Santiago
Knowing what I was doing didn’t help me understand where I was going. I’ve researched Ayahuasca for about a year then. I had a few psychonaut friends who repeatedly suggested a shamanic intervention. I acknowledge that they would recommend it to anyone anyhow. But now, it seemed to be an appropriate time for me.
Someone from Dave McClure’s team at 500 Startups suggested checking out Startup Chile. I did move to Santiago to mentor the program. The startup scene was good; on the other hand, the capital city was not much of a pleasant place to live. I spent almost a year in Santiago but kept postponing a visit to “Manto Wasi” up until late 2015. I hoped my Spanish would improve, or I’ll understand my intentions better, but neither happened. Eventually, I caved and reached out to “Rumi” (César Ahumada) - a fantastic shaman who is also responsible for making Ayahuasca in Chile legal and not just “exempt” as a religious ritual.
For one week in a mountain village outside Santiago, Rumi became my mentor. He used plants to show me a different tier of consciousness, another form of being. Even now, I can’t articulate those experiences with a language newly available to me. But I claim that the transcending event shed my habitual state, commencing the most important transition of my early life. I came to drink “aya” to get answers, but I got more questions instead. And when the shock was imminent, the transformation seemed repressed. I never returned to “madre” or experimented with any other plants. I felt that the fierce work I did back in the village was quite enough. My task was to find the language, connecting the understandings with syllables. I left Chile but spent a winter in South America.