Travel log Amazon, part 1
A week before our physical journey begins – a trip of three weeks to the Amazon – suddenly the inner journey seems to start… on an evening on the fair in Tomar. The days before I get more and more upset with social media. I’ve been thrown off instagram, without actually knowing why, and also from ChatGPT, (OK, I understand: because I wanted to translate my book about Gaza) but what bothers me most is that I get lost in the world of algorithms, AI and not knowing how to control the system. I want more likes, more visibility, more events, more everything, and I keep coming back to the screen: on my phone, on my tablet, on my laptop. Till I suddenly realise I’m totally addicted. I grave for more, more, more and I can’t stop. My body needs the dopamine, like an alcoholic needs his booze.
Before I go to sleep I watch the news just to calm down. I notice a high level of stress in my nervesystem, while everything is actually going fine. Our project about the Amazon – Earth Heart – has been picked up by many people, some 15 people will accompany us on the journey, and overall everything is going well. But somehow the craziness of the world seems to crawl under my skin. It all doesn’t make sense anymore.
On the news I see how they demolish the East Wing of the White House. Once, the wife of one of the presidents, mentioned: “If the White house West Wing is the “mind” of the nation, then the East Wing — the traditional power center for first ladies — is the “heart.” So now we seem to erase the heart, and demolish the women’s seat of power. To be replaced by a man’s wet dream of glamour, glitter and gold. We’re rapidly loosing our humanity, to be replaced by power, war, Artificial Intelligence and Make Belief.
Frustrated by my own limitations and by the madness of the world, I decide to take a stroll in the night to look at the stars. But instead of a quiet night I walk straight into the yearly fair of Tomar, dedicated to Santa Iria. The fair is rather small and simple, and I see how many children and grown ups entertain themselves.
But when I look at the attractions, I suddenly realise that I see the same things as I witnessed online. The Merry-go-Round is just like Facebook, the rollercoaster is like TikTok, and the bumper-cars are like Twitter. Each attraction is like another social media channel. Every attraction seems to pull you in with flashy colours, stars and loud music; They seduce you to enter, you get addicted by the kick, and you can never leave.
At the last attraction, the fastest one for teenagers and grown ups- the AI of the fair – the music is so loud that I feel a nauseating feeling in my gut. I feel how the world around me is getting out of control, crazy, just like myself. Then I walk off into the night, deciding I have to find a way out of this nightmare, this silly world we are living in. But how?
The next day we visit our dear friends Marcel and Monique, who have been accompanying us on many journeys over the last 30 years: the Cathar area, Egypt, Sudan, Rwanda, Bali, Israel/Palestine, Scotland etc. Always they are present, ready to stand by, joining our crazy adventures and to do ‘lightwork’, which actually turned out to be most of the time quite heavy and intense. When you tune into the ‘collective field’ of a country or a people you first encounter the wounds, the forgotten trauma’s, the hidden history, that what has been smouldering beneath the surface for eons. It takes a lot of ‘work’ and clear intention to enter the labyrinth of the collective, find the hidden key, and heal what has been broken. Both in ourselves and in the world. It is a sort of alchemical work, and Marcel and Monique are masters in it. They use humour, art and simple rituals to change the energy of a place.
Since two months they are living in the east of Portugal, in a tiny village on the slope of a sacred mountain. They have left The Netherlands, left a job and a house, to live quite simple and quiet. They have arranged for us to stay in a nearby bed and breakfast: a lovely renovated house by a young english couple. When I enter the house I feel my nervesystem calming down immediately: just plain walls of Xist, a local mountainstone, a wooden ceiling and a lovely bed. This is what I long for. Simplicity. Life as it is meant to be.
In the morning we wake up with sun shining through the windows, lightning up the cozy house. When I open the door of the cabin, I look out over a vast valley of trees, rivers, hills and mountains, as far as the eye can see. And almost no buildings or towns in sight. I look at the world as it was in the beginning of creation: clean, pure and magical.
This moment doesn’t take long, because the six year old daughter of the couple comes to investigate the new visitors. She is full of energy, stories, questions and remarks. Anne is also joining and a lively breakfast morning evolves. Sometime later the man and the woman join in, and we have a lovely spontaneous meeting. We all recognise the longing to go ‘back to nature’, to leave the merry-go-round, but of course also here in Portuguese nature life has its challenges. The huge fires this summer had just passed their valley, creating fear and panic. And how do you create a good schooling system for a six year old jump in the field? Leaving ‘the system’, or escaping the matrix is not as easy as it seems. Before you know it you have just exchanged one merry-go-round for another one. Only the scenery is different.
The text on the T-shirt of the young father gives a clue though: ‘THE PATH YOU SEEK IS INSIDE’. Ah, that makes sense, and sets me on a quest into myself, although I still don’t know where it will lead me. But at least I know the key is hidden in myself. All the work over the last two years of preparing the Amazon Project, inspiring people to join, to co-create a global ceremony for the earth, to connect like minded people to tune in to the heart of our planet, simply ends with myself. I am the door, the exit, the beginning and the end, the key to the next step. There is nothing outside of me. The journey has started.
- to be continued –
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