Indios and the irmandade

I met Indios the first time I went to Alter do Chao. I got indirectly in touch with the irmandade, and drunk the ayahuasca. The experience has been really dizzy. I came back in Alter do Chao with a colleague a few months later, and then in July, with Alex. The irmandade has been created by Indios' father, Paulo Brasil. They have a brand new website (in Portuguese) : http://www.comunindios.com.br/



Ilha do amor, in Alter do Chao. The paradise on earth...



Typical landscape in the area



Sunset on the Tapajos river



Irmandade means brotherhood...



The hard core of the irmandade.



Waterfall vale do paraiso



Indios shipping on the Arapiuns river




Indios in front of the hugest tree in the area of Alter do Chao



Paulo Brasil and his tea, on the beach along the Tapajos river



Ritual






Feeling the forces of nature



Casa de Pierre in Alter do Chao. We had a memorable ritual there this summer with Alex, Indios and many other people.



Well... I'm on this picture !



Indios is in white and Alex is sitting



The same day, I made this picture of me



This one of Indios



This picture of the lake



And I captured also this beautiful tree



Concentration...



Accessories of the ritual, in Spain.

Ayahuasca impressions

Ayahuasca is a mixture of two plants, used for the shamanic rituals in the western Amazon area. There are various religions using ayahuasca in their ceremonies, in particular in Brazil, where a large scale study has been conducted. They decided to legalize the 'tea' because they found that the drink has no toxic effects, doesn't lead to any kind of addiction, the level of natural anti-depressing neurotransmitters increases when the effects of the tea decrease, in contrary to any drug, and ayahuasca improves people's ability to integrate into society. It has nevertheless been forbidden in France, but the US supreme court allowed the use of ayahuasca on the US territory for religious purposes.

Indios gave me a DVD with a lot of graphic artworks. I picked up some of them, to try to share what an ayahuasca experience can be like.



This is a vision I often have when I close my eyes. The impression to move inside an organic web - me. Just imagine motion, and that's it.

There are a lot of phenomenons happening at the same time. They are too many and too complex. Impossible to get a precise vision of all the details. So I often have this feeling to see very meaningful images, without being able to perceive what it is exactly about.

Typical ayahuasca visions, showing that impression to see what lies in the deep mind.



The visions can become darker, but the best is to face all that comes up.



One can even feel surrounded by dreadful beings.



The entire head, but also the entire body, and actually the entire world appear like a gigantic web inside of which all existing beings are connected.



Inside the head and the web, again, differently.



Connecting to the world...



The kind of beings one can meet.



Another vision of what the world looks like.

Meeting Indios and friends

I've been away for a few days, to meet my brazilian friend Indios. He was with his girlfriend, Gwen, and two friends of her : Sarah and Aurélien. We went together in a small village, in the Gorges du Tarn.

Left to right : Indios, Sarah, Gwen, Aurélien

Indios' father makes an amazonian "tea" called ayahuasca. It's a mixture of two plants that have psychotropic effects. But ayahuasca is not a drug. It's a shamanic medicine. I may write more about this later. We took the tea at the top of a "causse", which is a kind of mountain surrounded by cliffs. Some people that are living there took the tea with us.

On the "causse".


The house where we stayed for two nights. The owner is away and allows everyone to come there and stay as long as he wants.


The people we met there


Gwen's father's car :)


View from the top of the causse. Choosing a good place is fundamental for taking ayahuasca


The rock on the right looks like a head looking at the sky


Indios meditating


He almost looks like a shaman


Ready for the ritual





I would have liked taking pictures of what I saw afterwards... But unfortunately, such a technology doesn't exists yet.



Sunrise

Left to right : Aurélien, Indios, Sarah, Gwen (in the light). Aurélien made a thesis in sociology. He knows a lot of places were people have a special art of living. He drived us to some of them in the area.

The people that live here spend almost no money. They built their own cants in the woods. No water, no electricity. They sometimes recover things in super markets' garbage.

Left to right : Gwen, Nico, Indios, Sarah, Aurélien, Steph








Sunset

Then we moved in this other community, but I had to separate from them to get back in Avignon, my mom's place. I don't know when I'll meet Indios again. He's my best friend. I'll miss him.