At most reputable healing centers, the Shaman will encourage you to take part in a “dieta” to help with your healing or whatever intentions you came down with. A dieta consists of following the typical ayahuasca diet limitations and during the day drinking a brew of specific Amazonian plants that the Shaman feels will help you through observing your energetic body in the first ayahuasca ceremony. Kind of like when a doctor will give you a blood test, and from those results may prescribe you a supplement. The plants used in a dieta are referred to as “master plants”, with each plant having specific healing properties. These master plants are not psychedelic, and are not mixed into the ayahuasca brew, a distinction that has to be made as with the growing ayahuasca tourism popularity some shamans are mixing more potent psychedelic plants into ayahuasca to give some tourists the big “trip” they are seeking (I touch more on this in my blog “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”), which is something very unsafe (even deadly) and completely different to the master plant dietas.

After my exorcisms of the bad spirits and devils was complete, the shaman told me that I was too weak to take more ayahuasca and should not drink for a month. During that month the shaman recommended that I start a dieta with a tree called Manchinga. The sap from this tree would help build my strength up slowly that had been worn away over the past year from the bad spirits and remove any remaining negative energies that may still be lingering after the exorcism. This was not a typical master plant dieta, as Manchinga was considered a “Palo Fuerte” or strong wood and the shaman rarely gave tourists the option to diet with it due to it being a very powerful energetic plant, which would require more strict food restrictions than the average ayahuasca diet and also time in isolation. At the time I felt special that I was being prescribed this tree, but in a few days time when I started my diet I would get a better understanding of what a dieta with a Palo Fuerte entailed and would no longer feel special.

The day I started my diet I was awoke around 6AM by the shaman to take my very first dose of Manchinga. You may feel some pain in your legs and shoulders he said as he poured a teaspoon of the cream colored sap into a glass and mixed it with water (this teaspoon would later come back to haunt me as a nickname). No big deal I thought as I gulped it down, for once it was something whose taste didn’t make me want to gag. A couple hours later I was feeling good and also a bit cocky, maybe with all the crap ayahuasca had put me through Manchinga was going to be nice to me. Later that morning the shaman took me and the other guests at the center for a hike into the Amazon to see all the healing plants. I was uber-excited to see the Manchinga tree, and I was not disappointed when I did.  Towering over all the other trees in the Amazon, the Manchinga tree resembled that of the sacred tree in the Avatar movie. A large trunk with a hollow big enough to fit three people rose up covered with vines, and way up high you could see its branches spreading out over the canopy. I took some photos, but they didn’t do justice to the enormity of the tree and the power you could feel standing in its presence. Needless to say, as we walked back to the center I was even more excited to be dieting with this tree.

Approximately 2 hours later, I would eat my all my good words/thoughts I had about dieting with Manchinga. It started out subtle enough, I was chilling in a hammock talking to another guest at the center when my shoulder started to feel really sore. Thinking it was just from lying in a funny position in the hammock for too long, I decided to go lie down on my bed for a bit. A few minutes later I started to feel short of breath, like my ribs had contracted and filling my lungs with air was painful. I hobbled slowly down to the main house to check to see if what was going on was normal, because it did definitely not feel normal. I said this morning that you that you would feel pain, he told me and then recommended I go take a cold shower for half an hour, that would help.

Half an hour later, and feeling no better I slowly made my way back to my room. The pain was growing with every breath, all I could do was sit on my bed as lying down made the pain worse. I started to almost hyperventilate in a way as I couldn’t take a full breath, my ribs felt like they were on fire and when my lungs even slightly expanded the pain tripled. The intensity had to start coming down soon I kept telling myself, trying to maintain calmness while unable to take a deep breath. I started talking out loud to try to keep myself calm which after a fifteen minutes or so turned into calling for the shaman to come help as the pain continued to intensify to a level which I hope is 100 time worse than child birth (or I’m not having kids!). By then it felt like all the bones in my torso had fire scorching them from the inside, every movement brought on a fresh wave of torture, and I was starting to loose my head. I was lucky during this time that I never had to cough or sneeze, as I would have blacked out from the pain.

The shaman came to my room with a mixture of some plants in hand and told me to lie down. I looked him in the eye and told him; I can’t lie down or I will die. Though I spoke it in English, I think he got my message. It seems a bit mellow dramatic looking back, but at the time I seriously thought something internally was shutting down and this must be how dying feels. It was different than the times I had thought I was going to die in an ayahuasca ceremony as I never had full cognitive awareness then. Now my brain was fully functioning and was certain that this pain was only going to continue to escalate until my untimely death. Somehow he was able to get me to lie down and started working on me with the plants he had brought as well as using soplaring (energetic cleansing with tobacco smoke) and a basalt rock to draw the pain out. As he was working the pain didn’t immediately reduce in intensity, though I could feel it slowly moving out of my rib cage and shoulders, concentrating into my spine. I kicked and thrashed as the pain continued with no reprieve, the pain from kicking the wall was somewhat soothing as it ever so slightly distracted from the gnawing pain within every bone in my torso.

They kept asking me if I had taken any pills, as taking any chemical substance could explain the almost allergic reaction to Manchinga I was having. No I hadn’t! But now that they had mentioned it, my mind went to the pack of oxycodine I had hidden away in my bag for emergencies and I wished I had thought to down the whole pack. The only anti-dieta thing I had done was use shampoo the previous day, but that one slip up couldn’t be the reason I was in so much pain. After what might have been an hour with the shaman working on me, the pain slowly started to ebb in waves. I had to try to lie completely still as any movement would invoke the intensity to increase to full power again. After a few hours, and a couple more soplars later I was able to slowly hobble around like a 90 year old. Until the next afternoon I would still feel pain if I was not careful and took a slightly deep breath. Manchinga had made its introduction, and the story of this introduction would be a standing joke and told to many for the rest of my stay (and probably is still told now). After a few weeks when the memory of the pain had faded, I was able to laugh and joke about the whole ordeal as well. At least I would not be forgotten anytime soon at the center!

Note: As I was writing this blog in India, I would meet someone who would indirectly explain exactly why I had this experience my first time taking Manchinga. While discussing reiki (an energetic healing technique) and pranayama (breathing techniques to clear and increase ones energetic body), she mentioned how people could often start to feel physically ill, nauseous, and start to hyperventilate. She had read a book by a stem cell biologist named Bruce Lipton, explaining that with these techniques you are working at a cellular level to bring the energetic frequency of each cell to a higher state (I will not cite the book here yet until I have read it which is hard to do whilst traveling the world!). If the frequency is increased to a higher level rapidly, the cells can essentially experience a power surge and short circuit as they have yet to build up their capability to operate at this higher energetic state resulting in physical symptoms. As Manchinga was such a strong plant energetically, the first time I took it was a complete shock to my system. In the subsequent times I would take it I would never have any  more symptoms most likely as my cells were now used to being at that higher frequency state.

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