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Sludgy Mud With A Hint Of Burnt Coffee Or Vegemite

John Wood, Founder of Rageheart

by John Wood

I’m eating dinner in the kitchen when Ellie’s phone rings.

It’s Mum.

Calling for her regular chat with her daughter.

Ellie talks.

I eat.

At some point, they start talking about ayahuasca 🍹

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic “tea” that’s traditionally made from the ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaves (though other ingredients sometimes get used too).

Calling it “tea” is a bit of a stretch since it’s more like sludgy mud with a hint of burnt coffee or vegemite… but hey, “tea” makes it sound better to the average person.

So anyway..

Ellie talks about the ayahuasca retreat that she’s booked for next week here in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Pretty cool place to drink ayahuasca

Mum asks questions (as Mums do).

Then I hear Ellie say:

“They give you a bucket and then you’re on your own” 😳

She says it so casually – as if she’s talking about buying milk from the corner store.

It’s completely normal to me… but to Mum?

I’m not sure what she’s thinking.

She’s a conservative Christian woman who lives in the sticks, hours from the nearest town.

She’s never take psychedelics. Doesn’t smoke. Rarely drinks.

She’s as straight as they come.

And so, while she’s not usually one to swear, if she was, I think she’d be thinking something like…

“What the actual f…”

Ellie continues:

“They sometimes do energy work too”

Again, she says it as if it’s normal because to us, it IS normal.

But to the average Westerner?

To our conservative Christian Mum?

It probably sounds insane.

Plant medicine can be like that.

It’s one of the most profoundly rewarding journeys I’ve ever been on…

The problem is, it’s incredibly difficult to explain how and why to people who haven’t done it.

It’s the same with the nervous system stuff.

In terms of positive transformation, it’s on the same level as plant medicine.

It has completely and utterly changed my life for the better… and I’ve even thrown up (“purged”) as a result of nervous system work, just like I might throw up during an ayahuasca ceremony.

(As weird as that might sound, it’s actually one way the body clears old survival stress.)

But despite how powerful working with the nervous system is, most people have never heard of it… and they don’t really get it when I try to explain it.

It’s so different to how most people work on themselves that most people have a hard time understanding what it’s all about.

For example, most things work with the mind.

Journaling, meditation, gratitude lists, talk therapy and so on.

It’s all very intellectual for the most part… and that’s why that stuff just doesn’t work that well.

It’s incomplete at best. Dangerous at worst.

But in the nervous system approach?

The rational mind takes a back seat and you work directly with the body and nervous system.

With sensation and emotion, as well as implicit, explicit and procedural memories. With the sympathetic and parasympathetic functions as well as the ventral vagal portion of your nervous system (in order to improve sleep, digestion, our ability to connect and socialise and so much more).

It’s amazing stuff… but like with plant medicine, it can be hard to explain to my conservative Christian Mum 🤦 

Regardless…

It rocks.

That’s why I started Rageheart.

Because I believe in this shit more than I believe in anything else (along with plant medicine).

..by far.

It is THAT fucking good.

If you try it out, you’ll see what I mean.

And soon, you’ll get an opportunity to do just that (Rageheart… not plant medicine).

I’m opening Rageheart up to new members on Thursday the 20th of October.

That’s next week!

The catch is that it’ll only be open for 4 days and there’ll be a limited number of spots… so if you want to try out this new approach (even if it’s hard to explain to your Mum), stay close to your inbox.

Already a member? Feel for that impulse and if it’s time, get raging.

John Wood

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