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About Plant Dietas
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Tobacco Dietas vs. Shipibo Dietas
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"Master" Plants and Tobacco Dieta Technology
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What to Expect on Tobacco Dietas
About Plant Dietas
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Plant dietas are the foundation of Amazonian curanderismo. While the benefits they provide are limitless and beyond description, for the sake of explanation we can say that dietas essentially serve two purposes: to teach and to heal. Plant dietas constitute the training regimen through which traditional Amazonian healers learn to perform healing work on others and also provide the most potent and profound opportunities for healing to those in need of it.
While the visionary and oftentimes dramatic experiences of ceremony (Ayahuasca ceremonies in particular) tend to garner the most attention from outsiders to Amazonian tradition, plant dietas are what make such work possible. They also offer the promise of much deeper healing, both through the dieta itself and by powerfully deepening the potential of in-ceremony healing for those who have been prepared by undergoing traditional dietas. While such ceremonies, if properly held, can offer the promise of incredible healing, at some point even the most seasoned ceremony veteran will need to diet if they want to continue to deepen their healing and their relationship with plant medicine.
Plants are Earth’s Doctors
Plants are, and always have been, the Earth’s doctors. Along with fungi, plants were the earliest complex organisms to inhabit the planet, and are responsible for the creation and maintenance of every living system on Earth. Plants played an instrumental role in creating the hospitable conditions that we and all the Earth’s creatures enjoy, and have provided the nourishment and medicine necessary to sustain the evolution of animal and human life over eons. Their expertise in supporting and nourishing life is unparalleled. Over the course of their tenure on Earth, plants have become repositories of vast and ancient knowledge on the technology of life and of how to encourage flourishing and maintain harmony within and among all manner of living systems, from continental ecosystems to individual organisms.
Plants perform their service under heavenly guidance. They are life factories that turn the cosmic light of heavenly bodies into the matter that we and our animal brethren inhabit during our lives. They turn light into sustenance and into medicine. They translate the cosmic seasons of night and day and our Earth’s orbit around the sun into the patterns and rhythms of earthly life. They make cosmic light and the information contained therein digestible and intelligible to our organisms, nourishing and sustaining us in the process.
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Why We Diet Plants
Dieting plants is the most concentrated and profound process of receiving the life-giving and sustaining knowledge that plants have received from above and accumulated during their time on Earth. The energy and information transmitted during plant dietas heals maladies, restores balance, and strengthens the dieter on spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical levels. Through dieta, plants can teach a human to transmit their knowledge to others for healing, can heal any number of earthly afflictions, and can unlock and expand the potential of the dieter by opening internal and external channels of knowledge and connection.
The practice of dieta is on one level like a contract between the dieter and the plant(s) being dieted. The duration as well as dietary and behavioral restrictions are agreed to and must be adhered to in order to reap the benefits of the diet and avoid deleterious consequences. The potential benefits of dieting are profound, and in proportion to these benefits, commitment is required, and negative consequences can result if the dieta process is not respected and restrictions not adhered to. Plant dietas can create healers and can cure serious illnesses. They are a sacred gift capable of delivering incredible blessings, and as such they must be met with respect and reverence in order to reap their benefits.
Dieta Restrictions
The restrictions required for dieting plants are fairly consistent across traditions, with some variation. In the most traditional way of dieting, the dieter must be in isolation, interacting only with the healer leading the diet, although some traditions have come to accommodate what are sometimes referred to as “modern” or “social” diets, in which the dieter can still interact with others to a certain degree. Whether in traditional dietas or modern ones, dieters must observe stringent dietary restrictions and abstain from other substances, from sex, and must either limit or abstain completely from media exposure and other stimulation. The purpose underlying these restrictions is to create a clean container for the plant knowledge and energy to flow into with minimal distortion or interference. Like a patient entering the hospital fasted and prepared for surgery, the dieter makes themself clean for the plants to perform their inner work.
The Benefits of Dieta
The fruits of the dieting process are multifold. Dietas can heal maladies from mental imbalances, to acute physical illnesses, to spiritual afflictions. They can open a path forward to greater flourishing and can provide ongoing guidance. The dieta process allows the plants to penetrate deeply into a person’s body and being to unearth and purge contaminants—physical and energetic—implant seeds of knowledge—biological and psychic—and reorganize internal systems—mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Dietas also provide the dieter with the blessing of a lifelong guide. The plants that we diet remain with us, continuing to grow over time and providing us with guidance, protection, connection, and know-how.
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Tobacco Dietas vs.Shipibo Dietas
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I have dieted in two traditions: first with the Shipibo people of the upper Ucayali River region and then within a lineage of tabaquerismo (tobacco healing) with a master mestizo tabaquero. The Shipibo tradition is the most widely-known Amazonian healing tradition outside the Amazon, largely because the Shipibo are Ayahuasca experts and have been prolific in meeting an ever-increasing foreign demand for Ayahuasca healing.
Tobacco traditions are less well-known generally and, in particular, my tobacco tradition comes through a singular individual, my teacher (who prefers to not have his name publicized). There are similarities and differences between the dieta technologies of these two traditions. They are both powerful and can be highly beneficial, but the differences are significant, and I am going to explain some of them here in order to differentiate the tobacco dieta technology that I employ from what readers might know about Shipibo dieting technology, and also to explain why I strongly prefer to share the tobacco technology with others.
I once had a dream while dieting with my tobacco teacher in which he explained one key difference between the two dieting methods. In the Shipibo tradition, he explained, the focus is primarily on opening the particular world of the plant being dieted. In contrast, the focus of the tobacco diets is to open the dieter’s energy body and their channels in order for universal spiritual energy to flow through—from the cosmos, from the Earth, from nature. Plant worlds can be interesting, he acknowledged, but it’s just one world, whereas the tobacco dieta technology is designed to open one up to the entire cosmos in order to deliver exactly what that individual needs in their life journey. Its capacity to teach and heal is vastly more powerful and tailored.
Further along these lines, my teacher also explained (in normal waking life) that whereas Shipibo dietas are rooted in the Earth, his lineage’s dietas are rooted in the cosmos. This cosmic connection makes the dietas of this lineage vastly more powerful and pure than Earth-bound traditions. The Shipibo tradition, while beautiful and powerful, is heavy with the duality of Earthly existence. In addition to promoting healing, Shipibo dietas can do harm to the dieter if managed poorly, and can actually bestow the ability on the dieter to do harm to others if intentions are misaligned or harmful energies are allowed to interfere. Witchcraft is unfortunately an ever-present reality of the Shipibo tradition. Indeed, it is quite common for those who experience harm within the Shipibo tradition to turn to my teacher or his apprentices to undo the damage.
In contrast, this Tobacco lineage comes with a heavenly mandate. It comes from the Light with a mission to bring that Light to Earth. Indeed, the very first time I met my teacher, the first words out of his mouth were, “I’ve been given a mission to spread this medicine.”
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"Master" Plants and Tobacco Dieta Technology
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The world of plant medicine consists of a class of plants that we can refer to as master plants. Master plants are those at the upper end of the spectrum of plant intelligence. They can generally be identified as plants that possess medicinal properties, that are aromatic, and/or that play significant roles in governing the ecosystems in which they exist—for example, most if not all trees and cacti are master plants, and they also tend to be charged with the higher-level, managerial and governing roles in their ecosystems.
Tobacco as the King of Plants
Occupying even more rarified air are certain master plants that serve a special role as being bridges between the world of humans and the world of plant medicine as a whole. Ayahuasca is perhaps the most famous example; through her guidance one can potentially access any other master plant. Tobacco is similar, but even more powerful. Tobacco can open the doors not only to connection with any other master plant, but to mastery over them, as Tobacco occupies a very special place in the pharmacopeia of plant spirit medicine. We can think of Tobacco as a kind of boss plant. As my teacher likes to say, it is the King. If we think of the world of plant medicines as a national hospital system, Tobacco is the Surgeon General.
Other plants respect Tobacco and follow its lead. They are also empowered by it and respond to its presence—for instance, in ayahuasca ceremonies, when Tobacco is smoked the plant doctor spirits present grow stronger, feeding off of Tobacco’s powerful energy; in nature, plants respond to offerings of Tobacco and will often reciprocate blessings or dream visitations to the donor. Consequently, a tabaquero—one who has mastered tobacco—has greater ability than practitioners of other high-level medicines like Ayahuasca or Toé to direct and empower other master plants to heal their patients. Plant dietas managed by a tabaquero will be more directed, precise, powerful, and resistant to energetic interference from other sources.
Tobacco as the Basis of Dietas
All dietas in my lineage contain tobacco or are directed by it. Generally, dieters will begin with a diet of pure tobacco, and if they choose to continue with additional diets, those diets will consist of Tobacco mixed with other master plants. All of the dietas carried out in this tradition will combine into one large, ever-expanding Tobacco dieta, a powerful container that will grow to include all the plants that one diets. If one is called to become a tabaquero, after a number of these dietas one will be eligible to receive a spiritual authorization and concomitant energetic transmission that will enable that person to utilize Tobacco—and all other plants through its direction—to heal others.
Like other plants, Tobacco has its own particular properties and characteristics, even personality. Often referred to as Grandfather, Tobacco has a primarily masculine energy, and excels like no other in connecting us to our essence and direction. It opens our path and destroys obstacles, internal and external. While connecting us spiritually it also grounds us in this reality. I’ve had many Tobacco dreams that indicated things about my future that later came to fruition, warned me of potential pitfalls, offered guidance for navigating certain circumstances, and bestowed blessings that later manifested in life.
Tobacco as Karmic Teacher and Guide
We all follow a curriculum of sorts for this life. While we unwind and purify the influences of the past—karma, genetic lineage, trauma, disease, etc.—we grapple with the lessons we need to apprehend in order to grow, move forward, and reach towards our potential. Tobacco is a teacher and guide par excellence. It is the most powerful of cleaners, capable of clearing addictions, mental patternings, energetic blockages of all types, and even karmic and familial/lineage energies. Looking forwards, Tobacco accelerates our growth, clarifying and empowering our connection with the currents of synchronicity that weave through this school of material reality, protecting and guiding us as we encounter the challenges and opportunities that the academy of life sets on our path.
As we move through this life, passages are set before us that are designed to give us an opportunity to learn and to grow. They are often challenging. In such moments we need the wind of spiritual light in our sails, we need guidance and tools for navigation, and we need protection to enable us to move through the passage as expeditiously and gracefully as possible. By clearing our field of obscurations that both cloud our perception and create vulnerabilities that attract hindering energies, by opening us up to the celestial and natural sources of spiritual energy, and by surrounding us with protective and guiding energy, Tobacco makes for an outstanding ally on our journey.
In addition to the outstanding support that Tobacco provides in following our individual paths, it also brings us into harmony with this life and this world. The light flowing through the individuals who diet in this lineage helps to heal and reform the communities around them, making them focal points of cosmic light in this terrestrial realm.
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What to Expect on Tobacco Dietas
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The diets of this lineage are 7 days long and close on the 8th day. For the first seven days I will come to each person to serve their medicine, putting prayers and songs from the lineage into the medicine. I usually do this sometime in the middle of the day.
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The morning of the 8th day, I will come to close the diets, which will consist of a prayer and the consumption of a hot pepper or clove of garlic to cut the diet. If necessary, the diet can be condensed into 6 days by drinking twice on the final day, but it is preferable to do all 7.
Food
On diets, typically a very limited meal is eaten twice a day: often fruit in the morning and boiled vegetables or unseasoned vegetable soup in the evening. Fruit twice a day is also an option. During the diet, interactions should be limited and dieters should aim to keep to themselves as much as possible.
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Purging
Dieting tobacco is generally a challenging experience. After drinking the medicine, a purge often comes rather quickly. Once done purging, or if one isn’t ready to purge yet, a shower is taken to help circulate the medicine, and also to cool down if necessary, as tobacco can heat up the body. Then, it’s recommended that individuals lie down and do a breathing practice that helps circulate the medicine. (Specific instructions will be given during the diet.)
Sometimes people purge quickly and then go back to feeling fairly normal, and sometimes feelings of nausea and clearing can last a bit longer. Once purging is completed, people often enter a peaceful state, although emotional material can come up as the tobacco or other plants do their work.
Dreams
Tobacco is also big dream medicine, so you are likely to have vivid, informative dreams. It is good to keep a notebook by your bed to write them down, and I can help with interpreting dreams. Tobacco dreams in this lineage tend to have their own symbolism.
By dieting tobacco, one gains a powerful ally for life. A protector, guide, and connector. The diet will not only go to work while you are in it, but will continue to grow, unfold, and guide for the rest of your life.
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