Crazy Life Stories

Zonka was a little village in the mountains  in Italy, not far from the Swiss border. Most houses were empty. They were beautiful, magnificent, huge stone houses with wooden balconies running around them,    facing the steep slopes covered with trees. Impression of dense power surrounded by immensity. The rooves  were thick slates, as grey as the walls. One of these houses belonged to Karunesh, the guy with the grey hair and beard who was leaning over me when I was shouting to God and the ceiling, the first time I took Ayahuasca… I found myself entrusted with the noble task of picking up flowers to ornate the room where the ceremony would take place in the evening. That’s a really enjoyable activity if you forget the boy code. Normally, men are not supposed to go about the meadows picking up flowers and enjoy it. There were loads of beautiful mountain flowers, like in the ancient times, before excessive mechanisation and chemical industry turned the coun...

The first time I took Ayahuasca was in France, with members of the Church of Santo Daime. (At that time, there was no legislation on this plant). The Church of Santo Daime originated in the Amazon in the 19th century, when Portuguese missionaries were converted to the shamanic practice of drinking Ayuhuasca (the vine of the dead) They made up their own ritual.  I met people belonging to this "church" and decided to experiment.  I didn't really know what to expect. Ayahuasca is a very, very, very bitter beverage. I found myself dancing - two steps to the right, two steps to the left over and over again and again - among a group of French and Italian people. Imagine the sound of maracas, guitars, lyrics in Portuguese... I felt very ridiculous and then I started to feel sick. It was the feeling you get after overindulging in food and drink, then your liver isn't happy at all, but you still hope you won't have to throw up. The room was a merry- go -round, the walls w...