This concept is very difficult for westerners to understand. “Can I drink by myself?”, they ask. And the shaman is often taken by surprise. “Why??”, he asks. “I never drink by myself. What will I do then? If I have no patients to heal, what is the use of my ceremony?”

The shaman drinks ayahuasca to work and to heal. If powers or visions come to him during that time, that is an expected side effect, but not sole objective of the ceremony. Certainly, different shamans have different ideas on this matter. Those who work with tourists have no problem with people drinking alone and without any real goal. There is also quite a bit of diversion among shamans in the way they run the ceremony.

Javier DaSilva insists that the singing of hymns and icaros must continue throughout the ceremony. If the maestro has to purge or to use the bathroom, one of his students immediately takes over with the singing. All of the students are also required to sing along, as long as they are not too intoxicated to do so. The only time there is silence in the room is when Javier speaks with the spirits. It then becomes clear why Javier doesn’t do private ceremonies. If he is required to sing for 4 or 5 hours, he needs to sing with some objective. Often, just one 5 minute icaro is enough to give a patient his or her daily dose of healing. Javier often told me that he cannot give somebody more than a certain number of icaros. Some people can only take one song. Others that are stronger may take 2, 3, 4 or very rarely, 5 songs. Beyond that, there remains nothing more to be done.

Other shamans sing only for 20 or 30 minutes and let their ayahuasca tourist customers lie in silence the rest of the time. This is not the traditional way. Shamans who sing the same songs over and over don’t know anything and should be avoided like the plague. Shamans who spend a lot of the ceremony talking should also be avoided. An ayahuasca ceremony is not the time for telling stories or even speaking about plants or spirits. The shaman should only talk with his patients and students when there is something of importance for them to know. General speeches about the power of plants and other such things are completely unacceptable in ceremony.

Traditionally the participants sit up during ceremonies. This custom is common all over the world. The idea of lying down and falling into semi-sleep is a recent addition made specifically for the tourists.

Having said all this, how is one to take an entheogen alone at home? It seems impossible to do this properly. First of all, the recreational user of ayahuasca or other psychedelics doesn’t know any songs. Even if he knows one or two icaros, what will he do for the rest of the ceremony? Secondly, the recreational user does not know where to direct the energy and has no clear objective to his ceremony. Thirdly, he will not want to remain sitting. He will probably want to lie down, listen to music, have the lights on, read, write, draw, talk, watch TV, etc, etc. All of these things are very far from the traditional ways of taking entheogens. Finally, the recreational user is not safe from spiritual entities, for he can neither see them nor command them. For all these reasons, I urge those who read this to clearly think about their use of entheogens and psychedelics, and to keep in mind that these things are not to be taken lightly.

One final question that I want to ask everyone who still uses entheogens is “What is your goal?”
Why do we seek supernatural experiences?  What is actually missing from our life?  I think THAT is the question to ask, and the answer certainly cannot be in anything EXTERNAL to ourselves, because the absence of something external could never produce the sense of emptiness inside.

The book contains 16 chapters and is a must-read for anyone planning to study ayahuasca shamanism in Peru or healing in Mexico.  It offers an inside view of ayahuasca apprenticeship, many conversations with shamans, personal experiences, description of ceremonies, healings, life in the jungle and much more.

In addition, the book talks about healing in Mexico, mushroom ceremonies, salvia ceremonies, mayan ceremonies, sweatlodge ceremonies and do-it-yourself New Age ceremony disasters.  The books ends with 20 pages of experiences at a radical Christian based center.

The E-Book is available now, it’s $15 by donation and will be sent to you by e-mail.

The paperback version should be coming in a few months!

Please contact us for details.

We also ask anyone visiting the center and working with us to write a testimonial of your experience.  Thanks!

Every human being is accompanied by parasitic entities. The type and number of entities varies from person to person. The entities feed on particular types of behavior, most notably on particular actions and on particular ways of thinking. For instance, an anger entity persists as long as it is allowed to dominate ones being. When anger is allowed to overtake your normal calm and alert state of mind, the anger entity gets its sustenance and disappears into the background. After a certain period of time, it is “hungry” again and wishes to take control of your body-mind-emotion organism. If you allow this to happen, it gets its sustenance and the cycle continues. If you do not allow your organism to be used by these parasitic entities, they will eventually leave you. They will then try to find another host who allows them to control his or her body-mind-emotions.

A swarm of foreign, parasitic entities follows behind the pure awareness that each human being is, and each of these creatures waits for an opportunity to completely overtake and dominate the body-mind-emotion organism for at least a short period of time. When this happens, we are unaware of what is happening. We identify ourselves with the parasite, actually believing that the anger is “me”. For instance, if the anger is attacked by someone, we feel that we are being attacked. If greed overtakes us and somebody points out how ugly that greed is, we feel insulted. If fear overtakes us and somebody points out that fear, we feel violated, because we have identified ourselves with the fear. Forgetting that we are pure Awareness, we identify with whatever parasite happens to be in control of our body. Once this identification happens, we try to keep the parasite alive and well in our organism, since we believe that we are that parasite. Even when another person tells us clearly that we are not that ugly phenomenon of anger, misery, fear, negativity, or whatever it may be, we refuse to listen. We do not even want to accept the fact that we are not the negative entity, regardless of how ugly that entity may be.

The parasites can only take control of one’s organism when one is unaware. If one is consciously striving to do good and is being very careful not to slip into any kind of destructive or negative behavior, it will be very hard for a parasite to take hold. However, one must be much more careful during certain special periods of time.

The parasitic entities are much more likely to succeed in overtaking your organism during these special periods. It is very important to not allow this to happen, since once your organism is overtaken, you become the parasite. Although you are always pure awareness, to you it is obvious that you are the parasite that is in control of your organism. Think about it: almost everything that you think, feel and do is the work of whatever parasite is in control. Although you may have periods of clarity and peace during your day, your thoughts and actions will return to the groove made by the parasite in question. You will then think thoughts such as “I did that”, “He/She does not like me”, “I could never do that”, and so forth. The “I” in each of these thoughts refers to the parasite and not to you, but through repetitive thinking of the same thoughts, you can develop long-term beliefs, which will eventually become very difficult to break.

The beliefs that you establish for yourself while being controlled by a parasite create perfect conditions for that parasite’s further survival. Everything you do or avoid doing is based on what you believe. If your beliefs are set by a parasite, you will end up doing things that benefit the parasite and further its existence. Certain conditions benefit more than one type of a parasite.

The following instructions are for self-healing through fasting and prayer.  The fasting can be done for as short as half a day and as long as 40 days, although longer fasts are not recommended without supervision.  A 3-7 day fast is generally safe for people with no serious health conditions.  Consult your doctor if in doubt.  The spiritual element of this article is largely based on the Mexico method (read also my article about Demonic Entities and their Removal) with slight modifications.

For at least one day before the fast, longer if possible, do not eat any meat, fish or eggs, and do not drink alcohol or coffee. The same for at least three days after the fast.

These instructions are for a water fast – no liquids can be taken except for water. The water should be high quality natural non-carbonated mineral water, not tap water. You should drink between 2-5 liters of pure water daily, as your body demands… When hungry, drink water, but don’t drink large quantities at once. If you really cannot handle the hunger and feel like giving up and eating, squeeze yourself a cup of juice (just 1!) from any fruits or vegetables.

Fasting has physical benefits, but to receive spiritual benefits, it should be accompanied by prayer. Those who don’t believe in God should realize that there are things they don’t know. We may not know God, but prayer works in mysterious ways. When you pray, know that the prayer will be answered, don’t doubt. After the prayer say “Amen” to close it.

On the day before the fast, give thanks for everything that you are thankful for. Ask for forgiveness for anything you may have done wrong. You will go into this more during the actual fast. Speak to God as if talking to a person, out loud and in private. Say your intention – you will fast for a specific number of days to achieve specific goals. Be very specific about what you want to achieve and state the reasons why you need to achieve those things. If the goals you set will help you do better things in the world, make sure to state that. Ask for protection during your fast. Say “Father, don’t let any evil touch me during this fast. Don’t let demons come near me and tempt me or harm me. Give me the strength to achieve these goals and to not fall”

On the first day of the fast, repeat your intention and begin by drinking a glass of water. You can actually set aside a quantity of water that you will use for the fast and pray while having your hands on the container. State all of your intentions. “May this water heal me, give me energy, purify me”, and so on. You can also hold the glass of water in both hands and again repeat your intention/prayer to it before drinking it. The power of prayer is not in the words themselves, but in the feeling. First, you have to enter sacred space, which feels differently. Then, you have to say the words. Saying the words without concentration will not give results.

While you are fasting, examine your past. Decide whether you walk with the dark or with the light. If you walk with the light and with God, declare it out loud. Say it to other people as well if you can. But most importantly declare to the spiritual world that you walk with the Light.

Whatever unhealthy behaviors you find, renounce them. Anything that doesn’t fit with your path with the Light needs to be renounced. Declare it out loud “I renounce …. from my life”. Once renounced, you should not engage in these behaviors again. After you renounce everything you want to get rid of – this includes behaviors as well as feelings, thoughts, diseases, problems, poverty, insomnia (there is no limit) – tell the spirits associated with each of the things you renounced to get out of your body. You could renounce, then go into the shower and speak in a loud and commanding voice to the spiritual entities inside to leave you. If you start yawning, burping or wanting to vomit or go to the bathroom, the process is working.

Some examples, you can say “Every spirit connected with Darkness, get out of me. Leave my body! Leave my mind. You are not welcome here, there is no place for you here. My life is with the light, and no dark spirit can remain inside me.”

Ask for God and spirits of light to assist you. “God, please rid me of all the spirits of darkness. Help me walk on the path of light. Free me from the past of my ancestors. Remove all darkness and everything evil from me.” These prayers are just examples, the words should come from your heart. Definitely don’t read the words off a page like some kind of magic formula.

In addition to general prayers to clean everything, you need to speak to EACH thing you are renouncing aloud as if it were a living being. For example “Spirit that makes me angry, spirit of anger, leave my body! You are not welcome here. Get out!” or “Spirit of insomnia get out!” or “Spirit that makes me anxious and restless, get out” or “spirit that is responsible for the anxiety in my family line, for the violence in my family line, etc” Again, you should actually feel movement inside your body, especially the stomach, or at the very least, you should be yawning.

For the duration of the fast, you can keep finding more things to renounce and repeat the process. Don’t have sex or do drugs during this time, don’t watch TV, don’t read anything except spiritual books, don’t listen to any music except spiritual music.

Each night before sleeping, ask God to teach you in your dreams, give thanks for the day and ask for help achieving all of your goals. In the morning, stay in bed a few minutes and try to remember any dream messages. Whatever you receive, write it down.

Optional – visit a church on Sunday. You might come upon someone who will help you.

Andrew at the Ayahuasca Confrence

Below are the first 4 pages of the book covering Andrew’s travels and apprenticeship in Peru and Mexico.  Those wishing to read the entire book should send a donation of minimum $10 and the complete e-book will be sent to them.  The book contains over 200 pages of relevant information.

I arrived in Iquitos a month prior to Alan Shoemaker’s annual Shamanism conference, at which I was scheduled to speak and display paintings. I was planning to stay in Peru for nearly 7 months. My objective was to find a teacher and learn the mysteries of Amazonian shamanism. I had left a stable job and a wonderful girlfriend in Canada in order to do this. The only things I packed were my paintings, paints, a few books and some clothes. It was my second time in Iquitos.

The heat, humidity, and noise hit me full on as I rode in the open carriage behind the motorcycle. There were no glass windows to shield me from the outside. I headed to Alan Shoemaker’s new house. An aging Australian woman who moved to Iquitos two years ago welcomed me inside. Alan later told me that since coming here to work with ayahuasca, she had lost about 60 pounds and that her appearance improved a great deal. When I made my entrance, she was in the yard, playing with her two baby monkeys. One of the monkeys was in a semi-comatose state. It had recently chewed on a branch of the Chiric Sanango tree growing in Alan’s yard. This plant is a powerful deliriant containing the same active chemical as Datura. For 54 hours, this poor monkey was tripping on a heroic dose of this sacred plant. “It’s going to evolve into another species”, we joked. “Yeah, it’s going to become a shaman and start healing other monkeys now.”
My plan was to have a ceremony with Percy Garcia, but upon arrival I was informed that he would not be holding one that evening. There would, however, be a ceremony with a Brazilian medium, Javier DaSilva. “He is really something else”, I was told. “Sometimes people are brought to the ceremony in wheelchairs and later walk out without help. He sometimes takes out his invisible sword and fight with spirits. Sometimes he takes on other personalities, speaking like a woman or like an old man. He is quite a showman”. I listened, not being able to process much of what was being said.

When I arrived at Javier’s house, about 40 people were already there. Everyone was local except myself and a big dude from Sweden. Only about 10 of us actually drank ayahuasca. The rest just came for healing. Those drinking sat near Javier in one room, while the others waited their turn in the hall. Packs of cigarettes were sold, then collected together and distributed to the people drinking ayahuasca. Javier explained that the tobacco smoke served to protect the body from any negative energies. Once we drank, Javier began to sing and whistle beautiful and complex songs. They were at times breathtakingly beautiful. His apprentices whistled and sang in harmony. It was another world.

In the beginning I had some visions of traditional shipibo-konibo patterns. One that I remember well had a cross in the middle. I also saw the stars and the cosmos and something resembling flying saucers. I was immersed in the visions for some time without remembering what exactly I saw. Then, I saw in a vision that I needed told to throw up into the bucket. I picked the bucket up and about two table spoons of something came out. I did not purge more.

I sent my love to my family and my girlfriend, Ninfa. I forgave everyone against whom I had any kind of sour feelings. I sent them all love. It became very clear that nothing good can ever come from bad thoughts or feelings. “We are creating evil with evil thoughts”, I thought. Love overtook me, and I felt completely united with my girlfriend, who was actually thousands of miles away.1
The other foreigner with whom I came had a very difficult time. He left the ceremonial space and remained in the bathroom for several hours. Many people went to bring him back, but nothing came of it. When I went to the bathroom, he got up from the toilet and immediately collapsed on the ground. He remained on the ground for over an hour. Apparently, an evil spirit was preventing him from coming back to the main room.

During the ceremony, people needing healing came up to Javier one by one. For each person a song was sung, probably lasting about 5 minutes on average. Before and after the singing, Javier conversed with the person in front of him and told them what was wrong with them, what was right, why they were suffering, and how he would help them. To some people, he said “Go home and sleep, I will come to you in your dream. You’re going to see an old man. That’s me. Don’t be afraid. Go home and I will come to you tonight. Tomorrow, you will be better.” One of his first patients was young man who looked very weak, and could not walk without assistance. Javier told him that he will be able to walk in two days. To others he said things like, “You have such and such illness. You need to do this and that.”
“Your operation will be on a Tuesday. You must stay Monday and Wednesday in bed.”
“You must have a liver transplant. Your operation will be on a Thursday”
“You are an evil person, you are a sorcerer. Go out and clean your heart and you mind”
“You drink ayahuasca with sorcerers. Who are you in love with? Leave him. Forget him. He will only bring you more evil and more harm.” I later found out that when he spoke of operations and transplants, Javier was speaking about spiritual operations, or operations on the astral body. Although these procedures are performed spiritually, they have real physical effects.

When Javier went outside to check on the other foreigner, who was still on the floor near the bathroom, I sat beside him and watched. Javier told the foreigner that his ex-wife payed 3 or 4 thousand dollars to a very strong sorcerer in India to kill him and his new wive. “The sorcerer sent two spirits and to harm your body”, said Javier. “Be quiet everyone, I want to speak with the spirits”

“Who are you? Who sent you? Where are you from? Why are you making this poor man suffer? Leave here! Leave my house! Why don’t you come into the temple? Why don’t you come into the room of the ceremony? What are you doing here hiding in the back? Leave now or I will kill you myself. Leave now demon serpent! I will kill you and all of your kind. I stand here before this man, and I am his protector. I will not let you get to him. Get out of here or I will destroy you completely.”

Then, suffering from an invisible blow, Javier almost fell. He moaned in pain. His breathing became labored, and he opened his arms wide. A few moments later, he came back to his regular self and said “What was that, devil serpent? You can’t kill me. I am stronger than you. Now get out of here before I kill you.” Suddenly, his voice changed to that of a woman. Speaking as a woman, Javier asked the foreigner, if he should kill the evil spirits. The man asked Javier not to kill them. Still speaking as a woman, Javier began to reason with the spirits, asking them to go away. I was amazed at what I was seeing and hearing.

“Now you will hear the song of a Mermaid”, said Javier. With a soft woman’s voice full of vibrato, in subtle, beautiful tones, he sang an otherworldly song that could only have belonged to a woman who was forever alone. It was filled with sadness and beauty which were amplified by the effects of the ayahuasca. When the song was over, Javier declared that both of the spirits had left. He then pressed his lips against the sick man’s head and began to suck out his illness. Holding his mouth shut with both hands, he continued sucking, trying hard not to vomit. Suddenly, he produced a sound of great disgust, moved away from the sick man, and projectile vomited a large quantity of material all over the floor. Then, still gasping, he gulped down a liter of water from a huge container which somebody readily handed him.

A few minutes earlier, the sick man was incomprehensible, babbling and mumbling to himself. Now, he was able to speak. He thanked Javier, saying that he felt much better, and moved himself into a sitting position. Javier put him on a mat to rest while the rest of us returned to the main room. People continued to come up for healings for another three hours. Some people came knocking at the front door and Javier yelled at them “Who opened the door? Who is coming late? Next week, if you are late, you cannot come in. It’s not me who is speaking, it’s the father of the plants talking to you”.

Once all of the sick people were served, Javier gave audience to those who drank ayahuasca. He sang me a prayer about Christ, during which I clearly saw a visions of a cross with Jesus on it. “You have something bad in your stomach”, he told me. “You are a good person, but this thing is causing you bad luck. Your life has always been more difficult than it has to. When you clear this thing, things will go better for you. You have a very bright aura.“

I told Javier that I was aware of the problem in my stomach. I had asked Percy Garcia to take it out when I stayed in his center the previous year. “Percy can’t take it out!”, laughed Javier. “He doesn’t have the power. Spiritually, he is only a kid compared to me”.

My stomach had been bothering me for years, but I only became aware of what the problem was during my stay with Percy Garcia. Towards the end of my stay at his camp, I began to experience a very sharp pains, and had to have an emergency intervention. Percy sucked at my stomach for about 10 minutes, but only a part of the energy came out. “You have pulsario”, he told me. “It’s repressed energy from too much stress and worry. If not taken out, it can explode and spread through the body, becoming cancer.” Javier told me that it would cost 100 dollars to clean up my stomach, and we made an appointment for Monday. When I came home and took a shower, the quartz Chrystal that was blessed by Percy fell off my neck, having untied itself. It felt like Percy had withdrawn his support from me. I decided to not put the necklace back on.

I also treated several headaches and other pains. I remembered asking Javier how he diagnosed illnesses but he wouldn’t tell me. “You will find out when it’s time”, he said. Then Juan disclosed the secret to me. “The shaman diagnoses illnesses by experiencing them in his own body. You feel exactly what the person feels. Then as you sing, the pain diminishes and when it’s gone from your body, you know that the patient is no longer feeling it either”. Now, as I treated headaches, I could verify the truth of this for myself. In fact, I could tell the patient exactly where the pain was located, and I was able to lift the pain rather easily. Perhaps this happened because I had no doubt that I could do it and because I trusted Javier when he told me that I already had healing abilities.

When a contract with a plant spirit is made, it is usually a very bad idea to break it and not complete the diet or the fast. On one occasion, one of Javier’s more advanced students started a 15 day fast, but lasted only 8 days, after which he left the jungle without asking for permission and returned to the city. When Javier heard about this, he was furious. “Those spirits are going to kill that boy! How could he do that? Who does he think he is? The tree he was dieting is very strict and very dangerous. With that tree, if you break the rules, it just wraps itself around you and slowly squeezes your body until you die. If that idiot dies, I am not responsible because he knew very well the rules. I can’t do anything if the tree spirit decides to punish him. I don’t need this kind of students!”

The second thing I learned was that the plant being dieted should be raw and fresh. In other words, dry plants or those plants that are boiled don’t have the same power. This is especially true of plants being boiled. “Never boil a plant for dieting it”, I was told. Of course, if having fresh plants is a requirement for doing good diet, then it is only possible to diet Amazonian plants while in the Amazon. From this point of view, ordering dried herbs and boiling them would be nearly useless. Perhaps fresh local trees and plants could be dieted by those people who are outside of the Amazon, but the effects of doing that have not yet been extensively tested. A shaman once told me that any plant or tree could be dieted, especially those that have medicinal properties. Apparently, even ordinary vegetables could be dieted.¹

The third thing I learned had to do with singing to the plants. It would be nearly useless to diet a plant without singing to it first. As one sings, one asks the spirit of the plant for whatever one wants to learn. The words of the song should come spontaneously. Javier taught me that it was enough to just drink a given plant once. “It’s not necessary to keep taking it every day in order to learn”, he said. Later, Juan explained the significance of 3 day and 7 day periods for diets. “In three days, you can make a connection with a plant spirit. In 7 days, you can master it, receiving certain powers from it. And you can diet the same plant again later to renew the connection.”

Hi Andrew,

Jim is making some genuine progress.

About a week ago, Javier put a new roof on the maloca. You may recall the old one leaked in a number of places. It had reached the end of it´s life. The new roof is much more attractive… partly because it´s not all patched up like the old one but also to lower than the old roof. I really never liked to look of the old roof as it was simply too tall. The new roof is much more proportionate. Also, we have a couple of toilets now installed adjacent to the main lodge and the new kitchen and dining room have been completed. A practical improvement that I appreciate is that Javier has now installed wooden stepping stones all the way from the main lodge to the maloca. They are cross section cuts of large trees our own version of the yellow-brick road. In two especially low lying areas Javier had bridges put in to span the area. Bridges with a railing at that. The trail is now a bunch safer with those improvements and more picturesque than ever.

All the best, hermano

I came across a topic on channeling and spirit languages on the ayahuasca forums, and it seemed like a really fascinating topic to post something about.  These are several of my experiences having to do with mediumship, spirit languages and speaking in tongues.

1) I worked with Javier DaSilva and observed him channel maybe 50 to 100 times, and also saw one of his students channel a few times…  I was very skeptical throughout, but it does seem to be quite real… Several times he spoke in weird languages, but perhaps more surprising was singing in different languages, with different rhythms, different melodies, and in different voices…  Quite fascinating… He would channel the same entities on different occasions and they had their own distinct styles of singing.  Usually if I played him a recording of the ceremony he would not remember it happening and would be surprised… he actually was surprised most of the time when he heard his own songs, as if he wasn’t aware of himself at all while singing.  I used to come up and talk to him whenever he would be on the toilet – he would update me with what he saw etc.  One time he went to the toilet while still channeling a spirit.  I went and sat there expecting him to start telling me what he saw which was our usual practice.  Instead, a different voice asked me “do you need  the bathroom?”  I said that I didn’t.  “Do you have a question?”  So I had to ask something to not seem stupid sitting there.

2)  A friend of mine, under mushrooms, in a mushroom ceremony, first spoke then sang in Masotec – the language of the natives of Oaxaca.  The healer woman (who hardly spoke spanish) understood him and later told us that he sang the same words she was using but to a different melody.  It was probably the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen.  He was an American with no knowledge whatsoever of the language.  It was his first and only ceremony with this woman.  She wasn’t ask surprised as I was, giving the impression that she must have seen this hundreds of times.

3) In a Christian camp, the pastor showed me a passage from the Bible which talks about speaking in tongues… “It is a SIGN that the holy spirit descended into you” he said.  Both he and his wife can speak spirit languages whenever they want.  They can also interpret spirit languages.  Apparently people with this gift can also spontaneously speak all of the earthy languages.  I have seen a number of Christian prophets who spoke spirit languages.  We just don’t meet these guys in the west.  I was told that praying in a spirit language is more powerful than regular prayer.  In one story I heard, a woman was awakened in the middle of the night and channeled a prayer in spirit language.  She had no idea what she was saying, but remembered the experience and wrote about it in her diary.  Some time later, she met a Christian missionary who just came back from Africa.  He said that he was on the verge of death until suddenly something happened and he felt completely healthy again.  His instant recovery coincided in date and time with her prayer, and she realized that it was for this reason that she was awakened and told to channel.

4) One of Javier’s students, Juan, learned the Indian dialect FROM the forest itself.  In other words, he speaks the language and knows medicine songs, but he has never studied it with any natives.  The forest itself taught him.  His language does not vary from what Javier learned from the natives.