In this episode of Ayahuasca Podcast, host Sam Believ has a conversation with Maria Sophia Dimakos, a death doula, conscious dying coach, and therapist. Together, they explore topics including:
Maria’s early spiritual experiences and family background (00:48)
Navigating the thin line between spiritual gifts and mental health (04:20)
Exploring the Greek spiritual mysteries (07:48)
The spiritual symbolism of the Minotaur and Sam’s personal experience (14:57)
The concept of a good death and her initiation as a death doula (18:46)
Grieving practices and the art of embracing death (29:18)
Experiences with ayahuasca and the intersection of death and plant medicine (32:45)
Confronting and integrating death during an ayahuasca ceremony (33:26)
Heaven, hell, and life after death through Maria’s lens (36:37)
The importance of dietas in spiritual practice and plant medicine work (50:35)
If you would like to attend one of our Ayahuasca retreats, go to http://www.lawayra.com.
Find more about Maria at TheMariaSofia on Instagram or her podcast Suddenly Spiritual.
Transcript
Sam Believ (00:02)
Hi guys and welcome to Ayahuasca Podcast as always with you the host Sambiliyev. Today I’m having a conversation with Maria Sofia Dimakos. ⁓ She’s a death doula, she’s a facilitator, ⁓ conscious dying coach and a therapist. Maria welcome to the show.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (00:20)
Thank you so much Sam, so good to be here. All the way live from Greece, no less.
Sam Believ (00:26)
⁓ Yeah, we’re to talk about that as well, Greece specifically and what brings you there. ⁓ But before we go into deeper topics, tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you find yourself in ⁓ that line of work, know, spirituality and such. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (00:48)
I actually, as a young child, I would say as early as maybe three years old, I always had an inclination to see other realms, I would say, or ⁓ things that were the unseen. I remember even as early as three, I envisioned some sort of death realm as a child. And then ⁓ I remember speaking with other beings, which I called angels at that time, to my parents.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (01:18)
And my parents were very scared, ⁓ especially since I grew up in a very religious household. My father was Greek Orthodox and my mother is Seventh -day Adventist, which is ⁓ very diametrically opposed Christian denominations, but very intense in their beliefs. So even as a young child, ⁓ had gifts, abilities of sight. And unfortunately, my very well -meaning parents thought that it was
Maria Sophia Dimakos (01:46)
something that should be put under control and that we should stop it because it was considered something that was outside of what they believed. And potentially works of the devil, evil, all of that, which is rather interesting now that I look back on it. So I always have that inclination. My father, when I was 17 years old, tried to commit suicide. So I decided to become a psychotherapist from that experience because
Maria Sophia Dimakos (02:12)
It was obviously very traumatizing and I never wanted anybody to go through that again. I didn’t want anybody other than myself to go through that again. So I decided to go to graduate school and become a psychotherapist after I finished college. And I did that for five years and I worked in a high security locked psychiatric hospital. I almost said psychedelic hospital, a ⁓ psychiatric hospital. ⁓ And I ⁓ did that for five years and it was really depleting and demoralizing.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (02:42)
The system in the US is very much a sick care system and it’s not about helping people to get better in any way. It’s more about symptom management and giving people medications to control them, to control who they are and what they’re seeing and their symptoms. So I actually left, I had a spiritual awakening. I left psychotherapy ⁓ and I went into corporate America of all places and I went into marketing and I was in marketing for ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (03:12)
almost 12 years. ⁓ it was a very, of all things you’d think like marketing seriously, but it allowed me to use a lot of my psychology background with just people’s behavior, which is great. But then I saw the corporate greed at the higher levels. And again, it was very disheartening. And I knew that there needs to be a better way for me, there needs to be something else for me to do where I can use my gifts and abilities.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (03:41)
for people’s greatest and highest goods and just the people and the world and the planet. So yeah, ⁓ it’s been a roller coaster journey.
Sam Believ (03:51)
Yeah, thank you for sharing that story. it’s interesting that ⁓ you kind of slipped to almost saying psychedelic hospital and put me on a train of thought, you know, how great it would be if we had a psychedelic hospital, right? Not like a place you come to and you take some ketamine and have two doctors sit with you, but like an actual hospital. And I guess that would be a dream for me to create, you know, as opposed to just an ayahuasca retreat, but actually have more.
Sam Believ (04:20)
more medical stuff, but you mentioned your gifts, right? And ⁓ a lot of times ⁓ people that can be spiritually gifted and can see stuff, maybe predict future, talk to spirits. ⁓ A lot of times in our society, they would be like, well, you’re obviously schizophrenic, right? So that line is very thin. I don’t know, like, have you thought about it? ⁓ Where is that line or how does one tell a difference or is there a difference?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (04:51)
That’s a great question and it’s so tricky and nuanced and it’s dependent on that person, what they’re experiencing. I could see that in my own life, I’ve had situations where what I was seeing was very disturbing to me. I used to have night terrors slash visions at night where they’re terrifying. I remember being 13 and just being scared of going to sleep because of what I was going to see.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (05:21)
Like all, it was like almost an ayahuasca journey at night being 13 and not knowing how to navigate or manage it in any way and not knowing what was going to happen. So every time I closed my eyes, I would, I hadn’t saw me for a long time because I was so scared of what I was going to see. ⁓ So I think it’s really nuanced when it comes to the line between.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (05:45)
pathologizing people and labeling people with schizophrenia or other mental health disorders. ⁓ And what is, you know, oracular visions or sites, as people called it. And I would imagine if I lived 3000 years ago, and I were to turn up in a temple with who I was as a, you know, as a five year old or as a six year old, I would just immediately be put into the temple and be made be trained, be trained to work with my vision.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (06:15)
But if ⁓ it was right now and I had a five -year -old who came to me and said what I said, perhaps if I was a therapist, ⁓ I would think that they had a mental health issue. So it’s really time. Time contacts the culture, what the culture sees ⁓ as ⁓ divergent behavior versus normal behavior. So again, it’s so nuanced.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (06:39)
And it does have to do with the context of the person because in other cultures, in other indigenous cultures, I would imagine if you’re in Peru or other places, if a child were to turn up with these types of qualities, they wouldn’t be seen as, they would not be seen as mentally ill. But in the U S they more than likely would be seen as mentally ill.
Sam Believ (07:01)
Yeah, it’s almost in ⁓ some some aspects of life where we’re living where normal what is normal now is actually sick and what is considered sick sometimes is actually a little more normal. But you mentioned temples, right? You if you were, know, if you were born in ancient Greece and you came to you would probably be sent to some kind of temple and be trained ⁓ and become some kind of oracle or something like that. So and you are in Greece right now and you are Greek.
Sam Believ (07:31)
And I think you know more than any of the guests we had on the show about Greek culture. So talk to us about that. I ⁓ believe you were going to ⁓ go to temple grounds and talk to the spirits. How did it go?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (07:48)
⁓ How did it go? What’d they say? I’m actually going to the island of Crete next week, ⁓ where the Minoan civilization existed. ⁓ And they had also their own mysteries. So Crete had its own mysteries, the island of Crete, it’s the largest island in Greece. ⁓ And they also had a ⁓ what we now call in Western society, a cult, a bee cult, like bee the actual, the winged creature that that
Maria Sophia Dimakos (08:17)
that beautiful little bee. ⁓ They had a cult and they had priestesses ⁓ of the bee. ⁓ also they had a, there’s a goddess. There’s a goddess that is holding two snakes, one in each hand. ⁓ She’s a very old goddess. They don’t understand very much about her. And there’s also a, ⁓ it’s like a plate, a circular plate with cuneiform on it. And it’s called the circle or the circle of thesdon.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (08:46)
Face on ⁓ and the face on disk. That’s what it’s called. And no archaeologist has been able to decipher what it means or what it says. There’s actually, want, if I’m not mistaken, there’s four of them ⁓ and nobody knows what it means. Nobody knows what it says. They believe that it potentially talks about a goddess cult. So I’m going to Cree on the 17th. next week, and I’m going to commune with that disk.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (09:13)
and start asking questions and having a dialogue with it, as well as that deity, that snake -bearing deity. I’m going to have a ⁓ conversation and dialogue and see ⁓ what these beings want, what they want, what knowledge and wisdom they have, and what my role is within that dissemination of their knowledge and wisdom. Like, ⁓ how can humanity move forward?
Sam Believ (09:41)
Interesting. ⁓ I’ll be interesting to ⁓ know what you find out. ⁓ Yes, snakes, you know, is a very, very common symbol, right? And with work with ayahuasca, people, you know, every second person sees snakes. And it’s generally a positive thing. But I, you know, you don’t really know what’s going to come up. talking about mysteries, The illusion mysteries, ⁓ hallucinian mysteries are the more famous ones. But there is
Sam Believ (10:09)
There’s different mysteries in different islands, as you say. ⁓ I would assume that, would it be safe to assume that they were also working with some kind of plant medicine, kind of like, like Elisunyans did?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (10:24)
Absolutely. ⁓ So my cousin goes to Mount Athos, which is a very well known monastery up in the mountains and he brought me back honey. And this honey, he brought back honey for me before and I looked at him and I said, this honey is not honey, it’s medicine. And he said, 100 % this honey is medicine. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (10:53)
In Crete, they have a lot of honey, which I also see as medicine. And I also believe that they have other psychedelic rituals with either mushrooms. Also, there was something about potentially acacia. So ancient acacia, which is very rich in DMT. So DMT rich acacia, mushrooms, certainly, potentially honey that has other psychedelic components in it. ⁓ And I ⁓ think that in Eleusis,
Maria Sophia Dimakos (11:22)
They had, you know, ergot, which was is the precursor to LSD. The the cookie on has 300 ingredients in it. So the that brew that they created has a lot of ingredients and we only have three of the ingredients because the rest of the recipe quote unquote was destroyed. And working with Ayahuasca, I asked her if she could help me to resurrect the recipe of the cookie on and
Maria Sophia Dimakos (11:52)
she said she would help me, but it’s not going to be the same. She said, you’re not here to make the same recipe. You’re here to make something similar, but I will help you. it’s not going to, I don’t think maybe someone will crack that code of the cookie on and get all 300 ingredients in the right percentages and mix. But I think what I’m here to bring in is something new with very ancient roots. ⁓ So
Maria Sophia Dimakos (12:18)
My own work with medicine has brought me to that conclusion and I see Ayahuasca as my greatest teacher and I have deep love and reverence for her and I trust her. I really trust her.
Sam Believ (12:31)
It’s incredible to ⁓ think about, ⁓ Kikion was lost, or you said Kukion, probably you know the better word, Kukion. ⁓ And ⁓ soma, you know, ancient Indians were using was lost. And how lucky are we that ayahuasca wasn’t lost? Because it’s a, mean, imagine if we knew that there was a thing called ayahuasca, and it’s just these two plants, but we don’t know which ones. Imagine how long it would take us to find it, but not just the recipe of the medicine itself, but the entire tradition.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (12:43)
Okay.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (12:48)
thank God.
Sam Believ (13:02)
the shamanisms and the lineages. So we’re so lucky that ⁓ that survived. yeah, is, I believe it is the key to finding the other stuff because I’ve heard of a story ⁓ of there is a medicine called Wilka and I’ve tried it myself. And it is when you consume a San Pedro cactus and then you get a DMT snuff blown up your nose. And it’s actually very similar to ayahuasca in my experience. But what they said is that the way they discovered it was
Maria Sophia Dimakos (13:02)
Mm
Maria Sophia Dimakos (13:19)
Yes.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (13:29)
Thanks for watching.
Sam Believ (13:32)
recently rediscovered this is that they were drinking San Pedro in ⁓ one of those ancient megalithic temples in Peru and as they were drinking San Pedro there they could see all of a sudden the inscriptions on the temple start to make sense and those inscriptions taught them to go and get the seed of that plant and then use it and ⁓ honestly Wilke is much stronger than just San Pedro and much more profound so I do believe that
Sam Believ (14:00)
I know if you have any ayahuasca with your mushrooms, ⁓ which probably would be illegal in Greece, but ⁓ if you could take some other psychedelics and then through them try to… I ⁓ mean, I’m sure you have your gifts, but probably would be stronger and you could find the recipe. That would be a fascinating story. I don’t know. It just sounds so great. ⁓ One question for you. Do you know about… ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (14:03)
I wish. It is.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (14:19)
Thank
Sam Believ (14:28)
which mystery does ⁓ Minotaur belongs to?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (14:30)
⁓ yes. The Minotaur belongs to the island of Crete.
Sam Believ (14:38)
Mm -hmm.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (14:39)
Yeah, so it belongs to the island of Crete ⁓ and there is a labyrinth, like that’s where the name labyrinth came from. He is, he was placed in a labyrinth ⁓ and he was actually created by his father, long mythological story. But yeah, the Minotaur is on the island of Crete.
Sam Believ (14:57)
What is the meaning of him? And I’m asking for myself because maybe two months ago I had an ayahuasca experience where for some reason, it ⁓ never happened to me before out of like probably hunger plus ceremonies, but I was actually becoming a minotaur and I freaked out and I kind of shook it off. But I was, you know, I could see, you know, fur and I was feeling like this, not really minotaur, but it was like this presence of like ⁓ a bull.
Sam Believ (15:27)
plus human, ⁓ but it didn’t feel evil or something like that because the reason I freaked out was like, know, this is something evil, know, animals and, know, bulls specifically doesn’t have a good reputation when it comes to like organized religions. But it felt really, actually when I went back to those thoughts, it felt really natural and just like animal and like kind of strong, but kind. So I was interested, maybe you could.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (15:28)
huh.
Sam Believ (15:55)
help me decipher that. What would that mean for me?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (16:00)
⁓ snakes don’t have a good reputation in organized religion either. ⁓ Snakes and bulls and all kinds of things don’t have good reputations. But what I would ask you is, what does a bull symbolize for you? What does that mean to you? When you saw yourself as the minotaur or this bull, half bull, half human being, how did it feel in your ceremony when you embodied that?
Sam Believ (16:04)
Mmm.
Sam Believ (16:26)
So ⁓ my reaction to that, because it never happened to me before, ⁓ it ⁓ was not just like a vision. I was seeing my legs and they were becoming hooves and there was this like kind of grayish fur and I could feel myself making bull sounds. ⁓ But it felt like, for me bull is, ⁓ I’m a Taurus by a sign, so I guess it kind of makes sense, but
Maria Sophia Dimakos (16:38)
Mm -hmm.
Sam Believ (16:55)
For me, bull signifies ⁓ power, persistence, ⁓ of like gentle power, I think. ⁓ yeah, that’s kind of what I think about it. it’s not what it was. My reaction to it really scared me. But now, after I analyzed it the next day, I was really hoping I could relieve it, but it never happened again. So I scared ⁓ my spirit animal away.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (17:25)
Is there something in your life where you feel you need more persistence or power in?
Sam Believ (17:31)
I mean, in this line of work, ⁓ there’s not ever enough persistence and willpower for me because, ⁓ it’s very difficult running an ayahuasca retreat and, you know, everything that comes to it and building and sometimes I’m surprised why I’m not burnt out just yet or maybe I am and I don’t know how to diagnose myself.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (17:55)
Well, maybe perhaps as an interpretation, maybe your vision in medicine was telling you that you already have all of the persistence and the strength that you need. It’s really accepting it and receiving it as your own and not to be fearful of how much power you actually have.
Sam Believ (18:16)
That’s a good interpretation. Yeah. Thank you for that. ⁓ but yeah, let’s not make it a therapy session for me. ⁓ Let’s, but yeah, this so far, this conversation is really interesting to me. I’m like spending 50 % of time with goosebumps, which for me is a sign that something, something interesting is coming through. ⁓ let’s switch topic from Greece to, know, you’re, you’re being death duel and how you.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (18:23)
⁓ You ⁓
Sam Believ (18:46)
You know, most people avoid death in their life experiences. They don’t want to think about it, they don’t want to touch it, it’s ⁓ seen as something negative. Why do you not only embrace it, but you explore it and you help other people through that process? How did you become a death tool and why?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (19:08)
So my dad was mentally ill, as I mentioned before, and he was obsessed with death. His mother died when he was 16 months old, so he never really remembered her. And his father died in front of him when he was 12. And so my father always had a fixation on death. And as I was growing up, I remember I was 10 years old. That was my first funeral that I went to with my father.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (19:36)
And my father would take us to the funerals constantly and he was always talking about his own death. ⁓ And it’s so interesting now coming here, when I come to Greece, I think I’ve spoken about death in Greece to just relatives and friends every single day, if not multiple times a day. It’s a very acceptable conversation. It’s not demonized in any way. It’s not seen as taboo. It’s so refreshing to be able to just discuss death openly.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (20:04)
Because as you said, in the US, it’s more, it’s something that’s shrouded in fear. ⁓ And let’s not talk about it because if we don’t talk about it, it won’t happen somehow. Like people think that they could cheat death or they can escape death. And ⁓ here in Greece, that’s not, they don’t believe that. They really are ⁓ very close to it and have a level of understanding and openness that I haven’t experienced elsewhere.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (20:34)
And I think because of my beginnings as a child, constantly being in that realm of people dying around me, going to places where people who had died are celebrated, and then working within as my little kid self, seeing how grief is processed in families and in friend groups and communities. I think that is what really prepared me and catapulted me into
Maria Sophia Dimakos (21:02)
wanting to be a death doula. I ⁓ think the ⁓ biggest, transformative experience that was really like very clear, like you’re gonna do this, ⁓ is four days before my father died, I was in an ayahuasca ceremony and Madre Ayahuasca told me exactly how I was going to handle my father’s death. She explained like point by point, this is what time you’re gonna go to your father’s house. This is what you’re going to say.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (21:31)
this is what’s gonna happen. He’s not your father anymore. Like he’s gone. He’s going to die like within this week. Like she was very, ⁓ very, very specific. This is what the room is going to look like. This is how you’re going to center yourself. This is how you’re gonna speak to the caregivers. This is how you’re gonna speak to your mother. This is how you’re gonna speak to your father. ⁓ And now let’s grieve. So in that ceremony, I was able to start the grieving process even though my father was still alive.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (22:01)
He was gonna die in four days. But I started the grieving process ⁓ and the medicine said, this is the work that you’re going to do with others, but you need to start. This is your initiation. Your initiation is your father’s death. So give your father a good death and then you’ll be able and prepared to work with others. So I did exactly what was asked of me. And I remember like writing everything down once the ceremony was over.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (22:31)
And on the day that he died, the medicine came back to me. So it was four days later, ⁓ the ceremony ended on Sunday. On Thursday morning, the medicine comes to me and says, okay, call your mother, tell her you’ll be there at seven in the morning. You’re going to stay there the entire day. And I was like, what, I’m not going to go back to my house. I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to… She’s like, you’re staying there the whole entire day and you’re going to stay there for longer than that. But stay there.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (22:59)
ask your father what he needs, she instructed me. ⁓ And everything that I saw in my medicine journey and all the instructions I was given, everything came to pass exactly as it was given to me. ⁓ And once he actually died, I ⁓ remember just sitting there thinking, I ⁓ passed my initiation. This was my initiation. I’ve done it. I’ve completed this initiation. And not only that, but I felt a sense of pride.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (23:28)
Like I was able to do this in the way that wasn’t the highest good. And my father had a good death. And then I was like, okay, now it’s time for me to move forward and start to hone my skills and get more education ⁓ and train even more so that I could help others.
Sam Believ (23:48)
Wonderful and you mentioned good death, right? And there’s a story I’ve heard you say about ⁓ your husband’s best friend dying ⁓ of suicide and then kind of haunting you. Can you talk about that and why, know, what’s the difference of good death and not good death and how souls can get stuck?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (24:08)
I can’t get stuck. So a good death to me is a death that is conscious, meaning that it’s the death that you want, that you’ve decided, I ⁓ want to have all of my family and friends around me, or I don’t want anyone around me, I’m choosing this. I am consciously choosing my own death and how it’s going to be. And if we look at it from a macro perspective, everybody chooses everything that happens anyway. So. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (24:34)
But from the micro level, ⁓ you go down into the weeds of being a human, my ex -husband’s best friend, ⁓ he chose to take his life. He was ⁓ incredibly troubled. He was drinking alcohol heavily and he was also taking antidepressants with the alcohol, which of course is just not a good mix by any means. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (25:02)
He was very, very troubled and he had a girlfriend at the time and ⁓ the girlfriend contacted the authorities and told them that he had explosives and he had guns and that he was dangerous because they had gotten into a fight. So the police came up to his cabin. He was living in the woods. He was living pretty much in isolation at this point. He saw the police.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (25:28)
Maybe he got scared, maybe he had pre -planned it, but then he shot himself and died. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (25:36)
It was very shocking to me because I’ve had, I had very in -depth conversations with him about spirituality and death and life. ⁓ So the fact that he would do that was very shocking. But then he started showing up at my house in terms of being behind the closet doors at three and four in the morning and pounding on them. Like he was inside the actual closet door. He would move things in the house.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (26:05)
he would break light bulbs. ⁓ My ex -husband at the time was, he was not a person who was particularly spiritual. He was a skeptic. ⁓ And at one point he was shaving and in the mirror he saw his friend that had died right behind him. And every time that I would try to remove that particular spirit from the home with sage, with Palo Santo, whatever I was trying to do, ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (26:33)
Invocations, calling in the light, all of the techniques that I know, it was though I was being choked, physically choked because that spirit didn’t want to leave. So was in in -between. It was very uneasy. It was very unhappy. ⁓ And I ⁓ was stuck in that. I felt like I was stuck in that because I couldn’t move him because my husband at the time kept calling him in. I ⁓ kept trying to push him out and be like, hey, you need a crossover. You can’t be here anymore.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (27:03)
But then my husband at the time kept calling him in. I wasn’t able to actually call him out to get him removed until 10 years later. I left the home like two years after that happened. left the home. it’s not like he followed me, but I did have one vision of him. I think it was last December where he came to me and he said, I need you to cross me over.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (27:31)
And I said, I can’t cross you over because you have contracts with my ex -husband and he’s not gonna let you go. I, because we’re so close to each other, I can’t help you, but I’ll find someone who will. So I went to a psychic medium and this other energy healer, they work as a team ⁓ and they were able to take that person and move and cross them over. They took them to this place that’s like a rehabilitation center, an ⁓ etheric rehabilitation center.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (28:00)
for people who are stuck in in between ⁓ and have contracts with people and it’s complicated. So they were able to actually cross him over. I was too close to him to be able to do it.
Sam Believ (28:13)
Interesting. ⁓ Yeah, that sounds very scary. ⁓ So some gifts are, some spiritual gifts are scarier than others. And this one is particularly scary, know, feeling that noticing that ⁓ my wife is very sensitive to any kind of presences and beings and also other people’s ⁓ energies. I’m not my gift is more in a
Sam Believ (28:41)
in the realm of like healing and physical healing, which is great. And I sleep calmly at night. I don’t feel anything. I don’t see anything. ⁓ So that’s great. ⁓ For someone, since ⁓ we talk about the topic of death, let’s say a ⁓ lot of people come to ayahuasca because they’re grieving a loss of a loved one. As a professional, what will be your recommendations for
Sam Believ (29:11)
like grieving better, what is the skill there? ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (29:18)
Grieving is an art, I think, and grieving is a practice. And one of my teachers, Francis Weller, talks about the five gates of grief, how there is more than just the grief of a lost loved one. He wrote a book called The Wild Edge of Sorrow, and he believes that in ⁓ order for us to grieve, quote unquote, better, being around community and actually ritualizing,
Maria Sophia Dimakos (29:47)
the grief, like having grief rituals and grief ceremonies so that people can feel more contained ⁓ and they can feel supported within their grief, within their community and their family. So I think for me, it’s really important to actually feel grief and allow grief in and not to have all of these conditions on it. Grief should only last for a year or ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (30:14)
⁓ this person wasn’t a blood related, you know, a blood relation. So you shouldn’t be sad ⁓ and you should just get through it. People have these very strange ideas about grief and limitations. ⁓ And grief is a season ⁓ in people’s lives and seasons last long. It’s not linear. Grief is not a a linear thing at all. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (30:41)
and it waxes and wanes. And I think when people go into ayahuasca ceremonies or mushroom ceremonies, because they want to release grief, what I’ve seen, if that’s the intention, I’ve seen people come to front and center all of the grief, just getting a ⁓ tidal wave of grief, because the medicine, like, it’s not gonna say, ⁓ you want to get rid of this grief? Okay, let’s get rid of it. No, it’s be like, no, we’re gonna feel it all now, right now. We’re gonna look at all of it.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (31:09)
and you’re gonna feel all of it and you’re gonna feel all the depths of it. And so I think the first step is really to allow yourself to grieve in whatever way it looks like for you and not to judge yourself about what grief looks like. The more you hold it in and try to keep it in the lanes of what society thinks is, as long as you’re not hurting people, as long as you’re not physically hurting anybody or yourself,
Maria Sophia Dimakos (31:36)
then expressing your grief and whatever makes sense to you and allowing that to be is the first step. So if it means dancing, if grief, if your expression of grief is ecstatic dance for three days, ⁓ or if it means singing, ⁓ or if it means just staying in your bed in the fetal position in the darkness for a ⁓ couple of days, like whatever it means to you, or there’s times where
Maria Sophia Dimakos (32:05)
You know, you feel like you’re okay and then you need to go back into your bed and then you need it, you know, whatever it looks like to you to allow that expression to fully blossom and not to ⁓ stifle it because you feel like you’re an inconvenience to others.
Sam Believ (32:19)
I think I think that’s a very valuable ⁓ advice for anyone who is grieving. ⁓ I know your medicine of choice is ayahuasca and ayahuasca is known as one of those medicines that ⁓ shows you death and helps you ⁓ rehearse that process and kind of takes away some of the fear of dying.
Sam Believ (32:45)
⁓ Can you talk to us about that? know, how, how I was guys helping you being a death do alum. What are the lessons maybe you’ve had from iOS camp?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (32:56)
I remember the first time I died during an ayahuasca ceremony. I died and it felt really comfortable. was like, this is great. This feels nice. I think I’ll stay here forever. I ⁓ was in a void. It just was like darkness in a void and it felt so comfortable. So like the actual death itself for me in that ceremony wasn’t the hard part. The hard part happened when the medicine came and said, okay, now you need to be reborn. And I was like, I don’t want to.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (33:26)
So I’m arguing, I’m arguing and trying to negotiate with ⁓ this deity, which to me, Ayahuasca is this deity, this female feminine deity. I’m arguing with her, telling her that I don’t want to be a human again and this place that I’m in is much easier and I don’t want to come back. And she’s like, you have to come back. You can’t stay here. There’s no way.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (33:51)
And so I’m arguing, so that could have happened for probably an hour, you know, into two hours. But then she’s like, no, no, no, you’re going to be reborn right now. And not only are you going to be reborn, but also you have to consent to it and accept it with happiness and joy in your heart. And I was like, are you kidding me? I don’t want to, I don’t want to leave this place. This place is great. Why would I want to go back into the messiness of being a human being? This is, you’re not giving me a lot of options here. And she’s like, no, you’re gonna, you’re gonna be reborn, but you have to consent.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (34:20)
until you consent, you’re gonna be in this limbo. So I consented and ⁓ I remember opening my eyes and seeing a birth canal, like with veins and blood and flesh, like seeing an actual birth canal and then feeling like a rush of wind coming towards me. And I remember a ⁓ lot of times in ayahuasca ceremonies, there’s a lot of mucus and like,
Maria Sophia Dimakos (34:45)
blowing of noses and all of that. But I remember I was like, why is there so much mucus coming out of me? ⁓ And the medicine saying it’s not mucus, it’s amniotic fluid because you’re in a womb and you’re going to be reborn right now. I was like, no. Okay. And I remember just going through that portal of being reborn and feeling the wind on my face coming through to the other side. And it was very destabilizing as an experience.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (35:13)
because again, I remembered where I was before and how easy it was to be there. So for me, it’s not so much the dying part that I have the issue with is the coming back part. The coming back part is I think part of my processing of, ⁓ consenting to come back into a human body, into a human form over and over again, and ⁓ being better every time that you come back.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (35:41)
taking the wisdom that you’ve learned from the other side and ⁓ the pain of being reborn, but using that pain and that discomfort for good. And so whenever I worked with clients, especially if I worked with clients with 5Meo DMT, ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (36:00)
hands down they all say that, death. They get to the death place and they’re like, not so bad. wait, but now I have to come back? It’s the coming back part that people are like, I don’t want to do this. This is too hard. Being a human is challenging.
Sam Believ (36:13)
you
Sam Believ (36:17)
⁓ So then a question to you from that knowledge you collected from plant medicines and also your experience around that. ⁓ First, what happens after that and is there ⁓ hell or heaven, know, like ⁓ this Christian view of it?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (36:37)
can speak to my own experience. That’s the lens I come through. So people can take ⁓ it for what it’s worth. If it resonates with them, fantastic. If it doesn’t, please keep it to the side. ⁓ For me, I do not believe in heaven and hell. I believe that we are currently living in the heaven or hell that we create on this planet. ⁓ And heaven and hell are not a place in my estimation. After we die,
Maria Sophia Dimakos (37:06)
I believe that I go back to eternal source. People call it God or oneness, the all. I go back to that place and then I ⁓ spend time in oneness, whatever time means because time is such an illusion. And then at some point ⁓ I go to source and I ask source what planet needs the most help and how can I help them?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (37:36)
And then I get my assignment to go wherever I’m supposed to go to help. And everything is told to me, everything is explained, what will happen to me when I come to earth or another planet or wherever I go. ⁓ And I ⁓ consent to come back to earth, let’s say for example, and I ask, know, I consent to come back here. I also am able to select the gifts that I bring with me to help with the challenges that I will face as a human being, let’s say.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (38:06)
And then once I consent, I incarnate into a human body and I’m here for however many years I live and the cycle keeps on going.
Sam Believ (38:18)
And what is the purpose of this? Is that like your soul coming over to learn some lessons or how do you view that?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (38:28)
I that it is about learning and it is about relationships, being in relationship with others to know yourself. A lot of times it’s helpful to be with another. That’s where there’s synergy. That’s where there’s conflict. And through conflict and ⁓ cohesion, you can learn a lot of things about yourself. And so I ⁓ think it’s just a matter of wanting to learn and expand because I
Maria Sophia Dimakos (38:57)
this universe and God or source, I think it’s just such a generative creative being. It just wants to create all the time and learn and expand and just keep on going into infinity. It doesn’t stagnate. It just keeps on bringing more. It’s so abundant in that. So to learn more things in depth, ⁓ have fun, to ⁓ have interesting experiences.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (39:24)
⁓ I would imagine just being in the oneness and being in this stagnant place would get really boring after a while. You want some novelty. So Earth is a great place if you want novelty. There’s lots of novel experiences here. So I think ⁓ we come here to learn, we come here to expand, we come here to bring more love to the world, love and joy. And yeah, ⁓ I think that’s the whole point. Being creative, bringing more.
Sam Believ (39:54)
⁓ What do you think ancient Greeks said? If you die before you die, you don’t die when you die.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (40:04)
they said that because they knew that if you were to confront that fear of death, that you would live more. I ⁓ think there are some people who are so frightened of death that they don’t live. They just live in a constant state of fear and panic, ⁓ paralyzed, hoping that death comes, but they’re not there when it happens.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (40:32)
which I think it’s a Woody Allen quote, I’m not afraid of death, but I don’t want to be there when it happens. So I think there’s people who don’t live because they’re in fear of death. And I think that quote is about living like living like death is just another, it’s just another experience. And if you see it that way, rather than with fear, you come to death very empty. You don’t come with regret because at the end of life, people share their regrets. That’s the number one thing that they talk about.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (41:01)
all the regrets they have about what they didn’t do, what they didn’t say within their life. So I think that quote has to do with like living your life without that fear of death, because you know, you’re, you’re going to come in some other form. It’s not the end of anything. It’s just a transition. It’s just an initiation into something else.
Sam Believ (41:23)
You kind of touched upon my, what was going to be my next question, but ⁓ you describe ⁓ the process people go to when they’re, you know, they’re left six months to live and they need to work with all their regrets and unsaid words. So my question was, ⁓ can somebody go through that process right now before they even are ever, you know, knowing that they’re dying and basically just, ⁓ would that affect their, would it make their life better?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (41:55)
had to go through that process within my training and I ⁓ got to work with someone else who was not in a terminal space within my practicum. I worked with several people who were not in that terminal space going through that process. And I think that you can do the process of asking about regrets in each of the spheres of your life at any time. And I think it does make you realize the value that your life has.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (42:24)
And it also clarifies how you are living your life and how you’re not living your life. If you have many regrets about relationships with ⁓ parents or siblings ⁓ and they’re really bothering you and they’re holding you back, if you’re in a non -terminal space and you’re able to do some sort of clearing work or reconciliation work while everyone is still alive, I ⁓ think it definitely has a positive impact in your life.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (42:52)
I think we should do life reviews every year, like during New Year’s rather than these big New Year’s Eve parties. Let’s have life review parties where we figure out what happened during this year, what are the regrets of this year and how we can bring something new into the new year where those regrets don’t exist. So I think life reviews with all the spheres of your life are a great tool to have even, you know, not in the terminal space.
Sam Believ (43:21)
Yeah, seems to make a lot of sense to just like what can make you more conscious of life than death and like just analyzing yourself and kind of there’s this good way of living life is like asking yourself ⁓ what are people gonna tell about you on your deathbed and stuff like that. It does, mean, I understand what you’re saying about death as being a relief and I think I have experienced that myself and I’ve heard it from like hundreds of
Sam Believ (43:50)
⁓ Patience they come through through our doors ⁓ But still you know, there’s like yeah, there’s this hesitancy and resistance to think about it because like I think yeah, ⁓ we’re souls that come here to learn lessons and we’re part of God ⁓ the God that’s so bored and he like creates this little It’s like watching a telenovela for God. He just like ⁓ parts and like role plays ⁓ to entertain himself or herself or itself or whatever
Maria Sophia Dimakos (44:09)
⁓ People. ⁓
Sam Believ (44:19)
But I think those little parts of those souls, their program not to want to die because obviously then how are going to play this game of life if you die early? Yeah, this is a fascinating topic and ⁓ there are no definitive answers, but I know that for me personally, after I started working with ⁓ plant medicines, my outlook on death and on life completely changed. you know, ⁓ I consider myself a spiritual person now.
Sam Believ (44:48)
⁓ all thanks to ayahuasca. ⁓ And I think it’s a better way of living life. Let’s say that’s not true. Let’s say you and me are mistaken and we’re mistaken. There’s something else. But is it better to live your life fearing that you’re going to die and then you’re going to rot and there’s no meaning to it or just, yeah, there’s a meaning to all of it. I think it’s just a better and more helpful belief system.
Sam Believ (45:18)
to adopt. ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (45:20)
Yeah, I agree with you. And I think I also think in my perspective, what’s really important and what has been foundational and life changing within my own medicine work has been the medicine showing me my divine nature. But yes, there’s this human and I have a name and I come from somewhere and I have a family and all these things. Yeah, sure. I have this. This is true. It’s temporary. But the thing that also exists is this very
Maria Sophia Dimakos (45:50)
infinite thing, a ⁓ spirit which has never been born, has never died. And I can tap into that presence whenever I want to. ⁓ And I think as human beings, we forgot that that exists. ⁓ And I think it makes us the most human when we realize that we are divine beings. We actually have the spark of divinity within us ⁓ and we’re infinite.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (46:19)
Just the shell goes away, but the infinite spirit never goes away. So I think if you were to treat everyone as you walk through life as a divine human being and you look at them as like this person is an infinite being, which is pure love, I think we would be treating people much, differently versus let me look at this person just in a human scope, the physical quote unquote matter that they are.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (46:47)
and all of the personality and character and an ego that’s involved in it, rather than giving it more layers of this person’s also an infinite divine being, just like I am. We’re part of the same exact soup, or we’re part of the same divine soup that exists. I think ⁓ people would treat each other more humanely, rather than… ⁓
Maria Sophia Dimakos (47:13)
Separating I think the biggest lie truly the biggest lie that’s ever been sold to humanity is that we’re all separate We’re all unique. Yes as human beings physical human beings were all different. However, we’re not separate It’s one being that’s on this planet, it’s not all these separate Entities it’s just one field one giant field, but we can’t see that because we’re so ⁓ entrenched in
Maria Sophia Dimakos (47:38)
other programming and thinking that churches and institutions have brought to us in order to control and manipulate people. And so if we were all to see that we’re unified and that we were divine spirits, then governments would have a really hard time controlling humanity. The church would have a really hard time selling hell ⁓ and selling sin and selling evil to humanity if we all
Maria Sophia Dimakos (48:06)
realize how unified we actually are and how there is goodness. I believe that ⁓ human beings at our spirits at the core are good, that we have goodness and light and love within each of us. Some people tap into it more than others and others don’t even believe it exists and that’s fine. But I don’t choose to see it that way. Just how you were saying, what if we’re wrong? If we’re wrong, we’re wrong. Like I’m okay with being wrong.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (48:36)
But this is how I choose to live my life.
Sam Believ (48:36)
Mm
Sam Believ (48:39)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and ⁓ But I can also think of some people where it’s really hard for me to see any any spirit in them ⁓ You know how how far removed they are from from their spirit and how I don’t know what is it society or something that Made us all so disconnected and distracted and ⁓ I mean, this is why i’m a big fan of ayahuasca for me personally. It kind of shook me back to ⁓
Sam Believ (49:08)
thinking in different ways and changed my life on so many different levels. So I believe that there’s a lot of people that ⁓ maybe otherwise will never get there. ⁓ Like they’re there or like, you ⁓ know, me myself, few years ago, I was, I was one of those people like so far removed from any, from my own spirit that it’s only, it will only take something as strong as ayahuasca to like beat me out of it and just bring me to different ways of thinking.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (49:36)
you
Sam Believ (49:37)
And it does it sometimes. ⁓ Sometimes it’s really, really strong and really cruel. And this ⁓ is kind of my mission, I guess. If my soul has a mission, that probably it’s about that, know, spreading awareness of this plant medicine and how it can change your way of looking at things. that’s exciting to think about it this way instead of just like, you know, superficial understandings of it.
Sam Believ (50:07)
Yeah, ⁓ I know you also facilitate plant medicine’s journey, ⁓ my question to you as a fellow facilitator is what are your favorite ways to help people integrate ⁓ and just generally ⁓ any advice ⁓ to facilitators out there?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (50:35)
recently in the last year have fallen in love with dietas, like truly madly in love with dietas. feel like they are the missing piece for me when it comes to communing with the plant world and the mushroom kingdom. And more so in terms of integration, I would say more ⁓ on the preparation side.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (50:58)
of working with plants. Say there’s people who are very leery and scared of working with psychedelics, which I understand, but something like a dieta is far more accessible to them. ⁓ And even though they diet something that’s not a psychedelic plant, they are able to have a psychedelic altered state of consciousness experience through a dieta. So say if they diet boba and sanna, or they diet rose, ⁓ or they diet blue water lily.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (51:27)
So these things are not psychedelic ⁓ on their face, but once you start to diet that plant and commune with that spirit and become partners with that spirit, you have psychedelic experiences. Your state of consciousness, your state of being is altered. ⁓ You go into a different dimension altogether. So I cannot speak ⁓ positively enough about having dietas.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (51:55)
whether they’re in the jungle and they’re isolated dietas or urban dietas and some people can’t, let’s say go into the jungle for two weeks and diet Boba and Sana, they can’t do it. I understand that. And I’m not saying that people should start that way either. I ⁓ think meeting people where they are, we’re in their lives. And if you could do a one week diet with Rose, fantastic. Like an urban or a Swabian diet, that’s great. Start there so that people get used to the idea
Maria Sophia Dimakos (52:26)
and notion of there are other beings that are implants, these are spirits, you can commune with them, you can have a relationship with them, because then it makes it much easier down the road once they’ve had a few dietas and they’ve received healing ⁓ or insight and wisdom or direction in their lives through these dietas for them to say, okay, I have three dietas that I’ve done and now I think like psychedelics, now I feel more comfortable and I can work.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (52:55)
within psychedelics, can maybe go into an ayahuasca ceremony ⁓ and speak with mother ayahuasca. I’m not ⁓ so foreign to it. It’s not an alien spirit. It’s an actual plant spirit and I’ve communed with other plant spirits. So I think it’s a way to gently guide people who maybe have reservations about psychedelic experiences to get them to a place where they feel a little more grounded and comfortable so that they can gain.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (53:22)
all of the lessons they need to gain in the healing from ayahuasca ceremonies. ⁓ then integration is much more profound. And also it’s not as jarring. They’re able to have roots into what they’re doing because I ⁓ have seen people go through massive transformations within ceremonies. And then within two weeks, it’s all disappeared. And I’m sure you’ve seen that too, Sam, all the time.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (53:50)
So I think gently bringing people in and step by step, low and slow, starting with non -psychedelic plants or say if they have some experience, even using psychedelic plants within dietas and then putting them into a much more intense container where they have a ceremony and then going into the integration phase. So I think it’s more so not just integration, but how we bring people into the plant medicine world.
Sam Believ (54:20)
Thank you. That’s a great explanation. And ⁓ funny enough in Colombia, in Colombia now Oscar tradition, the others are not that common. What they what they work with a lot here is purges, which I guess is similar, but more faster and intense way ⁓ to do those things. But I’m interested about it. And it’s like funny enough, there’s a lot of plants, even like garden plants that grow here that are psychedelic in nature. And a lot of them have, you know, spirits and you can kind of like
Maria Sophia Dimakos (54:35)
Yeah.
Sam Believ (54:50)
It’s almost after ⁓ working with the Alaska, it’s almost kind of becomes obvious. He’s some plans to just have kind of more of a appeal and yeah, I’m very curious about it myself as well. I think I will explore that topic to see if I can learn something there. So Maria, thank you so much ⁓ for this episode. I think we’re getting close to an hour now. So ⁓ before we…
Sam Believ (55:19)
Finnish, is there anything else you want to say to the audience or maybe something we haven’t touched upon but you would like to?
Maria Sophia Dimakos (55:28)
No, just for people to open their hearts.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (55:34)
and not ⁓ believe everything they’ve been taught.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (55:41)
There’s much more than what we’ve been shown. I could say in the Western world, there’s much more out there available to people and not to believe the imagined disabilities and limitations that have been placed upon you and to open your heart to other possibilities. Open your heart to yourself first ⁓ and connect with that divine spirit that I was talking about because there is everything you need you have. Every single thing that you need you have inside. It’s just a matter.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (56:11)
It’s not a matter of learning, it’s really a matter of locating, of locating your own internal wisdom and knowledge and to do that by, it’s opening your heart to yourself.
Sam Believ (56:23)
Yeah, we need to do a lot of learning, we also need to do a lot of unlearning. And that’s, that’s important right now because there’s so much information that is not true. So ⁓ Maria, where can people find more about your, maybe ⁓ get your services as a death tool or facilitator or coach.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (56:29)
Yes.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (56:44)
Yeah, I have a website, TheMariaSofia, and then I’m also saying same name on Instagram, TheMariaSofia. And then I also have a podcast of my own called Suddenly Spiritual. ⁓ And it ⁓ is more so geared towards people who are very new to the spiritual path or maybe they’re kind of midway point. ⁓ And it’s helping people to gather and build self -awareness.
Maria Sophia Dimakos (57:13)
So they’re not being programmed or moved in ways that are not the best for them. So it’s more of an educational podcast. Again, it’s called Suddenly Spiritual. You can find it pretty much everywhere. And yeah, and the Maria Sofia.
Sam Believ (57:28)
Thank you, Maria was a lot of fun. I’ve learned a lot from this episode and remembered a lot So thank you for coming on and thank you for sharing
Maria Sophia Dimakos (57:37)
Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Sam. I really appreciate you and all the work that you’re doing.
Sam Believ (57:43)
Thank you ⁓ guys, ⁓ you’ve been listening to Ayahuasca podcast and thank you for listening and I’ll see you in the next episode.