The Dieta with Diego

Recently I traveled to Peru and spent 10 days with Diego in the jungle where we had 5 ceremonies. It was quite an amazing experience, so I thought I would share this with you.

First, a few words about the environment. I flew in to Pucallpa, Peru, then took a two and a half hour taxi ride to a small village. From there we traveled by boat for about 2 hours to reach don Diego’s sanctuary, which he calls Sachavacay. There, we were each assigned a small open-air hut or “tambo,” where we spent most of our time. It was similar to a meditation retreat, in that conversation with other participants was discouraged. In the tambo, I spent most of my time either lying in the hammock (very enjoyable actually) or journaling. Each tambo had a small bed with mattress and mosquito netting. The mosquitoes were not ferocious, but they were there. I may not have been plagued quite so much because I had a bat living in the very top part of the roof. Ocassionally, while I was inside the mosquito netting, I would hear him fluttering around, perhaps eating mosquitoes.

My tambo was near a small stream, which was very low for lack of rain. Occasionally, I would see a blue morpho butterfly fluttering along the stream bed. I understand they are endangered, and I never saw one land; they were always fluttering. (The picture I’ve included here is not one that I took; I swiped it off the internet.) One day, Mark, another course participant, called my attention to a relatively large yellowish-green snake that was swallowing a small frog it had found in the stream. On our last day, when we were in the ceremonial lodge, and had broken our fast of most kinds of foods, we were eating a pretty tasty batch of popcorn. This apparently attracted the attention of a pack of forest monkeys, who gave us a curious look, but then took off into the jungle.

On the first night in Sachavacay, we had our first ceremony. I’ll speak more about the ceremonies below. On the second day, Diego gathered us in the ceremonial lodge and had a drink a plant mixture that had us puking for hours, and just puking. No exaggeration. It was given to us to help make the medicine work stronger for us.

There were about 16 course participants in all. Everyone had their private tambo along the jungle path, most of them near the stream. About 8 came from somewhere in the states, 1 came from Germany, 4 came from Spain, and a family of 3 came from France. The family from France was a couple in their sixties and their 28 year old daughter. These three had never tried the medicine before. After the 2nd ceremony, the older French couple had enough and left the dieta, and simply toured Pullcupa and other nearby towns. Diego managed to convince the girl to stay, and she ended up having a beautiful, transformative experience.

Yes, the ceremonies were special. Yes, I puked, although not as much as I thought I would, perhaps because of the puking plant we had on day 2. A good bit of the insights and revelations are a tad personal, but I’ll try to share to give you a taste. I've noticed that my experiences seem to match (albeit a bit roughly) the pattern of common experiences documented in Shanon's Antipodes of the Mind. The experience usually (though not always) unfolds in the following pattern: 1) Slight nausea from drinking the medicine 2) Anticipation with what will happen, along with the slight nausea from the medicine 3) Colors and patterns begin to emerge, perhaps in a kaleidoscope fashion, but also chaotic 4) More grotesque images emerge, like ugly alien bug-like things, or perhaps the internal organs of aliens. Usually looks nasty, and at this time the impulse to purge comes. However with me the impulse to purge may not be strong enough to actually purge at this point. I would also say, that this would be at the 1 or 2 hour mark (perhaps 2.5 hour) in the ceremony.

From this point, the ceremony shifts substantially more toward the uplifting, the inspirational, and the beautiful. But different directions are possible. Sometimes glimpses of something like celestial cities. Perhaps a message about my life through a stronger that usual sense of intuition. Also glimpses of loved ones who have passed onto the other side. My heart usually expands at this point. No matter who I think of (and I really mean no matter) my heart expands with a sense of compassion, understanding, and/or love toward them. There is also usually a sense of ecstasy and appreciation about all forms of life. I think this uplifting part of the experience, which is generally the bulk of the ceremony, is strongly influenced by the nature of the icaros which the curandero chooses to sing.

Diego is unusual in the range of icaros he sings. That is, in addition to the traditional Peruvian songs, he sings sweet Spanish ballads that seems to caress the heart. But for me perhaps the most powerful and magical chant he performs is the Gayatri mantra. Here is when dimensions can truly open. I have found that I have been torn between just simply being lost in the ecstasy of being absorbed in his playing and exploring the journey that the medicine working with my mind is taking.

This time, much of what I experienced seemed to be giving me inspiration for what I consider to be my purpose: a novel I’m writing and some other explorations I intend to begin concerning collective consciousness. The novel is a SF/ Fantasy work that I’ve been working on for years, and it involves a lot of worldbuilding. The medicine is fantastic tonic for the imagination. But I also believe it was helping me connect with Muses or creative beings who are working with me on this project. I see as my main task right now is to continue with the intent on connecting with humility with these beings who will be working with me. Pretty far out, yeah?

I want to share a little bit of the vision thing. One of the highlights for me was getting a sense, maybe a flash, of rings or shells of beings streaming information to me as I needed. Kind of reminded me of the concentric rings of angelic choirs described by Dante in Paradisio. Music of the Spheres, perhaps. I also had an intuition about this celestial realm that here was where the divine harmony spoke of by Pythagoras, where everything was in sacred relationship and harmony with everything else. My sense (at the moment) is that our physical realm is a stepped down version of this celestial realm, which is teaming with loving, intelligent beings.

There were moments in each of the ceremonies where I was seeing something that would somehow split or open up, and for a brief moment there would be like a fountain or cascade of beautiful shapes and forms, exhibiting the colors of the rainbow. Here (so it seemed) was the edge of pure creativity or what seemed to me ultimate reality, stuff that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had described in lectures back in the day when I was in Fairfield IA. But here I was for the first time experiencing it.

With the medicine, there always seems to be a joy or ecstacy with my heart full for everyone. I would imagine some of the people that I often think are very bad people. Only here I could see them for what they are, flawed perhaps, but essentially also humans who had their beautiful, child-of-god aspect. I felt such tenderness for all life I didn’t even want to swipe the mosquitoes who were trying to jab me. (I did, however, albeit reluctantly.) There was a moment where I thought the crickets with their chirps were rooting for me on my journey. It made me feel for all the creatures big and small who are part of this creation, many who play some role in the foods that bring me nourishment.

Here is another interesting thing about the medicine. You might think that this is just some kind of psychedelic drug trip, an escape from reality. Yet, I've found that the medicine has a tendency to plug me in my body in a way where I'm in touch with certain truths that I normally dismiss when I'm in my normal state. To be more specific, one of my tendencies in normal life is to delude myself a little bit about the fact that I'm not so young any more. I'm 54 years old, yet in my mind I often think and behave like someone in his mid 30's to early 40's. And since I'm young looking for my age, I think people are often surprised to learn how old I am. However, when I'm in the medicine, there is a stronger sense that I'm in an aging body that will die in the not so distant future. And this triggers an appreciation of life, a desire to do certain things to help make a difference. A recognition about what manhood is about. (Of course, that said, I would also say that there is also a tendency toward fantasies, very idyllic ones that include the erotic. But these are usually when the medicine is past its peak.)

Perhaps not enough could be said about the sounds in the jungle on this dieta. There were all kinds of sounds I had never heard before, amazing sounds from birds (who I have no idea what they look like because I didn’t see them). And I would love to know what goes on in those conversations.

An amazing part of all of this was the walk back in the night from the ceremonial lodge back to my hut. The walk would have been impossible for me (despite my headlamp which on this journey I came to believe was perhaps the greatest invention made by humans). Diego had helpers guide us back to our tumbo. Still deep in the medicine, I would be guided over a bridge, over all kinds of tree roots, and rocks in what was a rather amazing journey beyond ceremony. Really! And I tell you, these very simple South Americans who helped and guided us were really the pure embodiment of selfless service. So beautiful and inspirational they were!

One night after ceremony, as I crawled into my bed, under the mosquito net, I got the bright idea that I would use my heightened state to make some kind of contact with my housemate, the bat that lived in the ceiling. My consciousness could indeed (so it seemed) penetrate his. Bad idea, I discovered! I sensed a rat-like consciousness focused pretty much only on eating bugs in his tiny corner of the world, and had no use for my invading consciousness. Not exactly the best way to end the day after all the beauty I experienced, so I quickly retreated.

I’ll make one confession. Diego does allow participants to go for an extra cup of the medicine. After the second ceremony, I stopped taking the extra bit. Mostly my experiences were very profound, but I do wonder if I should have gone for a bit more, having come so far. But the truth is, I was getting along pretty well without an extra cup for the most part, and…well…that stuff really does taste terrible. Still, I sometimes wonder if I should have gone for the max each time. That’s the way my wandering mind goes, pretty silly I know.

Well, that's all I have to share at the moment. Thank you, dear reader, for allowing me to share. For those who are inclined, I strongly recommend exploring this incredible tool.