In late February, a friend invited me to a healing session the following weekend that was being held not far from my home. It took place on a Sunday, the day I usually spend running errands. I asked myself, ‘how long can a healing session last?’ I had been to numerous Native American healings, Raki sessions, etc. so, I figured it would last a couple/few hours at most.
At noon, I pulled into the residence on a sunny, unseasonably warm day. There, I met a wide variety of friendly, nice/cool people. The facilitator of the ceremony’s name was Dragon Love and he began by acknowledging and expanding upon the spiritual aspects of centering, self-care and self-healing techniques. With the application of plant based medicines from the Amazon, my mind, body and spirit embarked on an experience that had a very cleansing effect on me in a soulful way.
After what seemed like a couple of hours, the session concluded with a shared meal. As I departed, I was quite surprised that it was dark outside! When I reluctantly turned my phone back on, I could hardly believe that eight hours had passed.
Dragon Love spoke to me about a trip that he was co-leading the following week, into the mountains of Manoa in Colombia, South America. Sirata, a Shaman from Northern Colombia, would be the other leader. He had just published a book entitled ‘Manoa’, which revealed his mystical experiences in the sacred mountains of Manoa. (The book is now being translated to English and will be available soon!). On the journey there would be other Shamans, Yogi’s along with some very Spiritual people from across South America. Dragon Love encouraged me to not only join the group, but to document the trip. Four days later, I was on a plane headed South! Guess I’ve always considered myself to be spontaneous and it was nice to see that that trait is alive and well.
The journey was a life changing experience for me as well as for the other participants. It challenged every aspect of myself as a human being. The ruggedness of the accommodations, the constant motion and hours that filming a documentary requires resulted in one of the most physically challenging things I’ve ever done in my life. What kept me going and fueled my passion to try and capture the story to the best of my ability was the love that was shared within the group. Even though we were all there for different reasons and were at different points in our spiritual path, we were encouraged to ‘look in’, take pause and work on ourselves in hopes of getting us back on the path towards our destiny. Our inner work was supported by the mystical and spiritual energy of the mountains, the incredible food cultivated from the valley that we lived in and the music and dancing that was a daily occurrence of our existence in Manoa. The musical talent within our group was amazing and provided a fantastic soundtrack to a magical journey.
The journey into the mountains of Manoa has had a profound impact on my life. My biggest take-away from the trip were the close connections that I made through the pure, unconditional love that was shared. In some ways, it’s what I imagine heaven (if there is one!), might feel like. Every sense was both challenged and treated to a stunning array of sensory pleasures. But what received the most attention was my spirit. It was so wonderful.
All of us in the group answered the call to be a part of this journey and I’m so very happy that we did.
I am currently working on a documentary of my experience. It will be posted here sometime in July/August (guesstimate). Meanwhile, check out some of the still images in the project section of this site. Gracias.
Puyki Puyki
