We’ll begin with a very short disclaimer. Hapé is but one avenue humans can travel to discover sacred tools available to us that are found in the natural world. In no way does Soul Primacy or this article pose as medical or spiritual advice. Hapé, which you will come to learn about, while safe and 100% legal, is not for everybody. If you’re curious about its history, administration, effects, and benefits, we encourage you to dive into even more research. Decide if it feels right for you.

“A spirit presides over each medicinal plant and corresponds to its ‘spiritual matrix’ in the invisible or other world. This matrix is a live entity, not directly perceptible, incorporeal, but endowed with its own structure (specific form) and an energetic quality. The person who ingests tobacco correctly manifests these virtues in the different structural levels of the human being: body, mind, and spirit. There is an energetic community between human beings and nature, of which the former are integral parts. Certain plants reach a high degree of ‘familiarity’ with human beings, as it is the case of psychoactive plants.”—Jacques Mabit and Rosa Giove, from their paper “Medicinal Use of Tobacco in the Upper Peruvian Amazon.”

Like many people believe about meditation, a consistent practice can be a struggle. I’m not doing it right, or I’m not focused enough. I can’t sit alone with my thoughts for five minutes. These are the thoughts that the mind can play on repeat. Especially if our self-talk isn’t the healthiest trait in our arsenal. Oh, to be human.

Maybe you find online guided meditation apps or videos a little silly. Not “deep” in meditation but seated in lotus with eyes closed, maybe you feel like a fraud. Like there’s an element of spiritual imposter syndrome at play. Like you’re wasting your time trying to do something you’ll never be able to do.

After dozens of “failed” meditation attempts, maybe you’ve convinced yourself that meditation is not for you. It’s for other people. More aware people, more concentrated people. If you can relate to any of these “maybe” scenarios, you’re not alone. In fact, this is how most people’s meditation practices begin. Time, patience, and intention are all that you need to build up a meditation practice. But hapé tobacco is a tool that might assist you in your journey towards meditation. So now you might be thinking… what is hapé?

Hapé (pronounced ha-PAY) is a tobacco powder that is sacred to Indigenous tribes. It has been used by shamans and healers for thousands of years as a spiritual medicine.

“In addition to the tobacco, rapé (known in the West as hapé,) usually includes the alkaline ashes of other plants such as cinnamon, tonka bean, clover, banana peel, or mint, but many shamans keep the exact ingredients of their particular rapé a secret.” — Psychedelic Times Staff in their article, “From Rapé to Mapacho: Uncovering the Ceremonial and Medicinal Benefits of Sacred Tobacco.”

A kuripe is a V-shaped pipe used by an individual to self-administer the hapé. There are other devices and methods one can use to experience hapé. We’ll save those details for you to discover based on your own particular level of interest.

A pea-sized amount of hapé powder is loaded into one kuripe chamber and then inserted into the individual’s nostril. The other chamber goes into the individual’s mouth. After a prayer or an intention is set, the individual forcefully blows air through the mouth chamber. This force of air then releases the hapé into the nasal passage. For more information on this process, check out this article if you would like.

If there’s a part of you wondering (like we did) hapé is safe and absolutely legal in the US. There’s also a really wonderful hapé apothecary online that has free videos for hapé first timers. In these videos, they show you exactly how to use it and how to pay respect to the plant medicine. They also ask individuals to pay respect to the plant’s tribal origins. Finally, they teach you how to cultivate a relationship with hapé.

By watching these videos, a person can then administer their first dose with full confidence and understanding.

The effects of an individual’s first hapé experience are (usually) truly profound. Delightful, peaceful, grounding, and transcending all at once. The heart cracks wide open, the breath becomes even and efficient, and the mind finds calm and focus. While a shift in awareness is certainly felt, this shift is (usually) not confusing, fearful, or unpleasant.

If you allow the medicine to say hello and familiarize with your being, calmness and activation can be felt at the same time. As if the mind blooms open to the possibility of the deepest awareness and concentration. Any self-limiting beliefs you had about your meditating abilities before will be proven false instantaneously.

The breath, body, mind, and heart operate as one. You’ll sense so much power, yet so much relaxation. You might even have a heartfelt cry the first time. This is what it feels like to be alive. The amount of love you can have for this life and this sacred plant comes when witnessing hapé yourself. It is during this first experience when many discover that their meditation practice will never be the same.

If you watch these videos before administering hapé for the first time, you’ll see the speaker dutifully underscore respect. Hapé, although not addictive or harmful, is to never be abused and to always be respected. Respect from the individual partaking for the plant medicine, and for the indigenous tribes who make the tobacco. They put so much devotion into the creation of this medicine. They infuse it with their prayers before sending it off into the world. These tribes hope anyone who partakes in hapé, whether it be once or many times, is transformed and ultimately healed. 

It’s paramount that individual’s hold deep reverence for this sacred medicine. Additionally, they do not allow themselves to take advantage of its healing properties more than is necessary. That said, the discovery of hapé can lend a hand to one’s meditation practice. It can help one strengthen, elevate, and steadily maintain their relationship to meditation. The mind can be changed about meditation… and can be changed by meditation.

Hapé is a vessel that guides an individual to their truest self. Hapé can aid this true self as it enters a meditation space and practice. Whereas maybe you could only meditate for five minutes tops before, you’ll see that you can stay in a meditative state for twenty minutes comfortably. Sometimes longer if your day allows. Hapé has much to teach us if we’re eager to learn. 

Whereas once you might fidget, get distracted, or end your meditations early, now, you’ll be amazed at how quickly the time goes by without a second of focus wasted. Now you may think no way, not for me. And that, too, is quite alright. But those with an intimate hapé relationship can say with utmost honesty; this plant’s only intention is to help.

An individual can learn so much from this sacred, indigenous plant. We truly believe that meditation is accessible with or without hapé. But Mother Nature has also gifted us tools such as hapé that can help. There is so much we don’t know that exists in the world. If only we can allow ourselves to open up to what is out there, waiting for us to welcome it in.

Meditation can change the world. We also believe that hapé is a dear and longtime friend to meditation, whose purpose in this world is also to help create that change. All these two components need are individuals who are open to their modalities. Open to receiving and giving them a beautiful, well-intentioned try. These surrendering individuals allow meditation and hapé to then perform their sacred work.

It’s okay to find help in odd places and in foreign ways. Perhaps with a little help from hapé, you can cultivate a deeper meditation practice.