Testimonials

Many thanks for such a wonderful eleven days. It all seemed to pass so quickly.

Now I’m back in my office dealing with some intractable and difficult problems but -  some things have changed! I still feel, now and then, the ayahuasca in my body and mind. It’s a very positive feeling bringing healing, peace and confidence.

It is rather like having a “tuning knob” which I can turn to adjust both the speed at which events seem to happen and the intensity of feeling which those events bring with them. Another way of putting it is that I have a greater capability to be the observer of both myself and events surrounding me whilst, at the same time, carrying on normal activity as if I am fully present. Adrian H.

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I realized yesterday that one of the wonderful and unique aspects of the experience were the "messages". They came very fast yet in a calm, conversational style as if a wise and ?benevolent friend and I were having a chat. First about the wisdom of the plants, my intention, and then about such a wide range of topics. How do you explain that? Is it tapping into some source of wisdom external to myself in the plants or in nature, or in the great Void? Or is it an interaction with what one might call my "higher self". For me it is that "conversation" aspect of the experience that differentiates the Ayahuasca from "drugs." Nancy E. USA

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I am so glad to have been a participant in your Ayahuasca ceremony. Words can hardly describe the experience. The vastness of my mind, the loving, gentle nature of the plant, the connection to nature, the insights were beyond anything I could of imagined.

The best thing of all was coming back home with this awareness, the words to describe this state would be "Brilliant Silence." In that brilliant silence I could not be separated from the ALL that is. I could not find an "us and a them " anywhere. Though it has been several months since my return and my silence is not so brilliant, I am changed.

When Spirit calls, I will definitely not hesitate to be with you and the plant teacher, Aya. Nora S.F.

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"I so enjoyed getting to know you, and spending time with you, and am determined that it will reoccur. I think about Brazil and all my new friends there every day, and I know I will come back in the not too distant future. I really am looking forward to reconvening with Mother Ayahuasca... My experience this year participating in the Ayahuasca Healing Retreat was life-changing. I came in search of solutions to a long-term intense chronic illness; this retreat started a path of healing that is still unfolding four months later.

Through the guidance of the retreat leaders, I was able to have a thrilling encounter with this sacred plant, and experience a connection with a profoundly loving and intelligent entity unlike anything else I have ever known. Silvia and Gary were wise, compassionate, generous, and loving. I was able to satisfy my original quest in coming to the retreat - to rediscover the strands of authentic personal energy and life force that will eventually lead me back home to health and happiness." Fiona M.

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"For anyone considering a journey into the Heart of the Unknown, into Their Most Intimate Self, for Those Who Desire to learn, understand and eventually know, the Healing Intelligence of Ayahuasca will take you into the Mystery of Life Itself, indeed, it will simply show you things...a previously unseen road will open itself before your eyes, quite powerful, and very transformative.

Under the direction of Silvia Polivoy and staff, I felt in very good hands. These magical beings are always there to faciliate, assist and remain throughout the night as the magical journey progresses...the experience is a step into the unseen, a magical leap into the unknown..." Edward R.

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In describing my Ayahuasca experiences taking place in the magnificent Brazilian jungle/ ocean landscapes, I’ve known it each time as an opportunity to explore the deep recesses of my psyche, my being in this Eden-like setting offered by psychotherapist Silvia Polivoy and her staff.

Each journey has opened pathways not reachable for me in normal consciousness or dreamstates. Various states of consciousness I‘ve experienced include personal psychodramas, contact with my being physiologically, and outright transcendence of my ” me” into the cosmos. Of course, the Ayahuasca visions are truly amazing too!

So many unanswered questions buried within surface in this psychic state. It has been an opportunity to make peace with my “self” many times, on many levels. This experience is not for “sissies”. If one has the courage to search, there is always movement to a new personal place, space enhancing one’s freedom.

Bahia ’s secluded and inviting natural primal environment eased me into even those difficult psychic zones. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Susan C.

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“People who've done it before all talk about the Plant's weirdly healing powers. Healing in a psychic sense. The visions you get on the brew aren't just the random oddness of mushrooms or LSD, they seem to articulate the key issues of your mind in electrifying detail. And most importantly for me, the power of the trip then continues working once you've woken up.

This idea of waking integration really turned me on. In fact, that was the single most important reason for coming. In the distant past I'd done a fair amount of recreational drugs. What had finally made me tire of them was the fact that their benefits were so limited. Once the drugs had leached out of your system, the joy, the love, the whatever was also gone. The transience of their happy effects actually left you feeling profoundly miserable. What made Ayahuasca seems so interesting was this idea that the insight you had during the big trip then translated into some permanent change in your "normal" life....

The extraordinary thing about the Ayahuasca experience is that the drug allows the brain to run real experiential vision: hallucinations which actually access the emotional experience of a given situation. I could vividly feel what it was like to be picked up from my cot and held by my Mum circa 1972 (a time when I was 2 and she was grieving for her Mum). Not only that but it creates the space for you to simultaneously see the psychological pattern that experience sets up and - if necessary - how to defuse it…. How amazing. How weird. How the hell am I going to be able to tell anyone about this!?
Alystar A. (More in his blog page: http://homepage.mac.com/alistairappleton/iblog/index.html