Tag: #spiritual

Alice in Wonderland

(A conversation between Alice and Mr Dodo, Medellin – 03/11/2018)

– Hey, when are we going to meet?
– Hello Alice, you tell me… you know I have lots of time. Whenever you want
– Oh well… we can meet up later today or tomorrow. We can do something during the day
– As you wish Alice. We can plan something during the day
– Ok, let’s have some drink together. Tomorrow I need to the Police and I don’t know how long they will retain me there
– Retain? How come? Shouldn’t Alice be travelling already? …. Well, in any case they will keep you there for a long time
– No no, my travel plans have ended. Now I want to stay quiet, I can tell you when I meet you
– Ok…. I know where are we going to go then in a couple of days. It is a magical place. Around 4pm. I will disclose details day after tomorrow in the morning.

And with that thought, Alice greeted him. They will meet up another day. A day of adventure, and above all, knowledge. But the next two days started with a heavy grey cover in the skies… Despite the torrential rain, Alice was optimistic about it.

– How are you today?
– Hello Alice…. I was going to contact you, but look how rainy it is…. and my species can’t travel in this rain, Alice……
– Ohhh……
– I know Alice, but we will have to postpone it
– Ok
– What about your trip, Alice?
– Oh well… Alice got dates
– Really?
– Yes, but until the day of my departure Alice will spend her time reading. That is what Alice is doing most of the days… In the afternoon, she takes a couple of drinks and that’s it
– I like that life, Alice…. What about the papers?
– Which papers?
– Will Alice come back to her previous life? Will Alice come back to the work cubicle?
– Only thing I can say is that Alice will go to the North in 2 weeks, looking for the sea
– Oh, you will never be the same person again, Alice
– Well…. I am not the same person anymore. Now Alice does not know how to come back…..
– Fantastic….! You found yourself Alice….. You were quite lost, Alice, that’s true.  But you will only know how to return if you know how to get lost
– Mr Dodo, you always speak to me in an encrypted manner as a way to maintain the mystery. You are a bit hard to catch…. but you know what? I have accepted you as you are. I have interesting conversations with you in any case. Everything is ok as it is….
– I am pleased to hear that from you, Alice
– Yes, it is better to accept things as they are… So you are saying that I was already lost?
– I am going to accept your invitation to lunch, Alice
– Ok…. Where?
– Tomorrow I will tell you where. You wont know until you get there
– Mmmmmm…….
– But if it rains before midday, it won’t be possible….. I have told you that my race doesn’t walk under the rain
– Which race is your race?
– We are the opposite of vampires. We live during the day and fear the night. And above all, we fear the rainy days….
– I think your nature is more complex than that. Your biology as standard human is just an external layer….
– I can see you are grasping it….. We don’t drink blood though. We eat vegetables
– You talk to me in an encrypted manner again. But it is ok, I am in learning mode and absorbing information. And there is knowledge I want you to share with me
– Knowledge…….  My soul is an old one
– Mine as well…..
– There is something more there… An interest in the beyond…. Something that you keep there…. A level of conscience to connect with….
– Uff… There has been a bang in my conscience. I have been absorbing an inmense amount of information….. So much that it produces vertigo. Lots of knowledge in such a short time…..
– I know. The plant of wisdom told me something about it, Alice…….  That you are already by the other side. That you would wake up here, in the middle of the world, my friend. How does it feel to be alive?
– By the other side? How do you know that if we have barely talked about ?
– Because my species always know….


– Answering your query about the vertigo, I will tell you that is normal. That is the feeling when we are born. Perhaps later on it will be different. You will get used to it. But right now is vertigo. Only that this time you don’t lose the ability of being surprised. It is normal. You look at the universe and realise how deep is everything you are discovering and facing. Your body will be less necessary in this journey. Your brain will show to you things that you didn’t know they existed. Just right front of your eyes. You will see how magical everything is
– Ufff…. I hope I don’t become mental….
– It is, in reality, very intense… but also very exciting. The whole universe is like a drug
– Ok, when I see you I will tell you my dreams… They have been quite revealing…
– Oh Alice…. You have grown a lot lately….
– How do you know that? Can you see it from your control panel? Is that a good or a bad thing?
– Me? I know nothing……
– Here we go again, the encrypted ways….. I consider you a creature of knowledge… And a bit mysterious too….
– Me? I am just normal…
– There’s more to you that meets the eye
– I know little… I go to school to learn….
– Yes Mr Dodo. You go to school to mix with the mortals, so you can understand them better….
– Ha ha… … yes
– This isn’t new for me…. I have known beings from other planets living in this one…..
– Oh well…. I am bored of this one. I want to be taken to another.
– Another what?
– Another planet. Here they all are mad… Can you imagine how it is out there? We are a plague over this beautiful world. We are a virus
– But you know that we cannot escape from this planet that easily…..
– I know…. We are trapped here trying to transcend
– We are trapped in a system that forces us to come back here again and again….
– Yes, there is something big behind….. What purpose is beneath? Who are we in reality? What reality are we creating without knowing it?
– I thought you would tell me…. but in that case I can share with you the little I know
– We are born, we grow and we die ….
– Yes, we are a like a virus, because we are asleep and we behave like giant amoebas…..
– Exactly, like a virus in a giant body…..
– Hence, my vertigo…. Which comes from knowing that we are trapped and obliged to stay asleep, spending half of our lives in the process of awakening, only to die and when you come back here turns out they slept you again…..
– That is how the game is played Alice….
– I don’t want to come back then
– Me neither Alice. I can tell you that I aspire to be disintegrated in such a way that I cannot be re-assembled in any way!
– Well, my spiritual master told me that inevitably we all come back here
– Really? What a sad thing, don’t you think, Alice?
 – Yes… the only way to escape is to reach a very high level of conscience
– Lets hope that the planets will align so we can get you out of the hole, Alice… it is time for you to come back
– Oh…. and you are coming with me?
– You can’t live there forever. You are in a complicated moment but it is normal
 – Come back where to?
– To the world…….
– Ok Mr Dodo, you speak interesting things again while keeping it encrypted…. are you like that with everyone?
– No, it is not the same for everyone….. The others only know the surface. Only few know my real age. And I have not seen the waking process in many….
– You havent told me your age
– Others have shown me their real age, how old is their spirit. But I have only known one soul. Life doesn’t pan out in the same way for everyone…..
– True….
– The majority are only simple mortals… And I emphasise the world simple…
– And what is your real age, Mr Dodo?
– You know it…. once upon a time, it was a task. You and I have the same age
– I am trying to do the calc of my own age, but I got lost counting…. Remember me please… I am performing too many processes at the moment
– The same age of the universe… my matter is as old as the creation is
– So you are saying that is time to come back to the world…. which world, mr Dodo? Where I am supposed to be now?
– Depends on which level of conscience you are…. You will need to hear the infinitum inside of you to get certain answers….
– Oh Mr Dodo…. it is very instructive to hear you
– You can’t live in wonderland for ever Alice, but you can always come back here. We will be waiting for you, Alice
– Come back? That means I was there? I thought I was in wonderland before waking up….
– You are here… in the chaotic present of a world full of wonders. You were trapped in the real world.
– And you want me to come back where I was?
– We only allowed you to see what could be different, but you are not ready to stay here yet. You will return where you coming from. But you will come back here, that is for sure
– Come back where?
– Here or another land where you can live in peace and harmony. You need to prepare yourself
– Ok…
– Journeys are made in metal birds that you will be using. But there will be a time you will not use them. This time you will leave your conscience and heart in your awakening. So you will come back to fetch them. You deserve a rest of your existence proper of someone who masters its destin
-Mr Dodo, you speak with riddles….. And you previously said the word ‘We’…. who else is with you?
– So many beings that you could not imagine

The End of the Affaire

(Change occurs again, Somewhere in America – 15/09/2018)

My journey has been like climbing a mountain. Ascend, peak and descend. Three stages which correspond with three defined moods during this trip.

Ascend. Innocence, Freshness, Expectation, Hope, Keenness
The ascension was to spend two months in Cape Town. Venturing myself outside Europe and getting the flavour of living in a different continent: Africa (although many of you might object that Cape Town isn’t real Africa, which is true in certain ways, but it is Africa in others). Those two months were months of preparation for being a nomad for the rest of the year: to slow down and adjust my pace to the way life outside of working corporate Europe. This was necessary in order to appreciate and absorb the knowledge and experiences set for the next phase.

During that training, I also decided to do give something back. That is why I did some volunteering while I lived in Cape Town. I thought that two months of doing so would be sufficient and would allow me to move in a full leisure mode for the next months. But surprisingly, that was not the case. That experience made me see how much unnecessary pain there was around me. My issues, my problems, my pain was just a little grain of sand in the mountain of pain that this world creates over a vast majority of the humans. Those months in Cape Town activated an emotional and spiritual process that would progress through the remaining of my journey.

Peak. Power, Expansion, Interaction, Adventure, Challenge, Joy
The peak of my journey was backpacking across the entire American continent. From the very south end to almost Canada. From Ushuaia to San Francisco, my journey took me through Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile. Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and USA. What a rich selection of places for the journey: glaciers, volcanoes, valleys, mountains, deserts, salt flats, colonial cities, Caribbean beaches and megalopolis that express the power of capitalism.

During such phase I had my ups and downs, I froze and I melted, I travelled with mates and I travelled alone, I had very active weeks and weeks of not doing much. But as I gradually went through this phase, I gradually have become tired. At the beginning, you hardly notice it. But on the final weeks of these phase it was very evident. The signs are very clear: the need of spending time with yourself doing your own things becomes more evident. Sharing dormitories in hostels is something that increasingly becomes less comfortable for you, your wish to talk to strangers diminishes and you might end up preferring sitting on a bench to read your book instead of waking up early to explore all the sights that a place has to offer. That is what happened to me over the last weeks, and when that happens is a moment to slow down.

However during the previous months, the idea that my expartner would join me on this trip kept me going on peak mode. The initial plan was to explore Asia together. The confirmation that he would not going to be able to be part of the experience was the final straw for this phase and precipitated my transition into the final stage of my trip: the descend.

So this is the end of the affaire… The end of the trip.

I am returning back to Colombia to spend the next months reading, writing, exercising, gradually coming back into a routine and allow things to sediment in my system.

Descend. Contraction, Introversion, Isolation, Chary, Withdrawal
The final stage, therefore, has arrived. A time for spiritual learning and physical rest before I return back to I don’t know yet. During the previous phase my spiritual side ignited as I was exploring South America. Deepening my knowledge and questioning on the human condition, on what is our purpose in life, was something that grew together with my geographical knowledge of the continent.

This new phase is the time to absorb, to process, to expand and reflect these things I have learnt, experience and seen over the past months. My journey to Asia will have to wait. What my body is telling me is that I need to start this reflective phase now. Perhaps this change in plans shows I have learnt something on this trip. Perhaps I am slightly more connected to myself and listening to my body in a better way. It has been a huge inconvenience and a loss of money, but shifted my plans and decided to stay still in a place until I can complete my descend.

I am sure it will be a rich period. Hopefully the seeds planted during this trip will start to grow and the beautiful emotions I experienced will lead to another step towards love and balance. Towards enlightenment and higher conscience.

Life is change. People doing a sabbatical are triggering a change in their lives. And for sure, and this is a my golden advice to anyone doing this kind of trip or experience, change will constantly occur during the trip. In the physical and emotional level. Make sure your plans allow you to be flexible because you will have to.

La Casa de los Espiritus (The House of Spirits)

(A place for mysticism and connection- 03/07/2018)

My visit to Lima has been one of the most unconventional stays during my trip. It is well know for being a culinary center where to eat most delicious food. And, although I had quite good couple of meals there, for me Lima was a place for spiritual nurturing.

Perhaps the constant fog that covered Lima during the 8 days I stayed there was a manifestation of its mysticism and special vibrational energy. I did not see the sun while I was there, but the city ended up being a place of other sorts of light.

Lima is, certainly a tough place: a city that has quickly grown inorganically to reach 9 million, lacking a proper public transport system and with the most congested traffic in South America….. But in the middle of that chaos, new friendships were forged along the relighting of old ones.

New friends like Leandro (there is a post about him) or like Miguel and Carlos. After 3 cancellations in a row of a different places I booked, I ended up in despair as I had no place to stay. Through a network of friends of friends I ended up meeting Miguel and lately his flatmate Carlos. Although the initial purpose was to help me during my accommodation crisis, we ended up making a beautiful friendship and spiritual connection.

It wasn’t perhaps a coincidence that in the weeks before my Ayahuasca session (which took place in Lima and for which I am making another post) I started to get in touch with lots of spiritual/metaphysical contents about who we are, where we come from, about our transcendence, eternity and what happens after death.

Some of these theories are quite interesting. And from the narrative point of view fascinating, whether we can believe in them or not. The origins of humanity as an inference of a more advance alien intelligence, the re-incarnation circle of Samsara, the purpose of having recurrent dreams and hypnotic regressions to find out about previous incarnations of our soul… all of these topics were boiling inside me during the past weeks. And I had fantastic conversations with Miguel and Carlos about them. So finding people who could be part of that process and share their own knowledge wasn’t a random thing. The universe is wisdom, and places the right people and information along your path.

But Lima was also a place to meet again with an old friend. After weeks of trying to communicate with her, I finally reached my friend Rocio.

Rocio and I know each other from my time in Madrid, same place and time as Rodrigo (whom I re-encountered in Santiago in April). Rocio has been always a woman of special spiritual sensitivity. Always in touch with our transcendence and the reality around us that many times we are not able to feel, Rocio channels her energy by writing and mediating.

Same as my encounter with Rodrigo, meeting up someone after 25 years always bring you some anxiety. However, this time was easier. The warmth and wonderful experience I had reconnecting with Rodrigo in April, made me more confident. So this time would go well as well.

In addition, there was the spiritual side of Rocio. Something that 25 years ago, I was not ready to keep up with but that now, in the light of my journey the past months and recent experiences, I was ready and keen to share.

However, on the day of our meet, same questions came back to me: will she look the same or very different, will we have a fluid conversation or not….. But this time, I didn’t need to prepare myself with a couple of drinks prior our meeting.

We met in one of the most trendy cafes in Miraflores and it was like those 25 years were only 25 months. She look exactly the same and our conversation was as if those years didn’t pass. After few beers, she took me to a birthday party of her friends where I ended up meeting some really nice people, especially her friend Milca.

It was another highlight to meet and reconnect with an old friend after 25 years, and again, not only reconnect with her but making new friendships. That night I went to bed with a smile and nice feeling inside.

So good to meet you again Rocio, and speak about our life events, our projects and spiritual stuff. This trip is not one-off event, but the reinstate of a part of my that I did not cultivate the past years. Thank you for all the things we shared and for your wonderful book. Till we will meet again, which will be soon.

Diamonds in Johannesburg

(A hidden gem in the city of diamonds, Johannesburg – 04/02/2018)

Sometimes rewarding experiences and wonderful people just arrive inadvertently. And, although these occasions are rare events, they are good reminders that the universe is full of wisdom and beauty.

I bumped into Marius and Reuben’s path at Clifton beach. As they were sunbathing next to me, we politely exchanged few words. They were leaving soon and my plan was to stay at the beach reading and enjoying the quietness and the beauty of the sunset. So we agreed to meet up and have a sundowner at my beloved Manhattans.

Few hours later, we met at the bar. We had an enjoyable evening and interesting conversation. My experience with having a sabbatical time and time for myself resonated very well in them, specially in Reuben as he went through a similar experience. The process of going through a sabbatical is a complex one. There are ups and downs, things that you expect and things that you don’t, feelings of adequacy and feelings of guilt… so having the opportunity to come across with people who have done the journey is a precious gift.

Marius and Reuben had to travel back to Johannesburg the next day, as they needed to return to work: a beautiful hotel & nature resort in the outskirts of the city. Visiting Johannesburg was in my travel plan, so I agreed to meet then in few weeks, once I start my itinerant part of my journey. They invited me to visit them at the hotel, so I could also know and enjoy the environment in which they work.

Generosity is not a core value of this society. So I have to admit, that I initially took their invitation with a pinch of salt. However, when I communicated to them the dates I would be in Johannesburg, they immediately arranged my stay at their hotel: The Thaba Eco Hotel.

The Thaba Eco Hotel is surrounded by the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve, and it is beautifully built in tune with the site. It features elegant suites, a swimming pool, a spa, a restaurant, cocktail bar and function and conference facilities. My time there was one of the best hotel experiences I had. Everything in the place was supreme. The concept, the layout, the decor, the site, the facilities, the nature, the restaurant, the bar… Everything was made with passion and attention to detail.

After checking myself in my own lodge, I briefly went for a walk around to make time until Marius and Reuben could meet me. The place welcomed me with an explosion of life around me: birds, insects and little animals were bursting around me. It was sunset time and the sky rewarded me with one of the most beautiful sunsets.

One hour later, Marius and Reuben greeted in one of the bars al fresco, where we had a drink. To continue the evening with an exquisite meal at the restaurant. As per our previous time in Cape Town, we had a meaningful rich and deep conversation about life and personal growth. The power and need of being present, the life shift that happens to us when we reach the second half of our lives, the spiritual awakening…. Supreme food combined with supreme wisdom. What a gift that evening was for me. It was as if the Universe was giving me a blessing for my decision on my sabbatical and Marius and Reuben the messengers.

We arranged to meet in the morning for a walk in the Klipriviersberg nature reserve. So just right before 7 am Reuben was waiting for me outside the restaurant. What came after wasn’t something I envisaged. The nature reserve was really big. Something that was created, enlarged and preserved by the vision and good work than Reuben and its team had.

We had a good 1.5h walk. During that walk, we came across numerous plants and trees (I forgot their names) and a big variety of animals, including the Gnu (or Bouwildebeeste) and zebras. We managed to get close to the Zebras. Actually it has been the closest I have been to one of them. All of that combined with a conversation where I learnt a lot about the history of South Africa, especially from the period where Afrikaans communities and English colonizers ‘collided’.

I completed my experience with a superb breakfast at the restaurant. Marius was running a staff meeting there, where employees were appraised and rewarded for their good work. Another rewarding thing, to see core values of true leadership.

After returning to my lodge, I packed my bags and met Marius and Reuben for saying goodbye. Johannesburg was my farewell to beautiful South Africa, and the universe rewarded me with a wonderful experience for it.

What an inspirational place Thaba Eco Hotel was. A beautiful gem in a city still dealing with unresolved issues arising from the end of the Apartheid in South Africa. Passion, integrity, wisdom, tenacity, knowledge and care are the values behind the creation of that place, and you can see and feel those all over the place. The values than its creators and managers show everyday in their work and lives.

If you ever travel to Johannesburg, you should really visit the place.

Thank you Marius. Thank you Reuben. For the generosity. For sharing with me such a beautiful place and such beautiful values and knowledge.

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