Unusual Cures For Social Anxiety #3 ­ Ayahuasca

Coming to you from the center for Social Confidence in Portland, Oregon. Welcome to Shrink for the Shy Guy, Helping men everywhere go from social anxiety to social domination with your host, Dr. Aziz.

Hey, welcome to another episode of Shrink for the shy guy. I'm Dr. Aziz, and if you would like to go deeper in the show, go to shrinkforthshyguy.com and you can find show notes. You can ask me questions there that I'll respond to in the Ask the Shrink segments that I do. And also you can get a copy of my ebook there for free, which is five steps to unleash your inner confidence. And that is full of specific steps that you can take right now to systematically build your confidence in any area of your life. So that's a great book to get started with that will really guide you. And, you know, even maybe you downloaded a long time ago, go back and reread it. You just might find that there's certain things you're doing and maybe certain things you forgot about. And I've had people tell me that I went back and I never realized this when I read the third step. So check it out. That can really help you. Go to shrinkforthshyguy.com Today's episode is the third in a series called Unusual cures for social anxiety. This is Unusual Cures for Social Anxiety number three. And this is all about ayahuasca. Oh, yes. And it's something you might have heard of and something you may not have heard of. And I'm excited to share more with you. I am going to put the caveat in this one because it is a controlled substances. In some states, it's legal. In Oregon, it happens to be legal. That's where I live. But in many other states, it is illegal. And so. And it's a. It's a substance. So I need to put my disclaimer here, which is that this is in no way me operating as a psychologist in prescribing anything that's going to be intended to treat any psychological condition. This is purely for educational entertainment purposes only. And this is purely about my own experiences, what I've seen in others. And it is in no way condoning you to do anything illegal or to ingest anything of any kind. That is totally up to you and your own discretion. And you should consult with your own doctor, lawyer, Pope, and anyone else who could make decisions for you there. Having said that, go drink ayahuasca, man. No, you know, here's just some stuff that might open your mind or give you some insight into some experiences that really helped me. So basically, for those of you don't know, ayahuasca is a tea, I guess you would call it. It's a liquid, brown liquid that is produced. It's made in other places now, like Hawaii, but originally comes from South America, from the rainforest in Brazil. And it is a unique mixture of two plants, some sort of vine and some sort of other leaf plant. Those of you who are botanists are, like, shaking your head at my lack of clear knowledge. But in any case, it's a pretty fascinating story this comes from. It was discovered by, you know, tribes in the Amazon thousands of years ago. And what they would do is they have this really elaborate process where they cook down this part of this vine and these leaves, and they mix these two plants together. And independently, these plants would have no effect if you were to ingest them. But if you cook them in this very specific way and you mix them, it has this very powerful psychoactive effect. And when Western people ask the shamans who kind of led this ceremony in their tribes, they said. They said, how did you know to mix these two plants? There's thousands of plants in the jungle here. And their answer is, awesome. They said that the plants told us to do it. So there you go. If you can be a lot more, you know, they're probably a lot more tuned into nature than we are and living in cities and houses and whatnot. But fascinating that this is what emerged. In any case, it is a powerful psychoactive substance in the sense that it affects your mind, your thought process, your consciousness, your awareness, as well as your physical body. And, I mean, people can have what you might call hallucinations or. But, you know, I don't know, not necessarily seeing a pink elephant running through the room or something like that, more so distortions in the visual field with your eyes open, seeing lines of energy. If you've ever done any sort of psychoactive substance like psilocybin, mushrooms or lsd, something like that. Also a lot of stuff happening with your eyes closed. Seeing a really powerful imagery that's associated with strong emotional states and feeling. There's also a lot of physical effects from it, including dehydration, disorientation, nausea, and vomiting. Although they don't call it vomiting, they call it purging. And it's actually thought to be part of the healing process to vomit or purge. It doesn't happen to everyone, doesn't happen every time, but it can. And that's why a lot of people that use it will fast the day of. Or at least a number of hours ahead of time. So they're not, you know, eating a big roast beef sandwich and then. And then throwing it up later. So that's kind of the basic rundown. If you're curious more about the details of it, you can just. There's great research and information on Wikipedia and such. So I'm not gonna go too much deeper into that. That's just gonna give you a context. The way people do it is there are shamanic circles and ceremonies where people will. That's kind of mostly how it's done. And those are mostly illegal, unfortunately, because this is not the kind of thing. It's not like a party drug. You're not like taking this at a rave and going. It's like a passage through the soul. I mean, like, you're kind of non functional during it in a lot of ways. And. But, you know, people get in a. It's a kind of a circle. It could be anywhere from five people to, you know, 30 people. Often done at night. Often there is some sort of singing or music involved. And if it's led by a shaman, then he's usually like making music and sounds. I remember when I did it, which. I'll get more into my stories in just a moment. You know, he's like waving bird feathers and whistles and all kinds of interesting stuff, but often done in circles in that way and in darkness with singing. And another way that it's done is through these churches. And that's actually how I do it. It's legal in Oregon. It's got whatever the exemption that was given to the Native American church that was fought for and won in Oregon to give it to what's called the Santo Daime Church, which is a church that was started by a rubber tapper. He was a rubber tapper in the Amazon in the 1920s, maybe 30s or 40s. Again, you could probably find all this stuff out on Wikipedia. But anyway, he went there and met up with some Amazonian shaman dudes and they introduced him to this and he drank it. Of course, all the visions and stuff he had were through his own religious background, which was Catholic. So he saw like Mother Mary came to him and told him to start a religion with this stuff. So he did that and he basically got a couple of his friends, I think, and they just sat there, they drank and just sat there for like five hours and just meditated. And that's what their religion was. And then they started doing prayers and then they started doing hymns and songs. And it's evolved and morphed. Now what a ceremony is like in the Santo Dame church is one of the more common ones would be you sit in a room with the lights on so it's not all, it's not dark and you drink the ayahuasca and then you sing hymns in Portuguese for like five to eight hours with multiple services of this, of this drink and that's it. Now, when I go to ceremonies, I'm usually not singing for five to eight hours because I don't have that high of a tolerance. These people do it more often. So I sing for a little bit, then I like roll around in the back of the room vomiting and then I sit back in my seat and sing a little bit more. So I'm going to share more about that's kind of all the quick rundown of what this is and I'm going to share more about my experience with it and why I believe it's a powerful cure for anxiety and an amazing source of confidence. So stay tuned. We'll be right back right after this. Does working with Dr. Aziz actually work? Can you really break free from social anxiety and live a life of confidence, success and happiness? Here is what one client had to say about his experience. What would I say to somebody considering coming to see Dr. Disease for a live weekend? Do it. I mean, don't stop it. It's what you need. If you're doubting it, just do it. I would definitely recommend Dr. Aziz to anyone who wants to improve their confidence in social skills. He's I don't think anyone else out there is offering anything like what he does, especially something that's so geared towards people who, you know, who, who kind of lack in the social confidence area. To get started on your journey towards lifelong confidence with Dr. Aziz, simply go to social confidence center.com coaching hey, welcome back. So why is this stuff helpful and what has it done for me to help relieve anxiety? Well, what's fascinating and what I've noticed the most about it is it's a powerful way to face fear because I probably, it's probably the one of the strongest forms of fear that I feel in my life now is preparing to and going to do one of these ceremonies and I don't do them off that often now. I used to go semi regularly, maybe once every month or two now with little kids and they're just totally opposite my schedule because they start at like 6pm and I go to bed at like 8pm usually and wake up at 3 or 4. So I basically haven't done one in a while. But, you know, I maybe go every four to five months now. That's what I like to shoot for twice a year. And the level of fear that I feel beforehand is striking. And I'm not talking anxiety, you know, because we all experience anxiety. And like, oh, what if that person says this about me? And what if that happens? And what if, what if our garage floods and the rainstorm, right? That's just anxiety, not fear. I'm talking like fucking strong, uncomfortable fear. The kind of fear where I'm like driving, they call them works, by the way, in the, in the Santo Daime Church. You know, a work, a healing ceremony or a work. When I'm driving to a work, part of me is like, just turn around and drive home. Drive off a bridge, don't go. And then, you know, you get there and they're set up and then you're all sitting down and they do say the pretty prayers to open up the ceremony. And then you all line up with men on one side and the women on the other to go get your service, your little shot glass of this ayahuasca. And I'm in line. And part of me is like, run, run, run. I just have to like breathe and calm myself. So that in itself is extremely valuable. To be able to feel that much fear and face it is great because I don't. I mean, I do a lot of stuff at this point in my life that scares me, but it's not that spike of intense fear that's like, you know, go face a wild beast kind of fear. And I think that's just really good for us to do. The question you might have is, well, why are you so scared? What's going to happen? And it's something I've pondered before. And it's interesting because it's not. There's no real threat to me. The reason I think I'm so scared is because it's like a temporary melting of your ego, temporary letting go of all control. So the rational part of me that's like this goes here A, goes to B. One plus one is two. That's a tree, that's a chair. I understand everything in this world and nothing is gonna surprise me, right? That kind of certainty oriented ego version of us just gets blasted the fuck out of nowhere, right? It's just, you just, you just have this kind of opening. What's his name? Aldous Huxley talks about the doors of perception and he talks about how our mind in a lot of ways is like A reducing valve. Like, there is so much information coming at us right now, and there's such a depth to everything around us that it's be freaking overwhelming if you were taking in all the sounds, all the sights and. And not only that, but like, all of the knowledge behind each of those things, like what a tree is made of and its life cycle and its roots and how it's connected to the earth. And if you really go down those rabbit holes, it's too overwhelming. So our mind is like a reducing valve that just cuts out 98% of it. And now you're just focused on typing something on your computer or making a sandwich. And you don't sit and think about, wow, where did this bread come from? And what is the quality of it? And, wow, look at all the little porous, you know, holes on the face of the surface of the bread. And, you know, I wonder, you know, the history of bread, how long it's been involved in humanity's life. You know, you don't. You don't go down all that, but when you drink this, in some ways you do. You open up that valve. So instead of 98% getting filtered out and only 2% getting in, maybe 10% gets in. And you just start to feel. And there's a benefit to that because you start to feel a sense of awe at the vastness of this life and how little we truly, deeply understand. And it can be overwhelming and it can be scary. And I've had this experience where it's like our mind can feel so solid and certain, as if it's made up of angles. And think of like a city with skyscrapers. It's like sharp, hard angles. And then when you're on this, you're kind of like, wow, life's a lot more like there's nothing to sit on. There's nothing to hold on to. And I had this experience of almost like being in a river where you can't, like, you can't just quite climb up onto the shore. It's like muddy banks on either side. And you just really have to let go and go with the current and go with the flow. And when you do that, at least for me, I feel a lot more. And I end up feeling a ton of emotion, of pain for the things that hurt me, of challenge or frustration at the things that might be hard for me or make me angry, sadness or grief at things in my own life or things that are beyond my control, going on in the world or in the planet. Things I kind of just shut down and don't think about too much because it's too painful. I feel all of that. And that's part of. I think that's another reason why I get so scared, is there's a part of me that's just afraid of feeling. Because at the end of the day, all of our fears are just fears of feeling. And here's like, a dose of intense feeling that I'm going to experience. That part of me is like, ah, I don't want to feel that much. I don't want to feel. And yet when you do, and I learned this a lot from these ceremonies, is you just have to let go. Because if you're trying to figure everything out and you're trying to control your experience, oh, man, you just get anxious and nauseous and vomit and feel terrified. I remember the very, very first time I did it. It was in one of those shamanic circles, and I had no. I mean, I'd done some psychedelics before then, so I didn't think it would be that different. But it was way more intense. And I remember being, like, all disoriented and freaked out. And so, like, I, you know, somehow signaled the shaman guy to come over. And he came over and he's like. And I remember he, like, he kind of held onto my hands, and he had these big, thick, like, sausage, rough finger hands, way bigger than mine. I remember holding onto them and they were all warm. And he's like, tell me what's happening. And I'm like, I don't remember what I said, but something like, I'm really scared right now and I just want it to stop. And he said, well, not gonna stop for a while. Not gonna stop for a long time. I was like, damn it, that's not what I needed to hear. But it was true. And, you know, I didn't know how to surrender that well then, but I've learned a lot more now to just breathe and surrender and let go of thinking and just go with the energy, go with the current. And that's an extremely valuable lesson for life, too, because how much of life comes from our own fighting and resistance and suffering around this shouldn't be. I shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have done that. This should have happened earlier. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with that? And then there's just a lack of surrender in those situations, of flowing with what's going to happen and when we. This experience forces you to do that. Forced me to do that. And if I don't, the suffering is immediate and intense as opposed to strung out over days or weeks, like in our own day to day life. It's kind of like a crash course where you have to surrender and when you do, things really open up and you can feel deep senses of peace, love, joy, awe for this life. And there's this kind of cleansing effect that I find where afterwards, after I kind of made it through the gauntlet, I feel so much lighter and just so. It's like my heart has been scrubbed and all the kind of rough edges, the armoring around the heart has been broken away. And I'm just so deeply connected to how much I love the people in my life, how much I love my family, love my parents, love my kids, love my wife, and how much I feel connected to other people and my mission and what I'm doing here. And that's a place that I go to to kind of recalibrate, you know, what am I doing on this planet? What is important? Why is this important? And, you know, what do I want to. What is my mission here? And we're actually going to talk more about that in just one moment. So we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back and keep talking about ayahuasca and how it could potentially radically shift your approach to life. Hey, what's up, J dawg? Sup, Wizzy? Nothing. Hey, man, I just saw this video on YouTube from this pickup artist dude. He says he slept with 40,000 women. Damn. I know. He said if you want to hook up, you have to make fun of women so they want you. I can dig it. Word. I'm gonna try it now with her. Check this out. Hey, how you doing? I'm doing okay. Cool, cool. Your shirt is really big. It doesn't fit you very well. What a mean thing to say, jerk. Uh, yeah. It looks like the kind of shirt a woman who is much fatter than you are would wear. Ugh. Get away from me. Okay. How'd it go, man? Pretty good. She talked with me for like, 30 seconds. Damn. That's a long time, man. Did you get her number? Almost, but then she had to go. Damn. Are you tired of pickup artist tactics and approaches that don't feel genuine? 30 days to dating Mastery teaches you proven confidence building principles to increase your confidence with women, all while being yourself. No manipulative tactics needed. Go to 30days to datingmastery.com to get your copy today. Welcome back. So what does this have to do with you? It's probably a great question. Well, you might just be interested in it. Might find it fascinating to learn about this thing that you might have never heard of. Maybe you've heard of it, but didn't really know much about it. Maybe this is something that you're called to do. I don't know. Again, remember, I'm not encouraging or condoning anything, but if you're of your own volition, you wanted to, you could find out more about opportunities to do it. And in most states, as I said, it's not above ground, so you'd have to, like, find out. But I believe that if you're really called to do it, it will come to you and you will find a way to make it happen. There'll be opportunities if you just really intend, like, I want to do this. You'll find something will emerge in your world, in your reality. Start looking around, start seeing, listening to people, interacting with people, and just seeing what. What emerges. Because if you're ready, you know, the teacher will appear kind of thing. I think that's. That's true with this. And how else does this relate to you? Well, even if you're never going to do this, you can take the lessons of this and apply it in your life. And one of them is what I was starting to touch on there before the break, which is about, well, basically, this is like a fast, kind of a shortcut way to get in much more connection with the spiritual side of life and of yourself. That's kind of what I've been alluding to in this episode when I talk about, you know, letting go of control, surrendering to something bigger, getting in touch with awe, cleansing our hearts so we can feel more love. I mean, these are qualities. These are reasons why people go to church or mosque or temple. These are reasons why people chant in the morning, why they pray, is to feel more of these things in your life and then to get more of that guidance from your intuition. Or if you have developed a spiritual side where you do communicate or have conversations with God, with Jesus, with whatever figure or sort of construct helps you connect, then this is a way to strengthen that. And so if that's something you're drawn to, that might be a reason to strengthen it, because it's like a direct mainline to that. It's not some. Well, you got to go to a church and kind of really strain to sort of feel it. It's like, holy shit. You can't ignore it. And another thing that really happens when I'm there, is I feel humbled. I really just get put in my place, you know, because I don't think of myself as an arrogant person, but there is sort of an arrogance, I think, in humanity and sort of like, in a way, we don't really know our place, right? It's like the planet is mine. It's ours to do what we want with it. We'll fucking drill for the oil that we want. We'll cut down the forest that we want. You know, it's like we. And hey, we're all. I'm not pointing to any specific groups. We're all kind of a part of that. Like, if you look at what humanity's doing, we're sort of, you know, we're land grabbing. We're going for everything we can as a collective species. Even if, you know, some of us are morally opposed to that or something, it doesn't. We're all part of it. You know, I own fucking iPhone, gadgets and stuff that's mined from. Has minerals in it that are mined from Africa or, you know, I buy some peanut butter that's got palm oil that was grown in a fucking rainforest in Indonesia, right? So we're all part of this. And I just get humbled of kind of knowing my place after one of these experiences. You know, being on my hands and knees and vomiting into a bucket and crying and just feeling fear. And there's just this sense of like, wow, I don't know that much about this existence. I really don't. And I am not in as much control as I like to think I am during the day. You know, there's this element of, like, I'm gonna do. I have to do this all on my own. And I think there's a humbleness of like, you know, I'm not doing this all on my own. I am receiving a ton of guidance and support. And all the things that I think I'm doing and accomplishing are. Who knows, like, how much am I actually doing that? Or is it just happening through me? And so I leave kind of humbled in a way and much more connected to that guidance and what you know. And you can think about that in your own life. Like, are. Are you connected to something greater than yourself? Do you feel that way? And that's what I loved about actually first happened with. I was hanging out or spending time with a mentor in Santa Barbara. And I did mushrooms, psilocybin mushrooms. And it was very different experience. It was very like a ritual. Like, we set an intention beforehand and like, through his Guidance. It wasn't like I did it before with like some college buddies and I was like eating mushrooms and walking on the beach, which was amazing. But it didn't have this like kind of spiritual guidance to it that I got from my. One of my teachers, Marcelino. And that completely, that shift that shifted me from being an atheist to being, I guess, agnostic, because up until that point I was like, people that believe in God are stupid. Just had like a chip on my shoulder, probably because I felt like hurt and abandoned by God. But that moment I was like, holy shit, this world is bigger and more. There's so much going on that I don't even comprehend right now. And it popped. My arrogance. And we can get connected to that through these substances. And there's many other ways to do it, but this is a powerful way. Especially if you're kind of entrenched in your mind and you're up in your head like I am a lot, then this really helps shift that. And it's a powerful, life changing experience. It's not for everybody. And you know, I wouldn't recommend it for everybody. And some people are. It's valuable. And some people, I would say, certainly don't do that. You don't need that. I mean, because it can be kind of destabilizing if you're not fully solid in yourself. So, you know, obviously different people could benefit in different ways from it and some people should not do it at all. So that's ultimately up for your choice. And that leads us to our action step today. Time for action. Your action step for today has actually nothing to do with doing ayahuasca or not doing ayahuasca. That's whatever, whatever you want to decide around that. Your action step is actually for you to do like a little quick mini spiritual assessment or inventory. How connected do you feel to something bigger than yourself? A creative force? Does it seem like it's benevolent or has any sort of care for you? Do you feel guided in any way? Do you feel like an isolated, alone fragment in an uncaring, cold universe? Do you feel like there is a purpose or a mission for you here on this planet that you can tap into? Are you living it? Do you feel like there's a loving or loving, forgiving energy that's accessible to you? Can you communicate with this force? Do you. These are interesting things to think about. And I think there's extremely valuable benefits to cultivating this side of yourself, whatever form it takes, whether you want to, you know, and I've done sweat lodges for years. So whether you want to pray to different elements, you want to drink South American psychoactive tea, you want to go sit in a church, you want to meditate and find your own path to connect. But whatever it is, if there's something you can do to strengthen that, I would highly recommend that because that's one of the most protective factors against fear and anxiety and stress too. And getting you back into self love and finding your way in the world without being so anxious and stressed all the time. Extremely protective and healthy factors there. So definitely worth cultivating finding your way to that. And thank you for being with me on this meandering journey into the world of Ayahuasca. Until we speak again, may you have the courage to be who you are and to know on a deep level that you're awesome. I'll talk to you soon.

Thanks for listening to Shrink for the shy guy with Dr. Aziz. If you know anyone who can benefit from what you've just heard, please let them know and send them a link to shrinkforthshyguy.com for free blogs, ebooks and training videos related to overcoming shyness and increasing confidence, go to socialconfidencecenter.com.