Some interesting reflections on the new Psychotria hybrids sent to us by an intercontinental anonymous being we know only as oprito.

 

Nexus    (Psychotria carthagenensis x P. viridis ‘Shipibo’)

Time – 3-4 hours strong, 2 hours taper off

Felt quiet and thoughtful the next day

• Fairly strong – abut 180mg
• Fairly strong feeling of nausea – lots of internal clearing
• This plant was very outgoing and friendly. I could feel it reaching out and touching me.
• The spirit was that of a young girl – very happy and excited and showing off. She was dancing, doing poses, cartwheels, etc.
• I spoke to her and said hello and we smiled at each other.
• Very visual brew – lots of colour and patterns – but no visionary communication.
• A long period of reflection on family, close people, life patterns and issues.
• This was a very positive brew. The youthful exuberance of the plant was also mixed with a deep, older wisdom. It was physically quite strong with lots of internal clearing, cleansing and re-organising.

 

DW02    (Psychotria carthagenensis x P. viridis ‘Shipibo’)

Time – 2.5 hours strong, 2-3 hours taper off

Felt a bit tired, but really grateful and amazed the next day

• Decent, strong brew – around 180mg
• This was an exquisite brew and an amazing experience.
• It started with a very strong body buzz, and then pictures and images appearing, morphing in and out of the colourful, geometric ‘white noise’.
• These pictures then turned into fully real and vivid cinematic visions – much like David Attenborough-type nature documentaries. These lifelike cinematic visions would morph seamlessly back into cartoon-like geometry, over and over again.
• I could tell that something special was going to happen, and then this female plant spirit appeared. It showed itself to me – letting me see its form – fairly small and dark, long arms and legs, human-like in its bodily appearance, but also very wispy and indefinable. Kind of like its body was made of moving flames, but without the fire. No clear facial features.
• I was really aware of not wanting to just passively experience her communication and visions. So I said hi, and asked her if she would show me how things work for her – how she thinks, how she feels, does she have emotions?, does she have a family? I wanted to learn from her.
• She started communicating back to me – not in words or a language, but with pictures and images. I could feel her ‘talking’ – kind of like the mental equivalent of being breathed on – I could feel this cerebral energy coming from her into my mind.
• She showed me a vision of her family – a stand of trees/shrubs in a super glossy, dark green, dense rainforest/jungle. There were older grandfather plants, and auntys, uncles, children. What was amazing was that I think I was meeting the whole family that I have been working with recently.
• Then she started showing me how they care for their babies – I saw a mother plant holding an infant in its arms – still no definable features apart from limbs. At this point I started coughing, and lost the connection. Then I saw a vision of the nurse/mother dropping the baby. And then the plant totally shut down. She went into a full shutdown – she was very upset and angry and sulking. I pleased, apologized, and said I was really interested in what she was showing me – but she refused to come back. I felt that I had lost something that was on the verge of being really important.
• After this I was shown some visions of me giving the medicine to some specific close friends of mine who have not drunk before.
• The latter stages of this journey got a bit dark at times – lots of vision of violence.
•  After about 2 hours I was starving hungry, and ate vege soup and corn chips.
• This was one of the most special and insightful experiences I have had so far.

 

DW03    (Nexus x Shipibo)

Time – 1.5 hours strong, 2 hours taper off

Felt a little spacey the next day.

• Quite strong, felt like around 170mg
• Not super visual but very auditory – to an extent not experienced before
• Quite abstracted and confused, not very warm and friendly. There were lots of shadowy entities hanging around.
• The plant spirit seemed ‘stand off ish’ and the whole experience tended towards being alien and uncomfortable – although still in a pretty interesting and cool way
• Quite visionary and bordering on breakthrough states
• Lots of vision of entities and their forms and how they can inhabit people
• Overall it felt a lot like an awkward first encounter – not quite knowing how to communicate with each other. Possibly because it was the first, or one of the first meetings between humans and this plant. Even in the awkwardness, there was a mutual appreciation of some very different perspectives and realities.

 

DW05    (Nexus x UDV)

Time – 2 hours strong, 3-4 hours taper off

Felt quite centred and relaxed the next day.

• A very interesting brew! Around 150-170mg
• Very ‘Amazon’ – lots of jungle and geometric visions – lots of deep greens and purples. There were many faces in the visions and a python-type snake turned up at one point.
• There was a noticeably, definite feminine jungle energy to this plant, markedly different to the Shipibo.
• The come on was like being gently drawn into and enveloped by the jungle space, rather than being propelled into it.
• The plant was quite shy at the start – I could feel it watching me from the bushes, peeking out, sussing me out. After an initial period of this, it obviously felt comfortable and the experience really opened up.
• I would love to try this at a higher dose and with ayahuasca vine – it definitely wants to be drunk with the vine.
• Overall this was a really special brew with a markedly different energy to the Shipibo. The spirit of the jungle and the rainforest was really evident  – deep and green and magical. Not as strong as the Shipibo, but a really beautiful plant nonetheless. The morphing geometry was amazing.

 

DW06    (Nexus x UDV)

Time – 1.5 hours strong, 3 hours taper off

Felt pretty clear the next day

• This brew was interesting. There was a real sense that the plant had not encountered humans before. The experience felt quite rushed and unsettled – lots of chopping and changing, and a feeling like a zoom lens moving in and out. Kind of like a weird, hyperactive kid bouncing off the walls and trying to do ten things at once.
• I stated speaking to the plant, introducing myself and giving it compliments and calm reassurance. There was then a noticeable change and things settled down a bit.
• It was a very special and individual plant – there were moments of real exquisite beauty – with opal-like flashes of colour. There was also some strong auditory effects.
• I think that it was a slightly weaker brew than the others – maybe 140-160mg.
• The experience faded pretty quickly and I actually fell asleep for the last 2-3 hours.
• Overall, this plant was interesting, although a little uncomfortable and unsettled. I think that it has some work to do to understand itself better. It had moments of brilliance, but seemed quite immature.

 

DW08    (Nexus x Shipibo)

Time – 2 hours strong, 3-4 hours taper off

Felt very uplifted and positive the next day

• An absolute rockstar!
• A very strong brew, 200mg ++
• An incredible lift off – like being plugged into an electric current. Hyper-awareness of body, breath and hearing. Every nerve buzzing and tingling.
• It then progressed into a rich, joyous, absolutely sparkling experience, with wave after wave of visuals.
• A beautiful, large, blocky, brown-skinned islander woman surrounded by palm fronds and frangipanis came and danced and caressed and cared for me.
• Lots of gratitude
• An incredible afterglow in the morning.
• Overall this was a stark contrast to the DW03. Very interesting in that they are related as ‘brothers’ – but totally different as many siblings are. DW08 is a very confident and accomplished plant who loves to almost ‘show off’. I got the feeling that maybe because I had met and spent some time with this guy’s weird brother (DW03), this plant was like ‘you’re good people – come and check THIS out!’.

 

DW10    (Nexus x UDV)

Time – 3 hours strong, 3 hours taper off

Felt clear and calm the next day

• This brew was fairly strong – about 180mg. It had fairly long legs, still being quite strong about 4-5 hours later.
• Physically this was a tough brew – fairly strong nausea and a quite physically draining
• I quickly got propelled into a futuristic-type world – lots of buildings, with sleek white interiors lit with blue lights, and hover cars, and strange future-human entities.
• There was a definite male energy to this brew – like a gruff, old grandfather. Often the feminine brews give a feeling of wrapping around and caressing me. This brew was very stern and standoffish, but there was also a deep wisdom there. It did not feel as warm and gentle as others, but I knew it cared for me.
• It showed me some insights into masculine and feminine, and how these forces are created and interact. Lots of insight too into the energy of life and creation, and how plants and people have evolved out of single-cell organisms.
• Along with the male energy there was a distinct body buzz.
• Quite a magical, introspective and wise brew – lots of self-reflection and deep teachings.

 

UDV    (Psychotria viridis)

Time – 2-3 hours strong, 2-3 hours taper off

Felt very refreshed and motivated the next day

• Not too strong – maybe about 140-160mg
• This brew was quite ‘held back’. It felt like for whatever reason, it did not want to come forward.
• Not much in the way of visuals.
• After about an hour and a purge I started speaking to the plant, introducing myself, and paying her compliments. A little while after this the plant started to come forward and engage more. But then the plant retreated again. I saw a picture of a little girl sulking in her room, refusing to come out.
• I spoke to the plant and said “I’m here if you want to play, and I hope you feel better soon” – and then I just left her to it.
• After that was a good few hours of reflections on personal issues, family and friends.
• Also lots of coughing up phlegm
• At one point my friend ‘arrived’ riding a flying scooter!
• The next day felt very refreshed and motivated – ate good food and got back into some exercise.
• Overall, this brew was not very extraordinary. There was definitely some unwillingness to engage, but that may have been from either side. Interestingly though, while the experience itself was not that amazing, it has had a really positive flow-on effect the couple of days afterwards.

 

Brazil    (Psychotria viridis)

Time – 1.5 hours hardly any effect, 2-3 hours strong, 1-2 hours taper off

Felt quite calm and refreshed the next day, very healing brew.

• This brew was quite different
• I drank, and had hardly any noticeable effect for 1.5 hours. I felt that the plant was hanging back or hiding. Either that or it was just a really weak brew.
• I decided to eat some food and go to bed.
• It was almost like the sustenance I took from the food gave the plant energy to come forward – because it then kicked in bigtime!
• I was propelled into a hi-tek, blue, medical laboratory/operating theatre which was revolving like a gyroscope. There were some doctor/surgeon-type entities around performing some kind of tests or procedures on me.
• Then I encountered this very wise and important entity – a kind of Yoda-like being, very short and wrinkled. It sat on a floating chair-like entity and was surrounded by a council of entities – like a king’s court.
• After this visionary phase I went into a very deep reflective phase – revolving around some struggles and issues happening in my life. No great revelations came through but there was a sense the day after that some of these things have been sorted out and let go of.
• Initially I would have said the brew was around 50mg, but later it appeared to be more like 150mg.
• Overall this brew was really healing. I feel like I had some energetic blockages which got in the way of the communication initially, and then the plant got to work on clearing some of these. It was healing – not like the healing from a lover, more like the ‘impersonal’ healing you get in a hospital.
• I’m very grateful to this plant for the help it gave me.

 

Shipibo    (Psychotria viridis)

2 hours strong, 1-2 hours taper off

Felt a bit depleted the next day, but also quite peaceful

• Not too strong – maybe 130mg
• I spoke to the plant and asked to communicate and to learn, but it chose not to appear. There were some interesting visual patterns, but no visionary communication.
• Instead the brew was very physical – lots of muscular stretching and releasing, and lots of bodily restlessness.
• There was no nausea, but then a very deep and intense purging. This actually brought tears of gratitude.
• I could tell the plant decided that I did not need visionary-type communication, and chose to ‘instruct’ with lots of teachings about health and lifestyle patterns and changes that need to happen. It was definitely more a ‘medicinal’ brew.
• This was my final test of the Chacruna varieties, and I felt some sadness to finish working with these guys.
• There was a definite instruction from the plant to rest up, replenish and nurture the body, and most importantly to spend some time integrating and action-ing the teachings I have received.

Method

• Leaves were picked at the same time of day (6pm) and dried
• 22g dried leaf brewed for 2x 3 hours – 500ml water, 50ml apple cider vinegar
• 3.5g Syrian Rue seeds brewed for 3x 20 minutes – 100ml water, 5ml apple cider vinegar
• Syrian rue drunk 45 minutes before Chacruna tea

 

Summary and Reflections

I had done some work with some different Chacruna varieties prior to commencing this project. However there was a lot of variation in amounts and brew techniques so differentiating between the experiences was tricky. So it was important for these tests to remove as many variables as possible and make sure picking time, amounts, and brew time and technique were all identical. Half the tests were also done as a blind trial – so I did not know until afterwards which plant I was working with.

My initial thoughts were that the different varieties and hybrids would all be fairly similar – that Chacruna is Chacruna basically. This proved to be way off the mark!

What I learned was that each plant appears to be the physical manifestation of an individual plant spirit, and that by brewing and drinking it enables humans to enter the plant spirit world and engage in communication with them. I found that these spirits were just like an extended human family – all related, and with many similarities, but also all totally individual and different.

The means and methods of communication were also all totally different. Like human to human interactions, the nature of the interaction was dependent on the particular time and the state of mind of both parties. For example, I could talk to the same friend on different days, and the interactions will be different every time. The essence of who we both are as individuals will not change, but the nature of our connections will.

So the reports above are in one way only specific to that particular interaction between me and the plant, but I hope that they also provide some insight into the character and nature of each particular plant spirit.

It was amazing to see that these spirits aren’t just floating around on their own in a different dimension, but that they have feelings, family, emotions, personalities, and different roles and responsibilities. They are certainly very busy in their own dimension, and sometimes don’t want to give humans their time or attention.

Overall, Psychotria / Chacruna seems to be a very helpful plant. Not always willing to engage, but always willing to teach. When it does choose to really engage, it shows just how incredible and magical it really is.

I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to Herbalistics for their work in growing and developing this family of plants and hybrids. They are an amazingly diverse and beautiful range of plant spirits, who communicate in many different ways.

It is my feeling that through Herbalistics’ breeding, it has allowed humans access to some of these spirits that did not previously have a vehicle to interact with us. I also have the feeling that there are many more members of this family who we haven’t met yet!

 

Disclaimer: Ayahuasca is currently a scheduled substance in Australia, in that both parts (Psychotria viridis and Banisteriopsis caapi) contain chemicals currently scheduled. Oprito was obviously in a jurisdiction where it was safe and legal to consume.