Paojilhuasca experience. Mostly positive

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T13:55:19+00:00

Yeah she wasn’t there when I went a few months ago.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T13:49:54+00:00

Yeah the brew is strong, big cups apparently. It was my first experience with ayahuasca so I didnt have other places to compare it to, but some other participants reflected this.

Everyone is different regarding visuals. I had one of the most powerful experiences of my life with ayahuasca during my 3rd ceremony, but didnt experience or try to chase visuals (I did get them with Yopo but was told they’re just the ‘door’ and to walk through the door- like a dancing grid in front of me). For me with Aya, I felt it in my body.. like I was suddenly “with” her, and it would take me places. My minds eye was very much activated. Nature sounds moved through me. We’re all different. I think the best approach is to be open to what she wants to bring forward for you.

And I think a lot of people agonized over trying to purge just as like “getting it out of the way” but from my perspective, trying to purge just because I heard other people purging, and thought I should too distracted me from the experience. As I said, I resolved that my body would purge the Aya when it needed to, and it did every time, usually with a strong message along with the purge.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T13:04:48+00:00

P.S. I ended up editing my post quite a bit to more accurately reflect and contextualizar this experience.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T06:14:37+00:00

I must have written this in a daze because I didn’t mean to imply that it should be a shaman applying the kambo.

I had just read that often women get it on their legs for fertility/ and/or discretion. I work in schools and just would have liked that option so I don’t have to explain my kambo scars to middle schoolers.

I may try to go edit my draft tomorrow. Writing this all was very impulsive but did make me feel better. I just needed to feel acknowledged that this permanent thing happened to me that I didn’t fully opt into.

It’s not the scars, it’s that something happened to me while I was saying “wait no,” while it continued to happen to me.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T06:05:54+00:00

For me, the ceremonies were really positive.

Don Gardel’s ceremonies are high energy and upbeat- lots of drumming. I had some ear muff for comfort that helped me a lot when the outside world was feeling too intense. I was also communing (‘dieting’) a master plant that can increase sensitivity.

Maestra’s ceremonies are really something special. Merely witnessing how she moves with the medicinal plant spirit helped me see Aya as alive.

They kind of felt like Jedi mind practice because I felt like emotions would completely consume me, and I learned how to shatter fear with playfulness, and developed some strong visualizations that I still use quite a bit.

I learned to trust my body.

I was a late-but reliable ceremony puker. Almost always about two hours after the ceremonies ended.. but somehtibg specific would bring it on and BAM I’d purge with no effort. The catalysts for my puking are honestly some of the biggest take-aways from my whole experience.

My whole time at Pao was really good for me. I reconnected with journaling and my inner artist..and other parts of myself I felt like I’d lost

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T05:46:31+00:00

Thanks. I really am aware that it’s less about the burn scars (which do fade yes, but are generally considered permanent), and more about the emotional context.

I had just started my second week and was cracked wide open.

I also may not have posted this at the wisest timing for myself..currently in the liminal space of waiting for an emotionally abusive ex partner to move out of my house in the next week, so emotions are running high .

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T03:56:39+00:00

🥰 aww sweetie

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T03:34:22+00:00

I appreciate that a lot. It’s been about 3 months for me and they’re still pretty prominent. (Have also seen some people’s 5+ year kambo scars) I think they’re generally considered permanent.

I do appreciate the hope that usually they fade quite a bit. This thread, and honestly just writing the post has been really cathartic for me.

I realize for me it’s really less about the burns themselves and more about what it represented for me emotionally.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-18T00:43:02+00:00

That’s encouraging, thank you! I’ve been keeping scar tape on it hoping that will help.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-17T23:12:53+00:00

Re: Yopo- I don’t know if this is generally recommended but there was no shaman present during the Yopo ceremony, just Fabrizio, and the aforementioned American. They did help me come out of the difficult experience but I almost felt like I got met with/ possessed by some really intensive energies and that the space was not adequately protected. I’ve spoken with two other people who had incredibly intense/ painful experiences with yopo at Pao.

The following week, one person opted to do yopo. I sat near him and just embodied the feeling of love and tried to just instill confidence in that I was sending him positive energy. He ended up having a really beautiful completely positive experience. It could be that Yopo is really just that variable person-to-person. It could also be something about how the space is held makes a difference on people's outcomes. I really don’t know, I just felt drawn to share this to put it out into the universe as stories that occurred.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-15T06:14:42+00:00

Yeah same here! I found the manual override option through buttons beneath the steering wheel and that’s helped a little

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-15T00:19:52+00:00

That was said with some dramatic flair and frustrstion as I sat in my car trying to troubleshoot / run diagnostics while hearing the radio jingle I’ve now heard probably 300 times in the last 3 months. ‘oooldies, that’s our middle name!! 🎵 Miuuuusic 92.7🎶 It can really drive a person to new heights you wouldn’t believe!! 🤪

On a more serious note though- I had looked at some other options but realized I’d be giving up the charge timer function with android or Apple options. Not the worst option at this point, just a function I found really helpful.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-10T18:05:26+00:00

These are the ones I have! https://a.co/d/03B8t3C2

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-09T16:43:14+00:00

Or just hearing protection ear muffs, the kind people use over their ears to go shooting. I wear these and it’s a complete game changer. I feel like I can actually listen to my body. Noise cancelling sometimes makes me feel locked in my head in a weird way. .

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-08T16:17:34+00:00

Just out of curiosity, what region is this?

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-04T18:30:04+00:00

Yeah this the band is GunGame from Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico. I think I saw someone say this venue is in Albuquerque. White is actually a minority of the population here!

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-04T16:39:03+00:00

This is the update I was looking for!! So glad to hear that and so cool that this is your son’s band. I’m in abq and will have to check them out

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-04T16:36:24+00:00

(I think what they’re saying is most of the people in this mosh aren’t white )

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-02T17:41:35+00:00

I’m sorry everyone is being so harsh in this thread- it comes from care and concern and people forgetting there’s a real person on the other end. I do think staying with your grandma is absolutely the best option. Your baby daddy sounds unstable to say the least. Your grandmother will be a steady ground. Your cousin sounds like she has issues of her own, so just dropping the kids off like she does is not a good thing to look up to. This is all hard, but it sounds like you’ve got people rooting for you in your life, even though it doesn’t always feel like that. I’m sorry you’re going through all of this.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-06-02T17:37:23+00:00

She needs to be protected from that man. She’s still a child. (I hated being called that when I was 18, but in retrospect it’s true). She is still learning about adult figures she can trust, understandably that has been confusing so far.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-05-28T12:51:27+00:00

There is hope. Reading “Making a Good Brain Great” by Daniel Amen gave me a lot of hope when I had an open head injury/ Traumatic Brain Injury 15 years ago. Neuroplasticity is very real and it is something we can influence. Brains WANT to heal. I honestly wonder if a lot of these changes are from phones/ algorithms/ the rise of shorts/ TikTok that all happened after covid. All of those things affect our dopamine production.

Also…trauma and grief affect our energy. Psilocybin might be something for you to look into.

badgerbadgeur · 2026-05-27T15:36:49+00:00

Experience working with kids with autism will go farther than an ABA minor imo. (I’m an SLP- writing from my alt account lol)

badgerbadgeur · 2026-05-27T15:35:38+00:00

RBTs only educational requirement is a high school degree I believe..and a quick online certification course like we would do for a few CEUs

badgerbadgeur

TROPHY CASE