Our curandero with his wife and daughter in the Peruvian Amazon.

By Bernhard Guenther, April 23rd, 2014

In December of 2013 I visited the Peruvian jungle with two of my best friends. Spending time away from modern civilization deep in the rainforest has been healing and beautiful on one hand but also eye-opening and disturbing on the other hand. It’s the fourth time I’ve been to Peru. The last time was in 2007. The ponerization of society has reached even the most remote corners where the virus of “modern progress” has also infected that part of the world. Many people have this romantic view of exotic places like the Amazon and the natives who live there. The issue is not only the pathology of the modern world with its globalization, greed, and capitalism, but that many natives themselves actually want that life style in so many ways. It’s a bit ironic, some of us are trying to escape the modern world and the people living in what we see as “paradise” yearn for what we are trying to get away from. But it’s a clash and doesn’t fit.

It’s not black and white and there is much we can learn from these cultures and their traditions. I’ve certainly learned a lot and the insights I gained from working with ayahuasca, the “grandmother”, have been revealing and healing in many ways, but we need to get over this romanticizing. I see this a lot as well in the yoga community with people drawn to Eastern practices and philosophies which also have become very distorted over time, romanticizing India and that whole guru culture. Many people don’t question any of that.

Luckily we were prepared with right intentions and lots of self-work under our belt already, working with an experienced curandero (shaman) who lives deep in the jungle with his family. We traveled for 8 hours on a banana boat south of Pucallpa on the Rio Ucayali to get to the village. Thanks to my long-time Peruvian friend who came with us and who is very discerning and careful who to work with based on his own experiences, this trip was very well planned. However, the fact that ayahuasca has become so popular over the years with thousands of people traveling to Peru to have “the experience” has taken a toll on the culture and the people living there. We saw that as well. Ayahuasca tourism has risen exponentially and along with it many pseudo shamans who have become greedy for the almighty dollar.

There are even more disturbing things happening, some of it relating to sorcery and “wars” between curanderos who are greedy and envious. All of this is well-known in the jungle and ayahuasca has been used for black magic for a long time. Our curandero told us how ayahuasca is being used by some “shamans” for mind control to have power over others by making them ill and psychotic. Even when we were there, he was under a psychic attack from a curandero of a neighboring village (about 20 miles away) who was envious of him because of his success as a shamanic healer with many people seeking him out. He was able to fight it off with the help of another shaman during one of the ceremonies. It’s like hyperdimensional warfare. Luckily we weren’t subjected to these attacks and he held a safe space for us during the sessions. In the modern world ayahuasca is mostly being seen as this beautiful spiritual magic drink that, other than some purging and emotional/physical discomfort, has only positive effects. This is far from true. There have been cases of sexual abuse and people have died during ceremonies as well.

Not only in Peru, but here in the west coast it has become a lucrative “business”. I know of some “shamans” who charge $250 per person with 50-70 people in a ceremony….(you do the math)… without ever having gone through the long and tedious training and initiation to become an ayahuascero. Ayahuasca has become more and more popular. Nowadays you can even order it on amazon (virtual “amazon”). 12 years ago I remember hardly anyone who knew about it, Now I get invitations to participate in ceremonies on a regular basis, right here in Topanga……but I never accepted one….something doesn’t feel right about it with too many red flags. Jolane Abrams lays it out really well what is off in her talk below.

Unfortunately there are many people who desperately want to try this brew because of the hype, so their critical thinking goes out the window and their intuition. Then the projections and expectations kick in and the curanderos are looked at like gurus, being put on a pedestal with all the transference issues that come along with that. Some shamans take advantage of this naiveté, similar to the Indian Guru pathology and the abuses based on that. Same story different culture.

Jolane Abrams is giving a powerful presentation of the shadow side of ayahuasca tourism:

Dark Shamanism is a topic that is virtually unacknowledged in the neo-shamanism revival in Western culture. Many spiritual teachings have been corrupted and watered-down into sellable, easy-to-swallow pop-spirituality these days. Shamanism has also become greatly distorted, omitting many issues most people are not aware of. Prof. Neil Whitehead, who was the victim of a Kanaima, or dark shaman attack in Guyana, South America, addresses the dark side of Shamanism in this interview:

I don’t have the romanticism anymore as I had when I first went there eight years ago. Much of what Jolane said I can see down there now and it’s not a pretty picture. It’s gotten worse over the years. However, I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water. There is much beauty down there with amazing healers who live in the jungle or the Andes with incredible knowledge. We experienced an amazing time with healing and insightful ceremonies in a small intimate setting. But it’s not easy work by far and certainly not for everyone. It’s also not a magic drink, as Joane said, and the work never stops, with or without ayahuasca. It’s just another tool and like any tool it can be used for good or to harm and most harm happens out of ignorance and wishful thinking.

These were also emotional heavy times of confronting the shadow with periods of depression, despair, and anger as my shadow was coming to light. Most of it was suppressed emotional states from past experiences, mostly childhood, confronting my shame and sadness from childhood wounding. However, looking back, I also didn’t have the context and knowledge to integrate these experiences, especially from a psychological perspective. I stopped doing any psychedelics for many years and focused more on integrating what had come up through deeper self-work, learning about psychology, integrating psychotherapy and using bodywork, yoga, dance, breath work and qi gong to get in touch with my emotional body through these body-mind modalities. Having said that, ayahuasca and other medicine plants can help some people (especially with regards to addiction and trauma) but it is important to combine it with psychotherapeutic work.

My personal experience with psychedelics in general (I have worked with ayahuasca, san pedro, psilocybin mushrooms, DMT) is two-fold. On one hand they have provided incredible insight into myself and reality, but on the other hand it has also been very confusing and disturbing at times. My introduction to psychedelics happened with psilocybin mushrooms in 1996 which I used for a number of years in my mid twenties on the path of self-exploration and healing. These experiences have also led me to bodywork, yoga, and qi gong, which I’ve been practicing ever since. However, many young kids use these drugs at parties without any proper preparation or intentions. That’s how I got introduced to them as well, but I stopped taking these substances recreationally after a couple of disturbing experiences and then only worked with them on my own or with close friends with the intention of confronting issues within me, not just to “trip out” and enjoy some visual fireworks.

[Added: a reader just sent me this article: British tourist, 19, found dead on remote Colombian road after tribal drug ritual went wrong They found him dead on Wednesday when I published this article. “The youngster took the drug (yage/ayahuasca) twice with a local tribe, and collapsed on the second occasion. Hours later Henry’s body was dumped on a lonely dirt road. His corpse was later found there on Wednesday, and photographed for a grim image on a local news website.“]

Dr. Gabor Maté, author of “ In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction “, talks about his view of the healing potential of ayahuasca:

One of the revealing things the curandero I worked with in the jungle told me after the second ayahuasca ceremony is that I have an energy block/cyst in the area of my solar plexus due to residue of long-time marijuana use. He mentioned that it’s related to something long time ago that is still stuck. In my twenties I certainly have smoked a lot and it’s interesting that he saw this because in the past years I hardly smoked, even staying off of it completely for a year, but I also have smoked it here and then again as well. He said he worked on it during one of the ceremonies and helped release it and I did feel a shift in me. I had to admit that I was lying to myself about my cannabis use, telling myself that I use it “responsibly” for “medicinal” purposes. For example, I’d smoke a little before doing yoga or getting bodywork since it helped me to get into my body more, but I also felt that something wasn’t right about it and used it more as a crutch. Also, when I felt depressed or just “off”, I’d smoke at times to elevate my mood. At times it helped me to work through what came up, however, truth to be told, I had more emotional breakthroughs when I stayed with an emotional discomfort instead of buffering it up with marijuana, especially this past year when old childhood wounds came to the surface again.

Often times, using these substances becomes another buffer and avoidance. Looking back at my experiences, I had to acknowledge that I was over-estimating myself and lying to myself about my healing process on some level. Just like many other people I got hooked on the “peak experience” and avoided deeper psychotherapeutic and sincere self-work without the use of these substances. This also ties into “spiritual bypassing” as I wrote about in “Spiritual Bypassing, Relationships and the Shadow” .

At the same time, these substances can open up doors in the psyche, bringing suppressed trauma to consciousness, which can make things even worse and is too much for the individual to handle. It can be very detrimental for some people. That’s why psychological education and healing should be part of it. Many times that alone is often enough for creating deep and lasting transformation without having to take any substance if one is sincere and sticks to the psychological healing process. Healing deep trauma, addiction, and childhood wounds, which we ALL have and are dealing with to varying degrees, takes its own time and trying to speed it up with psychedelic substances can often times make things worse than better. It’s also symptom of our fast-food and instant gratification culture wanting to be fixed as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort and work, and for many people this is what attracts them to psychedelics and ayahuasca.

What the curandero said certainly didn’t come as a surprise but was a much-needed reminder of what I have been thinking about for a while, how marijuana can be abused and has negative consequences, especially to the energy body. With all the focus on the positive aspects of this plant and its healing properties, the other side of how it can be abused and be damaging is hardly addressed. Most research also relates to the physical benefits indicating that there are supposedly no physical dangers as opposed to alcohol, for example. Based on that, there is a big focus on legalizing marijuana with all the “pharmacies” popping up, where you just have to pay a little amount to get a “medical marijuana” card and you can buy and smoke all the pot you want “legally”.

I never got a “medical marijuana” card because I knew I’d abuse it even more. And that’s something to think about. Who really uses cannabis medicinally for serious conditions in a conscious manner? How do we lie to ourselves about it, and are actually addicted to it? I think the addictive aspect of cannabis is also ignored in many ways, in particular psychological addiction and how much harm it does to the energy body. There are few studies about the negative side of marijuana, but none of them address these deeper issues from what I’ve seen. Of course “energetic effects” are hard to prove through conventional science.

To be clear, I’m all for decriminalization and legalizing marijuana. It’s about personal freedom and choice, but this whole idea of “medicinal use” seems a bit convoluted. Most doctors with a marijuana license basically prescribe cannabis to anyone who wants it. But considering it is supposedly a “prescription” medicine, no one really tells you what, how much, and when to use it. You just get a card which is basically a free ticket to the candy store. Help yourself; smoke or eat as much you want whenever you want it. It seems a bit irresponsible to me.

I’m also not throwing out the baby with the bath water. I think the positive aspects of marijuana are well established and proven, and we all can cite many cases where this is the case, in our own lives and the lives of others. Many people on facebook post hundreds of articles regarding that with, so the baby is well secure and won’t be thrown out. My intention, however, is to take a critical look at the other side which seems to be so ignored and denied in our personal lives or in the lives of others, relating to how we tend to lie to ourselves about marijuana use.

Seeing some of my friends who are daily pot smokers for years and even decades have also shown some red flags, especially energetically. Marijuana is more potent than ever before which actually has made me smoke it less. I simply couldn’t handle the intensity. I remember 15 years ago when I’d smoke a whole joint, got high, and was basically sober again after two hours. Nowadays you take two puffs from some Frankenstein OG and it stays with you for hours and hours, basically the whole day (even waking up with a pot hangover) to the point of feeling uncomfortable, at least for me, since I’ve become very sensitive to it. Some people smoke a lot of it since they have built up a tolerance and are more high than sober on a daily basis, not being able to function without it. Extreme pot heads seem to have this energetic bubble that is hard to get through and many of them seem “emotionally retarded”, meaning emotional depth and regulation in a healthy way seems to be missing.

I know of some people who have been diagnosed with PTSD and use pot to cope with their illness, claiming that it helps them to function. While it certainly can aid individuals with that condition under certain circumstances, some of them literally smoke it all day, every day, and it shows in their behavior that it is not helping them, but is in fact numbing them in an unhealthy way and keeps them from healing the Trauma.

Another interesting thing the curandero said is about medicinal plants in general. He’s a botanist and works with many different plants in the jungle, not only psychoactive ones. Every plant has a positive and negative side, just like anything and it’s all about context and application. He mentioned that it is important to truly honor the spirit of each plant and their intelligence, using them responsibly, so you are still the “master” and you use it instead of the plant becoming the master and “using you”. He said that there is a “reversal” in the modern world regarding marijuana and that this plant has negative effects on many people, resulting in all kinds of energy attachments and blockages. What he has seen in me he also saw in many other “gringos” who came to work with him. He said that medicine is not food and should never be used recreationally which makes sense and should be common sense, but somehow we have forgotten this, especially with marijuana.

There are many articles about the benefits of marijuana and it’s good to look at that and bring it to awareness, but I have seen virtually nothing from marijuana proponents who looks at the shadow side of this plant in a more objective manner. This also relates to other medicine plants and psychedelics in general where there is so much focus on the positive sides and how it has helped people (which is important to point out), but there are many cases where these drugs have done a lot of harm. There seems a lot of romanticizing going on about these plants. It’s somewhat understandable because many of them are illegal in most countries for reasons that are ridiculous, so everyone is focused on the positive aspects to help the decriminalization process. But that can also create a tunnel vision of wishful thinking and distortion regarding some other issues. The tricky thing is that the harm is for the most part not a physical symptom, but an energetic one. One can damage the energy body with psychedelics, taking on all kinds of spirit attachments that can always leach on to anybody who force-opens one’s consciousness to the higher realms. The same goes for smoking pot. It opens up the energy body which can result in ruptures in one’s aura that can be detrimental in the long run.

Dr. William J. Baldwin wrote about “spirit attachments” in his seminal work “Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual”:

“The condition of spirit possession, (that is, full or partial takeover of a living human by a discarnate being) has been recognized or at least theorized in every era and every culture. In 90% of societies worldwide there are records of possession-like phenomena. Extensive contemporary clinical evidence suggests that discarnate beings, the spirits of deceased humans, can influence living people by forming a physical or mental connection or attachment, and subsequently imposing detrimental physical and/or emotional conditions and symptoms. This condition has been called the “possession state,” “possession disorder,” “spirit possession,” or “spirit attachment”. Earthbound spirits, the surviving consciousness of deceased humans, are the most prevalent possessing, obsessing or attaching entities to be found. The disembodied consciousness seems to attach itself and merge fully or partially with the subconscious mind of a living person, exerting some degree of influence on thought processes, emotions, behavior and the physical body. The entity becomes a parasite in the mind of the host.[…] Severe stress may cause susceptibility to the influence of an intrusive spirit. Altering the consciousness with alcohol or drugs, especially the hallucinogens, loosens one’s external ego boundaries and opens the subconscious mind to infestation by discarnate beings.[…] Spirit attachment does not require the permission of the host. This seems to be a violation of free will. It also appears to refute the popular notion that each person is totally responsible for creating his or her reality and that there are no victims. The apparent conflict here stems from the definitions of permission and free will choice. Ignorance and denial of the possibility of spirit interference is no defense against spirit attachment. Belief or lack of belief regarding the existence of intrusive entities has no bearing on the reality of these beings and their behavior. In denial and ignorance, most people do not refuse permission to these nonphysical intruders. Individual sovereign beings have the right to deny any violation or intrusion by another being. With limited, if any, knowledge and distorted perceptions of the nature of the spirit world, the nonphysical reality, many people leave themselves open and create their own vulnerability as part of creating their own reality. It is fashionable today among many “new Age” enthusiasts to attempt to channel some higher power, a spirit teacher or master who will use the voice mechanism of any willing person to speak “words of wisdom”. Some use the terminology “for my highest good” when calling for a spirit to channel through. This activity constitutes permission and welcome for a discarnate spirit. The identifiers such as “master” and “teacher” and qualifiers such as “for my highest good” will be claimed by the entities as personally valid identifications, qualities or attributes. …The host is usually unaware of the presence of attached spirits. The thoughts, desires and behaviors of an attached entity are experienced as the person’s own thoughts, desires and behaviors. The thoughts, feelings, habits and desires do not seem foreign if they have been present for a long time, even from childhood. This is a major factor in the widespread denial of the concept and lack of acceptance of the phenomena of discarnate interference and spirit attachment, obsession or possession. The symptoms of spirit attachment can be very subtle. An attached spirit may be present without producing any noticeable symptoms.[…] A living person can have dozens, even hundreds of attached spirits, as they occupy no physical space. They can attach to the aura or float within the aura outside the body. If any part of the body of the host has a physical weakness the earthbound can attach to that area because of a corresponding weakness or injury to the physical body of the spirit prior to death. A spirit can lodge in any of the chakras of the host, drawn by the particular energy of the chakra or by the physical structures of that level of the body. Many areas of a person’s life can be influenced by one or more attached entities. In short, spirit attachment can interfere with any aspect of the life of the unsuspecting host.”

The curanderos and shamans who work responsibly with these plants know all about that. They are also aware of the hyperdimensional aspect of reality with all kinds of non-physical entities and “critters” that just “look” for an opening to feed off of us. There are many dangers – energetically, psychically, and esoterically – when forcing oneself to enter a higher state of consciousness through these drugs. The trap is that many people look for “peak experiences” without doing the proper grounded work to prepare the body-mind for it with spiritual practices and sincere self-work, including psychotherapy. If you take these drugs and have not done the necessary deeper self-work to raise your being without any substances, it’s like shooting 1000 volts through a cable that can only take 10 volts. You’re gonna damage it and may take on spirit attachments.

Jonathan Zap wrote about the danger of using mind expanding drugs in party settings in his article “Alex Grey and the Mind Parasites”:

“Socially dense environments of strangers and substances mixing together are likely to default to lowest-common-denominator factors of social parasitism/sexual predation/chaotic acting out of fragmented personalities-what I sometimes call a carnival of lost souls. Everything depends on who are the particular people in a group that is having a boundary-dissolving experience or ritual. Naïve people frequently forget this. Such people think the ritual is what matters and take all comers, but this can be a disaster! Generally, I think it unwise to have boundary- dissolving experiences (such as sex and/or hallucinogenic trips) with people you don’t know and wouldn’t trust with your life, because you are trusting your life with them.[…] I caution people about doing things such as going to a rave with a sketchy vibe redolent of prowling sexual agendas (in other words, almost any rave) and opening themselves to the toxic energy by taking a boundary-dissolving substance. Unless you want to internalize a carnival of lost souls it is probably unwise to blow yourself wide open in an setting of trance-inducing music/lighting and stoned people, many of them on the prowl for parasitic sexual encounters.”

It reminds me what William Chittick, translator of the works of the great Sufi Shaykh, Ibn al-’Arabi, wrote:

“Nowadays most people interested in the spirituality of the East desire the “experience,” though they may call what they are after intimate communion with God. Those familiar with the standards and norms of spiritual experience set down by disciplined paths like Sufism are usually appalled at the way Westerners seize upon any apparition from the domain outside of normal consciousness as a manifestation of the “spiritual.” In fact, there are innumerable realms in the unseen world, some of them far more dangerous than the worst jungles of the visible world. Al-Arabi himself said:

So preserve yourselves, my brothers, from the calamities of this place, for distinguishing it is extremely difficult! Souls find it sweet, and then within it they are duped, since they become completely enamored of it.”

Visionary artist Alex Grey also hinted at the “topic of all topics” and hyperdimensional control system based on some experiences he had on LSD:

“At one point I did feel that this entire thing has been orchestrated by these beings, that our coming together was not an accident… When we feel influenced to do certain things, or intuitively guided to do certain things – many times we may seek guidance from a higher realm – In the same way one can be vulnerable to the influence from beings from a lower realm. I remember one time being on one of the most harrowing LSD adventures I ever had. I felt like I was a flapper in the wheel of fortune and every realm of being and dimension was one of these slots that the little flapper was open to. And in one such dimension that was flying by I saw this really strange insect-like creature lunge out at me. After I came back from this trip, and for days afterward, I was really feeling out of sorts and very energetically drained. And I realized that this thing had jumped out and was probably still embedded in my aura. So I did a whole cleansing to draw all the energy back into the heart and then expand it out from the heart to banish this being.”

Interestingly, while the curandero cautioned me to smoke marijuana, he highly recommended that I should smoke more tobacco. He said it helps the healing process and serves as a protection from psychic attacks from hyperdimensional forces. He knew very well that humanity is not on top of the food chain. Of course he was talking about pure natural tobacco, not commercial cigarettes with all the chemicals and additives. Native Americans have used tobacco for thousands of years as medicine and for protection without any cases of cancer relating to it. The over-the-top anti-smoking propaganda in the modern world is a topic on its own. However, most people don’t question any of that.

There may be a completely different reason to discourage people from smoking tobacco through fear, guilt tactics, and corrupted science that has nothing to do with “caring for our health”, especially in light of the “topic of all topics”. Most people fall into the fallacy believing that “smoking causes cancer”. Nope. The question is: WHAT is one smoking? Pure organic additive free tobacco or commercial cigarettes, for example? A careful study of this topic shows that the whole anti-smoking campaign is indeed based on lies, propaganda, and corrupted science. It’s also interesting to see how marijuana is being promoted as completely harmless for the most part and tobacco is more and more demonized. What is really going on?

“If anything, the so-called “New Age” movement has been so heavily inculcated with the idea that one must not ever think about negative things, that they, above all other people, are most subject to its predations of higher realms. If you don’t know about something, you cannot defend yourself against it. The consistent deflection from the truth of the state of so-called higher realms by masses of published material over the many years, suggests almost a program of disinformation. It was beginning to look as though there was something or someone “out there” who didn’t want us to know something.“ – Laura Knight-Jadczyk

COINTELPRO and the Psychedelic Movement

This is another big topic most people are not aware of. Various researchers have uncovered how certain CIA operations (such as MK Ultra) have supplied the youth with LSD and other mind expanding drugs in the 60’s to vector people away from the rising anti-war movement for the purpose of creating a “controlled opposition”. Some people are aware that the CIA has used LSD for mind control experiments and believe that it back-fired for the powers that be, resulting in the psychedelic revolution led by Timothy Leary and the Pranksters around Ken Kesey. Later on the torch was taken over, so to speak, by Terence McKenna and nowadays there is Daniel Pinchbeck and others promoting the use of psychedelics. However, more data has surfaced in the last couple of years that shows a different picture of what actually happened and is still going on nowadays. This ties into COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Programs).

These discoveries have triggered many people in the psychedelic movement, as well as the Burning Man community and the related counter/sub culture. I have come to similar conclusions in my own research, showing that the psychedelic movement and hippie movement has indeed been created for the purpose of mind control, vectoring people away from truth, and it still carries over into today’s “counter-culture” and New Age Movement. Some of it I already shared in my article “2012 – Collective Awakening or The End of the World“.

A lot of people have emotional attachments to their “heroes” such as Timothy Leary, Gordon Wasson, Albert Hoffman, and Terence McKenna, and so most the research is rejected without looking at it in more depth, resulting in cognitive dissonance. Considering my personal experiences with some of the key figureheads in the Burning Man/psychedelic/subculture movement which exposed their lack of critical thinking and also resulted in vile personal attacks against me, it actually proves that COINTELPRO is still well and alive. However, as mentioned in previous articles, not everyone is a conscious COINTELPRO agent. Good disinformation is truth mixed with lies and so many impressionable people who are not discerning can become “useful idiots” and patsies for COINTELPRO.

I have been duped by it as well many years ago when I was infatuated with McKenna’s work and what I thought I had experienced on psychedelics. Looking back I have to admit how I was overly emotionally driven, lacking critical thinking, buying into much New Age and pop-spirituality nonsense, and also projected all kinds of illusions into my psychedelic experiences based on wishful thinking. These substances, while they do have the potential to aid in psychological healing as mentioned before, can be very harmful and misleading. Little did I know back then and I’m glad that didn’t get fully “enamored of it”. Knowing what I know now I certainly wouldn’t have done much of the things I did back them. But hindsight is 20/20 and all there is are lessons. The devil appears at times as angles of light indeed. I also had to work through my own cognitive dissonance regarding this topic and work through my bias, emotional attachment and wishful thinking.

Jan Irvin has revealed how the psychedelic revolution was launched by the CFR, CIA, and the elite, and how R. Gordon Wasson, the so-called discoverer of magic mushrooms, and the founder of the field of ethnomycology, was himself a government asset, a friend of Edward Bernays – the father of propaganda, and is one of the key figures for launching one of the largest mind control operations in history.

Irvin writes in “R. Gordon Wasson: The Man, the Legend, the Myth – Beginning a New History of Magic Mushrooms, Ethnomycology, and the Psychedelic Revolution”:

“There are several reasons why the psychedelic movement may have been launched, including attempts to distract people from government policy failure; extracting information from people under the influence, such as with MK‐ULTRA; making money from the drugs through the pharmaceutical industry; and even pacifying people with a Huxleyan‐like soma or with positivist spirituality so that they could be more easily controlled.“

In “Manufacturing the Deadhead: A product of social engineering…” Jan Irvin and Joe Atwill write:

“[…]All of this leaves us asking… Was the field of ethnomycology founded not, necessarily, to study the myths and legends of cultures that utilized these substances, but rather to study how they used them for control – the noble lie? Was it also founded to promote this neo-feudalist, archaic revival? Were MK-ULTRA Subproject 58, the psychedelic revolution, and the Deadhead an expression of that control? Are these systems of control being continued today through the rave culture and “Burning Man”? So it appears. Just as the ancient Greek hierophants created the mysteries of Eleusis, just as Emperor Titus created the story of Jesus and Christianity, just as the Levitical priests created Judaism and the “chosen” ideology; today the elites have spun a new religion, the New Dark Age, a.k.a. the Archaic Revival –and they call this reverse direction into history “evolution.” Wasson, McKenna, Leary, and Hoffman are but the hierophants of this New Dark Age, and its new mystery religion, which is nothing but mind control in disguise. Though it seems incredible, Esalen, and Huxley, McKenna, Bernays, Wasson and Dulles appear to have been part of a secret agenda within the U.S. government that intends to usher in a post-modernist, neo-feudalism Dark Age and slavery in America. What makes this particularly difficult to believe is the unanswered question of the organization’s motivation. What would motivate such a group? Racism? Classism? Religious fervor? Power? All of the above? And how would it be able to maintain such secrecy, involving certainly hundreds, if not thousands of individuals over such a long time? One thing is clear. Whatever is the basis for this organization, it resides within identifiable secret societies. The number of individuals that can be demonstrated to have taken part in creating the Deadhead who are also members of Skull and Bones, the Century Club and the Bohemian Club is simply too large to have been circumstantial. Moreover, Dr. Colin Ross has shown that high level Freemasonry was responsible for funding the original LSD research and this group should also be inspected closely. We appeal to scholars and to the public to help us find the truth behind MK-ULTRA and the creation of the Deadhead and the post-modernist, neo-feudalism movement. The authors are not looking to bring anyone out of one cave and into yet another, but to free humanity from this insanity. And only the truth is capable of that. Esalen, Aldous Huxley, Gordon Wasson, Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, and the peddlers of this agenda: The spell is now undone and the true secrets of Eleusis, of the CIA and the psychedelic revolution, are now revealed for the entire world to see. […]”

Referring to Irvin’s and Atwill’s work, Jay writes in “Masculine Wisdom/Feminine Matter: the Drug-Fractured Psyche“:

“[…]From my own observations and research concerning those who have had intense hallucinogenic drug experiences, definite patterns emerge. One of the most prominent patterns is the sense of the psyche being fragmented, disintegrating and becoming “one” with the all. The hallucinogen causes a kind of inner journey which shamans of primitive religions have embarked upon for millennia, but the result tends towards the same conclusion: monism. Yet oddly the philosophical monism adopted invariably leads many of the drugged to feel that their own psyche has fractured, divided, or split. The so-called “revelations” most experience on the drug trips end up being very monotonous. It rarely occurs to the drugged that their narcissistic “insights” are one and the same as ancient pagan and eastern religions. Reality is thus viewed as an “illusion,” a “trick,” a product of their own mind (solipsism), and who they were/are as a person was annihilated or dismembered. The drug trip thus tends to result in the unwitting conversion of the drugged to some form of pantheism or animism. BBC reporter Bruce Parry, for example, logged several hallucinogenic rites and journeys that brought him to similar conclusions. Modern man’s lack of spiritual connection has allowed the return of ancient shamanism and paganism to reemerge with the 60s revolution. Unfortunately, the 60′s culture “revolution” was something engineered by elites in the pharmaceutical, banking and intelligence communities. Researchers Joe Atwill and Jan Irvin have done excellent work in demonstrating that claim here. The social engineering of revolution was in harmony with the Marxist plan of Theodore Adorno to, along with drugs, promote this very depersonalization and fragmentation through pop music. […] The entire west and modernity in general has experienced a fracturing of the psyche and the forces of chaos and disintegration have taken the ascendant. Ancient societies, as Schneider notes in the interview below, were holistic and integrated. In nature, the part mirrors the whole. When societies model nature, harmony and progress truly take place. When human psyches and social orders give way to fracturing, they collapse, lacking the masculine order of form, instead being ruled by chaotic, uncontrolled forces of base nature. Powerful entities are aware of these ideas and have attempted to re-engineer the entire social order around a philosophy of materialistic techno utopia. Until we cease the mass drugging and shamanic trance the public have been placed under, and come to reject the complete inversion of all order and hierarchy through true philosophy and wisdom will we see things truly progress and experience freedom. Otherwise, equalitarianism and feminism are inverted philosophies that fragment and depersonalize.“

Here are some other eye-opening excerpts from researchers relating to COINTELPRO, the corruption of the “Human Potential Movement” and the creation/infiltration of the Hippie, Psychedelic and New Age Movement:

“[…]Aldous Huxley also made an early connection between the effects experienced by those partaking of psychedelic drugs and the experiences of Eastern Mysticism and this set the consciousness-raising bomb off with a BANG! Along came Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert AKA Baba Ram Dass with their LSD and other modes of mind marvels, leading the parade of those who were “turned on, tuned in.” Abraham Maslow became a father figure to the new “wave” of those desiring to fill the gaping hole of their reality with “peak experiences.” Maslow cited psychedelic drugs as one of the means in which even ordinary people could have a little of what the Eastern Mystics worked many years to develop. Now, it could be had for a weekend seminar at Big Sur, or a study by mail course at only $29.95 per lesson! What a deal! Peak Experiences…experience, experience, and experience…became the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow of the 1960’s. No one needed to live in Existential Despair any longer! Everyone could become a “spiritual voyager” and achieve extended periods in realms of consciousness they had only heard about in veiled, mysterious allusions down through the ages. Encounter groups, radical therapies, old and new combinations of theories and practice came rolling off the conveyor belt of techno-spirituality. The intangibles of spirit had been harnessed! Anyone could evoke some desirable experience by manipulating awareness at the basic physical and psychological levels. Never mind that all of this bypassed the vital processes of reason and conscious decision-making. By its very nature, the whole techno-spiritual machine operated completely without critical thinking; it tapped the bottomless pit of feeling-emotion…primal being. Never mind that much of this emotion was negative, confusing, anxious and fearful! Let’s just get it all out here in the open and have a party with it! Each of the many techniques developed during this time was fully capable of producing an emotional high of one sort or another. There were endless “peak experiences,” and dramatic “personal breakthroughs.” The mixtures of Zen, yoga, meditation, and drugs along with strict mechanical technology, were a veritable adventure in awareness! The only problem was: in the midst of all this peaking, mind-blowing, turning on and tuning in, ecstasy and encountering, many people encountered things that, perhaps, ought not have been awakened. Boundaries were breached into unseeable and terrifying realms of consciousness.[…] By the end of the decade of the 60’s, the “human potential” movement had become a veritable potpourri of religion, science, mysticism, magick and “the occult.” The drug use got out of hand, the “techniques” began to show serious flaws with a number of tragedies resulting in crime or madness, and the whole idea of human beings becoming “psychic supermen” hit the skids. The promise of the 60’s decayed into an aimless lethargy…old hippies living in communes, braiding their gray locks and lusting after the sweet young teeny boppers while they fired up another bong and reminisced about the “good old days” at Esalen. But wait! Something else happened here! Remember, this is America! The home of the Free…Market that is. Many people suggest that the subsequent proliferation of the “New Age” consciousness raising movement was the result of big business seeing a pile of money to be made in the development of slick, newly packaged psychoanalysis and psychodrama. There was, indeed, mass distribution and Madison Avenue marketing of things like Mind Dynamics, Arica, Silva Mind Control, Transcendental Meditation, and on and on. Individual entrepreneurs knew a good thing when they saw it. However, there is more to this than meets the eye. This is important to our subject, so bear with me. […]“ – from “Aliens and Cosmic COINTELPRO” by Laura Knight-Jadczyk

“Hippies came out of no where and sort of co opted it, I think it was quite deliberate…they wanted to give the anti-war movement a face that would be completely unacceptable to mainstream America…I mean everything about them was offensive to mainstream America, to middle America, the hairstyles, the clothing styles, the open drug use, the music, everything about them was designed to repel mainstream America and prevent the anti-war movement from gaining any additional speed by putting this face on it… I think the whole hippy flower child thing was a creation of the Intelligence community to take the steam out of the anti-war movements and various other movements….The battle cry of the hippy movement was turn on, tune in, drop out…telling people don’t worry about it, get high.“ – from “Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippy Dream” by Dave McGowan

We can see the same thread in many “conscious movements” these days. It’s as if history is repeating itself with a different appearance, more tech, more potent drugs, new gadgets, and hip clothes but the same attitude with even more pseudo New Age “spiritual techniques” to activate your “third eye”, DNA, or speed up your “ascension process” as well as practices where sexual pathologies are often buffered up as “sexual healing”. Hedonism is mistaken for spirituality. There is the usual “just focus on yourself”, focus on “we are all one” and our “oneness”. Don’t look at the “negative” things happening in the world, but “connect to earth”, meditate on the “Shift” to activate your light body, send love and light to the world and its leaders, etc.. As long as you “feel good” and focus on “love” everything will be ok. Everything is as it is supposed to be, etc. It is proclaimed that there is no objectivity, just your own subjective reality and you create your own reality by your thoughts and what you focus on.

But as various ancient esoteric teachings and mystery schools have transmitted , even the “children of light” shall be deceived by false prophets and false teachings. And we see exactly that happening now:

“It is possible to obtain so-called esoteric results that are impure, but they are false and thus transitory. Here we refer to the vast realm of occultism, where the children of this century, more capable than the children of light, seek to apply their abilities beyond the visible world. This occurs in what we call ‘mysticism of phenomena‘. It is curious to see how much these false prophets, magicians and ‘christs’ impressed themselves on the imagination of the men and even more of the women of the past. It is the same today. For there is a type of human being who declines all moral responsibility for himself or for those to whom he is in duty bound. One comes across this type quite often, always trying to find someone else to shoulder his responsibilities as long as this someone else possesses some kind of authority, earned or otherwise. These people are open to any form of hypnotic suggestion and practically ask to be hypnotized. They are of good faith, but they search for the ‘marvelous’ because they are too weak or too lazy to undertake esoteric work successfully. And the ‘wolves’ devour them finding justification in the fact that they are only the ‘scourings of humanity.’ But this is not true; for ‘scourings’ who are converted can become key figures on the esoteric chess-board. Mental apathy and emotional inertia are responsible for tipping man down the slope of least resistance even when armed with the best intentions, especially if he justifies himself for his human frailties by finding them normal, particularly on the sexual plane.“ – Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis

In light of the research presented above (and I encourage the reader to go to the resources and study them in-depth before coming to conclusions or dismissing the information hastily) and looking at the so-called psychedelic and counter-culture movement of today, one can see that the intended effect of the agenda has been successful in many ways. What I have observed in many people who are part of said “conscious movements” and relating festival culture (such as Burning Man and Lightening in a Bottle) is that they shy away from looking at the world as it is with a distorted idea of what “positivity” and “negativity” means. Many of them insist that there is no objective reality and truth, but all is subjective; there is only “my” or “your” truth, reflecting the ideology of Solipsism:

“Solipsism is the most dangerous ideology that exists and is the biggest lie ever told. This mind-virus is so prevalent and insidious that it has infected the consciousness of many people. Solipsism is the primary deception manipulators use. They want people to unknowingly accept the tenants of solipsism, even if it is in the back of their minds at a non-conscious level. In its extreme form, one becomes unwilling to accept anything else no matter how much contradictory evidence is brought to one’s attention. Some people are adherents to solipsistic forms of thinking without realizing it. In general and at its core derivation, solipsism is the notion that one’s own mind is all that really exists. One’s mind and perceptions are equated with truth and reality. The most common worldview that develops from solipsistic-based consciousness can be summarized as “there is no truth”, or “there is no such thing as truth”. This is a manufactured ideology brilliantly placed in the information flow to dissuade people from ever really awakening and embarking on the spiritual journey towards truth. Even if we began the spiritual journey on the path of truth at some point, when we have come to accept solipsism we have halted that journey. The spiritual journey is about seeking truth. Solipsism is accepting as truth what you perceive, believe, think or feel to be true regardless of whether it is actually true or not. Someone in this modality of consciousness can progress into various ways of being. “The truth isn’t something to be discovered but something to be made up based on my own personal preferences, what I’m comfortable with, whether I like it or not, how I feel about it, or what information I have at a given moment. Nothing exists independently of the individual who is observing. There is no external reality. There is no truth. Whatever I decide is the truth is essentially what I’m going to live my life according to. There is no objective truth out there, only the subjective truth in me. What I believe, is what is true. You become an arbiter of truth.” They dictate truth from the fantasy of whatever they want to believe to be true. They tell the universe “screw you, I’m god, I decide what truth is, reality doesn’t exist, things don’t actually occur outside of my belief in them, I create reality.” To be convinced that there is no truth — it is all relative and based on one’s own perception no matter how contrary and oppositional that may be from what ‘is’, reality, truth, Natural Law principles —is a modality of consciousness and conditioning where you are open to have your sense of reality manipulated.” – from “The Concept of the Biggest Lie: Solipsism – The Anti-Truth”

It is very interesting to see how many psychonauts and people who use these substances often buy into greatly distorted spirituality and pop-psychology, engaging in “spiritual bypassing”, and do not speak out about the atrocities and injustices in our world. A good example of that was my interaction with Daniel Pinchbeck as I wrote about here, where he attacked me personally, calling me an “anti-Semite”, stating that I have a “psychological disposition” because of my German background for speaking out against Zionism and questioning official history. I’ve received numerous ad hominem attacks from people of the so-called “counter-culture” and psychedelic movement for simply presenting certain facts and information. The result is cognitive dissonance and one wonders how much the use of psychedelics plays part in that.

Clearly just taking “entheogens” does not result automatically in cultural “de-programming” as McKenna claimed. On the contrary, most people I know who are big McKenna fans or part of the Burning Man community and counter-culture buy into much disinformation and the lies we have been told and taught. Political awareness is almost non-existent because it’s all just “illusion” anyway, as if turning a blind eye on it will not affect them.

For example, there is a well known “healer” who works with ayahuasca in my area. He’s also an outspoken Democrat and constantly posts on facebook supporting Obama, buying into the illusion of choice through voting in this two-party set-up. A “shamanic healer” who not only believes in but supports the political circus side-show that is clearly used for social/cultural control, and he even identifies himself with a country and political party? What an oxymoron! It shows that these mind expanding drugs are no “magic pill” that automatically pierce through the cultural conditioning and the lies we believe in. Their use for so-called ‘accessing of higher realities’ can distract people easily from what deeper spiritual and esoteric work is about, even giving one the illusion that one has “awoken”.

Anyone who looks into the information presented here sincerely in more depth and unbiased can clearly see the COINTELPRO and Mind Control aspect throughout the history of the psychedelic movement. Some people dismiss this as “paranoia” or “conspiracy theory” but that view, based on lack of critical thinking, works in favor of certain forces who do not wish humanity to awaken for their own interests. And that is exactly their intention in this Stockholm Syndrome set-up.

“There are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep him in the power of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of awakening, it is necessary to know the nature of the forces which keep man in a state of sleep. First of all it must be realized that the sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep. Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic state is continually maintained and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for whom it is useful and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the truth and understanding his position.” – G. I. Gurdjieff

I have written about COINTELPRO, the corruption of spirituality and the fallacies of popular “New Age” ideas before. Most of it has been summarized in these two films:

“What’s next is the manipulation of spiritual values and tendencies. It is no accident that in the last few years we’ve seen a new religious thought. The religion of acquiescence and passivity: trusting in the process; whatever happens is what needs to happen; everyone is right where they need to be; you don’t resist; you acquiesce; to resist is to be negative, is to be fearful, is to be unconscious. A great prescription for convincing the natives to give over the keys to the kingdom, a very good, clever form of manipulation.” – M.V. Summers

Truth is mixed with lies, so I’m not throwing out the baby with the bath water as I have mentioned before. However, the best way to swallow a lie is to sandwich it between some truth, and that is the how COINTELPRO works. Psychedelics and marijuana may help certain people in certain circumstances at one point in their lives, but they can also be detrimental and steer people away from truth and healing. I have seen it in myself. It’s all about context and depends on the individual. However, I certainly do not promote the use of them. In fact, I feel it is better to engage in sincere self-work without any substances and if one is drawn to use them, one should be aware of the dangers, especially from an energetic perspective which seems not to be acknowledged by many people who promote the use of them.

There is still much more to be said about this topic. I hope this article encourages people to be more discerning and that they question the official history of the “psychedelic movement” and how it has been created and infiltrated via COINTELPRO. It would be very naive to simply dismiss it. We need to be aware of our emotional attachment and bias around this topic without falling into black and white thinking. In this day and age it becomes ever more apparent that nothing is as it seems and never has been.

We also need to remember that we all are “screwed up” in our own ways. Everyone is a bit whacky. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes, and have our blind spots and lessons to learn. That’s when all our theoretical memorized spiritual and psychological understanding is being put to the test, not when things are going well, but when shit is going down. Everyone has a shadow. And some of us don’t even know how wounded and unconscious we really are, escaping it through drugs, distractions, food, sex, work, partying, or even relationships because being alone simply brings up too much. The endless pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

“There is no coming to consciousness without pain…People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.” – Carl G. Jung

As I wrote before, there is a spiritual war going on a physical and nonphysical level and this war is being fought through us. Spiritual evolution is not always a fun ride. The work required to “wake up” is not an easy path by far. There are many traps, distractions and temptations steering us away from ourselves. There are tests and lessons everywhere. But as long as we align ourselves with truth and are sincere in our work, even if we fail at times, screw up and take a step backwards, we are also being supported by the “universe”, guiding us to new opportunities and lessons, connecting us with others who we can learn from as they too can learn from us as we help each other and help make this world a better place. However, as we all know, truth is a tricky thing, and “aligning ourselves with truth” also entails facing the lies we are telling ourselves about why we do or have done certain things, all along justifying our own blindness.

“The moment of true initiation. It seems that, as the great masters teach us, it is not a moment of “great enlightenment.” It is not someone who comes to “show us reality.” It is not a “seeing all the world as a oneness.” It is seeing the self as a liar and a feeder on others. It is measuring the self with TRUTH. It is seeing that the predator has been feeding on the self, that the self has been feeding on others and propagating the infection on to all those who one claims to love and wish to help. Initiation is not a glorious inpouring of life and love and tears for the beauty and oneness of the world. It is sheer terror. It is a descent into Hell. It is the Shamanic descent into the underworld to do battle with demons. It is the dismemberment of the body, the flaying of the flesh from the bones, and the subsequent rebuilding of the self on a different foundation – a foundation of spiritual verity. And if I could convey to you that Hell, that sensation, that solitary test in which the soul is weighed, BY THE SELF, finally and completely and seen for what it has truly done, you would see how little truth there is because of all the beliefs of the Matrix that have been inculcated and promulgate and tended so carefully by our emotions and by the deceptions of the predator within who convinces us that we are “good” and “pure” and there is “oneness.” Indeed, one sees that there is “oneness,” but one sees that the aspect of God that is experienced at this level is the black, sucking, feeding maw of STS (Service to Self). One sees how little true Love is actually manifested at this level of being. One sees that all of our illusions about “goodness” and truth and beauty are LIES. They are masks for more feeding. And that is so horrifying an initiation that few survive. That is “paying everything.” Now, re-read what Gurdjieff had to say about the matter; how he pointed out that a person has to “pay in advance,” that the key is to accept the idea that one is not what one thinks, that there is a different reality from which our own is projected, and that developing this idea in the realm of pure thought, and then using it as the platform by which one can observe and analyze, is the key to being able to see for a moment, and then again. One must be able to see the interactions of the Petty Tyrants in our lives, the Predators who prey on us in the Theological Reality. And then, one must be willing to act. It is only after action that the true nature of the Predator reveals itself just as the Vampire reacts with violence to being exposed by the presence of a mirror. Because, it must be kept always in mind that there ARE predators who are predators by choice – even if that choice is made at some level, in some part of themselves that is not available to even their own conscious awareness. They, too, are part of the Matrix, and they wouldn’t be able to play their roles if they were not consciously convinced that they are right, that they are “good,” that they are righteous and long-suffering.” – Laura Knight-Jadczyk, “Petty Tyrants and Facing the Unknown”

On a closing note: Over the past year I have seen more and more people look through much New Age disinformation. More people see also through the ever more apparent corruption of government and institutions. There is also an increasing awareness of the topic of psychopaths in power. Some of it may be related to the fact that 2012 has not brought the collective awakening or “UFO disclosure” many “New Age” influenced people have hoped for. Because of this they were forced to question it all and what they believed around the 2012 hype. Well, at least some of them. We still have a long way to go.

Many people have opened up themselves to me over the past years who were and are going through much disillusionment regarding much of what they believed in. Thank you to those for your humility, courage, and vulnerability. It gives me hope on so many levels and I have learned from you as well. These are not easy times for any of us. We are literally being “forced” to start looking at the world as it is and confront the lies we’ve been told and we tell ourselves. Also thank you to all the renegades who are not afraid to speak out and challenge people’s beliefs and world views. Renegades who use social media not for their own narcissistic tendencies but share vital information, spreading seeds of awareness to help make this world a better place by making the darkness conscious, even if it’s a thorn in the eye of others who get triggered and disturbed by what you have to say. Don’t ever become silent. Keep speaking out.