My trip to Brazil - Part 1

It is April 2016, i just quit my job i had had for the last 2,5 years. I worked as a salesman earning decent amount of money in the age of 22. I wanted to get away. Away from the 9-17 world, away from the same routines, just get away.

So there i was. In my apartment with no plan of the future, and a little bit frightened. I had thought for some time that i wanted to travel, but i had no idea where to. My first idea was Asia, because everybody goes to Asia. It is cheap, i like fried food and it's warm. I had a friend who had just been in Asia and did some volunteer work through a website called workaway, so i started checking the website for some work. I though it would be a great way to travel. You get to stay and they give you food for only five hours of work five days a week. I started to mail a lot of people in Asia, but only a few of them responded. After some days, and no mails in the inbox i checked what kind of opportunities they had in Brazil.
I wrote to some guys on an island, some people in Rio, and then i stumbled upon some guys in Cunha, Brazil.

The place was called Source Temple.

Source Temple is a community in Cunha, 3,5 hours from Sao Paulo. The purpose of the place is as they describe: "

The community is build by people from all over the world. Some lives there and have lived there for many years. Some come and stay for several weeks and then leave, and then the volunteers come for two weeks. The community is based on the book "a course in miracles". Maybe not based upon, but they use it as their guide to enlightment. A course in miracles is a book about the truth and illusion. Or at least, what they believe is truth and illusion. Their main goal?

"Our only interest is the spiritual awakening of Man Kind" This happends through love, selflessness and forgiveness.

Pretty damn hard when you only stay for two weeks. Yes, it was limited to two weeks, no more or less. You arrive with 7 other volunteers on a sunday, where you get to meet eachother, are shown around, shown your room etc.

I will have a really hard time trying to describe how it was, because it is something you have to experience to really feel it. So i will describe what it was.

My first impression was judgemental. I didn't like it, didn't like the people, i actually just wanted to get it done and move on. And boy, was i wrong. These two weeks was one of the best weeks of my life.

Every morning you start your day with a morning activity, if you want. The only thing they want you to do is to work five hours a day, that's it. The morning activities could be anything from an hour of meditation, yoga, kung fu etc. Then you had to work. The work was mostly outside, for the boys, so i had to rake leafes for five hours some days. Some days i had to cut down wild grass for five hours, or remove a wooden fence covering a garden sized like a half soccer field.

Other than work, you can engage in activities aswell. Sometimes we would sit and talk about a subject, maybe forgiveness. We would just sit and discuss for an hour ending with a talk by Alan Watts. Other activities would be meditation, where we just sat for an hour meditating together.

It could also be rebirthing. Sound crazy right? It was!

You lie down, close your eyes, and start breathing heavily with a specific technique. You do that for one hour maybe two. After 15-30 minutes your body starts tingeling. A lot! After 30-45 minutes you maybe start to see things, have visions, with your eyes closed. I saw something with flower opening. After 60 minutes you body goes insane. It will maybe start to cramp. I tried that the second time. I screamed like a little girl. It is very normal that your hands will close together, and you are unable to open them. Like the famous italien gesture with the hand.

It was an intense experience. I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYBODY TRYING THIS ON THEIR OWN!

Chanting would also be an activity. For those of you who dont know what chanting is, it is a spiritual practice performed alone or in groups. We did in group. In the beginning the guitar is strumming the chords, then the singing starts, then the drums fade in, and then almost everybody is playing an instrument. It was the best experience i have had in my life. It was so amazing, maybe because i had no idea what it was before it started.

Here is an example of what it could sound like:

This is was a short text about what it was. I will not start to try to describe how it was, because trying to describe feelings is weird. We have to feel them, that's it. We laughed, we cried, we screamed, we loved eachother.