Living in the midst of nature gives the opportunity to experience its divine beauty in various forms, and photography is the ideal way to capture that beauty.
Today’s subject of awe are caterpillars, who undergo dramatic transformation from being tiny insects into beautiful butterflies or moths. We’ve found different types of caterpillars – one completely camouflaged with the plant, and another one stung Clyde while he was passing by a mango tree and accidentally touched it. Here’s a short collection of caterpillar pictures.
The use of hallucinogens in religion is an ancient practice, where sacred plants are ingested to either connect/communicate with the spiritual world, for healing purpose or divination.
One such visionary and medicinal shrub lying deep in the heart of West-Central Africa in the jungles of Gabon, is Tabernanthe Iboga.
The Bwiticult, a religion followed by the tribes in Gabon, worship
Scraping Iboga root bark, which is used for treating many ailments including drug addiction
Iboga tree as the source of spiritual knowledge.
They have been using Iboga in their initiation ceremonies for spiritual or personal development, for hundreds of years, since they believe that Iboga frees the soul to go on a higher dimension, to speak with the spirits of animals and plants.
The root bark of the Iboga plant is consumed in large doses by initiates, under the supervision of the Bwiti father. It induces complex visions and an introspective mindset in which the person often recounts past experiences and sees his true self.
The Healing Power of Iboga
Known for its naturally occurring psychoactive properties, Iboga extracts as well as the purified alkaloid, Ibogaine, are used in treating several conditions like opiate addiction, alcohol abuse, depression and other mental or psychosomatic diseases.
Its widely used for drug addiction because of the strong combination of alkaloids that affect many of the neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine, so it stops the physical addiction without causing withdrawal symptoms.
However, Ibogaine is classified as a Schedule I-controlled substance in the United States and few other countries like Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and Switzerland have banned the sale and possession of Ibogaine.
The documentary above shows the use of Ibogaine in curing physical ailments, opiate addiction, etc. It shows the life of a heroin addict who was cured after a Ibogaine session. Several former addicts, Ibogaine facilitators, and other experts talk about the effectiveness of Iboga for treating a long-time addiction.
An interesting film that raises questions about the controversial ban of Ibogaine, is it due to economics or to its hallucinogenic effects?
Ancient medicines like Iboga or Ayahuasca is a gateway to higher or altered state of consciousness, above the realms of reality, and it helps us connect with oneself and the spiritual world. Its strange that such conciousness expanding substances are labeled illegal when it can make a significant difference to lives.
Throughout history, the evolution of art can be traced through the works of visionary artists who pioneered a new form of artistic expression. One such artist, who is busy livening up the beaches around San Francisco, is Andres Amador; beach artist extraordinaire.
Inspired by fractals, the building blocks of life, and organic patterns, his art literally comes to life during the couple of hours he races against the tide to create one of his larger than life pieces of art. Using the entire beach as a canvas, he carefully turns the sand with nothing but a garden rake, stick and a sketch for reference, to create intricate and beautiful designs.
Crystal skulls have been a source of mystery and awe for a long time. Some believe that crystal skulls are mystical tools for connecting with higher dimensions and they have the power to aid healing. While archaeologists, scientists, who don’t support these claims, think that these skulls are nothing more than interesting artifacts skilfully carved by humans!
The ancient and rare crystal skulls are in shape of a human skull and made from various types of quartz crystals, and interestingly, its the same material which is used to make micro chips. Believers say that the crystal skull is like a computer that records frequency and energy surrounding them, stores information and knowledge of people who’ve worked with them in ancient times.
The Crystal Skulls have found mention in many tribal indigenous communities in North America, the Mayans, the Incans and even Tibetan Himalayan shamanism.
We are conditioned to think that hair styling is important and how it makes a cool fashion statement. But in olden times it was a different story.
An interesting find revealed that long hair in men was actually related to consciousness or the sixth sense. Does that sound alarming? Lets delve a bit more into this topic.
During the Vietnam war, special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to look for talented recruits among Native Americans, who were blessed with special supernatural and tracking abilities.
A couple of American Indians were selected and what happened after that is surprising. Once they were recruited, their natural skills and ability to access their sixth sense just disappeared.
On conducting a test to find out what went wrong, the older native American recruits said that after undergoing military haircut they could no longer sense the enemy, they lost their intuition power and couldn’t access subtle extrasensory information.
So more native Indians were recruited and this time they were allowed to keep their hair long and on comparing performance of men with military haircut and ones with long hair, they found out that long-haired men were far better and skillful.
The results stated that the Native trackers should be allowed to keep their hair long. A special thanks to Indian in the Machine for the truth on Native Indians and long hair.
While reading about this I also realised that Sikhism requires men to keep their hair long and is considered a symbol of spirituality.
Lord Shiva statue in Bangalore
One of the five physical symbols of faith for Sikhs is, “The Kesh (or hair) reminds a Khalsa to behave like the Guru’s. It is a mark of dedication and group consciousness, showing a Khalsa’s acceptance of God’s will.”
Long hair has long been a common element of many spiritual prophets such as Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Shiva, or the story of Samson and Delilah from the Bible, when Samson lost his strength with the loss of his hair.
Hair is an extension of the nervous system and it emits energy from the brain into the outer environment. Its an information highway reaching the brain, so when hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment is hampered.
The 60’s were quite hairy and on a ending note, you may like the musical called Hair!
