Rio de Janeiro,

Colorful flags hang festively from the ceiling. Jesus, Bhudda and Krishna, sit flickering with reflected light in front of a dancing candle. The Virgin Mary, Iemanja and Ganesh rest on an altar placed on a woven blanket. Tibetan mandalas, angels and the star of David hang from the walls of Arca da Montanha Azul. The music increases and the beat quickens. Cries of joy erupt around me along with the sounds of stomping feet.

Ayahuasca puts you face to face with yourself in the most honest, reality-based confrontation. Illusion melts away. The sacred medicine removes the veil of protective deception revealing unbiased reality. It can be jarring. I recommend it. Our world would be greatly improved if every person could experience the shift in consciousness it provides. Vastly different from modern medicine, ayahuasca deals with the root of the problems not the symptoms.

I sit at a table scattered with colored pencils and paper. Holding this pencil right now seems like some kind of glorious joke. To take the experience I’ve just had and translate it into language is impossible. Drinking ayahuasca has made me more aware of my life. I see how I’ve created an illusory bubble around myself. The bubble reflects how I want to see the world and how I want to see myself. I can see how many of my actions have been based around caring what society thinks. What is society anyways? It’s clear to me now that just as my way of thinking is flawed and illusory, the human condition is the same. So what is this Society? It is mass disordered thinking. Human beings are so caught up in the reflections of themselves that they can easily lose sense of what is important.

In my journey tonight I experienced this deep, deep, deep all encompassing sadness. I kept letting it out, experiencing it and also trying to fight it. I didn’t even know what I was sad about. It was a lingering pain and sorrow from the past. From my childhood and teenage years. I am not that anymore. I am far from that. I am even far from who I was last December when I got on a plane to come to South America. I have found soul here. Deep soul, and I want to bring it back to the big city of New York. People there need it so much. People need a reminder of the magic existing all around them. They need awareness~ everything that I need too.

My art is my way to bring my experience of this to people. What do I want to say to people? Celebrate LIFE! Smell the flowers! Ditch society, it’s fabricated. Find yourself, you’re right here! Be honest and real with yourself and others. People are beautiful. Always. Even the most rotten person has this intrinsic beauty if you consider their condition. People become nasty as a result of being afraid. There are so many people in the world that are scared. Just like me. I want to help people find the power and magic they have inside of them.

Arca da Montanha Azul. (The Ark of the Blue Mountain) is a spiritual center in Rio de Janeiro whose mission is to know, protect, save, preserve, promote, deepen and broaden the understanding of different religions and sacred traditions, in constant dialogue, enriching each other in the task of combating prejudice and religious intolerance. They have weekly ayahuasca sessions and I recommend it to anyone who wants to evolve themselves and learn more about who they really are. You can request a schedule of events by sending them a message.