Being Unique is Better Than Being Perfect..

White reporters are really in their feelings over the sight of white refugees. Rather than speak of all refugees with the humanity they deserve, certain reporters have decided to pick and choose those who are worthy of dignity, respect and empathy.

EUPHORIA 2.08: All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name

A TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SHAMAN EXPLAINS WHY PILLS CAN NEVER CURE DEPRESSION OR PTSD

There is no way of knowing the full impact that depression, anxiety and PTSD have on our society and culture, but we do know that the prescribed solution of pharmaceuticals is not working to alleviate this problem.

The first antidepressant drug, an MOAI inhibitor, was developed in the 1950’s and originally used in the treatment of tuberculosis. In the 19080’s, the first SSRI inhibitor was developed, and today there are now 5 classes of antidepressants, which includes at least 32 different brand name drugs

More Americans than ever take antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, and according to a recent study, some 86% of people today will have met the criteria for at least two psychiatric diagnoses by the time they reach 45.

More drugs, more diagnoses, and more people dependent on doctors, pharmacies and pills. Something is not working.

Contrast this paradigm with traditional shamanism, in which shamans, working as healers, use plant medicines to diagnose the spiritual health of a person, and heal them permanently with ancient methods that still baffle modern science.

Of the shamanic plant medicines, iboga is particularly powerful at helping people to overcome PTSD, depression and anxiety. Its efficacy cannot be explained in scientific terms, which reduces chronic emotional and mental health issues down to brain chemistry, looking at the human being as a machine, then intervenes with chemicals.

This is categorically different than the work of shamanism, which generally views such mental health conditions as spiritual matters, and seeks to repair a person’s spirit from within.

Traditional African shaman Moughenda Mikala points out in a recent interview, pills simply cannot address the root causes of such problems.

“When we are talking about trauma, depression, and PTSD, they are not physical. Now days people need to think further… to understand that anything that is not physical is difficult… someone has to know where to look.” ~Moughenda Mikala, Bwiti Life

As a 10th generation Bwiti shaman working with an ancient plant medicine, Mikala uses traditional shamanic methods to assess and heal people on a spiritual level, which addresses the roots of mental health problems rather than attempting only to manage the symptoms of such disorders.

“The way I handle these issues, or with my guests coming to me, I don’t focus on the physical level, because trauma… mainly affects the mind, and that’s what we’re talking about, the mind being a spiritual issue. So, the way I address that, I will launch someone on a psycho-spiritual journey… and before the spycho-spiritual journey, I will launch them on a psycho-detox.”

Mikala is referring to ceremonies, in which participants ingest the alkaloid rich root bark of the iboga shrub, which triggers a body trance and sets off an inward psychological journey. The psycho-detox is very common with first-time Western participants, and typically causes the participant to enter a foggy, trance-like state for hours where they begin to see from within the workings of their mind, including thought patterns and belief systems.

The psycho-spiritual journey Mikala mentions is a second experience with iboga, in which after detoxifying the mind in a first ceremony, the participant typically is launched into a surreal journey into the subconscious mind and is able to clearly review one’s life and make a direct, impressionable connection to their own soul.

It is this experience which Mikala says heals the wounds that cause depression, anxiety and PTSD.

He notes:

“The psycho-detox is kind of addressing the mind, and to detox the mind that means we reach a level to empty all of this trauma… it could be stress or any other forced beliefs… the garbage. And then, we have to take that person back to the very first day when that trauma started. It’s what I call a life-review… you don’t just do that from the mind, you have to actually go there live to the first day where everything started. It could be a rape… and a lot of women are still suffering from it. And the problem is they’ve been running from the pain, the fear, the everything.” ~ Moughenda Mikala

Because the trauma that leads to PTSD and depression lives within the mind, potentially for one’s entire life, the images and memories of traumatic experiences, like combat, are revisited over and again by the mind.

Pharmaceutical pills only cover up these images, causing people to lose everything, including joy and possibly life itself.

“So healing someone from trauma, PTSD or depression, there’s only one way. That is the traditional way. We have the best way to heal the mind. No pills. Pills won’t heal any mind, I don’t care how many years you’re going to be taking those pills, they won’t heal you, because not a single pill will be able to take you to a spiritual trip where you meet your soul face-to-face and have a long conversation with it.” ~Moughenda Mikala

Mikala further explains that this experience helps people to recognize what it is that caused their trauma and allows them to look at it up close and accept it as part of their lives, and then move on.

Having personally experienced this, and personally knowing Moughenda, I can say that the experience of iboga, when conducted ceremonially with properly trained healers and facilitators, is exceptionally extraordinary and leaves a lasting impression which, over time, continues to positively influence mental and spiritual health.

About the Author

Dylan Charles is the editor of Waking Times and host of Battered Souls: A Podcast About Transformation, both dedicated to ideas of personal transformation, societal awakening, and planetary renewal. His personal journey is deeply inspired by shamanic plant medicines and the arts of Kung Fu, Qi Gong and Yoga. After seven years of living in Costa Rica, he now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and enjoys spending time with family. He has written hundreds of articles, reaching and inspiring millions of people around the world.

                                                   Iboga

Iboga comes from the bark of a small shrub that is native to parts of West Africa. Known as the “Tree of Life,” it has been used for thousands of years by groups in Gabon, Cameroon and parts of the Congo. The indigenous devotees of this medicine are called the Bwiti and they use this sacred plant to study life within themselves. As a very deep plant-medicine with ancient wisdom, Iboga gives the user direct access to personal truth, and because it offers profound and life-changing insights, it is often called “the master of all teacher plants.”

Through a very grounding energy, Iboga can take us down into the root of who we are, pushing us to truly look into the depths of ourselves, our lineage and our belief systems. As a medicine that heals the mind, it pulls and cleanses stored files within the psyche as if de-fragging the hard-drive of an internal operating system; its mission is to create more peace and quiet within. Iboga also calms the central nervous system, drastically reducing the “fight or flight” response in many individuals, and it is also believed to rewire neurotransmitters in the brain.

The spirit of the plant is said to be masculine by most, and in this way, it is very direct, much like a stern yet wise father or grandfather, and, consequently, it is often called The Grandfather. However, the medicine is also known to carry both the highest wisdom of the masculine and feminine. The teachings of Iboga are simple and clear, and often funny as the medicine has a cheeky sense of humor. Because it is so direct, there is little room for confusion or a need to interpret messages.

In the Missoko Bwiti tradition, participants are individually guided by a provider to reconnect with their own. During this process they ask direct questions to their soul about their personal lives. Typically, the answers are very short, sweet and profound. By reconnecting with the softness and wisdom of our soul, it is common to experience lasting change in our lives. The soul also carries no ego so this is often a loving and compassionate experience. This process also connects us to our own intrinsic power where the belief in ourselves is reignited.

Initially in the west, Iboga has been known more commonly through the use of Ibogaine (an isolation of only one of the alkaloids) which quickly detoxifies the body from opiates with minimal withdrawal. Ibogaine has been most commonly used for this purpose for decades. Although Iboga and Ibogaine are very different in their true essence, they have been categorized together, and as a result, they have both gained a reputation for intensity that is mostly associated with addiction and detox.

More recently, Iboga has become better known in the spiritual community for its profound and transformational effects. While Iboga is very powerful, the intensity of the medicine is due to the duration of the direct effects and staying power of the wisdom, rather than the scary or psychedelic nature of the experience itself. Nonetheless, the ceremony and recovery period take time, and typically, the whole process is a 24 hour cycle until sleep and the appetite fully returns; usually, the strongest effects are experienced between 6 to10 hours. Although the duration can sometimes be shorter or longer, the combined length of the ceremony and recovery time are essential parts in the magic of healing.

For instance, at “Awaken Your Soul,” our ceremonies are facilitated for 6 to 12 participants, and at 8pm, the ceremony begins around a communal fire where teachings of the medicine are shared. After some time, the medicine is served, and soon thereafter, participants begin to lie down on a mattress where they spend the night and remain until dawn. The ceremony is guided by traditional Bwiti music that has a very fast tempo and is meant to clear and cleanse the mind.

Although an energy purge in the form of vomiting, sweating, shaking, crying, yawning, etc… is normal, it is not absolute. Even though purging can sound unappealing, it is a very important part of the process, resulting in cleansing and resetting the body, mind and soul. Since Iboga is a stimulant, it is rare for sleep to come until the following evening, and therefore, the day after an Iboga ceremony is spent as a “discovery day” for deep introspection; often being even more enlightening than the ceremony itself. After sleep and nourishing food, most participants feel amazing the second day after the ceremony.

Most who become followers of this medicine participate in 2 to 10 full ceremonies in order to receive what they are seeking, and typically more ceremonies are not needed. Although some will go on to micro-dosing in order to keep the spirit of Iboga alive, it is a very subtle and mild experience.

“Music is a language, you see, a Universal language.”

 was admitted to Julliard at 8.  

was performing in top venues by 16.  

pioneered “swinging the classics” and made the equivalent of a million dollars a year doing it.  

was the first person of color to have their own national TV show.  

went to Hollywood but refused to be cast as a “singing maid.”  Demanded and got control over her casting, her wardrobe, and how footage featuring her was cut.  

refused to perform in segregated venues and led charges for integration in several northern cities, notably Spokane.  

Blues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s by African-Americans from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, and spirituals. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or “worried notes”), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.

The lyrics of early traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the so-called “AAB” pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Two of the first published blues songs, “Dallas Blues” (1912) and “Saint Louis Blues” (1914), were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. W.C. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody.Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative.

 African-American singers voiced his or her “personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times”.

This melancholy has led to the suggestion of an Igbo origin for blues because of the reputation the Igbo had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved. The lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. 

For instance Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Rising High Water Blues” (1927) tells of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927:Backwater rising, Southern peoples can’t make no time I said, backwater rising, Southern peoples can’t make no time And I can’t get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine

Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy:Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, It may be sending you baby, but it’s worrying the hell out of me.Hokum blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa Red’s classic “Tight Like That” (1928) is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being “tight” with someone coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Blues songs with sexually explicit lyrics were known as dirty blues. The lyrical content became slightly simpler in postwar blues, which tended to focus on relationship woes or sexual worries. Lyrical themes that frequently appeared in prewar blues, such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and drought, were less common in postwar blues.

The writer Ed Morales claimed that Yoruba mythology played a part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” as a “thinly veiled reference to Eleggua, the orisha in charge of the crossroads”.

 However, the Christian influence was far more obvious.The repertoires of many seminal blues artists, such as Charley Patton and Skip James, included religious songs or spirituals.Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music, although their lyrics clearly belong to spirituals.