Your First Plant-Based Medicine Experience

Your First Plant Medicine Experience with Dr. Jeff

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Nervous is Normal!

90% of our guests at Rythmia are new to plant medicine. They are typically nervous and don't know what to expect. That is all normal and understandable. People ask if the experience resembles marijuana, psilocybin, or LSD. The answer is no. Plant medicine is a different, unique, and healing experience. We have around seventy-five guests at a time visiting Rythmia to embark on plant medicine, and everyone is nervous, excited, and has a lot of questions. Before the ceremony, our guests have several classes and resources to help set intentions and know what to expect and how to prepare for their first plant medicine ceremony. The Rythmia Way is a thought-out and intentional program that lets you ease into plant medicine in a safe and supportive environment.

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Rythmia Offers a Safe Zone for Plant Medicine

It used to be that a person searching for plant medicine would hike up a mountain into the middle of the jungle to find a shaman without any real support or guidance. The Rythmia Center has changed that scenario and made plant medicine accessible in a safe, regulated, and secure environment.

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Most people have never done this type of work before they arrived here. Our medically licensed facility is the only one of its kind and is equipped and adapted to meet the needs of people who are brand new to plant medicine. We typically have 18 staff members in a plant medicine ceremony, and medically licensed doctors are on call and available to all the guests during their stay. Feeling safe while immersing yourself in the program is essential. You don't want to worry about your physical safety and well-being, the environment, the shaman, or the wild jungle around you. Rythmia is a safe, guarded, and completely secure environment to have your first experience with plant medicine with all the support you need.

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Easing into Plant Medicine: the Rythmia Way

At Rythmia, we give you lots of information and resources so you feel ready and confident walking into a plant medicine session. We give you very controlled dosages of the medicine to ease you into the experience because proper dosage is essential. Ahead of the ceremony, you have a complete medical exam along with triage, and we ensure you are physically and mentally ready to help facilitate a positive experience in which all your intentions are met.

What to Expect During the First Plant Medicine Ceremony

It's a life-changing week at Rythmia, and we are here to provide a safe environment for you to do the work you need to do. We offer four ceremonies throughout your stay, each with a specific purpose. Every staff member is plugged into the protocol for each plant medicine ceremony. Guest speakers and thought leaders provide information about plant medicine throughout the day, and the first ceremony offers a gentle introduction where we ease you into the experience. You can expect to start with a light dose of about 2 ounces of the medicine, and then slowly, throughout the night, you will be offered another small amount if you feel you need it. These controlled and incremental dosages allow you to gently and slowly transition into the vibe you need for your healing process.

The first session is a gentle introduction; some guests have visions and see geometric patterns, which is neuro-rebalancing. Most guests say they are in tune with a deeper awareness within themselves and go in and out of that awareness during the ceremony. The Rythmia team offers guidance to relax and focus on your inner awareness.

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How Does the Rythmia Way Differ?

Our method of easing our guests into their first experience with plant medicine differs from many other facilities that offer one high dose. Usually, these places offer one to two-night stays, and the medicine hits you hard and fast. Our approach lets you ease into the medicine's effects, feel comfortable, and connect with it at your own pace. It's essential to have a relationship with the medicine. Having a relationship with the medicine means having a relationship with yourself. Plant medicine is a tool that helps you plug into yourself, so these four ceremonies are about relaxing into that and having the best experience possible.

Before arriving at the center, we will send you a guide to help you prepare, which includes the dieta, a healthy, clean way of eating with no caffeine, and focuses on a primarily vegetarian and vegan diet. When your body is in tune, plant medicine works better. We also ask that you stop all drugs and alcohol beforehand. You will get lots of preparation information before you get to Rythmia. The support begins before you arrive.

Will I Get Sick During a Plant Medicine Ceremony?

About 50% of the guests throw up. Purging is an integral part of this process. I learned, working with shamans, that there are different ways to purge. Vomiting, sweating, yawning, crying, laughing, and having bowel movements are ways of getting out toxins and moving emotional and physical blocks hindering your life. Plant medicine is therapeutic and beneficial and helps you cleanse yourself to get to the next level of healing. It's a small part of the experience and doesn't last. Most of the time is spent relaxing and gaining clarity.

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The Western Medical Web Versus Indigenous Plant Medicine

People are skeptical of the Western medical model for good reason. The modern world aims to unplug you from yourself so you can be manipulated and coerced into a consumer mindset. The consumer vibe of the world is about spending money and ingesting food and substances that keep you entangled in a system of prolonged illness.

Indigenous cultures worldwide have much less disease because they view illness differently. They aren't part of the scheme of running up insurance bills for unlimited tests, medications, and unnecessary procedures.

Our shamans here at Rythmia explain to the guests that disease, addiction, and discomfort result from being unplugged from yourself physically and spiritually. The beauty of plant medicine is that it plugs you into yourself to heal yourself and be grounded and connected to who you are.

If you come from a history of trauma and fear of vulnerability, this medicine helps you resolve those fears and achieve everything you want. When you are plugged in, you're more capable of being authentic, healing your body, getting clarity on emotions, and having meaningful relationships. If you are dissociated from yourself, you are more likely to be controlled by a diseased system of consumerism—a model that doesn't heal you but rather keeps you spinning on a hamster wheel.

Addiction statistics show that patients in a 12-step program only have a 3 to 5% chance of staying sober after a year. Patients in a 30-day rehab have a 30 to 50% chance of staying sober. These strategies for addiction are not about helping you plug into you. They are about generating money to keep you as a patient for 20 to 30 years. Human beings want to be free, independent, and in control of their destiny. Plant medicine gives us that freedom. It helps us feel connected, grounded, and happy.

Indigenous cultures perceive illness through a different lens. Take mental illness, for example. Western culture doesn't have much to offer when treating mental illness and is limited to medicines, psychiatric hospitals, and long-term therapy. People who experience mental illness often don't “fit” into Western society. Indigenous cultures view mental illness differently. People with schizophrenia aren't considered dysfunctional outcasts but individuals with a unique connection to the spirit, God, nature, or other beliefs. Those indigenous groups have a healthy way of looking at healthcare, healing, and people who aren't the "norm."

In the 90s, it was common to overdiagnose every kid who didn't behave well with ADHD, and all these kids were heavily medicated. It's proven that kids with ADHD have a high IQ and that the system isn't conducive to their needs. Sitting still in their chair for several hours, staying quiet while following directions, and listening to the boring teacher weren't what they needed to flourish. These kids wanted to move around, solve problems, and be creative. Many innovative schools created curriculums more conducive to their needs, like no chairs so they could move around, often having different workstations with different activities to get things done in their own time and way. This exemplifies how we must look at illness differently and find a better solution than the standard lens.

The Western system prevents us from seeing things outside of that framework and dissociates us from healing on a deeper level. The West is closed off mindfully and is very fearful of change that gets in the way of undermining big corporations, big pharma, and government control.

Westerners can benefit from indigenous cultures and their healing methods like plant medicine because the body, mind, and soul want connection and to be grounded. Plant medicine is a fast way to get plugged into ourselves. That's what we do here at Rythmia. We help you plug in and get grounded.

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Let Rythmia Empower You

Plant medicine gives Rythmia guests new self-awareness. Guests often express how they feel free from a victim mindset and how they feel liberated from the place where they feel they are controlled, whether by a family dynamic or a medical, government, or community model that oppressed them and prevented them from realizing who they are as a person. The Rythmia Way helps them feel empowered.

Don't shortchange yourself. Tap into significant healing with Plant medicine.

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