooms on a rainy autumn day. not those that have natural fats that provide protection against invading energies and can be used as fuel for the body. if you really want to help other people. It is the massive network of neurons that line the guts. Many of these food additives make people numb. the way I look at it is that the capacity of intelligence and thinking ultimately is delivered through the energy fields in the vast space beyond the physical which is cultivated over eons. strongly related to the rich assortment of chemicals put into foodstuffs. Your brain is a great tool for controlling the intelligent robot. you would better remove yourself from this planet to help others in their development! People also seem to get unhealthier on a mental level because of what they put into their bodies. It perfectly demonstrates how duality within unity works as everything is always in balance: for every person getting more enlightened there are also a hundred other people that get a bit more stupid in order to bring things into balance again. depressed or aggressive. in comparison. ADHD. The brain helps to compartmentalise and in this way to put things in order. For the first time in history more people on this planet have died from diseases that are related to overeating than people have died from hunger. but they tend to forget that they themselves eat nuts and eggs. In that regard ‘you are what you eat’ but should not need to take that too literally. Hopefully one day I will be able to prove my theory. such as reading and moving energy. In ceremonies shamans make good use of this extensive and sensitive network. but to scramble your daily plant meal together you equally have to kill some of our green friends. Science and plant lovers can tell you that plants have feelings too. . just like animals. they also do not eat eggs. Many people tend to forget that everything is situational. The reality that I see in vegetarians is that the vast majority of them lack the physical strength to do true medicinal plant work. our green friends are probably the largest group of carnivores in the world. If you eat plants you are automatically disqualified as a vegetarian because you are eating meat at the same time. I am a vegetarian too. If you conduct plant medicine ceremonies it is much better to eat meat. Then they say that another reason for not eating meat is the horrible lives that animals that are raised in the bio-industry have had. which is where the term ‘gut feeling’ comes from. and it certainly did not stop me from actually chatting without disgust with something that had come out of the vagina of his mother. We have finally found some common ground. With it. One of the ways they keep their guts healthy is by keeping to specific diets within their traditions. with poultry as your main type of animal protein and fish a good second. They have flack bodies without any protective fat and with the slightest surge of energies in the space they fall to the ground. There are many diets than can be discussed and I would like to make a start with the most common one. But never make a dogmatic drama out of it because in that way you only create problems for yourself and for others. Vegans are a subset of vegetarians. I replied to him that I did not share his disgust for such things. So you might as well quit the behaviour of not eating meat altogether because you are already doing it by eating plants. They simply are not well connected to their bodies because of their delusional eating habits. Some then start to whine that one should not kill animals and that therefore vegetarianism is indeed the ultimate spiritual practice. and this occurs primarily because of the second brain. It is one of the reasons why shamans like to keep their intestines healthy because they are one of the most important tools that they use in their work.the emotional state of a person. There are many vegetarians in this world. you can sense energies in the space around you. If not eating meat works for you then please do not eat meat. I point out and in that way sometimes anger them that the Dalai Lama. as I do not eat meat produced by the bio-industry either. The energies of drama are far more damaging to your energy system than not keeping to a specific diet. Love goes through man’s stomach. but frankly speaking the plants themselves are not among them: insects crawl up and around plants and when they die their cells go into the soil from which the plants obtain their nutrients. I once met one who told me that he was disgusted by the idea of eating something that had come out of the body of something. vegetarianism. Sometimes people ask me why I am not a vegetarian but can still do the energetic things that I do. After I have reminded them that Adolf Hitler probably qualifies as the most well-known vegetarian. but definitely not when eating. Some of these people are so caught up in their rigorous food choice that they start lecturing others. let alone putting those energies in other people by doing your drama. Better eat some chicken. please eat it. about how being a vegetarian is the ultimate spiritual practice. also eats chicken now and then because he knows that it is healthy for him. If eating meat works. Given the abundance of plants on this planet. who can perhaps be seen as an authority in spiritual matters. I always give them the answer that they should turn the questions around and ask themselves why is it that they are vegetarians and cannot do the things that I can do. but their gooey insides tastes delicious and is worth the price. called wek in Shuar. Now. To eat them you take the insect in your hand. even if it tastes great. Yet another tasteful insect is a water insect called tsappak. The Shuar are the opposite of vegetarians. I explained to him that these fish were not for eating but only for decorative purposes only. They catch some in the nearby rivers but many Shuar families also have a large pond near the house where fish are cultivated. He knows very well what an aquarium is but just to make sure that he did not fall back into Shuar habits and that I would have ended up with an angry landlord. If you tell your friends that you are going to such . You can eat them deep fried but most Shuar will prefer them raw.The indigenous Shuar consider vegetarianism to be something truly weird. that in the future insects become a major alternative food source to feed populations. I also had Miguel Chiriap over from his rainforest. how appropriate. the kitchen. Another delicacy are flying ants. Insects are a great source of proteins and despite their sometimes deterring appearance they most of the times taste great. dip the body in salt and put it in your mouth. They collectively make their nests in the ground and half an hour of digging and sifting quickly yields a kilo or so of them. it tastes so palatable and crunchy in your mouth. fish is a food and nothing else. pull off its claw-bearing head which also removes the bitter tasting intestines. One other exciting food source that the rainforest provides is insects. pigs and poultry. but I also think that it is inappropriate to lecture people about their eating habits if they have been tending to them for at least ten thousand years or more. The eating habits of the Shuar include eating many types of fish. On one morning I found him staring intensely at the different kinds of goldfish in the tank while licking his lips. I would not be surprised if given the antipathy that is developing in our world against keeping cows. I once rented a house that had a large aquarium in. One of such insect delicacy is a fat maggot named mukin that lives in and eats on the inside of the Chonta Palm. It is like caviar from the rainforest. I am not in favour of taking bush meat from the rainforest to cook into an extremely delicious mouth-watering meal. At a steep US$ 1 per piece these maggots are by bodyweight probably the most expensive edible insect in the world. Of course they do not eat dogs. a habit which people that keep certain diets have a tendency of pursuing. a forest which could aptly be called the largest freeloader’s supermarket in the world. Their ‘strokability factor’ is at least a lot lower than the animals that have a bit more personality. They are normally poisonous but if you cook them the poison is neutralized and they can be safely eaten. Many types of insect delicacies can be found in the rainforest in Shuar territory. As ugly as the insect looks from the outside. except maybe the table and the dog. Keeping fish as a pet is completely alien to them. which dog actually does. He regretfully agreed. Such is the same of course when visiting a plant medicine ceremony. they eat anything with four legs. one kilo of yummy protein rich food. These dogs are especially efficient in digging out armadillos that are extremely tasty if well cooked. usually tilapia and trout. They need to find out for themselves and such it is not for lecturing on anyone else’s eating habits. automatically this person is disqualified from being a Shuar. you will never ever taste anything so delicious in your life. When you tell them that you do not eat meat they will immediately ask you compassionately about the specific disease that you have because why otherwise would you stick to a strict diet of only plants? For this reason you will not encounter a Shuar who is a vegetarian because if he or she is. Their hunting dogs bring them food stuff from the rainforest so why kill and eat the goose with the golden eggs. This increased sensitivity due to frequent cleansing using the sacred plants might also show up in another way. While waiting for the effects of the consumed juice to settle in. and Benzoate preservatives can cause hyperactivity: these are only a few of a long list of additives to avoid. It is hundred percent natural and mankind have been using it for more than eighty years for this purpose: like Jamie I wonder how people found out in the first place that the anal glands of a beaver taste great. are many other. a type of beetle that lives in South-America and Mexico. Miguel rubbed the shredded leafs of the plant all over my body to make it absorb additional plant essence. What is to shun though. In any case. one who is on the path of the sacred plant medicines will notice that the sensitivity of his or her body will increase. the human body’s largest organ. So better be able to decipher the label in order to avoid negative reactions of your body to food. Research has shown that the skin absorbs about sixty percent of the substances that are applied topically. Foulcriers would probably immediately come up with Big Food conspiracy theories. of course. chemical. but personally I feel that a combination of lack of manpower at governmental institutions and the long lead times of thorough research are more to blame. A great opportunity to dive into this subject was given to me in one of the ceremonies when my attention . it is used to give several brands of jelly beans their shiny coating. but the reality is. Unless you are a vegan or a vegetarian. The mechanism of absorption through the skin is also widely used in the various medicinal plant treatments that can be found in Shuar culture: the Shuar have many treatments that are based on rubbing shredded leaves into the skin or on bathing in plant extracts. and thus become more sensitive to the use of chemical food additives. that in the morning everyone that participated is happy that they did it. a substance that is called Shellac. they will all tell you that you are crazy. a food additive aroma that comes from rendered beaver anal glands: apparently it makes ice cream taste great. Another insect product that is sometimes used in candy production is the sticky secretions of the female species of the Thai beetle Kerria lacca. Once I subjected to a Maikuamamu ritual. To be able to sense energies in space the intestines of a shaman are of extreme importance. Ever eaten Skittles when you were young? For years the red ones were coloured with Carmine. artificial sweeteners can have a negative impact on one’s metabolism and has been linked to cancer. including products such as deodorants. there is no reason to shun these natural food additives. Thus when talking about food additives. Some people might have already eaten insects without realising it. Any female with a nickel or gold allergy can regretfully explain you that the human body can also absorb nutrients through its skin. a profound Shuar ritual in which the essence of the Datura-plant is ingested to invoke a comatose condition of several days in which one enters the spirit world. I personally experienced this when I regularly became slightly nauseous after taking a shower following a ceremony: by changing shampoos this nausea vanished.a ceremony or retreat and that when you are there you will vomit your guts out. people usually think about chemical components but that does not necessarily need to be the case. In a 2011 David Lettermanshow TV-chef Jamie Oliver revealed that vanilla-flavouring in some dairy products is achieved by using Castoreum. additives. For this reason I use as much as possible shampoos and skin products that only contain natural ingredients. which is a red food-colouring that comes from boiled Cochineal bugs. that interestingly enough are approved by governmental food watchdogs: many artificial colours are made from coal-tar derivatives and are known to cause allergic reactions. of course. Homo sapiens had good reasons for learning to cook. In other words. the reason for which such and many other techniques exist. perfectly mimics the macro-world of this same rainforest through the food he eats. The only reason that apes ate their food raw was because they did not know how to cook it. I saw that the micro-world of bacteria and fungus that Miguel has in his digestive track. the most important reason to avoid a raw food diet is that cooking your food will actually help your body to absorb more nutrients. He keeps the micro-organisms in his gut in good shape by eating extremely healthily. There you go with your healthy trendy lifestyle: it is all in the mind. if you look at the energy of the bacteria in his guts you will see that they have pretty much the same energies that can be found in the rainforest itself. Not only does cooked food usually taste much better than raw food but it also gives a welcoming pleasure to the body through its warmth. Yes. Some post pictures of all the raw food meals that they eat on Facebook. you read it correctly. I also saw that a lot of his healing power can actually be attributed to the fact that he has these energies in him. They learned how to master fire and how to use it for its own purpose. Sure. and because apes eat their food raw. Nor does he need them as he has got his own plants to cure him. in my opinion. as it would take him months to rebuild the microcosmos in there. cooking your food destroys some of the harmful anti-nutrients that bind minerals in the gut and interfere with the utilization of nutrients. I do not follow that diet because I want to prevent myself becoming anal. tasteless diet? Usually these people tend to claim that all of us are descended from apes. being an indigenous from the rainforest. many small make a large one. At least that is the way that I perceive many of those who follow that diet. Another interesting diet is that of raw food. . Actually. something that all other human’s beings also have if they take good care of their guts. With the energy of the medicine I was ‘transported’ into the micro-organism systems there and was explained how they worked and interacted. You might as well say that eating raw food significantly increases your chance of getting cancer.was guided to Miguel’s intestines. The ape evolved via various versions into Homo sapiens. the plants that we eat generally do not contain any enzymes that could catalyse chemical reactions that occur in human beings. eating raw food prevents the accumulation of mucus in your intestines but this can easily be countered with an occasional colonic cleansing. in my opinion. started to mine ore to create steel weapons and pans to cook food. which is true. Through such reasoning they. Most raw food enthusiasts will tell you that cooking food will destroy at least half of all nutrients in food with essential enzymes being the main victim. To the contrary. and nothing else. Apparently these people need external stimulation to show that they are doing something good. Having a strong but delicate intestinal system also means that the smallest deviation from his diet gives him extreme pain. we should eat it the same way to provide optimal nutrition to our bodies. because he can use the rainforest related energies to move other less healthy energies out of energy systems. How would it be otherwise possible for them to stick to their. For this reason he never takes antibiotics that travel through the guts. However. Each of these bacteria has a small energy field and since there are 100 trillion of them in the gut. There are also several studies that confirm that the body’s uptake of beneficial anti-cancer compounds is four to five times higher if food is properly cooked as compared to eating it raw. For this and other reasons he hardly ever accepts food offered to him by participants at a ceremony. which some perceive as very spiritual. show a flagrant disregard for the progression of the human spirit and its accompanying body. I was shown the relationship between the micro-organism colonies inhabiting the intestines and energy healing capabilities. They represent a part of the energetic capacity that he has. they are shouting against the pain that they feel inside themselves for in the same way being addicted to these vitamins. although in his forest it costs him half an hour to locate it while in my local supermarket he could grab it from a shelf. In reality this energy of anxiety is far more damaging to your energy system than any possible vitamin deficiency that could easily be cured by taking vitamins in a more natural way. you take vitamins. Neo also had the choice between a blue pill and a red pill. a time to weep and a time to dance. but that does not prevent many of these ‘advocates of good health’ from ranting against Big Pharma. for every time of the day and. Of course. The Mafia comes in to your store. Vitamin pill takers also have a choice. but M&M’s only come in six colours while vitamin pills come in many more. Over millions of years of evolution the human body has had to constantly adapt itself to situations where not enough. quite persuasively convinces you that you need their protection services.One other interesting folly is that of taking vitamin pills. Then they start to squeeze you like a lemon. It works the same way for the vitamin pill Mafia. The essence of using natural or chemical medicines in a sane way is to be pragmatic: only take it when it is absolutely necessary and if there are no other known alternatives. I do think that their sometimes can be a time for taking them. of course this is not to keep track of them as their manufacturers say they do. silly enough. Walk into any small neighbourhood supermarket and you will find the most obscure little fruits coming from an equally obscure country in Dark Africa. In reality. it is nowadays. because they are the same chemical compounds for everyone. The vitamin industry is like the Mafia. or not healthy enough. If your body severely fails you and your organs cannot take enough nutrition from foodstuffs. but sometimes you need more than that and then the pills come in handy. although one difference is that for the vitamin pill takers it would be actually great to squeeze a lemon: it contains a lot of vitamin C and would save them a lot of money. The vitamin Mafia is like the real Mafia. This means that there is a specific time for specific things. but a trick to make your eat more of them. They convince you that you need them. There has not been a single moment in human history that we had a similar abundance of fresh foods and vegetables available to us as nowadays. we did not have that fifty years ago. In this way these vitamin pill takers are no less addicted to their vitamins than those who are addicted to chemical medicines. of course. and if you want to quit your vitamin pill intake they cause great anxiety because through their marketing they subconsciously put a guilt feeling upon you for not taking their products anymore. a vitamin pill for every age group. Of course you should first try to give it an overload with different kinds of fruits and vegetables. But at least he realised that he had a choice and chose wisely. Although I did not hear them sing that there was a time for vitamin pills. It survived and made our body into the resilient tool that it is. People eat them like M&M’s. The Byrds sang it very eloquently when they sang that there is a time to laugh. There are even special vitamin pill boxes with many different compartments to facilitate intake. then they make you pay dearly for their products. When Miguel Chiriap comes over from Ecuador and stays with me he can buy the same foodstuff in my local supermarket as he can take out of the rainforest. There seems to be a vitamin pill for every situation. If there is any time in human history where it was absolutely unnecessary to take vitamin pills. and if you want to quit the relationship they intimidate you into staying with them. You do not take a vitamin pill if you are sick: you are sick if you take a vitamin pill. just like that. The Byrds understood ‘situationalism’. Fruit and vegetables contain more than enough vitamins and other good elements to keep us healthy. a choice to stop . food was available. They are supposedly at a level at which they do not need physical food anymore. the vital life force. fresh air and the trees around you. It is. no use for me to invite breatharians to my ceremonies to cure their drama as they would not take a cup of my plants anyway.their follies and thus their dramas. taking in life force energy is of the utmost importance in everyone’s life. If you actually meet one then send this person over to me: I will give you US$ 100 for the first legitimate one that knocks at my door. Unfortunately. Science tells you that you definitely can be a breatharian. but they usually do not see it that way because they really think that they are doing something healthy. only one way to do so: stop eating and drinking and show me. Apparently. It seems that anyone who has an interest in spirituality knows a breatharian who is a neighbour of a cousin of a friend of his dentist. to get to this ultimate stage of not needing physical food. of course. It is a force provided by the energy that comes from things such as the sun. You would still have gas though. Do not get me wrong. before being able to be in-to-breath. I have never met any of them in person. But taking it as your main course is something entirely different to having it as a side salad. of course. It charges and recharges you. How they do that is a big mystery for me as any normally functioning body burns its own body fat reserves. No acid regurgitation anymore. and even then the breathing itself to take prana would gradually burn these reserves. which some of these people mentally speaking indeed are. after all. It must be paradise for them there. although I have been to many different places on this planet. These are all great diets and combined with their practical purpose they can help you to raise or lose certain energies within your energy . you have to work your way up through vegetarianism. These are people that apparently have mastered the art of living solely on prana. Then of course there are the breatharians. air is air. Please do not think that I am taking the piss at all these diets. I have heard a lot about breatharians recently. and want to challenge what I say here. It is in the vast energetic reality beyond the physical which is the place where true breatharians go because of their non-eating habits. raw food and liquidism to finally reach a stage where you can leave this all behind you. then there is. Maybe they would come if I were to promise them an empty cup? If you are a breatharian. I do know a place where you really do not need physical food anymore and where you can most surely find breatharians. including your taste buds. most probably stuck in one of the stages of the path while striving for the ultimate goal to where of course you will never get. out-ofbreath apparently. but the reality is that any path that includes rigorous fasting will do so. It is something that inevitably comes with having a body. It is not that I am against breatharianism in itself as it sounds truly exciting. but only for a limited time. veganism. They have to be aware though: the medicine that I offer comes in a liquid form and not in a pill. so much for that life force of yours. That said. glycogen and muscle tissue. You will never have bad breath again. To stop their drama they are more than welcome to come to my plant medicine ceremonies and take a real medicine. To prevent this burning happening you have to be in a comatose condition. And if you get hungry you simply grab a cheap candy bar from the sun instead of frantically searching for a Mars bar from a store. So there is this path to follow. but it seems that all of those who follow it get stuck in one of the phases and not one of the aspirants reaches an end goal. This path gives you a lot of extra energy of course. You could also come to one of my ceremonies and take a cup of my medicine so that I can help cure you from your drama. There are numerous documented cases of people dying because of malnutrition while trying this diet. of course. In reality the only one who benefits from this new diet hype is of course the diet guru himself who is laughing all the way to the bank. It is never possible to give a conclusive list. sometimes even several pages long. It is much better to have a more relaxed approach to things and take those relaxed energies into the ceremony. The worries of having taken food by accident that could possibly clash with the medicine raise energies of anxiety that are taken into the ceremony and have far more effect than actually eating something ‘bad’.system. It is for this Godwin reason that I have conceived the term ‘Raw Food Nazi’. with a very different magnitude. but only the Type A MAOI’s do this. Additionally. with every one of these hypes bringing a new food guru that is invited to sit on Oprah’s couch. as is done by many rigorously following these diets. which are probably not even on a list. Theory says that this has to do with the fact that certain foods contain tyramine. They have. himself munching on a Mars bar. prevent catabolism of tyramine. All the while this time could have been spent meditating on either joining a ceremony or on playing and having fun. This is an amino acid of which having large amounts in your body can give you headaches and of which very extreme amounts in rare cases can cause cardiac failure. as the powerless bodies of quite a few of these dieters do not in the slightest way resemble the emaciated bodies of those few that were liberated from Auschwitz. Participants lose valuable time scrutinizing these lists to see if they can eat something as simple as radish or even more obscure vegetables like parsnip or Jerusalem artichoke. but in reality such lists are pretty useless. the effects of foods on someone’s wellbeing differ from person to person and are closely related to the state of health in which someone dwells. Subsequently they are parroting these belief systems towards many others and in this way new food hypes are quickly born. Even if Natem had contained the ‘wrong’ MAOI’s you would still have to eat a few pounds of French cheese or a few kilos of dates to give yourself a headache after taking the medicine. MAOI’s. For every diet there is a specific time and a specific place. The MAOI’s generally found in Natem are of Type B and will not cause problems. Some plant medicine circles have long lists. to clarify which foods should not be taken before and after a specific plant medicine ceremony. feel free to use it in your daily vocabulary. instead I am giving the finger to the people that are mindlessly following these diets for dogmatic reasons. I have a lot of respect for them and have even used some of them to learn how to work with energies. or the Nazi’s. parroting them and doing damage to oneself and others this way. which is also a pretty pointless exercise. In my opinion there are a lot of people who easily buy into the belief systems of others instead of checking within themselves to see if there is a practical need for the diet and how it would benefit them. So let’s kill this discussion on paper here. every right to do so. if the medicine would clash with a certain food in your stomach it would . Godwin’s Law dictates that in any online discussion a comparison with Adolf Hitler. Nobody eats those amounts and you would rather die of overeating first before dying of cardiac failure. is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. Having a certain diet to prove a point is pretty similar to going on hunger strike. although. I also have deep respect and a large amount of love for those who use these diets to change the energies inside them and thus work on self-liberation. It is the same mechanism. So. of course. Besides. will eventually pop up: something which effectively kills the discussion. Mindlessly buying into other people’s belief systems. There are many foods on the ‘forbidden list’ of Ayahuasca circles of which it is said that they cannot be eaten because of the changed body chemistry that occurs due to taking the medicine. Tyramine can be found in fermented or ripened foods and is naturally broken down by the body. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors. SSRI’s. There are. If there are no side-effects then I will give that person a normal cup of medicine about two hours later. In reality. At the start of a ceremony I always ask people if they use chemical medicines because some are very dangerous when combined with Natem. When I was in India I pretty much looked the same way at their cows as Miguel looked at the fish in my landlord’s aquarium: a world full of gastronomic possibilities. Combining the two can lead to Serotonin Syndrome which can cause convulsions and even death. but it is not because I think that pigs have a personality or because I think that they are filthy animals.most certainly trigger the body to vomit the food out. Like dogs. for instance. As far as I know there is nothing written in Ayahuasca literature about possible conflicts between Natem and antibiotics. but Miguel has had problems in the past with several patients and therefore recommends starting with small doses first. Such medicines are. or stomach pains descend up you after eating a certain food when taken in combination with the medicine. as they use it to grow and I do not avoid them either. dogs do have personality but in Indonesia I also ate dog. my advice to people is always to become more aware of your body and your intestines and feel for yourself which foods you can take and which foods you cannot. Another foodstuff to talk about because it is not compatible with the medicine is milk or products that contain a significant amount of lactose. of course. then simply do not eat that food in combination with the medicine. There are incompatibilities. The only reason then that I did not eat beef is because the religious fanatics would probably have made me next in line for the pyre. Not that I do not like steak. Let’s face it: milk is not meant for human consumption. instead of giving people a large list of foods that they cannot eat or drink and create additional unnecessary anxiety in them. unless of course the pig has a personality. So. though. I am listing them because of my experiences with them. I hardly eat pork. An example of SSRI medication is the widely prescribed Prozac. which come in the form of anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication. pharmaceutical MAOI’s and serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors. Some say that because babies . birth control pills which should be taken long before the ceremony starts to prevent them from being vomited out. I actually love it. One of these foods is pork which is great to eat. some types of food for which it is better not to eat in the days before and after a ceremony. If numbness. just to be sure. just as Barack Obama did. anxiety. and I make it clear to them that they stand a good chance of dying if they hide it from me out of a desire to participate. The exception to that are. It is meant to turn a 60 pound newborn calf into a 400 pound cow. anyone who keeps a relatively healthy diet and includes a diverse variety of different foods can participate in a ceremony without any problems. combined with the experiences of Miguel Chiriap and the multiple thousands of people that have visited his ceremonies in the past thirty years. If someone is on antibiotics I will always start by giving a small amount of medicine first. Other chemical medicines are relatively safe to take but I always ask participants in a circle to regulate their intake of chemical medicines in such a way that they do not take chemical medicines for twenty four hours before until twenty four hours after a ceremony. of course. The SSRI’s are extremely dangerous in combination with the MAOI’s contained in Natem. For this reason I only allow people who have not been taking antipsychotic or anti-depressant medication for at least three months into my ceremonies. The reason that I hardly eat pork is that it gives me pimples on the covered sun-lacking parts of my body and it makes my stomach hurt when I eat it before or after drinking the medicine. like Arnold on Green Acres. Mushrooms also have disregard for faeces as well. For that last reason I hardly ever eat beef either. This is to help us to rebalance the energies of the Natem so that we are able to sleep and get some rest. Whether you have lactose intolerance or not. the majority of the world’s population has lactose intolerance. Everything nutritional that can be found in milk can also be obtained by eating plants. though differently. Dracula is scared of it. I am sure that you indeed look much thinner being watched from a larger distance by your friends. pesticides and dioxins that are normally found in milk. The other reason that I ask people that come to my ceremonies to not eat onions is that in combination with the medicine it makes people produce gas massively. taking dairy products before or after a ceremony gives stomach pains and invokes nausea so there is a practical reason why it is not recommended to drink or eat dairy products in the days before or after participating in a medicine circle. It goes without saying that all types of drugs. your mom was a cow. I do not know about your working environment but I do not want mine to smell like a piggery either. Garlic is a very powerful plant. Then there is of course the logical small stuff. who can? I once heard about a specific garlic diet with which you supposedly could lose a lot of weight. So vampires cannot stand garlic. the latter is the sacred Mapacho that does have its use within Natem ceremonies. and that does indeed include marihuana. of course. For example. . Some people actually come to the ceremonies to be cured from their drug addictions so we do not want these energies to interfere with their process. brings trouble: it makes you feel anxious and your whole mouth will start to uncomfortably tingle in combination with the medicine. but to be honest. Another related vegetable that is not wise to eat before and after the ceremony is onion because it lowers the energy in the body when taken with Natem. You do not need to drink milk. It is my opinion that because milk is not a good idea. Garlic is also a plant that clashes with the medicine. Contrary to popular belief. because I want people to be sober throughout the proceedings. Years ago in Holland we had a commercial on television promoting milk in which the punch line was ‘Milk. If you are trapped in a belief system that the sacredness of the medicine does not allow alcohol to interfere. though Miguel and I regularly drink a large glass of red wine in the morning after a ceremony. I also ask people not to eat very greasy or spicy food before or after the ceremony as it has an effect on the feeling of wellbeing of the intestines. A good Natem too. the rest of us have to suffer from the adage that a good curry is always enjoyed twice. The truth is that dairy milk is made out of a completely different substance to that produced by lactating mothers. the White Motor’.drink their mother’s milk. there are fifty-nine active hormones that are naturally present in cows along with the copious amounts of herbicides. I mean tobacco and not Tobacco. The reason for this is that garlic purifies the blood. then you do not recognise that alcohol has a similar sacredness because it is also a medicine. these substances are not all filtered out in the factory. the first is the chemical garbage that Marlboro puts into its cigarettes. I have lactose intolerance myself so the punch line aptly describes me and my relationship with milk: the roaring sounds of a Harley Davidson bike and not the puttering of a Vespa scooter could readily be heard coming from the toilet ten minutes after I drank a glass of milk. and by doing so you also keep the bad things in milk out. by the way. that milk is actually great for humans. I ask people not to drink alcohol before the ceremony. are also on the list of forbidden temptations. After all. Natem also cleans the blood. Two captains on the one ship that is called your bloodstream. In my humble opinion it is only the Thai and the Indians that have been born with a set of intestines that can endure spicy food. During the ceremony we add tobacco to that list because its energy is not compatible with the ceremony. and that the relative tolerance that most Caucasians have is actually an anomaly. unless. was prepared by the family. Most masters who conduct ceremonies choose the latter approach because they need the energy of the food to keep going all throughout the night. not a single person in its right mind would want to come close to the aroma of this animal. one can be pretty relaxed about his or her diet with regards to the medicine. I do occasionally eat monosodium glutamate drenched potato chips. through the anxiety that is brought in by eating them. a large rodent that of course was not on the white list of the student’s diet. It should not come as any surprise to you that because I see things this way it is my desire to limit the amount of energies of mass-industry into my system. There are a lot of people that think that you need to fast massively before a Natem ceremony. He finally decided to remove the energies of the rodent out of his body by taking Tobacco juice anally. either chemical or biological. or have troubles with conserving their energies. One reason why I do not like the bio-industry is because animals are treated so poorly. That is. are more than welcome to have a small last meal at the beginning of the evening. because they consider the animal a true delicacy. Such a diet is kept to make sure that the energies that are raised in the ritual or during the teaching process are optimally integrated. Their essence enters the food and will be picked up by your energy system. and I want to keep my body and mind as clean as possible. In those moments it is of the utmost importance to keep to the prescribed diet because it can cost you your life if you do not keep to it. despite all the energy that the medicine will bring them. but was not able to vomit out the energy of the animal from his system. if you want the medicine to deeply work in you then it is better to fast for the day and eat only a light meal in the afternoon. There are several reasons why I hardly eat any processed food. A more important reason not to like that industry is because eating . and which is strongly related to the first reason. is that in my view all physical food comes with an energetic component to it. This will give them more energy to endure the ceremony and to stay awake longer. The second reason why I do not like eating processed food.created foodstuffs. How to fast and in which form depends on your purpose. instead of them turning bad and turning against the participant. But in the kitchen the smell was inescapable and this got him into trouble: by inhaling the aroma of the animal for just a few moments he also took in its energies and it made him feel bad for days. different if you are participating in a specific cleansing ritual such as the Natemamu ritual that is held in the rainforest of Ecuador. except the Shuar of course. Those who want to make a vomit fiesta out of the ceremony.Except for what I have said about chemical medicines. Now. however. I usually ask people to have their last meal in the early afternoon because for most people that simply works the best. Of course. which is a great technique to effectively remove energies from your energy system. and that it will be much harder to consciously stay with the medicine until the end of the ceremony because of the lack of energy that you will have. We once had a lady who had fasted for three consecutive days: she almost passed out during the night. It also affected him in the ceremonies where he constantly vomited. The first reason is that there are usually a lot of chemicals in processed food. However. This energetic component is influenced by those who handle the food and thus by the essence of those who transform it from Mother Earth created to human. or if you are studying with a real master to acquire certain energies. Let me speak the decisive words on this. It indeed crawled out through there. I know a story of one of Miguel’s students who was around in the kitchen when guatusa. only to be reminded twenty minutes later why I should not. but you have to take into account that it will be much harder to vomit without having anything in your stomach. or any other harmful energies coming with that food. When I walk past the aisles in a supermarket I continuously feel what is necessary for my system and why. then the only thing that you have to do is to serve me a delicious dish. and apparently did not pick up energetically either. Because it was extremely hard for them to kill him off energetically because of his skills. They came. energetic or spiritual body. Sensing food is something that I also do when I do my shopping. For some reason or the other this man had quite a few enemies in the black shaman sector.their meats can make me feel very sick. Applying poisonous plants is a widely used method among those Shuar that have the intention to kill other people. Usually this match comes with a specific feeling in my body which explains why the match is generated. to keep me safe from taking in the energies of anxiety and fear. On this occasion the shaman entered a restaurant where he sat down with his party to have a meal. If you erroneously suffer from the need to know if I like you. after which they served it to him. how tasty or delicious it might look. It is also for this reason that I have two wonderful open hearted ladies in charge of the kitchen during ceremonies and not people who would put their energetic garbage into the food that is served to participants. What actually he did not know. still grossly underdeveloped in me. The other is also true. however. It is about an indigenous ‘white shaman’ who is an expert in sensing the energetic reality behind the physical. took the food away in a plastic bag and quickly had it tested in a laboratory. when I once came back from the rainforest from a Natemamu ritual and a friend of mine had prepared spareribs I happily accepted his delicious food because although pork was on the blacklist. Consequently. I even put the match into my shopping trolley if it is some of that candy that gives light in the dark . This ability is. To him the food smelled fishy despite even though he had not ordered such a dish. Sensing food apparently saves lives. then I will put it into my shopping trolley. but it works very well for me as in this way I use what I energetically feel about a person or industry who prepares food. and connect the foods that I pass with that need. a black shaman. they choose a different way to do so: poisoning. if I for some reason or other do not like the person that has prepared food then I will not eat the food. I use a technique to separate the good stuff from the bad. These are energies that are much more difficult to be aware of than the apparent likeability of someone or something. at my ceremonies you eat the best foods that Mother Earth can provide. although of course I am just a beginner in these things. and were given permission to put poison in his food. made with love. Miguel has an interesting story about sensing the energetic reality behind food. It also seems to be the preferred way of committing suicide. probably because this food contains elements that my body needs and of which it picked up the energy field and thus the essence of it. but he sensed there was something else. and also to check what my system needs. This is the relationship between the physical and the spiritual and if you aware of this relation then it prevents food from being eaten that will damage your physical. In essence. If there is a match. it was made with love. not only on the physical level but also on an energetic level because I would be taking in these energies of maltreatment and the resulting anxiety and fear. The family called this enemy. as in the rainforest there are not so many skyscrapers that you can jump from or trains that you can throw yourself in front of. Their findings were that the food was indeed poisoned and consequently the family was arrested. Silly? Maybe. you are probably much better at it than I am. is that the restaurant belonged to the family of one of his greatest enemies. The air was full of delicious aromas. He checked the energetic reality behind the meal and immediately asked one of his aides to call the police. such as the forgotten insides of coats. that the flavour enhancers that most people use are full of chemical additives. otherwise my attention would not have been drawn to it. but just before they start munching they top it off with copious amounts of salad dressing that alternatively could have been used as an anti-snails agent. but it is. The only exception to all of the above is of course HP Steak Sauce. In the hilarious movie Supersize Me they do a similar thing when they compare the decay of a regular burger to the decay of a burger coming from The Mac. Please let me explain why. First he explained what was in the hamburger nutrient wise. it probably contains something that my body needs. even after two days into a Natemamu ritual in Ecuador your senses become so clean that you start to really taste the food instead of having to use a flavour enhancer to make it bearable to eat. Anyone who has done just a little bit of meditation can tell you that thoughts are an interesting phenomenon. Meditators will tell you . The reason for it not decaying is because what you buy at McDonald’s does not qualify as food. Do not get me wrong.because. When I was studying at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing one of the teachers once gave a hilarious talk about food. The body has developed over millions of years into an intricate system that can detect and remember which foods should not be taken and you can use this system to your benefit. It looked like it had just been made. I discovered this after fasting for seventy-six days in a meditation centre in Guatemala. Flavour enhancers limit taste buds. There is even a distant family member of mine who feels that he needs to put ketchup on all of his food. Wagonloads of people still go to McDonald’s every day to fill themselves up. When I came out of the fast I could taste food like I had never tasted it before. of course. In this way you can program your energy system. The fast included silence and for the last thirty days only drinking liquids. however. virtually nothing. If you are severely addicted to chocolate what will happen in the supermarket is that the images of chocolate will continuously pop up in your space. For this reason I am surprised that so many people drench their food in flavour enhancers such as all kinds of sauces or different food enhancing spices. Real food tastes really great. The teacher had owned the burger for eight years but on Facebook photos keep popping up of similar McDonald’s burgers that are found in dark places. It is important is to have worked on your addictions. The reality is. however. This is. so that in the future you pick that specific food at another moment or never again. I highly recommended that you drench all food in HP Steak Sauce. It is funny that many health fanatics create magnificent salads for themselves that include the most exquisite vegetables. and he is not even American. again. There is the possibility of misreads which you can use to connect the pain that they produce later with the energy of the food. and then he explained that he had bought the burger eight years ago. The oldest burger that I have seen appearing on Facebook so far is fourteen years old. to feed your addiction and not to provide you with nutrients. which in itself is correct. The body is right: you indeed need that chocolate. Let’s see who can top that: check your pockets! It is far more important to keep an energetic diet than a physical one. One way of keeping such a diet is to be selective with your thinking. Because they do not decay you will not smell them and so you do not start looking for them to throw them out. herbs are a great way to enhance the flavour of a dish when used modestly. The medicine also has this effect. the same process of decay as is happening rapidly in your intestines which enables your body to absorb the nutrients from the food. In the middle of the show he pulled out a paper bag and showed us a hamburger from McDonald’s. A sexual diet is also important. The people in the circle erroneously thought that he was working on their energetic garbage as they paid him for. it will also stop you from reaching your true potential beyond the drama. The reason for this happening is that thought arises from the energies within and have the same qualities as those energies. when I explain this simple but effective technique. be sad about what has happened to you. he had to massively vomit for twenty minutes before his system was clean enough to continue with the ceremony. and ultimately of being able to compose and master yourself. this negativity will manifest itself on a physical level as disease. In their turn. of steering. so there is all reason to discontinue it. your dog might have just have died or you might have broken your toe nail this morning. stop it. it is a chain that nobody else but you put on to yourself. The energies of a ceremony are completely and utterly different than those of sex are. These negative energies also do not benefit medicine circles because these energies will be multiplied and can lead to massive projections towards the healer or towards others in the circle. people they start to come up with all kinds of reasons why they cannot stop the continuation of negative thinking. This of course also applies to the master who is guiding the ceremony. Such silly things can easily be avoided by keeping to the diet. but after you have cried it out please get yourself back together and do not turn things into a drama. Entertaining all these negative thoughts not only keeps you from happiness. that is much healthier for you. of guiding. Negative thinking keeps you chained. . but it can easily be taken off: put yourself on a thought diet. so you can see how so many people keep their selves trapped in an un-ending spiral of negativity that is not benefitting them or anyone else. Negative energies that are contained in your energy system thus create negative thinking. healthy people choose the latter. If you cultivate calmer energies within then in its turn calmer thoughts will arise. of expansion without itself controlling it. while in reality he was vomiting out his own follies. I could smell that aroma in his energy field. Just stop it. you have the right to keep yourself in your negative thinking spiral. The energies of a ceremony are those of creating a container. Eventually. and for others. when the energies of the medicine came in. The relationship between thought and energy is reciprocal: the quality of your thoughts will steer the quality of the energies within you. By all means. Of course. they can pacify the energies within them. Has it ever occurred to you that you cannot have an orgasm when you really want to? That is because sexual energy is one of letting it go. stop it.that once they have sat down to meditate. negative thoughts create negative energy. It is exactly for this reason that it is good to have a sexual diet before and after a ceremony. If you want to prevent hindrance to your own process and that of others then do not take sexual energies into a ceremony. just stop it! If you have any thoughts of fear or self-doubt coming up: stop it. and keep yourself from being trapped. This is what I tell them stop that too! You may have had a bad childhood. As a result. but equally you also have the right to positive thinking. If there are dislikes appearing towards your own physical form. Usually. of course. By staying aware of what you are thinking you can thus investigate the energies within yourself. but by continuing to entertain the negativity around these events you will not solve anything. even if the energies of the medicine are descending down upon you like a heavy summer’s storm. and their thoughts will also become calmer. Luckily there is one very simple and effective way to deal with it. One I met had sex a few hours before the start of the ceremony. If you have thoughts of anger or hate. You are cordially invited to share the link to this article with others. my intestines start rumbling like Vesuvius. where you can also subscribe to a newsletter. after doing so. It is the story of any food.Tsunki. to be published later this year. just to prove that I can. This article is an excerpt from the book ‘Uwishin’. The author can be contacted via email at paul@tsunki. not even by a diet. laughing right in my face.com.I cannot be dominated.com. and because of its great taste. And then I remember again why I should not eat at McDonald’s: if you do not share the clown’s values. within ten minutes. . Sometimes I switch to space consciousness to observe in the energetic space beyond the physical what happens when the speed train that quickly follows the rumbling leaves the lower backside of my body at high velocity. For this reason I sin now and then and eat at McDonald’s. The author is open to enquiries and constructive discussions on the use of plant medicines. When this happens I always see in my vision this pale red haired clown in a yellow-red outfit piloting that train. It is about the author’s experiences with the indigenous shamans of the Upper Amazon. then do not eat his food because on a deeper level it contains his energy. the wagons of this train all have a large yellow ‘M’ painted on them. or the website www. Of course.