Ayahuasca-retreats.info invites you to participate in a retreat of Ayahuasca in the shipibo community of Dinamarca, near the city of Pucallpa in Peru. These stays in immersion of a minimum of twelve days to one month take place in a family of healers, under the guidance of two accomplished maestros with more than twenty years of experience in the medicine. You will be welcomed upon your arrival in Pucallpa. Two apprentices will participate as organizers and facilitators to ensure the logistics of your stay, providing translation services (French, English, Spanish, German), and psychological support.

Healing Center in Dinamarca

Situated on shipibo-conibo's land, the community of Dinamarca is one of the cradles of traditional amazonian medicine.

Why taking  Ayahuasca during a Retreat ?

Concerning the question of knowing the value of taking a trip to Peru to participate in a retreat with Ayahuasca, there is another question that might be worthwhile. Why spend in an Ayahuasca retreat in Peru when you can find Ayahuasca in your own country? It is quite plausible that by simply taking Ayahuasca, one can achieve visions, and perhaps even teachings. However, this quest for vision could also be done with other psychotropic drugs such as hallucinogenic mushrooms or LSD. Why then want to experience Ayahuasca by far the most unpleasant psychotropic, if not for the purpose of initiation? And how can one come to learn Ayahuasca without guides, referents or therapeutic framework? One needs to understand that Ayahuasca is not just a strico-senso simple beverage. It is a medicine belonging to a coherent whole, bringing together the ancestral knowledge of the healers, their connections to the spiritual worlds of the master plants, and their knowledge of the medicinal plants. Thus, to truly live this experience and fully benefit from its therapeutic potential, it seems essential to approach this medicine in a traditional context. This is what an Ayahuasca retreat can offer.

First it offers a therapeutic and safe environment under the guidance of traditional healers. Their knowledge of medicine and the spiritual worlds associated with them are accompanied by a protocol which is the pathway to the introduction to the medicine of master plants. By connecting to the master plants, the patient initiates a dialogue with their spiritual world, the purpose of which is to reconnect with oneself, to measure one’s true potential, and the path that will have to do to make this vision a reality. Finally, undertaking this journey of initiation is to give real value to his experience, so that these few weeks are dedicated to him entirely. To implement the conditions conducive to its evolution is already the first step required for all changes.

What is included in these retreats ?

How can I book for this retreat ?

To validate your subscription to one of our retreats, you will be asked to pay a deposit by bank transfer of a minimum of 50 % of total amount. As soon as the transfer is done, your participation for the retreat is confirmed. Otherwise, your booking may be denied. The deposit can not be refunded. On the other hand, if you are unable to participate in the retreat, this amount will be provisioned for a later date. The balance has to be paid before the beginning of the retreat in cash (USD or EUROS). Banknotes must be intact. Precision for dollars, we do not accept banknotes whose numbers begin with the letters CB. Regarding the payment of your stay, if you didn’t pay in advance, we advise you to come with cash. Some credit cards are not functioning in Peru. Also, Peruvian banks put also daily & monthly limits on foreign cards. You might not be able to pay for your stay.

How to contact us ?

[wpforms id=”1577″]

Can I take Ayahuasca ?

Regarding your physical or psychological state, the healers can reserve themselves the right not to give Ayahuasca to a patient if they feel that his physical or mental health could be compromised. But this does not prevent anybody who seeks for healing to receive a treatment. It is not necessary to take Ayahuasca to be healed. Traditionally only the healer drinks Ayahuasca in order to see what type of energy or misbalance of energy is affecting the patient. Traditional amazonian medicine doesn’t resume itself with Ayahuasca. For amazonian people, the most important part of the healing is the Diet. We invite you to see if you’re able or not to consume Ayahuasca by reading the chapter speaking about contraindications related with the consumption of Ayahuasca.

Recommendations

In order to guarantee a suitable environment for all the participants during the retreat, it is asked to respect certain instructions. The retreat is a moment of introspection for everyone, dedicated for a therapeutic work. It is important to respect this framework as well as the rules of community life. Each participant will be into a process that can lead to emotional instability. These transition phases are completely normal. Nevertheless, everyone has the right to live this experience serenely. It is important to ensure that everyone’s space of tranquility is respected, especially in the rooms. Dining room or maloca on the other hand are spaces dedicated for sharing and communication.

During the ceremonies, it is asked to come to Maloca ( house where ceremonies are taking place) 20 minutes before the beginning of the ceremony, in order to prepare and focus on your intention. During the ceremony, there may be difficult times. The healers are there for you and will take care of all the participants. However, do not hesitate to call on the facilitators who are there to accompany you and to help you if necessary. Maloca is a sacred space. We ask you to respect the workspace of the healers, and to remain silent as much as possible until the end of the ceremony. For your safety, we ask every participants to stay near the maloca during the ceremony, until the effects of Ayahuasca vanish.

By joining this retreat, each participant commits himself to respect the therapeutic protocol established by the healers including the respect of the diet.If a patient violates these prerogatives, he may compromise his own safety and the safety of other patients.

The post Two Weeks Immersion Retreats in Peru – Spirit of the Amazon appeared first on Ayahuasca-Retreats.info.

In a good number of alternative medicines, the deterioration of the patient’s physiological state is originally caused by psychological or emotional disorders. For Amazonian medicine, the health of the body and mind is inseparable. The observation of physical symptoms, psychological and mental disorders, emotional state, is considered globally as a series of phenomena originating from energetic disorder. According to them, man is composed of energies that represent his animal condition, his mode of feeding, his social and emotional relations, his beliefs, … He represents an energetic sum that should be released, channeled, harmonized and aligned. Of course, their conceptions of the energies differ from the Western view. They obviously reflect their cultures and traditions, but they are mostly related to the symbolic frame of reference and the cognitive material that Ayahuasca brings them.

The visions it provides as we saw earlier in the effects of ayahuasca, are diagnostic tools that have been used by these healers for thousands of years, this can also provide insight into the degree of affinity that these people have with this medicine. These communities hold an understanding and keys to reading a meaningful spiritual and sensory world that can guide the experienced traveler to the purpose of his journey. Thus one could say during an individual care for example, the healer will travel through his visions, unravel, clean and re-balance the “energies” affecting the individual, thanks to his experience and the energy of his icaros (sacred songs); which will result in a re-alignment of body and mind. The therapeutic effect on the physical and psychic body being the result of this energy balancing.

Amazonian Medicine and Plants

In order to understand what traditional Amazonian medicine is, let us imagine what the master plants represent for the peoples of the Amazon basin. Ayahuasca is commonly called “la madre” (the mother), tobacco is considered by some as the father, and so on … It must be understood that the plants are perceived by the Amazonian peoples as parents of the spiritual world, with whom they can communicate. Inseparable from nature and the plants that surround them, they have managed to bond with it, and have shaped a whole medicinal science. If mythologies differ between communities, the plants they use and the relationships they have with them are much the same. This is largely due to inter-tribal fluvial exchanges, which have always been practiced. Without this “sharing” of knowledge and medicinal plants, traditional Amazonian medicine could not have developed and still be passed on today. This is an important point to keep in mind when trying to learn about this medicine.

Traditional Medicine of Ayahuasca

The traditional medicinal use of “entheogenic” plants such as Ayahuasca leads the user to a modified state of consciousness. Entheogenic according to the Latin root “theos” – God, means to be converted into God inside, to be possessed by God, to feel God. In this sense, it allows us to reconnect with the soul that connects man to God. Ayahuasca makes it possible to touch with the finger what is sacred in the man. It revives the energy of life and awakens the divine part inherent to every human being. For the Amazonian people, the use of Ayahuasca is a way of living in full consciousness, like real human beings. Ayahuasca sublimates sensations, feelings, develops intuition, opens the doors of the imagination, and allows to enter a magico-religious spiritual world. For millennia, ancient indigenous cultures and their healers have been using this method of non additive trance without loss of lucidity, to treat various diseases, to question the world around them, to go to the root of problems and to recover health. The Ayahusca called “vine of death” is considered as “little death” because it leads us through a stage of destruction of the routines of life, vices, illusions of the ego, false beliefs, to then illuminate our consciousness, cut dependencies, heal relationships, in order to become strong and fully conscious.

Sacred Songs and Icaros

The icaro (shamanic song) contains a feeling, a consciousness and the power to guide participants during the Ayahuasca ceremony in the abyss of visions. The icaro heals and guards the patient while in the trance during treatment. Each master plant has its own medicine and icaros. When the healer connects to the energy of his plants, he receives their healing power and melodies that he then channels into an energetic song: the icaro.

There are two types of icaros, icaros in human language and icaros in nonhuman language. The human icaros are sung in the languages of the native peoples: shipibo, quechua, ashaninca, machiguenga, … They are a legacy of melodies, techniques and knowledge transmitted by the healers from generation to generation. Non-human spiritual languages are a deep language composed of unintelligible sounds referring to sounds of nature accompanied by beautifull melodies that the curandero channels as a message full of feelings. These icaos have no translation in human language but have a great emotional impact and an undeniable therapeutic value.

The Diet

The notion of Diet as the Amazonian natives conceive it does not correspond to our definition in the West. Originally the native peoples began a “Diet” to cure diseases or to support the tribe by becoming healers or hunters, … The Diet is a method of learning how to connect to the energy of a plant to receive its strength, power and knowledge. For the hunter or the fisherman this allows him to develop his instincts, to conceal his smell, and to detect the presence of animals. The healer began an apprenticeship in order to receive the healing power of plants, their knowledge of remedies, and their icaros.

The diet consists mainly in the preparation and taking of one or more master plants administered in a precise dosage and prescribed for a period defined by the healer. It is accompanied by dietary and behavioral restrictions in order to provide a therapeutic environment that is beneficial to the healing or learning process. Click on the following link if you wish to learn more about diets of master plants.

The Purge

It is common before initiating a process of care (Ayahusca ceremony and Plant Diet) that the healer gives his patient a purgative. There are several such as Tobacco that will be prepared as a decoction, the seeds of Piñon blanco will be toasted and then ingested, the bulb of the Azucena crushed and diluted, etc … These plants are toxic, emetic and laxative and must be carefully dosed and administered by a competent healer. It is advisable to drink a lot of warm water so that the purge can be carried out in depth, always under the supervision of the healer.

Traditional Amazonian medicine considers the treatment of a patient from these different angles: physiological, psychological, emotional, energetic … The purge represents an essential phase in the healing process because it acts on all these aspects both aimed at unloading the patient, cleansing and releasing the body to prepare for the Ayahuasca ceremony and allowing the plants to work in depth. At the end of the purge, the patient may still need some cleansing. Thanks to the Ayahuasca known for its purgative properties, the cleansing may possibly continue during ceremonies.

Flower baths and Steam baths

To help the patient in his process, the healer will administer healing in the form of flower baths. These are composed of master plants (it can be leaves or fragrant flowers) and sometimes colognes (ex: Agua de Florida). It is advisable not to rinse after bathing with the flowerbath so that the energy of the plants penetrates deeply into the patient’s body. Flower baths are used quite frequently before the Ayahuasca ceremonies to calm the mind and prepare the body to receive healing energy. Finally, let’s not forget that Ayahuasca is a gateway to the spiritual world of plants. Just as man is sensitive to nice smells, so are plants!

Steam baths are also part of the care of healers. Composed of boiled plants, the steam bath will penetrate the body in depth and cause sweating, to eliminate toxins from the body. Steam baths have been practiced all over the world, whether in huts or hamams. They are mainly used in case of fever, broncopulmonary infections, osteoarthritis, muscular pains, febrile states, etc … to evacuate the cold airs retained in the body.

The post Traditional Amazonian Medicine appeared first on Ayahuasca-Retreats.info.