37. From surviving to thriving – Jai Onofrey

The extraordinary Jaime Onofrey, or just Jai, defines herself as a connoisseur of consciousness. She is a positive, creative powerhouse, which is the more impressive considering the number of difficult challenges she has lived through.

Already at a young age she experienced a decline from being a successful athlete to having serious physical problems. She had been in an abusive relationship. And she had had no less than two near death experiences, during which she flatlined. At one point she was left for dead in a hotel room. ”It’s part of my soul mission to befriend death and see that it's an illusion”, she says.

At the age of 24 she was at a crossroads. She had physical as well as emotional issues. She had difficulties digesting. ”I was a shadow of my old self. I knew that if i didn't do something drastic, something extreme, I would never have the life I was destined to live.”

So she went alone into the desert for the biblical 40 days of fasting, inspired by the spiritual teacher Gabriel Cousens. It was life changing.

”I became like a scientist”

She meditated, swam in the ocean and took in the sun’s rays through her eyes and her skin. And she had her enema bag with her.

”Finally, on the 39th day, I released six feet of mucoid plaque, rubber hard. My whole body was shaking. Early child memories came up. I purged rage, sadness and resentment. It was like having a good cry, and then a good scream.”

On day 41 she had a final purging, and then it was all done. Her eye color changed, she says. ”The peace I felt was extraordinary. The desert came alive to me. And then I was hungry. I had cantaloupe juice. It tasted like an orgasm.”

Just before our conversation, Jai had been to an Ayahuasca retreat. It was not her first one.

”The intelligence of the plant kingdom”, Jai puts it, ”has come forward and offered this unique combination of plants and roots that can create a medicine that is a portal to higher consciousness”.

But she cautions against believing it is some kind of magic pill:

”It requires preparation. You really need to surrender to the process, which for humans can be really difficult sometimes. I don’t recommend it for many people. It can do damage.”

Today she is passionate about ”Thrive Tribes”, an ecosystem of communities to raise human consciousness that she has initiated after having been guided from higher realms to do so. Jai brings into the project many years of experience from the film industry and from working as a spiritual entrepreneur.

”We are in one of the most extraordinary transitions in human history, and we are all called to participate. The ’Thrive Tribes’ is a global movement for transformation and change. It is really about accessing our human potential.”

”The tribes are all connected. They are basically the same, but there are twelve different ones so people can connect with those that they feel most compelled to join right now. Each sector works on an aspect of humanity that needs to be elevated”, Jai explains from her home in British Columbia, Canada.

Here’s the Thrive Tribe website and here’s Jai’s own.