Reddit reviews The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook: The Essential Guide to Ayahuasca Journeying

You might wanna post this over at /r/ayahuasca .

I'm gonna be doing it for the first time in a few weeks in Peru, and I'm staying at the retreat for 2 weeks. A lot of what I've heard is that you wanna do it at least 3 times (I'll be doing it 6 I think). But I do think I've heard of people having decent experiences with one ceremony. But yeah, you're probably going to be missing out on some deeper shit that you might get into in the following ceremonies. I've heard a lot of people say each ceremony can have different focuses as well....especially if you have different intentions....so one ceremony might be dealing with your past, and another might be more about your personal growth or something, I dunno. I'm only speaking as someone who's read a lot about it. Someone who's done it can probably offer some better insight.

I just read The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook written by Chris Kilham and it has pretty much anything you need to know about ayahuasca, from the history of it, to medical and chemical information, to guides about different types of brews and ceremonies etc. I highly recommend it.

Well it seems like the main problem is that you haven't been facing and processing your emotions. Cannabis blocks emotional processing, and so those who use it consistently over a long period of time tend to have unprocessed issues backed up. This is why I don't think it's healthy to use it regularly for most people. I think it has its place, such as for vets with PTSD who need that emotional block just to get through the day. However doing this is just pushing the problem further down the road. If you want to truly move past it you have to face yourself at some point. For this reason I hope you are honoring the recommendation to go into your retreat completely clean from cannabis.

To get the most out of the experience as well as integration the single best thing you can do is to do your best to remain as open as possible. If something uncomfortable and difficult comes up, don't push it away. Allow yourself to feel bad. Don't try to not feel bad, don't try to feel good. Just feel whatever is there. Surrender into the experience, whatever it may be. Allow it to be what it is. This may be quite challenging given that you've spent the last 6 years doing the opposite.

For this reason my second piece of advice is to be gentle and patient with yourself. You're trying to accomplish a radical turnaround of your fundamental approach to life here. Very few if any people could do this fully so suddenly. So it will be challenging, and you may at times feel like you're failing. Know that it's all okay. However much you can do during this retreat is the right amount, don't expect to do it all in one go. Don't judge or berate yourself. It's time to learn to show yourself the love that you deserve, and one of the most fundamental ways to do this is through your self-talk. Be kind to yourself.

It's a process that is rarely completed in one retreat. If you go in expecting a miracle you're likely to be disappointed. Remain open to the possibility, but be realistic in your expectations. Most people with issues like depression require repeated work with constructive periods of integration in between to work through and come out the other side. For some people there may be a honeymoon period after the retreat in which you feel like everything's fixed. Then some weeks or months later, it feels like the problems come back. Don't worry, nothing's wrong. This is just part of the ebb and flow of the process. Simply keep at it.

I can't vouch for it personally but I've seen this book highly recommended. It may have what you're looking for regarding integration.

Thanks! :) That's a really good idea to wait until you are ready as mindset and intention matter quite a bit.

General Information:

/r/Ayahuasca

-http://forums.ayahuasca.com/

-good forum with general knowledge

-https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/
while it's mostly dmt centered, this is probably the best entheogen community online. Has some good writeups on Ayahuasca and DMT visuals are often pretty similar to Ayahuasca since it's the same chemical in most brews(n,n dmt). Breakthrough visuals are much more common on DMT but healing is rarer in my experience.

https://ayaadvisors.org/

Great review site for retreat centers. There are more in the US, especially if you look around.

Books:

The Cosmic Serpent

The Ayahuasca Test Pilot's Handbook

As for posts, this one from dmt nexus is a good primer:

https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=8972


Hopefully that's enough to at least get the ball rolling. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Read this book because I only have done Ayahuasca once and it was an amazing experience, especially with all the knowledge that I've learned with this book https://www.amazon.com/Ayahuasca-Test-Pilots-Handbook-Journeying/dp/1583947914