The Magic of Costa Rica
If you were looking for a location on earth where magic were possible, you would be hard pressed to find a spot more likely than Costa Rica. Certainly, it’s always been magic for me.
The first time I arrived at our home away from home; Sueno Azul resort, I remember standing by the window of my cabin like room, moved almost to tears by the richness of the sounds of the nearby forest. Birds, monkeys, singing insects! Such lushness and abundance! What might the earth be like if nature were allowed to be so abundant and unspoiled throughout the planet?
The next morning revealed more beauty and treasures. Flowers of hallucinogenic colors and proportions – ginger in pinks and red, yellow allemandes, orchids tucked in hidden corners – lined every pathway. The staff considered them so abundant that they didn’t even bother to put water in the vases—it was just as easy to pick some more of these decadent beauties.
Tropical fruits awaited us at breakfast—papayas, mangoes, bananas fresh from the tree, and my personal favorite bush candy, pineapple. How did we get so lucky?
The real magic, of course, was the reason for traveling all this way through the wilds of the Houston airport and the van ride through the unspoiled Aurelio Braulio Carrillo National Park; roadless except for the one national highway that made it possible for us to get to our destination. Even in the middle of the night, we could see through the dark and the rain, that what we considered houseplants grew wild and abundant here by the side of the road. Including the impossibly large leafed-plant appropriately named “poor man’s umbrella.”
The real magic was the consciousness that was possible with the facilitation of Gary Douglas. I had done two Levels 2 & 3 by the time I went to Costa Rica for the first time, but I had spent most of them lying on the floor with a pillow over my head so the lights didn’t make my migraine headaches worse. (Gary isn’t kidding when he says those of you coming to Access now are way faster!)
Costa Rica was the first time I really got to see the magic of Gary. Trained as a therapist myself, I was stunned as I realized that he knew exactly what was happening in the universe of all the people in the room. The ease and clarity with which he facilitated change in us there was stunning, and would have been to anyone with any kind of background in counseling or therapy.
I remember listening in awe as Gary did one of his auctioneer-length clearing statements that had something for everyone in the room in it. When he got to the little phrase that was my number, delivered as if it were generic to everyone in the room, I felt like turning around and looking to see who was behind me. How could he know so precisely what would set me free of the limitation I had struggled with for so long? Surely that didn’t apply to me! He couldn’t have been singling me out! (Ha!)
Perhaps not coincidentally, I felt that that first Costa Rica was the first time in my life that I had ever been truly seen. It was something I’d been looking for my whole life!
The magic of the surroundings continued as well. On the last day of that first Costa Rica, everyone in the group went to the Cascades, which at that time was reachable only by horseback or tractor. Horses were obviously the transport of choice, even for those of us who hadn’t been on a horse for 10 or 20 years.
The Cascades were mesmerizing – definitely a sacred place. We lay back in the refreshing water, watching sky blue butterflies dance above us. If you’ve read the Place, it was like that first scene, only I can promise you the water and the air were a lot warmer than Idaho! We didn’t want to leave, ever, and it was tough to get everyone out of the water in time to make the trek back to the resort before dark, which is 5 p.m. this time of year in Costa Rica.
Not only that, but storm clouds were gathering and it was tough to tell if the sky was darkening due to impending thunder and lightening or just normal instant tropical nightfall. Once on the trail back, the cost of our lingering was readily apparent as our horses led us back over the winding, hilly trail of slippery red mud. Fear is an implant, of course. Let me just say it was definitely an exciting trip back!
The real magic occurred for me when I was already back in my room (having dared to canter on the way back). I heard the last clopping of horse hooves and lighthearted chatter of the group entering the resort. At the exact minute they passed under the gateway to the coral, the heavens opened up with thunder and lightening and torrential rains.
“Nice job with the weather, Gary,” I remember thinking. Now we have an Access book on magic, classes about it, and Dain’s amazing telecall… Back then Gary wasn’t even mentioning the word (that I remember anyway). That didn’t stop me from seeing that he had changed the weather. It was just too magical to miss – it would have strained the disbelief of the most hardened believer in coincidence or synchronicity.
Horses were also part of another magical event where Gary showed his wizardry. A number of horses were tethered to a very long, horizontal pole – let’s get real, it was actually a tree trunk with the branches cut off.
The fastening of that pole to the vertical supports left a little to be desired, and one of the horses pulled hard enough to pull the entire pole off its supporting legs. This meant that several horses were lashing around in terror with a tree trunk as tall as a telephone pole lashed to their reins and no longer anchored to anything stationary.
Gary stepped up and said, “Whoa!” with so much intensity that the horses stopped in their tracks, the wranglers could detach the pole, and no one was hurt. Actually, what happened is that Gary didn’t say “Whoa,” he WAS “Whoa.”
My rhapsody on the magic of Costa Rica would not be complete without a mention of the river. A tributary of the Sarapaqui River, a 
ecotourism destination par excellence, flows through the resort. The best way to see this river is from the center of a giant inner tube. You step into the refreshing water, put your bum in the center of that tube, and sit back and enjoy the float through pure bliss.
Sueno Azul is a regular stop for birdwatchers. Not only the occasional toucan (blink and you’ll miss them while they disappear into tall foliage), but all kinds of kingfishers and herons inhabit the edge of the river, just waiting for us to admire and appreciate them. Ever seen a tiger heron? Once you’ve seen it, you will know exactly why they call it that!
More magic certainly resides in Costa Rica. What if it were just waiting for you to be the one to discover it? Who knows, it might just be YOU that is the magic you discover!
Photos by Dr. Dain Heer and Peter Reed
