Amazon Curandero

What it means to receive treatment from a curandero

2011-06-08T10:01:00.000-04:00

As ayahuasca continues to spread around the world, with ceremonies happening in nearly every city of every country, curanderismo continues to be a mysterious and often misunderstood science of indigenous wisdom. Unfortunately, due to a general lack of understanding this sacred science, many people think that ayahuasca is a magical medicine that cures everything. In reality, ayahuasca can only heal a few types of illnesses. It is magical in other ways, though. So what does it mean to receive treatment from a curandero?

There are basically seven components to receiving treatment for an illness in the Amazon curandero tradition. Ayahuasca is just one of these components. Depending on the illness, the other six components are often more important than the ayahuasca. These seven parts work together to heal the patient of their illness and bring about health on all levels, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Only when a person has achieved balance and harmony on these levels can he/she truly be considered healed.

The first component is the diet. It is very surprising that western medicine has not yet realized the importance of diet in treatment, with hospital food still being on par with airplane food. Often times, people’s diets are the reason for their illnesses; therefore, making dietary changes is necessary to restore their health. The diet one follows during treatment may have specific prohibitions according to the illness, but every diet shares the same basic rules: no salt, no sugar, no oil, no hot spices, no caffeine, no alcohol, no chemicals, and no sex; basically, no stimulation. When a bland diet is followed, the body does not change from its normal function and can therefore return to a normal harmony. Having the digestive system working properly is the foundation of health and aids the other components as well. The diet is followed during the entire treatment.

The next component is the vapor bath. This is a very important aspect of healing that would greatly help western medicine. The vapor bath uses water boiled with medicinal plants to create a medicinal steam that the patient stands or sits in like a sauna. By opening up the pores many toxins are removed and the medicinal qualities of the steam are absorbed into the body, cleansing the system from the outside in. When a patient has been cleansed, the body has a much easier time returning to its normal, healthy state. Usually a patient will start treatment with a vapor bath each day for several days.

The next component is the plant bath. Patients bathe in water that has had certain plants soaking in it. The patients then refrain from bathing as they normally would in order to let the plants soak into their systems through their skin. This is a further cleanse of the system that also has aroma therapeutic effects. Plant baths help a patient open the mind and cleanse his/her spirit. They are very effective in enhancing the ayahuasca experience in ceremonies. Patients often do plant baths each day for consecutive days during the treatment.

Another important component is the purgative. While ayahuasca is also a purgative, it is not as strong as other plant preparations. Some well known purgatives are oje, huacapurana, pinon blanco, mapacho, and sangre de grado. The patient takes the purgative early in the morning on an empty stomach. The usual effects are vomiting and diarrhea, as the body is cleansed on the inside and the blood is purified. This part of the treatment can sometimes be the most important part in the case of illnesses carried in the blood, but regardless of the condition, a purgative is always helpful in cleaning the physical body, and also enhances the ayahuasca experience. Patients typically take a purgative once during treatment.

Of course, ayahuasca is an important component in the healing process. It is important for many reasons. Probably the most important reason is that it provides the curandero the capacity to see inside the patient to understand and properly diagnose the affliction(s). Much like an MRI or an x-ray, ayahuasca is a powerful diagnostic tool. In addition to diagnosing the illness, the curandero also uses an intimate connection to the spirits of the plants to determine the most effective remedy for the patient. For the patients, their experiences during ayahuasca ceremonies can be very helpful in determining the roots of their illnesses, which may be traumas from their past or times of emotional or spiritual weakness when they lacked self love. By understanding these roots, the patients can become active participants in their own healing by releasing pent up emotions, realizing their true beauty and specialness, and returning to a state of self love where they deserve to be. By experiencing their true selves, their spirits, patients remember their divinity and can once again fill their hearts with divine love. Love is the active ingredient of healing. Patients may attend ceremonies throughout the treatment, but at least once in the beginning and once at the end of treatment. The curandero will often use the ceremonies to measure the progress of the patient during treatment.

The most familiar component is likely the plant remedy, the medicine. A preparation made from a single medicinal plant or group of plants is taken by the patient for the duration of the treatment. Often the quantity of the remedy is a measure of the length of treatment. For example, the treatment will last until the patient has finished the bottle(s) of medicine. While the vapor and plant baths cleanse the body of toxins, thus helping to weaken the illness, and the purgatives remove many more toxins, further weakening the illness, and the ayahuasca strengthen the mind and spirit, it is the plant remedies that heal the affliction once and for all. It is common that when patients have been healed they say that it was the particular plant remedy that healed them.

The last component was touched upon during the description of the role of ayahuasca, but it deserves its own attention, and that is the connection to God. Essentially, all of the healing components in curanderismo treatment increase and strengthen the patients’ connection to God. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. God is what ultimately heals all afflictions, for God made the plants. This connection requires work on the part of the patient as well as the curandero. Both must have faith in the healing, and prayers play an essential role in demonstrating, maintaining, and utilizing that faith. The curandero says prayers over the baths, over the remedies, during the ceremonies, and throughout the treatment process, asking that God heal the patient. The curandero also demonstrates their faith by fasting during the preparation of all the components, making a sacrifice for the benefit of the patient. It is also essential for the patients to make a sacrifice, which is done through the diet, and to know in their hearts that God will heal their afflictions. When we know that we will be healed, then we will be healed.

www.ayahuascafoundation.org

Ayahuasca Initiation

2010-07-15T14:01:00.000-04:00

I have been making some changes to the Foundation this year, improving the website as well as the retreats and courses that we offer. A new era is quickly approaching and I would like the Ayahuasca Foundation to be ready for the changes that are coming. One of the most important improvements we've made to our organization is the new Initiation Course with don Enrique Lopez.

This course is intended for people who want to take their study of the Amazon healing more seriously. Students will spend 40 days straight with the shipibo curandero don Enrique at a remote jungle camp, drinking up to 18 times. We will be following true plant diets with two sacred and powerful plants in solitude.
Students will be following a traditional, authentic shipibo initiation, except that the accommodations in the jungle have modern amenities like running water and a gas stove. The food will be prepared by the curandero don Enrique’s wife, Wilma, who is also a healer and has studied the science of curanderismo for many years. Students will receive initiate’s clothing made by Wilma, according to the shipibo tradition. The curandero don Enrique leads this course with total attention to the students and to the teachings of the science of healing so that everyone sees, hears, experiences, and understands plant spirit medicine to the most profound level possible in their 40 days in the Amazon Rainforest.

The course consists of doing plant diets, vapor baths, and taking plant remedies, learning icaros, remedy preparation and administration, massage therapy, soplaying, chupando, prayer, and ceremony procedure. Students take part in making the ayahuasca used during the course, as well as other plant remedies. In just six weeks students learn enough to begin treating patients and holding ceremonies. When I lead my first course with don Enrique, I honestly learned more in those six weeks than I had learned in the previous two years of study. It is an incredible opportunity to truly study with an authentic shaman in the Amazon Rainforest. If you are serious about learning ayahuasca healing, then you should take a look at this course.

Ayahuasca Seminar

2009-02-18T17:49:00.002-05:00

From April 18th to the 26th, 2009, The Ayahuasca Foundation will be hosting the Amazon Curandero Seminar. It will be an amazing event, featuring five authentic curanderos giving presentations, leading workshops, and holding traditional ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. Last year's event was a great success, and we've improved the itinerary, guests, and activities to make this year's event even more special.
I invite you to check out the website www.curanderoseminar.com

Visions, emotions, and purging...

2008-12-15T11:42:00.002-05:00

The act of purging is not just a physical act. Often times in my ceremonies, my visions in the spiritual dimension cause me to purge, and even my emotions can bring about a session of vomiting. In one ceremony, I was feeling great, enjoying the love in my heart and the beautiful visins. I had been arguing with my girlfriend the day before, however, and at one point in the ceremony, I felt a tremendous sadness.
It was the emotions of the day before coming back up. I didn´t understand it at first, and began to wonder why I was so sad all of a sudden. Then, I quickly felt the urge to vomit and did so. After that, I felt much better, much happier. I analyzed the situation to understand that it was the emotions that I had surpressed during our argument. It was good to get rid of those suppressed emotions, for they could later manifest into a physical illness. This happens a great deal, especially in cases of childhood trauma.
spirit, mind, and body are all connected. Like the water in the ocean, there are depths that may catagorize different realms, yet it is all the same water. So, too, do we have realms within us, and within those realms there are other realms, like within the mind we say there is the unconscious and the conscious, but it is the same mind, and even the deepest parts of the mind can be accessed and healed.
Ayahuasca is like a submarine, allowing us to explore the entire ocean of our being. We must learn how to drive this craft, however, and most importantly, we must have faith that it will safely bring us back to the surface, so that we can enter into the depths without fear. It is amazing what you will find down there, and what you will be able to heal at those depths.

Making my own ayahuasca

2008-11-21T14:42:00.001-05:00

This week I made my own ayahuasca, with the help of my students in the final week of the initiation course. We just made a small batch, and I was nervous to drink it, as I was leading the ceremony, which I have not done very many times. It all went great, though, and I was able to heal my girlfriend of the flu. Everyone had a great night. I was laughing at the fun I was having in my visions. It was such a wonderful time, one that I will never forget.

Demons and Healing

2008-11-14T10:48:00.002-05:00

In one of the ayahuasca ceremonies during the six week course that is now winding down, I visited my brother in spirit. I could see that he was polluted and needed help, so I had him lay down on a table (in my vision) and began to scan his body with a blue light that I produced from the center of my mind. This light was made of compassion and love and I watched as it purified first his brain, his head, face, neck, shoulders, and chest. When I got to his chest I felt the need to wait there for a longer period of time, allowing the loving light to work on his heart.
As I was doing this, a demon climbed out of his chest. It was the size of a small man, but had eight arms like a spider, and a terribly ugly face. It was not happy to have to leave, but couldn´t remain inside my brother with all that light and purifying love. I was surprised to see it and at first was taken aback. But, I knew it was not good and quickly produced a sword and cut it up into pieces.
Then I felt guilty for destroying it, having been filled with so much love. I decided to apply the same blue light to the pieces that remained. I then smiled as I watched each piece transform into a beautiful butterfly and fly away. I continued the healing on my brother until he was encased in this blue light, like a sphere of light surrounding him. I then put myself in a similar sphere. Then I connected the spheres and began pouring my love and energy into his sphere. As I did this I began to write the letter that I would need to send him, asking that he stop drinking and smoking, problems that he had had for quite some time.
When I got back to town, I went to the internet to write this letter to him. It had been two days since the ceremony. When I got into my email, I saw that I had recieved an email from him. In his letter to me, he said that he had decided to stop drinking and smoking. I felt so happy, and it served as a great reminder of the reality of this work. We can help each other regardless of distance, for love knows no distance.
Love heals all...

Initiation Course

2008-11-13T14:10:00.002-05:00

Since I began the Ayahuasca Foundation last spring, I have begun working with several different curanderos. The two with whom I work the most are doña Othelia and don Lucho. They are simply amazing people and it is such an honor to be their friend and student. Both one hundred percent indigenous to the Amazon Rainforest, their styles are very different and they present two interesting perspectives on healing.
Doña Othelia is a true vegetalista, working with countless medicinal plants, including several that have never been properly documented. Few have been investigated by western science either. Her icaros in ceremony further enhance her psychic connection to these plants. She has healed nearly every affliction, including the healing of a late stage cancer patient this year, as well as a patient with herpes in just two weeks. She is such a wonderful person, and her ceremonies are filled with joy and love.
Don Lucho is a man on a mission. He has his own non-profit organization where he educates local indigenous communities on acheiving sulf-sustainability through the cultivation and preparation of organic plantations and medicinal plant gardens. He is an impeccable example of what we should all aspire to be, and his family plays an important role in the project, with his wife and mother helping to prepare the medicinal plants and meals, his children studying business and botany, and his other relatives helping with the work in the fields, construction, and travelling to the remote communities to help others set up similar autonomous communities. It is a true pleasure to include him as well as doña Othelia in the Ayahuasca Foundation´s Curandero Initiation Course.
I am about to finish this year´s fall course, and it has been a wonderful adventure. I feel I have learned as much as our students and feel so good that at least one of them will be returning to do a formal apprenticeship. During the course, I have had such beautiful visions, and soon after will begin the formation and execution of the first Indigenous Culture museum here in Iquitos. It is a project I believe in strongly so it fills me with great happiness to see it coming to fruition. This will lead to the Ayahuasca Museum, and hopefully pave the way for the Ayahuasca clinic. I have been filming ceremonies with infrared technology, as well as recording them and interviews with the curanderos and students.
It looks like 2009 will be a very important year for me.

Ayahuasca's mission....

2008-09-15T17:23:00.004-04:00

I have been working with ayahuasca for over 5 years now, and I have begun to see this magical medicine as a way to turn people around, from worshiping in the church of the almighty dollar to again remembering our spirits, our connection to each other and to the whole, and the importance of finding within the answers to our questions.
Thanks to the miracles I have witnessed, I have raised my beliefs in what is humanly possible, for what is human is spirit as well, and what is spirit is god, and what god can do, so can we.

I'm really gonna try to write these now...

2008-09-14T22:44:00.002-04:00

Ok,
It's been way too long since I wrote here. I even forgot my password to log on. I have had so much happen as well since my last post. Way too much to put in one post. The most important thing is that the film crew that was down here in January has finished the film, entitled Ayahuasca Diary, and has entered it into the Sundance Film Festival. I am so excited about that, even though I still have yet to see the totally finished full length feature film.
What I have seen and heard is amazing, and the results of the healing retreat for the four people featured in the film were so positive that I am sure it will create a buzz in many areas should it get featured in the festival. In particular, the cancer patient went back to LA for another biopsy, only to find out that he no longer had cancer. That was wonderful to see. The other three patients' conditions improved greatly and all in just 18 days of treatment, and along with the stress and annoyance of having the film crew in their face the whole time. It was a trying time for us all, but it was all worth it, now that the film is actually done and the chance for so many people to see the potential of ayahuasca and plant spirit medicine is so real.
I will do my best to keep writing in this. Feel free to email me at carlos@ayahuayra.org for more information on the film, our healing retreats, the initiation courses and apprenticeship opportunities, and the Curandero Seminar scheduled for next April. I hope you are all doing well, healthy and happy and enjoying the mysteries of life.
Ciao for now...
-carlitos

Finally time to breathe...

2008-02-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

It has been two months since I wrote my last blog. I spent most of december in the jungle, building and repairing our new camp so that it would be ready for the film crew in January. I managed to sneak out of Iquitos for a vacation around New Year´s only to return to host the group from LA looking to film a feature film on the healing potential of ayahausca.
I will spend the next few days trying to catch up, for there are some serious topics to cover, that I feel will be educational for many of you. Many? I don´t think I can use that word yet to describe the number of readers, but wishful thinking.
I will drink tonight, so tomorrow, I´ll resume the blog as usual, and when I can, I´ll refer back to the past two months to pick out the special or important moments.

Until then,
ciao

Friday and Saturday Ceremonies

2007-11-25T15:39:00.001-05:00

I drank on friday night out with don Lucho. It was the first time I had ever drank with anyone since meeting don Juan, my teacher. But because don Lucho will be participating in the Amazon Curandero Seminar in April, I wanted to know him better and to know his ceremony style. It was a really good experience for me because I came to appreciate don Juan even more. Sometimes you take for granted what you have because you get used to it. It takes a change in perspective, a change in environment, some sort of change, to let you see things more clearly. That is what happened for me. I had many beautiful visions that night, although the ayahausca did not give me these visions easily. I had to concentrate very hard to see them, and then it took all I had to maintain them. I was meditating for a good portion of the ceremony.
I saw what I needed to do to improve my health, and I am on a new path. It feels great.

Last night I drank with don Juan again. I had fasted the entire day, and then before the ceremony I chewed some coca leaves. I was so energized for the ceremony that I sang like a champ and helped out don Juan and felt total joy and bliss the entire night. I vomited pure liquid and it felt great to really purge the toxins from my body. I had gorgeous visions of the future, including seeing my son born in the jungle. I helped with the childbirth, all natural, out at the jungle camp. It was a feeling like no other to see my son emerge to take his first breath, to hold him in my hands and look into his eyes. I feel so much love in my heart just knowing that my son will be born, that I will have a wife, and that we will have a beautiful life together.

What a pleasure it is to be alive. What a blessing it is to experience this marvelous and mysterious world. I am born again, revived, and I will never be the same. Ayahausca is truly a magical medicine, and it has helped me more than words could ever say. Thank you ayahuasca, thank you god, thank you to the whole universe and the universes beyond. I love you.

cuidate,
c

Birthday suprises

2007-11-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

It was an unusual day yesterday. It was don Juan´s wife´s birthday. I decided to bake a cake myself for the family. However, I got a late start, as I am not accustomed to baking cakes, and was putting the cake in the oven at 6:30pm. I inadvertantly licked the spoon and tried the batter, which was mostly eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and flour, not exactly the best meal before drinking ayahuasca. I then tried the frosting to make sure it was ok, another mixture of milk, sugar, and egg. When I went to drink, I became nervous about what I had in my stomach and what I was now going to put in there.
I knew there was going to be trouble. I was right.
I drank the ayahuasca and began to think that everything was going to be ok, but Juan kept talking instead of drinking and the lights stayed on and before long, I was not feeling well. The energy was too strange for me. I needed the lights off, and when I got up to turn them off, I think I may have sent a message that I was getting up to throw up, because I quickly realized that I would have to leave. I threw up hard, and I felt sick doing it. Normally, I get it out of me and feel good, but this was not good. I knew this feeling. I had eaten some ice cream once before a ceremony and was totally messed up by it. This was that feeling.
Thank God it didn´t last. I went back into the ceremony and began concentrating on the Amazon Curandero Seminar, which is an event I am currently organizing. I looked into the six curanderos that will be teaching at the seminar, to examine their integrity and power. I investigated the optimum way to organize the workshops, so that the most comprehensive understanding of curanderismo can be achieved in the time we have. I looked into the films that will be shown, the indigenous tribes that will be in attendance, and all the small details of this wonderful event. The Amazon Curandero Seminar is sure to be a memorable experience that hopefully plants the seeds of plant spirit medicine all over the world, replanting the garden of spirit on the planet, and reviving the spirit in each of our hearts as well.
I spent the ceremony with smiles and joy. I sent love to our patient with AIDS, and I sent positive energy to the film crew that will be returning to shoot a feature film in January. Things were beautiful and they still are. I wish I hadn´t made myself sick, but birthday cakes are worth it, and don Juan´s wife seemed to really appreciate the effort. You will hear a lot more about the Amazon Curandero Seminar, trust me...
Curandero Seminar

Sunday November 18th

2007-11-18T11:53:00.000-05:00

The last ceremony was an unusual one for me, as don Juan had a vision of a woman coming who would fall in love with me. He described what she would look like and said that she would be from far away. I spent the evening lost in thought about such an odd way to find the love of your life. Are you supposed to know what she looks like before you find her?

Ayahuasca can show you anything, and I had been looking for this information. I have decided to begin organizing a curandero seminar. I saw in visions the importance of such an event to help those called by the spirit of ayahuasca to become healers. I will be looking into this more and more in the next ceremonies. I hope it will be a wonderful guide for those who seek to study the science of plant spirit medicine here in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru.

More later.
ciao...

Saludos de Iquitos, Peru

2007-11-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

Hola amigos y amigas,
My name is Carlos Tanner and I have decided to record my experiences as a curandero's apprentice on this blog. I have been studying with a healer from the Amazon Rainforest of Peru for over two years, and we have put together a healing retreat program for those in need of healing and for those interested in learning the science of plant spirit medicine. You can check out our website at http://www.ayahuayra.org/ for more information on our retreat programs in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru.

I live with my teacher, whose name is don Juan, in his house near the airport in Iquitos, Peru. We also spend time out at our jungle camp, which is a two hour hike into the rainforest from the nearest village.
My teacher holds ayahuasca ceremonies at his house every tuesday and saturday. He treats every affliction there is, from Cancer and AIDS to depression and bad luck. He deals with demonic possession, curses and spells, and spiritual afflictions that are unknown to western culture. He is a therapist for couples, a counselor for families, a guide for wandering souls, and a teacher and advisor to students. When he is not holding ayahuasca ceremonies, he still recieves patients throughout the day. For this he treats them using mapachos, tobacco cigarettes from the Amazon. If the affliction is serious in nature or difficult to diagnose, then don Juan will ask the patient to come back and drink ayahuasca in the next ceremony.

It is truly an honor to live and study with don Juan, and it is with great joy in my heart that I call him my friend. I am truly blessed. I would like to share this blessing with my fellow spirit seekers, the growing subculture of people who are willing to cross paradigms and live in a separate reality, the reality of the spirit. This is the world of curanderismo.

I will be putting posts up on this blog after every ceremony, describing my experiences and hopefully demonstrating important aspects of curanderismo at the same time. It is my hope and dream that our civilization return to the wisdom of the spirit, for this wisdom can be the guiding force that leads to our salvation. My teacher, don Juan, and I have put together a six-week educational program that takes place twice a year, and I am in the process of organizing a 9-day intensive seminar that will take place each spring.

If you would like more information on the work that we're doing down here, please visit our website: http://www.ayahuayra.org/