Noya Rao Dieta

Noya Rao Dieta

I just finished 24 days with a rare Amazonian tree called Noya Rao. She is known by the locals as the “flying tree” or the “tree of light.” The Shipibo people were the first to unveil her majesty, recognizing her as one of the most sacred Master Plant teachers. She carries the wisdom of ancient generations, a beacon of illumination and transformation.

Her name as the "flying tree" stems from her towering height, soaring above the forest canopy, but also from her ability to elevate consciousness to ethereal realms. She provides fresh perspectives, creating space for enlightenment, insight, and deep transformation.

More than just a plant, she is revered as the president or wise matriarch of the rainforest—a divine goddess, teacher, and guide for spiritual exploration, healing, and connection to cosmic energy. Shamans commonly use her to treat grief, anxiety, and depression. It is said that dieting with her essence can bring inner peace, clarity, and spiritual alignment, illuminating the path to truth and authenticity.

The Call of Noya Rao

I first learned about Noya Rao from my partner, Shaun, several months before she started calling to me. He had undergone several dieta experiences with her in the jungle and spoke highly of her. At first, I was skeptical, as I usually am, about what I could learn from a non-psychedelic plant in this way (I’m a bit of a psychonaut). Then, one night after finishing a video call with Shaun (we were doing long distance), I had a vivid dream. Her bioluminescent spirit came to me, showing me her world—a realm of pure, unconditional love beyond what I could describe or comprehend.

During the dream, I saw my father and the spirits of transitioned souls, illuminated in her light, radiating love. It felt like being wrapped in a warm, safe embrace I never wanted to leave. That was the beginning of her calls. She came to me twice more—once during an Ayahuasca journey and again in a Hapé experience. By the third visit, I realized that the deep yearning I had to go inward wasn’t for a Vipassana retreat, as I had initially thought.

For over a year, I had been planning to devote the last four months of my 30s to myself—to give myself the love I so effortlessly gift to others. Originally, I had envisioned traveling and beginning with a Vipassana retreat in an exotic location. But after my encounters with Noya Rao, I started to see the divine synchronicities guiding me to deepen my relationship with her ancient wisdom.

One day, I found myself deep in a Reddit thread reading about people's dieta experiences, including someone’s six-month journey and the spiritual enlightenment they gained from it. In that moment, it became clear: this was how I would begin my four-month journey.

Once I made the decision, everything aligned effortlessly, as it always does when clarity is present. The universe loves decisiveness—it allows things to fall into place in divine order to support our evolutionary process. Shaun had just finished guiding another Noya Rao dieta in December, and I was set to begin mine in January 2025.

We started on January 10. The days leading up to it were anything but easy. It felt like the dieta had already begun the moment I committed. All my patterns, shadows, and insecurities flared up, to the point where I questioned everything—including our future. Thankfully, Shaun lovingly reassured me that this was part of the process. I was getting a foreshadowing of the inner work I was about to embark on.

What Is a Dieta?

A dieta is a sacred process of allowing your vessel to become as pure and plant-like as possible in order to fully immerse in the plant’s energy and wisdom. By stripping away external and internal stimulation, we create space for stillness, which becomes our greatest teacher.

For the first seven days, I water-fasted to recalibrate my body. During the five grandmother (Aya) ceremonies we held, I also fasted, totaling ten days without food. When I did eat, the diet was extremely simple: no salt, sugar, meat, gluten, dairy, fat, or spices—nothing that could energetically disturb the nervous system. We ate two meals a day: plain oatmeal, sometimes with Chapo (plantains & water), and kitchari (beans, rice, sweet potato, and greens, with no seasonings). A requirement for this dieta is means avoiding pork for life.

The most difficult part for me was eliminating all products—no toothpaste, soap, lotion, shampoo, or scents of any kind. The only thing I could do was oil pulling with coconut oil. I washed my hair and body with water. Accepting my naturally greasy hair and dry skin was super challenging, forcing me to confront my unhealthy dependence on external comforts.

As for the external stimulation, no phone, TV, music, minimal communication, no sex, and no touch. This was especially difficult in doing this with my beloved, as we both love physical touch. One thing that is most important is the consistent use of Mapacho, a sacred tobacco that is used to bridge the communication channel, allowing the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds. It is also used as a clearing agent, so whenever I had naughty thoughts or daydreams about food, I used Mapacho in my pipe made of Noya Rao to cleanse the energy. I was smoking four to five bowls a day, and on my fasting days, it was my food. Before the experience, I wrote a letter to Noya Rao, expressing my devotion to her and the intentions I sought support with for the experience—my relationship with my mother, my jaw and teeth grinding, my relationship with food and sex, my need for validation, attachment, expectations, fear of singing and intimacy, and many other things. I read this letter every morning with my Mapacho.

The Teachings of Noya Rao

The dieta was by far one of the most challenging experiences of my life—right up there with climbing Mt. Whitney, doing a triathlon, or biking 100 miles. Noya Rao showed me that I am the creator of my reality and that suffering is all my choice. Again and again, I faced difficulties, only to witness the "drama factory" I had been weaving in all my relationships.

Through deep introspection, I saw how I had used dissociation as a coping mechanism to shield myself from childhood abuse and instability. I created illusions to escape reality, which later manifested as self-sabotage—daydreaming about how relationships might end, believing I was unworthy of love, and fearing intimacy and happiness. This subconscious programming fueled an addiction to chaos and suffering.

Acceptance and self-love became my greatest allies. I grieved for the relationships my lack of awareness had harmed and sent love to those I had unconsciously hurt. Among the many lessons, one of the most profound was softening into my feminine energy—slowing down, listening to my body, and honoring its wisdom. I heard over and over: What if your only purpose is to love yourself?

On the first day of the dieta, we opened with two Grandmother (Aya) ceremonies. We began by drinking the Noya Rao elixir. The ceremony was held, and the opening arkana was sung to bless the experience with protection. We had two powerful ceremonies back-to-back, and I was immediately connected to her energy. It felt like I was transported from Asheville to the jungle, where she showed me all the teachings of grace, compassion, patience, unconditional love, authenticity, and truth, all illuminated in her bioluminescent radiance. My journey that evening was truly divine. My late father was present, making me laugh with his outlandish sense of humor—he even took his teeth out just to make me laugh. He reminded me to choose joy, to savor the sweet nectar of existence, and showed me how he protects and supports me and my family’s path.

During my journey, I was visited by three large jungle cats who taught me the wisdom of power and strength through a stealthy energy of patience and observation, knowing when the right moment to pounce is. It showed me how my life has been teaching me to understand this ferocious big cat energy. The cats were tamed, but if you didn’t know how to move or play with them, they could be dangerous. They were my protectors throughout the entire experience, present in every moment. They were teaching me that this energy is a part of me, one of my gifts; all it takes is for me to open the bridge to embody it.

From my journal after this journey:

"This energy of these beasts is an intricate weave of moving slowly, watching, witnessing, and fine motor movements in how they move—observing the patterns. It all matters. Every move, although at times it seems like it doesn’t. Since it is all our choice, we get to choose whether we live in the mind or the heart space. She showed me to slow down to go fast, to move at the speed of trust. Trusting the whispers, the subtle nudges that bring us back to alignment, inner peace, and stillness—the place where all growth happens. Balance. Equilibrium allows for the truth to blossom. Bloom. Evolve. Create. It makes way for birth, and clarity supports the mission. We are born into this existence pure. Experiences, people, environments, food, and the matrix shape our reality. Conditions and patterns create the boulders in a river that inhibit us from flowing with the water of life. Flow, surrender, allow, and effortlessness give space for the energy of love and presence to breathe. Fly free. Freedom is accessible when we alleviate ourselves from these conditions and patterns. Connection to others and self breeds connection to source. Source, the divine, flows through us in every moment like our heartbeat. Like air blowing through a flute, our vessel is the container for spirit to move through."

During the dieta, it was brought to my attention that one of my defense mechanisms, developed to protect myself from childhood abuse and instability, was dissociation. I would create an illusion, a new story about the current reality I was living in, in order to give myself reprieve. I dreamed up ways to make life easier, which then fueled a lifetime of daydreaming. The solace I found in this place somehow morphed into a form of self-sabotage later in life. I began to imagine how a friendship or relationship would end, thinking I didn’t deserve to continue with that person because I wasn’t worthy. The fear of abandonment fueled my fear of intimacy, happiness, and addiction to chaos and suffering.

From a young age, I found comfort and normalcy in instability, and it manifested in almost every aspect of my life—my career, my relationships, my health, and my spiritual journey. I see now how I’ve been truly afraid of letting myself be happy, of embracing peace. I witness how I often look for what’s wrong before I can see the divinity in what’s unfolding.

During my dieta, I spent time grieving so many people who had come and gone from my life. I reflected on what went wrong, only to be illuminated by the reminder that it was all a lesson to bring me to this realization. Every person and experience was a teaching moment for me to see things differently, but mostly, I allowed the subconscious, unconscious program to sabotage one thing after another.

Among all the wisdom and teachings that came through, one of the most important was the softening of my feminine energy—slowing down, listening to my body, and hearing and honoring the guidance. I heard over and over again, "What if all you are here for is to just love yourself?" I was reminded to be in stillness and silence, for that is where the truth lives. The more we lean into this space, the more we can become authentically who we are meant to be. It is this space that makes way for us to hear the intelligence of the heart, the way of the new earth being birthed.

I am especially grateful for the relationship with my beloved during this time. I remember reading that a soulmate is someone who is your sacred mirror—someone who shows you everything that is holding you back, brings your attention to yourself, tears down your walls, and shakes you awake. This man has brought me to my knees in humility so many times that it’s made me want to run for the hills. Despite my innate tendency to hide from conflict, he still holds loving space for me with all my sass (entitlement), sarcasm (fear of intimacy), stubbornness (righteousness), and expectations. Though I’m fairly certain he’s wanted to run a few times too—especially when I told him I had a list of things he needed to look at—I quickly realized that most of the things on that list were my own opportunities for growth. Words can’t do justice to the amount of gratitude I have for this experience. The depth I was able to reach was ignited by the willingness we both had to go deep.

Integration & The Path Forward

I write this on a flight to India for Kumbh Mela, the largest spiritual festival in the world. One week has passed since closing my dieta, and integration hasn’t been easy. My energy is shifting so rapidly that it feels like my brain is trying to catch up with the new version of me that is being born.

I find myself tempted to revert to my masculine tendencies—to do rather than be. But I am doing my best to move slowly, giving space for this transformation to take root. The healing we do within ourselves supports collective healing, and I vow to leave this world better than I found it.

Lastly, the Amazon rainforest is the lungs of the planet. I t holds countless Earth medicines that have the potential to heal humanity. But our lungs are in danger. We must do everything in our power to protect and preserve this sacred land. In gratitude for this experience, I will be donating $250 and encourage you to do the same. We are stronger together. (https://amazonwatch.org)

This path of healing is available to all of us. May we all continue to evolve in love, truth, and light.