Drank cacao today during the ceremony with maestro Gilberto, processed a lot of emotions, cried tears of joy, my heart is opening deeper to love. Felt very peaceful by the end of the ceremony.
The funny thing is, Gilberto started using his phone in the middle of the ceremony, he was holding it up right in front of his face while singing icaros. Turns out he was recording himself, he started watching his own video, with the sound high enough so that his singing voice could be heard, shortly after the ceremony ended.
When I was in Pucallpa, a couple of weeks ago where I had three Ayahuasca ceremonies with maestro Roger, he also used his phone in the middle of the ceremony, to my great surprise. After seeing maestro Roger use his phone, and also observing two people come and then leave the ceremony very early, I was a bit conncerned with this behavior, so I talked to them about it, expressing my discontent and telling them that using a phone in the middle of the ceremony is disrespectful towards medicine and the sacred space, especially by maestro.
To which they responded ( maestro Roger wasn’t present during this meeting ) that he was only using his phone to check time. I saw him holding his phone up for a while, he was clearly using his phone for other purposes. Also, these two people that came and left the ceremony early, were both using their phones, and even received text message notifications during the ceremony, to my bewilderment.
Because of this, I told them, I am going to have the last Ayahuasca ceremony by myself, in my tambo, and then leave early, to Iquitos for AyaMadre, where I am right now. Having an Ayahuasca ceremony by myself, for the first time ever, was a very powerful and interesting experience with many lessons.
With all of that said about phone usage, I am still very grateful to maestro Roger, his 10 year dieta with piñon blanco is legit and powerful, he held the ceremony space for me with pure light, the entire three nights that I sat with him. Having the ceremony by myself was a perfect experience to contrast and understand just how much work the maestro curandero is doing during the ceremony, so all of my bitter feelings of him using a phone during the ceremony dissipated after my solo Ayahuasca experience. I left Pucallpa full of gratitude for maestro Roger and his piñon blanco dieta medicine.
Smart phones with wifi Internet is a recent addition to the jungle amongst many shipibo. In the village of Santa Rosa de Dinamarca where I stayed in Pucallpa, smart phones with wifi Internet were introduced in 2018. Imagine a place where people live in self constructed wood houses with no windows and no electricity, having no things, except a few clothes, and now they each have a smart phone with Internet access!
I guess with time, shipibo maestros will have to learn responsible use of technology, maestro Gilberto is on his phone watching YouTube videos most of the time outside of the ceremonies, which looks like Internet addiction, and does not look good for a maestro healer who told me he has 54 years experience with Ayahuasca.
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