Inside Anissa’s Brutality Part 1: The Toll On the Body

Anissa arrived at the hospital in critical condition.

With bruises on her arms and skin missing above one of her fingernails.

Showing signs of potential kidney failure and liver failure.

Potential death if her kidneys and liver cannot function.

It’s bad.

It felt so heavy to think that Anissa’s brother was rushing to the airport.

Flying to meet her in case his sister needed a transplant to survive.

Potential liver failure is super bad.

When a liver fails you get really sick really fast.

The doctors told her…

“We just dont know at this moment where we’re at”

“If your organs are functioning then they will flush themselves out. Besides supporting them with fluids, there is little else we can do at this point. We have to wait 24 hours to see what happens.”

They didn’t know what path to take. Or what was happening to her.

The next hours were really scary for Anissa.

She thought there was a good chance she could have permanent organ damage.

Or that one of her kidneys or liver would fail irreversibly.

Putting her on a track to an early death.

On top of that, it was her birthday.

Anissa shares:

“People are texting me all the festive birthday emojis, unaware of what I was going through.

It was hard.

The whole experience was really traumatizing.

The doctors asked so many questions: ‘Did they inject you with something? Was there any possibility that you were raped? Do you think we should use a rape kit on you? Do you wish to speak to a social worker or psychiatrist?’

Those thoughts weren’t in my head until I had to answer them from the doctor.

I’m thinking.

‘OMG how did I get here? I paid over $5000 to go to a 5-star resort and have a remarkable birthday. Now I’m answering questions about rape kits and social workers.”

In my mind…no.

50 people were there. I dont think I was raped. Rythmia is this great institution. This isn’t some weird place.

But answering those questions at the hospital is hard. When your body is bruised, when your memory is blurry, and when you’ve seen just how strong plant medicine is…you second guess everything.

Then there is the fear of what’s going to happen to me right now with my liver or kidneys. And how is this going to affect my family and my loved ones.

That part is terrifying. It’s terrifying in here. Terrifying hours alone in the hospital.

The doctors came back with her diagnosis:

Anissa, you did 4 days of Ayahuasca. Which seems insane.

You were severely dehydrated when you arrived.

And you developed a condition called Rhabdomyolysis in your kidneys.

Rhabdo for short.

Rhabdo is a potentially life-threatening syndrome. It happens to some ultra marathoners or extreme athletes.

It occurs when you push your muscles so far beyond their limits that the damage rips them to shreds entirely. Killing them and leaking the muscle contents into your blood circulation.

The proteins and electrolytes released into your blood are toxic to your kidneys.

It’s what caused your kidney damage.

And you got Rhabdo because of how hard you fought from being held down for a long period of time.

Regarding your liver. We have no idea what happened.

We ran a test to see if we can find any chemicals that could be toxic to the liver.

The only thing we found of known chemicals are caffeine. You don’t take any medication. So there’s nothing in your liver that explains the toxicity.

It’s just that the level of enzymes in your liver are still sky high

You have ALT levels well over 2,000 when the normal is under 50.

So if you had waited one day to get to us…

The probability of your liver and kidney function going back to normal would have been reduced significantly.

Anissa was in the hospital Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

She was so relieved that she made the right decision to head to the hospital.

When she woke after the Day 4 ceremony, she knew something was seriously wrong.

Her arms were in so much pain. And her abs were just not working.

I couldn’t move because my muscles were dead.

I could not use my abs to sit up.

I remember putting my feet on the ground and my legs not working.

I had to ask my friend to help me all the way to the bathroom to get stability.

I was so confused about what was happening to me?

‘What is going on?’

‘How did this happen?’

‘Is this some kind of ALS?’

‘Why is everything hurting so bad?’

‘What do I have?’

It was because of the Rhabdo.

Anissa’s muscles had been severely damaged from the fight.

And were now leaking into her bloodstream. Poisoning her kidneys and liver and destroying her body from the inside out.

But nobody knew it yet.

An older lady from Rythmia came to help her out.

Anissa was sick. Throwing up a lot of liquid.

She needed help to go to the bathroom but she couldn’t get up.

The lady offered her a cup of coconut water, which hit her empty stomach like a knife.

With her severe dehydration still completely unacknowledged, she felt horrible and went back to sleep to rest.

She just couldn’t stay awake.

The worst thing to do when you’ve contracted Rhabdo.

“Everything we did was counterproductive.

The one thing you cannot do when you get Rhabdo is sleep.

I had to hydrate so I could flush everything out.

But was so sick. Throwing it all up.

I needed to see a doctor.

I needed an IV as quick as possible.

But I didn’t get that.

And Rythmia really screwed up not giving me the medical attention.

They had to know.

I couldn’t make the right decisions because I had no idea.

I was confused, sick, and tired.

Time was of the essence.

It was a miracle Anissa had a 6th sense something was seriously wrong the next morning.

She took ten minutes to pack, booked a new flight, and left straight back home to Phoenix. Then straight to the hospital.

Before Rythmia, she was feeling fine.

She was strong and her body was toned.

Now she had no muscle. Everything was ripped apart, her life changed by that night forever.

It’s going to take a while to recover.

Inside the Controversial Brutality

Anissa’s first 2 ceremonies were awesome.

She was having a blast and was super happy.

Yet by the 3rd night, she started asking…

Where is the darkness?

She knew she had issues.

And something told her the hard work was about to begin.

On the 3rd night, Anissa started having darker experiences of fear.

It wasn’t terrible.

But enough to start giving her doubt about the 4th night.

She was hesitant to go. And starting to not like the situation.

Anissa expressed her concerns to Ryhmia’s founder Gerry.

Gerry’s advice was,

“You need to stay in that darkness. Don't try to feel better.

Stay and sit in the darkness.

Just don't run away from it. It’s healing you.”

Anissa definitely not feeling better.

Now she’s wondering.

Are we safe here? Is this a cult? Am I going to be trapped here?

She’s starting to get paranoid and goes to talk to Dr. Jeff McNairy.

Chief Medical Officer at Rythmia and the former director of Passages Malibu. A world-renowned drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Malibu California. A seriously impressive and extremely knowledgeable doctor.

Dr. McNairy tells her:

Look at everything that is coming up.

Question how it makes you feel?

Ask yourself, do you feel like that in your real life?

Feeling trapped is what is coming up for Anissa.

And feeling trapped is the theme of her life.

“I’ve always felt like I’m trapped in a job.

Trapped in society. Trapped in a marriage.

With a fear that something bad is going to happening.

Like being kidnapped, raped, or killed.

It’s in part because of the environment I grew up in.

Security didn’t exist for people trapped in Columbia in the 80s and 90s.

There’s no bubble like in America where you feel like you’re protected.

My family suffered a lot of the violence in the 90s. Associated not with drug groups, but illegal guerilla groups.

Members of my family were kidnapped or murdered.

I myself suffered sexual trauma in my 20s.

That’s something you don’t really forget easily.

So yeah, I grew up with the fear of being killed, kidnapped, or raped.

In a family with generations of collective trauma from Columbia.

Maybe there’s something in there…

Anissa spoke to me (Peter) on Day 4 and addressed some of her fears.

I thought her fears from Day 3 appeared because she came to Mother Ayahuasca with the question:

“Show me what I am afraid of?”

I felt like she went looking for fear and found what she was looking for.

So I encouraged her to show up on Day 4.

This time with the positive intention of ‘How can I have the best time of my life tonight?’

I could not have been more wrong.

Anissa showed up. And thus. The most horrific night of her life begins.

Click here to read → Inside Anissa’s Brutality Part 2: The Wild Force Rises

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