I'll be drawing from experiences in Peru, where ayahuasca is legal.
Wikipedia has some general background on what it is, and I'll sprinkle more info throughout: https://t.co/RoThma1rLq
I'm doing a @threadapalooza on:
✨🌿ayahuasca🍃✨️
☕ 🧙♂️🎶😳😖🤢🤮🤪🤯🤩😭🥰😌
100 tweets' worth of unpopular opinions, personal experiences, and unusual facts about this psychedelic Amazonian plant brew.
In no particular order, except the first one
I'll be drawing from experiences in Peru, where ayahuasca is legal.
Wikipedia has some general background on what it is, and I'll sprinkle more info throughout: https://t.co/RoThma1rLq
Your bucket is your friend. Everyone needs a vomit bucket.
If bringing your own:
- 5 gal bucket is TOO BIG
- A utility bucket or trick-or-treat bucket is good
- A plastic yogurt quart is TOO SMALL - risk of tipping over!! (personal experience 😣)
*I* overprepared and brought a 5-gallon bucket, the first time
I was given a yogurt quart, a different time, and... that rug will never be the same
The only thing worse than being "cleansed" with a mix of cheap perfume and spit, is having to put that nasty stuff into your own mouth.
It was created in the US in 1808. I'm not sure how it made its way to Peru, or why it became so ubiquitous among shamans there.
https://t.co/rXPwy0b5tr
The word comes from the Spanish "soplar" - "to blow."
It's a cleansing ritual where the shaman puts agua florida or mapacho tobacco smoke in their mouth and blows it forcefully on the patient, often with a sweeping motion.
If someone is freaking out, the shaman may try and snap them out of it by soplaying (along with singing, and using a leaf rattle).
It's also used to open the ceremony, blowing onto the ayahuasca bottle, ritual implements, & the 4 directions
For liquid, you put just a tiny bit in your mouth, and make this tremendously forceful "TSSSEW!!!!!!"
(it sounds kind of like a high pitched sneeze, but longer and more mysterious & professional)
Similar technique for tobacco, but less risk of spit. You don't actually inhale it into your lungs, just into your cheeks and then blow it out forcefully.
There's also a spiritual component, because of course, this is shamanism!
Steve Beyer's whole site & book are excellent resources, from an academic & participatory perspective:
https://t.co/QpOyWtEdlg
https://t.co/NVEzHsHr5U
Apparently, "The plant spirits in the Amazon love strong, sharp, sweet smells":
https://t.co/MWKxmqWngU
This article describes "perfumero" as one particular shamanic specialization:
https://t.co/cYv0AKaOI5
- Agua florida burns the absolute hell out of mucous membranes! Chemical burns!
When I held it in my mouth for soplaying, everything tasted like poison for *hours* afterwards -- even water!!
- Not all shamans do the "fine mist" technique!
One shaman spat all over my head, drenching me in saliva and cheap cologne, right after the most profound spiritual experience of my life.
It was really a pure land / charnel ground kind of night!
https://t.co/fcuwr1X4Zf
...so this morning...@SarahAMcManus: I'm at the charnel ground
— Malcolm is back by the \U0001f30ecean! (@Malcolm_Ocean) January 14, 2020
Malcolm: What?
S: I'm at the pure land
M: Naw...
S: I'm at the combination charnel ground & pure land!
We present to you the latest single from the #BuddhistShitposting label:https://t.co/72HnvHIRNe
- Soplaying with tobacco smoke hurts my mouth too.
It's a special kind called mapacho, and it's a different species from the usual cigarette tobacco, with a much higher nicotine content.
https://t.co/e3QqYtMEeY
I tried to make my own alcohol extract of fragrant flowers and plants, hoping it would taste less like death (it did!).
The thing is, tobacco is considered a powerful plant spirit in and of itself, as well as a sort of go-between for other plant spirits. It's a whole deal.
I was being soplayed by my coworker, who I felt safe with, and was also... well, in love with.
(This was encouraged, which is its own whole story)
Same bottle, but a *very* different perceptual experience!
To me, petit fours mean:
- Childhood tea party
- Fancy occasions
- Peer awards ceremony where I felt loved & honored
It's gone back to weird horrible chemical cologne.
A few more "weird smells" things before moving on:
Some shamans also use strong-smelling items like mouthwash (Timolina) and camphor in their cleansing rituals
Yes, those white chemical mothballs. No, I don't think I actually witnessed this.
Please don't do this.
So, ayahuasca itself can have a purgative effect. The word usually means "laxative," but in a ritual context "purgativo" can also mean something that induces vomiting.
(Other forms of purging: sweating, crying, laughing...)
It's the thick reddish-brown latex of the Croton lecheri tree. We drank it before dawn, mixed with water, like a shot.
It's bitter, soapy, and horrible-tasting.
See, you don't vomit just from the shot.
You have to force yourself to chug water until you puke, over and over, like a terrible frat hazing ritual.
Forcing myself to drink that water was one of the hardest things I've done. Much harder for me, than enduring discomfort that's just happening.
However, when I worked at the center, it was part of my job to give it to other people. (I would not do this now.)
I woke them up before dawn, in the dark... by playing kazoo 🥳
I figured: this experience is unavoidably terrible, and so I might as well make it more bearable by making it **absurdly terrible**
Bring on the clown energy! 🤡
- Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
- I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
- Be a Man - Mulan
- Eye of the Tiger - Rocky III
- Gonna Fly Now - Rocky
NO.
If you chug too much water -- especially if you don't succeed in vomiting -- you could throw off your electrolyte balance, and this can kill you:
https://t.co/cRYbW9j35L
(Playing kazoo is safe & recommended, though!)
This also involved chugging water to vomit, but it was wayyy easier.
Mainly because lemongrass tea tastes fine, & it's safe to let it pass on through if you don't manage to vomit
The stock answer is: ✨cleansing!✨ It prepares you for the ceremony.
The anthropology answer might be more like: hella parasites in the Amazon, gotta purge regularly, practical thing became a ritual.
So, in 2016 I went down to Peru for the 2nd time, preparing to work at an ayahuasca center, coordinating research & helping facilitate ceremony.
This job would involve a lot of vomiting. So, of course, I asked my dentist for advice.
The dentist took my question surprisingly well. He suggested fluoride treatment before I leave, rinsing my mouth well after vomiting, and using fluoride mouthwash
Not saying it *doesn't*... I mean, "brain sand" is a real thing? https://t.co/ESHoPzgsAG
So, the ayahuasca diet is a whole thing. Multiple things, in fact.
Before & after ceremony, there's a list of restrictions on what you eat & drink.
(I may come back to that - *much* more to say!)
One of these is salt.
https://t.co/2z8sgOwrPp
— Sarah McManus (@SarahAMcManus) October 24, 2020
You need sodium for your nerves to function.
I find myself mentioning potentially-deadly hyponatremia ("not enough salt") YET AGAIN:
https://t.co/m1ySFLY6Ed
31. "Should I do this at home?"
— Sarah McManus (@SarahAMcManus) December 16, 2020
NO.
If you chug too much water -- especially if you don't succeed in vomiting -- you could throw off your electrolyte balance, and this can kill you:https://t.co/cRYbW9j35L
(Playing kazoo is safe & recommended, though!)
Oral rehydration salts 🤷
I mean, it tastes kinda bad, and doesn't season your food, so probably this fits the ascetic vibe?
I was taking in so little salt, that my sweat was not salty.
A novel experience!
Absolutely, yes.
We'd work 2 or 3 week retreats, and there's just not enough fat in the diet to keep your energy up, over the long term, when you're taking care of other people all the time.
- Salt
- Coconut oil
- Cocoa powder
- Maca powder
- Emergency coffee
I think I might have also had peanut butter?
Yes, you're not supposed to have chocolate or peanuts, on the MAOI diet - and ayahuasca is a RIMA:
https://t.co/nNzqw70AJc
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The Internet and mobile phones have taken over our lives. But it comes with increasing security concerns. Website data breaches, phishing attacks, and other online scams are commonplace. Here's a thread for regular people on how to increase your security online.
#StaySafeOnline
#1
Go to your Google account settings. Revoke permissions from all the apps you don't use: https://t.co/cMGgSgtRTI
Also check if any app has access to your contacts or - gasp! - your entire email. Strongly reconsider both, especially access to your email.
Giving access to your contacts lets companies spam those people.
Giving access to your email - email organising apps, for instance - renders your online security meaningless. Password resets are often done with email, and if an external entity can access that, game over!
#2
Go to your Twitter account settings and revoke permissions from all the apps you don't use or trust:
https://t.co/lXxCgdnaXH
Online quizzes and such sites often ask for permission to post tweets for you, read your tweets, and even your DMs!.
People click "OK" without reading the fine print.
But imagine the security and privacy risk with having some unknown entity be able to post tweets and read your private DMs just to post the results of what Game of Thrones character you are.
#StaySafeOnline
#1
Go to your Google account settings. Revoke permissions from all the apps you don't use: https://t.co/cMGgSgtRTI
Also check if any app has access to your contacts or - gasp! - your entire email. Strongly reconsider both, especially access to your email.
Giving access to your contacts lets companies spam those people.
Giving access to your email - email organising apps, for instance - renders your online security meaningless. Password resets are often done with email, and if an external entity can access that, game over!
#2
Go to your Twitter account settings and revoke permissions from all the apps you don't use or trust:
https://t.co/lXxCgdnaXH
Online quizzes and such sites often ask for permission to post tweets for you, read your tweets, and even your DMs!.
People click "OK" without reading the fine print.
But imagine the security and privacy risk with having some unknown entity be able to post tweets and read your private DMs just to post the results of what Game of Thrones character you are.
