“The concept of reality was lost in the commune. I worked all day I also had to clean it. The most I earned was 700 euros. “I lived in a room with spider webs and no hot water, I paid 300 euros for it.” This is the expression of an old master. Inner Mastery, largest denomination around ayahuasca of our country. Until now. This Wednesday, the National Police so-called “epicenters of internal evolution” from Madrid, Lloret de Mar (Gerona), Malaga, Granada and Ibiza and 18 members of the organization were arrested.
They are accused of crimes against public health, criminal association, human trafficking and crimes against workers’ rights, among others. According to the investigations, they supplied dangerous substances. bufo frog, kambó frog, and peyote, as well as ayahuascaIt is a substance that creates hallucinations, brought from the Colombian forests to masters who participate in neoshamanic rituals that they announce through social networks and websites. They paid 200 euros every night.
Almost all of the participants were people who were going through a moment of vulnerability and made a commitment. “Improve your physical and emotional health” through the consumption of their “medicine”.
“Disguised as a shaman”
According to the investigation by the General Information Commissioner and the Excise Department, the detainees were held accountable to the Inner Mastery leader. Alberto Varelahas been under investigation for months for crimes against sexual freedom and supporting clandestine immigration, among others, but passed away last OctoberJust three months before the police broke up the group.
Several victims of Varela and his group had warned the police months ago about what had been going on inside for “more than a decade”. Redune, the association for the prevention of sectarianism and described their experiences: “When I saw Alberto Varela for the first time, there were about thirty of us gathered in a circle. Varela appeared. ‘Disguised as a shaman’ in a theatrical and burlesque staging. He declared himself a modest and ordinary man. ‘above your ego’ He said that he learned about the therapeutic uses of the plant. I was captivated by his presentation, but at the same time I immediately perceived a man. cunning and manipulative“This is explained by a 31-year-old psychologist from Madrid who, after a difficult childhood and youth, suffered from alcoholism problems and dietary restrictions and eventually sought help from Inner Mastery.
After deciding to try Ayahuasca an emotional separationA friend and his lawyer assured him that it had changed his life. Then Google did the rest: “I saw that the Inner Mastery retreat was at the top of the search and had a lot of recommendations. This gave me confidence.”
At first, he found interest, comfort, and a sense of belonging in the group. But gradually he began to question what was going on in those so-called healing ceremonies: “From Monday to Sunday, members of the group get highfatigue accumulates and lack of sleep (the ceremonies end between 4 and 6 a.m.) and you had to be with breakfast at 9 a.m., and at 10 o’clock the integrations began, which lasted several hours filled with emotional intensity. Everything is one feelings ‘deep’ and so-called wounds that need healing.
In this context, according to the former master’s testimony, the leader of the sect and his assistants “manipulated” his followers who had to “work” for the group in addition to paying the withdrawn funds: “As apprentices, I had to work piecemeal, prepare ceremonies, empty vomit buckets. and clean the room, observe and obey the orders of the master of ceremonies, and sleep very few hours.” He also assures that they must manage to “fill the retreats”, attract more followers through social networks and convince them of the benefits of their guru Women for all this “He wanted 700 euros”To whom do I owe? discount on training price what the leader taught him.
During Inner Mastery ceremonies performed without medical supervision, the woman said, there were several “dangerous” events that set off alarm bells: “Past traumas are relived during the Ayahuasca-induced ‘journey’.” A woman who was raped as a child hung on my arm I cried non-stop, holding my arm for 5 hours. Myself I had a psychotic break One night during a ceremony Ayahuasquera School And I spent ten hours rolling on the ground, Hitting people, panickingBecause I thought I was stuck on the journey and couldn’t get off.”
After that episode, “the group congratulated me on the trip and concluded that the psychotic break had led me to this state.” a deep recoveryBecause I had surrendered and freed myself from my mind. After my second outbreak, Varela told me: ‘You are ready.’ “He had completely integrated Varela’s speech, he was already completely depersonalized,” the woman adds: “Psychotic breaks occurred in the vast majority of retreats.”. For this reason, “in the ceremonies we hold ropes to reduce people He said they reacted aggressively.
In his story, which he made public through the Redune page in order to “warn other people and prevent them from falling into” the group’s networks, the Inner Mastery leader “He sold drugs to all members of Inner Mastery”There are also people with drug addiction problems who are referred to derogatorily as “addicts” or “drug kids”.
He recalls: “A kid came home from Uruguay who had been into Inner Mastery for a while. marijuana addiction. A crime was committed with him. He replaced one drug with another and they destroyed his soul. One in the group dependency and the gratitude-debt relationship“.
“Epileptic crisis”
“The case of a man in his 70s shocked me. He was an alcoholic and came to the shelter with withdrawal symptoms. He was taking all the substances offered to him. We must not forget that; There is never a doctor at the retreats, only via WhatsApp. The integration was carried out by Varela that day, there was something about the man that could resemble something. He had an epileptic seizure, he couldn’t breathe, he was foaming at the mouth and his eyes were rolled back.. Considering this, Varela left the room and no one saw him again during the retreat.” They eventually decided to “just put him in an ambulance,” this veteran recalls.
Varela also He defended “free love” and implemented new “group dynamics” consisting of separate some men from their partners and transfer them to another commune so that “getting along” with other women the group and “They learned to be real men”. In this way, “Varela played with people, made an emotional connection, reduced people from everything to nothing at once”, accuses the affected person who did not forget the guru’s obsession with sex: “There was a girl Varela, who said that she was very insecure about her body and sexuality, that she did not find herself sexy, sex He said that taboos should be overcome (…), Made her parade like a model He told her: ‘Walk around like a whore and fuck everyone.’”