Begoña García

“It is believed that whales have access to all the information that exists in the universe. To come in contact with them, even to catch sight of one, is considered an omen portending acquisition of vast spiritual powers. 

The whale is revered as a guide that leads to the discovery of the meaning of one’s own life.”

– David Neiwert, “Of Orcas And Men”

 

The story of Begoña García is an amazing one. A few people have asked me what whales have to do with psychedelics, and I can’t think of a better example to give. Orcas came to Begoña in her dreams when she was in a lost moment of her life, profoundly angry and frustrated. As a psychedelic can do, her encounter with a whale gave her insight into the root cause of her suffering and showed her the way.

She started her whale quest and journey five years ago and as she says, it has been the most significant evolution of herself yet. A clearly marked before and after led to a complete devotion of her life and profession to this majestical creature.

 

 

Begoña is a Wim Hof Method certified instructor and gives the most professional and recognized ice bath and breathwork workshops in CDMX. Moreover, she creates and organizes extraordinary expeditions to see and swim with whales in Mexico and Norway. Get in contact with her here.

Below you can read the interview about how the whales healed her.

 

 

Can you tell me a little bit about orcas?

Orcas are the apex predator of the sea, however, there’s no record of a free-living orca ever attacking humans in the wild. The fact that they are named killer whales is totally wrong. Orcas were given the name whale killer by ancient sailors while witnessing groups of orcas hunting and preying on larger whale species. It was a misunderstanding of the language itself.

They have two ways of communicating. The first one is their language, that is, whistles for close-range or private communication; this sounds very similar to a dolphin. Each pod has a unique language, that’s why orcas from different families may not be able to understand each other. In those instances, they use their echolocator, which sits in the front of the skull (the orca, after the elephant and the sperm whale, has the third biggest brain in the animal kingdom). An orca echolocates by producing clicks and then receiving and interpreting the resulting echo, similarly to the radar. The information that comes back to the orca lets it know who or what is in the water and the vibrations. They see through sound and vibrations; hence they see through us, through you.

Orca societies are matriarchal. They live in pods, always led by females, by the grandmother; however, the males protect the pod. They are the only known species in the world where both female and male offspring stay with their mothers and immediate family forever. If a male wants to mate with another female orca outside the pod, he can do that, but he will return, and the baby stays with the other pod.

They live in all five oceans. In each, there’s a different type of orca with different food and hunting habit, even different shapes of fins. The grey spot on their back, similar to the form of a heart, varies from whale to whale. Each spot is unique, so it can be compared to a human’s fingerprint. Scientists studying them use that mark to identify them.

Another fact about this whale species that amazes me is the insular cortex (insula) which is the most elaborated in the world. The insula is involved in consciousness and plays diverse functions linked to emotions, including compassion, empathy, perception, motor control, self-awareness, and interpersonal experience. For example, they are one of the animals that have shown the most grief when a death occurs in their families. Many scientists and trainers have observed for long-time complex emotions in orcas and their powerful empathy for each other and humans.

You can feel all this when you are near an Orca in the ocean; you can feel it with all of your body. I can tell you one thing, an encounter with an orca will be with you forever. It will stay indelible in your soul forever, something you will never forget.

 

 

 

 

Do you ever feel scared being in the water with a whale? 

Not at all. When you are in the ocean, surrounded by orcas you don’t feel scared for a second, in a way, you feel protected and there’s this sense of safety that I just find difficult to put in words.

The electromagnetic field surrounding a whale, as it does every being, is proportional to its size and weight. When a person gets close to a whale, their vibration encapsulates that of the person, and because it is bigger, your vibration may present a tendency to vibrate with the frequency of the whale. Some people say they have felt their hearts go extremely slow when they are next to a whale for an extended period. I am sure this fact has an impact on this sense of protection you get when being close to a whale. They hold the space.

Whales are full of wisdom. They have been here much longer than us, and they hold all cosmic information that exists in the universe.

 

 

How did you get into diving with whales?

I was still working as a criminal lawyer a couple of years ago. As a woman, it is a challenging profession, especially in Mexico, regardless I loved it. Being a pro-bono criminal lawyer was always one of my biggest dreams and passions. It was my second career, as I had a hard time finding my path as a young student. It is crazy that in Mexico, you must define yourself and choose what you want to do for the rest of your life at eighteen. At that age, I was clueless.

I was still working as a criminal lawyer a couple of years ago. As a woman, it is a challenging profession, especially in Mexico, regardless I loved it. Being a pro-bono criminal lawyer was always one of my biggest dreams and passions. It was my second career, as I had a hard time finding my path as a young student. It is crazy that in Mexico, you must define yourself and choose what you want to do for the rest of your life at eighteen. At that age, I was clueless.

After studying business administration, I studied law school at UNAM. During that time, I interned at a criminal law firm. I loved everything about it, from the cases to going to the Mexican jails to talk and help those who do not have access to a fair and adequate defense and trial in this country. One of my mentors advised me to try another area of law. I followed his advice and changed to corporate law. I learned a lot there but ended up in burnout and frustration. After a while, I realized there was nothing for me there, no passion, no vocation, just a lot of stress. All this frustration and unhappiness started to show consequences not only at an emotional but also at a physical level; my body started to develop inflammation. I was so bloated at that point.

I was dissatisfied with my life, not sleeping and working very intensely. But above all, I was full of rage against everything and everybody. Muy grave! I started micro-dosing and slowly realized that my main problems directly resulted from my anger. A curious thing happened.

Around that time, I started having dreams with orcas. The dreams were incredibly vivid and frequent and would stay in my head for days. I investigated everywhere about the meaning of dreaming with orcas. When something gets into my mind, I am obsessive about it. I couldn’t stop thinking, reading, or talking about them.

I had an amazing session with a shaman that told me very profound things about surrounding the symbolism of a whale. Whales can be understood in many ways, and depending on the culture, they can mean different things; however, for everybody, whales are the beings responsible for protecting the planet. Some cultures even say that orcas are our ancestors that have gone into the sea.

Even with my investigations, no meaning made sense to me. I decided then that there was no other way to interpret the dreams but as a calling, and callings must be answered. I decided I needed to come to them and contrary to what I thought was impossible, there were actually people who swam with them.

I contacted people such as Pierre Latour, the Orca Whisperer, over Instagram and asked them to help me fulfill my quest. People with millions of followers that shouldn’t even have seen my fan notification answered me. It was because of them I was able to go to Norway for the first time.

 

 

 

 

How did you prepare yourself for your first dive in Norway?

I took two free-diving courses, retook the PADI certification with a lot of practice dives, bought all the equipment, and took submarine photography courses. I also did a dry-suit certification. The dry suit is meant to protect you from super cold waters by isolating your body from the water with air. However, after I had done the certification, I realized the suit would make me float on the ocean’s surface and not allow me to submerge while swimming with the whales. I instantly called the expedition leaders in Norway and begged them to let me use a wet suit instead. When they agreed, I knew I had to prepare my body for extremely cold conditions. I had to do new research.

At a time when nobody knew a thing about cold exposure in Mexico, someone told me about this guy going into ice tubs. That’s how I came to know the Wim Hof Method for the first time. After that discovery, I spent 3 minutes every single day, for a whole year, in my ice tub, come rain or shine, until I finally made it to the Arctic Ocean.

In a way, it was because of the whales that I came to know this method, which later helped me heal my inflammation and who, in the end, guided the way onto the path I still pursue today as a Wim Hof Method Instructor.

 

 

 

When did your big moment of change happen?

Another big thing happened. As I said before, during that year, I bought all the necessary equipment to ensure the success of the expedition, from thermals and fins to the wetsuit, tubes, and underwater housing for my camera. When November finally arrived, I was well-trained and had everything packed and set up. I was ready.

My flight to Norway had a layover in New York, and when I went over to pick up my bags, I found out that the airline had sent all my luggage to Peru. I couldn’t think of a worse situation at that moment. I collapsed. Muy, muy mal! It was impossible for them to get the bag to me in time, so I took my flight to Oslo, filled with frustration, rage, and fear, with just my backpack and iPhone as my only camera.

A few days later, I learned my biggest lesson as I entered the Fiords. The very first time a male orca swam before me, in that very first encounter, there was a Begoña beyond amazed about what she was looking at, and at the same time, another Begoña (classic me at that time) who just wanted to remain angry with the airline assistant responsible for the luggage problem and the frustration of my trip. I allowed myself to overthink again and again about my situation in a very cyclical way, even though I was already there, fulfilling my dream. At that moment, I realized that that was a habit I was doing with many other things in my life. If I had a discussion with someone, I would think about it for days and remain angry for months. In retrospect, I believe that was what caused my chronic inflammation and my bloated belly. It was astonishing that I was experiencing such a beautiful encounter and that I was privileged enough to be near them, and one part of me still wanted to hold on to that toxic rage. It is unbelievable that even before these majestic beings, someone prefers to remain a victim, because things didn’t work out as planned…. because you are “so important.”

This mirroring experience and the whales made me realize that my anger, rage, addiction to the adrenaline produced by such emotions, and tendency to be a victim made me unwell. This was another dive, a dive into my inner toxic world. When I returned to Mexico, I began anger management therapy. It was a hard 1-2 years of work. The lesson has been clear since. The only way of reducing anger, frustration, and stress in my life, hence improving my health, is to accept life as it is. “Accept What Is.” If you constantly fight with how things are because you thought they should’ve been different and have met your expectations, well… no, there is another plan.

So there is no coincidence in my going to Norway. No coincidence that my stuff flew to Peru. That was a lesson for me, and the whales guided the way.

 

 

Can you describe the feeling of being close to a whale?

Words fail me when talking about what happens when you are in front of or near a whale. Time stops while your body and soul explode. I always get this sense of protection. I know I feel safe, and when among them, a big part of me is home.

We can only explain that profound spiritual moment in an antropomorphical way, however, it has nothing to do with reason. It is impossible to explain with words what only your soul understands while connecting with the most ancient and wise soul on the planet. You need to feel it and let that experience change your life.

So, in a way, part of the experience with whales relies upon and stays in your imagination. For example, while hugging and kissing whales in Baja during the Gray Whale Expeditions, if you are lucky enough to look at them directly into their eye, YOU KNOW someone is looking back. This feeling will remain unexplained.

So this is my way of downloading my encounters to words. What is clear to me is that the Begoña from five years ago is another person today, and the whales have been one of the main factors of change. There is a clear evolution in my life, which I am very proud of, and the whales, again, guided the way.

 

 

 

What was your most meaningful dive?

The one where a humpback whale almost ate me. It made me feel euphoric.

So, in the winter, the herring enters the fiord and attracts the whales because it is easy for them to eat there. The pod starts moving around the herring until they gather in a big bait ball. The orca hits and kills the herring with its tail and eats the fish one by one. They are very picky eaters.

We were told that in the presence of a bait ball, we needed to swim far away, however, because of the number of whales, it was impossible for me to swim quickly out of the bait ball. Within seconds, a humpback came from below the ocean to swallow a big bunch of fish and missed me by a fraction. It happened in an instant, and it was probably one of the best moments of my life.

 

 

Looking back, can you summarise the biggest reasons for your trip?

I believe there were three main reasons for me to embark on this trip. The first was to understand that anger was the root cause of my illness. Second, to begin a path of healing, and finally, to realize that I needed to help people to get close to the whales, knowing at all times that the whales decide who comes to them. Ultimately, I’m just a channel at their service as they choose and are the only ones who can change your life.

“Being able to look from time to time at the eye of the whale, is the closest thing I know to the eye of God.” (- El Peligro de Estar Cuerda by Rosa Montero)

The key message is whales heal because they possess all universal consciousness and memory. They have been here forever, they really know.

 

 

 

 

If you could choose to exist as plant, which one would it be?

I would be a Hinoki Cypress tree. I met them at Koyoasan Cemetery in Japan. I chose this tree not only because of how they are routed but also because of the protection they provide with its gigantic size. They’re majestic, and being beneath them makes you feel protected, just like when near a whale. Trees talk; they are alive, and they hold space.

My exterior may give a sense of toughness; however, feeling protected is an important matter for me. Some may be surprised to hear that about me.