Ayahuasca Utopia

III. About tripping in utopia.

Ayahuasca is a magical medicine which effects vary greatly from each time used. The maker of the medicine has to fast before its confection and also have to keep healing intentions while making the brew. The other major factor is the place where the medicine is taken. This time we went 3 hours into the Nanay River, a tributary of the Amazon, into one of the most peaceful places one could ever find: Mishana.

La Comunidad

Over 70 years ago, a group of people found a clearing in the shore of the Nanay and started their community. Mishana gives and incredible feeling of peace and safety. People are kind and hard working and they are simply not distracted or focused into getting more wealth. They live humbly with dignity.

Kids are always playing, rejoicing in life’s simple pleasures.

Juego

A Mishana girl proudly displays her bug collection.

Colección

They own a piece of the Amazon and nobody has more than their neighbor. Mishanas also have and incredible sense of family life. Women and men get to be parents at an early age.

Hijo y padre

Familia

Also kids learn to be nurturing and caring for their siblings. It is very common to see Mishana kids taking care of their young brothers and sisters.

Hermanitos

Hermanitos 2

Something remarkable in Mishana is that though Perú is known for being a chauvinistic society, here in Mishana one of the community leaders is a woman: Eva. Nothing more refreshing than a strong woman with knowledge and wits. Eva is a jungle connoisseur and great cook. She knows the Amazon like the back of her hand and is always ready to share her wisdom of plants and jungle curiosities. A woman that truly enjoys her place on Earth.

s

Eva

Eva 2

Sapito

A Mishana once approached and shouted gleefully about how fortunate he was to live in the Amazon. “The smells, the river, little piranhas biting your legs… That’s life”.

Pura Vida

It was in this magical place that we began treatment with another curandero: Don Enrqiue.

Don Enrique

He is a Shipibo native. For this tribe, Ayahuasca healing is cultural. He learnt “la ciencia” (the science) first by his grandfather until he passed. He later continued the training by himself. If you ask him about his training he answers: “The plants taught me.”

The energy of this man was amazing. More than once, while he was talking to patients from the retreat, butterflies would approach and hover around his head. His dedication and passion for Ayahuasca healing was noticeable. Though the Amazon might seem like a convoluted green stain to the untrained eye, for Enrique is the pharmacy. He knows the name and purpose of each little herb encountered. To him, herbs are not objects but spirits. He has come to meet and befriend through Ayahuasca: the Teacher Plant.

Enrique y la Selva

Something that makes Enrique remarkable compared to other curanderos is that he is an amazing teacher. Curanderos are known for being secretive about their healing techniques and songs, nevertheless Enrique is alaways open to sharing any plant knowledge, his visions and life advice. Carlos has become his student and also cultural mediator for foreign patients.

Teacher and student.

He has a more hand-on approach to his healing. Enrique diagnoses, finds the plants, prepares the medicine and applies it. You can hear him whispering prayers and talking in Shipibo while doing all of these tasks.

Curación

Curación 2

We had a few ceremonies with Enrique. He leads a very organized and intense ceremony. He creates a sacred space and sings icaros to enhance visions. His icaros are sung in Shipibo language and are quite beautiful. He sings both high and low, feminine and masculine, pitch tones and just freestyles, channeling the higher source. Sans chakapa, he brings percussiveness and rythm to his icaros using solely his breathing. You could feel the air move when he was singing.

All in the group received meaningful visions and made important breakthroughs in Enrique’s ceremonies. Every ceremony you walked in being somebody and a different person afterwards. Everybody seemed to have a better understanding and maturity on their lives and spirits.

Blessing

To all out there looking for more meaning in their lives know that magic is real and is within everyone of us. There are amazing wise women and men who dedicate their lives to the well-being and health of nature and humans. Western society is focused in just one paradigm of healing where the spirit is excluded. There is ageless magical alternative medicine, integrating the mind, the body and the soul as one and it is available for anyone who seeks it. A new age of enlightenment is upon us, let us realize our spiritual self, awaken the soul, open our hearts.

A prayer of “love, peace and harmony” to all sentient beings. May you find Ayahuasca, may Ayahuasca find you.

Sople