Toxic Cacao and Emotional Detox

While extolled by some raw foodies, for other raw eaters cacao is considered a toxic addictive stimulant to be avoided.  Here's what often happens: cacao, being one of this planet's teacher/ medicine plants, brings messages to the surface consciousness about inner reality in need of healing.  Raw foodies are trained to use their body to monitor dietetic choices… to understand negativity that they feel through their body as feedback about the physical toxicity and suitability of the food they are eating.  Do you think the symbolic keys to your emotional toxicity saying “dig here for inner healing gold” are going to feel like the yummy coconut I opened for today’s lunch?  Oops… messages completely misunderstood… bad cacao.  Cacao does not work the same with everyone.  Others on a raw diet experience “the best day ever” from cacao consumption. 

Many into raw foods are physically clean and their consciousness is continuing into emotional detoxification, a next step in a common progression.  From cleaning the physical body to cleaning the emotional body.  While like most everyone else with emotional and psychic channels clogged or disconnected, raw foodies have physical bodies clean and perceptive… and through this clear pathway cacao flows a map of their next step in healing.  Of course, if you don't understand cacao’s mapping personally, or your raw support system is telling you that this emotional cleansing process is instead harmful toxic feedback symptoms, you will have no idea what to do with the metaphors to your inner healing that cacao and other levels of your being have presented to you.   Keys to basic ‘Know Thyself’... which you may understand as important in most any spiritual system. 

"If you won't feel it, you can't heal it".  The emotions will be blocked from exiting you which is what is happening

Many have had the experience of, for instance, doing a liver detox, and having someone tell them that their cleansing reactions are a sign that the detox program is bad for them.  I get this exact situation from quality raw food instructors not trained in emotional and energetic/ spiritual detox.  Raw teachers tell me about the folks who are toxic following cacao ceremonies and I tell them about the folks who when shown how to cooperate with ‘what's up’ and follow their ‘toxic’ symptoms, are able to use those messages to lead them into their next step in life-changing inner healing and growth.  An orientation that negative feelings always equal physical toxicity is too simplistic to be swimming in the metaphors from the subconscious pond.  As Carl Jung pointed out, communication with your caring subconscious mind will take place through symbols, images, and metaphors.

With cacao as in life, if you don’t listen to the messages, they get louder.  More than one raw teacher tells this very story on their web-site… (well, not quite this way)… about why they stopped using cacao: the unwanted, unfollowed, and misinterpreted-as-toxic messages eventually became intolerably loud and the obvious option was divorce.  Perhaps they have played out the same scenario in other life arenas... like with their sweetheart… as issues scripted from within, and not about whomever is playing the other end of that script for their own purposes.  Or one can blame their damn ex and in discussing that toxic addictive bitch, believe they are talking about the cacao.  Without the training I received to clean up my inner act and then teach, long before my introduction to cacao, I wouldn’t have understood what to do with the friggin metaphors, either.  

If you do not want to hear what your caring subconscious mind would have to say to you – for the consensus reality teaches us all to ignore or repress these messages - you may not like cacao, and She may see to it that you keep your distance.  Cacao works with you where You are… if you want an addictive stimulant… if you use cacao that way… you got it!  Is that about the cacao or about you?  Perhaps you are not familiar with Native teaching styles that have so much respect for who you are as an individual on your own sacred journey that they trust and allow you to find your own way on that journey… with guidance always available if you ask… and consider that as unconditional… love… the same teaching method God-Goddess has always and is today using with you. 

I really appreciate the preparation work that fasting and raw foods teachers have done for me in working with many of those I see!  Cacao is one assistant in the progression from using a physical substance like food to do your detox and healing, to partnering in meditation with a multi-dimensional divine light energy to do your detox and healing on deeper levels.  Cacao as a divine energy?  Sure, centuries ago… sure, traditional shamanism… today, cacao as multi-level facilitating consciousness - the divine energy and resultant empowerment are your own…  Old age and new age.  Old and new shamanism.

Clearing emotional and belief system issues, cacao or not, gets you out of your own way, so who you really are and the gifts you have can come through… can come and get you - you won't have to look for them.  One does not go into the 'next dimension' while carrying all that emotional and belief system baggage.  In the higher energies, it would rapidly manifest!  That ‘stuff’ is increasingly coming ‘up’, because it must, because it’s time, and because you made this choice before you were born… a facilitator like cacao is going to present you with it and with the higher connectedness to move it in more elegant ways than playing it out as externally manifested dramas in the feedback called reality.  As with raw detox, many need personal assistance (I certainly did) in understanding the process… as it is outside of the consensus reality box and easy to judge as something you do not want to go through… however wonderful in the long run.  

There are those for whom the stimulation from cacao is not something they want in their day.  Dandy.  Maybe their message is also to stop overdosing and use less.  Another non-indigenous cacao healer I know gives people one morsel - just a taste - of her chocolates and they often go into spontaneous emotional release.  (I have ceremony regulars who often just nibble a few beans and that is all they want.)  There are those for whom what surfaces in emotional detox is not something they want in their day… because the conditioning to repress such issues leads.  Dandy.  Their path or timing is different.  There are those who are discovering that emotional or density detox is a logical extension of physical detox and they and their worlds are drawn into these understandings.  Dandy, and as I experience it, that is where so many are today.  Raw has prepared them well.  Cacao is one option among many, and for some makes an excellent partner in this portion of the journey. 

I notice many folks in discussing cacao are discussing their own issues that the cacao brought to their attention... and projecting those issues - as attributes or liabilities - of the cacao rather than understanding them as their own… and then going to the next step and doing something with That... as toxic cacao or ego inflated cacao websites.

OK, lets look at a few other things common on the ‘toxic’ cacao sites I've looked at.

•This typical example was copied to me by one of the ‘toxic’ cacao oriented raw teachers to illustrate the harmful effects of cacao:  From Paul Nison’s site [I couldn’t find it there and with the raw site where I did find it, Google flashed me warnings about numerous pages on the site that would load viruses into your computer… I suspect a hacked site.]:  “I ate a bunch of cacao last night because I kept hearing such great things about it from other raw foodists. I felt like I was on some serious drugs last night, and did not feel well at all!! I woke up at 6am with an awful headache and threw up. Now I feel so sick!!”  An overdose story given as intelligent understanding about cacao…  Would you consider an avocado or pizza binge as intelligent understanding about the overall nature of a raw food diet?  (Nison’s site has a reputation for having published absurd fear-based distortions about cacao.)

•It kills animals.  If… as with dogs, cats (half as sensitive as dogs per body weight), parrots, and horses… their genetics do not include the metabolic enzyme that handles theobromine - they eat cacao, have a heart attack, and die.  So is that about the cacao or the genes?  Bad cacao, down boy…  I learned in high school that this variety of incomplete truth along with a sensationalist (it kills animals) appeal is a manipulative literary device called yellow journalism… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism  …need I mention that cacao can help in clearing agenda-driven motivations?  Perhaps you can relate to my sense of humor.  

•Animals do not eat cacao… so therefore you shouldn’t either.  Maybe cacao’s purpose does not have to do with feeding animals, except through the sugary pulp surrounding the seeds in the ripe fruit.  Maybe cacao’s purpose would help you get to the place where you could address your concerns directly with the Cacao Deva… the Spirit... the consciousness behind the form called cacao.  Believing one gets answers to such questions solely at isolated rational/ mental levels is a fear-based toxic addiction and consensus reality norm – need I mention that cacao can help?  3 gold stars if you got that someone with this major addiction, and in denial about it, might be rather negative about anything that would be a threat to their mental habit… and that they would tend to project that negativity onto cacao...  The energy essence manifesting as the plant called cacao is a species of consciousness… a being… are you arrogant enough to determine Her purpose without ever having had a chat?

•Native people do not eat cacao, except ceremonially.  Go visit the Kuna.  In the late 1990’s it came to the attention of medical researchers that these tropical island Indigenous Panamanians did not have the expected high-salt-diet = high-blood-pressure, and when the cause was understood to be cacao, the current scientific interest in chocolate was born.  The Islanders drink chocolate as their primary fluid intake, 5 or more servings per day.  Chocolate not pulp, and mostly traditionally processed.  Yes, I know there are raw websites where the author repeatedly explains how much research they have done, and then tells you that no native peoples consume cacao except ceremonially.  

I have looked at a few papers in the scientific literature on the Kuna and their cacao.  I mentioned elsewhere: http://www.medsci.org/v04p0053.htm   Some papers are not publicly online, and therefore cannot be Googled – here I suggest Chevaux KA, Jackson L, Villar ME et al.  Proximate, mineral, and pro-cyanidin content of certain foods and beverages consumed by the Kuna Amerinds of Panama.  J Food Composition Analysis 2001;14:553-63 for those who would accept the native-peoples-not-consuming-cacao authoritative statements repeated on the ‘toxic’ cacao raw food websites.  Check it out for yourself… cacao is the principle Kuna fluid intake – and as I calculate it, it’s 0.9 ounce (25 gm) per day of their traditionally processed cacao.

In Central and South America I know of Indigenous peoples who consume cacao, in and out of sacred ceremony.  Yes, I know there is a photo of a Costa Rican Bribri child eating cacao pulp on the website of a raw foods teacher who spends a lot of time in that country, and he uses that photo to reinforce his argument that native people eat the pulp, but not the cacao.  My experience, and also what I've heard from others who work with Indigenous peoples in this region, is different.  Perhaps it’s a tribal difference.  It is my understanding that there are also people, Indigenous and not, in southern Mexico who consume locally processed cacao on a regular non-ceremonial basis.  Cacao travelers passing through my town in Guatemala have told me of their time with them, whatever that’s worth.  Also other natives in the remote Mosquito of Honduras and Nicaragua.  And in many areas of South America where cacao grows.

Now… I have an agenda-driven story myself:  More than once upon this time there was a person of great understanding who cleaned out with raw foods and the body became amazingly physically perceptive… this one influenced many and may have had a website or few to assist… naturally, to minimize life dramas and bring increased fulfillment, Higher Self wished that certain inner issues on the life-purpose schedule… be cleaned up… and as the physical house was in order, it was time for the mental and emotional houses… and so brought gentle teacher cacao into this one's field… there being a kindred resonance between them… 

Teacher cacao found many channels disconnected or clogged in the emotional and psychic departments, nothing unusual here, but found a finely perceptive physical body, most unusual.  Through cacao’s forte of facilitating communication with other levels… in this case the subconscious… some inner resistances were gently suspended (perhaps you know this as grace)… and along this now-ready body pathway flowed one metaphor after another to spread before this one a map of the inner density ripe for healing… for cacao respectfully presents one with choices to be made from your own empowerment… magnificent, even magical, wouldn't you say?  Understandable that cacao was once considered divine…

Alas, the symbolic messages about inner density, naturally a tad on the negative side, were misinterpreted as the toxicity itself… for feeling feedback about toxicity through the body was an important part of this one's healing road-map… and this one had never been taught about other whispers from within… some called symptoms... perhaps you haven’t either…

Cacao presented new metaphors… louder metaphors… more specifically pointed metaphors...  Not only did they go nowhere with the surface consciousness, but deep within they aroused a great uneasiness, as that part of this one knew where each metaphor pointed and had been given the supreme task of keeping this one ‘safe’ by protecting that programming, keeping selected pathways closed or restricted, and keeping a one-way-only lid on certain emotional depositories…  As the great one continued to consume cacao, this situation became entrenched resistance, like an inner war… so soon the relationship with cacao was terminated, as you might imagine under these circumstances…

But all did not live happily ever after… a disturbed inner part remained and was worried that teacher cacao would return… in order to protect this one, and in league with other parts-of-self, a plan was hatched…  Projection and blame arose from within and pounced on a mind defenseless without the knowing truth of the heart… the mind, having experienced similar painful scenarios from other areas of life, bought the whole story… and as you may have guessed, soon a new plan arose… cacao vendetta… ‘toxic’ cacao… spread the word!

And that word fit right into the larger plan, keeping people not ready for the next cleanse away from cacao, and keeping them out of the ceremonies of those who taught it.  Thank you ‘toxic’ cacao.  Others left the raw fold, whether leaving raw eating or not, because they dared to consider that one's beliefs about a food have more effect on their body than the food itself… opening the door to cleaning up other beliefs and fears.  It's all good.  

Perhaps some of these ‘toxic’ cacao folks would like to look into their ‘addictive’ substance that never requires more, year after year.  If you go through cacao’s door… and have addictive issues… will you judge it in blame, get lost in it in addiction, or choose to use the healing potential available in the light.  Those who believe that choice is just about the cacao… will surely have difficulty with the personal level on which this facilitator works.  

About that level… why do you suppose real cacao waited until now to again become better known, and with whom is She working?  My ceremonies and groups, in which cacao is not necessary and often unused, but helpful for many, are training and experience in navigating that level – it’s not for everyone.  In contemporary lingo, we could say this is one way of blending your expanded normal consciousness with higher dimensions for the practical purpose of remembering and using the flowing inner art of healing and creating ones reality in partnership with Higher Self and the Light.

Absolutely, cacao can be used in an addictive counter-productive manner, and I've met people who do.  If you don’t want to deal with those issues, don’t eat the teacher.  Those issues will arise in another way, as one put them there for good reason.  There are many ways to address ones inner density… and always, trauma, drama, pain, struggle, and suffering are popular and time tested - you can even do them with cacao.  That’s ok… cycle through it ‘till you’re done.  "The difficulties are necessary, until you realize they aren't." -Eckhard Tolle

So here is the real deal.... we hear it all the time... "i had the best cacao from David (Big Tree Farms, Bali) and it gave me a headache... and all the buzz... i heard you say the hybrid varieties like that cacao usually have a lot of caffeine...".  [David's cacao is low in caffeine]. Cacao is hugely variable - please don't judge all cacao by the what is out there, whether or not it is said to be raw.  Real raw cacao does not taste like chocolate just as un-roasted coffee beans do not taste like coffee.

99.5% of the ‘raw’ cacao in the global market is heavily roasted as the machine peelers do not work without it. This scam is widely understood but most raw folks just want to be told it is raw and that is enough for them.... 

Remember, your beliefs about a food have far more effect on the physical body than the food itself. We make cacao in the same basic way the shamans have used for thousands of years… where they give it a light toast for hand peeling… as the shamans understood was best for the human body. We recommend you let go of giving away your power to external belief systems like vegetarian, vegan, and raw… and listen to your own body instead. It will take some time to understand the difference between what your body really wants... a craving... and your body manifesting your beliefs about a food [which most raw folks confuse with the food].

Blessings!