“PEOPLE’S LOOKS ARE MY MEDICINE”
Revealing statements of the founder of Ayahuasca International about people working in the organization.
Many people ask us about the formation of our facilitators; if we are therapists, shamans or health professionals. It is a fascinating subject, which largely explains one of the secrets of why there are organizations growing beyond all odds. It is related to the ability to create emotional ties with the people with whom you work on a project, and with the imperative need to restore hope in life and trust in each other.
We are a team of over 50 people from more than 10 countries (and we’re just getting started), among which 30 are international facilitators, who receive ongoing training at the European School of Ayahuasca, it is a non-formal training developing a very extensive program with varied subjects exposed theoretically, in great depth; also accompanied by ongoing practices, supervised by health professionals, shamans and other facilitators with many years of experience.
Although we are not shamans, they are the ones who originally taught us the understanding of the science of master plants and plants of power, and who support us in this work; they actually give us
Ayahuasca confidently because they know how we use it. Facilitators travel to the jungle at least twice a year to be in contact with shamans and nature for their individual processes, which is the basis of our work with others. Some facilitators are specializing in accompanying people from all the world on those trips to the rainforest.
I consider it’s necessary not only to know about Ayahuasca and the way to use it, but also to have extensive knowledge and experience of the various problems brought by participants, in order to provide fair and adequate word for guidance in the evolution process of each person taking Ayahuasca. Being a facilitator is to know how to “support and assist” the processes of each participant attending our retreats, it is not about guiding or helping, as we work on personal empowerment, so that everyone understand he must take care of his own process. We also “collaborate” so that each person coming to us feel secure and safe, cared for and protected; but the inside work is done by oneself with himself. If a person leaves with the feeling that he achieved his process thanks to others, he becomes dependent. If he leaves knowing he did achieve it himself, he becomes more self-confident;
Ayahuasca International facilitators are constantly training, it can’t be otherwise as their evolutionary processes are as lively and evolving as participants’; that’s why they are permanently supervised by an expert team with great experience. Apart from the participation in the School’s formative cycles, they are gathered each month for an internal and intensive training based on the understanding of the diverse processes happening when one takes entheogens expanding consciousness. These private meetings are free and conducted in Spain, and from 2016 in Italy, Mexico, Colombia and Germany, for our facilitators and collaborators.
Facilitators are hired permanently, and are assigned a mentor tracking their personal evolution and the tasks they are responsible for. The company organizing these events is INNER MASTERY INTERNATIONAL SLU who guarantees the quality of the work offered to participants. Each participant can communicate and expose any type of claim to the organizer, legally established in several countries in Europe and America.
Many participants asked us: How to enter this team? Who can become facilitators? THE FIRST THING IS TO BE A PARTICIPANT. All those who are facilitating have been greatly benefited participants, and are grateful for what they received during the retreats they attended before becoming facilitators.
Becoming a facilitator of Ayahuasca International implies going through an inner process. There are experienced professionals offering themselves but they do not accept to go through this integration process. Some bring us extensive resume to prove they can begin to work with us right now, but that is not enough, even for recognized or experienced people in Ayahuasca or therapy worlds. We must see every person in action, we need to feel his energy and, above all, detect the point at which he is right now in his own inner evolution. From there, we suggest to perform the integration and mentoring program for a few months in which one starts realizing practices. It’s a very confrontational and intensive process, and, in turn, useful. More than 30 people were not able to get through it in the past two years, but more than 30 were able to persevere and settle within the organization with amazing results. It’s a great challenge.
Many people think one must be professionals, shamans, or teachers to do this work, but it’s not the case for us. It is true that some are shamans or psychologists, others therapists or psychotherapists, others are professionals from other areas, or self-taught; (I, as leader of the organization, am the one who has less education and culture of all) but they are all anchored in the same point from which they move; this point of connection and unity is what allows us to make everything with the support of everyone else. And that point is a whole ideological development within the organization, not based on beliefs and traditions but on new models of approach, open to what’s new and spontaneous. I am personally open to everything new, fresh and authentic that every member joining the team brings me.
Each of us is increasingly aware that the most important thing in this work is the ability to connect with their own personal power and express their Being naturally to others.
WE DO NOT OFFER ILLUMINATED OR TRANSCENDED FACILITADORES.
We transformed what was presented until now as the figure of the “spiritual master” in the form of a guru, into a “master energy”; and we obviously changed the gender, we moved the male figure of the “master” towards femininity. It’s a “healing energy” that we hold together as a spiritual family. Decentralizing the power nucleus that I have as a founder and director of the organization, so that each member can cease to be a “second”, a “follower,” a “spectator” based on complicated confrontations I do with each of them, and after which each activate the courage to take his commitment, responsibility, dedication and take advantage of opportunities offered by the company at any given time and area.
Almost all those who stay on the way and cannot continue or leave do so because they reach a point of their own limitations that they cannot transcend; but that is also rewarding, at least they arrive until there, which is all a triumph. Because they thus can go their own way knowing the point at which they must jump.
Most cross these internal limits and enter a world of possibilities in terms of both human and spiritual development and personal fulfilment. And the most beautiful thing about this project is that these people are not teachers, gurus, or enlightened beings, they are much more than that. They are people who made the leap, and that is a miracle within a society dedicated to condition and limit.
For these reasons, we do not create ideals to follow based on showing that we are better than the participants, we are higher than them; because we understand that each one of us has different conditionings and that we are all at different stages of improvement. Every human being individually configures his potential and limitations. Before that, one can only love and understand.
We are no example or model to anyone; we only want to be an inspiration from our own lives, for others who want to overcome themselves and dare to take the leap. WE ARE TAKING IT ALL THE TIME. THAT IS WHY WE DEDICATE OURSELVES TO IT, TO OUR INNER WORK.
Every time I go to the students and facilitators, or to retreats’ participants, I open my eyes very well to see the awesome presence of the beings before me coming to heal me with their gaze. So my look is centred into my eyes, because they are the window of my own transcendence.
As the executive director of our school, Laura Torrabadella, said: “We understood that we are all equal before the creation, that a therapeutic bond is not a relationship, but rather a place where two people delve together, to discover each other’s mystery, and the unknown. Participants are our medicine, their own medicine and the medicine of the other participants; and we create and maintain spaces for this medicine to be able to come out and touch the heart of all the people attending our meetings.”
WHAT DOES BEING A FACILITATOR WITHIN AYAHUASCA INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION MEAN?
1 HE DOESN’T HELP. He supports and accompanies. He enables each one to do his own work on himself.
2 HE DOESN’T MAKE TREATMENTS. He inspires, from the confidence that everything can be overcome.
3 HE DOESN’T GUIDE. He can explain the way and indicate the direction from his knowledge based on his own experience.
4 HE DOESN’T PROJECT. He expresses his being. He allows its presence to emanate spontaneously.
5 HE DOESN’T DOMINATE. He takes care of the frame, pays attention to details and guidelines to be respected.
6 HE DOESN’T SHOW. He is open and attentive to his own process. He listens to others and to himself.
7 HE DOESN’T ENTAIL. He offers creative alternatives to understand the problems and get unstuck.
8 HE DOESN’T GIVE ELABORATE ANSWERS. He opens a range of considerations so that the person asking can answer his own question.
9 HE DOESN’T GIVE THE EXAMPLE. He experiences, learns, thinks, exceeds himself and evolves.
10 HE DOESN’T DISCUSS. He is de-identified, he doesn’t need to be right, he quits obstacles from the path to wisdom.
11 HE DOESN’T JUDGE. He comprehends human problems in depth (both the limitations and the potential)
These 11 points conceptually represent the point of connection and unity from which we move.
They are of such importance that they enable us to work on us forever, as if it was an eternal game that we share with the entire team.
This is what we call FAMILY, not a blood one, but a spiritual one. We are and make the framework and environment that encourages our own healing. “THERE IS NO UNIVERSITY OR STUDY OR EXPERIENCE THAT CAN HELP IF WE DON’T DO WHAT WE HAVE TO DO WITH OUR OWN LIFE”. (Paula Carmona)
When people approach our activities, they enter that energy campus, which is often weak, defective or absent, but that’s part of the evolution game. Therefore the key is to be vigilant. The attention is the part of our consciousness warning us, alerting, announcing and making us realize that, at times, we are not to up to the circumstances. And then, a new possibility to exceed ourselves comes to life again and again.
We give the possibility to exceed oneself to each participant, I thus created the warranty certificate for each participant who hasn’t received the energy I mention, so it can be given to him and ha can give us a new opportunity, offering him a retreat for free. We do so as we unconditionally respect the process of our facilitators, including their falls, and we take advantage of this situation so that each participant can support the organization with his comprehension.
In the background, as said in many ways in this article: you and I are the same. We can support each other in the direction of improvement. This is the integrating phenomenon between the giver and the receiver, when the healing intention matches between people.
“WE ARE ALL UNDER THE SAME ENERGY FLOW FROM THE TREE OF LOVE”.
Alberto José Varela
In the next article I will delve into the phenomenon of giving and receiving. Into the art of delegation. Into the meaning of leading, and into the dangerous intention of making political careers within organizations dedicated to inner evolution.
Those who want to join the team of facilitators, can join the European School of AYAHUASCA.
Ayahuasca International holds Inner Evolution retreats with therapeutic use of Ayahuasca in several countries in Europe. Click the links for specific information on each retreat.
Berlin, March 9 to 12
Eindhoven, Netherlands March 9 to 20
Marbella, March 15 to 19
Cologne, March 16 to 19
Switzerland, March 16 to 19
Vienna, March 16 to 19
Tenerife, March 16 to 19
Barcelona, March 22 to 26
Berlin, March 23 to 26
Mallorca, March 23 to 26
Madrid, March 23 to 27
Marbella, March 29 to April 2
Munich, March 30 to April 2
Salzburg, March 30 to April 2
Sweden, March 30 to April 2
Hanover, April 6 to 9
Estonia, April 6 to 9
Switzerland, April 6 to 9
Click here for a complete listing of information of all the 2017 Ayahuasca International Retreats Calendar. It includes subsequent links to information, prices and booking procedure for each retreat.
For bookings or to request any further information call to +49 (0) 171 987 6655 (also available by whatsapp) or write to [email protected]
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