Months earlier I had an eerily similar yet worldly different experience. I was lying on a hard surface, ingesting medicine as healers stood above me and "sucked" the spirits out. The medicine these healers gave me knocked me out though. I could feel nothing as they sliced me open and zapped me with hi-tech instruments. They cauterized and flushed my insides with warm liquid and charged me thousands of dollars for a procedure that had to be repeated three weeks in a row and still left me in a good deal of pain. That time though, I got to keep the video.
Abigail Leeder
A Healing Journey
2002 Winter | Abigail Leeder
Somewhere deep in the Amazon Jungle, lying flat on my back on a cold wooden bench, I was being healed. The sun-weathered shaman was chanting in his native tongue as he sucked on various parts of my body, ingesting the spirits that were causing me harm and then regurgitating them onto the sandy floor. My senses were heightened by the medicine I had recently imbibed. I heard the rustle of the herbs that were being shaken above my body. I felt the alcohol spraying through his mouth like a waterfall, sticking to my skin and mixing with my humid sweat. I smelled the mixture of tobacco and alcohol and body odor and fresh rain and the oxygen produced by the thickest forest I had ever seen in my life. I was traveling on a "Shamanic Journey to Ecuador" led by John Perkins and co-sponsored by Cross Cultural Journeys, The Institute of Noetic Sciences, and The Dream Change Coalition. I was having what felt like one of the strangest experiences of my life--that is, until I had a chance to think about it.
Sustainable Sweetness
Abigail Leeder | David MargoliashDavid:
My love history began when I was quite young. It all started with the (oh, so serious) crush I had on Sarah Madland in 2nd grade. God she was cute...and smart and kind. I loved the sense of strength and purpose with which she carried herself...the lilt in her voice when she spoke...and the way I felt whenever I got within a few feet of her. I wasn't sure what I wanted with her but I knew that it had something to do with love.
I was Sarah's secret admirer for a brief yet sweet time. I had butterflies in my stomach every time I saw her. I loved that I couldn't stop thinking about her and that my thoughts about her always seemed to be such good ones. Yet it wasn't enough just to feel my feelings. I needed to take action. To this end I lovingly carved her name in a 3 x 7-inch piece of lumber upon which I painted a blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and a beautiful seven-colored rainbow. I wrapped it in Navy blue popcorn wrapping paper (without a note) and then slyly slipped it into her desk when no one was looking. (Fortunately the Gods had placed me in the desk immediately behind hers.)
