Purge All That Does Not Serve You to Receive the Divine

Many sacred plant medicines – ayahuasca, peyote, iboga, and even mushrooms (which are technically fungi, not plants) – will make you vomit. While the act of vomiting while you are simultaneously hallucinating sounds like a terrible experience, it’s actually not so bad. In fact, it’s considered to be a good thing. So good, it’s called “Getting Well.”

Why Purges are Sacred in Plant Medicine Traditions

In most indigenous traditions, healing disease is a holistic process of restoring the body, mind and spirit to health in a balanced way. Disease is perceived to have a spiritual origin, so in order to overcome disease, it is necessary to heal the soul, in addition to healing the body and mind. In addition to consuming medicinal remedies, the spirits of the plant or animal ingredients that were incorporated into the medicine are also invoked to assist in the patient’s healing. Nature and elemental spirits, as well as ancestors and divine beings might also be called.

The act of purging is seen as a vital elimination of impurities from the patient’s body – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual impurities. What comes out might include:

Actual disease. Cancers, tumors, parasites, depression, anything associated with the patient’s illness may be eliminated, restoring the patient back to health. Many anecdotal accounts of spontaneous healing abound, however, most have not be verified within a Western allopathic framework, and should be considered with caution.
Past trauma. In the Amazon, the accumulation of emotional traumas is considered to be a pre-cursor to disease, and regular purging of negative emotions is considered to be necessary for good health. Sacred plant medicines have been found to be a potent way to heal deep emotional traumas in for many, come to a complete resolution of painful past events.
Toxins. This might be chemical toxins that have accumulated in the body, including artificial ingredients in processed food, and poorly digested animal products that are putrifying in the digestive system.
Judgements and erroneous beliefs. Sometimes our beliefs about ourselves, other people, situations, etc, might be limited or even incorrect, yet our ego compels us to hang onto them. Old beliefs that no longer serve us may find their way out in the purge, allowing us to have more mental and emotional freedom.
Other people’s negative energy. Other people’s negative energy can get caught up in our own fields, especially if there is ongoing negative drama or intense agendas involved.
Negative, violent media. Violent imagery from news, movies, and even books can linger in the psyche, and while we are so used to being bombarded by this kind of media in our day-to-day lives, they can have a cumulative impact on our emotional well-being and vitality.

Plant medicine ceremonies are deep body and soul cleanses. Fully purging these impurities out of your system typically brings on an incredible sense of lightness and well-being, accompanied by a sense of freedom, power, and possibility.

8 Ways to Immediately Cleanse Your Body Temple

If your body temple is unclear, your visions will also typically be unclear, and the information received in the visionary state can be muddled and hard to interpret. Here are ways to cleanse your body temple prior to a ritual:

Follow a cleansing diet. Many sacred plant medicines call for dietary guidelines prior to ceremony. Find out what those guidelines are for the plant medicine you will be praying with and follow them for as many days prior to the ceremony as you can. Typically, these guidelines call for the elimination of alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs, processed food, meat, salt, sugar, etc.
Avoid sex, including sex with yourself, and sexually fantasizing about other people. Sex involves a powerful energetic exchange and if you are sexually engaged with someone in the days leading up to ceremony, there is a strong likelihood that you will feel their energy in your own energetic field very strongly during ceremony. This can be confusing. Sex can deplete vital energy, and reduce your stamina to navigate an all-night visionary journey, and inhibit the plant’s ability to give you guidance. This is why it’s also recommended to avoid masturbating.
Avoid intense, violent media. This includes such as horror movies, violent action films, & news war coverage. The strong imagery can leave negative residues in the psyche that will be enhanced during a ceremony.
Avoid engaging in negative dramas and speech. Try to shelve any difficult and potentially dramatic conversations or interactions until after your ceremony, when you may receive insight as to how to handle the dynamic in the most loving way and peaceful way. Try to also refrain from complaining, negative rants, or engaging in gossip. Negative speech is often a pressure relief valve for many of us. You might as well save it for when you will be purging in a much deeper way in ceremony.
Unplug from electronic devices and social media. Electronic devices and online media can be both energetically draining and addictive. Social media triggers a dopamine high, which is what drives people to constantly check their devices, and feel irritated if they are unable to connect. It’s good to allow this neurotic behavior to calm down before entering enhanced visionary states.
Purify in a sweat lodge or temescal. If you don’t have easy access to this form of prayer, use a sauna or steam bathe. Sweating out toxins helps clear and relax the body and mind.
Practice yoga and meditation. Any practice that calms the mind, enhances mindfulness and full-body presence in the here and now is a great way to prepare for body and mind for an experience with the divine.
Purge during ceremony. Many sacred plant medicines have purgative qualities, and the act of purging is considered to be “getting well”. Don’t hold back – allow everything that no longer serves you to be eliminated, whichever end it wants to come out. You many need to have another serving of medicine after a purge. Typically, your visions will be much clearer after this.

5 Things to Keep Purging From Your Life

Post ceremony integration is the time to incorporate the wisdom and insight received from working with the sacred plant medicines. If you want to extend the power of the visionary experience towards long-lasting life transformation, it’s imperative that you keep practicing the sacred purge.

No, this doesn’t mean keep vomiting…

It means taking regular note of the things that no longer serve you, or that which is preventing you from evolving into your highest self, and letting them go. This may include people, situations, or habits. When you let them go you create the space for what you want to come in. Here are 5 things to consider purging from your life.

Negative people and toxic relationships. Distancing yourself from toxic people, who will free up your time, energy, and social space for more people to enter your life who love and respect you. Surround yourself only with people who are overjoyed to be in your company and wish for your well-being.
Physical objects you no longer need or use. Clearing out unnecessary belongings clears physical space so that your mental and emotional space can also be uncluttered. Things can actually consume a great deal of time, so when you minimize, you free up a considerable amount of time as well.
Limiting beliefs. So many of our limiting beliefs are inherited and unquestioned. If you can flip the limiting belief into a question that entertains the possibility of a yes, rather than a no, or of abundance, rather than lack, simply by adding a “What if”, your energy can be freed to accomplish things you never believed were possible.
Negative self-talk. Be mindful of your self-talk, it’s a conversation with the Universe. Negative self-talk is a neurosis inherited from society that is completely unnecessary. The more you let go of this habit – and replace it with loving, positive self-talk – the more radiant, attractive and empowered you will become.
Unhealthy habits. All of us have habits that are unhealthy or sabotage our success. This can range from how we care for ourselves to interpersonal habits that limit our opportunities or how we spend our time.

Your Sacred Purge Journal

During sacred plant medicine ceremonies, it’s not unusual to notice how much more you are actually purging out from your system than vomit. Traumatic childhood memories, judgements, interpersonal dramas, disempowering stories about yourself, disturbing images from violent news coverage, parasitic entities – these are some of the things that you may find yourself purging as well. While getting well might be a difficult physical and emotional process, pay attention to what’s getting released!

There are nuggets of wisdom in that vomit!

Consider keeping a journal of those insights, and, because habits are often hard to break, take note of what Spirit is telling you to let go of, so you can practice letting go if an old pattern starts coming back.

What lifestyle habits need to be released?

Are there any foods or beverages that Spirit has indicated would serve you to stop consuming, or at least take a break from, for a while?

What stories do you need to let go of about yourself?

When allow a habitual story about yourself to define you, you limit your freedom to be something else. Do you have a story about yourself that you tell over and over again that feels rigid and stale? The reality of what actually happened is far richer than your chosen narrative. Are you willing to let go of this story and allow yourself the possibility to be even more than your belief?

What stories do you need to let go of about other people?

When you have habitual narratives and judgements about another individual, like your partner, family member, or friend, you limit the dynamic of your relationship. It pigeonholes the other into a role that they may not even like or deserve, that does not allow them to be the fullness of who they are. Can you let go of this story and allow that person to be even more than your belief?

What do you need to forgive in yourself?

Visionary states can reveal past traumas that haven’t been completely processed or fully healed. Some of the greatest pain from those difficult experiences comes from our own anger towards ourselves and the role we played. Can you forgive yourself and give yourself the love, kindness and compassion now, that you didn’t give yourself back then?

What do you need to forgive in others?

Visionary states can reveal past traumas that haven’t been completely processed or fully healed. Pain caused by the hurtful actions of others have far less to do with you and everything to do with them. Is it possible to recognize that their actions stem from their own wounding, and forgive them?

Image Credits:

Art by Noa Knafo