To any brothers and sisters who may be reading this I share this with you. Firstly thank you for your service, you all trained hard to learn the depth of what it means to serve and protect, you went to war to help others and to protect those who could not protect themselves. This was an expression of love, to offer your body, mind heart and soul for the love of others.
One of the reasons observed from the work and wisdom of the Sacred Plants here in the world of Ayahuasca why PTSD expresses itself as complex and often deemed untreatable in the Western world is that the training needed to bring our brothers and sisters fully back from war or first response is not spoken about in the way that the plants know how to speak, they have a voice and their voice is heard here and that voice is one of love, the plants and the Maestros are warriors for love and this is the work called for, from my humble perspective, to bring our soldiers home.
So many soldiers are returning to civilian life feeling broken on the inside. They have been trained to suppress emotions as this is the call of staying focused in war, to be operational under pressure, to employ self-discipline, and have situational awareness in the face of war, but every solider is a human on the inside. They may have been trained to be a machine, to have gone through both physically and mentally grueling training to arrive to a state of readiness and have the reward of the beret or badge of honour. It must always be remembered that all of the brothers and sisters of war or first response did this for love and this can never be taken from you.
Every veteran will always be a Veteran, they will never be a just a civilian after everything they have trained through and lived through. Though many of their hearts call to be a veteran able to fully integrate back into civilian life, in which lives the family, friends, wives, husbands and children of all veterans.
Veterans often come home crippled by war, they have lost arms, legs or sight in service, these wounds are visible and can be seen to be treated.
What often goes untreated are the invisible wounds, those left to fester in the hearts and souls of soldiers. Often times for many years after they have returned home to civilian life.
Wounds left untreated do not heal and this has been named shell shock in world war 2 and today is named complex PTSD.
So many brothers and sisters are living in hell with untreated wounds, finding ways to cope on their own as this is the way of the solider. They self medicate with drugs and alcohol and when it all gets too much go to seek help which often arrives in the form of antidepressants, anti anxiety medication, anti psychosis medication, shock therapy and sleeping pills. Many find themselves with the label of being treatment resistant and the impact of this label only adds fuel to the raging fire of complex PTSD symptomology, it can hurt the open wound still festering in the heart.
Thank you to everyone who is helping Veterans in this way, something to help is always help and so many do not know yet of the healing benefits of Ayahuasca and her world. In full trust that you too have saved life’s.
In my humble observation the call of the veterans heart is to be whole and complete, they know deeply that they do not only wish to only survive on a day to day basis, they want to live, they gave their lives and they want their lives back. Complex PTSD leaves the experiencer feeling as though life has been stolen from them and this only adds to the deep grief experienced as frustration, isolation and loneliness. Veterans feel trapped on the inside with no idea how they got there and no idea how to get themselves out. This is deeply upsetting to the solider more than anyone as they have been trained to always be able to get themselves and others out and so they continue to try and do the healing work alone, where they have no training. You have been trained to get yourself out but not from the impact of war.
Ayahuasca is in service of Veterans because the plants can find a way to the root of the issue, to find the wound and give it medicine. Ayahuasca can help veterans get their life back.
Ayahuasca is not a magic pill and the work is not done in one night, like any treatment the medicine takes time and is a journey, also many of the wounds carried by veterans are not from last week, there is an invisible wound that has been festering for often many years and left untreated, In the case of many Veterans treatments are a transformative process of healing the core issues connected to the impact of complex PTSD upon our soldiers and first responders.
The medicine, in the words of my dearest sister Holly Jean give Veterans the space to process trauma and understand that they are not afraid for no reason, there is a reason behind the jump into fear experienced on a daily basis for many experiencing the symptomology of complex PTSD and its hidden triggers, space to be able to process objectively rather than being in the fear. The Medicine offers space to work on one point of impact at a time and separate out the complexity of the traumas experienced when entering into war zones and first response.
Ayahuasca is a choice but it calls for surrender to the process and entering into a world where you have to give up control. In the observation of this process, this is not easy for Veterans who have been trained to not lose control as when they do people die.
If you are moved to come and heal PTSD here at Jochipapante please know that we don’t leave anyone on the field, just like you. Our work, the plants and the Maestros are warriors for love, just like you and every soldier and first responder deserves to come home fully from war as a whole and complete human.
If you are moved to join us, please know this, Ayahuasca is an option for you if you have determination and can apply that level of determination to your healing. Many who chose the path of the military are male, the process is highly masculine, coming to Ayahuasca calls for you to know and accept deeply that healing is a process and to be responsible to know that you have come on a healing journey. I know your hearts and souls simply want the war to be over now, and this is fair.
However working with her calls for a willingness to be in self inquiry, to have a true desire in the heart to understand how you got where you did and to recognize before arriving that coming to an Ayahuasca retreat is coming to a different type of hospital, every time you receive a treatment it is a gift of healing. The plants, like any treatment take time and patience for you to reach the goal called for in the heart, which is to be healed. A process of healing with Ayahuasca calls for a trust that you will heal, even if at some points along the journey you may feel that this is not the case. Coming to ayahuasca calls for you to know that you are coming to a native people who have been the guardians of earth wisdom and they are connected to sacred plant doctors who can align you back to your heart, it calls for you to trust in them, be humble and to listen to the direction from the maestros and their plant friends, all of which will be supported by a facilitator like myself.
With complex PTSD symptomology in veterans Ayahuasca will work on the trauma impacts in your physical body ( hypervigilance from army training), emotional body, that will enable you the space to process the face of war as a human with a human heart, mental body ( begin to start making sense of why you are reactive still to certain triggers in certain places), spiritual body ( the journey of connecting to our interconnected nature to all things).
Depending on how long your wounds have festered untreated will depend on how long you will need to be in treatment, this process can vary from veteran to veteran and each person will be assessed through a heart sharing circle to explore their unique healing path and before you are invited to join us, the Maestros will ask the plant doctors what your treatment package looks like and how long you need to be with us and if this is the right healing path for you.
If you resonate with these words shared please feel free to reach out to Jochipapanete and arrange a heart sharing circle with Rachel Tantamunay. I serve as a bridge of understanding to the voice of the plant world, the work of the Maestros, as a facilitator here at the centre and it is an honour to be of service to all of you. I have also walked the path of healing complex PTSD symptomology and I have lived experience of the journey home to life and not surviving. You are not and never have been alone.
You are safe, you are loved and you are heard.
Ichavarus Irake Onayra Juni Oni Koshi Rao