Ceremonia

For those of you who are curious about ayahuasca…  There are probably thousands of different ways of performing a ceremony, in different parts of South America (probably in the US as well), in different regions of Perú, and with healers of various backgrounds… but here is one, unique example:

César and Fidelia invited me to an ayahuasca ceremony in their house in Cantagallo so I could take some pictures and short films for César’s website. When I arrived at the house in the evening, the entire family plus the participants in the ceremony were all watching the soccer game. After Perú lost miserably to Venezuela, family members dispersed sadly, kids were sent to bed, and the ceremony began. The three participants were local Peruvians who were all suffering their own specific variety of depression or lack of energy for dealing with the challenges in their life. They had sought out the ayahuasca ceremony to give them renewed energy, clarity, and a more peaceful mindset.

César started the ceremony by talking about the medicinal powers of the plant, and what they can expect to experience. The patients also talked about their past experiences, or the difficulties they were currently facing. At one point Fidelia started telling me a story about one time she felt like she was growing a beard… Once the patients each drank the medicine, talk continued for a little bit as César smoked a tobacco pipe. Then the lights were turned off, and César began to sing icaros, or healing songs. There were many different icaros, directed towards the different patients (He told me there was one for me, even though I wasn’t taking ayahuasca), and the rhythms changed over the course of the ceremony. I eventually fell asleep because they were so peaceful to listen too, but I managed to record a number of them from different points in the ceremony. The quality of the recording is not very professional to say the least, but the introduction to the ceremony is transcribed in English and Spanish.

May your curiosity be satisfied by the shaman’s own words:

The second part of the recording contains the icaros:

César’s introduction:

Since we are not all the same, sometimes there is a resistance in our bodies when they are too loaded with negative energies. You could take ayahuasca, and it’s as if it’s not affecting you. But it’s not that it’s not affecting you, it is, it’s just processing. The effect happens over various stages, dealing with different problems, so in the first stage, it’s processing, it’s cleaning and cleaning, second stage, third stage, and finally there comes a moment when one enters a deep trance because of these stages of elimination and purification.

There are ayahuasca medicines that are well prepared, and the trance is very strong. There are medicines that have not been well prepared, and so the strength of the trance is low. But when someone says that ayahuasca doesn’t work, yes it does work! But there are ayahuasca plants that have been planted by people, and there is ayahuasca that grows naturally. The ayahuasca that grows wild lends much greater strength to the medicine. Of course. If someone is cooking, for example, potatoes, onions, there had been chemical additives so that worms won’t eat them, fertilizers. That’s how these things work, and it’s the same with cultivated ayahuasca. There are also young ayahuascas and others that are much older and thicker and have more strength. for example, this one here is a young ayahuasca [pointing to a branch hung on the wall], it would still need to grow.

We all know that ayahuasca is a medicinal plant, yet before we take it, I always speak about it with my patients to explain it as far as my knowledge will allow. One should know what one is taking, and it’s important to inform the patients. One comes to a ceremony with confidence, because this ceremony is not just any ceremony, it’s a healing ceremony, a ceremony to purify your mind, body, and soul. Ayahuasca has the power to take you to the present, past, and future. What happens when one takes ayahuasca? We human beings have neurotransmitters, and when someone takes ayahuasca, their neurotransmitters open up, and they enter into an amplified mental state. In this state they begin to hear, receive messages, experience visions, all through the medium of this plant.

A ceremony can make you go back into your past, and see everything that happened in your childhood. One can see how one grew up, including negative experiences such as being abused physically or mentally, losing a loved one, or even being raped. These are all psychological traumas that stay inside of a person, carved into their soul. These things weigh on a person, and as time goes by, they can descend into a depression or anxiety that the hospital or a pill will never cure, because it’s not a physical illness, it’s an illness of a person’s energies, and we can’t see energies. You can’t go to the hospital for depression, they’ll give you an xray, and they’ll never find the source of your illness, because it’s not physical. What happens when someone takes ayahuasca? Only ayahuasca will purify your mind, body and soul, because ayahuasca is a positive energy that is not compatible with any kind of negative energy.

The human being, all of us, we are full of psychological traumas and emotional waste. We have a solar plexis here, where all of our negative energies and emotional waste gets concentrated. And what happens when someone takes ayahuasca? Sometimes you throw up, right? In Western medicine, throwing up is considered a sickness, right? But, in the world of traditional medicine, in a healing ceremony, throwing up is a form of purifying oneself, cleaning and curing oneself. Many people confuse ayahuasca with a drug, but it’s not a drug, it’s a healing plant, it’s not addictive. It is not a hallucinogen, it’s not like people think, many times, I’ve heard people say that ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic plant, but it’s not, it’s a visionary plant. It’s not a palliative medicine, is not a dissociative treatment, it’s an integral treatment because ayahuasca doesn’t teach you to hate other people. Ayahuasca shows you how to understand yourself and those around you, and how to value others. It teaches you how to view your life in a positive manner. Taking ayahuasca mean regenerating yourself, because it cleans out your mind, body, and soul. That it what ayahuasca does.

Well, we are going to take ayahuasca tonight. We must ask ayahuasca, the mother plant, to cure us and heal us. We must be thankful to the universal god, creator of the world, because thanks to him, this amazing plant, this healing plant, grows on the earth. And thanks to this plant which has taught me it’s healing powers, there is a way to treat patients. Before taking this medicine, each person should ask themselves what they wish to observe. Ayahuasca is not a trickster, whatever you ask of it, it will do for you.

We healers, medicine men, sometimes people think that we are acting out some theater by singing during a ceremony. The icaros, the songs, are known in the world of traditional medicine as healing songs, purifying songs, they’re not just any songs. These songs are specific to each case. For example, there are icaros for depression. Sometimes people say that the healer makes up the songs, no! If they were invented, no one would ever be healed. Ayahuasca must be handled with care, because it is not a game. It is a very powerful positive energy, a universal energy, and we cannot take it lightly.

Ayahuasca is a plant that we have been using, generation after generation, since our ancestors, for a millenia. We Shipibo have been very privileged. Before the arrival of modern science, we cured all our illness with plants alone, and every illness had its antidote. Unfortunately, now that there is western medicine, we’ve left a lot of practices behind. But we have not yet abandoned our plants.

There are still places where there’s no medical post or hospital, yet people get by just fine.

They don’t get sick!

Well, the presence of each one of you tonight is very important: Carla… I forgot your name, I only know you by your stage name!

Ibeny

Also the presence of Delia and her husband, and the presence of Eliza here, who will be with us, she’s not going to participate, but she will see how a ceremony is performed. She is from the US, she’s a student, she’s doing an internship, she’s doing a good job, and I think that this will be one more experience for her to see how we use our plant medicine, and how we perform a healing ceremony. This is not a simulation, we are performing an original ceremony. And, of course, the presence of my wife, Fidelia, who always accompanies me during these ceremonies. I am truly grateful for the presence of all of you tonight. I wish that everyone could come and take ayahuasca. In the streets, in the television, on the radio, I notice people who are living in turbulence, and they don’t know which direction to turn to for help. As a healer, a medicine man, or as some would say, a shaman, I wish that people would turn to me and ask to be healed, because it’s not ethical for me to tell people that they are not well and need to be healed. People would just think that I was crazy. To cure oneself with plants, one must have faith, believe in god, believe in the plant, and believe in oneself.

Before beginning the ceremony, we must thank the mother plant once again, and ask that we be channeled and purified of the negative energies that we hold. In this way we will begin the ceremony in a good way, and that’s how it will be all the way through until the end of the ceremony. After the ceremony is over, we will feel like new people.

Those who want to heal themselves seek it out. The doctor will never come looking for you in your house when you are feeling bad. One has to go looking for the doctor if one is sick. I can see in you that you are strong, and that you are determined to heal yourselves. It would be very difficult if you didn’t have this confidence, for example, if your wife wanted to come, but you didn’t or vice versa. But here you both are, and that’s the most important thing. I know that last night you weren’t feeling good, and one should have to think “should I keep going or not?”. On the contrary, to cry is to purify oneself, to remove the anxiety from inside, and that’s part of the treatment, that’s how the healing works.

Yes, last night I was feeling bad.

That is from all the things you’re keeping inside…

Yes, I felt bad, and I only wanted to see my two sons and my husband. I was feeling cold and alone. That’s how I felt.

That’s how it is, but all sicknesses are painful to cure. When one has a fever or a pain in their body, what treatment is there in the hospital? They give you an injection, and when the needle goes in, does it hurt or not? It hurts! That’s exactly how it is with ayahuasca. To cure oneself, one has to enter into it and cry, or maybe throw up. Sometimes one feels like all their insides will come up out of their mouth…

When I throw up, I feel like there are dogs coming out of my mouth…

You know what’s happening? Those things that feel like dogs coming out are all the words and trash that you have to deal with.

One time, I felt like I had a beard. And I laughed, ha, ha, ha, I have a beard. And I went to wipe it off, smack! I hit myself in the face! And I asked the healer, [César’s] teacher, why did it feel like I had a beard? He laughed and said, “there’s something in your mind!”. I felt like I had a huge beard. Of course I didn’t, but that’s what it felt like!

That woman who came over, the woman who was crying the other night, she took ayahuasca, but she didn’t enter a trance. The first time that you were here, she was here too. The next day, I diagnosed her with tobacco, and she started coughing up phlegm. That night she took ayahuasca again and went into a trance. She was carrying all this anxiety about the death of her parents, and she had always been carrying this anxiety with her. That night her mother appeared to her, and she wanted to get closer, but the spirit wouldn’t let her, because it’s not a living energy.

As I’ve told you many times, there are many different things can occur, things that you could never imagine…

****

Sino a veces como todos las personas no somos iguales, hay resistencia en nuestro cuerpo cuando está demasiado cargado de energías negativas. Tomas ayahuasca, y es como si no te hace efecto, pero no es que no te esta haciendo efecto, te esta haciendo pero está procesando. Es con varias etapas, las problemas, entonces la primera etapa, está procesando, esta limpiando, esta limpiando, segundo etapa, tercera etapa, en fin llegue un momento cuando uno entra en tranza con una fuerza porque está eliminando y está purificando.

Hay plantas que estan bien preparados, la ayahuasca, y la mareación es fuerte. Hay medicinas que no están bien preparado, pues la fuerza de la mareación es un poco bajo. Pero cuando uno dice que la ayahuasca no sirve, si sirve, vale, pero hay ayahuascas que han sembrado los seres humanos, y hay ayahuascas que son naturales que crecen. Entonces eses ayahuascas que crecen naturalmente son ellos que tienen mucho más fuerza la medicina. Claro. Cuando uno siembra, pierde mucho más la fuerza. Claro, cuando uno prepara, por ejemplo, la papa, la cebolla, ya hacen con sustancia química, los echan para que no pueden comer los gusanos, un fertilizante. No soy agricultura pero pienso que asi trabajo esta tipo de cosas, pues es casi algo parecido con la ayahuasca. Hay ayahuascas que son muy jóvenes y ayahuascas que son muy viejos tambien, son más gruesos, esto también tiene fuerza, por ejemplo esto acá esta ayahuasca, esto es joven, esto se va creciendo.

Sabemos que la ayahuasca es una planta medicinal, ya todo sabemos, por eso, antes de tomar siempre hago una charla para explicarlo, y acuerdo el alcanzó de mis conocimientos. Uno tiene que saber lo que va a tomar, es importante informar a los pacientes. Porque uno viene confiado en una ceremonia porque esa ceremonia que no es cualquier tipo de ceremonia, es una ceremonia de sanación, una ceremonia de purificación en cuerpo, alma y mente. La ayahuasca tiene la propiedad de llevarte al presente, pasado y futuro. Que cosa sucede cuando uno toma ayahuasca? Nosotros los seres humanos tenemos nuestros neurotransmisores, toma ayahuasca automáticamente se desconectan, nuestra systema neurotransmisores, y entras en un estado de ampliación de la mente, y de ahí uno empieza a oír, a recibir los mensajes, a ver las visiones, por medio de esto planta te va informando.

Bien, porque una ceremonia te hace regresar en el pasado, y ver todo lo que ha pasado cuando uno era niño. Uno puede ver como a crecido, de repente, un lugar donde le han maltratado fisicamente o psicologicamente, o de repente, uno ha perdido un ser más querido, o de repente, uno a tenido violación. Entonces todos esta cosas son traumas psicológicos que quedan en uno, tallado en el alma de uno. Entonces estés tipos de caso, te traen con tiempo y avanzando y entras en un depression, angustia, y eso en el hospital no te van a curar por esto, la pastilla no te va a curar, porque no es una enfermedad físico, es una enfermedad energético, porque la energía nosotros no podemos ver. No puedes ir al hospital si tienes depresión, te pasan una transmision magnetica, nunca van a encontrar, porque no es un caso físico. Entonces que pasa cuando toma ayahuasca? La ayahuasca recien te purifica en cuerpo, alma y mente, porque el ayahuasca es un energía positivo que no es compatible con ninguna energía negativo.

El ser humano, nosotros todos, estamos llenas de traumas psicológicos y estamos llena de basuras emocionales. Nosotros tenemos un plexo solar acá, donde se concentran todos los energias negativas, las basuras emocionales. Entonces cuando toma la ayahuasca que pasa? uno arroja, no? En el mundo Europeo, arrojar es una enfermedad, no? Pero en el mundo de la medicina tradicional, en una ceremonia de sanación, arrojar es purificarse, limpiarse, y curarse. Eso es lo que cumple la punción, la ayahuasca. Muchos lo confunden con una droga, no es una droga, es una planta curativo, no es adictivo, es curativo. No es alucinógeno, no es lo como piensan la gente, yo he escuchado muchas veces: “la ayahuasca es una planta alucinógena”. No es, es una planta visionario, es una planta visionario. No es paliativo, no es disociativo, es integrativo porque la ayahuasca no te enseña a odiar a los demás La ayahuasca te enseña, la ayahuasca te canaliza que es uno mismo, que es los demás, que es valorar de los demás. Te enseña a conocer tu vida positivamente. Porque tomar ayahuasca es hacer una nueva reingeniería humana, porque te limpié en cuerpo, alma y mente, ese es lo que hace la ayahuasca.

Bueno, vamos a tomar la ayahuasca esta noche. Pedirle a la ayahuasca, a la madre planta ayahuasca que nos cure que nos sane. Agradecer al dios universal, creador del mundo, porque gracias a él, esta planta tan maravilloso, una planta sanadora, tenemos en la tierra. Y gracias a esta planta que me ha transmitido su poderes medicinales hay tratamiento de los pacientes. Una planta que vamos a tomar esta noche. Antes de tomar esta planta, hay que pedir, uno tiene que pedir, mentalmente que es lo que quiere observar. Porque la ayahuasca no es mesquin, la ayahuasca, lo que tu pides, lo hace.

Nosotros médicos, los curanderos, muchas veces pueden pensar que hacemos un teatro: cantar en una ceremonia. Los icaros, que son los cantos, los icaros que conocemos en el mundo de la medicina tradicional son cantos de sanación, cantos de purificación, no son cualquier cantos. Cantos que están canalizado para todo tipo de casos. Por ejemplo por la depresión hay icaros, hay icaros. Entonces muchos pueden decir: “los cantos del maestro son inventos”. No! Si son inventos nadie se curará. La ayahuasca hay que manejarla con mucho cuidado, porque la ayahuasca no es un juego. Como es una energía positiva muy grande, una energía universal, nosotros no podemos tomarlo en broma.

La ayahuasca es una planta que nosotros venimos utilizando de generacion en generacion nos antepasados, es una planta milenario. Nosotros los Shipibos estuvimos muy privilegiados. Antes que llegue la medicina científica, nosotros nos curabamos con pura plantas, y todos los enfermedades tienen sus antídotos. Lamentablemente cuando llegó la medicina científica ya, nosotros, hemos ido dejando de un lado también. Pero hasta este momento no hemos abandonado a nuestra planta.

Hay lugares donde no hay ni poste ni hospital, allá la gente vive normal…

No se enferman!

Bueno, la presencia de cada uno de ustedes esta noche es muy importante: Carla, la señora, cual es tu nombre? conozco..

Ibeny

…Conozco su nombre de artista no más! La presencia de la señora Delia y su esposo, y la presencia de Eliza acá, que va a estar con nosotros acá, ella no va a tomar pero va a ver como se maneja una ceremonia. Ella es de los Estados Unidos, es estudiante, está haciendo su practica, esta haciendo bien, y creo para ella va a ser una experiencia más como nosotros indígenas manejamos nuestra planta, como se hace una tratamiento, una ceremonia. Este no es una simulacro, estamos haciendo una ceremonia original, real… Y la presencia de mi esposa, Fidelia, que siempre me acompaña en este tipo de ceremonias.

Realmente, estoy muy agradecido por la presencia de ustedes. Yo como quisiera que todo la gente viniera a tomar ayahuasca. Yo veo en la calles, en el televisor, en la radio, y vi gente que vive en un turbulencia en no saben a donde ir para curarse. Pero por el hecho ser médico tradicional, o curandero, o lo que llaman chamán, a veces uno piensa, como quisiera que me digen “curame, saname”. Porque no es ético decir: “estas mal, vente, te voy a curar”, va a decir “estás loco y no sabes nada”. Para curarse con las plantas hay que tener fé, creer en dios, creer en la planta, y creer en uno mismo.

Antes de comenzar la ceremonia, agradecer una vez más la madre planta ayahuasca, que nos canalize, nos purifique de todos los energias negativas que tenemos cargados. Así comenzamos bien, y así también hasta la final de la ceremonia, hasta el cierre de la ceremonia, así va a ser. Despues de la ceremonia, nosotros va a sentirnos otra persona.

El que quiere sanar, busca. El médico nunca te va a buscar en tu casa si estas mal. Uno tiene que buscar al médico para curarse. Yo veo que en ustedes hay la fuerza, la voluntad, de querer sanarse, de querer curarse. Porque sería difícil que tu no tienes confianza de tu parte, o que tu señora no cre y no quiere venir, o de repente tu, si, pero tu señora no quiere venir, pero en este caso, los dos estan, y esto es lo mas importante. Yo sé que anoche ustedes se sentirán un poco mal, uno no tiene que pensar “sigue o no”, al contrario, llorar es purificarse, sacar la angustia de adentro, eso se trata el tratamiento, esa se trata la curación.

Si, anoche me sentí mal.

Esto es lo que estás guardando interno.

Si me sentí mal, solamente queria ver a mis dos hijos y a él también. Sentía frío, sentía sola, así me sentía.

Así es, pero todo enfermedad, para curarse, duele. Cuando uno tiene fiebre o tiene dolor en el cuerpo, que curacion hay en el hospital? te pone la ampolla, cuando entra la aguja, duele o no duele? Duele! Igualito es cuando uno toma la ayahuasca, para curarse uno tiene que entrar, y llorar, de repente estás arrojando, a veces cuando uno arroja ya no quiere seguir arrojando, porque piensa que todo su adentro va a salir por la boca…

Yo cuando arrojo siento perros asi saliendo…

Sabes lo que esta pasando? Lo que tu sientes como perros son las palabras y basuras que uno maneja…

Yo tambien, senti que tenia una barba así, y reí, ja ja ja, una barba, yo tengo barbas, y me hago para sacar todo, y ahhh plaa! me di un cachetán, y no habia nada, y pregunté al maestro, su maestro de el, “porque he sentido que yo tengo barbas? El se rió me decia “hay algo en tu mente” me dijo! Yo sentí que tenía una barbasa hasta acá! Pero no es pues, así te haces sentir.

La señora que venía, la señora que estaba llorando esta noche, ella tomaba ayahuasca pero no se marea. La primera vez que estaba también venía ella. Al dia siguiente ella dijo, yo le di cigarro, empezó a bota flemas, y la noche vino tomó su ayahuasca, entra en trance, lo que ella llevó el angustia de cómo murio sus padres, y siempre esta cargando este angustia. entonces esta noche decía que su madre apareció y quería acercarse pero lo le dejó acercarse, porque no es una energía vivo pues.

Como han escuchado muchos veces, son muchos casos que se pueden ver, lo que nunca se imagina…