How has it transformed your life?
I have tried to portray the essence of an Ayahuasca ceremony in one of the chapters in my book Song Journey Home, and I encourage people to read it. If I were to look at Ayahuasca in context of my life and spiritual growth, it has addressed parts of me that weren’t comfortable with, a growing new-age ‘religion’ with its own deities and dogmas.
After having written about the sacred Amazonian plant Ayahuasca and its healing properties, I was always drawn towards finding out more about it and knowing people’s experiences with this Spirit Vine.
I spoke with Mumbai-based Anahata Menon, who began her journey as a healer and spiritualist after a series of powerful experiences in 2004, about her vision that led her to the Amazon jungles to study Ayahuasca and its healing properties.
Under the guidance of Shamans from the Shipibo tribe, Anahata was initiated into this new spiritual dimension. Here she shares with us her experience, the transformation and her path to spreading awareness about Ayahuasca in India through The Anahata Foundation.
Going organic, being sustainable is a dire need of the hour, you absolutely need to know what you are eating and I’m just going to cover a piece of the pie. To be more specific this is an article about Genetically Modified food and how its affecting our lives at the moment.
Most of us know about BT-Cotton, I personally thought the BT stood for Bio Tech, but apparently it gets its name from, Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium that is commonly used as a biological alternative to a pesticide. So certain genes from the bacteria related to its defense mechanism are combined with the DNA of the Cotton plant.
What does this do? This provides the plant with a new defense mechanism against caterpillars, unfortunately, according to Vandana Shiva, a nuclear scientist, who kick-started the organic movement in India, not only does this get the caterpillars but also the bees, butterflies and even cattle that have grazed on the fields have died. I hope you can comprehend that this shall have some if not a major effect, on the ecosystem.
Thankfully we have a thumbs up for the India government since we aren’t eating BT-Brinjal, can’t imagine what would happen to us if that was the case. But this seems to be taking a toll on the farmers more than anyone else, not just here but all around the world.
The farmer is bought over by advertisements to go in for BT-Cotton, he sees his favorite star telling him to expect 30% more yields. He buys the GM Seeds, and little does he know that BT-Cotton cannot grow in the monsoon, a little bit of weather shift and the crop is lost.
You need to have an irrigated field, which is written on the packet, tough luck for the uneducated farmer who now takes a loan to get a tube well or a pump. Surprisingly the BT-Cotton requires the same amount of pesticides as the normal amount of cotton and the seeds are sold at a premium rate. Not surprisingly Monsanto also manufactures the pesticides and herbicides the plants require to grow.
Unlike the normal cotton farmer, the BT-Cotton farmer has to buy seeds every year, the original cotton farmer just kept the seeds from his fresh crop for the next year.
What about the yield? In a 3-year in-depth study conducted by two scientists Dr Abdul Qayum and Mr Kiran Sakkhari who visited farmers fortnightly to keep track of how BT-Cotton works for them in Andhra Pradesh. The results would be astounding if you believed in what Monsanto assured, traditional farming with conventional seeds work much better than their genetically modified versions.
BT-Cotton definitely has a role to play in the suicides of farmers, I was unable to find recent stats on the number of farmer committing suicide, but in 2009 there was one every 8 hours across the country – 17,368 farmer suicides were recorded in 2009 alone in India officially, unreported suicides push the number up much more.
Another unbelievable situation, sometimes pollinating agents end up infecting an organic farm with GM Pollen, which results in GM Seeds propagating. Recently Monsanto sued 1,500 farmers for possessing their patented seeds without buying them, the company won the lawsuit. Monsanto is the company that holds patents for majority of the GM seeds, they are affiliated with most of the seed providers in India to sell their seeds of destruction.
Here’s a full length documentary called, ‘The World According to Monsanto.’
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Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an Italian artist from the 16th century, was not only creative in his work but also way ahead of his time. He used drawings of vegetables, fruits, flowers, leaves, books, fish on a canvas in such a manner that the whole arrangement of these items created beautiful portraits.
He created beautiful portraits with drawings of vegetables, fruits, flowers, leaves, books, fish on a canvas in such a manner that the whole arrangement of these items made splendid paintings.
You can keep gazing at his work and be amazed at how he’s made grapes look like hair, or apples representing cheeks, or potato used as the nose, quite fascinating!
Archimboldo was often referred to as the ‘Father of Surrealism’, because his paintings had the element of oddness around them and at the same time he had an innovative style that probably set him apart from other artists during the Renaissance period.
Here are few samples of his paintings. This one depicts the coming of winter, the head is made from an old tree with two lemons that act like a clasp for the cloak.
Another painting based on the four seasons is called ‘Autumn’ made from potatoes, grapes, carrots etc., I like the way he has shown the beard and moustache with some kind of fern. 
Elements of nature form an important part in his paintings. This one is called Water, and doesn’t it look a bit creepy, made from 60 species of marine life, like seals, turtles, sharks, crabs, oysters and coral. Arcimboldo was certainly imaginative!
Apart from making bizarre portraiture, Arcimboldo was also a court painter and an imperial art director to several Italian emperors, he used to paint sets for court festivals and design costumes etc for the royals.
One of his classic paintings is ‘The Vegetable Gardener’, the first image is a bowl filled with vegetables but turn it upside down and it becomes a portrait.
Arcimboldo’s work reminded me of Carl Warner’s photography, where he used real food to make landscape images, although from a different era and stature, its a delectable treat, nevertheless.
Always learning, always searching for answers to questions, perhaps holds true to you as it does to me. I gave up on the religion I was born into, the church, many years ago, I don’t know why or how it happened to me?
Maybe it was the same repetitive teachings, I never really experienced any connection with myself or the universe by going for mass. Or perhaps it was the lack of being Christlike amongst people I interacted with, I’m not sure.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not attracted to Christ, I’m equally attracted to Jesus as I am to Buddha or any other teacher. I was recently reading about Christmas and the fact it really has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. Then a recent search on what exactly Easter is brought me to a pretty fascinating discovery on how Christianity still propagates Paganism in a way 😉
When we celebrate Easter, do we know what the rabbit and eggs symbolize? and do they actually have anything to do with Jesus’ resurrection? Its quite interesting to know where these symbols came from and their meaning.
When the missionaries wanted to convert the Pagans to Christians they thought the easier way would be to incorporate some Pagan beliefs with the story of Christ. To understand more about this lets take a look at how it all began.
Ah the mushrooms we hang on the Christmas tree, never knew they were psychedelic mushrooms or basically entheogens. So this was something I wanted to dig a little deeper to read about the Santa Claus and Christmas. What I found not only was fascinating but opened up a new chapter for me.
The tradition of the Shaman, as shown in the video, was to go into the forests and collect these shrooms that grow under pine trees or evergreen trees. The Shaman would collect enough for the entire tribe and then go to each of the houses, sometimes due to heavy snow the doors would be snowed in and the Shaman would have to enter through the smoke hole in the roof!
The Amanita muscaria potency is elevated by 5 – 6 times by drying, hence they were hung next to the fireplace before consumption, in stockings? Don’t know about that but you can read more on the Siberian Shaman being todays Santa Claus bearing beautiful gifts of mind expansion. I also like the fact that the reindeers liked their dose of shrooms as well 🙂
These mushrooms have a deeper tryst with Christianity. Like its presence in a Mosaic in the Aquileia Basilica in Italy. While some go further to claim that the spiritual side of Christianity is derived from the use of these psychedelic Amanita mushrooms. In Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, author Clark Heinrich interprets A. muscaria usage by Adam and Eve, Moses, Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Jesus and his disciples, and John of Patmos.
Well enough about mushrooms, now lets take a look at the video on how the celebration of Easter started.
You know for so many years I celebrated Easter thinking it was the resurrection of Christ, but when you read about the pagan roots of Easter. There are loads of site with information, but most of them seem to be quoting from the Bible and state the pagan roots are satanic. But I cannot disconnect myself from the cycles of nature and nor can any other animal.
But this also leads me to a larger question who is the real Christ, what was he like and what has man made of him?
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