CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS

AYA: Awakenings is an audiovisual journey into the world and visions of ayahuasca
shamanism produced by the Undergrowth collective. Adapted from the book ‘Aya: a Shamanic
Odyssey’ by Rak Razam (Icaro Publishing), this experimental documentary has evolved from a live audiovisual performance created as part of a book tour in California in late 2009 which blended spoken word, atmospheric sound design by Buttons Touching and hypnotic psychedelic visuals mixed with documentary footage and photography by video artist Tim Parish (Verb Studios).  After two popular performances, it was also invited to perform at the Evolutionary Temple at Burning Man Festival 2009 in Nevada. In 2010 an early version of the documentary was performed at the Cairns Winter Solstice festival in Australia.

The final “video book” (“vook”) merges narration gleaned from select chapters of the book with interviews and innovative sound design, taking the audience on a journey into the jungles of Peru, where the practice of traditional shamanism has an unbroken lineage to the present day. The documentary utilizes interviews with practicing curanderos, and incorporates traditional icaros or magic songs, photographs and video recorded in Peru, mixed with traditional patterns to reproduce the visions seen through the ayahuasca trance.

The project is aimed at funding six high-definition final short videos, already roughly assembled from the tour, which need final animation, sound and video editing mastering, to complete a 90-120 minute “video book” (vook) / DVD, which will also be available as discreet clips for the iPhone and iPad in 2012.

The first two clips are draft completed and were video shorts before the recent Mitch Schultz “Spirit Molecule” documentary tour Down Under in Dec 2010, see http://undergrowth.org/spiritmoleculetour ) and are breathtaking works. Unlike the plethora of indy ayahuasca documentaries coming out, these show the experience from the inside out, alongside a memoir-narrative that guides you through the journey into Peruvian shamanism and helps make sense of it.

http://www.pozible.com.au/index.php/embed_iframe/project/242/4411

To read the critically acclaimed book the video series is based, on, please visit:
http://www.ayathebook.com

And to view some of the video editor’s work (Verb) visit
http://www.undergrowth.org/fiat_lux_evolutonary_vision_words_by_hugo_video_by_verb
http://www.undergrowth.org/time_waits_written_and_directed_by_timothy_parish_verb_studios

In a Perfect World

Reality Sandwich | Rak Razam’s blog.

Cosmovision: An Aya Odyssey
Rak Razam

The following is an excerpt from Aya: A Shamanic Odyssey now available from Icaro Publishing.

“The vine has spread her tendrils across the world and a genuine archaic revival was underway. My bags were packed; South America beckoned, and the ancient mysteries of the rainforest awaited. I wanted in on it…”

Iquitos, Wednesday July 5th., 2006

IQUITOS IS ELECTRIC WITH NOONDAY HUMIDITY as Vance, John and I wade through the horde of locals hustling trinkets outside the Parthenon gates and join the other ayahuasca gringos amassing by the pool. It’s Bowman’s birthday — he’s twenty-four today — and drinking with Guillermo is going to be his present.

We’re waiting for Alexis, a blond, twenty-ish dude from Washington D.C. who’s going to help translate the interview with Guillermo I’ve lined up. Alexis is a Princeton dropout who’s backpacking around on a spiritual path, drinking ayahuasca with shamans and asking critical questions to deepen his own understanding. He’s drunk with Guillermo four times now, and calls him “a fucking Jedi.” When he turns up an hour late, wearing a Corey Feldman School of the Arts t-shirt, I know he’ll fit right in with our media crew.

Vance wants to get out to the Espiritu de Anaconda, Guillermo’s ayahuasca retreat to take some shots before we lose the afternoon light, so we pile into two motorcarros and speed away from the front of the Hotel Parthenon before the touristos bus has even arrived. But our motorcarros get bogged down on the dirt road turnoff from Km 14, a long undulating strip of mud from recent rains, and we get out to walk. The local villagers are busy building a concrete footpath to run from the highway past their village and towards the ayahuasca retreat a few miles in, and part of me wonders if this will facilitate t-shirt and refreshment stalls springing up wherever the gringos go, like mushrooms after a fresh rain.

for the full story click here.

Hi all,

anyone who’s in Los Angeles Wed July 8th please come along I’d love to see you, or pass this on to your networks for people you know that might be interested and able to attend, and help seed the vine!

In Lak’esh

xx Rak

for more info see:

www.ayathebook.com/launch.html
www.projectbutterfly.org > see events > July 8

Project Butterfly welcomes Rak Razam to Los Angeles for the launch of his new book, ‘Aya: a Shamanic Odyssey’ [www.ayathebook.com].

‘Aya: a Shamanic Odyssey’ is part journalistic account, part adventure-memoir of Rak’s travels in South America and the world of Amazonian shamanism.

What is Amazonian shamanism and why is it important to the world today, as we stand on the brink of environmental change and global transformation? Traveling on a magazine assignment to Peru, “experiential journalist” Rak Razam sets out to discover the answers. He joins a growing movement of Western tourists coming for the legal experience of ayahuasca – the “vine of souls” – a South American hallucinogenic plant that is said to heal, and connect to the divine.

In researching the mystery of ayahuasca, Razam undergoes his own shamanic initiation, undergoing numerous tests and trials in the jungle and the psychic landscapes the vine reveals. On the way he encounters a motley crew of characters from rogue scientists that conduct DMT-brain scans on jungle psychonauts; brujo-black magicians wielding their psychic darts; and dozens of indigenous and Western shamans that slowly unravel his cultured mind and reveal the magical landscape of the spirit world.

The evening will cover the booming international business of Amazonian Shamanism and the culture shock between the old world and the new. The difficulties presented given the mix of Amazonian shamanism and Western capitalism. And the ineffable mystery and magic of the ayahuasca experience itself, which cannot be commodified, although the West is certainly trying its best!

This will be a wonderful opportunity to learn more and to engage in dialog about plant medicines, shamanism, community and spiritual evolution. We look forward to sharing a wonderful night with you.

Wed JUL 8 :: 7:30pm

To reserve your space for this event please click on the link below::

www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr

Location::
Project Butterfly Loft
821 Traction Ave #108
Los Angeles CA 90013

Alternative podcaster and author Martin W. Ball heads to Oz this week to talk with Rak Razam, gonzo journalist and editor of the new book, “The Journeybook” . This in-depth discussion analyzes the need for “experiential journalism” to capture the essence of altered states and the shamanic resurgence that Razam is famous for capturing, as well as an in-depth discussion of the current plant-based consciousness movement in Australia.

For the full interview click here.

Interview with Rak Razam.

Australia’s experiential journalist speaks out on entheogens, ayahuasca, salvia, and global psychedelic culture.
Interview by James Kent

Self-described “experiential journalist” Rak Razam is a busy man: Two wives, two kids, and two new entheogenic books to promote. Editor of “The Journeybook: Travels on the Frontiers of Consciousness” and author of “Aya: A Shamanic Odyssey”, Razam has his finger on the pulse of the Australian entheo scene and the global awakening. He graciously took the time to answer our questions for this exclusive DoseNation interview.

]]> http://rakrazam.com/2009/06/03/interview-with-rak-razam/feed/ 0 shazaman http://rakrazam.com/2009/06/03/reality-sandwich-divine-voyeurs-salvia-on-youtube/ http://rakrazam.com/2009/06/03/reality-sandwich-divine-voyeurs-salvia-on-youtube/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:33:26 +0000 shazaman http://rakrazam.com/?p=402 ]]>

Reality Sandwich | Divine Voyeurs: Salvia on YouTube by Rak Razam.

Phil’s sitting on a bed in a crashpad somewhere in the UK about to smoke Salvia Divinorum, an ancient Mazatec hallucinogenic herb. He’s a gangly lad in his 20s with shoulder-length dark hair, dressed in blue jeans and a dark t-shirt. As his friend hands him the bong he bites his lip in anticipation of this strange new drug he’s about to be filmed taking, which will later be posted on YouTube and broadcast to the world.

The background music is “Over The Line” by The Crystal Method from the Tweekend album, a chilled favourite of the salvia set. Phil’s friend lights the bong — it’s a 5x dose, not a massive hit but a decent sized pinch. Smoke curls up the chamber. Phil coughs, quickly holds his nose to stop any smoke escaping, then leans back against the wall as the effects start to come on. Within seconds he’s in another world. A smile breaks across his face and he keeps reaching forward like he’s grasping for something interdimensionally, trying to cut and open a door in the air with his hands.

“Ah, now I get it,” he says, his speech slurred and his body motor control impaired. He begins fidgeting around on the bed, gesticulating erratically. “Whooaww, whooaahhh” he says, over and over, waving his arms above his head like he’s at a rock concert. It’d be tragic if it wasn’t so funny.

Read the full story, excerpted from The Journeybook: Travels on the Frontiers of Consciousness here.

From Wired magazine and NASA:

Wired Science News for Your Neurons
The 2012 Apocalypse — And How to Stop It

* By Brandon Keim Email Author
* April 17, 2009  |
* 2:37 pm  |
* Categories: Space

156196main_sunearth_01_2400x1876

For scary speculation about the end of civilization in 2012, people usually turn to followers of cryptic Mayan prophecy, not scientists. But that’s exactly what a group of NASA-assembled researchers described in a chilling report issued earlier this year on the destructive potential of solar storms.

Entitled “Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts,” it describes the consequences of solar flares unleashing waves of energy that could disrupt Earth’s magnetic field, overwhelming high-voltage transformers with vast electrical currents and short-circuiting energy grids. Such a catastrophe would cost the United States “$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year,” concluded the panel, and “full recovery could take 4 to 10 years.” That would, of course, be just a fraction of global damages.

Good-bye, civilization.

Full story here.

01/05/09

An interview conducted mid-April 2009 with Ryder Susman of the hip Gen Y video site Vive Cool City.com. Here we talk about The Journeybook, being an “experiential” journalist into psychedelic media, and one of the stories in The Journeybook, “Divine Voyeurs, The Salvia YouTube Trip”.

Experiental Journalist – Vive Cool City