Entering the jungle is, in a way, like entering a pharmaceutical laboratory.

Each plant is known, named, and referenced, along with its benefits and advantages.

Only recently has an investigation been underway to create a scientific list of all the plants known and used by indigenous tribes. It is only through oral memory that the native men and women of the Amazon rainforest know the virtues and qualities specific to each root, each vine, each leaf, each bulb, bark, tree, flower, and so on.

Indeed, as they will tell you: "They have everything in the jungle!"

Thanks to the transmission of this ancient knowledge, they lack nothing to heal themselves, protect themselves, maintain good health, or preventative measures.

Thus, we have the privilege and joy of welcoming here in Crete one of our brothers from the jungle, whose father was Paje, which means: the medicine man, the village healer. For a medicine woman, she is called Maje.

Txana Iba, who is giving us the pleasure of her visit, brings with her the wisdom of her people and the riches of the forest: highly effective and natural remedies, with nothing that could harm our immune system.

They will tell you that they can cure everything, treat everything, except for diseases that come from the Western world, those "mal a dis" linked to the modern world, technology, and the various pollutants we ingest in our urban lives.

First, there is RAPE, their tobacco. It resembles the peace pipe, which is said to be blown through the nostrils. It is the breath of the one transmitting RAPE that adds to this medicine its intention of liberation, purification, and opening for a higher connection.

This allows the brain to be ventilated, as well as the ENT system to be cleared.

Amazonian tobacco works on the sixth and seventh chakras: opening the third eye, raising consciousness, connecting to the Great Spirit.

RAPE is composed of three ingredients, including tobacco, but everyone makes their own rapé, and the flavors and effects vary accordingly.

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SANANGA is placed in the eyes; only one drop is needed, one drop in each eye. A burning sensation is felt quite violently and disrupts vision. The effect lasts a few moments, even a few minutes… Afterwards, it feels like we are opening our eyes for the first time and discovering with wonder the light of the world!

Sananga is a root that is peeled and then shavings boiled for long hours to become this distilled elixir that helps restore clear vision and reduce vision problems. It can also develop clairvoyance.

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HAMPAYA is a medicine originating from the Txana: a small, yellow and black jungle bird that gave its name to the tribal men who acquired this title as messengers, peddlers of forest songs, music, and sound frequencies that allow the various remedies to work.

HAMPAYA is a medicine that helps release resistance in the throat area, allowing us, in turn, to become messengers, songbirds, and maintain group cohesion during circles or meetings.

It is a balm that perfects the fundamental alliance that exists between the human community and the mysteries of Mother Nature.

HAMPAYA is served on the tongue like a spicy plant that makes the mouth water. This is how the cleansing process takes place. After 15 or 20 minutes, when all our saliva has been evacuated, we begin to sing, like a little bird...

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KAMBO is toad venom, applied like a vaccine to the shoulder. It's a disinfectant, a kind of propellant for our internal toxins.

Before using Kambo medicine, you must be fasting and have drunk plenty of water to allow the alchemical process of purifying the body to take place under the best conditions. The protocol is rigorous, KAMBO medicine is powerful, and the purge is beautiful and very real.

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And finally, AYAHUASCA, in the local language Nixi Pae, is obtained from a vine whose recipe is kept secret, or at least is only given and taught to those initiated in its use. Not everyone is cut out to serve AYAHUASCA, or "abuelita" as it is called in Peru.

It is a kind of blackish-green drink that resembles the medicines and decoctions of Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Its taste is quite unpleasant, which makes this liquid difficult to swallow.

Nevertheless, this encounter with the plant will free you from unconscious knots and blockages and reveal to you what needs to be acknowledged, through messages or visions that you need to know yourself better and understand the world differently. During a ceremony that lasts all night, until sunrise, we consume between two and three glasses of Ayahuasca.

The purging process is random and systematic; it is unique to each person. There are those who vomit and others who don't. Those who sleep and those who dance, depending on what needs to be harmonized.

The music and chants of the Txana watch over each spirit. The introspection is so profound that interaction or discussion with one's neighbor is prohibited, leaving each person free, in their own space of transformation, to experience what they need to experience.

It is a communion with the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, the mineral kingdom, and with all living things. The Unity that passes through us is revealed to us and amplifies our senses. During an AYAHUASCA ceremony, a true transmutation takes place: what we have made ourselves believe, the limitations, the resistances, the obstacles, the conditioning disappear... And even those who are going through a very intense, not very easy process wake up in the morning with the feeling of a newfound lightness, like a new self, the one they had forgotten.

"SOLO ALEGRIA!" Just joy !

At dawn, we eat dried fruits, fresh fruits, nuts, we drink water and tea... Then there is a talking circle in the morning so that we can all share together what we wish to bear witness to and transmit to others.

The journey can be wonderful, opening extraordinary doors and horizons that we will never forget. Sometimes even "strength" is revealed to us.

HOUX HOUX HOUX!

Thank you to my indigenous brothers and sisters of Peru and Brazil for recognizing, welcoming, and loving me as one of their own

Pauline Dumora director of Ola Kala Festival