How to do a rapeh meditation
Rapeh is also known as Shamanic Snuff, and also spelt hape, hapeh, rapee, and other ways besides. See my existing article introducing the reader to this magical substance from South America. It has completely changed my life, and I only wish it can improve more lives, helping people to find peace within — a fast track to deep meditation.
This article focuses on how to actually perform a rapeh ceremony. Don’t worry — don’t let the word ceremony put you off, as it’s a personal spiritual exercise that doesn’t need to take too long. See hapehour.co.uk/rapeh_shopping for a good list of places to purchase rapeh, although it’s very easy to find.
After having bought your rapeh and a kuripe (pipe) to take it, make sure you have some water (as you might get thirsty), some tissues and a good sound track with headphones. (See hapehour.co.uk/ceremony_sound_tracks for my personal list of tracks that work really well!) Note that a blindfold also works really well with these ceremonies.
Put a small amount of rapeh into your palm and scoop it up with the kuripe. (Traditionally people scoop toward their heart chakra.) Begin with about a pea size amount of rapeh (or even half a pea size), but feel free to build up to your own tolerance. Don’t risk taking too much on your first time — it can give a very potent experience!
It’s important to set your intentions. Put the kuripe first to your heart chakra (the centre of your chest) and make our blessings with your eyes closed. This can be anything — something you really want, or simply sending love to the world. Then do the same with your third eye (pineal) chakra (the middle of your brow area).
Learn which end of the kuripe goes into your mouth and which end into your nose. With a good kuripe, this should be obvious, but in cheaper varieties, it’s less so. (I can’t overstate the benefit of investing right from the start in a good kuripe!) Then… blow it into your left nostril.
There are different breath techniques to use. You might want to start with a light breath building up to a strong one. In general, slow and prolonged blows are known to bring more prolonged (and maybe a little more subdued) meditations, and sharp hard breaths give a sharper and perhaps more potent sensation.
After sitting with the left-nostril sensation for a few minutes, do exactly the same for your right nostril. After this, sit quietly for at least 10 minutes, as you enter meditation. Any thoughts that arise, observe and dispel them.
After you’ve got all you need from the experience, open your eyes and (very!) thoroughly blow out all the used rapeh into tissues.
As you gain experience with rapeh ceremonies, there’s a lot more to say about breathing and the use of the chakras system during the meditation. This is laid out in full on my information website hapehour.co.uk, as well as a wealth of information about different rapeh varieties and my experiences with them.
Many blessings,
Neil