Altered States

The Cacao Journals: Inhabiting the Space Within

~ Nicole Gnutzman

When you go on an inward journey with ceremonial cacao or psychotropic plant medicines, you may enter a state of being you’ve never or rarely experienced before. You may actually feel inhabited by unconditional love or bliss or expansiveness as it takes over your entire being. And you may find that you want to stay in that moment because it feels so amazing.

This exalted state of being is usually reached after whatever needs to be seen and felt, and released and even transmuted, makes more space within to fully receive that state of being. An emptying of the “old” before filling with the “new”.

Although there are certainly times, when the medicine seduces you, gets right to it and gives you the state of being you are seeking as an amuse bouche. Hey love, it says, here’s something really yummy, our “chef” made just for you….

I’ve seen clients get seduced by the medicine in this way and what happens next is ego inflation/grandiosity, expectation building and attachment to the journey experience if the client does not balance the experience with gratitude and humility for what has been received and continues to work with the medicine. The medicine’s intention is to bring you into greater and deeper understanding of your true self and your connection to source/spirit/universe.

Clients, who don’t do the integration work, either go on with their lives as is, wondering weeks or months later why nothing has changed and they are even more stuck; or think they need to come back to a journey again (and again) to re-experience the state of being as if it is eluding their grasp (it is).

In most cases, on their next journey, they are given an entirely different experience, which is often the flip dark side of the exalted state, and is a sign that the medicine is playing with them and their expectations. Amuse bouche, haha, now here’s something dark and stinky for you to digest. There is no light without the darkness and vice versa.

The medicine is wise beyond measure. Your mind or ego are no match for it. It will get you every time; that’s part of the message and lesson. Just when you think you’ve got it, it has you….

In either case, given freely or with deep release, the intention of the gift–the inhabited feeling–is that it be integrated and embodied in life, outside of the journey experience. So, how do you do that? With conscious intention.

You can call the feeling back into your awareness by imagining it (the mind is a powerful thing) or in silent meditation where you fill the space of stillness within you with the feeling, allowing you to re-experience and re-inhabit it.

For those of you who are “mind” people, use your powerful imagination! Envision it to feel it, just like a professional athlete imagines their successful race, so it’s imprinted in their body’s response.

Doing this consciously creates an inner knowing and trust that the state of being from your journey experience was real and is not elusive. Little by little as you revisit the space within, it stays, dislodging the old state of being and its associated patterns, beliefs and stuck energy.

As you inhabit this state of being consciously, it will become your new, healthy unconscious pattern. When you slip out of it, which does happen in this crazy human experience, you will know how to get back to it quickly. Now, this does not mean you will feel peace, bliss or joy all the time, but they become the foundation, the ground of your being, as you feel everything without succumbing to numbing or suppressing the energy. Allow the feelings to come and go as your inner state of being remains steady and steadfast.

That inner state of being will begin to reflect your outer and will also support you in navigating chaos or dissonance with more ease and grace and flow. Allow the amuse bouche to fill and nourish your inner space.

©Soulscape Coaching LLC

Stealing fire while imbibing the food of the gods?

~ nicole
“Ecstasis doesn’t absolve us of our humanity. It connects us to it. It’s in our brokenness, not in spite of our brokenness, that we discover what’s possible.” – Stephen Kotler and Jamie Wheal from Stealing Fire

What do cacao, also known as theobroma cacao or the food of the gods, and stealing fire from the gods (think Prometheus) have in common? Both cacao and fire were to be shared with humankind to empower them and bring them closer to the gods.

In their book, Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, Stephen Kotler and Jamie Wheal, tell the tales of the new “Promethean upstarts…who are using ecstatic techniques to alter consciousness and accelerate performance.” Interwoven in these tales is extensive scientific research on plant medicines and other ecstatic modalities that evoke “ecstasis…the act of stepping beyond oneself and connecting to a greater intelligence.” This is the act and application of stealing fire and not only is it catching on, it’s spreading like wildfire….

And, so, what’s the connection to cacao? In their book, Kotler and Wheal explain the relationship between plant medicines and hallucinogens and the six powerful neurochemicals–serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, norepinephrine, anandamide, and oxytocin–that underpin the experience of ecstasis. Raw, ceremonial grade cacao in high doses just happens to stimulate all six of the neurochemicals required for this altered state of higher consciousness that enables “group flow” and enhanced performance.

Not only is ceremonial cacao fairly readily available (although you do need to know the right sources–not all cacao is the same), it’s delicious, and, most importantly, it’s legal. You don’t have to go all the way to Peru or be part of an underground movement to experience it.

Cacao ceremony, in its present day form, is moving beyond alternative music festivals and ecstatic dance gatherings into more mainstream, mind-body-spirit venues, and it’s going corporate, in the Promethean tech space. Google has held cacao ceremony for some of its staff.

According to the authors of Stealing Fire, accelerating developments in, and the understanding of, nonordinary states of consciousness are enabling a

“revolution in human possibility…. Experiencing the selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, and richness of nonordinary states of consciousness can accelerate learning, facilitate healing, and provide measurable impact in our lives and work.”

And cacao is going to play a role in that. It’s about to catch on fire….

If you have followed my blog or read my website bio, you know that I have imbibed cacao, a gentle plant medicine, to access states of higher consciousness in personal ceremony; have trained in this ancient practice with plant medicine teachers; and hold private and group cacao ceremonies to share this experience with others, so my experience of what’s possible positively echoes the authors’.

Cacao ceremony offers not only inspired creativity, mind-body-spirit connection, and amplified performance; but also healing, integration and connection to life itself. It empowers us to be fully human.

Copyright ©2017 Soulscape Coaching LLC.