Your journey sounds exciting. My grandfather was a medium (and super religious on top of that) and I grew up with him, with people visiting all the time for readings. There was a lot of seemingly competing spiritual thoughts in the house. But I still get uncomfortable around intense pagans, mish-mashers of Asian spirituality, and self-professed shamans of anything. I'm always expecting to be disappointed.

It's hard to tell if they're for real. We have such a hunger for mysticism and spirituality, that you could be getting taken without realizing it. Or the practitioner, though they genuinely believe in their mystical art, could be fooling their own selves.

If you ever find out firsthand from that acquaintance what a cacao shaman is supposed to do, please do share. I love cacao drinks. They're a super common beverage in South American. But the first time I went to a cacao ceremony, I definitely felt tricked! It was like drinking peppery hot chocolate, but without the milk, and lots of chanting "love medicine". What I actually enjoyed out of that whole thing was being in a quiet moment to get know the people sitting next to me at the ceremony and to hear what brought them there.