James O’Reilly - Ayahuasca Journals: A Journey Through Impossible Realms

(A Journey through impossible realms)

by

James OReilly

https://joreilly86.wordpress.com

This book is based on the personal notes and journals created following personal experiences. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

Copyright 2016 James OReilly . All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.

This book is dedicated to my parents. The people who have had the greatest influence in my design, both physically and socially. I owe them everything; my mother for her eternally passionate encouragement and the mantra that nothing is out of reach, and to my father who taught me the very real value and price of hard work and good character.

I dont even think, to this day, he has read my journals, and I wont ask him to. He worked hard to ensure my feet stayed on the ground, and the following pages illustrate the polar opposite. He doesnt need that at this stage in his life!

I have nothing short of absolute love for them both, and I am proud to be their son.

Huge additional shout outs go to the man with the plan and my partner in crime, Dec. As great a friend as anyone could hope for. Always there to dissect the technicalities of life and being a human. His ruthless honesty and his standard of character and accountability are inspiring to me. Thanks, Dec.

Lastly, to the lady who listens to my ever-evolving sea of dreams. Always encouraging me and unconditionally believing in me, it is worth more than words can ever say. I love you.

This book is intended to be read as an experiential biography if you will. I would never recommend or advise anyone to take Ayahuasca without deeply researching the medical risks involved. In hindsight, I thought I was very well researched and prepared, but the harsh reality is I was a complete idiot and in many ways I still am, but at least Im somewhat aware of it.

Prior to making the decision to participate in a ceremony, I would humbly recommend you investigate all angles of the Ayahuasca tradition. Think about who you are, seriously. Meditate, give yourself time to think and to let your mind breathe. Take it off the treadmill of daily life. The less aware you are of your need to do this, the more critical it becomes! Exercise, prime your body, I recommend basic gymnastics training or yoga. Anyways, enough of my nonsense, Im not qualified to be giving this painfully obvious advice, on with the show

Good luck on your journey; after all, its only just beginning

Where did this journey begin?

The plan originated back in 2009 after Id read a ridiculously outrageous book called The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchen. The book presents a radically far-fetched and highly controversial translation of ancient Sumerian texts on the origins of mankind. At best, Id describe it as a well-documented conspiracy theory with earth shattering conclusions based on enormous presumptions. Although I dont buy Sitchens version of events (but I cant disprove them either), he did pose the theory that what I had learned in school should not be taken as concrete fact and humanitys past is much more cloudy and grey than my junior cert history book would have me believe. And some of the relief sculptures from the Sumerians are nuts; there are all sorts of weird astrological elements and strange features that pose more questions than answers.

The image above shows a Sumerian cylinder seal (circa 4,000 BC) with an oddly accurate depiction of the solar system in heliocentric form. Pretty insightful artistry from 6,000 years ago.

The idea of alternative histories started me down a research path towards a variety of ancient cultures, customs, interesting historical accounts, conspiracy theories and engineering mysteries. Over the years, the idea that ancient history was outrageously vague really started to sink in. This opinion was compounded after Id started reading Graham Hancocks books ( Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural ) and became further enamoured with the riddles of ancient cultures; basically, freaking myself out with far-fetched conspiracy theories that seemed to have just enough plausible content to keep me intrigued. The research process inevitably began with a huge sea of bullshit. Slowly, over the years, as I got a little more familiar with researching the topics, it became easier to wade through it until I could vaguely stay on the road of reason (very vaguely).

Hancocks book Supernatural presents the argument that mankinds explosion of intelligence (circa 70,000 40,000 BC) was the result of primitive homo-sapiens experimenting with natural psychedelics resulting in art, burial of the dead, religion, language, etc. The arguments were sometimes outrageous, but often very compelling. I found it fascinating, regardless. This book was the first Id heard of visionary plants, specifically Ayahuasca. After researching a myriad of blog posts, YouTube interviews, podcasts and other sources, it became apparent this stuff was an incredible mystery and if people were to be believed, potentially the most potent psychedelic experience on the planet, and maybe even something more. I was curious.

Aubrey Marcus and Graham Hancock have some really in-depth discussions about their experiences on the Joe Rogan podcast, and they seemed like guys I could relate to - not completely mental, pretty objective and honest in their accounts.

A recurring theme in psychedelic culture, in my own personal encounters, was when I would ask somebody with experience what to expect or what it felt like, my line of questioning would result in some sort of verbose yoga/Zen garbage where simple curious questions are answered with a sermon of inflated ego and privileged insight. That attitude had turned me off the culture; Id been bored to pieces listening to too many half-baked hypotheses in the smoking area of a pub or during 4 am Saturday night booze chats. The sad fact is I just hadnt met anybody with genuine insight. Those kind of folks are not hanging out in smoking areas of pubs at such ungodly hours.

That said, wordsmiths such as Graham Hancock and Terrence McKenna put such an eloquent and attractive spin on the notion of consciousness exploration. They made me feel as if there was some great secret that I was missing out on. Some secret club of higher intelligence. It seemed the idea only needed the correct people to frame it.

My initial reaction to the experiences documented by others online was, Why the fuck would somebody put themselves through such a gauntlet of psychological brutality?

The scientific side of me was convinced the whole thing was merely an elaborate neurochemical fireworks display, which remains true regardless of what you believe. The visions and incredulous spiritual encounters were some sort of manifestation of the subconscious self, a dream-like experience, but at a more conscious level. Ive had plenty of crazy dreams, and I thought maybe the DMT might be unlocking the dream vault and maybe upping the RPMs on the dream experience. Maybe its a case of ideas being planted in your mind prior to the ceremony, and its some sort of crafty Derren Brown type sorcery. I was pretty open to all types of arguments but didnt really buy any 100%. It was all uneducated and seat-of-the-pants postulating. What the fuck did I know?