Seed Newsvineayahuasca
Peru declares ayahuasca part of cultural heritage
18/08/08 02:03
Good news in Peru, with the following
announcement..
Peru declares ayahuasca part of cultural heritage
The Government of Peru declared the traditional knowledge and the use of Ayahuasca practiced by the indigenous communities of the Amazon forest to be national cultural patrimony. Ayahuasca is more commonly known in Brazil as Santo Daime. The decision of the peruvian Government, signed by the Director of the National Institute of Culture, Javier Ugaz Villacorta, was published on the Saturday edition of the country’s official daily newspaper, El Peruano.
[From Peru declares ayahuasca part of cultural heritage - A general introduction to Ayahuasca]
This is a very welcome decision by the Peruvian legislature, as it makes it less likely that those treating illness using Ayahuasca will be charged for practicing medicine without a license, and will confer more legitimacy upon Ayahuasca as a medicine in other legislatures throughout the world. It also has relevance for the struggle of indigenous peoples to retain the usage of other traditional medicines without persecution. The traditional use of coca, legal only in Peru and Bolivia, is under threat from the international law making bodies, a subject which I will be soon addressing in this space. This decision as well as recent actions by Peruvian politicians may well bring recognition of these issues to the attention of the broader international community.
Particularly of interest is the distinction between traditional and touristic use, an issue of need for discussion with the rise of "Ayahuasca tourism", which is certainly obvious in Cusco, where I am currently living.
Peru’s Government states that the effects produced by Ayahuasca have been extensively investigated due to their complexity and are different from the ones usually produced by hallucinogens. Part of that difference consists on the ritual of consumption, that leads to several effects, however always within a culturally limited margin, and with religious, therapeutical and cultural purposes" says Javier Villacorta.
According to the Peruvian Government, "the practice of Ayahuasca ritual sessions and their ancestral use in the traditional rituals, guaranteeing cultural continuity, is tied to the therapeutical virtues.
There is a need for protection of the traditional use and the sacred aspect of the Ayahuasca ritual, differentiating it from the Occidental use, which is out of context, consumerist and with commercial purposes" allerts the statement of the National Institute of Culture.
As I say, the issue of Ayahausca tourism is a pressing one, and I have personally frequently attended to the needs of "occidentals" here and in Australia, who have partaken of Ayahuasca in circumstances less than ideal, or where the intentions of the facilitator have been unfocussed or actively malicious.
One aspect of the announcement, however, which is of concern for me personally is the use of the word "patrimony". For me it seems quite at odds with legislations pertaining to a plant regularly referred to as La Madre or La Abuela (mother or grandmother). Whilst I enter ceremonies with the utmost respect for the traditions of those who hold them, I believe that Ayahuasca has clearly moved beyond a construct of indigenous, jungle usage, and that the manner in which new cultures of Ayahuasca usage develop should not be limited by the limited world views of a particular patriarchy. I feel that Ayahuasca herself will determine how and when these new modes of working unfold, but any attempts to control the usage of Sacred Medicines should be diligently examined by all who care for the freedom and evolution of human consciousness.
Peru declares ayahuasca part of cultural heritage
The Government of Peru declared the traditional knowledge and the use of Ayahuasca practiced by the indigenous communities of the Amazon forest to be national cultural patrimony. Ayahuasca is more commonly known in Brazil as Santo Daime. The decision of the peruvian Government, signed by the Director of the National Institute of Culture, Javier Ugaz Villacorta, was published on the Saturday edition of the country’s official daily newspaper, El Peruano.
[From Peru declares ayahuasca part of cultural heritage - A general introduction to Ayahuasca]
This is a very welcome decision by the Peruvian legislature, as it makes it less likely that those treating illness using Ayahuasca will be charged for practicing medicine without a license, and will confer more legitimacy upon Ayahuasca as a medicine in other legislatures throughout the world. It also has relevance for the struggle of indigenous peoples to retain the usage of other traditional medicines without persecution. The traditional use of coca, legal only in Peru and Bolivia, is under threat from the international law making bodies, a subject which I will be soon addressing in this space. This decision as well as recent actions by Peruvian politicians may well bring recognition of these issues to the attention of the broader international community.
Particularly of interest is the distinction between traditional and touristic use, an issue of need for discussion with the rise of "Ayahuasca tourism", which is certainly obvious in Cusco, where I am currently living.
Peru’s Government states that the effects produced by Ayahuasca have been extensively investigated due to their complexity and are different from the ones usually produced by hallucinogens. Part of that difference consists on the ritual of consumption, that leads to several effects, however always within a culturally limited margin, and with religious, therapeutical and cultural purposes" says Javier Villacorta.
According to the Peruvian Government, "the practice of Ayahuasca ritual sessions and their ancestral use in the traditional rituals, guaranteeing cultural continuity, is tied to the therapeutical virtues.
There is a need for protection of the traditional use and the sacred aspect of the Ayahuasca ritual, differentiating it from the Occidental use, which is out of context, consumerist and with commercial purposes" allerts the statement of the National Institute of Culture.
As I say, the issue of Ayahausca tourism is a pressing one, and I have personally frequently attended to the needs of "occidentals" here and in Australia, who have partaken of Ayahuasca in circumstances less than ideal, or where the intentions of the facilitator have been unfocussed or actively malicious.
One aspect of the announcement, however, which is of concern for me personally is the use of the word "patrimony". For me it seems quite at odds with legislations pertaining to a plant regularly referred to as La Madre or La Abuela (mother or grandmother). Whilst I enter ceremonies with the utmost respect for the traditions of those who hold them, I believe that Ayahuasca has clearly moved beyond a construct of indigenous, jungle usage, and that the manner in which new cultures of Ayahuasca usage develop should not be limited by the limited world views of a particular patriarchy. I feel that Ayahuasca herself will determine how and when these new modes of working unfold, but any attempts to control the usage of Sacred Medicines should be diligently examined by all who care for the freedom and evolution of human consciousness.
|
Mas Media
04/07/08 07:56
Forgive the Spanish pun, por
favor.
It has been, yet again, a long time since my prior post, but I feel a flurry of information immanent. As I mentioned in my prior post I have felt to extend the possibility of communication of healing in a broader landscape, and the last months have seen a gestation of various possibilities in that regard. I will explain further, but first an account of the broad unfoldings in my personal and professional journey of the last months.
I had intended to journey to Peru with my immediate family in 2008, to deepen my relationships with the plants and spirits there, in order to be more effective in service to that which seems most obviously my raison d'etre. This had been planned for March, but during the course of said planning, a client and friend contacted me to say that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. As she had previously effected a successful cure of multiple sclerosis with the assistance of myself, Dr Valentin Hampejs, Ayahuasca, Huachuma and a bevy of other spirits, she asked for my assistance in seeking a cure in South America with the medicines which had prior offered her so much healing in her life, physical, mental, emotional and energetic.
Despite some logistical and emotional difficulties in leaving my family early, I introduced Lakshmi to my friend in the North of Peru, Ysabel and set about making arrangements to meet her there approximately a month after own arrival.
Ysabel is a Huachumera of some 25 years experience, whose teachings have been received directly from the plants themselves and the manner of her teachings in part parallels my own. I felt it important, given the nature of the disease that Lakshmi pursue treatment with women. She concurred and, after an overwhelmingly generous offer of financial support from her community, set off for the deserts of Northern Peru and the expert treatments of Ysabel and her co-curandera Olinda therin.
During the course of my own preparations to follow her and support that curing and healing process, I had engaged in a dialogue with my friend Liz Thompson about a project we had been discussing for some years, being a feature documentary film about the teacher plants, and South American curanderismo. We agreed that the story of Lakshmi's journey to seek healing was one worthy of telling, and hastily set about researching if documenting that were possible.
As this research continued, Lakshmi's healing in Chiclayo continued, with Ysabel and Huachuma determining that one of the root causes of the cancer was an energetic condition which was ancestral in origin. This condition was not viewed as identical to a genetic dysfunction, but with certain parallels. I will be discussing the particular nature of that condition a little later, but the perceived reality of the situation was that the condition had been passed to Laksmi's sons Rob and Dan. Rob had already accompanied his mother to Peru, along with their friend Purdie, who was acting in the role of interpreter (amongst other things!). Dan had planned to journey to Peru to meet his mother there, but upon hearing Ysabel's perspective that a ceremony with Lakshmi, Dan and Rob together would be a powerful manner in which to heal the ancestral condition, Dan decided he would like to travel with me to Peru to facilitate that process.
In the mean time a development funding application had been made to the Australian Film Commission by Liz and I, but in the absence of an immediate response a decision had been made to pursue the film regardless of funding opportiunities. This afforded me the opportunity to learn from yet another Maestra, but also to maximise the effectiveness of my time spent in Peru in the absence of my family. All these decisions were made in the week prior to my departure, but made they were, and so Dan, Liz and myself met in the Sydney airport to begin our long journey to Chiclayo.
A series of delays ensued, which bordered on absurdity, but eventually after interminable airport waitings and a long taxi journey through the coastal deserts (a 2m hole had appeared in the runway at Chiclayo overnight prior to our arrival, so we made the final leg of our journey from Trujillo 3 hours south) we arrived at Pimental, a small coastal town just to the West of Chiclayo where Lakshmi, Rob and Purdie had made their home.
When we finally did arrive we found Lakshmi and her compadres in good hands and receiving the most voluptuous of attentions from Ysabel & Olinda. The ceremony to include Dan had been postponed in order to give us some time to rest after our lengthy travels, so we set about negotiating the rearrangements necessary to have 6 people living in an apartment which had prior provided for three!
Lakshmi's regular herbal treatments continued during the course of that time, as did the filming of the documentary. Ysabel and Olinda have been the subject of a number of documentaries, and were most delightfully accommodating of the camera.
The final ceremony (Dan's first experience with Huachuma) was performed, and felt strongly by all. The treatment was deemed a success, and with the exception of a continued herbal regimen for the subsequent months, considered completed.
I was not prepared to make such definitive pronouncements, given the magnitude of the journey Lakshmi had undertaken, and encouraged her to seek other advice in the jungle, where I felt the opportunity to work with Ayahuasca would afford her the opportunity to see for herself the emotional and mental antecedents to the disease process. Despite my own intuitive (not unfounded!) resistance to the place, I felt that given my own contacts and the nature of the unfoldings we were experiencing in the immediacy, Iquitos would be the best place for that to occur. I travelled there with Liz, who documented the process of my search for a suitable vegetalista for Lakshmi to work with.
The gracious offerings of my friend's friend Ferdinando, offered me an introduction with a North American curandero Carlos, who facilitated a meeting with a vegetalista who had cured herself of cancer some years prior. I felt that she, dona Othelia, was just the person I had come to Iquitos to find, but had reservations about Lakshmi's capacity or indeed desire to live in the jungle for the course of what Othelia determined would be a "rigorous treatment". Nonetheless shortly thereafter Lakshmi, Rob, Purdie and Dan arrived in Iquitos, and Lakshmi's meeting with dona Othelia confirmed my own intuitions, and she made arrangements to settle in for what has eventuated as a long stay in the jungle some 50km from Iquitos.
I remained in observation of the process, documenting with Liz and assisting in ceremony with Othelia until the arrival of my family in Iquitos some time later. Upon their arrival Liz departed to meet with her own family in Australia, and I remained to continue the documentary process, and my support of Lakshmi. When it became obvious that she was in the best of hands, and in the best possible place she could be for her journey, I left the jungle and made my way to Cusco, from where I write this.
Lakshmi remains in the jungle, receiving very successful work daily from dona Othelia. Although it was determined that Ayahuasca at the outset was too strong for her, the work with many other plants has offered Lakshmi much by way of curing and insight. A recent CT scan in Iquitos showed a calcification of one of the tumours, excellent news from a variety of perspectives. Again I will be sharing more soon.
Being in the Andes has afforded the opportunity for some rest from what has been an arduous journey, and the opportunity to further my own work with Huachuma and the Apus and Pachamamas that I began in this very location some 12 months ago. It has also allowed me to offer some service to this land and it's peoples by offering treatments for the mentally ill in the Sacred Valley by way of Ayni.
In order to support myself and my family financially i am continuing telephone sessions for Australian clients, which have been remarkably effective physically, emotionally and energetically. I will be writing more of this as well, as it offers immediate and demonstrative proof (insofar as lived experience at least) of the manner in which all of us are entwined in a remarkably complex web of life on this planet.
Obviously this is a very condensed account of the last six months. I made an attempt to post some of this information some months ago in the jungle, but the data was lost in the upload, and until now I have not had the opportunity to return to it. I have a good deal more to share, but wanted to offer a synopsis of the journey for regular readers.
In an effort to offer more than I am able in one to one sessions, I have embarked upon a project of creating, gathering and sharing information about healing, particularly about the plants, spirits and traditions of this continent which so obviously deeply informs my personal work. I will be providing vignettes of Lakshmi's process, Interviews with various healers and activists in this region, as well as providing a portal for informations produced by others in relation to such subjects at QUANTUMLIFE.TV
This information will be exclusively multimedia, and I will continue to provide written updates about Quantum Life Bodyworks and my own personal journey, and the progression of the production of the documentary directed by LIz and I, as time and inspiration allow both here and at my website.
As I have said this is by necessity a very brief account. I will attempt to convey some more of the magnitude of the opportunity for healing that the material journey has provided in the coming months. As I say, my personal journey has not been without tumult, but I am grateful for the opportunities for growth and healing that this has afforded. I feel that Lakshmi has been most generously supported in her curing, and this is precisely the nature of healing in which I wish to participate, where all are recognised for their particular gifts and skills, and the actions of the whole recognised as integral to any one individual's health. We've a long way to go before we develop or rediscover a language for that, but glad to be seeing a way towards that.
So, if I am not too presumptuous in doing so, insofar as support for Lakshmi's healing journey I would like to thank directly my wife Jo, my daughter's Ruby and Maya, Rob, Purdie and Dan, Kerrie, Helen, Ysabel, Olinda, Liz, Simon and their daughters, Othelia, Nicholas, Nino, Carlos, Justin, Ferdinando, Gerry and Alana, Ron, Huachuma, Ayahuasca, Huaca Purana, Ajo Sacha and all the other healing and teaching plants. To my parents, my granparents, my ancestors, my guides and teachers. To the Apus and Pachamamas and all the beings of the unseen realms who support these processes. All of these beings, as well as countless others have offered their energies directly in support of Lakshmi, and thus in support of my journey, and none of this would have occurred in this manner of unfolding without their support. Gracias a todo.
Hasta Pronto.
Simon
all the images on this page, other than those which contain her image, are the art and thus remain the property of Liz Thompson.
It has been, yet again, a long time since my prior post, but I feel a flurry of information immanent. As I mentioned in my prior post I have felt to extend the possibility of communication of healing in a broader landscape, and the last months have seen a gestation of various possibilities in that regard. I will explain further, but first an account of the broad unfoldings in my personal and professional journey of the last months.
I had intended to journey to Peru with my immediate family in 2008, to deepen my relationships with the plants and spirits there, in order to be more effective in service to that which seems most obviously my raison d'etre. This had been planned for March, but during the course of said planning, a client and friend contacted me to say that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. As she had previously effected a successful cure of multiple sclerosis with the assistance of myself, Dr Valentin Hampejs, Ayahuasca, Huachuma and a bevy of other spirits, she asked for my assistance in seeking a cure in South America with the medicines which had prior offered her so much healing in her life, physical, mental, emotional and energetic.
Despite some logistical and emotional difficulties in leaving my family early, I introduced Lakshmi to my friend in the North of Peru, Ysabel and set about making arrangements to meet her there approximately a month after own arrival.
Ysabel is a Huachumera of some 25 years experience, whose teachings have been received directly from the plants themselves and the manner of her teachings in part parallels my own. I felt it important, given the nature of the disease that Lakshmi pursue treatment with women. She concurred and, after an overwhelmingly generous offer of financial support from her community, set off for the deserts of Northern Peru and the expert treatments of Ysabel and her co-curandera Olinda therin.
During the course of my own preparations to follow her and support that curing and healing process, I had engaged in a dialogue with my friend Liz Thompson about a project we had been discussing for some years, being a feature documentary film about the teacher plants, and South American curanderismo. We agreed that the story of Lakshmi's journey to seek healing was one worthy of telling, and hastily set about researching if documenting that were possible.
As this research continued, Lakshmi's healing in Chiclayo continued, with Ysabel and Huachuma determining that one of the root causes of the cancer was an energetic condition which was ancestral in origin. This condition was not viewed as identical to a genetic dysfunction, but with certain parallels. I will be discussing the particular nature of that condition a little later, but the perceived reality of the situation was that the condition had been passed to Laksmi's sons Rob and Dan. Rob had already accompanied his mother to Peru, along with their friend Purdie, who was acting in the role of interpreter (amongst other things!). Dan had planned to journey to Peru to meet his mother there, but upon hearing Ysabel's perspective that a ceremony with Lakshmi, Dan and Rob together would be a powerful manner in which to heal the ancestral condition, Dan decided he would like to travel with me to Peru to facilitate that process.
In the mean time a development funding application had been made to the Australian Film Commission by Liz and I, but in the absence of an immediate response a decision had been made to pursue the film regardless of funding opportiunities. This afforded me the opportunity to learn from yet another Maestra, but also to maximise the effectiveness of my time spent in Peru in the absence of my family. All these decisions were made in the week prior to my departure, but made they were, and so Dan, Liz and myself met in the Sydney airport to begin our long journey to Chiclayo.
A series of delays ensued, which bordered on absurdity, but eventually after interminable airport waitings and a long taxi journey through the coastal deserts (a 2m hole had appeared in the runway at Chiclayo overnight prior to our arrival, so we made the final leg of our journey from Trujillo 3 hours south) we arrived at Pimental, a small coastal town just to the West of Chiclayo where Lakshmi, Rob and Purdie had made their home.
When we finally did arrive we found Lakshmi and her compadres in good hands and receiving the most voluptuous of attentions from Ysabel & Olinda. The ceremony to include Dan had been postponed in order to give us some time to rest after our lengthy travels, so we set about negotiating the rearrangements necessary to have 6 people living in an apartment which had prior provided for three!
Lakshmi's regular herbal treatments continued during the course of that time, as did the filming of the documentary. Ysabel and Olinda have been the subject of a number of documentaries, and were most delightfully accommodating of the camera.
The final ceremony (Dan's first experience with Huachuma) was performed, and felt strongly by all. The treatment was deemed a success, and with the exception of a continued herbal regimen for the subsequent months, considered completed.
I was not prepared to make such definitive pronouncements, given the magnitude of the journey Lakshmi had undertaken, and encouraged her to seek other advice in the jungle, where I felt the opportunity to work with Ayahuasca would afford her the opportunity to see for herself the emotional and mental antecedents to the disease process. Despite my own intuitive (not unfounded!) resistance to the place, I felt that given my own contacts and the nature of the unfoldings we were experiencing in the immediacy, Iquitos would be the best place for that to occur. I travelled there with Liz, who documented the process of my search for a suitable vegetalista for Lakshmi to work with.
The gracious offerings of my friend's friend Ferdinando, offered me an introduction with a North American curandero Carlos, who facilitated a meeting with a vegetalista who had cured herself of cancer some years prior. I felt that she, dona Othelia, was just the person I had come to Iquitos to find, but had reservations about Lakshmi's capacity or indeed desire to live in the jungle for the course of what Othelia determined would be a "rigorous treatment". Nonetheless shortly thereafter Lakshmi, Rob, Purdie and Dan arrived in Iquitos, and Lakshmi's meeting with dona Othelia confirmed my own intuitions, and she made arrangements to settle in for what has eventuated as a long stay in the jungle some 50km from Iquitos.
I remained in observation of the process, documenting with Liz and assisting in ceremony with Othelia until the arrival of my family in Iquitos some time later. Upon their arrival Liz departed to meet with her own family in Australia, and I remained to continue the documentary process, and my support of Lakshmi. When it became obvious that she was in the best of hands, and in the best possible place she could be for her journey, I left the jungle and made my way to Cusco, from where I write this.
Lakshmi remains in the jungle, receiving very successful work daily from dona Othelia. Although it was determined that Ayahuasca at the outset was too strong for her, the work with many other plants has offered Lakshmi much by way of curing and insight. A recent CT scan in Iquitos showed a calcification of one of the tumours, excellent news from a variety of perspectives. Again I will be sharing more soon.
Being in the Andes has afforded the opportunity for some rest from what has been an arduous journey, and the opportunity to further my own work with Huachuma and the Apus and Pachamamas that I began in this very location some 12 months ago. It has also allowed me to offer some service to this land and it's peoples by offering treatments for the mentally ill in the Sacred Valley by way of Ayni.
In order to support myself and my family financially i am continuing telephone sessions for Australian clients, which have been remarkably effective physically, emotionally and energetically. I will be writing more of this as well, as it offers immediate and demonstrative proof (insofar as lived experience at least) of the manner in which all of us are entwined in a remarkably complex web of life on this planet.
Obviously this is a very condensed account of the last six months. I made an attempt to post some of this information some months ago in the jungle, but the data was lost in the upload, and until now I have not had the opportunity to return to it. I have a good deal more to share, but wanted to offer a synopsis of the journey for regular readers.
In an effort to offer more than I am able in one to one sessions, I have embarked upon a project of creating, gathering and sharing information about healing, particularly about the plants, spirits and traditions of this continent which so obviously deeply informs my personal work. I will be providing vignettes of Lakshmi's process, Interviews with various healers and activists in this region, as well as providing a portal for informations produced by others in relation to such subjects at QUANTUMLIFE.TV
This information will be exclusively multimedia, and I will continue to provide written updates about Quantum Life Bodyworks and my own personal journey, and the progression of the production of the documentary directed by LIz and I, as time and inspiration allow both here and at my website.
As I have said this is by necessity a very brief account. I will attempt to convey some more of the magnitude of the opportunity for healing that the material journey has provided in the coming months. As I say, my personal journey has not been without tumult, but I am grateful for the opportunities for growth and healing that this has afforded. I feel that Lakshmi has been most generously supported in her curing, and this is precisely the nature of healing in which I wish to participate, where all are recognised for their particular gifts and skills, and the actions of the whole recognised as integral to any one individual's health. We've a long way to go before we develop or rediscover a language for that, but glad to be seeing a way towards that.
So, if I am not too presumptuous in doing so, insofar as support for Lakshmi's healing journey I would like to thank directly my wife Jo, my daughter's Ruby and Maya, Rob, Purdie and Dan, Kerrie, Helen, Ysabel, Olinda, Liz, Simon and their daughters, Othelia, Nicholas, Nino, Carlos, Justin, Ferdinando, Gerry and Alana, Ron, Huachuma, Ayahuasca, Huaca Purana, Ajo Sacha and all the other healing and teaching plants. To my parents, my granparents, my ancestors, my guides and teachers. To the Apus and Pachamamas and all the beings of the unseen realms who support these processes. All of these beings, as well as countless others have offered their energies directly in support of Lakshmi, and thus in support of my journey, and none of this would have occurred in this manner of unfolding without their support. Gracias a todo.
Hasta Pronto.
Simon
all the images on this page, other than those which contain her image, are the art and thus remain the property of Liz Thompson.
on Media
18/03/08 07:28
The healing vision of Quantum Life
Bodyworks has always included more than solely the laying on of
hands. It was with great pleasure that in November of 2007 I met
with Rachael Kohn of Radio National to discuss something of my understanding
of the nature of plant based shamanism in the South Americas, and
the way in which my work was informed by these traditions.
I was grateful for Rachael's openness in discussing seemingly arcane topics, and exponentially gratified by the reception of many throughout the world who called and emailed to thank me for the manner in which the interview shifted their perceptions, and helped them to understand things that they themselves had long sought to articulate.
That particular venture has paved the way for a collaboration with award winning documentary film-maker Liz Thompson to explore at length the curing traditions based around the usage of the Sacred Plant medicines...
More news on that subject later, but until then the Radio National interview is available in mp3 format below.
Radio National The Spirit of Things
I was grateful for Rachael's openness in discussing seemingly arcane topics, and exponentially gratified by the reception of many throughout the world who called and emailed to thank me for the manner in which the interview shifted their perceptions, and helped them to understand things that they themselves had long sought to articulate.
That particular venture has paved the way for a collaboration with award winning documentary film-maker Liz Thompson to explore at length the curing traditions based around the usage of the Sacred Plant medicines...
More news on that subject later, but until then the Radio National interview is available in mp3 format below.
Radio National The Spirit of Things