Ayahuasca, Art, and Shamanism

Ayahuasca Visionary Art

2012-01-09T06:16:00.001-08:00

Ayahuasca Visionary Art, a photo by Howard G Charing on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Acrylic on canvas - November 2011 - Howard G Charing

An vision of the geometric structure of plants from an Ayahuasca vision

Ayahuasca Visionary Art

2012-01-09T06:14:00.001-08:00

Ayahuasca Visionary Art, a photo by Howard G Charing on Flickr.

Acrylic on Canvas - November 2011.

An exploration of the geometric forms of plants inspired by my ayahuasca visions.

Ayahuasca Inspired

2011-10-21T21:39:00.001-07:00

Ayahuasca Inspired 01 Oct 2011, a photo by Howard G Charing on Flickr.

Ayahuasca Inspired Art by Howard G Charing
October 2011, Acrylic on canvas

Ayahuasca Inspired - Howard G Charing

2011-09-11T06:20:00.001-07:00

Ayahuasca Inspired - Howard G Charing, a photo by Howard G Charing on Flickr.

Acrylic on wood - August 2011

The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo - Article from Sacred Hoop

2011-08-26T04:33:00.001-07:00

'The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo' - Article from Sacred Hoop Magazine Issue 71

Shamanic Illuminations - The art of Pablo Amaringo, Alex Grey, and Mieshiel

2011-08-26T04:26:00.000-07:00

Shamanic Illuminations ACA Gallery NYC - Art by Pablo Amaringo, Alex Grey, and Mieshiel

Shamanic Illuminations - The art of Pablo Amaringo, Alex Grey, and Mieshiel

2011-08-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release
August 15, 2011

Contact: Mikaela Sardo Lamarche
212.206.8080
curator@acagalleries.com

Shamanic Illuminations:

The Art of Pablo Amaringo, Alex Grey and Mieshiel

September 15 through October 22, 2011

Reception and Book Signing: Thursday, September 15 from 5 to 8pm

Gallery Talk: Thursday, September 22 from 5 to 8pm Talk begins at 7pm

ACA Galleries is pleased to announce Shamanic Illuminations: The Art of Pablo Amaringo, Alex Grey and Mieshiel, a group exhibition featuring the artwork of three visionary artists.

Ayari Warmi, 20

Pablo Amaringo (1938-2009) was born in Peru. He was 10 years old when he first took ayahuasca--a visionary brew used in shamanism. A severe heart illness -and the magical cure via ayahuasca-led Amaringo toward the life of a shaman

He eventually became a powerful curandero-learning the icaros, or healing songs, that the ayahuasca brew inspired in him. In 1985 Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman by Dennis McKenna and Luis Eduardo Luna was published.

In 1988, Amaringo founded the Usko Ayar School of Painting in Pucallpa, a school dedicated to teaching art along with the rich botanical diversity of the jungle.

Jehua Supai, 2004

Amaringo was honored with the Global 500 award from the UN Environmental Program in 1992.

Pablo Amaringo's latest volume, The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo by Howard G. Charing, Peter Cloudsley and Pablo Amaringo (Inner Traditions, 2011) includes 47 color plates of never-before-published paintings. It also includes reflections from many well-known artists and visionaries such as Robert Venosa, Graham Hancock, Jan Kounen and Dennis McKenna.

Alex Grey (1953- ) was born in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Columbus College of Art and Design (1971-3) and Boston Museum School (1974-5). Grey worked five years in the Anatomy Department at Harvard Medical School and later worked at Harvard's Department of Mind/Body Medicine assisting scientists investigating subtle healing energies.

Grey taught anatomy and figure sculpture for ten years at NYU and taught at RISD, Philadelphia College of Art, JFK University (CA), New York Open Center, Naropa Institute (CO), California Institute of Integral Studies, and Omega Institute (NY).

Seraphic Transport

Grey's paintings have been featured on the music albums of TOOL, SCI, Beastie Boys and Nirvana, blotter acid, thousands of tattoos, Rose Planetarium, stage sets at Radio City Music Hall, Newsweek and Time Magazines and the Discovery Channel.

In 1999 there was a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Together with his wife, Allyson Grey, he co-founded CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. CoSM: The Movie (Docurama, 2006) documents Grey's tour of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors now a sanctuary of visionary art, located in Wappinger, New York.

Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey by Alex Grey with Ken Wilber and Carlo McCormick and Transfigurations, a monograph of Grey's work, are available.

Mystery of the Canyon

Mieshiel (1964 - ) was born in New York City. He attended Friends Seminary and received his BFA in 1986 from California Institute of the Arts. Upon graduation Mieshiel moved into a 19th century Masonic Temple in downtown Los Angeles where he co-founded TAP (Temple Art Performance), a hub for avante-garde performance art, music and visual art. He later moved to New Mexico and spent the next 24 years in near seclusion, living off-the-grid. In this high desert sanctuary timelessness and utter quiet allowed him to experience an endless barrage of mystical experiences where his art connection with Pablo Amaringo was revealed.

In 1982 Mieshiel won a competition and created a street mural at Irving Place in New York City. He designed the album jacket interior for the Séraphine soundtrack, produced by Warner Brothers. His work has been exhibited nationally and is included in the permanent collections of The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico and Amon Carter III, among other private collections

The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo cover

2011-01-10T05:32:00.001-08:00

The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo cover
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

A new collection of never-before-published paintings by renowned artist Pablo Amaringo

Recognized as one of the world’s great visionary artists, Pablo Amaringo was renowned for his intricate, colorful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience--where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens, and spacecraft all converge--Amaringo’s art presents a doorway to the transcendent worlds of ayahuasca intended for contemplation, meditation, and inspiration.

Illustrating the evolution of his intricate and colorful art, this book contains 48 full-color reproductions of Amaringo’s latest works with detailed explorations of the rich Amazonian mythology underlying each painting. Through their longstanding relationship with Amaringo, coauthors Charing and Cloudsley are able to share the personal stories behind his visions and experiences with Amazonian people and folklore, capturing Amaringo’s powerful ecological and spiritual message through his art and words. With contributions by Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Robert Venosa, Dennis McKenna, Stephan Beyer, and Jan Kounen, this book brings the ayahuasca experience to life as we travel on Amaringo’s visionary brush and palette.

Fine art giclee prints and reproductions of Pablo's beautiful work featured in the new book 'The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo'. A pre-launch 20% discount promotion.

http//ayahuasca_visions.imagekind.com

Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo - NEW BOOK

2010-09-13T06:24:00.001-07:00

Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo - NEW BOOK
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo - NEW BOOK

About The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo
A new collection of never-before-published paintings by renowned artist Pablo Amaringo

• With written contributions by Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Robert Venosa, Dennis McKenna, Stephan Beyer, and Jan Kounen

• Contains 47 color plates of Amaringo’s latest works, with detailed narratives of the rich Amazonian mythology underlying each painting

• Shares Amaringo’s personal stories behind the artistic visions

Recognized as one of the world’s great visionary artists, Pablo Amaringo was renowned for his intricate, colorful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience--where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens, and spacecraft all converge--Amaringo’s art presents a doorway to the transcendent worlds of ayahuasca intended for contemplation, meditation, and inspiration.

Illustrating the evolution of his intricate and colorful art, this book contains 47 full-color reproductions of Amaringo’s latest works with detailed explorations of the rich Amazonian mythology underlying each painting. Through their longstanding relationship with Amaringo, coauthors Charing and Cloudsley are able to share the personal stories behind his visions and experiences with Amazonian people and folklore, capturing Amaringo’s powerful ecological and spiritual message through his art and words. With contributions by Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Robert Venosa, Dennis McKenna, Stephan Beyer, and Jan Kounen, this book brings the ayahuasca experience to life as we travel on Amaringo’s visionary brush and palette.

About the Author(s) of The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo
Pablo Amaringo (1938-2009) trained as a curandero in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but retired in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at his Usko-Ayar school in Pucullpa, Peru. The author of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, his art has been displayed throughout the world. Howard G. Charing is a director of the Eagle Wing’s Centre for Contemporary Shamanism and the coauthor of Plant Spirit Shamanism. Peter Cloudsley is a musicologist, writer, and the founder of the Amazon Retreat Centre in Peru.

FORTHCOMING - APRIL 2011

The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo - April 2011

2010-09-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

About The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo

A new collection of never-before-published paintings by renowned artist Pablo Amaringo

• With written contributions by Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Robert Venosa, Dennis McKenna, Stephan Beyer, and Jan Kounen

• Contains 47 color plates of Amaringo’s latest works, with detailed narratives of the rich Amazonian mythology underlying each painting

• Shares Amaringo’s personal stories behind the artistic visions

Recognized as one of the world’s great visionary artists, Pablo Amaringo was renowned for his intricate, colorful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience--where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens, and spacecraft all converge--Amaringo’s art presents a doorway to the transcendent worlds of ayahuasca intended for contemplation, meditation, and inspiration.

Illustrating the evolution of his intricate and colorful art, this book contains 47 full-color reproductions of Amaringo’s latest works with detailed explorations of the rich Amazonian mythology underlying each painting. Through their longstanding relationship with Amaringo, coauthors Charing and Cloudsley are able to share the personal stories behind his visions and experiences with Amazonian people and folklore, capturing Amaringo’s powerful ecological and spiritual message through his art and words. With contributions by Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Robert Venosa, Dennis McKenna, Stephan Beyer, and Jan Kounen, this book brings the ayahuasca experience to life as we travel on Amaringo’s visionary brush and palette.

About the Author(s) of The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo

Pablo Amaringo (1938-2009) trained as a curandero in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but retired in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at his Usko-Ayar school in Pucullpa, Peru. The author ofAyahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, his art has been displayed throughout the world. Howard G. Charing is a director of the Eagle Wing’s Centre for Contemporary Shamanism and the coauthor ofPlant Spirit Shamanism. Peter Cloudsley is a musicologist, writer, and the founder of the Amazon Retreat Centre in Peru.

FORTHCOMING

The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo

By (author) Howard G. Charing

By (author) Peter Cloudsley

By (author) Pablo Amaringo

ISBN-13: 978-1-59477-345-7
ISBN: 1-59477-345-9

Hardcover Book — 01/04/11

Page Count: 192; 10.50 (width) x 13.50 (height)

Includes 47 color plates and 12 color photographs

Imprint: Inner Traditions

"Patos en la laguna" detail 2- Pablo Amaringo

2009-12-12T10:39:00.001-08:00

"Patos en la laguna" detail 2- pablo amaringo
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

"Patos en la laguna" - Pablo Amaringo

Although Pablo is famous for his paintings based on his ayahuasca visions and the myths and legends of the Amazon, he also makes beautifully detailed collages with the brightly coloured feathers of parrots and macaws.

"Patos en la laguna" detail 1- Pablo Amaringo

2009-12-12T10:35:00.001-08:00

"Patos en la laguna" detail 1- pablo amaringo
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo - 'Patos en la Laguna'

2009-12-12T10:34:00.001-08:00

"Patos en la laguna" - pablo amaringo
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo - El Tucán y Guacamayo - detail 1

2009-12-12T10:29:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo - El Tucán y Guacamayo - detail 1
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

El Tucán y Guacamayo

Feather Collage by Pablo Amaringo

Pablo Amaringo - El Tucán y Guacamayo

2009-12-12T10:28:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo - El Tucán y Guacamayo
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

El Tucán y Guacamayo

Feather Collage by Pablo Amaringo

Pablo Amaringo with 'Huasi Yuchana'

2009-12-03T03:40:00.001-08:00

Huasi Yuchana - Pablo Amaringo painting
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo showing 'Huasi Yuchana' which means in Quechua 'The House of knowledge'.

Huasi Yuchana - Pablo Amaringo painting

2009-12-03T03:37:00.003-08:00

Huasi Yuchana - Pablo Amaringo painting
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

'Huasi Yuchana' - by Pablo Amaringo

Caspi Mutkiy - Pablo Amaringo

2009-12-03T03:37:00.001-08:00

Caspi Mutkiy - Pablo Amaringo
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

'Caspi Mutkiy' - by Pablo Amaringo

Pablo Amaringo - Book Foreword

2009-11-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

Foreword by Pablo Amaringo, to the book 'Plant Spirit Shamanism'.

Pablo Amaringo was one of the world's great visionary artists. He was renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings inspired by his visions from when he was an Ayahuasca shaman. He trained as a curandero or healer in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but gave this up in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at the Usko-Ayar school of Amazonian art which he founded. His book, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, co-authored with Luis Eduardo Luna, brought his work and the rich mythology of the Amazon to a wide public in the West.

Click to view a Photo Gallery of Pablo Amaringo,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hgcharing/sets/72157619964199982/

Pablo Amaringo - Foreword to the book Plant Spirit Shamanism

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009 RIP

2009-11-23T09:24:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009 RIP
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009 RIP

Funeral in Pucallpa, Peru.

Pablo Amaringo - Local Pucallpa news reports, Nov 2009

2009-11-22T07:27:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo 1938 -2009

Local (Pucallpa) Newspaper reports (Nov 2009)

Pablo Amaringo Gallery, Pucallpa, Peru

2009-11-21T06:05:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo Gallery
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

The Pablo Amaringo Gallery

The sign on the remodelled Usko Ayar school which is planned to house the Pablo Amaringo gallery, in Pucallpa, Peru.

Pablo Amaringo RIP 1938 - 2009

2009-11-19T11:16:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009

It is with great sadness that Pablo Amaringo passed away at his home in the early hours of this morning. His funeral will be held on Wednesday in Pucallpa.

His paintings, his wisdom, and his beauty have been an inspiration to thousands of people all over the world.

Thank you Pablo for everything.

Howard G Charing

Tuesday 16th November: Lima, Peru

Pablo Amaringo - with wood bark painting in traditional Shipibo style.

2009-11-19T05:50:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo - with traditional Shipibo wood bark painting
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo - with traditional Shipibo wood bark painting.

Pablo Amaringo - painting 'Ayahuasca Chayana'

2009-11-19T05:49:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo - Ayahuasca Chayana
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo - 'Ayahuasca Chayana'

Pablo Amaringo - with Alli Mariri painting

2009-11-19T05:48:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo - Alli Mariri
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo - Alli Mariri

Pablo Amaringo eulogies Nov 18th 2009

2009-11-19T05:47:00.003-08:00

Pablo Amaringo eulogies Nov 18th 2009
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Eulogies for Pablo Amaringo November 18th 2009 at Pucallpa, Peru.

Pablo Amaringo Funeral Wake 17 November 2009

2009-11-19T05:47:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo Funeral Wake 17 November 2009
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo Funeral Wake.
17th November 2009, at his home in Pucallpa Peru

Pablo Amaringo Funeral Wake 17 November 2009

2009-11-19T05:46:00.001-08:00

Pablo Amaringo Funeral Wake 17 November 2009
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Pablo Amaringo Funeral Wake.
17th November 2009, at his home in Pucallpa Peru

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009

2009-11-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Pablo Amaringo 1938 - 2009

It is with great sadness that Pablo Amaringo passed away at his home in the early hours of this morning. His funeral will be held on Wednesday in Pucallpa.

His paintings, his wisdom, and his beauty have been an inspiration to thousands of people all over the world.

Thank you Pablo for everything.

Howard G Charing

Tuesday 16th November: Lima, Peru

Click link to view some of his paintings

Amazonía: siete visiones contemporáneas - Art Exhibition, Lima Peru

2009-10-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Amazonía: siete visiones contemporáneas - Art Exhibition, Lima Peru

Seven Amazonian Artists present their visions of the Amazon Rainforest. It is an irony that this exhibition sponsored and hosted by Petroperu (the state owned oil corporation) , which (putting it mildly) is not a 'friend' to the Amazon rainforest.

It's history of oil pollution, and state sanctioned land-grabbing that recently culminated in major protests by indigenous people with a significant loss of life (May 2009). For further reading on this;

http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=3114

http://www.amazonwatch.org/

Amazonia Art Exhibition - Lima Peru

Photo Gallery on Flickr of the Exhibition;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hgcharing/sets/72157622366131421/

FROM THE PETROPERU PRESS RELEASE (English Translation incl).

En homenaje a los 27 años de la Refinería Iquitos y los 40 de la vida institucional de Petroperú, se presenta la muestra Amazonía: siete visiones contemporáneas. Esta exposición reúne la expresión pictórica de siete artistas radicados en la región Loreto.

Montada en la sala de arte de Petroperú, la exhibición nos presenta 30 pinturas trabajadas en acuarela y en óleo, cuyas temáticas reflexionan sobre la belleza amazónica, sus tradiciones y misterios, y reflejan la profunda inquietud social que se gesta en algunos espacios.

Es así cómo se exhibirán los trabajos de Francisco Grippa Jochamovich, quien –formado en California en los años setenta– regresó al país para internarse en la selva con los shipibos y los boras, es también uno de los iniciadores del boom de arte amazónico; Cliver Flores Lanza, renombrado pintor iquiteño egresado de la Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes; Sixto Saurín Púa, artista de prestigio nacional e internacional, dueño de una pictórica imponente.

Asimismo, están presentes en la muestra otros cuatro reconocidos artistas: Emilio López Rengifo, Yolanda Razzeto Ruiz; Pablo Amaringo Shuña y Juan Montes Torres.

El rugido artístico de la selva se escucha cada vez más fuerte en las galerías nacionales e internacionales. Su originalidad y la fortaleza de sus colores han creado una línea artística, que hoy por hoy está en toda efervescencia.

La exhibición se encuentra en la sala de arte Petroperú (Av. Canaval y Moreyra 150, San Isidro), el ingreso es libre, podrá visitarse hasta el 10 de octubre, de lunes a viernes de 1 a 8 p.m. y los sábados de 11 a.m. a 4 p.m.

In tribute to the 27 years of Iquitos Refinery and 40 of the institutional life of Petroperu Amazon presents sample: seven contemporary views. This exhibition brings together the pictorial expression of seven artists based in the Loreto region.

Mounted in the art gallery Petroperu, the exhibit presents 30 paintings worked in watercolor and oil paintings, whose subjects reflect on Amazonian beauty, its traditions and mysteries, and reflect the deep unrest that is happening in some areas.

This is how it will exhibit works of Francisco Grippa Jochamovich, who, formed in California in the seventies, returned to the country and into the jungle with the Shipibo and the Boras, is also one of the initiators of the art boom Amazonian Cliver Flores Lanza, renowned painter iquiteño graduate of the College of Fine Arts; Sixto Saurin Pick, an artist of national and international prestige, owner of a stunning pictorial.

They are also present in the sample other four renowned artists: Emilio Lopez Rengifo, Razzeto Yolanda Ruiz and Juan Pablo Montes Shuna Amaringo Torres.

The art of the jungle roar is heard louder in the national and international galleries. His originality and strength of their colors have created an artistic line, which currently is in full swing.

The exhibition is at the art gallery Petroperú (Av Canaval and Moreyra 150, San Isidro), admission is free, can be visited until October 10, Monday through Friday from 1 to 8 pm and Saturdays, 11 a.m. at 4 p.m.

Ayahuasca Inspired Art

2009-09-28T06:46:00.001-07:00

Ayahuasca Inspired Art
Originally uploaded by Howard G Charing

Ayahuasca Inspired Art

September 2009 - Acrylic on canvas.

Ayahuasca Shaman - Artidoro Aro Cardenas Interviewed

2009-09-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

An Interview with Ayahuasca Shaman Artidoro Aro Cardenas.

By Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley (2003)

This article has been revised to include plant classification names. An extract from this interview appeared in the book Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny Books USA).

Interview With Ayahuasca Shaman Artidoro

Shipibo Ayahuasca Shamans - Interviews

2009-07-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Shipibo Ayahuasca Shamans

Birds and Animals of the Mishana Nature Reserve - Peru

2009-07-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

Birds and Animals of Mishana Reserve, Amazon Rainforest - Peru

Ayahuasca and the Visual Music of the Shipibo

2009-05-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

Underlying the intricate geometric patterns of great complexity displayed in the art of the Shipibo people is a concept of an all pervading magical reality which can challenge the Western linguistic heritage and rational mind.

Communion with the Infinite - Ayahuasca: The Visual Music of the Shipibo tribe of the Amazon

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books music art

Coca and the Shamanic Traditions of the Andes

2009-05-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

Spiritual Traditions of the Andean Shamans

Preparing for the Future, traditional Andean healer Doris Rivera Lenz

Doris Rivera Lenz talks to Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley about the effect of belief on health, how we get sick, and how she helps patients recover, and she looks to a future when we will need to keep balance as material values no longer isolate us from the Earth

First Published in Sacred Hoop Magazine Issue 57, 2007

Coca and the Shamanic Traditions of the Andes

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books peru shamanism

San Pedro - the Cactus of Vision

2009-05-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

San Pedro - the Cactus of Vision

The use of San Pedro cactus and healing altars in the shamanic tradition of Northern Peru. Shamans from different cultures and traditions have been using psychoactive plants since the dawn of human emergence. These plants have been used traditionally for guidance divination, healing, maintaining a balance with the spirit or consciousness of the living world.

HOWARD G. CHARING & PETER CLOUDSLEY, talk with Maestro JUAN NAVARRO.

Article first published, in Sacred Hoop Magazine, Issue Summer 2004.

San Pedro - the Cactus of Vision

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books spiritual peru

Birds and Animals of Mishana Reserve, Amazon Rainforest - Peru

2009-05-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

A Guide book to the birds and animals in the Mishana protected reserve in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru.

This reserve due to a combination of geological factors and diverse soil types supports a unique community of plant and animal species. It is the ‘jewel’ in the crown for bird-watchers and contains dozens of species which are unique to this area. The Reserve contains one of the highest biodiversities known in the Amazon basin. The Lodge is located directly on the Rio Nanay which is a tributary of the Amazon River.

Birds and Animals of Mishana Reserve, Amazon Rainforest - Peru

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books animals peru

Ayahuasca Shaman - Interview

2009-05-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ayahuasca Shaman - Javier Arevalo Interview

Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two make a potent medicine which opens the doors to experiencing the energetic world which underlies the world of everyday.

Spirituality is at the centre of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in a shamanic ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery.

Interview by Howard G Charing & Peter Cloudsley

Ayahuasca Shaman - Interview

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Health & Lifestyle Books peru amazon

CD - Drumming for the Shamanic Journey

2009-05-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Drumming for the Shamanic Journey
With Leo Rutherford & Howard G. Charing

Drumming for the Shamanic Journey CD

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books shamanism drum

THE SHAMANS OF PERU CD Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, and Music

2009-05-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

THE SHAMANS OF PERU CD - Ceremonial Chants, Icaros, and Music

Shamans of Peru - Recorded on Eagle's Wing Journeys to Peru Contains chants and dramatic effects of six different ceremonies with shamans who have worked with Eagle's Wing Groups. Two ceremonies with San Pedro maestros working in the atmospheric ruins of Puruchucu; two ayahuasca shamans, a man and a woman, in separate sessions working in a jungle temple on the River Momon, outside Iquitos; a Shipibo shaman working in Yarinacocha, outside Pucullpa; and lastly, a despacho in the ruins of Pisaq, Cusco. In addition there are three tracks of atmospheric music played on pre-Colombian instruments.

Shamans of Peru CD

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books music song

Pablo Amaringo - Foreword & Interview

2009-05-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

Foreword by Pablo Amaringo, to the book 'Plant Spirit Shamanism'.

Pablo Amaringo is one of the world's great visionary artists. He is renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings inspired by his visions from when he was an Ayahuasca shaman. He trained as a curandero or healer in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but gave this up in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at the Usko-Ayar school of Amazonian art which he founded. His book, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, co-authored with Luis Eduardo Luna, brought his work and the rich mythology of the Amazon to a wide public in the West.

Also in the package is an interview with Pablo Amaringo, by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley.

Pablo Amaringo - Foreword to the book Plant Spirit Shamanism

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Non-fiction Books art interview

Ayahuasca Shipibo Shamans

2009-05-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

This booklet contains original source interviews with three Shipibo ayahuasca shamans.
By Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley.

Shipibo Ayahuasca Shamans

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Religion & Spiritual Books spirituality spirit

Visionary Art and Ayahuasca Workshop with Pablo Amaringo

2009-01-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

A Visionary Art workshop and Ayahuasca Retreat in the Amazon Rainforest

THE AYAHUASCA VISIONS OF PABLO AMARINGO

July 25^th - August 5^th 2009

PABLO AMARINGO

Pablo Amaringo is one of the world's great visionary artists. He is renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings inspired by his visions from when he was an Ayahuasca shaman. He trained as a curandero or healer in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but gave this up in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at the Usko-Ayar school of Amazonian art which he founded. His book, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, co-authored with Luis Eduardo Luna, brought his work and the rich mythology of the Amazon to a wide public in the West.

We are delighted to offer a rare opportunity to join Pablo Amaringo in a visionary art workshop with night time Ayahuasca Ceremonies

This special event consists of a ten day workshop and Ayahuasca retreat with Pablo Amaringo in the beautiful heart of the Amazon Rainforest at a dedicated Retreat Center in the Allpahuayo Mishana Nature reserve.

Each day, Pablo will hold a hands-on Art workshop; participants will enjoy the unique experience of learning the art of visionary and nature painting with Pablo. This workshop is suitable for beginners as well as experienced and proficient artists.

Each night we offer traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies with Shipibo Shamans, Enrique Lopez, and an elder maestro - Benjamín Ochavano or Leoncio Garcia (depending on the number of participants). Also we will have available shamanic plants, plantas maestras, which enhance dream intensity and visionary and sensory perception, such as Guayusa and Ajo Sacha.

This workshop-retreat is also a journey of self-exploration through the medium of Art and Ayahuasca, with guidance from Pablo Amaringo and our Maestro Shamans.

Click to view Pablo's Video Invitation to this workshop.

PABLO ‘S WORDS ON THIS WORKSHOP - (transcribed from Video)

“Its a good idea because people would see something of Mishana as well as what lies ahead in their lives. In fact through drawing they can learn so much more from drinking the ayahuasca. It will help them to understand their environment and value it more, wherever they live”.

To learn to care for and respect plants, to look after the rivers, the water ..... as well as their homes and family. ... we should value animals too. For me as an artist, my concentration in the Amazon is of great value because the truth is, without plants and animals, we couldn't live”.

Question: "so its an invitation to anyone?"

So the invitation is for everyone who wants to appreciate more and know... in this case to learn how to learn.

Question: "how could the workshop help people in their creative process"?

“Ayahuasca teaches when people start to see colours and forms...... the motifs and composition of a plant, an animal or a person ..... or elements like the clouds...... they can learn to see the molecules of ayahuasca which themselves are based on colours”.

“When I do this work myself, I realise that every plant has leaves but they're all different.... each one a style of its own, they can never be the same, nature is full of wisdom! Its divine, the roots too are all different, branches, flowers. That's how I learned to paint - from nature - I never learned from books or teachers.... nature gives the structure”.

Pablo’s paintings represent a reliable testimony to how the indigenous people of the Amazon live in constant awareness of spiritual realms.

The Shipibo for example, have a strong presence in the region where Pablo lives and are one of the largest indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon having their own language, traditions and culture. Today they number about 20,000 and live in communities along the Ucayali River and around Yarinacocha, an oxbow lake near Pucullpa.

The Shipibo world is under laid by intricate geometric patterns of great complexity and is displayed in their art. This concept of an all pervading magical reality challenges the Western linguistic heritage and rational mind. The patterns are an expression of the oneness of creation, the inter-changeability of light and sound, the union or fusion of perceived opposites. It is an ongoing dialogue or communion with the spiritual world and powers of the Rainforest. The visionary art of the Shipibo brings this paradigm into a physical form.

Pablo's painting classes are a creative form of entertainment. Like story telling, they bring Amazonian legends and fairy tales to life. These consider cosmic questions such as the origins of human consciousness and the power of the imagination. Many legends speak of a 'time of the ancestors' when humans regularly communicated with the spirits, and sensed and moved like animals and birds with whom they could converse. This era occurred before the rational mind separated us from the mysteries of the cosmos, a loss sorely lamented to this day but which - thanks to Ayahuasca - can be reversed. These are some of the themes of Pablo's Amazonian School of Painting.

Mishana Private Retreat Centre

This programme will take place in the Mishana Private Retreat Centre. We have 57 Hectares (140 acres) of land with a lodge in the Allpahuayo Mishana National Reserve in the department of Loreto, Peru. Our lodge is located directly on the river, which is part of the 58,070 hectare nature reserve.

Due to a combination of geological factors and diverse soil types, the reserve supports a unique community of plant and animal species. It is the ‘jewel’ in the crown for bird watchers and contains dozens of species, which are unique to this area. The Reserve contains one of the highest biodiversities known in the Amazon basin. Our Lodge is located directly on the Rio Nanay, a tributary of the Amazon River. The mild acidity of its black waters are not popular with mosquito larvae and this means there are virtually no mosquitoes.

The journey to our lodge from Iquitos takes two hours in our power boat. We are situated in-between two bends of the river giving an amazing panoramic view. The boat is always available so trips can be made to some interesting, and extraordinarily beautiful places along the river.

We work with maestro Shipibo shamans Benjamin Ochavano, Enrique Lopez, and Leoncio Garcia. We will work with two of the shamans listed above on this programme.

Included in the program are individual personal healing or consultative sessions with our shamans, based upon your personal needs. The maestros will also provide teachings about the fascinating medicinal and psycho-spiritual properties of the local plants.

For full details and a 22 page downloadable PDF programme, visit our website;

http://www.shamanism.co.uk

The Visionary Art Workshop with Pablo Amaringo is a post event workshop of the 5th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: July 11th - 18th 2009.

Cl.ick to Visit the Conference website:

Ayahuasca is declared a national cultural heritage in Peru

2008-08-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

EL COMERCIO (LIMA) Sunday July 13^th 2008

DECLARATION TO PROTECT THE TRADITIONAL RITUAL USE AND SACRED CHARACTER of AYAHUASCA

Ayahuasca declared a national cultural heritage

This plant is considered an essential part of the identity of the Amazonian peoples of Peru.

The knowledge and traditional uses of Ayahuasca practiced by the Amazonian indigenous communities, was declared a cultural heritage of the nation by the Institute of National Culture (INC). This announcement was made yesterday in the publication of Directorial Resolution 836 by that body, in the official gazette "El Peruan".

According to the declaration, the ritual use of Ayahuasca is one of the fundamental pillars of the identity of the Amazonian people. It's ancestral use in traditional rituals, with therapeutic benefits directly related to the qualities of the plants, has guaranteed its cultural continuity.

The provision states that the measure seeks to protect the traditional use and the sanctity of the ritual of Ayahuasca, and to differentiate between this and Western commercial and consumer interests.

The Ayahuasca is a plant species that has an extraordinary cultural history with it's psychotropic qualities as it is an essential ingredient of a brew in conjunction with the plant known as Chacruna. In the indigenous Amazonian world this plant brew is regarded as wise teacher.

ORIGINAL SPANISH TEXT

El Comercio Domingo 13 de julio del 2008

BUSCAN PROTEGER USO TRADICIONAL Y CARACTER SAGRADO DEL RITUAL

Declaran patrimonio cultural de la nacion a uso de la ayahuasca

Planta es considerada parte essencial de la identidad de los pueblos amazonicos del Peru. Los conocimientos y usos tradicionales de la ayahuasca practicados por las communidades nativas amazonicas fueron declarados patrimonio cultural de la nacion por el Institiuto Nacional de Cultura (INC). Ello se dio a conocer ayer tras la publicacion de La Resolucion Directoral 836 de esa entidad en el diario oficial “El Peruan”.

Segun se consigna en el texto, la practica de sesiones rituales de ayahuasca constituye uno de los pilares fundamentales de la identidad de los pueblos amazonicos. Su ancestral uso en los rituales tradicionales, vinculado a las virtudes terapeutics de la plants, ha garantizado su continuidad cultural.

La disposicion establece que la medida busca proteger el uso tradicional y el caracter sagrado del ritual de ayahuasca, con el fin de differnciaro de los usos occidentales descontextualizados que tienen propositos comerciales y consumistas.

La ayahuasca es una especie vegetal que cuenta con una extraordinaria historia cultrural en virtud sus cualidades psicotropicas, ya que es ingrediente esencial de un brebaje asociado a la planta conocida como chacruna. En el mundo indigena amazonico se la considera una planta sabia o maestra.

Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreat Centre - Google Earth Satellite Photographs

2008-05-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreat Centre - Google Earth Satellite Photographs

It's been a rainy day today, so being browsing around on Google Earth, and have saved some satellite photos of our Retreat Center at Mishana.

Located in protected national reserve, our centre has a panoramic vista of two river bends of the Rio Nanay. A beautiful and tranquil venue to hold an Ayahuasca, Yoga, or Spiritual Retreat programme. Please contact me If you are interested in hiring our Retreat Center.

Pablo Amaringo - Video

2008-05-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

A video montage of the great visionary artist Pablo Amaringo. Taken on visits over the years to his home and gallery in the jungle city of Pucallpa Peru. Read or Download the interview with Pablo Amaringo by Peter Cloudsley and Howard.

Solaris - Tribute

2008-05-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

I found this clip from the movie Solaris (Soderbergh, 2002) starring George Clooney. The imagery and music by Cliff Martinez are both beautiful and awesome. It's one of my favourite movies, and one I regard as very shamanic (if I can use that as an adjective) , expanded consciousness, life, death, rebirth, redemption.......

Here is the clip....

Solaris - Movie Tribute from Bruno Ellern on Vimeo.

Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreat - August 2006

2008-05-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

A Photo gallery of our Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreat - August 2006

Ayahuasca Retreat - Aug 2006

Visit our website for info on our Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreats

Ayahuasca, Yoga, and Spiritual Retreat Center - Mishana, Peru

2008-05-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

An updated video of our Retreat Centre at Mishana. Located in protected national reserve, our centre has a panoramic vista of two river bends of the Rio Nanay. A beautiful and tranquil venue to hold an Ayahuasca, Yoga, or Spiritual Retreat programme. If you are interested in hiring our Retreat Center, please contact me at; eagleswing@shamanism.co.uk

Bora Indians - Their Music and Dance

2008-05-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

A great clip (with permission of Peter Schneider of the Amazon Rainforest Lodge in Peru). Featuring the Bora Indians music and dance.

Amazon Rainforest Lodge Website

Ayahuasca Retreat February 2003 - photos

2008-05-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

A little dip into the photo archives. Here is gallery of our Ayahuasca Retreat in February 2003

Ayahuasca Retreat Feb 2003

Mishana Retreat Centre in the Amazon Rainforest, Peru

2008-05-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

Mishana Retreat Centre – Amazon Rainforest,

Peru

Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreat Center

We have 57 Hectares (140 acres) of land with a lodge in the Allpahuayo Mishana Nature reserve. Our lodge is located directly on the river which is part of a 58,070 hectare nature reserve.

Due to a combination of geological factors and diverse soil types, the reserve supports a unique community of plant and animal species. It is the ‘jewel’ in the crown for bird-watchers and contains dozens of species which are unique to this area. The Reserve contains one of the highest biodiversities known in the Amazon basin. The Lodge is located directly on the Rio Nanay which is a tributary of the Amazon River.

Our lodge is situated in-between two bends of the river giving an amazing panoramic view. We have our own boat so trips can be made to some interesting, and extraordinarily beautiful places along the river. The lodge is a 2 hour river journey from Iquitos by power boat.

Our accommodation is in comfortable traditional cabins or tambos (dieting huts), a leaf roof supported by poles and with open sides (the most intimate way to sleep in the jungle). The beds benefit from a comfortable mattress and fly nets when necessary. The tambos are spread out to assure privacy and minimum disturbance from others. Participants have a choice of using either the cabins in the 'Casa Grande' annex or tambos for their retreat.

During the day when there are no activities, there will be hammocks to relax in, and you can read, or wander into the forest, or swim in the river (there is a small sandy beach). Our ceremonies and meeting will be held in either the Casa Grande with an open platform on stilts directly on the river with a magnificent view of the rainforest and star filled sky. or our maloca (ceremonial temple), a large circular tambo made of natural materials and shaped like a womb. We will eat our meals in the lodge, the traditional meeting place, where food is cooked on a wood fire.

Single Accommodation

One of the unique characteristics of our Retreat Centre is that we offer single accommodation. This ensures that participants can obtain the maximum benefit from their encounter with the plants. The Diet really needs to be taken in solitude and personal retreat without distractions. This is a defining characteristic of this programme. Typically other programmes do not offer this and dormitory / shared accommodation is usually the rule. Our Tambos (individual accommodation huts) are all different and are spread out, some with more isolation than others and we also have individual accommodation rooms in the wing of our Casa Grande for those who would prefer being close to the main facilities.

Available for Group Hire - Email Howard for details.

The Shipibo and their beautiful Art and Crafts

2008-05-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

The Shipibo people of the Upper Amazon in Peru, have a unique and complex form of visionary art. Underlying the intricate geometric patterns of great complexity displayed in the art of the Shipibo people is a concept of an all pervading magical reality which can challenge the Western linguistic heritage and rational mind.

To View a gallery of the Shipibo Art and Crafts;

Art of the Shipibo

Click to read an article on the beautiful and unique art of the Shipibo

Andean Shamanism Retreat - Web Album

2008-05-01T00:59:00.000-07:00

Andean Shamanism Retreat - Peru March 2008

This week expanded on our work with the shamanic tradition of the Andes. Working with San Pedro Maestro Shaman Juan Navarro, and Coca Leaf Diviner & traditional Healer Doris Rivera Lenz. This is an opportunity to experience the rich and powerful spiritual legacy of the Andean civilization which is only now being properly recognised after 500 years of obscurity.

For information about our Retreats and the shamans we work with, visit our websit e:

Albert Hoffman, the scientist who discovered LSD, dies at age 102

2008-04-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died of a heart attack at his home in Basel at the age of 102.

Painting by Alex Grey - www.alexgrey.com

“I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD,” he said at a symposium in 2006, marking the centennial of his birth. “It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be.”

Albert Hofmann was a synthetic chemist with Sandoz Laboratories, now Novartis, in Switzerland when in 1943 he stumbled on the hallucinatory effects of LSD. After it became seen by Harvard's Timothy Leary and others in the '60s as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment, and then as a major recreational drug, “Instead of a ‘wonder child,’ LSD suddenly became my ‘problem child,’ ” Hofmann said.

His accidental experience of 'an extremely stimulated imagination' caused by the drug led to a lifetime of experiments and initiated the psychedelic generation.

LSD and the other psychoactive drugs "changed my life, insofar as they provided me with a new concept about what reality is," he said. "Before, I had believed there was only one reality: the reality of everyday life.

"Under LSD, however, I entered into realities which were as real and even more real than the one of everyday." He also "became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the plant and animal kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us."

After dozens of acid trips, Hofmann finally gave up psychedelics. "I know LSD; I don't need to take it anymore," he said.

Hofmann is survived by his wife, Anita; two daughters; a son;eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

“Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom,” Dr. Hofmann told the psychiatrist Stanislav Grof during an interview in 1984. “I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.”

Dr. Hofmann became an impassioned advocate for the environment and argued that LSD, could be used to awaken a deeper awareness of mankind’s place in nature and help curb society’s ultimately self-destructive degradation of the natural world.

But he was also disturbed by the cavalier use of LSD as a drug for entertainment, arguing that it should be treated in the way that primitive societies treat psychoactive sacred plants, which are ingested with care and spiritual intent.

After his discovery of LSD’s properties, Dr. Hofmann spent years researching sacred plants. With his friend R. Gordon Wasson, he participated in psychedelic rituals with Mazatec shamans in southern Mexico. He succeeded in synthesizing the active compounds in the Psilocybe mexicana mushroom, which he named psilocybin and psilocin. He also isolated the active compound in morning glory seeds, which the Mazatec also used as an intoxicant, and found that its chemical structure was close to that of LSD.

Some links on the story including video clips;

BBC World News:

LA Times:

NY Times

The Incredible Art of the Shipibo People - Part 2

2008-04-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

A Video of Shipibo craftswoman Teresa, showing traditional painting (Part 2).

Soul Companions - Video

2008-04-28T02:27:00.000-07:00

Karen Sawyer, the author of Soul Companions, has posted up a very nice video about her book;

The incredible art of the Shipibo people - Part 1

2008-04-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

The incredible art of the Shipibo people - Part 1

Shipibo craftswoman Teresa, showing traditional painting. In this video Teresa starts with a blank piece of cotton and within an hour and a half completes a fascinating example of the traditional art of the Shipibo people of the Upper Amazon in Peru.

For a detailed article on the world of the Shipibo;

http://www.shamanism.co.uk/Articles/shipibo.pdf

Ayahuasca Retreat - the view by the River at Mishana

2008-04-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Taking it nice and easy on the deck of Mishana Retreat Centre looking at some boats on Rio Nanay. Mishana is in a national reserve. Video from Eagle’s Wing Ayahuasca Retreat.

Visit our website for info on our Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreats in the Amazon

Ayahuasca Shipibo Shaman - invokes Ayahuasca

2008-04-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

Shipibo Shaman Enrique Lopez blesses and invokes Ayahuasca after brewing. Video taken at Eagle's Wing Ayahuasca Retreat March 2008.
Click for details of our Retreat Programme

San Pedro and Coca - Shamanism Retreat, Peru March 2008

2008-04-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

San Pedro and Coca - Andean Shamanism Retreat, Peru March 2008.

A video collage of our week in the Andes, which expanded on our work with the shamanic traditions of the Andes. Working with San Pedro Maestro Shaman Juan Navarro, and Coca Leaf Diviner & traditional Healer Doris Rivera Lenz. This is an opportunity to experience the rich and powerful spiritual legacy of the Andean civilization which is only now being properly recognised after 500 years of obscurity.

Visit our website for info on our Peru Shamanism Retreats

UN wants to ban ancient Andean traditions of chewing coca

2008-04-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

UN wants to ban ancient Andean traditions of chewing coca This month the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board recommended a ban on coca chewing and the use of coca in mass-consumption products such as tea in Peru and Bolivia. This is part of an attempt to crack down on cocaine production. Both Andean countries have defended the use of coca which has been used for medicinal and religious purposes for centuries and is part their cultural identity.

The Peruvian and Bolivian governments criticised the UN report for only concentrating on coca cultivation as the basis for cocaine production and that it lacked respect for indigenous cultures. To protest against the UN recommendations, dozens of Peruvian Congress members chewed the coca leaf publicly. Indigenous activists led by the Congress woman Hilaria Supa also gathered in central Lima to raise awareness about the spiritual and cultural uses of the coca leaf.

Click to view aticle on Andean Shamanism and Traditional use of the Coca leaf.

Visit our website for info on our Andean Shamanism Retreats in Peru

Booking internal Flights in Peru - Caution

2008-04-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in Peru, and the other day I wanted to book a flight from Pucallpa to Lima. As it was raining (a lot) so avoiding a hike into town, I logged on to the LAN Peru website (www.lan.com), and discovered when I tried using my UK credit card, the price was UK Pounds 88, looking at what it would cost using a US$ credit card the price was $88. So the UK price was DOUBLE....I could also assume that it would be similar for the Euro Zone......so Caveat emptor!

So if you are planning to book internal flights before you arrive in Peru, you would save a heap of money by doing that when you get to Peru.

Good Luck

Howard

Click for information on our Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreats in the Amazon, Peru

Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreat - March 2008

2008-04-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

Ayahuasca Retreat - Amazon Rainforest, Mishana, Peru. March 2008

A video collage of Eagle's Wing Ayahuasca Retreat at our dedicated centre in Mishana.

Ayahuasca, Moses, and the Ten Commandments - Biblical Entheogens: Speculative Hypothesis- Original Text

2008-03-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

Moses, Ayahuasca, and the Ten Commandments! - Original text of paper by Professor Benny Shanon

Biblical Entheogens: Speculative Hypothesis

Paper originally published in:

Time and Mind:
The Journal of Archaeology Consciousness and Culture
Volume I—Issue I, March 2008, pp. 51–74

Biblical Entheogens: Speculative Hypothesis- Original Paper

Benny Shanon is Professor of psychology at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem (Israel). His main foci of research are the phenomenology of human consciousness and the philosophy of psychology. His publications include The representational and the Presentational (1993) and The Antipodes of the Mind (2002). At present, he is working on book devoted to a general psychological theory of human consciousness.

plant spirit shamanism

Ayahuasca, Moses, and the Ten Commandments - Plant Spirit Shamanism of the Bible

2008-03-05T12:56:00.000-08:00

"Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher"

The world wide media interest in Benny Shanon's paper about Moses and entheogens, is encouraging us to take a good and hard look at the roots of religions and the notion that they were based on fertility cults, and shamanic practices such as Entheogens (or hallucinogenic) plants as a source of spiritual communion with the universal consciousness, or the mind of God.

John Allegro, in his book “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East”, postulated through the etymology of words and relates how the development of language indicated that the roots of the religions emanating from the Middle East were based on fertility cults, and shamanic practices such as Entheogens (or hallucinogenic) plants as a source of spiritual communion with the universal consciousness, or the mind of God..

Back in the 1970's the reaction against these ideas was so strong that it destroyed Allegro's career, the book was not published in the UK as it was regarded as blasphemous, and blasphemy was still a crime. It's good to think that we have made some progress in recent years.

Allegro’s theory was visionary and ground-breaking. He was the first to propose in some detail that two major religions Christianity and by extension Judaism were entheogen-oriented and that the entheogen was Amanita Muscaria. His book was published at a time when there was little or no awareness about the use of entheogens, and was indeed a courageous act to publish this book.

Another great explorer and pathfinder in human consciousness was Terence Mckenna, in his book “Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution”, proposed that hallucinogenic plants, in this case Psilocybin mushrooms, were the cause of the astounding and unexplained rapid evolution and development of the human brain within the evolutionary time scale (just 500,000 years from the hominids). In other words how we developed from our ape relatives . His theory also encompasses the development of linguistics , and human civilisation itself

JERUSALEM (AFP) - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

source: Yahoo News.

Paper originally published in:

Time and Mind:
The Journal of Archaeology Consciousness and Culture
Volume I—Issue I, March 2008

TiTLE: Biblical Entheogens: Speculative Hypothesis

pp. 51–74

View original article by Benny Shanon

plant spirit shamanism

Magic, Myths, and Miracles: The 4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference

2008-03-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

Iquitos, Peru; July 19th - 27th

This 4th Amazonian Shamanism Conference will be opened by the illustrious visionary scientist, Dr.Dennis Mckenna. Other Presenters (with more confirming soon are - That master of sound healing- Dr. Richard Grossman, the brilliant entheo-scientist and lecturer, Ananda, the Indiana Jones of Amazon Shamanism and noted journalist - Peter Gorman, the most excellent scientfic researcher on brain states while taking ayahuasca- Dr. Frank Echenhofer, the Amazon's most famous visionary painter- Pablo Amaringo, the filmmaker and director Jan Kounen who brought us the documentary Other Worlds about ayahuasca and the Shipibo tribes and Renegade (Blueberry), specialist in Entheo-Religion and compiler of the book: Entheogens and the Future of Religion – Robert Forte, the intrepid Victoria Alexander speaking on her research of Medieval Mysticism and Its Empirical Kinship to Ayahuasca, the very profound Melvin Morse (invited but not yet confirmed) and his research into childrens near death experiences as well as his research on Myths, the renowned Dr. John Alexander (invited but not yet confirmed) and his years of training and research on Remote Viewing, one of the Director's of Eagle's Wing and author Howard G Charing, Conference Organizer Alan Shoemaker speaking on 15 years in shamanism, the visionary artists Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffman two curanderas specializing in Huachuma (San Pedro) Wendy Luckey and Mary Ann Endowes Presenting as well as holding ceremonies, Elisa Vargas Fernandez, the Shipibo curandera who works magic with her incredible icaros, and many more to be confirmed.The list of shamans (curanderos) is coming next and they are the most powerful we can find. There will be approximately 15 different curanderos/shamans giving presentations (all are translated into English).During the Conference Presentations you will have ample opportunities to hear the many shamans speaking alone as well as in panel discussions. It is during this time that you will get a sense of which healer you would like to be in Ceremony with, especially during the question and answer times.

There are three evenings set aside for you to be in Ceremony with the shaman - curandero or your choice. All Ceremonies are held outside of Iquitos, either up or downriver or way out on the Iquitos to Nauta highway and then a short 15 minute walk into the various Compounds. Transport is provided both to the location and returning to Iquitos the following morning.

For those that have never been in Ceremony before, a workshop will be held by Dr. Richard Grossman and Alan Shoemaker so that all of your questions can be adequately answered. The Ceremonies offered are completely voluntary and not in any way a prerequisite of attending the Conference.

Pre-Conference Tune-Up. Those wishing a program for a week before the Conference can come to the Pre-Conference Tune-Up. This is for more experienced Ceremonial persons. It begins one week before the Conference and will be held at the Soga Del Alma compound just outside of Iquitos. You will be able to make your own medicina and hold your own Ceremony without a curandero being present. Total price: $200 USDs This includes everything from the time you arrive at the maloca/compound.

Please contact us for more details.Visit the Conference website:

Shipibo - Conibo Art Exhibition, Lima Peru 2002 - 'Una Ventana hacia el Infinito'

2008-02-29T02:40:00.000-08:00

In 2002 the ICPNA held an exhibition called;

'Una Ventana hacia el Infinito' (A window into the infinite). This was a display of Shipibo - Conibo art in Lima.

This is a video collage of photos I took at the exhibition.

Soundtrack, Shipibo shaman Enrique Lopez chanting an Ayahuasca Icaro.

Visit our website www.shamanism.co.uk for info on our Ayahuasca and Yoga Retreats with Shipibo shamans in the Amazon.

Shipibo Ayahuasca Shaman Leoncio Garcia

2008-02-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

The Shipibo are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Peruvian Amazon. These ethnic groups each have their own languages, traditions and culture. The Shipibo which currently number about 20,000 are spread out in communities through the Pucallpa / Ucayali river region. They are highly regarded in the Amazon as being masters of Ayahuasca, and many aspiring shamans and Ayahuasqueros from the region study with the Shipibo to learn their language, chants, and plant medicine knowledge.

Interviewed at Mishana Private Retreat Centre, Amazon Rainforest with Peter Cloudsley and Howard G Charing August 2005.

We interviewed Shipibo maestro Leoncio Garcia, a man in his mid seventies but with the appearance of a man twenty years younger. Again a testimonial to the youth giving qualities of Ayahuasca and the plant medicines of the Amazon Rainforest.

Leoncio Garcia
I didn’t become a shaman until I was 50, I am now 74. I was always so busy working in the chacra, or cutting wood, it was only when I began to get a bit older. Until then I had taken Ayahuasca for all the usual reasons of health, but that was all. After deciding to do the diet I drank Ayahuasca seriously but I didn’t see anything and didn’t think I would learn anything but still I kept on drinking every night and didn’t sleep. With just one day to go before completing three months’ diet, I had a tremendous vision and I began to chant and continued all night until dawn. I saw under the earth, under the water, and into the skies, everything. Probably I was learning from the sprits during the diet but I didn’t understand. After that I could see what the matter was with people. I dieted pinon Colorado and tobacco first and then tried all the other plants.

This was in San Francisco, a Shipibo community on Yarinacocha, Pucullpa where I was born. After this I went to Huancayo for six months to try my medicine. Then I went to Ayacucho and then a Senor took me to Lima to heal his wife. After two months I was taken to Trujillo and then Arequipa, Cusco, Juliaca, Puno. Everything worked out well and I worked with a doctor once who was not very successful and soon there were people queuing outside her consultancy. Eventually I came to Iquitos in 2000 and I haven’t had time to return to my family since then, I just send them money.

When I go round to people blowing tobacco smoke it is to give them arcanas, to protect them so that when things happen around them it doesn’t hurt them or make them ill.

Leoncio tells a Shipibo (cautionary) myth. There was once a wise man called Oni who knew what each and every healing plant could be used for. He knew all their names and one day he saw a liana and recognized it as Ayahuasca and he learned to mix it with Chacruna. One night he tried it and learned so many things that he carried on drinking it. But because he went on drinking so long and often he stopped eating and drinking, and just chanted day and night. Now he had two sons and they said ‘come and have breakfast Papa’, but he carried on drinking Ayahuasca and when they tried to pick him up, he was stuck to the ground and couldn’t be moved. So they left him chanting to all the plants everyday and night and they noticed that Ayahuasca was growing out from his fingers. So the sons went back to their chacras and after a month came back again, to see their father. Everywhere Ayahuasca ropes had tangled around him and still he continued chanting day after day and the forest carried on growing around him. After a few more months, he had merged with the forest itself and that is why its called Ayahuasca, rope of the dead and in Shipibo Oni.

click to visit our website www.shamanism.co.uk for details on our Ayahuasca Yoga Retreats in the Amazon.

Shipibo Ayahuasca Shaman - Benjamin Ochavano

2008-02-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

Conversation with Benjamín Ochavano, Peru 2002

Howard G Charing & Peter Cloudsley interviewed Shipibo Ayahuasca Shaman Benjamin Ochavano in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru, who is in his mid seventies to discuss how Ayahuasca can help those Westerners who are seeking personal growth and who have embarked on the great journey of self discovery and exploration.

The uses of powerful hallucinogenic plants such as Ayahuasca have been developed by indigenous peoples and early civilizations over thousands of years, and their effects are highly dependent upon the context of the ceremony, the chants and the essential personality of the shaman, all of which can vary with surprising results.

Diverse urban uses have emerged recently and a few of these are spreading, while some traditional shamans travel the world, thus Ayahuasca is gaining recognition in Western civilization. But what really is the potential of these ancestral plants, and how can we get the most out of them?
I first started taking ayahuasca at the age of 10, with my father, who was also a shaman. When I was 15, he took me into the selva to do plant diets, nobody would see us for a whole year, we had no contact with women, nothing. We lived in a simple tambo sleeping on leaves with just a sheet over us. We dieted plants: ayauma, puchatekicaspi, pucarobona, huairacaspi, verenaquu.

I would take each plant for 2 months before moving on to the next, a whole year without women! The only fish allowed is boquichico – a vegetarian fish and mushed plantains made into a thick drink called pururuco in Shipibo, or chapo without sugar.

Then I had about a year’s rest before going again with my uncle, Jose Sánchez, for another year and 7 months of dieting on the little Rio Pisqui. He taught me alot and gave me chonta, cascabel, hergon, nacanaca, cayucayu. He was a chontero, a kind of shaman who works with darts (in the spiritual world) – so called because real darts and arrows for hunting are made from the black splintery bamboo called chonta. A chontero can send darts with positive effects like knowledge and power too, and he knows how to suck and remove poisoned darts which have caused illness or evil spells.

To finish off he gave me chullachaqui caspi. Then I began living with my wife and working as a curandero in Juancito on the Ucayali. Later I went to Pucallpa where I still live some of the time when I’m not in my community of Paoyhan, where my Ani Sheati project is.

The most important planta maestra is Ayauma chullachaqui. Then Pucalo puno (Quechua) the bark of a tree which grows to 40 or 50 meters. This is one of a number of plants that is consumed together with tobacco and is so strong, you only need to take it two times. It requires a diet of 6 month. You drink it in the morning, then lie down, you are in an altered state for a whole day afterwards.

Another plant is Catahua whose resin is cooked with tabacco. You must be sure that no one sees you while you take it. It puts you into a sleep of powerful dreams.

Ajosquiro is from a tree which grows to 20m, with a penetrating aroma like garlic. It gives you mental strength, it is very healing and makes you strong. It takes away lazy feelings, gives you courage and self esteem, but can be used to explore the negative side as well as the positive. You can be alone in the wilderness yet feel in the company of many. It puts you into the psycho-magical world which we have inherited from our ancestors, the great morayos (=shamans in Shipibo) so you can gain knowledge of how to heal with plants.

The word ‘shaman’ is recent in the Amazon, (coming from Asia via the Western world in the last 10-20 years). My father was known as a moraya or banco, or in Spanish curandero. A curandero could specialize in being a good chontero or a shitanero who does harm to people.

Virjilio Salvan, who is dead now, dead now introduced me to a plant which he said was better than any other plant - Palo Borrador, maestro de todos los palos (master of all plants). You smoke it in a pipe for 8 days, blowing the smoke over your body. On the eighth day a man appears, as real as we are, a Shipibo. He was a chaycuni - an enchanted being in traditional dress… cushma, or woven tunic, chaquira necklace, and so on, and he said to me ‘Benjamin, why have you smoked my tree?’
‘Because I want to learn’ I said. ‘Ever since I was little I wanted to be a Moraya’

‘You must diet and smoke my tree for 3 months, no more’ he said. ‘And you can eat whatever fish you like…it won’t matter’ … and he listed all the fish I could eat. ‘But you must not sleep with any woman other than your wife’ he said. And I’ve followed this advice until today.

Three nights later, sounds could be heard from under the ground and big holes opened up and the wind blew. Then everyone, all the family began to fly. And from that day I was a moraya.
Today I still fast on Sundays .

What do you think about Westerners coming to take plants in the Amazon?

It is a good thing for them to come and learn, for us to share and for there to be an interchange. This is what I would like to do in my community of Paoyhan. But the Ecuadorians stole our outboard motor.

How could the plants of the Amazon help people of the West?

It can open up the mind so we can find ways to help each other. It can help them find more self-realization in life. If a person is very shy for example it can help warm their hearts, give them strength and courage.

You have a different system in your countries, when we travel there we feel underrated just as when you come here you have to get accustomed to being here. When we get to know each other and become like brothers, solutions emerge. To get rid of vices and drug addictions, for example, there are plants which can easily heal people.

Pene de mono is a thick tree, which I have used to cure two foreign women of AIDS. The name means ‘monkey’s penis’. I saw in my ayahuasca vision that they were ill and diagnosed them as having AIDS. I boiled the bark of the tree and made 6 bottles which they took each day until it was finished. They had to go on a diet as well. No fish with teeth, salt, fruit or butter. The fish with teeth eat the plant so it cannot penetrate into the body. After this you get so hot that steam comes off the body. In the selva there is no AIDS, only some cases in the city of Pucullpa.

visit our website for info on our Andean San Pedro and Amazon Ayahuasca Yoga Retreats

Pablo Amaringo's Foreword to the book Plant Spirit Shamanism

2008-02-26T02:53:00.000-08:00

Pablo Amaringo is one of the world’s greatest visionary artists, and is renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings of his visions from drinking the Ayahuasca brew. Pablo is a true visionary, and wrote this inspirational foreword to the book Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny Books USA).

My visions helped me understand the value of human beings, animals, the plants themselves, and many other things. The plants taught me the function they play in life, and the holistic meaning of all life. We all should give special attention and deference to Mother Nature. She deserves our love. And we should also show a healthy respect for her power!

Plants are essential in many ways: they give life to all beings on Earth by producing oxygen, which we need to be active; they create the enormous greenhouse that gives board and lodging to diverse but interrelated guests; they are teachers who show us the holistic importance of conserving life in its due form and necessary conditions.

For me personally, though, they mean even more than this. Plants—in the great living book of nature—have shown me how to study life as an artist and shaman. They can help all of us to know the art of healing and to discover our own creativity, because the beauty of nature moves people to show reverence, fascination, and respect for the extent to which the forests give shelter to our souls.

The consciousness of plants is a constant source of information for medicine, alimentation, and art, and an example of the intelligence and creative imagination of nature. Much of my education I owe to the intelligence of these great teachers. Thus I consider myself to be the “representative” of plants, and for this reason I assert that if they cut down the trees and burn what’s left of the rainforests, it is the same as burning a whole library of books without ever having read them.

People who are not so dedicated to the study and experience of plants may not think this knowledge is so important to their lives—but even they should be conscious of the nutritional, medicinal, and scientific value of the plants they rely on for life.

My most sublime desire, though, is that every human being should begin to put as much attention as he or she can into the knowledge of plants, because they are the greatest healers of all. And all human beings should also put effort into the preservation and conservation of the rainforest, and care for it and the ecosystem, because damage to these not only prejudices the flora and fauna but humanity itself.

Even in the Amazon these days, many see plants as only a resource for building houses and to finance large families. People who have farms and raise animals also clear the forest to produce foodstuffs. Mestizos and native Indians log the largest trees to sell to industrial sawmills for subsistence. They have never heard of the word ecology!

I, Pablo, say to everybody who lives in the Amazon and the other forests of the world, that they must love the plants of their land, and everything that is there!

This expression of love must be a sincere and altruistic interest in the lasting well-being of others. We are not here simply to exist, but to enjoy life together with plants, animals, and loved ones, and to delight in contemplation of the beauty of nature. A shaman has in his mind and heart the attitude of conserving nature because he knows that life is for enjoying the company of this world’s countless delights.

Any painting, or book, or piece of art that spreads this message is to be respected, and every reader who picks up a book on this subject is to be honored.

I invite you to read on, and to learn from the greatest teachers of all—the plants, our sacred brothers and sisters.

Pablo Amaringo

Photo: Pablo Amaringo with Howard G Charing presenting the book. Pucallpa, Peru 2007.

Click to view the original interview with Pablo Amaringo by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley

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Andean San Pedro and Amazon Ayahuasca Yoga Retreats in the Amazon - 2008 Programme

2008-02-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

Since the late 90's Eagle's Wing has conducted Ayahuasca and San Pedro Retreats in Peru. We have our 2008 programme available for viewing, downloading, or printing on this blog.

View or Download our 2008 San Pedro and Ayahuasca Yoga programme in Adobe PDF format

Ayahuasca - Medicine for the Soul Part 3

2008-02-25T10:05:00.000-08:00

Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to the Soul. The third part of this article continues to explore this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest. Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two make a potent medicine, which takes one into the visionary world. The vine is an inhibitor, which contains harmala and harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf contains vision-inducing alkaloids. As with all natural medicines, it is a mixture of many alkaloids that makes their unique properties.

My first real encounter with the plant world of the shamans was when I first arrived in the Amazon in the mid 90's . The moment I stepped off the aeroplane in Iquitos it felt as if I had been hit by bolt of energy. I felt so energised that I didn’t sleep for two days, my senses were at a heightened state of awareness, and it felt as if I could hear the heartbeat of the rainforest itself.

Iquitos is a city in the Amazon rainforest, there are no roads (completed anyway) to it. The only way to get there is via aeroplane or by river boat. The city in the 19th century was the centre of the Rubber industry but by the early 20th century the rubber trade had moved to the Far East, and the city had fallen into neglect and disrepair. It is now a place without an apparent purpose resplendent in its post-colonial splendour literally in the middle of nowhere, a true frontier town.

I recall my first moments in Iquitos standing on the Malecon at the edge of the city overlooking the river and some 3000 miles of pure rainforest spread out in front of me, an exhilarating experience which still fills me with wonder and awe. I had come to Iquitos out of a long-standing interest and desire to experience at first hand the living tradition of plant spirit medicines and of course, the magical brew of Ayahuasca of which I had heard so much about. I was not to be disappointed; my first sessions with a shaman in an open jungle clearing changed my view and understanding of life, a spiritual epiphany.

I experienced being in the very centre of creation. I had the realisation and experience that I was not separate but an intrinsic part, a discrete element in the vast cosmic mind or field of consciousness, and that we were all connected. All part of the one great mind, and our experience of ‘separateness’ was no more than an illusion, generated by our being in our bodily vehicle which housed our senses. One of my most profound experiences in an Ayahuasca ceremony, when I found myself transported to what I felt as the centre of creation. I was in the cosmos witnessing totality, planets, stars, nebulas, and universes forming.

Everywhere stretched vast patterns of intricate geometric and fluid complexity constantly changing size and form. The chanting of the shaman was filling every cell with an electric force, every port of my body was vibrating and it felt as if I was being bodily lifted into the air. I was in a temple of sound, vibration and bliss. Gathered around me were giants in ornate costumes of gold and multi-coloured feathers blowing smoke and fanning me, these were the spirits of Ayahuasca, and then this soft gentle and exquisitely soft and sensual voice spoke to me of creation and the universal mind.

To reinforce this poetic insight, the words appeared before me in bold neon like script. When I related this after the session to the maestro said, “Ayahuasca wanted you to understand”, and he continued; “Ayahuasca opens doors to different dimensions. Often the mind can be obstructed from accessing inner knowledge. Ayahuasca can open up the mind to abstract things that cannot be seen in the material world. If I hadn’t had the experience, I would not be able to believe that a tree could have its own world or have a spirit. But when you begin to discover these dimensions personally, little by little you begin to recognise and accept the mystery of it.”

visit our website for details on our Ayahuasca Yoga Retreats in the Amazon

Introducing our Yoga Teacher at the Amazon Ayahuasca Retreats

2008-02-21T01:05:00.001-08:00

Over the years at our Ayahuasca and Plant Spirit Shamanism Retreats on an ad hoc basis we have invited yoga teachers to the Retreats to hold Yoga, Chi Gung and meditation classes. This has worked very well with Ayahuasca and the plants, and we have found a real synergy between these two bodies of practices. Now that Eugene Bersuker (a Russian American) has joined our team at our Retreat programmes. We have now (officially) incorporated Yoga, Chi Gong, and Meditation classes in our programme.

Eugene is a qualified Yoga teacher, trained in India, Shivananda Saraswati School of Yoga. Traditional Hatha and Yoga for Healing. Yoga postures and meditations used to relieve tensions, purify mind/body, and raise vibrations. An instructor in Chi Gong, and Eugene is also a Licensed Massage Therapist - Swedish and Shiatsu.

Visit our website for details on our Ayahuasca and Yoga Amazon Retreats

The Pusanga - the Attraction 'Medicine' of the Amazon

2008-02-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

The Western rational mind can only struggle, to take as an example the famed ‘love potion’ of the Amazon known as the Pusanga. In rational terms it makes no sense whatsoever, how can a concoction of leaves, roots, and seeds attract a lover, or good luck to you?

My experience working with shamans in preparing Pusangas (which normally is prepared away from their clients so it was a privilege to be invited to participate in the preparation) showed me that far from interfering with the freedom of other individuals or putting a ‘number’ on them, we were altering something within ourselves, which was brought out by the ingredients, the magic of the plants. Whatever it was, it felt wholesome and good. It is what is in oneself… one’s own magic. Asking Javier Arevalo (the shaman) what does the Pusanga actually do, is it inside us or outside of us? His response was “When you pour it onto your skin it begins to penetrate your spirit, and the spirit is what gives you the force to pull the people. The spirit is what pulls”.

The anthropological term ‘sympathetic magic’ does not give this justice, to illustrate this, the water used in the preparation of an authentic pusanga (which has been specifically made for you) has been collected from a deep trek in the rainforest, sometimes 40 or 50 miles, where there are no people and where clay pools collect and thousands of the most beautiful coloured parrots and macaws gather to drink from them for the mineral content. Now the great leap of imagination required is to bring into yourself the knowledge, the feeling, the sense that the water in the Pusanga has drawn in or attracted thousands of the most brightly coloured creatures on the planet. If you do this, it can generate a shift in consciousness in you.

You can sample this for yourself, just find a quiet moment and space, close your eyes, and with the power of your imagination as the launch pad, draw in the verdant, abundant forest filled with life, colour, and sound. Sense the rich vibrancy of the rainforest as a single breathing rhythmic totality of life force. When you have this image, expand it to include, the humid warmth, the smell of earth, the scent of plants, hear the sound of insects and bird song, allow all your senses to experience this. Then with a conscious decision draw this sensory experience into your being. Whenever you are ready, open your eyes, and check how you are feeling.

Maestros do not invent diets, they are given by the plant spirits themselves, but there is more to it than simply abstaining from certain foods and activities. It involves a state of purification, retreat, commitment, and respect for our connection with everything around us - above all the rain forest. When we listen to our dreams, they become more real, and equally important as everyday life.

Morality, Ethics and Power

This is a subject that is worth looking at as we in the West and particularly those who are engaged in following a perceived spiritual path in which there is an implicit or explicit ethical component, find the use of a pusanga (or equivalent) to attract a specific person an action which takes away and subverts that person’s free will. This is criticised as an immoral and harmful action occurring within a tradition or system without perceived , never mind understood moral values.

This moral view is not shared in other societies and traditions, and there is a profound difficulty experienced by Westerners in assimilating this concept of values surrounding power.

For example the Amazonian (amongst others) tradition portrays a spectrum of existential states, with the highest or most desirable being that of the powerful person, and the lowest or least desirable being that of the powerless person. Power is defined as the ability to do what one wishes, obtain wealth, make others perform desired actions (even against their will), or harm others without being punished or harmed in return. The proof of power is the individual's material wealth, or social and political status, and their ability to offer patronage. These are not received as immoral acts, and I recall with my colleague Peter Cloudsley attempting to relay the Western view to Javier Arevalo without any success. The conversation went as follows;

Howard & Peter: “Something we make a big problem out of in the West, is that a shaman might be a magician to one person and a sorcerer to another. Asking for the pusanga to attract a specific person takes away that person’s choice. We see it as bad. How do you see it?”

Javier: “Take the case of a woman who refuses when you offer her a Coca Cola because she thinks you are lower class and that she is better than you. She might want others to think that she is better than you. That makes you feel like rubbish so you go to a shaman and tell him the name of the girl. He prepares the pusanga. Three days go by without seeing her and she begins to think about you, dreaming about you and begins looking for you”

Howard & Peter: “Yes, we understand, but in our culture we think its wrong to counteract someone’s will.”

Javier: “But its only so that she will want you for the moment, so she’ll go to bed with you and then she can go”.

Howard & Peter: “(laughing) But if it happened to me, and let’s say I originally found her unpleasant and she did it to marry me I’d be outraged! It would be awful if I only discovered after having children and making a home with her! And would I ever know?”

Javier: “You would be hopelessly in love with her, you’d never know. That’s why it’s a secret.”

Howard & Peter: “Can a jealous third party separate a couple or break a happy marriage?”

Javier: “Yes, they can ruin a happy home. They come as if to greet the couple and soon after the couple are arguing and hating each other and the third party is secretly having sex with one of them”.

Howard & Peter: “Is this why the women from Lima are afraid of the girls from Iquitos?”

Javier: “Yes it happens, they think they are dangerous and will break up their homes.”

Howard & Peter: “Does anyone have freedom if everyone is using pusanga?”

Javier: “its normal you get used to it.”

Howard & Peter. “We like to think we are free, this suggests that we are constantly subject to other peoples’ Pusanga.”

Javier: “laughing, but you all want women, and women all want men!”

Eventually we realised that there was no way that we could communicate this Western ‘moral’ viewpoint. Javier did not see that there was a problem. It was a massive cultural divide we could not cross. His people feel free the way they are and can have extramarital sex using magical means of attraction and without attaching our Western guilt to it.

Looking at this ‘down to earth’, guilt trip free viewpoint, on an earlier occasion when Javier asked the group that I was leading, what they really wanted deep down in their lives, many people gave cosmic, transpersonal, and spiritual sounding answers and were quite mute when he spoke about Pusanga. After a while the participants opened up to their feelings and many admitted they wanted love, apparently behind their desire to put the world to right, resolve planetary issues, and speak to the flowers. It was as though it were not acceptable to wish for love. Javier remarked “These thoughts tangle up their lives. Love solves problems”.

As an observation, if we (and that’s all of us) had more love in our lives, maybe we wouldn’t be worried so much about the state of the world, and be less judgemental, destructive, and just simply be willing to help others and alleviate suffering. It is because people do not have enough of this precious and enriching commodity that we live our lives increasingly bombarded by aggression, with new definitions , ‘road rage’ , ‘air rage’ , ‘safety rage’, ‘word rage’, ‘whatever-you-want rage’ We would also need less material goods, and titles all of which reinforce the boundaries of the ego-mind and separate us from each other and the natural world.

Below is a video of Plants used to prepare Pusanga. The soundtrack is a beautiful Icaro chanted by mestizo shaman Artidoro (recorded on Eagle's Wing Ayahuasca Retreat).

Visit our website for details on our Amazon Ayahuasca & Plant Spirit Shamanism Retreats

Ayahuasca - Medicine for the Soul Part 2

2008-02-18T02:16:00.000-08:00

The second part of an article which explores this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest. Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis).

How can we enter into a communion (in the true sense of the word) with the plant consciousness or soul? This can indeed be difficult, as we in our culture have long forgotten this understanding and body of knowledge. However we can learn from those peoples who still live within a paradigm that our physical forms are illusions, and beyond that we are all connected and no different from all things. Modern physics which recognises the underlying nature of form and matter as an energy which pervades and informs the universe is saying the same as the ancient shamans, “reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one” Albert Einstein (Alice Calaprice. The Expanded Quotable Einstein. )

These are the peoples referred to by the Alberto Villoldo as those who were never ejected from the Garden of Eden (unlike us). It is clearly a good way to learn and study from the shamans of the Amazon rainforest where this knowledge is still alive and from those who still live in the mythological Garden of Eden. One of the great plant teachers is Ayahuasca, also called the ‘Vine of the Soul’.

Ayahuasca is a combination of two plants (although other plants are added to elicit certain visionary experiences or healing purposes). This mixture of two plants the Ayahuasca vine and the Chacruna leaf, operate in a specific manner with our neuro-chemistry. The leaf contains the neuro transmitters of the tryptamine family (identical to those present in our brain) and the vine itself acts as an inhibitor to prevent our body’s enzymes from breaking the tryptamines down thereby making it inert. Science defines this as the MAOI effect (Monoamine Anti Oxide Inhibitor) and forms the basis for many of the widespread anti-depressant pharmaceutical medication such as Prozac and Seroxat. This MAOI principal was only discovered by Western Science in the 1950’s, yet interestingly this very principle has been known by the plant shamans for thousands of years, and when you ask the shamans how they knew this, the response is invariably “the plants told us”.
The Sacred Doorways to the Soul

The plants have in my subjective experiences have been a doorway to my place in the great field of consciousness. I am aware that subjective experience is not regarded as scientific, but at the end of the day, all our experiences are subjective and reality is not always that consensual as we believe it to be. It is somewhat of a paradox that the leading edge of modern science, Quantum Mechanics has also arrived at this conclusion and describes a mind-bending reality in which we are all both alive and dead at the same time. Quantum particles (the very basis of matter) exhibit the properties of bi-locality i.e. exist at different locations in the universe at the very same time transcending vast distances of many thousands of light years.

With the visionary plant doorways opening to the wider field of consciousness my experience and personal revelation is, that I am a discrete element in this great field, a unique frequency or wavelength amongst infinite others and that all these are vibrating in a vast wavelength of ecstatic harmony. I understand the purpose of my human existence is to be just simply human, and embrace the unique experience of human emotions and feelings. I have learned that my soul is not separate and is integral to me. Expressed differently, I am part of this soul, which has the appearance of form. My soul is outside of physical time, space, and itself a component of an ineffable and indescribable existence in infinity.

Photo: Shipibo Shaman, Enrique Lopez brewing Ayahuasca

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Iquitos - Gateway to the Amazon

2008-02-18T01:44:00.001-08:00

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of around 400,000. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province. It is generally considered the most populous city in the world that cannot be reached by road (except to Nauta 120 Km on the Rio Marañón).

The only way to get there is via aeroplane or by river boat. The city in the 19th century was the centre of the Rubber industry but by the early 20th century the rubber trade had moved to the Far East, and the city had fallen into neglect and disrepair. It is now a place without an apparent purpose resplendent in its post-colonial splendour, literally in the middle of nowhere, a true frontier town.

When you stand on the Malecon at the edge of the city (and civilisation) .......you overlook thousands of miles of rainforest, a truly breathtakingly beautiful experience.This is a video clip of imagery of Iquitos. Including Belen market, Puerto Bellevista. Iquitos is the base where we leave for our Ayahuasca Retreats at Mishana.

Visit our website for details on our Amazon Ayahuasca Retreats and workshops

Ayahuasca Retreat - February 2003, Amazon Rainforest Peru

2008-02-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

Video Images from Eagle's Wing Ayahuasca Retreat February 2003.

On the soundtrack are maestros Artidoro and Shipibo Guillermo Arevalo chanting Icaros.

Both Artidoro and Guillermo were at the Retreat.

Visit our website for details on our Andean and Amazon Ayahuasca Yoga Retreats