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4th Shamanic conference kicks of in Iquitos, Amazon.

Dean — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:27:12 GMT

4th Shamanic conference kicks of in Iquitos, Amazon.

Hi ,
Well what an adventure so far. Im now in Iquitos and its day 4 of the 4th Shamanic conference
After completing an amazing 16 day shamanic tour in Peru it was time to fly to Iquitos one hour flight from the nearest road. Its hard to imagine this thriving frontier town in the middle of the amazon jungle was build and exists quite well without any roads connecting it to the outside world. Iquitos is the host to the 4th Shamanic conference and presents around 20 shamans and a few western philosophers. About 300 people have flown to this remote town to listen and get a direct experience from the shamans of the amazon and the power plants themselves, mainly ayahuasca. Last week Peru proclaimed ayahuasca a national treasure therefore keeping it out of the clutches of Americas desire to outlaw all power plants. On the first day 12 shamans introduced themselves and people could choose who they were going to drink the sacred brew with. It was a smorgasbord of shamans. I picked one to be my guide for my ayahuasca journey tonight in a thatched hut on the other side of the amazon river. There are 3 sessions planned over this 8 day conference so it not all talk.

I just returned from a 3 day trip to visit the Shipebo people and had an amazing night experiencing the ayauasca brew and 5 Shipebos chanting the mystical icaros.

Dennis Mc Kenna speech declared that ayahuasca was now going global in an attempt to get humanity to reconnect with nature and regain harmony with the natural kingdom.

I have uploaded the 4 days proceedings to my website www.planetearthinternettv.com Ill be uploading edited stories and camera tapes of the conference and sessions daily. For more info on the conference see http://www.soga-del-alma.org/ConferenceSite/

For the whales
Dean Jefferys

See my other websites and become a friend

http://www.planetearthinternettv.com
http://www.flightofthehumpback.org
http://www.myspace.com/whalingdontbuyit
http://www.myspace.com/deanjefferys
http://www.youtube.com/shaman1958
http://www.youtube.com/flightofthehumpback
http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com
http://operator11.com/people/9343
http://people.tribe.net/c5ad8e1e-af29-441b-9087-28fbaaacad09
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=590968500

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

SHAMANIC JOURNEY, IQUITOS, PERU 22-28 OF JULY WITH PEDRO PANDURO NAVARRO!

sacharuna — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:28:42 GMT

IQUITOS, PERU: 22-28 OF JULY / 7 DAYS / 6 NIGHT / FOOD / LODGE (INCLUDED)

"UNLIMITED” (EVERY NIGHT AYAHUASCA CEREMONIES) IN A VERY NICE FACILITY IN CLOSE RANGE TO THE JUNGLE CITY OF IQUITOS!

THE SHAMAN LEADING THIS RETREAD WILL BE:
*****************************************************************************************************************
PEDRO PANDURO NAVARRO,
(brother of the recently gone of this physical reality world famous powerful female Ayahuascera:

NORMA PANDURO NAVARRO
*****************************************************************************************************************

PRICE: 525$ (ONLY!)
----------------------------------
----------------------------------

We do still have available places, so hurry up and make your reservations:
http://sacharunaclinic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=1

THIS IS A GUARANTEED “SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION” LEAD BY THIS VERY POWERFUL MASTER SHAMAN THAT AGREED TO SUPPORT OUR:

SACHARUNA CLINIC PROJECT
www.sacharunaclinic.org

THIS IS A VERY POWERFUL "SHAMANIC JOURNEY" THAT WILL CHANGE YOU ONCE FOREVER!

THE MONEY GENERATED FROM THIS EVENT AND ALL FUTURE EVENTS ORGANISED BY US FOR WHAT WE CALL: “RECREATIONAL GUESTS” WILL NOT GO TO “FILL OUR OWN POCKET” BUT MAINLY TO:

• Research over healing properties of Ayahuasca in combination with other Medicinal Plants of Amazonian Rainforests
• To work with healthy sick people for prices as low as possible / to work with healthy sick poor local people for FREE
• To prevent this shamanistic knowledge to disappear / To Study it
• To prevent the rainforest to disappear as well
• And to gain evidences of so positive effects of the brew on physical body and our mental state of mind due to those ceremonies and healing and to change the worlds so false and wrong point of view about this subject and this false propagand lead mainly by some powerfull nations of this world

NOT MANY EFFORTS HAS BEEN DONE BY MOST OF THE FOREIGNERS AND EVEN LOCAL PERUVIANS THAT SAY THEY “WORK” WITH THE “WINE OF SOULS” / “DRINK OF GOD” EVEN BY DECADES!!!! OF COURSE A VERY POSITIVE THING IS THAT THEY DO RISE PEOPLE COUCIOUSNESS DUE TO THE CEREMONIES! BUT SO MUCH MORE CAN BE DONE!

DESPITE THE FACT THAT MANY OF THOSE SO CALLED: “AUTHORITES” OF SHAMANISM / PLANT SPIRIT SHAMANISM OR WORLD FAMOUS BOOK “WRITTERS” THAT WORK WITH BREW AND WRITE ABOUT IT DID GAINED IN MANY YEARS IF NOT DECADE INCREDIBLE AMOUNTS OF INCOME DUE AND THROUGH AYAHUASCA CEREMONIES!

THIS IS VERY, VERY, VERY SAD SITUATION!
WE DO WANT TO CHANGE IT AND TO MAKE A PROGRESS TO GO BEYOND IT!
OUR PLANET NEED IT!

EVERY DAY TENS OF THOUSANDS OR MORE DIE OF CANCER ALONE AROUND THE WORLD! (not mention other diseases!)
I AM SURE HERE WE HAVE SOLUTIONS FOR MOST OF THE HEALTH PROBLEMS OF OUR PLANET!

THE EVIDENCES OF HEALING PROPERTIES OF THE BREW ARE STILL MISSING! DESPITE THE FACT THAT ALMOST EVERY CURANDERO YOU WILL MEET ON EVERY CORNER OF IQUITOS OR ANOTHER JUNGLE CITY OF PERU AND NOT ONLY PERU WILL SAY HE CAN CURE CANCER OR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS OR ALMOST ANYTHING!

ITS TIME TO CHANGE THIS VERY BAD SITUATION OF THIS “SCENE” FILLED BY SO MANY ONLY OR MAINLY LUCRATIVE ORIENTED SHAMANIC “AUTHORITIES” DOMINATING THE RAINFOREST AREAS OF IQUITOS AND OTHER PERUVIAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN AREAS WHERE THE BREW IS STILL GROWING TODAY!

Please read (in detail) our Project Extended Overview and PLEASE DO HELP US, somehow:
http://sacharunaclinic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=43

The main organisator representing SACHARUNA CLINIC PROJECT for the this retreat (JULY 22-28th) will be my great partner and friend and past apprentice of Ayahuascera: NORMA PANDURO NAVARRO, wonderful positive and intelligent guy from Holland:

ROY VAN DER MEIJS
(english, spanish, dutch):
http://sacharunaclinic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=38

BEST GREETINGS AND THANK YOU FOR READING IT!
We hope to see you there and we thank you for any co-operation efforts soon to came from you or donations / please write us if you want or can help somehow / if you can attend this retreat and more to came from us! Send your phone number if you have anything to say (but please no cell phone number - they cost to much) - We will call you - anywhere in this planet! Thank you!

WE AND OUR PROJECT DO NEED YOUR HELP! THANKS ONCE AGAIN AND GOD BLESS! THANK YOU “MADRE AYAHUASCA”!

JACEK SLAWEK
Founder
SACHARUNA CLINIC PROJECT
www.sacharunaclinic.org

posted in Ayahuasca - 4 replies

New book on Amazonian shamanism

Steve — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:05:26 GMT

I am delighted to let you all know that my book manuscript, Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon, has been accepted for publication by the University of New Mexico Press. I am particularly gratified by this acceptance because the University of New Mexico Press has a traditionally strong list in both Native American and Latin American studies.

Indeed, they have published some of my own favorite books: Bonnie Glass-Coffin, The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru; Stacy Schaefer and Peter Furst, People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion, and Survival; and Barbara Tedlock, Time and the Highland Maya. I feel that I am in distinguished company.

The following is a brief description of the book:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In the Upper Amazon, mestizos are the Spanish-speaking descendants of Hispanic colonizers and the indigenous peoples of the jungle. Some mestizos have migrated to Amazon towns and cities, such as Iquitos and Pucallpa; most remain in small villages, their houses perched on stilts on the shores of the rivers that are their primary means of travel. Here in the jungle, they have retained features of the Hispanic tradition, including a folk Catholicism and traditional Hispanic medicine. And they have incorporated much of the religious tradition of the Amazon, especially its healing, sorcery, shamanism, and the use of potent plant hallucinogens, including ayahuasca. The result is a uniquely eclectic shamanist culture that continues not only to fascinate outsiders with its brilliant visionary art but also to attract thousands of seekers each year with the promise of visionary experiences of their own.

Ayahuasca shamanism is now part of global culture. The visionary ayahuasca paintings of Pablo César Amaringo are available to a world market in a sumptuous coffee-table book; international ayahuasca tourists exert a profound economic and cultural pull on previously isolated local practitioners; ayahuasca shamanism, once the terrain of anthropologists, is the subject of novels and spiritual memoirs. Ayahuasca shamans perform their healing rituals in Ontario and Wisconsin.

Singing to the Plants sets forth, in accessible form, just what this shamanism is about — what happens at an ayahuasca healing ceremony, how the apprentice shaman forms a spiritual relationship with the healing plant spirits, how sorcerers inflict the harm that the shaman heals, and the ways that plants are used in healing, love magic, and sorcery. The work emphasizes both the uniqueness of this highly eclectic and absorptive shamanism — plant spirits dressed in surgical scrubs, extraterrestrial doctors speaking computer language — and its deep roots in shamanist beliefs and practices, both healing and sorcery, common to the Upper Amazon. The work seeks to understand this form of shamanism, its relationship to other shamanisms, and its survival in the new global economy, through anthropology, ethnobotany, cognitive psychology, legal history, and personal memoir.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Fragments of the book have appeared on my blog, Singing to the Plants, http://singingtotheplants.blogspot.com/ . So if you want to have any input before the manuscript is finalized, go ahead and leave a comment. I would be grateful to have any of my mistakes corrected. :-)

-- Steve
http://singingtotheplants.blogspot.com/

posted in Ayahuasca - 7 replies

Amazonistas.org is now online

amazonistas — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:16:00 GMT

We are still adding content and tweaking it a bit (in fact if you have any requests or suggestions please feel free to let me know here actually let embrace know in a message).

We encourage everyone to go to the site and join the network. We would love to see all your photos, videos, hear your recordings, and share our stories.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

amazon

Rudolf — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:14:35 GMT

hi
does anybody have experiences ( and wants to share some infos) on ritual ingestion of ayahuasca, in the amazon region. Is there any recommended place. I read, Iquitos/Peru is quite crowded by aya-tourists and a lot of scams occur. Has anybody contacts or addresses for "good" guides or shamans in the Amazon? What is the average price for participating in ayahuasca- ceremonies?
Has anybody experience with "Soga del Alma" or "Uniao do vegetal" in Brasil?

posted in Ayahuasca - 19 replies

Reality Sandwich

Maya — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:06:14 GMT

Reality Sandwich is a cutting-edge Internet magazine and community forum aimed at "evolving consciousness bite by bite." We publish news, essays, interviews, videos, and podcasts for those seeking fresh perspectives and new possibilites of living. Our subjects run the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies. Our central theme is transformation, as we study how a shift in personal awareness relates to the global challenges we face today. Unlike traditional media, Reality Sandwich encourages a dialogue between contributors and readers, featured in the comments section under each piece. We see ourselves as a visionary think tank, helping to genearate new ideas on important subjects of our time.

New articles posted daily at www.realitysandwich.com.

Also, join the Tribe: tribes.tribe.net/realitysandwich

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

contact info for us

rareworlds — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:27:11 GMT

if you are interested, i'm starting this thread for us to leave contact info where else we can be found online.

my experience of social networks that experience frequent technical down time is that they are short on the resources to keep things rolling. i could be wrong and pray i am but just in case we can keep in touch ...

posted in Ayahuasca - 1 reply

Help Me, Please: I miss pure happiness.

hoopervillain — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:06:55 GMT

I did aya in February in the Peruvian amazon, and had an experience where I was shown the causes of unhappiness. For instance, violence of any sort, the wrong psychological and philosophical interpretation of reality (and negative thinking), my idea that I don't deserve true happiness, etc. cause a lack of joy. I was truly without any mental illness, at all, for a period. I was shown the way and that there is nothing to fear and love is timeless, and such. I was cheered on by entities I can't describe as I got deeper and deeper into the primary, unadulterated "being. " Everything was beautiful and i "got it" and felt a joy permeate me I've never known before . Unfortunately, the experience was extremely taxing and I was carried away (as I have been on acid before) to a place of tremendous confusion and fear. What is the purpose of that? Why would I receive such a wonderful, exalted experience only to have it mercilessly removed and end up train wrecking? I know it sounds like I'm feeling sorry for myself, because I kind of am...but I'm petrified to do this again, and I don't necessarily have the option to experience it any time soon anyway. I so want to be healed but I don't know if I can be traumatized so ruthlessly again. I feel like the darkness that has inhabited me for so much of my life will take something tremendous to vanquish. I try to meditate, to learn my thought patterns and note the destruction they wreak on my life, I read Buddhism and do yoga, but I feel like these methods will take a lifetime to get me anywhere. I also still drink, which doesn't help. I've forgotten a lot, but I do know that I was enlightened, even if it only lasted 1/2 an hour, and I don't want to be a sufferer anymore. Does anyone have any advice? Can I possibly tap into the light through dreams or something? If i listened to the icaros we heard over and over will it penetrate my thick, ugly barrier? Honestly, I had wished going so deep would just take care of everything for me, but it didn't. I'm probably better off than I was before, because I'm more aware of my patterns, but holy hell I wish someone would just swoop in and take care of me...although I also know that sort of thinking won't help me, as it's my own brain that needs realization. Do you think I'll have to go there again? Is that the best hope? Will it get any easier? Can I change by myself? I feel very, very alone.
Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you.

posted in Ayahuasca - 19 replies

Mushrooms in Christianity?

Jan_Irvin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:37:59 GMT

Gnostic Media is happy to announce the summer-2008 release of a new book by Jan Irvin:

The Holy Mushroom:

Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity; A critical re-evaluation of the schism between John M. Allegro and R. Gordon Wasson over the theory on the entheogenic origins of Christianity presented in The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

By J.R. Irvin, © 2008

With an addendum by Jack Herer

Preface

Beginning in the 1950s a serious theoretical disagreement regarding art interpretations emerged within the fields of theology and entheobotany. Entheobotany is the study of how certain cultures use plants and fungi for religious purposes. The question at the heart of this disagreement concerns the study of the origins of religion, and more specifically Judeo-Christianity. Gaining an insight into the core issues of this disagreement is of utmost importance to anyone with an interest in understanding the origins of religion.

The question: Were psychoactive drugs involved in the foundation of Christianity?

This question has caused a schism within theological studies, and especially within the field of entheobotany itself.

One side argues that the use of psychoactive substances can be traced only up until, and their impact is limited to, the earliest writings of Genesis, about 1000 BCE – which excludes Christianity.

The other side argues that the use of psychoactive substances was more widespread and persistent. It has been central to the foundation of nearly all religion, including Christianity, and evidence of this usage can be found into more modern times.

It is important for biblical theologians and entheobotany scholars alike to understand the cause and effect of this schism if open dialogue is to continue. Until this issue is resolved and faced head on, scholarship, in regard to Judeo-Christianity, is at a standstill.

Academic endorsements for The Holy Mushroom:
Christianity and the Piltdown Hoax share many similarities: In both stories the information was constructed and then salted into the information stream, and, through the word of noted scholars, presented as fact, the truth. Scholars have egos and once committed to their ideas through scholarly publications, faculty meetings, and conferences, have difficulty seeing, hearing, or even appreciating an adverse view. To waver from a strongly held opinion could spell academic ruin and withdrawal of acclaim. This leads to lively debate, counter stories, and even character assassination if one side or the other is being out trumped in the symbolic mêlée.
Jan Irvin (The Holy Mushroom) has captured what we might call an “anthropology of clarification” regarding whether or not mushrooms, and mind-altering substances in general, played any role in the development of not only Judaism and Christianity but the total culture in play at that time. It is now recognized in many academic communities (anthropologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, psychologists) that sufficient evidence exists of the importance of these substances, both textual and visual, to say “yes” in very large letters. It is no longer theory. The questions Irvin asks is this: “If mind-altering substances did play this major role, then how would this affect our interpretations of the Bible and the Qur’an? Would this shed light on the origins of mystical experiences and the stories, for example Abraham hearing voices and Ezekiel’s convenient visions? What would this suggest about the shamanic behavior of Jesus? What impact would this have on organized religion? These are bold questions. This is a very useful volume for those interested in the Holy Mushroom, Amanita muscaria, and the politics of truth. Detailed and wonderfully illustrated; great bibliography.
~ Professor John A. Rush, Sierra College
John Allegro's revelation of the sacramental role of a sacred mushroom in the ancient religions spanning the agrarian region from Mesopotamia to the Near East was immediately and unfairly rejected by a chorus of scholars less competent than him, but continuing research into early Christianity and the mystery religions of the Greco-Roman world and their perpetuation in alchemy and European folkloric traditions has vindicated the correctness of his discovery.
~ Professor Carl A. P. Ruck, Boston University
Jan Irvin has produced a most thoughtful and valuable account of debate around the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in early Christianity. Irvin's careful account of the main protagonists, their sources and intellectual motivations shows the importance of continuing research on this significant moment in early Christian thought, as well as how academic research itself is affected by the cultural attitudes of the day. In adducing new textual evidence and showing the iconographic prevalence of the mushroom motif Jan Irvin is to be warmly congratulated - all serious scholarship for the future will have to take account of his achievement.
~ Professor Neil Whitehead, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Foreword by Judith Anne Brown
Author of John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Why should we be surprised or shocked by the idea that people of all eras and cultures have used hallucinatory drugs to attain exalted states of consciousness, which they take to mean divine understanding? In The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross John Allegro tried to show that this idea was built into the language and thought of religion from the very earliest times, and was still evident in the language and thought of the first Christians.

When survival depended on the fertility of the earth, and fertility was a gift of the gods, people sought to promote fertility by appealing to divine power. The swiftest and surest way to know the mind of god was through the use of herbal drugs. Throughout all ages and across all continents, priests and shamans have used entheogenic drugs in religious rituals. One of the chief sources of these drugs was fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, the sacred mushroom.

John Allegro believed that Judaism and Christianity were no exception. He held that many biblical stories and sayings derived from earlier fertility cults based on the use of the sacred mushroom. He discerned mushroom epithets behind many stories, names and phrases in the Old and New Testaments, either elaborated into folk tales or deliberately hidden in names and incantations. Embedded in different contexts, and often misunderstood in translation, they still carried messages for those who would look for them.

His evidence was linguistic. Starting with Greek and Semitic names, phrases, themes and stories from the Old and New Testaments, he followed them back through Phoenician and Akkadian to the earliest known writings – those of Sumer in the third millennium BCE. Although the precise form and interpretation of words changed with inflection and context in different languages, he found that the basic phonemes, the building blocks of words, carried their root meaning from one context to another. So by tracing the development of words we can trace the intertwining evolution of language, culture and religion.

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross met outrage and derision. Part of the problem lay in common revulsion at the idea of linking Christianity to primitive fertility cults. The idea that the New Testament was a cover story, deliberately designed to transmit occult knowledge to a particular sect without the authorities realising it, seemed improbably complicated. Also, Allegro based his evidence almost entirely on language study, and not enough was known about Sumerian to make a solid case. Had he given more attention to investigating the surviving cultural and artistic expressions of ‘Christian’ fertility cults, he might have convinced more people of the strength of his argument.

But now other types of evidence are coming forward to show that elements of the ancient religion survived at least into medieval times, where they were widely accepted in pagan and Christian folklore and religious practice, if not openly condoned by the established Church. For example, a fresco in a thirteenth-century church at Plaincourault, France, shows Amanita muscaria as the Tree of Life. Allegro used it as an illustration to The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, but in the outcry against the book even this obvious reference to mushroom veneration met denial.

Starting with the Plaincourault fresco, Jan Irvin sets out to justify John Allegro’s stance and to explore the objections to it. As I explained in the biography John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the main doubts about Allegro’s theory are whether the New Testament could deliberately conceal a secret code about mushroom usage, and the need to further substantiate Sumerian word connections. In the light of Irvin’s findings, there can now be little doubt that entheogenic drugs were used to attain divine understanding in Christianity as in other religions. I also think it is worth questioning whether mushroom lore was as secret as Allegro assumed it to be: lost in translation, perhaps, but not lost on the early followers of the cult, for whom the symbolism of the holy mushroom was a guide to revelation. In this book Jan Irvin subjects both sides to courtroom-like scrutiny, and adds powerful new evidence to help fill the gaps in our understanding of the origins of religion.

Check out http://www.theholymushroom.com for more information regarding The Holy Mushroom’s release.
Jan Irvin is also the co-author of Astrotheology & Shamanism, and the co-producer of The Pharmacratic Inquisition DVD. Please see http://www.gnosticmedia.com for information regarding these other publications by Jan Irvin.

All content copyright 2008, Jan Irvin

posted in Ayahuasca - 10 replies

My project in Ecuador (Universidad Mamallacta)

wayusa-warmi — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 04:12:02 GMT

For those interested, the project I am moving to Ecuador to work on:

UNIVERSIDAD MAMALLACTA

The Universidad Mamallacta is an indigenous-run educational center being developed by Napo Runa Indians of the Ecuadorean Amazon, to help them keep their endangered traditional knowledge and rainforest way of life alive and to bring them the skills they want to have to deal with the modern world.

Teaching and learning will take place not only in classroom settings but out on the earth, in the real forest, and in real gardens, learning from local elders and teachers -- hands-on learning in indigenous forest practices, indigenous permaculture, medicinal plants, raising native rainforest animals, and practicing indigenous crafts, music and dance. The land itself will be a living classroom.

The Universidad Mamallacta will also teach skills of the modern world, such as computers and accounting, that local people want in order to manage local community-based ecotourism and other sustainable community enterprises. Having their own economic alternatives enables communities resist the pressure to cut down the forest for cattle raising or to sell out to petroleum companies.

The classrooms will be traditional Amazonian structures, circular in shape, with woven palm roofs and open walls that will be surrounded by flowering bushes designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Students and teachers will sit in a sharing circle, surrounded by the sight and sound of the natural world.

The vision of the Universidad Mamallacta originated with the Mamallacta family, a family of traditional shamans. They say that the Indian people should not have to choose between traditional culture and modern technology -- that the tools of the modern world should not have to replace their culture, but rather could help them to defend their culture.

They also feel that their culture has much to offer to the outside world, and they want their school to be open to outside students, including students from other countries, who can teach their own skills in exchange for learning about the way of life of the Napo Runa.

The word "mamallacta" is not only the name of a family. The literal translation is "mother community." In modern Kichwa it means "country" or "nation," while to the Mamallacta family the true meaning of their name is "Mother Earth," since the Earth is the great Mother Community of life. Although other families and villages are involved, "Mamallacta" was a natural and appropriate choice for the name of this indigenous university.

* CULTURAL AND HISTORIC BACKGROUND *

THE NAPO RUNA PEOPLE

The Upper Napo area is within sight of the foothills of the Andes and several nearby volcanoes. It lies below a mountain pass where, in pre-Conquest times, highland Indians and rainforest Indians met to trade. Through that trade the Napo Runa have absorbed some highland Andean influence into their culture, including music and the Kichwa language. They have also absorbed the remnants of other Amazonian Indian tribes of the region who are otherwise extinct. This makes Napo Runa culture extraordinarily rich and varied.

The Upper Napo region is the most accessible part of the entire Amazon Basin. It was the first area of the Amazon penetrated by Europeans, and ancestors of the Napo Runa were the first Amazonian Indians to meet Europeans.

However, although the Napo Runa people have been in contact with Western society since the 1500s, their culture and their rainforest way of life was not significantly altered until the 1960s and 1970s. In those decades the Amazon region of Ecuador experienced a double blow: a government program that defined the Amazon rainforest as "unused" and encouraged colonization and deforestation by granting land title to any settler who came in and cut down the forest and put in cattle, and the discovery of petroleum in the Amazon and the beginning of oil exploitation. The destruction of the rainforest by colonists and oil companies, and the accompanying invasion of the rainforest by large numbers of non-Indian people, has had a tremendous impact on the last two generations of Napo Runa people. The younger generations are rapidly losing their culture and traditional knowledge.

That knowledge includes highly sophisticated traditional eco-human sciences. Like most Amazonian indigenous peoples, the Napo Runa are shifting horticulturalists, traditionally clearing a small area for gardening, cultivating it for a few years, and then reforesting the plot and clearing a new garden. The indigenous gardens themselves utilize sophisticated knowledge of companion planting -- which to western eyes, accustomed to mono cropping, appears "messy" and "unkempt." In reforesting, they take advantage of the increased sunlight to introduce plants that otherwise could not grow under the dense canopy of old-growth forest. They plant fruit and nut trees, medicinal plants, food for animals. Then as the jungle retakes the plot, it is rich with "wild" foods and medicines for humans and animals alike. There is a shifting cycle of old growth and various stages of secondary forest, creating maximum "edge effect," which promotes the richness and variety of ecosystems within an area. The traditional Amazonian way of cultivating the forest has been one of working in partnership with ecosystems rather than forcing something upon them. It is designed to increase the life-supporting capacity of the rainforest and enrich the biodiversity rather than to reduce it. Thus, the Amazon rainforest is a "cultivated forest," an ecosystem which since the Ice Age has been shaped by human participation and which would be very different without it. These ways were so effective that when the Europeans saw this rainforest that had been cultivated for thousand of years, they considered it as "virgin forest," "untouched by the hand of man."

Among the indigenous peoples of the Upper Amazon, the Napo Runa in particular are especially renowned for their extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses. Many anthropologists believe that this is because, as one of the first Amazonian groups ever to come into contact with Europeans, the Napo Runa were among the first peoples to be exposed to Western diseases, and so they had to quickly discover new plants and treatments for the new diseases. Today, other Amazonian peoples who are coming into contact with non-Indians and new diseases for the first time depend on the Napo Runa for help.

But how did the Napo Runa learn these plants? How did they learn the ways of working in cooperation with the forest? The people of the Upper Amazon, and especially the Napo Runa people, are a people for whom plant
spirits are central. Shamanic healing with medicinal plants involves communicating with the plant spirits and understanding the plant's personality as well as with the personality of the sick person.

Vision plants such as Ayahuasca are consulted for healing and guidance, and the vision plants guide the healers to new healing plants. Shamans spend years learning many different levels of knowledge needed for many different levels of spiritual and physical healing.

THE CHALLENGE TODAY

This rainforest, this culture and this great body of spiritual and practical knowledge are now threatened. As the rainforest is destroyed by oil companies and colonists, its power places and its medicine plants are lost, and shamanic practice becomes impossible. The new influx of outside influences, and of schools that bring the message that Western culture contains all knowledge of value and that indigenous knowledge is useless, has caused a generational rift in the Napo Runa people.

When the government declared in the 1960s that the Amazon region was an unoccupied region and up for grabs, and that title would go to those who cleared the forest to raise cattle or sugar cane, the Upper Napo region was impacted earliest, because it is the most accessible part of the entire Amazon Basin. Many Napo Runa found themselves forced to adopt the practices the government required for land title -- deforestation for cattle -- in order to protect their own rights to their land,

Now cattle raising is being abandoned because the cattle pastures soon turn into swamps, and second-growth forest is taking over much of the formerly deforested areas. But now, two generations of Napo Runa people have grown up with a different way of life. The younger generations are losing their culture and identity, and are being taught by the schools, missionaries, and other institutions that their culture is inferior and has no value except as "folklore."

This story of cultural loss is familiar to most indigenous peoples. But unlike North American Indians, the Napo Runa people are only two generations removed from the generation that still lived the traditional way. And, like other Amazonian Indians who have come into contact with North American Indians, they recognize that the cultural destruction that has happened to North American people represents their own future. But those who know the value of their culture, such as the Mamallacta family, want to take the steps now to strengthen their people and culture so that they do not follow the same path to destruction.

* EXPECTED IMPACTS OF UNIVERSIDAD MAMALLACTA *

Community-controlled education strengthens the ability of indigenous peoples to determine their own future. Universidad Mamallacta will be a prototype for indigenous-controlled education that is firmly rooted in indigenous culture, values, and spirituality, that allows indigenous people to choose for themselves what knowledges from the outside world are valuable to them, and that allows indigenous people to exchange knowledge with the Western world on a mutually respectful, equal basis. It is "educacion para defender la cultura, no para deshacer la cultura" -- education to defend the culture, not undo the culture.

Expected impacts -- short and long-term -- include:

ECOLOGICAL

Promoting recovery of damaged forest

Developing teaching models of indigenous gardening in cooperation with nature, known in the modern world as "permaculture"

Training in the raising of native Amazonian animals such as tapir and capybara, which thrive in intact rainforest, as an alternative to cattle, which require deforestation to create pasture. These animals were traditionally hunted for meat, but have been depopulated due to colonization and habitat destruction,

Developing projects to repopulated endangered wildlife, such as macaws.

Creating economic rewards for resisting deforestation, by developing export markets for rainforest herbs and by increasing ecotourism in the area

ECONOMIC

Helping communities that are developing community based ecotourism programs by offering training in Accounting and Small Business Management

Developing export markets for Amazonian crafts, medicinal herbs, chonta flour and other rainforest products.

Increasing tourism as an economic base in the Archidona area.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Giving indigenous young people access to computers and computing skills.

Offering a living demonstration of eco-friendly technology such as solar panels, mini-hydroelectric generators and composting toilets, in beautiful buildings based on traditional Amazonian architecture.

Developing indigenous-controlled media by training indigenous people in the making of videos and creation of radio programs.

TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Helping the traditional sustainable ways of cultivating the forest survive to the next generations

Passing on the knowledge and active use of medicinal plants

Keeping Amazonian shamanism alive

MODERN SKILLS

Providing basic skills in literacy and arithmetic for indigenous people of all ages who desire them

Giving local carpenters and mechanics the opportunity to share their skills

Providing tutoring support for students in area primary and secondary schools

Preparing talented young people for higher education in Ecuador and abroad

ART

Revitalizing traditional crafts that use all natural materials, such as traditional ceramics, fiber weaving and seed crafts

Developing new traditions such as painting with natural plant pigments.

Revitalizing traditional music and dance

Creating galleries for indigenous artists.

Giving local guitarists, keyboard artists, flutists and drummers the opportunity to teach others

WOMEN

Helping women of several villages develop women's healing and midwifery centers, or "Hambi Wasi"

Supporting women's traditional arts, such as ceramics and women's medicinal gardens

Helping women develop leadership and visibility

PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTE

Developing bilingual/bicultural materials and programs for use in local primary and secondary schools,

Training indigenous teachers to work in their own communities, offering quality education to children that will both respect and nurture their own culture and equip them to deal with the outside world.

LANGUAGE INSTITUTE

Working in partnership with an indigenous-run institute of languages that is independently being started nearby. The institute plans to teach all indigenous languages of Ecuador, plus Spanish and English.

INTERNATIONAL

Strengthening networks with indigenous people of other regions and other countries, by offering them the opportunities to come to Ecuador to study and to teach about their own cultures at Universidad Mamallacta.

Offering the opportunity to for international students to learn about Amazonian Indian history, culture, and science, to live in Napo Runa villages and experience the Napo Runa way of life, and to share their own skills with those who want to learn them.

Creating an international model of indigenous community-controlled education that exchanges knowledge with the outside world on a basis of mutual respect and equality.

PUBLICATIONS

The Napo Runa people and their neighbors have great desire to document their culture and create their own publications, and the Universidad Mamallacta will give them the opportunity to do it. We plan to tape classes, and then transcribe and edit the lectures into publishable form

We will be contracting with students to do research projects within their own communities (or, in the case of foreign students, within their homestay communities). Students will be learning from their own elders, and helping bring their wisdom to the rest of the world.

This documentation will be the foundation for constantly expanding curricula for the Universidad, for bilingual/ bicultural curricula for the local schools, and it will serve as a resource for foreign students and for international scholars in fields such as anthropology, biology, and sustainable development.

The documentation will also help us to make the case that non-indigenous colonists don't need to destroy the forest in order to live here. The colonists should have to learn from the ancient and successful practices of sustainability of indigenous people in order to be able to come live in the rainforest.

The documentation of indigenous sciences will also help to communicate to the younger generation that their own ancestral culture contains knowledge that are vitally important to the world.

The knowledge that is documented, and its benefits both material and nonmaterial, will belong entirely to the people from whom it comes. Since the Universidad will be under local indigenous control, all published materials that it produces will remain under local indigenous control.

SIZE

Universidad Mamallacta will begin on a 9-acre site. It will have one administration building (a secure modern building with solar power) and eight circular, open-walled classrooms with woven palm roofs and open walls that will be surrounded by flowering bushes designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Students and teachers will sit in a sharing circle, surrounded by the sight and sound of the natural world.

The land itself will be a living classroom. Like much of the region, this site has in the past been deforested for cattle pasture. It will be used for model reforestation projects, for growing the medicinal plants which the students will learn, for the practice of traditional Indian gardening techniques, and for pilot projects of raising native Amazonian animals such as tapirs and capybaras.

STUDENTS

For the first three years we anticipate an average of 50 students per term from the local area, and 10 to 20 foreign students. Enrollment will grow as the capacity grows.

In addition, we will be offering support (tutoring, computers, etc.) to indigenous students who are attending other high schools, and we will be working with area primary schools to help them to introduce more indigenous culture into their curriculums.

* DEPARTMENTS *

Each department will have a chair who will contract with knowledgeable elders from the local communities, outside instructors, and others to teach courses in their areas of expertise. All of these subject areas have possible teachers available.

The Director of Research, Documentation, Publications and Curriculum Development will contract with researchers, including students at the Universidad, to do specific research projects for publication and curriculum development.

DEPARTMENT OF INDIGENOUS COSMOVISION AND HISTORY

Amazonian Cosmovision / Philosophy
Amazonian History
Amazonian Anthropology
Comparative Amazonian and Asian Philosophies
Andean Cosmovision / Philosophy
Andean History
Andean Anthropology
North American Indian Cosmovision / Philosophy
North American Indian History
North American Indian Anthropology
Indigenous History of the Americas

DEPARTMENT OF INDIGENOUS FINE ARTS

Napo Runa Dance
Napo Runa Music
Napo Runa Crafts
Amazonian Architecture
Painting with Natural Plant Pigments
Pastaza Runa Ceramics
Pastaza Runa Wood Scupture

DEPARTMENT OF INDIGENOUS ECOHUMAN SCIENCES

Rainforest Biology
Indigenous Gardening / Permaculture
Indigenous Reforestation Techniques
Raising Native Amazonian Animals

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HEALING

Medicinal Plants
Human Anatomy
Midwifery and Women's Reproductive Care
Shamanic Healing

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN EDUCATION

Literacy
Mathematics
Computers
Accounting and Small Business Management
Carpentry
General Mechanics: Motors
General Mechanics: Electronics
Guitar
Keyboard
Photography
Video Production and Editing
Acupuncture
Fish Farming
World Geography
Tutoring (for students in other area primary and secondary schools)

* LOGISTICS *

MARIPOSA VILLAGE

Universidad Mamallacta will have its center about 1 mile from the town of Archidona, in the Napo Runa village of Mariposa. Mariposa is not on the map, as it is a quaint and traditional village of about 50 people. It is the home of Elias, Ramon, Mercedes and Rita Mamallacta, all members of the founding board, and other members of the Mamallacta family.

ARCHIDONA

Archidona (population 8,000), in Napo province, is a quiet, old town located about 10 miles north of the provincial capital of Tena (pop 60,000). It was founded in 1538 as a Catholic mission. Until 1920, Archidona was the capital of the entire Ecuadorean Amazon. Today, Archidona serves as a center for the indigenous villages of western Napo province. Despite the influx of non-Indian settlers since the 1960s, the town's population is still about 80% Indian. It takes its name from the Kichwa phrase "alchi runa," meaning "people who heal."

Archidona is well served by buses. A bus trip from the national capital of Quito to Archidona takes about five hours. There are a few hostel options for travelers, numerous local restaurants and small grocery stores.

Archidona is almost unknown to tourists, though it has many potential tourist attractions and there is much tourist traffic in the nearby towns of Tena and Misahualli.

Communication

Postal service is unavailable in Archidona. Postal deliveries can be received in nearby Tena, but postal service should be assumed to be unreliable throughout Ecuador and private parcel services are preferable. While phone service is available in Archidona, it is a luxury. Internet provider services have recently become available in Archidona, and we hope to establish an internet cafe in the town, as an auxiliary to the Universidad Mamallacta.

Transportation

There is direct bus service from Quito to Archidona, a trip of about five hours, and frequent buses from Archidona to the provincial capital of Tena, a trip of about twenty minutes. From Archidona, one may walk to the village center of Mariposa, or hire a taxi.

posted in Ayahuasca - 30 replies

Ayahuasca in Ecuador?

Patrick — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:17:19 GMT

My brother and I are spending a month in Ecuador. Are there any shamans you could recommend? Preferably cheap. I know these posts have been done before, but the conversation seems to mostly center around Peru? Anywhere in Ecuador if anyone knows anything please let me know! thanks!

Pat

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

Amazonistas at 14th Annual Shamanism Conference, Iquitos, Peru

amazonistas — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:02:24 GMT

We will have a table at the 4th Annual Shamanism Conference held in Iquitos, Peru beginning on the 19th of July.

The Amazonistas web site is scheduled to go online the 20th at noon Iquitos time.

Marco Schneider of Amazon Action will be sharing the table with us and the ladies he works with from Puchano will be bringing healthy, traditional food and Amazonistas will have cold beverages. We also hope to prepare fresh, cold fruit in the morning.

We are looking for volunteers to help because our one representative is also translating at the conference (and ceremonies if you ask him nicely) so if you could offer him a bit of your time at the Amazonistas table you would be doing a lot of good.

We look forward to meeting you.

Many blessings to you all for your health and well being.

posted in Ayahuasca - 1 reply

Ayahuasca Dietia & Headaches: What medicine is alright to use?

luxnatura — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:08:14 GMT

Only 10 days left until I fly to Peru. Hard to believe the time is nearly upon us (those of us going down for to Iquitos for the Amazonian Shamanism Conference). I had a question. Since beginning my dietia two weeks ago I've been suffering from dull headaches, usually in the afternoon and evening. I'm sure most of it has been caffeine withdraws and other mental/physical cravings for items once more prevalent in my diet. I was wondering what, if any, medication would be suitable for use to calm these dull headaches? I haven't used any pill-form medication since beginning my dietia, and I'd like to stick with that. Would a product like Tiger Balm or Head On (both are topical) be alright to use?

posted in Ayahuasca - 7 replies

NOBODY LOVES ME BECAUSE I TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT AYAHUASCA.

Boo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:53:30 GMT

Well, I am doing nothing more than speaking some truths about the brand of spiritualism in the name of Ayahuasca that is going on in some corners of the world. I am suffering the indignity of being called the most horrible names, such as troll, bad guy, meanie, etc. May I just preface this with the mention of a couple of persons who are high in the pantheon of spirituality, to wit, Gotama Buddha and Jesus Christ. These guys, as far as I know, were not big into the money thing. Buddha was a prince, who renounced both his riches and family, and led a life of spiritual pursuit and Truth. And Jesus, well he seemed to have been a carpenter, who didn't ply his trade very much, but chose to hang out with a bunch of poor people and prostitutes, although I think he was with the hookers as a buddy and not for some questionable reason. With that said, we fast forward to the present day and check out the spiritual situation as it presently stands. There are lots of pilgrims (I think I can refer to Ayahuasqueros as such) who seem to be falling head over heels for some of the most outrageously Capitalistic ventures, that are on par with the greediest televangelists you can find. These people defend the ayahuas"cash"eros as if they were some avatars, who have emerged from the jungles with unquestionable authority as to spiritual matters. And it all comes for a sweet price, sweet for them anyway. They defend this practice, without so much as doing a bit of math and seeing this is nothing more than big business, which would put any televangelist to shame. I think each person who goes to these "retreats" should ask the hired help how much they make and the hours they work. I think they will find that these workers are being paid on a basis comensurate with the local economy and not the hyper-economy of the "shamans". Just ask. Ask to look at the financial sheets of the avatars.

Okay, okay, it's just my opinion, but jeez, please just follow my suggestions and see what's really going on.

It would be better to go down there, hang out for a while in the real economy, at a fleabag hotel, eating in Belen, taking the bus, sitting in the plaza, orientating yourself and maybe cooking up your own Ayahuasca. REMEMBER: Ayahuasca is the teacher.

I don't expect anyone to condescend to writing a response, I just want to make all you wonderful, wonderful, kindhearted people think on this. Of course if you don't agree, you are 100% correct.

posted in Ayahuasca - 40 replies

GOING TO IQUITOS THIS SUMMER? VA A IQUITOS ESTE VERANO?

rareworlds — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:40:29 GMT

You may contact Amazonistas for details at rareworlds@gmail.com or if you are Spanish speaking contact Amazon Action at rombolo@hotmail.com or call Marco Schneider at Phone: +51 65 605558; +51 193117475 while in Iquitos.

Para Ingles contacte Amazonistas para cualquier pregunta a rareworlds@gmail.com

Si habla espanol contactenos a rombolo@hotmail.com
Para contactarnos via telefonica en espanol llamenos a +51 65 605558 o +51 193117475 Pregunte por Marco Schneider

In Iquitos you may leave your donations at Morona 531

Para donaciones en iquitos puede ir directamente a morona 531

posted in Ayahuasca - 2 replies

Hotel Recommendations in Iquitos

Kali — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:00:08 GMT

I will be at the conference next month – this is my first time in Peru. I’m having trouble finding a reasonable hotel (~$30.00/day). A friend recommended Maranon but that did not work out. I’d appreciate some recommendations.

Many thanks!

posted in Ayahuasca - 7 replies

ayahuasca and the rise of the feminine

RebeccaRose — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:39:46 GMT

i've been curious about this.

many traditions carry the belief that this time in history is the time in which the feminine/woman/goddess energy is in the proccess of being restored on the planet..

since ayahuasca is the mother plant and is considered a woman by many, how do you think she might be playing a role in this planetary change?

posted in Ayahuasca - 17 replies

In my very humble opinion this is way overdue

MYSTIC MEG — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:30:01 GMT

http://tribes.tribe.net/lightside

posted in Ayahuasca - 9 replies

Peru Strike

mariella — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:20:57 GMT

A ¨heads up¨reminder: There is a National Strike in Peru beginning on the 9th of July. Normally the airports shut down all over Peru when this happens. And rumour has it that the residents of San Juan (just outside of Iquitos) will also be striking on the 10th and this could also shut down the airport. So don´t book flights to fly into Iquitos on the 9th or 10th... you´ll most likely be sitting in the Lima airport for a couple of days.
And the 28th of July is Peru´s Independence Day. Huge celebration! So plan to stay around after the Conference for this day as well.

posted in Ayahuasca - 2 replies

depression afterwards

RebeccaRose — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:33:39 GMT

i know this subject has come up before, but i've noticed that for about a week after a very powerful ceremony, i go thru a period of feeling slightly melancholy. but then, it's followed by an extreme sense of balance, confidence, and well-being that seemed to not exist before.

it's not debilitating, nor is it something i'm looking to change or get rid of and i'm not looking for advice, but i'd like to gain a little bit more of an understanding of why this happens.

my intuitive sense is that the medicine continues to work within my body/heart for about a week afterwards, meaning that i often have visions/sensations similar to those experienced in ceremony. and since depression has been common for me in the past, it could be the purgative proccess contuinuing.

thoughts? does anyone have similar experiences?

posted in Ayahuasca - 16 replies

The Word

Geert — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:46:51 GMT

What's the magic word.....?

posted in Ayahuasca - 20 replies

First Timer Tutorial

Craig — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:54:42 GMT

After much reading, I've decided that an ayahuasca healing/cleaning ceremony is what I need to get my life in order. I've done some research, but would like some of the experienced travelers to offer insight on the best way to choose a provider, prepare myself for the experience, get down there, and get the most out of the ceremonies.

Anyone willing to give some details of their experiences and offer up some travel advice? I live in the southern US. Money is not a huge issue, but I would like to be smart about my choices regarding expenses.

Any advice is appreciated!

posted in Ayahuasca - 4 replies

Blue Morpho experiences?

Pluma del Tigre — Thu, 25 May 2006 02:22:07 GMT

Hi all,

New "tribe member" here.

I'm heading to Peru in September. Anyone have any dealings good or bad with Hamilton Souther's Blue Morpho group that you'd be willing to share?

Thanks!

posted in Ayahuasca - 85 replies

First time experiences...

Deez — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:23:31 GMT

I´m currently living in Santa Clara, a pueblo near lake Yarinacocha, near Pucallpa, Peru. Last night was my fourth ceremony. My first ceremony was good, if light. I felt a strong female presence and a voice welcoming me. It was real full power, but no visions. Sure, I saw things, but not much different than my experience with mushrooms. I´m working with the impression that with Ayahuasca, the visions are like watching television--bright, clear, and very, very real.

My 2nd ceremony was a cleaning, full on vomiting, the Shaman Juan Roque pulling things deep out of my body with his Icaros. Still no visions. The 3rd ceremony was a scare, as my wife took her first drink and had a full-on possession experience. And last night, I got to the root of a life long issue, plucked the negativity out of my energetic body and planted something more positive and healthy. I feel great, better and lighter. For this, I´m thankful and happy. But still...no visions.

I feel as if something is building inside me, growing is a better word. The first night I could see ants, not clearly, but I could make them out in my darkness...now flies, plants, trees, mushrooms. I can see them all, but I see them through the blackness of my mind. It´s as if the fractals I started with have begun to grow into a jungle in my head.

My friend Jose, the son of the shaman tells me that to have a vision, I must find the camino and follow it. I´m not sure what this means, but I have an idea. Another shaman here tells me that I see blackness because I´ve got so much negative energy and that I need to clean myself more to see clearly. I trust the people around me, but I´ve been wrong before.

So does anyone have any comments, suggestions, advice on Ayahuasca visions? Before I drank my first time, I was working with the impression that it was easy--drink Ayahuasca, have visions. Is it so simple? Again, I´ve seen things, sometimes more clearly than others, but in the end it´s dark and not much different than a healthy dose of mushrooms. I really feel the power of this plant, can feel its potential, and I´ve already made progress, but no visions. Thanks and happiness to all.

Deez

posted in Ayahuasca - 45 replies

Back Blogging

Steve — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:56:44 GMT

Some people -- probably very few :-) -- may have noticed that I haven't been blogging for a while. I was distracted by other projects, about which I am, as they say, now cautiously optimistic. But I have started blogging again, and I invite members of this tribe to drop on by, at Singing to the Plants: Shamanism and the Medicine Path, http://singingtotheplants.blogspot.com/.

-- Steve
http://singingtotheplants.blogspot.com/

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

"sit up straight!"

RebeccaRose — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:21:39 GMT

in my last experience with ayahuasca, she actually took her hands, pulled at the top of my head, and like a mother would, told me 'sit up straight" and then mumbled something about how she dislikes poor posture.

how does your posture affect your experience in ceremony?

posted in Ayahuasca - 81 replies

houston chronicle blue morpho article

clancy — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:08:40 GMT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/travel/5746130.html

posted in Ayahuasca - 13 replies

A Calling?

inspeyere — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:43:34 GMT

I've noticed alot of the animists in here believe that the spirit of the plant explicitly reaches out and 'calls' certain people to partake. I was wondering how many of the people in here had an experience to that effect?

That is to say, did aya find you, or did you seek the drink?

posted in Ayahuasca - 97 replies

GOING TO CONFERENCE? BRING SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND CLOTHING DONATIONS ...

rareworlds — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:43:56 GMT

If you are going down to the Shamanism Conference in Iquitos, Peru in July please contact me regarding bringing school supplies and women's and children's clothing and shoes. I will let you know what we already have or need and the arrangements for the collection once you are there.

If you wish to volunteer to help those who could truly use your help please let me know.

Thank you!

All the best to you all for a safe and wonderful trip.

rareworlds@gmail.com

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

a safe place in Peru

Eroca — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:24:07 GMT

I am inviting women to my home in the sacred valley. I offer a space to land and explore the medicines. I just posted a website with more info
www.ayahuascaayni.com

posted in Ayahuasca - 3 replies

Going to Iquitos, but not for very long

Todd — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:29:06 GMT

I'm going to Iquitos next month and number one on my list is obviously ayahuasca.

But, I will only be in the jungle for about 4 days.

It seems that most things I find are ceremonies/mediation/etc that cover at least a few days.

Forgive my ignorance, but is it possible to attend a ceremony with only a day or two? Is this too short a time?
(Yes, I wish I had more time..but that's the way it goes)

Thank you!

posted in Ayahuasca - 12 replies

Finding a legit Shaman?

Ryan — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:41:33 GMT

Hi, Ive been thinking about taking a trip to Peru to take part in an Aya ceremony, mainly to try and heal myself of depression and anxiety I struggle with. Ive done some research and found there are many outfits to choose from and I really concerned in finding the best possible shaman to guide me on this journey. Can anybody recommend a credible outfit/shaman that has worked with people with similar conditions as mine? Also the outfits I have checked out seem to charge a rather large amount of money for their services. Is this the norm, or are groups like these just trying to capitalize off Aya tourism?
Thanks

posted in Ayahuasca - 11 replies

Go and do something for the people who need it most

rareworlds — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:35:09 GMT

While the tourists in Iquitos, Peru enjoy a wonderful meal at the Yellow Rose of Texas or Ari's burgers (and believe me their menus are fantastic) the people of Belen are living without clean water, or proper sewage system. The women at thirty are getting uterine cancer at a high rate, and they are not helped by the government because they are not officially recognized by the government. Were they registered properly they would be entitled to medical care for themselves and their children among other services.

if you would like to help with projects in Iquitos for the street children or for these women and children of Belen, please contact me (here for now and soon through the Amazonistas web site) and i will hook you up and maybe with a place to stay while you are helping.

posted in Ayahuasca - 8 replies

Addiction shamanic healing needed on west coast

prana143 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:51:35 GMT

Hello All

I am in desperate need of someone who is experienced in healing addictions, any means necessary, although I do want to introduce my brother in law to shamanic healing. If anyone knows of anyone in the southern California region I would be very grateful. My brother in law has a sever alcohol problem that he tries to hide from everyone and we are getting ready to do an intervention and I would like to offer him some options that he may be interested in. He likes my lifestyle and I think is interested in this sort of thing, but because he is a brain-washed "OC type" he won't really admit it openly for fear of being laughed at or something, and has no real sense of self and perhaps that is why he drinks so much.

Any and all advice would be appreciated

Peace and love

Jess

posted in Ayahuasca - 16 replies

trying to find...

AnimaL — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:37:59 GMT

A while ago, I believe I was on this tribe, and I saw a link to a group of americans in peru that were doing ayahuasca ceremonies with a shaman, I believe they might have been rainbow family. It was a sliding scale, meant for healing and the like, I remember they asked for 100 a week, but less if you couldn't afford that, and then you could go with them on an excursion into the amazon to gather the sacred vine. If anyone can help me find this group it would be much appreciated, I have a friend who is very sick and is interested in this treatment. Thank you.
namaste,
animal

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

Tahoe Ceremonies?

Mariah — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:23:36 GMT

Is anyone connected to ceremonys in the tahoe area? I have drank maybe 10 times and i'm looking to continue with my spiritual practice. I sing a lot and also do sound healing, massage, reiki, and work with crystals. please let me know if you are connected with any ceremonys and/or supplies. also interested in sweat lodges.... (((((ALOHA)))))

posted in Ayahuasca - 1 reply

Equinox Shamanic Journey to Peru - March 2009

Steffan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:44:49 GMT

Greetings Everyone,

I'm offering a guided Shamanic Journey to Peru in March of 2009. This year's Journey was a great success. Everyone bonded deeply and was very grateful for my efforts. The groupe was blown away by Mallku's facilitation and two individuals are considering participating again in 2009.

We will be working with world renown expert of Inca cosmology, author and shaman 'Mallku' (James Arévalo Merejildo). Mallku will lead us in ceremony at the following ancient temple sites: Pizac, Machu Picchu (twice), Ollantaytambo, Sacsayhuaman, Qenco, the water temple of Tipon, The Temple of Wiracocha, Puno, Lake Titicaca and the island of Amantani and Colca Canyon, the great canyon of the condor. Our Andean journey will afford us the opportunity to partake in 3 Huachuma (San Pedro) rituals, the last of which will be held on the morning of the equinox on the Island of Amantani (Lake Titicaca).

If there is enough interest, I am also offering a 1 week optional ayahuasca extension to the Amazon. We will drink ayahuasca 3 times with some of the most well-known curanderos in the in the Iquitos area.

What can you expect to get out of this program?

First let me say that you will have the rare opportunity to work with one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the field Inca cosmology and Peruvian solar archeology. Mallku is a kind and generous being, holds a high very high consciousness, has the highest integrity and is an absolute delight to work with. He has written numerous books outlining the importance of, and the deep wisdom contained in Peru's ancient temples. Three excellent books by Mallku are "Machu Picchu Forever, City of Pilgrims", "Inka Initiation Path, The Awakening Of The Puma", and his latest, "Inka Power Places, Solar Initiations".

1.) Through Mallku's expert facilitation you will receive an in-depth understanding of ancient Inca Cosmology and how this wisdom can apply to your life today.

2.) You will receive a true immersion into ancient and modern Peruvian culture and return home having experienced Peru in a life changing and profound way.

3.) You will participate in rituals and ceremonies in key places on our journey that will help us to reclaim the sacred in our lives and to re-embrace the master path.

4.) You will have the opportunity participate in three Huachuma (San Pedro) ceremonies designed to help you deeply integrate the new understandings and commitments you embrace and to deepen your connection with Pachamama (Earth)

5.) It is also highly likely that you will deeply bond with other members of the group and create wonderful new friendships.

Our intention in offering these sacred journeys, is for all of humanity to reawaken to our full potential as divine human beings and to re-embrace the Master Path. If your soul has been calling you to make a spiritual quest to Peru, than I invite you to participate in this spectacular journey with us in March of 2009. I can almost assure you that any expectation you might have will be exceeded. This journey is open to all sincere spiritual seekers.

The 2009 tour price has yet to be determined, however to give you an idea, the March 2008 price is still listed on my web site.

Please visit my web site for more information and the complete itinerary.
www.sacredperuadventures.com/itinerary.html

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

Ive organised a Shamanic Adventure into Peru. Anyone interested in joining me?

Dean — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:14:36 GMT

Hi,
Its Dean Jefferys here, the filmmaker who made the Shamans of the Amazon DVD.

Since I organised the last Shamanic Adventure into Peru and Machu Picchu in 2004 amongst other things, I have been working solidly to help the whales and dolphins swim free. I will be crossing the pacific to go to the International Whaling commission meeting in Chile in June to try to help the whales and dolphins and thought this was a good opportunity to organise another Shamanic Adventure into Peru. Read the reports from my last trip and get more info about the trip at http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com. This trip also fits in with The Fourth International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: Magic, Myths & Miracles, Iquitos, Peru July 19th-27th, 2008 see http://www.soga-del-alma.org/ConferenceSite/

So I am organising some shamanic trip options for those who may want to join me and have a direct experience with Ayahuasca, San pedro, the mountains, the jungle the shamans and everything else. You can't go to Peru without visiting the Sacred valley and Machu Picchu region. I have meet a strong shaman named Sayre who lives in the Sacred valley to facilitate the journey. Sayre is a descendant from the Incas. We ran an amazing tour together in 2004. see a short clip I made of that trip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oI-PSBxa50 Also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ru3z0OtXE&NR=1

We have put together a great journey visiting many of the sacred sites in the Sacred valley and Sayre will run many San Pedro and Ayahuasca ceremonies throughout the 16 day trip around the Sacred valley and Pulcalpa in the Amazon jungle, from the 3rd of July to the 18th of July. In Pulcalpa we live and drink with the Shipibo people and shaman until the start of the conference on the 19th of July. See itinary. http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com/journey2.htm For more information about the Shipibo and the work Sayre is doing with them see http://web.iapicc.org/. and http://www.weaversofwisdom.org/index.php?id1=projects&id2=shipibo

I will also be staying on in the Iquitos region after the Shamanic conference for a week and visiting an Ayahuascaro shaman to do more ceremony. You may wish to also attend the conference ( you have to organise and pay for the conference seperately) and if you want to spend more time in Peru with the medicine join me before and / or after the conference. The Sacred valley, Machu Picchu, Pulcalpa trip is $2400 USD for the 16 days and 15 nights. Which works out at $160 pr night. It will be a jammed pact shamanic adventure, not for the light hearted.

Once you arrive in Cusco everything including sessions will be paid and catered for. Internal flights though will need to be paid by you. If you want to join me just for the amazon leg after the conference I have organised a 7 day 6 night amazon shamanic adventure it will be $780 = $130 pr day. Again everything will be catered for including aya sessions. We will be going to see Percy Garcia. He has been working with medicinal plants for over 25 years since he was 12 years old. Percy has excellent ayahuasca and he is a very very humble man. He has private cabins as well as his maloca, everything is screened in. The maloca was built over a small river, really nice. He is about 48 kilometers outside of Iquitos. We should get 2 or 3 ayahuasca sessions in, in that time. He has lots of information about medicinal plant of the jungle he will share with us and take us to some special places in the amazon Jungle. We will also learn how to prepare the sacred brew.

Also I want to let you know that I have just released a new DVD which includes all my Shamanic stuff. Its a 3 DVD Boxed set and includes some classic extra clips from the cutting room floor. Its 332 mins of running time. Its for sale from my http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com/sales.htm website.I ll be shooting another doco on the trip and may be doing some live internet streaming of both conferences in SA from my still to be built Online TV website. Ill let you know when it happens.

Also Im am planning three, 10 day retreats called "Diving into whale conciousness" in Tonga on a small tropical island in the middle of the pacific ocean, starting mid August. Tonga is one of 3 locations on the globe where humans can legally swim with whales and the humpbacks come here to breed and play from July to October. see http://www.malaislandresort.com/ for a taste of what im organising there. It will be around $2500 for 10 days with the whales.

If for some strange reason I dont get the numbers for the trip your deposit will be refunded 100% If you pull out half your deposit will disappear into another dimension. If you are interested please respond expressing your interest and I will put you on a special email list that I will send out more info to you. If you have any friends who you feel may be interested in one of these trips feel free to pass this web address onto them. Likewise if you or a friend has a related shamanic type website that may wish to swap web links feel free to pass this one onto them or contact me. If you are on my email list and someone you recommend this trip to, comes on the trip, you can recieve $50 aud and a free 3 DVD boxed set of "Shamans of the Amazon" For more details, photos and reports from the last trip see other pages on my website. http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com
Also see a 8 minute clip of "Shamans of the Amazon" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZpOXj6u78

I hope to be at both the International Whaling commission and the The Fourth International Amazonian Shamanism Conference with My http://www.Planetearthinternettv.com to do live interactive internet streaming of the events and all that happens around it. Including run downs of the days events and interviews with delegates and activists. Its not up yet but check it in a week or so. And stay tuned.

Loven Light
Dean Jefferys

See my other websites and become a friend

http://www.myspace.com/whalingdontbuyit
http://www.flightofthehumpback.org
http://www.myspace.com/deanjefferys
http://www.youtube.com/shaman1958
http://www.youtube.com/flightofthehumpback
http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com
http://operator11.com/people/9343
http://people.tribe.net/c5ad8e1e-af29-441b-9087-28fbaaacad09
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=590968500

posted in Ayahuasca - 1 reply

Shaman in "Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart" by Alice Walker

sita — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:21:16 GMT

Does anyone know who the real life shaman is in this book?

posted in Ayahuasca - 2 replies

Corrective lenses during ritual... yes or no?

travism — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:24:04 GMT

Thoughts?

posted in Ayahuasca - 7 replies

Aya vs. Mushrooms

Kate — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:50:59 GMT

Since I have taken neither, but am contemplating both, I would love to hear from the more experienced, how the two compare. (Perhaps we could throw Peyote into the comparison as well....) Aya sounds 10 times more powerful! The things I have heard lead me to believe they are similar in the journey one takes... mind/spirit expanding... providing lessons and healing....

posted in Ayahuasca - 53 replies

Best books on Ayahuasca?

Shenhah — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:13:17 GMT

There are more books about Ayahuasca on Amazon.com than I expected to find! Can any of you recommend the best ones?

Thanks!

posted in Ayahuasca - 3 replies

Shamanism Conference in Iquitos! CHEAP AIRLINE TICKETS!

mariella — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:08:15 GMT

We just discovered www.spiritair.com For instance, NY to Lima roundtrip is $429 dollars. Ft. Lauderdale to Lima roundtrip is $279 dollars!
Check them out!

posted in Ayahuasca - 4 replies

SHAMANIC JOURNEY: JULY 2008 - IQUITOS, PERU

sacharuna — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:08:42 GMT

Sacharuna Clinic Project (www.sacharunaclinic.org) is pretty young and quite new organization dedicated to try to achieve new changes in the world of medicine, shamanism, healing and the point view of the global mainstream over the subject of Plant Spirit Shamanism (in our case about the “Medicine of Gods” or so called: “The Wine of Souls”: Ayahuasca) through study, experimentation and research.

To reach those goals and to get enough funds for project as well as for construction of the clinic complex and our healing research facilities: WE DO NEED YOUR HELP!

In the month of JULY, 2008 in co-operation with some people in Iquitos, Peru using currently existing Ayahuasca Estrella Center (a special dedicated Shamanic Ayahuasca Ceremony facility) located outside and in close range to Iquitos – Nauta road in the nearby jungle we will be organizing one of our 1st “waves” of significantly priced reduced Ayahuasca Ceremonies for our “Recreational Guests” that are ready to support us and our project!

The participating with us: Shamans / Curanderos for our SHAMANIC JOURNEY: JULY 2008 event will be:

1. Don PEDRO PANDURO (a very, very powerful Ayahuascero and Curandero; as well as brother to recently gone and world renew “Shamana”: Norma Panduro. We can assure you a guaranteed “Spiritual Transformation” and incredible insight into the world of Shamanism with the help of Don Pedro)

2. Don JUAN CURICO (less known what doesn’t mean less knowledgeable: Cocama tribe Shaman / Curandero) that really works with a bit different and very interesting techniques during his ceremonies. He is as well the “Father” of the vision of this Clinic Project and the name behind it what he gave me after just my 5 first ever experienced and breathtaking ceremonies in my life that I experienced with Don Juan in more than 2 years ago.

We are what we believe offering you a really low prices / including up to 2 meals / day, possibility to diet with specific and selected by you or the Shaman plant! Our program lengths are stretching from 1 to 4 weeks starting from:

• JULY 1st 2008 to JULY 28th 2008

(Which date you are interesting to “drop in” into our program is up to you: individually, beside of course the 4 weeks program length that should start from the dates mentioned in the beginning of this sentence! And here are the prices:

• 1 WEEK, cost: 525 $ (7 days / 6 nights / up to 6 CEREMONIES)
• 2 WEEKS cost: 1050 $ (14 days / 13 nights / up to 13 CEREMONIES)
• 3 WEEKS cost: 1575 $ (21 days / 20 nights / up to 20 CEREMONIES)
• 4 WEEKS cost: 2100 $ (28 days / 27 nights / up to 27 CEREMONIES)

AS YOU HAVE NOTICED ABOWE THE NUMBER OF CEREMONIES THAT IS AVAILABLE IN EACH AND ONE OF OUR PARTICULAR PROGRAMS IS ONLY LIMITED TO THE NUMBER OF NIGHTS OF THE PROGRAM YOU CHOOSE TO ATTENT IN. (so if you choose for example: “3 WEEKS” program that is 21 days and 20 nights you’ll be able to attend up to 20 Ceremonies with working together with us Shamans. Please be aware that we really do not recommend anyone to attend so many Ceremonies in a row day after day and continuously, it’s up to Our Guests individually, how do you feel, your desire, strengths and other conditions among of other facts)

Make your reservations already today – our Project do need Your help and an minimum amount of participating Guests so we will be able to organize the whole event for those low prices that we are presenting here! For more information about our July event, please go to our website; where you will as well find the reservation form located there.

Thank you very much for your attention and your help!

Jacek Slawek
Founder
Sacharuna Clinic Project
www.sacharunaclinic.org

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

ayahuasca podcast

clancy — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:13:21 GMT

http://entheogenic.podomatic.com/entry/2008-05-21T12_54_28-07_00

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

inner bark better?

john — Sat, 24 May 2008 09:34:39 GMT

is the inner mimosa bark worth the little extra coin

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

Advice for first time...

Shenhah — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:07:14 GMT

Hello everyone,

I've been a member of this tribe for a while but this is my first post. I've actually spent some time on here today reading back topics and must say I am impressed with the maturity of many of the members of this group. I've very much enjoyed your postings and have learned a great deal from you already, thank you :o)

My husband and I are planning ayahuasca for the first time, and have decided that we want to do it in under the guide of an experienced Shaman. We are both pretty experienced with high doses of entheogens but feel that Ayahuasca deserves great respect and should be done right the first time.

We are looking at www.spirit-medicine.com as our first choice for Peru tours right now, and I was wondering if any of you have toured with this group, or could recommend any other groups as well. I have always felt called to go to Peru and Macchu Pichu, and am so excited to be finally making it a reality.

I'll be participating more on this board, thanks for being here.

Love & Light to you all
~Shenhah

posted in Ayahuasca - 8 replies

Boat Journey

Lorenzo-g — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:59:32 GMT

Has anyone taken the boat from Iquitos to Pulculpa?

Im considering making this trip in the near future.

Any feedback appreciated.

posted in Ayahuasca - 11 replies

Searching for seekers in San Diego, CA

Wed, 21 May 2008 07:20:54 GMT

Friends in San Diego? wanna share some conversation or a litl tea? get at me

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

Ayahuasca and Sustainability

Jav — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:59:48 GMT

Some posts from LLB on another thread got me thinking that this topic deserved its own thread on here. I remember discussing this before, but can't remember if that was on a thread on this tribe or not.

Basically, how do you guys feel about the environmental footprint of flying around the world to drink of the medicine. Do you feel that it's a balanced equation in terms of how much pollution is being emitted (jet fuel and others) by going to Peru or Brazil to drink? What about sustainabillity? There are very few environments where aya can really grow very well. So do you think it's valid to take her out of the amazon and into your bioregion, or do you feel like in the long run you want to work more with plants that thrive in your bioregion?

For me, well, three things: one, Santiago Chile is not that far from Iquitos where most aya comes from (though sometimes folks go pick her up in Lima); two, my curandero I work with lives here and is from here, and travels to Peru a few times a year, and brings back medicine which keeps a fairly large community supplied here; and three, I feel like in the long run I will likely work more with cactii which grow easily around here and require no transport or anything, just planting and tending.

These three factors are how I justify my aya-coligical footprint.

What about you all? What do you think of this topic? No right or wrong answers, just genuinely curious as to your views on the balance between partaking of the medicine and minimizing your eco footprint.

:)

posted in Ayahuasca - 87 replies

ayahuasca curing anxiety and depression

little lightening bolt — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:20:45 GMT

i used to mod on the ayahuasca forum years ago and there was quite a bit of talk about people having serious anxiety and depression. people having had taken medication for years totally no longer needing it.
i am curious if people have similar stories?
if you have had serious depression and anxiety cured by ayahausca and or ayahuasca in combination with traditional curanderismo talk about it here.
im interested.

posted in Ayahuasca - 43 replies

SACHARUNA CLINIC PROJECT - IQUITOS POSITION

sacharuna — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:31:06 GMT

Are you interested in Plant Spirit Shamanism, Ayahuasca, Medicinal Plants of Rain Forest, Healing and Helping People?! Do you wish to change this world in a better way and help the global consciousness of humankind to evolve and rise? Do you understand the importance to preserve the Rain forest and the possibility to use the healing properties of Ayahuasca and knowledge of the indigenous Amazonian Shamans???

We are looking for appropriate people to cooperate and work with our Sacharuna Clinic Project, to fill our Iquitos Position and even partners that would like and are able to invest money in our Project! Our project needs much help and we believe it is a very genuine project and one of few in its kind! Please read our "Project Overview" and our “Extended Project Overview” both located in our Project section at our website at: http://www.sacharunaclinic.org We are all the time opened to modify and develop our goals together with appropriate people that will be prepared to work with us!

The main job of the person for our Iquitos position will mainly consists of:

• coordinating / organizing and directing Ayahuasca Ceremonies with our so called: ‘Recreational Guests”

• marketing those activities online as well as our Project Goals

• working with our online website, online forum (with updates, addition) and as well communicating with interesting people, clients and patients

What we offer is:

• Covered monthly costs of 1) a very fresh apartment in Iquitos downtown (5 minutes from Plaza de Armas) with shower / restroom and 2) unlimited internet line / home phone together with 3) brand new and fresh desktop computer ready to use

• Monthly payment or other solution will be discussed together with interested people live on phone

Any interested people may contact us thought e-mail or phone number as soon as possible! The Sacharuna Clinic Project is totally legal and registered in Peru since August 2007.

Best Greetings,

Jacek Slawek
Project Founder
www.sacharunaclinic.org

tel: 480 277 9266 (USA)
e-mail: jacekslawek@hotmail.com

posted in Ayahuasca - 0 replies

The must be some...

Isaac — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:54:00 GMT

people who really still take ayahuasca seriously, in a spiritual context... Isn't there? I understand time is money and some compensation is do, but even any old men asking $20-50 a drink.... No offense, but even in the USA, thats pushin' real expensive for one dose.

I am very anxious to see how things go with a longer set up than a few weeks. I need a little help with all this, and I'm getting it piece by piece so far, but this Fall I'll come to live in Iquitos, pretty much to stay as long as I can. I plan to explore and discover, and see new people and try new things. Entheogens have always been close to me, and by going here, I'm going I am getting closer to them. I want to learn from Ayahuasca of course, and likely the most, but San Pedro, and the Mushrooms that grow there as well... Once im there Ill find a more long-term residence (hopefully), and explore my options when it come so ayahuasqueros. I'll try many, and i've got a pretty decent list so far, some options much more financially doable when it comes to a long-term trip.

Sigh...if only the rain could come sooner...

posted in Ayahuasca - 10 replies

New and called to try. Help?

Gina — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:38:01 GMT

Hello,
I am seeking connection with people in my area, Pasadena, Ca., who can assist me in my quest to experience Ayahuasca. Can someone start me out, somehow? Where is a church, a meetup, a group...........anything? You may contact me privately, if you wish. To know who I am, if you are being careful, you may read about me at www.acupuncture-healer.com.
my email is kneadles@sbcglobal.net.
Thanks for any help, thank you, thank, you , thank you.
Gina

posted in Ayahuasca - 14 replies

Reaching for the Stars?

shelbac — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:39:51 GMT

Is mans destiny the stars? Not just leaving our bodies behind and visiting but actually going? Nature provides the mind the mind provides us with the tools (hadron colliders)> Pachamamas dream starship that runs on creativity. Our creativity is hers. The stars anyone?

posted in Ayahuasca - 25 replies

crazy dream from a crazy dreamer

little lightening bolt — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:12:38 GMT

I had a really wild dream last night.
I had a dream that a paramilitary group in south america was forcing people to drink ayahuasca under threat of violence, they charged for it and the money was used to support war, and after they did they marked you with their moto a symbol. the name of the group was a name of an actual ayahausca retailer from peru that i know of... but wont mention the name because its just symbolic really.

what this got me thinking about even more and more when i woke up was the oil dollars spent when we import ayahausca... every time we spend a dollar on oil it supports the war in iraq, every time we participate in global economy we support the oil economy. I woke up thinking about local foods and medicine as being a form of eco as well as anti-war activism.
over the years ive really been trying to integrate lessons learned from ayahausca and other medicines and live a more ethical life... not supporting the oil dollar really means alot these days when you look at it.
i know ive brought these topics up before... but i want to talk a bit about some of the ideas that have come to me that are sollution focused... so that people can receive the medicines they need with out supporting violence in iraq, and large ecological and social foot prints.

so what are the alternatives?

I would like to think that ayahausca is special enough of a medicine that people would attempt to treat it with respect as well as integrate the lessons they learn from it by living in a responsible and ethical way, meaning earth care and people care in how they come by drinking ayahuasca.
currently there are goodly amounts of ayahausca being grown in hawaii and hawaian virdis is superior from what i hear in alkaloid content due to the soil of hawaii being so good.
a vision i received was regional supply networks of people dedicated to getting the medicine out sustianably with earth care and people care as a focus biofuel driven vehicle's and sail power to and from the west coast to the islands would be possible if people were to dedicate themselves to it. refusing to buy from the internet suppliers and instead seeking responsible regional trade net works would be the responsibility of the people drinking and seeking the medicine.
another possibility is working with plants that can be grown or also regionally and sustainably harvested and transported over short distances. creating regional net works with analog plants based on trade and not profiteering on sacred medicine no matter the ecological and social impacts would bring a sense of meaning as well as a feeling of fulfilling our responsibility to the earth and her children.

some of the analog plants can be grown in our areas at least in a green house. making the decision to grow instead of consume and to share the abundance in a good way to others with out concern for profit would assist a great deal of people. people willing to take on this role in supplying the medicines needed take on a sacred role, and would require support and reciprocity.

what i am speaking of is intigrating sustianability and ethics into current ayahausca consumption in a way that creates a culture of the sacred revoling around how we obtain it in the first place.

wildcrafters in new mexico and arizona where syrian rue grows as an invasive species can be local suppliers to transregional networks. harvesters of mimosa from mexico can do the same. great basin harvesters of demanthus or bundle flower can either grow or wild craft the plants or harvest seed and spread it to those that need it in other areas... other plants can be discovered and cultivated in other regions which can serve as analogs and in areas where they cannot be grown to supply the demand eco fueled vehicals can be utilized by people to move the medicines to where they need to go.... keeping in mind that the further they come from the source the more that must be reciprocated.

in the USA alone we have adequate ayahausca analogs which grow in large quantities and can be harvested ethicaly and responsibly which have their own uniqueness yet similar effects and healing as the plants in the amazon. consuming local ayahausca analogs also helps cultivate a sacred culture and new ways and associations with the plants of north america. learning new medicine ways directly from the plants themselves.

i would love it if people who believe in the sacred nature of these medicines saw their sacred responsibility and were inspired to dedicate themselves to supplying these medicines responsibly. as with the case of local food networks the responsibility is in the hands of the people. if there is a need from the people to only consume plant medicines that are sustianably transported and harvested and grown then people will be supported in doing so.

I would support people willing to do this by only working with plants provided to me by them... would any one else?

posted in Ayahuasca - 12 replies