“This book is a collection of thoughts and feelings that I recorded in both a sacred journal and audio recordings starting in January 2018 after a psycho-spiritual retreat at IbogaSoul in British Columbia, Canada. The direction of my life was forever changed as part of this and other retreats. The retreat with IbogaSoul had two Iboga ceremonies and resulted in some of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life and a catalyst for most of what is contained in this book.

Since that initial retreat in B.C., I have gained a growing appreciation for the spiritual and physical benefits of plant-based medicines such as cannabis, psilocybin, ayahuasca, iboga, and others. I have seen from personal, firsthand experience and through research, how these sacred plants, when used in a context and mindset focused on spiritual and personal growth, can have positive, life-changing benefits for individuals from diverse backgrounds.

I have witnessed individuals who carry lifetimes of various kinds of pains and traumas find permanent relief from their suffering through these beautiful plant tools and supportive networks.

This book is my attempt to share the sacred feelings that I have felt during moments of sacred, plant-based-medicine-assisted meditation and shadow work. Unless otherwise indicated, these feelings were based primarily on a combination of mindfulness meditation, Kirtan chanting, and sacred cannabis. I have included some pre-2018 journal entries to help provide a context of the progression of this multi-year journey of love.

 There are many different definitions of a guru:

 “In Sanskrit ‘guru’ means the one who dispels the darkness and takes towards light, traditionally a reverential figure to the student, with the ‘guru’ serving as a ‘counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student’. A guru is also one’s spiritual guide, who helps one to discover the same potentialities that the guru has already realized. In the Tagalog language, Indonesian and Malay the word means teacher.”

I have had many different experiences that have had the characteristic of dispelling darkness and moving toward light, some have been through human gurus, some have been through plant gurus, and all have shown me how I can be my own divine guru. I can heal, teach, and guide me when I am tapped into the highest light within me.

Occasionally, some historical context of my life might have been useful to the reader to understand the context of some of the discussions, but I have chosen to not include my back story as these details are irrelevant to the divine love that I have felt through these experiences.

Thank you for taking the time to read these words. I write from the perspective of a learner, not as a master. I am stumbling and falling every day as I try to live and love more profoundly until some future date when I can understand unconditional love perfectly. I will use terms that some might find offensive, or I may define something like “God” completely differently than you do. Please feel my words in your soul and feel the love and universal message than I am clumsily trying to share.

Namaste

Adam”