Can Plant Medicines Cure Eating Disorders?
Six year ago I sat with Grandmother Ayahuasca for the first time. I was shown and embodied a vision where I become the Divine Feminine. My awareness had transcended to a place where I no longer used food and my body as a way to control and feel safe. There was no place for playing small, getting trapped in judgements, shame and restrictions. I was free; softly lying on my back, grounded in the Earth, surrounded in pink light, with my heart open and balanced. I felt in harmony with myself and the world around.
And then what happened after the ceremony?
I had no integration or tools to help transmute these major energetic shifts into my physical body.
I fell back into well-trodden patterns of restricting my food, over-exercising, comparing and judging myself and with others, berating myself and causing immeasurable amounts of self-affliction.
I did not fully comprehend the magnitude of this vision at the time. And now, six years later, am I only starting to understand what this vision was trying to communicate with me: what it truly means to live without an eating disorder.
And then, fast forward to 2021 in another ceremony, where I had my first experience of witnessing and co-organising with the medicine my DNA structure. I was consciously embedding new DNA structures in my body; I was healing on an epigenetic level. The plants and Icaros were curing me.
And now studies, such as this one led by Roland R. Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, which show that personality traits, such as “openness” can be changed with psychedelic medicines in the same way meditation and breatwork practices work.
So can plant medicines cure eating disorders?
I would argue that they can and cannot. On the one hand, they point us in the direction, in very potent ways, and it is up to us whether we take the plant’s advice. And on the other hand, literal DNA restructuring can occur that not only changes the physical structure of our own bodies, but also has impact on future generations through epigenetic upgrades.
Leaving epigenetics aside for now, we can have a ceremony where we are clearly shown some great and powerful lessons for our healing, but once we leave the ceremony space, without the right support, the odds of falling back into old, habitual ways of existing are high - expected really.
What the medicine can show us are our shortcomings. We are given the opportunity to face them with honesty and courage, and commit to putting in the work to make positive changes. At the very least, we have the chance to acknowledge these facts about ourselves. However, we always have the option to pretend all is well and sweep it under the carpet. There are many directions to go once in the hands of the medicine.
For someone approaching the plant medicines with the intention to cure an eating disorder, the plants have the power to do the following:
Clarify and illuminate our unique path.
Purify intentions and contextualize our place in the world.
Open up our hearts.
Dispel doubts and fears and asks us to question the validity of these self-limiting beliefs, especially around food and body stuff.
Activate gratitude and self-compassion towards ourselves and to the greater world around us.
Restore our inherent connection the web of life and The Great Mystery.
Widen our perspective from narrow focus on food and body, and into an open mind and heart space where these things no longer have a place.
Bring the inner child and other parts of ourselves to the forefront who desire to be cared for and lovingly seen.
Shift our focus into the present moment.
Big shifts can and do occur when we working with plant medicines. For lasting change, it is important to develop and strengthen our spiritual practice. When I mention “spiritual practice”, I am talking about practices that help enhance our awareness of subtle energies, our awareness of awareness, our ability to remain equanimous with whatever is arising, our sense of connection to something greater, and our capacity to care for ourselves and create boundaries.
These practices can include meditation (metta meditation is a powerful practice for people in eating disorder recovery), mindful movement, conscious dance, praying, gratitude exercises, creating art, singing mantras or medicine songs, committing to follow one’s intuition, working with sexual energy, working with the Tarot, and connecting with Nature and elements through Earth-honouring practices (by this I mean a dynamic relationship with Nature through practices that strengthen and honour the connection)... and so much more! What are some of your spiritual practices?
Circling back to epigenetics, upgrading our cellular DNA also doesn’t just miraculously happen. It takes focus and working with the plant allies and the Icaros to solidify these biological, epigenetic changes. But these changes, once integrated and built into the body are lasting.
The medicine path is not an easy one. In the beginning, we may come up against some painful, confusing or unpleasant memories, traumas or belief patterns. It may feel easier to escape or hide from the seemingly relentless suffering. However, if there is a resilient willingness to explore the intricacies and subtleties within our own psyche when in ordinary and non-ordinary states of consciousness, in ceremony and outside of ceremony, I believe then that plant medicines can help cure eating disorders.