Ayahuasca: To Infinity and Beyond!
by SHELISE ANN SOLA
Ayahuasca called to me at the darkest point in my life. I needed help healing from the resurfaced memories of childhood abuse. I had only just moved into an apartment after being kicked out of a house, rendering me homeless for two weeks, and I found out the man I loved was seeing multiple other women. Yep, things were pretty bleak.
My second ceremony in the Amazon jungle was life-changing, which you can read about here, but I had no idea how profound my 5th one would be. After getting what I came for, I didn’t know what other intentions I could set with two ceremonies left. I decided to get creative and wrote down three things in my journal: discover ways to excel in my career path, give back to those around me in a meaningful and creative way specific to my talents, explore other dimensions and galaxies.
After drinking the Ayahuasca tea, I went back to my mat, covered my eyes with my hands to shut out the candlelight, and not even 10 minutes later, I was off! It usually takes 30-45 minutes for the medicine to kick in, but I was having visions long before everyone had even finished taking their dose with the shamans.
Suddenly, in front of me stood a woman I knew to be Mother Ayahuasca—also referred to as the guiding spirit of the medicine. Nervous at first, I decided to let go and trust her. She offered me her hand, and I walked off the mat in my mind to follow her. We found ourselves in front of a long, sketchy bridge hung in ominous suspension between the grey fog of two cliffs. The fog grew thick as I carefully treaded over the middle of this swinging bridge, but once I got to the other side, everything changed.
I felt lighter, happier, and accomplished. I had Mother Ayahuasca’s attention, so I conjured up the vision of my intentions in my journal and asked her the first question. How can I excel in my career? I instantly morphed into a wolf and started sprinting down a long, empty path lined with incredibly tall trees. Wolves often appear in my meditations either as a manifestation of myself or my heart-animal. Next, I saw a bird’s eye view of myself running as the wolf. I noticed from the sky that the path was winding and had many forks and routes with dead ends, which the wolf could’ve taken. However, I observed that the wolf confidently chose the right path every time without hesitation.
The message was, “Stop doubting yourself and your choices. You already know what route to take, and you are on the right path.” Once I interpreted this message, I was dropped back into the wolf’s perspective, and I kept running. I looked to my left and saw another wolf running next to me, which I immediately recognized as my future spouse. Then, a few wolf pups started stumbling along behind us. We kept running until we reached a clearing on the edge of a vast, overhanging cliff, similar to the one in Lion King. We stopped, sat down, and enjoyed the incredible view.
At that moment, I realized she was telling me that I didn’t have to wait to “make it” in my career before I had children. They will run the path with me and be there when I hit my peak. It was such a beautiful weight lifted off of my shoulders, especially since I didn’t even have a boyfriend at the time and was already 28 years old. Thanks, Mormon conditioning, for making me feel “old” and behind in life at such a young age.
Mother Ayahuasca was answering my questions so quickly! I thought back again to my journal. Oh! How can I give back to my community with my unique skills and talents? Then I heard a voice say, “You’re going to write a book!”. I laughed at the thought. Me? Write a book? That’s silly. She then told me it would be called The Purple Eye and showed me a vision of this bright purple book selling in bookstores. I had no idea what it would be about at the time, but I’m happy to report that I have a book proposal, query letter, and about five chapters done already. If you’d like more information and to stay updated, you can check out www.sheliseannsola.com.
For the last time, I mentally looked at my checklist and thought, of course! I want to see other galaxies and dimensions! Then I heard a very skeptical voice saying, “Are you sure?” Yes, yes! I’m sure! Then the voice warned me, “Ok, but it’s gonna hurt.” The second I mentally agreed, I felt myself rocketing full speed into space! My stomach started cramping and churning. She was right. It hurt. I pin-balled between neon planets of pink, purple, and lime green...colors I haven’t seen in our galaxy before. It was a breathtaking sight.
The type of flying I was doing through space nowhere near resembled what you’d see in movies. There was nothing floaty or delicate about the way I was traveling. I’d get sucked into planets, then spat out near others. Then reality would fold onto itself until I was somewhere else. The most jarring moment was when I fell straight into a silver, very modern, giant UFO. The room I was in was expansive and empty, except for what looked like an alien standing at a spot-lit podium stringing something together. They looked like eyeballs. He had two arms and legs like humans but an elongated skull without hair and enormous eyes. He felt my presence, sharply turned his head to look over at me, and I freaked out that I had been caught! Immediately, I dropped out of the ship and into another reality.
I couldn't stop flying, so I opened my eyes, but the candlelight was too intense, so I’d close them again. Each time I shut my eyes, I was back in space. I was so far gone and didn’t know how to make it stop. Then suddenly, I felt these little feet walking on my mat, just before little hands rested on the top of my head. The sound of Maestra Justina singing her Icaros filled the air with gentle comfort, knowing that she was taking care of me. This was all very odd. After five ceremonies, I had never seen the shamans leave their mats. She must’ve known I was somewhere far away.
A bit more space travel, and my stomach was getting more and more nauseous by the second. I felt it coming—the long-awaited purge. My eyes darted open, conveniently to the exact spot of my purge bucket, and I heaved as I’d never heaved before. It was this oddly fluffy vomit that felt like it came from the depths of despair. I opened my eyes to see what came out of me, and as I peered into this bucket of barf, I saw a galaxy looking back at me. Stunned, I thought this couldn’t be real. To test my theory, I spat into it, and I swear to you, it disappeared into the galaxy without ever making a sound. What is the actual sorcery was going on here?! The facilitator came over to take and dump my bucket, and I handed it over proudly as if to say, “Enjoy my galaxy, my friend. Enjoy.”
The next day during our integration ceremony, I started sharing how I thought I went to another galaxy. Immediately, the owner of the center—who joined us during the ceremony— said Maetra Justina leaned over to him last night and said, “I have to go get that girl, or she will keep flying higher and higher into space.” I knew it! It felt pretty amazing to get the confirmation that I actually was astral projecting into space. Since then, I often see space friends in meditations or during plant medicine ceremonies. It’s a pretty cool realization knowing there are other forms of intelligent life traversing the galaxy. Even cooler knowing that we have access to those places through altered consciousness and clear intentions.