Indigo Health Voyages
Kambo
Health Coaching
Psychedelic Integration
Kambo
Health Coaching
Psychedelic Integration
Kambo aftercare along with its integration process is a very important part of the process while working with this sacred energy. Often people find and seek Kambo for relief and solutions regarding their ailments within their mind, body, and spirit. Great results are usually discovered once individuals take these steps and dedicate their precious time, building this relationship with the powerful peptides of the Phyllomedusa Tree Frog of the Amazon.
The Kambo treatments alone are a fundamental step in rejuvenating ones self, but to get the best benefits and receive the most efficient results, the practice of Kambo asks participants to truly dedicate themselves in the after care process. Ideally, Kambo will give us the boost of energy to move forward and achieve this goal.
Over the years with Indigo Health Voyages and assisting people from all walks of life integrate their Kambo process has been a gratifying experience. Offering coaching, guidance, assistance, and support is an aspect that helps individuals complete the process with optimism and confidence. The formulas to provide optimal healing are strived to be done in simplicity along with dedication. Of course, no days are perfect and we face our challenges, but the upward spiral of healing is something we should strive for, appreciating the progress we make.
After receiving Kambo, the body goes through a strong recalibration of relieving toxins and emotional traumas. The inner work with integration should be continued, this can be made easy and filled with joy as we become healthier individuals.
“The first steps to Kambo aftercare”
Emotional and Spiritual Processing- During the series of treatments, shifts can usually occur on a spiritual, biological and psychological level. One golden rule is take time for ourselves and focus on relaxing our nervous systems. Taking walks around the neighborhood or in nature is a key element. After a treatment, Kambo requires the body to move, circulating the energy, while working the lymphatic system taking deep conscious breathes. Depending on the personal health of an individual, some may feel the need with their improved energy to exert themselves in heavier training regiments. With other individuals, simple walks throughout the following weeks is adequate and beneficial.
Kambo opens up the senses, we use the saying, “Play with your senses.” Taking these walks and getting fresh air, observing nature, can be a form of a walking meditation that can help the nervous system relax. .
Taking time to rest is the other spectrum to balance our aftercare. During the shifts we experience, know when to rest and relax. As we rest, once again try to be aware of our breathing. This is an essential part of aftercare, coming into the rhythms of breathing and oxygenating our bodies. This can help bring us a calm stillness and present moment, which can provide optimal rest.
Another modality is the ten second rule. With these shifts that occur, our environment can cause us often reacting in old patterns. Use the integration process to collect ourselves, have boundaries, then to respond in a calm manner. Respond rather than react. The goal is to keep the nervous system simmered while not letting situations trigger us. Wether it is life partners, co-workers, family members, it is important to stay present and grounded. Often in this manner we see situations diffuse themselves quite nicely.
Journaling and using the creative process is also an important step. Reflecting in our writing, musical and artistic creation can help facilitate this process. We can find ourselves having the clarity and energy to expand these horizons with true creativity.
Kambo Diet-
As Kambo cleanses our internal systems, having a balanced diet is imperative. In the Amazonian regions of South America, this can be referred to as the “Dieta.”
Keeping it simple and practical is key. Implementing organic spring mix salads into your weekly routine can help with this process of healing. We are what we eat. Making a tasty salad that the body truly loves can be an art. Adding some hot quinoa or rice to the salad can give a wholesome balance. Cold pressed oils are advised for dressings, as many store dressings can have unhealthy oils in their ingredients. Adding sea salt and pepper works well for flavor, as the Kambo diet is not as strict as ayahuasca diet.
Meat is not a contraindication with Kambo. It is often advised to keep red meat to a few times per week, as the body requires a lot of energy for red meat digestion. Chicken and fish can be an easier process for our integration and is permitted.
Implementing daily smoothies are extremely beneficial. As Kambo helps heal our overall gut health, having smoothies is very soothing on the digestive system. It is advised to stay away from pasteurized milk. Substituting almond, hemp, coconut or hemp milk works well in our aftercare. Adding in a source of protein to our smoothies, wether vegetarian or grass fed whey can give our bodies an added boost for recovery. Frozen fruit and ice can give a soothing cold texture helping to ground our digestive tract.
Probiotic health is a common way to reboot our beneficial bacteria after Kambo. We recommend sauerkraut and Kim chi during the days after Kambo. If individuals are partaking in ayahuasca during this time frame, the ayahuasca dieta often says to refrain from fermented foods for a short time, this is a notion to be mindful of.
We like to use the 80/20 rule in the practice. Eighty percent of our daily lives we are doing our best to feed our bodies with proper nutrition. Being perfect is hard and often not expected. Having occasional treats will not ruin your progress and hard work completely, it just important to keep the pendulum swinging in the right direction.
Correct Healthy Water Intake-
Water quality is key. After Kambo it is recommend to stay hydrated with the correct water quality intake. Unfortunately public water systems are treated with chlorine and fluoride. Despite the marketing descriptions of certain home water purification systems, they can have a hard time filtering out these substances, especially fluoride. Being able to consume healthy spring, purified, or well water is essential. A great asset has been the website, “findaspring.com“. If residing on public water systems, utilizing a chlorine shower filter is a great asset to have that is also quite affordable.
Cold Water Therapy and Magnesium Salt Baths-
The power of cold water has many proven benefits. After Kambo, utilizing this practical practice can work wonders helping our central nervous systems, inflammation, and Vagus nerve. Cold showers are a stepping stone to gradually work ourselves up to more intensive and efficient sessions with ice baths or cold water plunges. After cold water therapy sessions, it can be followed with warm baths consisting of magnesium salts. Kambo loves the cold to warm contrasts on our bodies, keeping the Kambo glow-flow vital and alive.
Supplements, Medications and Correlating Medicine Work-
Fortunately Kambo works well with most medications. Participants can resume certain medications the days following a treatment. Often with antidepressant medications and stimulants, people feel they can taper off slowly and quite effectively after a treatment. In regards to supplements and herbal formulas, these can work in a healthy synergistic fashion with Kambo treatments. Fine tuning supplement and herbal formula intake can often work well with private integration coaching sessions, as calculated dedicated protocols can be planned well. Over the years seeing and working with ailments such as Lyme disease, IBS, Fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety, individualized health care and coaching sessions can aid with the integration process. Indigo Health Voyages can offer a wide variety of assistance in the aftercare regarding these ailments in conjunction with your Kambo treatments.
With an abundance of supplements and formulas at are footsteps, there are a few important ones to mention and research, giving a solid foundation for our lives.
With elaboration on Sodium Bicarbonate and Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Therapy, this method can help ease the gut and digestion following treatments. A simple protocol is adding 1/4th teaspoon of pure organic baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), a dash of raw apple cider vinegar into a half cup of water. This process will allow the contents to “Fizz” briefly. The alkaline elixir can be taken 3 times a week on a empty stomach or early evening one hour after a meal, helping to ground and settle our stomach.
Micro-dosing and other sacred plant ceremonies can also work well in the post process, although with mindful precautions. Coaching sessions can be a good resource in finding the right protocol to carry one’s healing process in regards to these symbiotic relationships.
Aroma Therapy, Sage, and Meditation-
Our senses are coming alive, which is a gratifying feeling. Using aromatherapy, sage, and protective incense can give our homes and dwellings a feeling of comfort. Utilizing these tools are important after treatments and ceremonies giving us a calming effect and spiritual protection.
Lifestyle Choices and Continuation of the Kambo Practice-
The goal of receiving treatments is to take our mind-body-spirit in a positive direction. It takes courage and commitment when coming into the world of Kambo, a lot of hard work has been done when sitting with the practice. We always want to keep the momentum, especially building ourselves up for sequential treatments. It is important to do our best in regards to lifestyle choices. Wether it is with alcohol, recreational drugs, processed sugar, sexual vices and overall cravings, we want to be mindful of these choices. Moderation or abstinence is key in regards to our own personal paths and progress. Kambo can help this process, helping to make healthy decisions.
Viva Kambo!
Stephen Goterch
A few years into my self integration work, putting the holistic pieces together with my recent travels into the Peruvian Amazon, I was fortunate enough to see renowned ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna speak at UMASS Amherst. His statement resonated with a profound sense of clarity, “You do not always find ayahuasca, but rather ayahuasca finds you.”
Synergy, Symbiotic relationship, and law of attraction related quite well with this statement and my inclination towards healing with plant medicines. The deep realization in 2006, for the need of deep rooted healing from past traumas and addictions was being called into my intentions and into the spirit. Where does one begin? Where and when will this healing force arise into my path?
Fortunately, my past and upbringing came with a fascination of indigenous cultures, their musical appreciation of ceremony, and the majestic energy of the Shamans. Listening to Jim Morrison of the band “The Doors”, their lyrical content and Jim’s life biography shed a certain light on these topics at an age of my adolescence. I could inherently feel there was a unique power, substance, and strong energy in this realm of Shamanism.
A strong catalyst towards breaking open my limited perspective, nudging me closer to my trip to the Amazon came to me in a very unexpected manner. 2005 was a pivotal step when I was shown the plant spirit Salvia Divinorum. Finding this peculiar extract at a local smoke shop in my home town of Derry New Hampshire, I instantly gravitated towards bringing it home and experimenting with it’s energy. I grew up a few houses down from the historic Robert Frost Farm, one of the great poets of our time. The wooded lands and fields of my neighborhood carried the energy of his poems, as well as my childhood and innocence.
Sitting with the contents and essence of the Salvia, which came from the Oaxaca region of Mexico, I was about to embark on a Shamanistic path that would change my life in a radical fashion. After inhalation, it became an overwhelming out of body experience with a kaleidoscope of colors accompanied by energetic entities communicating with myself in a very spiritual and healing manner. The experience left me in complete awe, while also surprised it curbed my appetite for alcohol and chewing tobacco. At 24 years of age at the time, I knew this was the beginning of something larger than myself.
I immediately went into intensive research on the internet, seeking the world of plant medicines and their traditions of healing peoples ailments. I was very satisfied to see Saliva was not just an exotic blend for escaping or to get one high, but rather had a long tradition with the Mazatec Shamans. They would facilitate the medicine for visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions.
Throughout the year, completing sobriety, eating better, I had a passion for wanting to explore more within the world of plant medicines. I discovered valuable information regarding the sacred healing tea “Ayahuasca” of the Peruvian Amazon, which dates back a thousand years of ritual use. It was through random visits to the local book store, where the works of Graham Hancock and Terrence Mckenna would present themselves into my orbit and world of research. With the authors well written explanations and personal experience of this medicine, I immediately knew this was the calling I had been looking for.
The tea consisted of Banisteriopsis Cappi, which contains harmala alkaloids, acting as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. These alkaloids are are best known as highly efficacious anti-depressants, as well as effective therapeutic agents for panic disorder and social disorder. They are particularly effective in treatment-resistant depression. They are also used in the treatment of Parkinson disease and several other disorders. The other portion of the ayahuasca brew contained Psychotria viridis, which contains dimethyltryptamine, a strong entheogenic compound that occurs in most living matter. Other wise knows as DMT, this compound creates vivid colorful visions that can often have spiritual and healing properties to the experience.
With this great insight, I left my profession in the tech world and EMT- firefighting, heading down to the Puerto Maldonado region of the Peruvian Amazon to embark on this journey. I was to meet Antonio Fernandez and Diego Palma, two very respected Shamans who were part of the Sacred Valley Tribe community. It was a long highly anticipated plane ride down from New Hampshire to Lima Peru, to Puerto Maldonado. These individuals would greet me after a long boat ride down the river, a tributary of the Amazon. Upon arrival, the two men with a gentle and strong presence stated, “Please disregard everything you have read about ayahuasca, come into this experience with fresh eyes, nothing can truly explain it, but rather to be found out for yourselves.”
After settling in with the community and understanding the full process of the plant dieta and our training, I felt very grounded being in the serene nature of the Amazon. The plant dieta was a foundational part of the preparation upon coming to the village. A “Dieta” is a energetic agreement made between a curandero shaman, or student of curanderismo, and a particular plant spirit. Restrictions to my diet, sexual abstinence, and meditation were all key components in the process of learning and consuming the ayahuasca brew. There was a month ahead of me within the village and my stay, fine tuning my way of life in holistic fashion, with the intentions of completing ten ceremonies. This was inherently feeling right and synchronistically meant to be, as the first ceremony was approaching closer and closer.
When the first night of ceremony arrived, Antonio our shaman took us for a long walk down the pathways to the outer regions of the village. There before us stood a large beautiful moloca, which is a circular wooden hut that was built to hold sacred medicine ceremonies. The evening began right at sunset with the sounds of the jungle penetrating all eight participants. Beautiful prayers were set for the ceremony, to all then be called up to the alter for our serving of mother Aya.
Letting the medicine settle minute by minute, I could feel subtle changes taking place within my body. By roughly 30 minutes into the ceremony I could hear the sounds of the jungle becoming clearer and sharper. The mind, which tends to race with rapid thoughts seemed to be slowing down into a semi sleepy state of consciousness. Moments of stillness, alertness, and presence arrived were I could feel the aliveness of the jungle. I would look up periodically and see Antonio, who was dressed in white ceremonial clothing slowly working his leaf rattle known as a chakapa. He was a native Peruvian himself who had training under the Shipibo tradition, within this tradition the medicine songs of icaros are sung to the participants to facilitate healing. As the brew was beginning to come on stronger, the songs of the icaros began. Having a strong appreciation for music, these simple songs with one single leaf rattle were noticed and felt as extremely powerful musical rhythms. Rhythms of song that date back over 800 years. Geometric patterns became to enter my space on the mat where I was sitting, along with a strong vibration and slight nausea in my stomach. The medicine was taking full effect, thousands of miles away from home sitting in the middle of the jungle, this was about to change the course of my life as I knew it.
The “Breakthrough” took place an hour into the night. Accompanied by these geometric patterns swirling into my vision state, an undeniable feeling and message came over my mind, body, and spirit. A feeling of universal love and forgiveness was moving through every cell in my body. The first recollection I had during this state was, “This is very familiar, I have been here before, I am returning back to a state of innocence and purity.” I was soon to have a vision of a female goddess wearing a beautiful head dress and vibrant eyes. Tentacles of purple and green were swirling from her essence into my aura, feeling a state of what I would call unconditional love from the creator source. This profound moment immediately began the purging process.
The purge is a sacred release of emotional and biological energy leaving the body, similar to what most westerners relate to as vomiting. Yet this was much more than a process of vomiting that I was familiar with in my past. The purge came with a beautiful sense of letting go of past traumas and addictions I had faced throughout my teenage and early adult hood years. It lasted a few minutes of releasing as I could begin to hear other participants were undergoing the same process. Simultaneously, the Icaro melodies were being sung stronger and delivered to the ceremonial space in a very harmonious fashion. It was as if the songs and leaf rattle were helping, guiding and aiding in my experience. In regards to holding space for someone, Antonio was mastering his tradition and craft. A sense of renewed strength and joy came over myself that I had not had in many years.
Completing the night and heading into the morning, the ceremony lasted for six hours. Our beloved Shaman felt it was the right time to close the ceremony and allow us to go back to our huts for sleep and introspection. Walking back to my sleeping coordinates, there was no mistake this was the best choice I had made for myself at the age of 26. A brave decision was made to come here, a trail blazing choice at the time in our western society. Radical in one sense, but very traditional, ancient, and a sense of being taken care of. I was to fall asleep and wake up the next morning for our breakfast and integration. The first words I said, that came with laughter from our shaman Antonio, “I haven’t felt this good in years.”
I was to complete the remaining nine ceremonies, all with similar feelings of positive energy and healing. A few participants felt this path was not for them, gracefully leaving to go back home with respect and sincerity. It was a gratifying dynamic of the relationships that were built with the remaining participants and with our Shaman. Bouts of laughter would come into our circles, bouts of tears, people on a mission reclaiming a part of themselves they lost. Very Beautiful landscapes and hiking of the amazon added and complimented the shift we were all experiencing.
Heading home to New Hampshire was the new chapter I would soon live. A life dedicated to this healing power, a power that was very real and emanating truth. Family members and friends immediately saw the difference in my being which made the experience grander, not in any form of validation, but rather adding substance to what was taking place, for all of us. It would be 2007 that I would begin again, keeping up the dieta and neo-shamanic trainings in my region of New England. There was a long lasting effect that pushed for the years to come, into now 2022. Many stories and journeys in between as well, where I look forward to sharing more. The thousand mile journey begins with the first step.
Thank you for reading.
Stephen Goterch (Indigo Health Voyages)
Offering sacred retreat settings, kambo treatments, sound therapy, life and health coaching.
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