Heart of the Initiate - Shamanic Ayahuasca Workshops and Retreats in Bahia, Brazil

New Article! 'Intention' by Ralph Miller

Webmaster — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:46:55 -0500

Intention by Ralph Miller (June 27th, 2009)

Intention is something we take into the sacred moments of our life. It is the prayer that we offer with each breath we take. Real intentions are our will to act and do in a way that guides our souls through this universe. What should those intentions be? Can they lead us to contentment and peace?

Read the Article

New Article! 'To Live In A Better Way' by Ralph Miller

Webmaster — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:29:07 -0500

To Live an a Better Way by Ralph Miller (June 11th, 2009)

The morality of the Inca cultures was a beautiful and simple approach to life: Do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy. The guiding principal of the Inca would seem to be that living in a truthful way is better than living in a false way. We individually can develop higher consciousness within a path that is truthful.

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Watch Four New Videos!

Webmaster — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:29:43 -0500

Alex Grey on Ayahuasca

Alex Grey, visionary artist, talks about an ayahuasca experience he had in Brazil. He shares the dichotomy of touching his own true Buddha nature and confronting his own shortcomings as a human being. His style is very personable, down to earth, and he invites the viewer to accept all aspects of simply who they are.

"I think ayahuasca can show us how beautiful we are inside; and what kinds of possibilities we have for love and for actions of kindness. What better way to root ourselves back into the web of nature and a compassion for this web of life, than through the plants themselves. The plants are talking to us; we need to listen." - Alex Grey

Alex Grey: Artwork Music Video

Drinking ayahuasca medicine is an encounter with the deepest sacredness that exists within each of us. One of the master lessons of the plant is to let go and allow the plant to enter into us. We embrace this intelligence of nature and allow it to help us to heal our humanity, reconnecting back to the primal force in all things.

This music video by Alex Grey and Eamon Barling graphically demonstrates the rewiring and reconnecting process of the human soul back to the universal web of nature, where all things are connected as one.

Graham Hancock: The Mystery of Human Origins

Watch this engaging interview with Graham Hancock speak on the mystery of human origins, sacred plants, and the shamanic realms beyond this world.

"The original inspiration [to drink ayahuasca] in my case was an intention to explore the mystery of human origins. As I started to investigate this material I found that most of the story is incredibly dull. Our early ancestors behaved for millions and millions of years in an incredibly dull and uninteresting manner with no creativity, no symbolism, no evidence whatsoever of a spiritual life.

The brain was there but it wasn't being used. Something happened that led to it being used. I believe that the evidence is compelling that our ancestors discovered altered states of consciousness. They may have come across hallucinogenic plants by chance; they may have thought they were food items. Then when they consumed them it brought about a radical transformation in the way that they looked at the world. It changed everything about being human." - Graham Hancock

Wade Davis: Cultures at the far edge of the world

With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate. Wade Davis has been described as "a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life's diversity." His talk covers a wide range of indigenous cultures from the Kogi indians of northern Colombia to the ayahuasca traditions of the Cofan in Amazonia.

"Together the myriad cultures of the world make up a web of spiritual life, and cultural life, that envelopes the planet. It is as important to the wellbeing of the planet as is indeed the biological web of life. This cultural web of life is the ethnosphere, the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations and intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness. The ethnosphere is humanity's great legacy." - Wade Davis

All of these videos and more can be found in the Video Library.

Read our interactive brochure!

Peter — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:15:07 -0500

Read our interactive eBrochure to learn more about our experiential workshops and healing retreats. If this was the only part of the website you read you would understand our message.

Please feel free to send to a friend. An email will be sent inviting them to read our brochure.

* requires Adobe Flash Player.

New September 2009 Brazil Ayahuasca Workshop Dates!

Webmaster — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:13:42 -0500

For thousands of years the shamans of the Amazonian rainforest have used a sacred plant brew, known as ayahuasca or yahé, for healing and spiritual awakening. This ancient medicine is a very powerful visionary tool to awaken the inner sight.

We offer one and two week workshops in an extraordinarily beautiful setting along the coast of Bahia. We will spend the week exploring and opening the subtle doorway through the heart energy and into the inner trans-dimentional worlds long forgotten by mankind. This is the path back to remembering your true divinity and awakening of the true self.

We have just announced the September 2009 dates for our Brazil Ayahuasca Workshops!

2009		Upcoming Brazil Workshop Dates		Status
September		Week 1: September 05-12		Now Booking
		Week 2: September 26 – October 03		Now Booking

Find out more about our Brazil Ayahuasca Workshops.

In the Spotlight!

Webmaster — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:21:21 -0500

Please have a look at our most recent changes, articles and upcoming events.

New Articles

Intention by Ralph Miller (June 27th, 2009)

To Live an a Better Way by Ralph Miller (June 11th, 2009)

The Black Swan by Ralph Miller (December 12th, 2008)

The world is going to change in some fundamental way; you know things will change but you can’t put your finger on what the change would be. You just feel it. A great transformation will happen and the form it will take will be something we never anticipated. The concept of a black swan is a metaphor. It is reference to anything that is utterly improbable. It refers to events or things which are not predictable but at the same time feel inevitable.

2012 Revisited by Ralph Miller (June 21st, 2008)

The December 21, 2012 date is a symbol that exists as an extraordinary irony. Any particular date is a man created marker denoting the concept of a point in time. I find this ironic since the great transition or evolution we may be approaching surely has to do with complete renovation of our time consciousness or even the eradication of time itself!

Read more articles in our Article Library.

New Media & Press

Mind–Altering Vacations: Ayahuasca in Brazil article published in Condé Nast Traveler (April 01st, 2009)

Heart of the Initiate, a U.S.-based organization, offers ayahuasca workshops at an eco-resort on the coast of Brazil, where the indigenous, religious, and ritual use of ayahuasca is protected by federal law. The workshops—either 8 or 17 days—begin with 2 days of decompression, followed by ayahuasca ceremonies every other day, led by an experienced shaman.

Brewed Awakening article published in Now Magazine (Toronto) (March 04th, 2009)

What seems to be happening is awareness on a quantum level not typically experienced in a person’s lifetime. Yet the experience for many is familiar and may be reminiscent of the earliest moments of our life when we first reached this world from a source that is somewhere else. The familiarity nurtures a confidence that we will ultimately return to a source we already know.

News for the Soul live radio show broadcast (February 14th, 2007)

Join us to hear more about our workshops, how we came to take people from all over the world to this sacred medicine, and ideas about how this medicine helps people to understand who they really are. They key question in approaching this sacred journey is to ask yourself "why"?

Find more media and press info in our Media & Press Library.

New Audio

Logos: The Living WordNew Live Lecture by Ralph Miller!

Recorded live on March 16th, 2008 during our workshops in Brazil, listen to Ralph Miller lecture about the intelligence of nature and the origins of language.

"Ayahuasca activates the language centers in human consciousness. There is an ancient mystical Greek philosophy called the Logos. The Logos was 'the word'. Through the Logos, all things that came into being were made. The Greek mystics felt that there was a language that existed beyond three dimensional, temporal human language. That it would be a four or five dimensional language that can call into existence all that is."

31:12 minutes (28.6 MB) | Play or right click to download.

Find more streaming media in our Audio & Video Library.

New Videos About Our Workshops, Ayahuasca, and More

Alex Grey on Ayahuasca

"I think ayahuasca can show us how beautiful we are inside; and what kinds of possibilities we have for love and for actions of kindness. What better way to root ourselves back into the web of nature and a compassion for this web of life, than through the plants themselves. The plants are talking to us; we need to listen." - Alex Grey

Alex Grey: Artwork Music Video

Graham Hancock: The Mystery of Human Origins

Watch this engaging interview with Graham Hancock speak on the mystery of human origins, sacred plants, and the shamanic realms beyond this world.

"The original inspiration [to drink ayahuasca] in my case was an intention to explore the mystery of human origins. As I started to investigate this material I found that most of the story is incredibly dull. Our early ancestors behaved for millions and millions of years in an incredibly dull and uninteresting manner with no creativity, no symbolism, no evidence whatsoever of a spiritual life.

The brain was there but it wasn't being used. Something happened that led to it being used. I believe that the evidence is compelling that our ancestors discovered altered states of consciousness. They may have come across hallucinogenic plants by chance; they may have thought they were food items. Then when they consumed them it brought about a radical transformation in the way that they looked at the world. It changed everything about being human." - Graham Hancock

Wade Davis: Cultures at the far edge of the world

"Together the myriad cultures of the world make up a web of spiritual life, and cultural life, that envelopes the planet. It is as important to the wellbeing of the planet as is indeed the biological web of life. This cultural web of life is the ethnosphere, the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations and intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness. The ethnosphere is humanity's great legacy." - Wade Davis

Watch all of these videos and more in our Video Library.

Consciousness and the Spirits of Nature

Week-long Ayahuasca Workshops in Brazil
September 2009

For thousands of years the shamans of the Amazonian rainforest have used a sacred plant brew, known as ayahuasca or yahé, for healing and spiritual awakening. This ancient medicine, also known as "el remedio" or "the medicine", is a very powerful visionary tool to awaken the inner sight.

We offer one and two week workshops in an extraordinarily beautiful setting along the coast of Bahia, located approximately 700 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. We will spend the week exploring and opening the subtle doorway through the heart energy and into the inner trans-dimentional worlds long forgotten by mankind. This is the path back to remembering your true divinity and awakening of the true self. As we work through our old, limiting patterns, we begin to heal and reclaim our lost power.

Update! Learn about the integrative healing of superfoods, bodywork and natural environment that we have incorporated into our workshops. Read more...

Mayan Mystique: Exploring the Heart of the Ancient Maya

Sacred Sites Workshop in Chiapas, Mexico
Coming Soon 2009

Throughout the world exists the remnants of ancient civilizations long forgotten in our modern lives. These Sacred Sites are doorways to a spiritual wisdom that these people possessed and held open for us to discover. The walls between our world and their world are thin in these locations, allowing us to walk between them and thus remember these sacred ways.

We invite you to turn back time 1500 years into Mexico's ancient past. Long before the first European set foot on this land were the indigenous cultures of the Mayan civilizations throughout the Yucatan peninsula. There existed civilizations of hundreds of thousands with entire cities lost in the rainforest until unearthed this last century. These people were masters of astronomy and cycles of the natural world, sacred geometry and had a metaphysical awareness far beyond even today's greatest understanding. Read more...

Upcoming Workshops

Sacred Sites Workshop in Egypt
Coming Soon 2009

Take a metaphysical tour of the ancient lands of Egypt. Enter the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid and see what mysteries this hidden doorway holds.

Find out more about our workshops in the Workshops Section.