Let us respect the Spirit of Nature

Every living being in nature has a spirit, we are all one  animals, plants and people depend on each other to live in harmony.

This is the message Ananeywa, “Jaguar Spirit”, wants people to understand. And this is the message he passed on to the participants of the “World View of the Protected Areas” symposium, that took place yesterday on the I Latin American Congress of National Parks and other Protected Areas in Santa Marta – Colombia

The symposium’s goal was to talk about these protected areas from a mystical, philosophical and spiritual point of view, an approach that has been relegated from the subject of conservation of  big spaces of discussion, besides Ananeywa, several indigenous locals, from different ethnic societies, were summoned to talk about the magical dimension of nature according to their interpretations. This way, an important step into a different way of conservation of protected areas has been taken.

Joel Johuanchi Marca “his spanish name” belongs to the Wachiperi ethnic group, indigenous society that dwells in the south oriental jungle of Peru, in the Manu National Park. As a child he starts his preparation to become a Wuatopakeri, Visionary Shaman of his culture with the endeavour of searching spiritual development and spread his message to the huachipaeri and western culture. Modern man has not awakened his intuition to appreciate nature at its best, we should not only about believe in what can be touched and seen; there are many things that cannot be seen or touched but can be felt.

This is the time for every human being to awake his own internal World, this is the path we must Start. Joel Johuanchi wanted the symposium attendants to see nature not only as a biological laboratory, but as a magical world that has spirit, a spirit we need to respect and know; this is what the balance of nature depends on. Part of Joel Johuanchi’s message is to have a reunion with ourselves before we can have it with Mother Earth.

We all possess a piece of spirituality we must develop from within, for understanding the origin we can know the path to walk.

Mario Gonzáles – SURAPA

Wanamey Center- tree of life-, is a program of the  Center Wanamey. It works since 1989 thanks to the Healer and Master Huachiperi, Alejandro Jahuanchi “Darikiking”, who founded the Center which purpose is investigate, revalue, conserve and spread the values of the Amazonic traditional medicine.

The Center of Traditional Medicine Wanamey offers services of traditional medicine; we are therapist, healers in different fields of the traditional and alternative medicine, or “shamans” who offer treatments and knowledge of the Peruvian Traditional Medicine.

Lucid dreaming is the experience of knowing you are dreaming while still firmly located within the dream itself. The topic has become popular in the West in the last forty years, and was scientifically validated in 1981.

Freud was skeptical

Saint Denys was a prolific conscious dreamer, and he used his dreams as a scientific instrument. He tested theories in his dreams and made observations about what happened. Saint Denys’ research was focused on memory and language, much like our modern neuropsychiatry.

Ethnographer Hervey Saint-Denys

Another notable nineteenth century dreamer was Frederic van Eeden, who was the first to use the term “lucid dream.” His long and detailed dream reports are fascinating to read, and clearly indicate an interest in the natural experience of lucid dreaming. van Eeden’s work focuses on sensations and emotions, not only his attempts to influence the content of the dream. Both of Saint-Denys and van Eeden’s works were marginalized during their lifetimes; in fact they were sometimes ridiculed at public scientific gatherings. Yet their work deeply influenced 20th century dream research.

The Psychedelic Sixties

Lucid dreaming was mentioned by a few more writers in the next few decades (notably Oliver Fox), but really it was the cultural zeitgeist of the postwar era that re-ignited public interest in lucid dreaming. One product of 20th century military colonialization was a renewed interest in indigenous peoples and traditional societies. With this flood of anthropological studies came bizarre stories of trance states, sorcery and the use of psychotropic plants.

The mercurial Castaneda

In particular, the work of Carlos Castaneda galvanized a generation about new possibilities in consciousness and spirituality. In the United States and Europe, this underground academic movement culminated in “the Psychedelic Sixties.” Humanist and Transpersonal Psychologies were also established in this era, focusing on positive psychology, human potential, and altered states of consciousness.

In this expansive cultural climate, Celia Greene’s phenomenological study of lucid dreams was published in 1968, popularizing van Eeden’s term from fifty years prior. Transpersonal psychologist Charles Tart compounded the popular interest in lucid dreaming by publishing his highly influential Altered States of Consciousness, which reprints van Eeden’s essay in full as well as anthropologist Kilton Stewart’s essay on lucid dreams as practiced by the Malaysian Senoi.

Like Castaneda, Stewart was a charismatic figure who influenced a generation of anthropologists and psychologists, even though both of their original works are now considered to be fictional , or at least highly imaginative accounts of their fieldwork experiences. Regardless, these two mercurial figures cast a long shadow in modern lucid dreaming studies.

Twentieth Century psychology

Lucid dreaming research was made a reputable course of scientific study when psycho-physiologist Stephen LaBerge and British parapsychologist Keith Hearne independently validated lucid dreaming by having subjects signal during lucid dreams while EEG monitors verified their mental states as REM sleep.

LaBerge’s ongoing work with the psycho-physiological domains of lucid dreaming has been particularly fruitful to cognitive psychology, leading to advances in mind/brain mapping and linguistic-cognitive studies.

Lucid Dreaming verified

The scientific legitimization of lucid dreaming added fuel to the fire, and the 1980s and early 1990s was characterized by a flurry of lucid dream research from every conceivable perspective. For example, influential lucid dream studies are represented in the areas of transpersonal psychology, sports psychology, cognition studies, and nightmare treatment.

However, while popular publications about lucid dreaming exploded on the mass market, formal academic research into the dream state cooled considerably once the interdisciplinary journal Lucidity Letter closed its doors in 1991. This journal published ten years of innovative lucid dreaming studies, ranging from physiology to clinical reports, further inspiring the contemporary dream movement.

If you want to learn more about LD, check out my hub titled lucid dreaming guide for beginners.

Source: www.hubpages.com

There is a horrible sense of meaninglessness and chaos that comes from the extreme loneliness of being cut off. Trauma, whether sustained in the family, or in the military during combat, renders millions feeling unsafe, insecure, mistrustful, and in the end isolated, lonely and desperate. Judith Lewis Herman, who wrote the definitive book on trauma and recovery, stated that all so-called mental illness and suffering could be seen as a person’s misguided attempt to survive trauma. Fear separates, love unites. We all wish to grow to freedom, to belong, to participate. Hatred is like gangrene, shame is deadly. Forgiveness is but a faint hope.

This brew, commonly called yagé, or yajé in Colombia, ayahuasca in Ecuador and Peru (Inca “vine of the dead, vine of the souls,” aya means in Quechua “spirit,” “ancestor,” “dead person,” while huasca means “vine,” “rope”), and caapi in Brazil, is prepared from segments of a species of the vine Banisteriopsis, a genus belonging to the Malpighiaceae.1

Sections of vine are boiled with leaves from any of a large number of potential admixture plants (such as Psychotria viridis, pictured above) resulting in a tea that contains the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloids harmine, harmaline, d-tetrahydroharmine, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Dimethyltryptamine closely resembles serotonin and has been discovered to be a component of normal mammallian metabolism, an endogenous hallucinogen. These compounds have chemical structures and effects similar, but not identical to LSD, mescaline of the peyote cactus, and psilocybin of the psychotropic Mexican mushroom. This brew has been used in the Amazon for millennia in order to heal, divine, and worship.2

With Ayahuasca, an interior sound is commonly heard, which quite often triggers a spontaneous burst of imitative vocalizings, markedly unlike any conventional human speech or facial contortions. The tryptamines can apparently trigger a kind of rippling of facial muscles, which results in the production of a vocally modulated pressure wave. What is more startling is that the sound, which gains in energy the longer it is sustained, can actually become visible—as if the vibrational wave patterns were shifting into the visible spectrum or inducing a vibrational excitation of the air in such a way as to affect light diffraction. These observations suggest that although the wave is produced with sound, it may possess an electromagnetic component. This peculiar wave phenomenon will continue to be generated out of the mouth and nostrils and will be visible in the surrounding air as long as the vocalizations are continued.3

Natives of Amazon have traditionally combined Banisteriopsis caapi vine, which contains harmine, harmaline and related beta-carbolines, with DMT-containing plants to make an orally active brew called ayahuasca. Other plants containing harmine and/or harmaline can be substituted for B. caapi. The usual ‘North-American ayahuasca’ consists of Peganum harmala seeds and Desmanthus illinoensis roots, and in Australian ‘acaciahuasca’ leaves of Acacia complanata are combined with material from DMT-containing acacias (the effectivity of this mixture hasn’t been confirmed).4

Assembled from material by 1Harner, 2Luna, 3McKenna, and 4Ott.

Contains—	Contains—
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Source: www.deoxy.org

The best documentary of Ayahuasca Healing (English sub)

Wanamey Center arranges workshops of shamanism and Ayahuasca where it combines rituals of purification, purgation with medicinal plants, ceremonies of Ayahuasca and spirituality, all of that with the objective of initiating the participants in the path to harmony and physical , spiritual, mental and emotional restoration. The participants will have the opportunity to experiment the traditional amazonic medicine.

The shamanism and Ayahuasca workshop implies: Rituals of purification, isolation in our huts, purges, diets, fast, and abstention of some foods. These procedures must be fulfilled with strict discipline

In the Workshops of shamanism and Ayahuasca we offer customer service, consultation and personalized guidance.

The Center of Traditional Medicine Wanamey, place where the Workshops will be carried out, is located in the Cultural Zone of the Biosphere Reserve of Manu – Cusco – Peru.

FIRST DAY: We depart from the City of Cusco at 8:00 a.m. The distance of 200 km will be covered (approximately 9 hours to Pilcopata). In the trajectory we will be able to watch beautiful Andean valleys and indigenous quechua communities, we will visit the “Chullpas of Ninamarca”, funerary center of the culture Lupaca (Pre Inca). At noon we will have lunch in Paucartambo, town of colonial roots. Then we will keep driving to the place called Tres Cruces, entrance to the biosphere reserve of Manu where we will have a ceremony to ask for permission to the spirits of the jungle, at the end of the afternoon we will arrive to the Traditional Medicine Center Wanamey.

SECOND DAY: At 6:00 a.m. we will have a ceremony of purification – Cleanliness – harmonization with purgative plants and tobacco. We will drink infusions made of plants. This day we will fast until approximately midday. By the afternoon we will have individual chats.

THIRD DAY: At 6:00 a.m. we will have a connection and harmonization ceremony with water, in the river Orinoco, at a five minute walk from the Wanamey Center .

Different therapies of purification and harmonization through sauna baths with aromatic plants and infusions with medicinal and teacher plants will take place. We will have a preparation and informative chats for the Ayahuasca ceremony, later we will rest and prepare ourselves for the Ayahuasca ceremony.

FOURTH DAY: The patient must rest and reflect on the experience of the last night. We will have individual chats that will help us to understand the purpose of the session, by night another ceremony with Ayahuasca will be done.

FIFTH DAY: After breakfast, we will make a visit to the forest of the Wanamey Center  where we will offer chats about “Medicinal Plants” and “Traditional Medicine” using the wide variety of medicinal plants and other species we grow. We will have a ceremony of purification – protection and thanking to Mother Nature.

SIXTH DAY: Early in the morning we will start the journey back to Cusco, where we will arrive in the afternoon.

The workshops are oriented to people that look for serious and reflexive bonds with the teacher plants. They must have profound motivations in order to heal their bodies and discover the paths of self development and spiritual and emotional balance. We demand will, patience and faith from the participants because through these principles we reach a harmonic relationship with Mother Nature to grow with “the feet on earth and the head high in the sky.

Wanamey Center carries out “Spiritual Retirements and Diets with Ayahuasca” in Cusco for four days. The participants will have the opportunity to know and experience the goods of the amazonic traditional medicine, specially those of ayahuasca, the mother plant; this way, the participants will initiate their personal way to harmony, physical, spiritual, mental and emotional healing.

The retirements are made for people that look for serious and reflexive links to the teacher plants. They must have profound motivations to heal their bodies and discover the paths of self development  and spiritual balance. We ask the participants for will, patience and faith, since it is through these principles that we will reach a harmonic relationship with Mother Nature in order to grow with “Our feet on the ground and the head in the sky”.

The retirements are carried out with no more than five people at the same time. The retirements imply customer service, integration, consultations and personalized guidance. We demand discipline and commitment before and during the retirement,  especially with the given restrictions about food (low salt and sugar content food), the fasting and resting hours.

Objectives of the Spiritual Retirement with Ayahuasca:

·         Physical and spiritual cleanliness.

·         Lineament of the spiritual body.

·         Treatments for illnesses in general.

·         Personal evolution – self-discovery.

·         Induction to relaxation through self-observation of our being.

·         Discover the reasons of our ailments and ways to heal ourselves.

During the Spiritual Retirement the following activities will be developed:

Purification rituals with purufying plants and Tobacco powder. The plants will be drunk and the black tobacco powder will be blown into the nostrils of the participant.

Purification rituals

Purifying baths based in aromatic and medicinal plants

Ingestion of different infusions made of medicinal plants.

Two ceremonies of Ayahuasca will take place. “Ayahuasca is denominated Doctor because she cures, Teacher because she teaches and Mother because she guides. It gives power, knowledge and vision.

We will have chats about “Traditional Amazonic Andean and Medicine”

Our service includes lodging and feeding in the Monte de Aguila meditation center (Saylla, located at a half of hour drive from Cusco city – Perú)

Includes transportation from Cusco – Monte de Aguila meditation center – Cusco)

Preparation Diet:

“Shamanism and Ayahuasca are disciplined and strict methods to obtain healing, power and personal growth”.

In order to learn from the Master Plants the body will have to be purified and harmonized. The participant must fulfil with discipline the following recommendations seven days before attendingthe Retirement:

Reduce the excess of sugar, salt and red pepper in his/her feeding.

Do not eat any type of meats, specially red meats and pig.

Do not drink coffee or sodas.

Sexual abstention

Avoid the consumption of drugs and alcohol before and during the Retirement.

Consider the following contraindications:

Menstruating or pregnant women and the people with heart problems cannot attend the ritual of Ayahuasca.

Before being part of our Retirements, you must fulfil the following requirements:

Have mental, physical and emotional growth.

Send a letter explaining your desires of being part of the retirement.

Fill out your Personal Information Sheet.

The Wanamey Tradicional Medicine Center is offering “Diet & Retreats with Ayahuasca” (five days), where the participants will have the chance to know and feel the benefits of Ayahuasca as part of the amazonian traditional medicine. This way, they will be able to start their personal journey to physical, emotional, mental and spirit ual harmony and health.

The retirements are made for people that look for serious and reflexive bonds with the master plants. Those interested must have profound motivations in order to heal their bodies and discover the paths of self-development besides of spiritual and emotional balance.

We propose a harmonic relation with Mother Nature so we can heal ourselves with “our feet based on the ground and our head in the sky”. For this reason we ask the participants for will, patience, faith and a mind free of fears.

Ayahuasca Retreats imply customer service and personal guidance and consultation.

Retreats will be carried out with at least one participant and no more than five

The retirement includes:

Purification baths in the river.

Baths with purifying and aromatic plants.

Ritual of purification with purging plants and tobacco powder for body, mental, emotional and spritual cleansing.

Two ceremonies of Ayahuasca will take place. “Ayahuasca is denominated Doctor because she heals, Teacher because se teaches and Mother because she guides”. She gives power, knowledge and vision.

A walk in the forest of Wanamey Center. Lectures concernig Medicinal Plants and Tradicional Medicine in our ethnobotanical garden.

Lodging and food in the Wanamey Center ( Pillcopata Town, in the Biosphere Reserve of Manu National Park, Cusco – Peru)

We will help you to coordinate your transport Cusco-Wanamey Center-Cusco.

Preparation Diet:

“Shamanism and Ayahuasca are disciplined and strict methods to obtain treatment, power and personal development”.

In order to learn from Master Plants our body must be purified and in harmony. The participant must carefully fulfil the following recommendations seven days before attending the Retirement:

Reduce the excess of sugar, salt and red pepper in your foods.

Do not eat any type of meats, especially red and pig.

Do not drink coffee or sodas.

Sexual abstention

Avoid the consumption of drugs and alcohol before and during the Retirement

Counter indications:

Pregnant or menstruating women and people with heart problems cannot attend the ritual of Ayahuasca.

Consult prices.