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​🇨🇴 I'm in Bogota and checking out the Colombia startup ecosystem! Join me over coffee here if you're around, and everyone, please take my ~3 min community survey. Your insight will help me help our community. Plus, you can win prizes!

​Tanya Menendez (Snowball Wealth), LaDante McMillon and Ivan Alo (New Age Capital), Babba Rivera (Ceremonia)

​Last week, I did ayahuasca in the Sacred Valley of Peru, and I want to tell you about it because many of you asked for it, and I want to give you a peek into indigenous medicine.

​Ayahuasca is an indigenous Latin American medicinal plant used to heal the body, mind, and spirit. You consume it as a liquid. It scans your body for illness, purges it out of you, and immerses you in the world of the Pachamama (AKA mother earth) to learn what you need to learn. In my experience, it only works if you enter your journey with an open heart, ready to face everything that's inside of you and the universe.

​I took ayahuasca twice, over two days, with clear intentions and the hope that it would help with my mental health and PTSD. My two ayahuasca journeys were dark, overwhelming, peaceful, and healing. I was born twice. On the first day, the Pachamama showed me all the darkness in life and made space for me to grieve as I've never grieved before; and on the second day, she showed me all the light in life and gave me the gift of infinite love.

​Within my two journeys, the Pachamama gave me messages on what to work on 1) to continue healing and 2) my purpose on Earth. Among other messages, the Pachamama told me to turn darkness into light (with a process she taught me), to receive as much as I give, accept only infinite love, and to rest and play.

​There's so much more that happened in my two journeys (totaled ~12 hours), but I'll stop here for now and just say that I'm grateful to have done ayahuasca because as part of my LATAM nomadic trip (and outside of Ganas-startup-VC-community work), I wanted to connect with my Latinaness, indigenous culture, and to heal. Ayahuasca and the Pachamama helped me accomplish this on a level I didn't think possible. I'm incredibly thankful.

​✨ Lolita Taub
twitter | lu.ma | Recently featured on Nasdaq’s Tower, Forbes, and Fast Company.

​A note from my Shipibo shamans: ayahuasca is meant to be a medicine for all humanity, not just Latinos or indigenous peoples. It's important to do it with the intention to heal, with experienced shamans, and in an environment where you have the support of doctors, psychologists, and love.

​Disclaimer: Every ayahuasca experience is unique. I am not a doctor and do not promote or discourage the use of ayahuasca. I encourage you to do your own research on healing and choose only to do what you believe to be best for your body, mind, and spirit.

​Congrats

​Bianca Sassoon raised $30M for 17 Sigma VC’s fund I. Ivan Alo and LaDante McMillon raised $25M for New Age Capital’s fund I. Tanya Menendez got a $100k investment for Snowball Wealth (port co) from Google for Startups. Anastasia Tarpeh-Ellis and EJ Oruche got a grant for Bosa from Main Street Ventures. Babba Rivera and Ceremonia (port co) became the first Latinx-owned brand sold at Sephora.

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