Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - My Ayahuasca Trip to Peru - Part Four - The Mountains Became the Medicine - Episode 127

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

The Ruins, the Return, and the Realignment After two intense nights with Ayahuasca, Day Five brought a different kind of teacher: the Sacred Valley itself. In the ancient terraces of Pisac and the colossal stones of Ollantaytambo, I found a quiet wisdom that didn’t speak in visions—but in presence, humility, and perspective. As I walked among mountain-carved ruins, burial sites, and engineering miracles we still can’t explain, I began to understand my own “deaths” from the ceremonies as returns—returns to trust, patience, and truth. This unexpected excursion stirred a mix of sadness and gratitude as Thanksgiving approached and I felt the ache of being away from my family… while standing in the embrace of a new one. In this episode, I explore how ancient civilizations, unexpected emotions, and the right people at the right time can become medicine just as powerful as the plant itself—and how trust, not fear, becomes the compass for Night Three. For more information on the Arkana Spiritual Center: www.arkanainternational.com Follow Dr. JC Doornick and the Makes Sense Academy: ► Makes Sense Substack - https://drjcdoornick.substack.com ► Instagram: / drjcdoornick ►Facebook:  / makessensepodcast ►YouTube:  / drjcdoornick MAKES SENSE PODCAST Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast. This podcast explores topics that expand human consciousness and enhance performance. On the Makes Sense Podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is subjective and an acquired taste. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Makes Sense with Dr. JC Doornick Podcast. SUBSCRIBE/RATE/REVIEW & SHARE our new podcast. FOLLOW Podcast - You will find a "Follow" button on the top right. This will enable the podcast software to alert you when a new episode launches each week. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/makes-sense-with-dr-jc-doornick/id1730954168 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1WHfKWDDReMtrGFz4kkZs9?si=003780ca147c4aec Podcast Affiliates: Kwik Learning: Many people ask me where I get all these topics, which I've been covering for almost 15 years. I have learned to read nearly four times faster and retain information 10 times better with Kwik Learning. Learn how to learn and earn with Jim Kwik. Get his program at a special discount here: https://jimkwik.com/dragon OUR SPONSORS: Makes Sense Academy: A private mastermind and psychologically safe environment full of the Mindset and Action steps that will help you begin to thrive. The Makes Sense Academy. https://www.skool.com/makes-sense-academy/about The Sati Experience: A retreat designed for the married couple that truly loves one another, yet wants to take their love to that higher magical level. Relax, reestablish, and renew your love at the Sati Experience. https://www.satiexperience.com  0:00 - Intro 1:04 - Into the Mountains 7:12 - Thanksgiving in Peru 9:07 -  A New Definition of Family 10:27 - To drink or not to drink again? That is the question? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Have you noticed that the world that we live in has been doing most of the thinking for you? That your beliefs, perceptions, reactions, fears, and doubts have been shaped by unsolicited outside noise? How easy it's been for you to slip into that default sleepwalking mode and label it as life and reality. Yeah, that ends here. Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast. This is your opportunity to start thinking for yourself, reclaim control, and step up. back into that role as the shock caller and dominant force of your own reality. It's when you change the way that you look at things, that the things that you look at begin to change. So let's wake up,

let's rise up, and let's make sense of why and how shift happens. Great morning, friends, great morning world. This is part four of my ayahuasca experience in Peru. I call it the mountains became the medicine. After two nights in the medicine, I needed a different kind of teacher, one that didn't speak about visions and war and funerals and all of that stuff. So on day five, we visited the ancient ruins of Pesak and Olente Tambo. You might ask, why would you go to the sacred valley in Peru, which was my first time being there, and not visit Machu Picchu? To be honest with you, That was the primary reason and primary driver that took us to the Sacred Valley in the first place. Without Machapichu, we would have just gone to our favorite spot, and that would be Arcana's other facility in the Amazon.

Truth be told, we totally forgot to sign up for the Machu Picchu experience. That's all it was. So we decided to turn that water into wine and go on another excursion that was recommended to us. As you can imagine, it turned out to be just right, not only for my friend and I, but for the other eight people that joined us. You know, there's something about the sacred valley that kind of quiets you down instantly when you're there. It's almost like the mountains literally feel alive, as if they've been holding on to their own stories long before humans even knew how to write about stories. Olente Tombo sits in the arms of those mountains, like a memory carved into stone. So when you

visit these ruins, the first thing that you notice are these massive terraces. They look like massive steps that have been cut into the earth that rise toward the sky. It's kind of like a staircase made for giants. I'd seen pictures of these enormous layers and steps and terraces, yet I never knew what they were used for. But I came to learn that they were used for cultivating crops with an ingenious strategy that was created to keep the moisture within the soil. And it took advantage of the dramatic climate changes that came with the increased steps that went up, which was just a just such an ingenious thing. Think about that. These people figured out that as the altitude changed, it was perfect for different types of crops. It makes me wonder, once again, whether or not we're

advancing or regressing. Here's a little fun fact that I learned on this trip. Did you know that Peru has almost 4,000 different types of potatoes? Four thousand. How many potatoes do you see when you grow in the grocery store. There's 4,000 different potatoes. And I asked our guide, I said, which one's your favorite? And he just kind of laughed. So then there's the stones themselves when you look at these just amazing structures. They're these enormous blocks, some of them weighing 60 plus tons. And what's crazy about them is not that they're just standing there. And it's not even crazy to think about how they got them up the mountain to these locations. But when you're at Olente Tombo, they point across the valley at another mountain where the rock quarry was from, that they got these stones.

So just imagine a 60 plus ton stone that's been carried not only from one mountain through a valley to another, but also had to cross a river from this other rock quarry. And then when they got them up there, they fitted them together with such precision that even today, you couldn't slide a blade between them. I mean, it's like perfect and rounded. And then you come to learn how much work was involved in smoothing these things over. And it's just really incredible. So you can't stand there and not feel humbled. How did they do this? What did they know that we have forgotten? It made me wonder if our definition of advancement has become completely backwards. We've built smarter phones and forgotten how to build a smarter humanity. They had less technology, yet more wisdom. We have more comfort, yet far more fear. It makes me wonder if technology has just made us lazy.

The whole concept of convenience, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Hmm. Interesting to note that in any of these archaeological digs where they found these things, they didn't find any microwave computers or cell phones, meaning these civilizations didn't have all the things that we had, these advancements. Yet, they performed tasks with great precision that we would struggle with even today. So once again, are we advancing as a society as we think we are, or are we regressing into a tech-dependent mess? I was inspired, but I was also in deep thought. And then high in the faces of these cliffs we saw the burial grounds. Small carved openings that look like circles where the Incas placed their dead in the fetal position. This was fascinating. They would put them in the

fetal position so that they could fit into a smaller hole in the side of those cliffs. Death wasn't an ending to them as it was explained. It was a return, a coming home, circling back to the beginning. And I just love that idea. You know, after these two days of medicine, I would say it was a was very, very humbled and open. And there's just something about experiencing Olente Tambo after those two days of medicines, would I just really, really appreciated it. Here's what's interesting and why it struck me so deeply. I almost felt like ayahuasca had done the same thing to me. Those two funerals, they weren't endings, they were returns. Death is just the collapsing of what no longer belongs. So the truth can come home. And as I stood there, looking at those ancient,

little openings in the rock, I realized ayahuasca and grandmother had done the same. She had delivered me those two funerals, two deaths that were really, really returns. A return to trusting the process, patience and absolute full-time presence. A return to the version of me, not shaped by fear or approval, but the day carried something heavier too. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving. And for the first time in my entire life. At the age of 54, I wouldn't be with my family. This is due to the challenges that we have in scheduling such a trip with my plant medicine co-pilot Adam, who lives in Australia. Thanksgiving isn't a thing there. So this is just my opportunity to say how much I love and appreciate my family. And although it was very sad for me to not be there, I'm also in a state of gratitude that they allowed me to go on this trip. So walking amongst these ruins,

surrounded by a history so spectacular that it dwarfed my anxieties. I felt this wave of sadness, almost like a quiet ache in my heart. My wife and kids were home preparing for a holiday that's built on togetherness, and I was thousands of miles away, dissolving old fears in these mountains. The sadness was deep and honest, but layered beneath it was an equally honest feeling of gratitude. gratitude for a wife who supported this journey, for my children who understood why I needed to be here, for the privilege of doing this deep work and that healing requires sacrifice, which I know my family believed was worth it. Yes, I speak very openly about these types of things with my family. Although I can't say whether or not I hope that my children experience things like this.

I want them to know everything there is to know about their father. It struck me that the sadness I was feeling, as well as the gratitude, are not opposites. They're actually partners. Together, they form something stronger, and that's meaning. One emotion says, I miss you. And the other says, thanks for letting me go. Both are versions of love that are speaking in different dialects. One would be boring without the other.

In fact, one would not exist without the other. Well, there we were, this perfect group of strangers that, had come together in this tight-knit, loving, and respectful family. This included the facilitators, by the way. There was something special about this group of humans coming together. And curiosity struck as I considered how the universe had just mysteriously picked this group out of the other eight billion people to come together for this experience. I wasn't with my family, but then again, I was. And they're all listening to these episodes, and they know how much I love and appreciate them. This is where another truth hit me. Family isn't just blood, is it? It's alignment. It's resonance. It's the people your soul

recognizes, even before your mind knows their names. These strangers weren't a coincidence. They too were medicine. I remember the moment that I saw them walk into the lobby of that hotel in Kusco. And I just knew, before I even heard their accents because they came from all over the world, I knew that they were going to be part of my family. So day one ended with a great dinner and a relaxing night of stories by the fire. Of course, the chatter began about the reality that tomorrow brought a new day and had a new opportunity in that night for a third ayahuasca ceremony. At the debrief on Thursday, day four, I was confronted with the question again. J.C., on Tuesday night, you did 15 mils of ayahuasca.

I heard a couple of snickers in the crowd because people knew how hard it was for me. But then the question came, what will you do tomorrow night? I remember looking at Sean, and that was the facilitator who kind of saved my life, because Sean knew what I had gone through and smiling. I shared my experience with the group and voiced the massive lesson and distinctions that I made and how I truly felt complete. Yet still, once again, to my chagrin, and everything that sat in the common sense part of my brain said, nothing, don't do it again. I once again handed the decision over to the higher-ups,

gesturing to Sean, who spoke in Spanish, Sean, please tell them how bad I was the other night. And I did so with a smirk, but a sense of worry that they would think that I was ready to jump all in again, and I would have. With a smile, I could see that Sean did a good job of communicating this and probably said something to the shaman like, yeah, this dude had a rough time last night. The shaman smiled, almost laughed, not out of amusement, but of recognition, out of respect for how powerful the medicine is. They said, that was a cleansing, J.C. You were not in danger. You were being cleared. And for the first time, I believed it. And then here came the verdict. Tonight, you will drink only five milliliters and just connect with the group and process the experience. Something inside me was even scared of that after what had happened on Tuesday night.

But if I'm honest, I didn't want to abstain. I was in a place where I truly embraced the suck and the obstacle of all that pain as the way. There's this moment where you stop bargaining with life and simply trust it. Somewhere in those ruins that day, I had crossed that line. The fear was still there. Don't get me wrong, but its authority was gone. Fear says this. do it if it doesn't hurt. Trust says, I'll do it because it's mine to do. Make sense?

This might sound crazy to the uneducated and inexperience, but the juice is well worth the squeeze here, my friends. I was still frightened. I was afraid. But if they recommended a higher dose, I would have totally been okay with it. Easy to say now, but it's true. That's the level of trust that I have for the medicine, the process, the facilitators, the shamans, and most importantly, my new family. It was a psychological safe haven that I had found, and my relationship with that darkness and the whole this two shall pass thing was real. I wasn't worried. However, I was pretty psyched to only do five. So despite thinking that I might not drink again, something in me softened. In fact, my ego considered positioning for an even higher dose with the shamans. But again, just like the night before,

I trusted them and I trusted the process. That's another big lesson from this experience. Tonight, I would sit with ayahuasca again. So one more descent, one more small death, perhaps, one more blowing out of those candles into the extreme darkness, and one more chance to return to something I had forgotten. And remember, it doesn't matter the size. of your dose. What matters is that we were a family. I was entering another process with my brothers and sisters that were all drinking different types of doses. Some people were going up, some people going down, some people were abstaining. But we were all together as one family. And I was excited to be part of that until we meet again. That's it for today. To support the Make Sense with Dr. J.C.

podcast, be sure to subscribe, like, and share, as well as follow the Make Sense substack for free daily quotes, live streams, and blogs. And remember, learning without action is just another form of distraction. If something hit home and you learn something today, give it away. That's the only way it's going to stay. See you next time. Makes sense.