My journey with ayahuasca began in 1996 and has continued to influence my life until now. I have not spoken publicly about my personal experiences with ayahuasca; however, I now find myself where I have more time and will begin to write my story. My son is in the Amazon as I write this, and I have many relative reflections coming to the surface of my memory about the path I have chosen to walk.
This story begins at Rustlers Valley, when I turned thirty-one in 1992. I had been involved in ceremonial work for four or five years before drinking ayahuasca. Those many ceremonies leading up to my introduction to ayahuasca became years of exploration and discovery for me. I was experiencing a world of new ideas, solutions, and teachings, many of which I had never considered possible. I put myself through many initiations and explored as many ways to access the spiritual realm as possible, from vision quests, sweat lodges, trance-drumming, fasting dances, meditation, trance dance, bio-danza, sound-journeys, san pedro circles, and mushroom journeys. I was influenced and taught by various Sangomas, Medicine women, Curanderos, Pajes, and Shaman from different traditional cultures and teachers who have awakened the inner shaman thru personal experience.
Until 1992, I practiced as a professional photographer in Cape Town, South Africa. I was developing a new business, a photographic studio, and darkrooms for printing high-quality black & white prints. I was also shooting regular editorials for local fashion magazines and model agencies. I loved the work and was good at it. In 1993 I was awarded six awards in the “Ilford Profoto” awards for my entries. Two silver and four bronze. However, it was a tricky business for me to maintain financially. I was barely paying the bills every month. Although I was a good photographer, I had a self-owned business with no capital and no insurance on my equipment. All my gear had been paid for, as I was not eager to buy on credit. Then suddenly, in August 1993, I had a fire that destroyed my darkrooms and photographic studio on the slopes of Table Mountain in Oraniazigt, Cape Town. It was devastating. All my files, photographs, and negatives from years of work were destroyed.
In Cape Town in 1993, I experienced my first Sweat Lodge. I was in a state of remorse, moping over my recent losses. A guy who had become my friend told me he was holding a Sweat Lodge and that I should come and join them. I had no idea what a Sweat Lodge was then, but I was interested in visiting my friend on the slopes of Table mountain, where he said he had built one. I packed my swimming trunks, a towel, and a dozen beers, as I knew no better. Only five people were at the fire, and the Sweat Lodge itself was a crude construction of bamboo holding up some old blankets big enough for five or six people to sit around the hot stones. When I arrived, my friend told me to save the beer for later and join them. It was not a well-built lodge, and it was nothing like the lodges I experience today; however, it opened my mind to a new reality, and Sweat Lodge significantly altered my life that day. I was named ‘Niyan’ by the lodge-keeper, Warrick. I kept that name for thirteen years.
A few days after that first sweat lodge, I heard about a community that lived in the Maluti-Mountain foothills near Lesotho in Central Southern Africa, who were beginning to hold “Festivals” and starting a thing; called “Permaculture.” This community was experimenting with off-the-grid living and alternative lifestyles, among other things. I didn’t know much about it, but I was drawn there and decided to attend the first “Rustlers Valley, Xmas, Free Festival” in December 1994. I had met a guy named David at a drum circle in Cape Town, and he said that he was living in this community and that I should visit sometime. He didn’t think I would follow through and was quite surprised at my sudden unannounced arrival, but we became close friends over the next few years, a kind of spiritual brotherhood. We continue to hold ceremonies together when our paths cross.
