Articles - Shamanism

What is the function of a Shaman, how does the society here defines it? Is it a doctor, a spiritual person or a quack, like some people think?

A Shaman in our natural language cocama is the equivalent of Curandero/Healer, which has the knowledge to cure, what makes the difference from a quack, who imitates rituals for commercial purposes. The curandero is prepared primarily to take care and treat illnesses of the members of his own family, the children overall. Also he has the task to assist sick neighbours and whoever comes to him for help.

Who gives you the authority to cure, God or the society?

Both, as it is a duty we have to fulfil by tradition and the teachings of our ancestors specify that all should be ask to God and done for God, in our function of doing well. We ask God everything that concerns health, well being and spiritual support. With God’s permission, we concentrate and interact mostly with the ancestral spirits and the spirits of the plants; from that source of knowledge and experience come the way of curing, by means of visions from Ayahuasca or dreams from our sleep. Today is what foreign societies don’t understand that we are fundamentally spiritual.

Are you assuring that plants have spirits, do animals have spirits too?

Effectively all beings have spirits. The plants, from the last herb to the tallest trees have spirits. Animals have spirits too and even stones that we call Enchantments. Those stones are living stones, which are activated by tobacco smoke in the procedure of curing.

How can you explain to somebody that doesn’t share the concept of a stone having a spirit? How can a stone cure?

The only way to explain is by demonstration and practice. Enchantments are simple stones which with time have taken several shapes of animals of the jungle or human body parts; they take those shapes from nature without intervention of man, conferring them a spirit with a specific function. I have many Enchantments, some with the shape of a snail, head of anaconda, head of a crocodile, the shape of a human head and hand. There are many things you can do with Enchantments. You can communicate with them by means of dreams, or sometimes through drinking Ayahuasca and concentrating on the specific Enchantment. In that manner, the spirit of the Enchantment can talk to you, orient you, teach you, and explain you about medical procedures or which medicine plant should be used. It is something admirable to share the wisdom of million years old beings; unfortunately it is part of a traditional medicine that has been lost today. For example, I have an Enchantment with the shape of a hand which is used to take out the pain. You put it over the body where the pain is located; the stone begins to do its function absorbing all the pain in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes.

As we are talking about spirits, do you believe in reincarnation?

Yes, reincarnation exists. For example, I have always worked alone without assistant during 36 years. During the concentration, I no longer am Don Juan but become Don Jacinto Mascullan, because I work with the spirit of my grandfather. Through him I am changed, I am not anymore myself, I have an ancestral spirit and I am with them.

So it is like a possession of your body by a spirit, a good one in this case that orients you?  Isn't it dangerous?

Effectively, you can have an interaction with a spirit to reach the point of being possessed by the spirit, like in my case with the spirit of my grandfather. It is a bit dangerous in the beginning when you don't have enough experience because of the direct contact with spirits.

So you assure there is a life after death?

Yes, there is life after death; it seems to be an ever ending life, infinite, something that God left us for that life.

Does evolution exist? Can a stone become an animal, an animal a human being, some people believe in that kind of evolution, what do you think?

Stones can not evolve more after becoming Enchantments. Yet, there is always evolution in the spiritual aspect. When you see how nature has shaped the stones as animals, why not nature does the same with animals in transforming them in more intelligent beings, it can be.

Do you remember any past life?

No. In my case, in the moment of concentration with Ayahuasca, I focus in getting in contact with my grandfather and my ancestors for healing guidance. Now, may my grandfather come back to this life with another aspect? It can be, because there is nothing impossible in God's work.

Do you believe in extraterrestrials?

Yes, I believe when seeing and experiencing with help of Ayahuasca many existing worlds different from ours.

Did you ever have contacts with creatures out of this world?

Yes, in some of my concentrations when I was alone, many different men of other times would come to dance for me with their Icaros. They didn’t look physically old but you could tell they were ancestral men. They would come to teach me about the plants, what to do, how to follow the diet and for how long time, they would explain me many things; they were no longer my grandfather or close relatives but ancestral men of the jungle.

Did you have contact with non human being creatures like angels?

Yes, I have had many contacts with persons that were not human beings; they were strange people who would come up to me like a choir party, talking about God, everything concerning divinity.

Do they communicate telepathically or through feelings or they talk to you in your native language?

All the spirits are able to talk to you in your own language. In fact, they don’t measure dialects or languages. If you talk English, you understand them, if you talk Korean you understand them, if you are Chinese, you understand them, and so on. You listen to the words they tell you, it is like encountering somebody in daily life and engaging a conversation directly like human beings do.

Have you been in contact with demons?

Yes and those are very difficult moments because the demon is the part that doesn't want you to develop the good things, the demon is always planning something to ruin you or deviate you from the direction you are following, definitely the demon is the worst enemy of good causes.

What are the origins of the illnesses according to you?

There are many origins of illnesses; some come from nature, causes from environment, biology and genetics, and other illnesses come from the harms of the wizard. In this life many don't believe in witchcraft but witchcraft does exist. There are bad things that the own human being fabricates and does as also there are illnesses that come from nature itself.

Does a person have the power to do harm to another by only having bad thoughts?

Yes. When a person is thinking about bad things, he or she can do harm by connecting with evil. In witchcraft, people specialize in learning to do evil. Everything we believe to be superstition, exist in the occultism, not because we don't see something is less true.

Wizard can cut your eyesight, make you throw blood, close your airway and so on. In these cases, the Curandero has to resist evil with the means of Icaros, Camalonga and Ayahuasca among other methods, to expel the bad spirit or negative energy causing the illness. The use of Ayahuasca has 2 tendencies, for making good or evil, for getting in contact with God force or evil force. To become a wizard, it takes only 3 months while for becoming a Curandero, you have to receive an orientation of 4 years, and improving yourself and keep on learning for the rest of your life.

Do you consider yourself as an exorcist?

Not so much. In my concentrations, the first thing I do is to invoke God, because what takes place is a spiritual ceremony, a session with the Creator. I ask God to give me wisdom, to give me good direction so my work comes out well. At the beginning of the ceremony, I make the sign of the cross in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost in the 4 cardinal directions closing the space so nobody comes to interrupt and I make a prayer. It is to God we ask for health, everything. From beginning of time, Curanderos worshipped God in a mystically way but my ancestral were converted to catholic teachings although I prefer evangelical because they explain better and clearer the Bible. There are 3 essential factors to consider for having healing results: first the Curandero has to have faith in God, second faith in his work, and third the patient has to have faith in the Curandero. It is possible to cure somebody only with faith but in our case it would take up to 3 years of dieting and purification of the body and soul, not only 40 days as Jesus Christ did in making miracles. Dieting is the most important; the use of Ayahuasca is a kind of shortcut in connecting with God.

There has to be a special preparation for becoming a Shaman like a priest, with fasting, praying and abstinence, right?

Effectively, it is what we call the purification process or dieting. To be a good Shaman you have to follow very strict rules of living and behaviour, first you have to eliminate the salt, then the sugar, fried food, then sex, then exposition to sun and many other things to avoid. By purifying your body, you are purifying your spirit. During all the learning process for becoming a Shaman, it is like going to the university where the teachers give you all the learning rules, and where you will receive many different lessons of different topics, it requires from the student, dedication, honesty and respect for life. Once the student becomes a professional, he knows how to treat his body and organize himself, but before that, nothing, no alcohol or recreational drugs, he has to follow the rules of who is teaching him and giving him the indications. The Curandero has to learn all the rules about how to heal, what to do, how to defend and take care of him. That is the rule of the Curandero. The student must spend months of a time in the jungle dieting, in that state he achieves many dreams, encountering doctors and nurses who will teach him and taking him to the places where the patients are, it is like being in the reality.

What weakens men when having sex? Is it the fact of ejaculating? Oriental teachings say that energy is in the semen and must be kept, what is the opinion of Curanderos?

Sex is the most serious factor and most important to control, the process of ejaculating bothers the functioning of the brain which controls everything and where wisdom is located. Sexual intercourse weakens very much the mind and also interferes with the effect of the medicine, the medicine no longer teaches you well. Not only you don’t get vision but your lower energy interferes in the vision of your mates. After the period of dieting, you can regain a normal sexual life. It is the same with women in their menstrual periods, they don’t get vision and their state can interfere in other people’s vision.

Can you explain a bit the ceremony?

Sure. At the beginning of the ceremony, the Curandero prepares him by drinking the equivalent of a little glass of wine of Camalonga, which is an alcohol liquid, made of sugar cane, like brandy. It is very strong, but we are much use of it, it is like drinking soft drink for us. I drink from the bottle, I don't need to measure it, like when I prepare Ayahuasca, I do the exact boiling for one bottle just by looking. The Curandero can also be called Camalonguero among other names as Ayahuaquero. There are Camalongueros that use only brandy, but in my case I combine it with white onions, garlic and camphor. It is an ancestral preparation, that I drink to increase the effect of Ayahuasca and I also put it on the head of the participants as protection to avoid interruptions or bad vibrations that may come during the dizziness, it also protects the Ayahuasca drinker from driving himself crazy. The spirits of the onion, garlic and camphor have the personality to remove bad vibration, the same with Wayruro seeds that I wear as necklace.

What do you mean by spirit of the onion and its personality?

Under Ayahuasca all plants are persons with whom you can dialogue, they also can orient you with which medicine to use for a particular patient. It is something that some people can't understand when we are explaining, and they may think we are crazy but it is reality. That is why I say plants have a human spirit like us. I will give an example of dialogue. Let say I die and you have a concentration and you see me, you tell me "Don Juan, how are you?" and I say Hi. So we began to talk and you ask me what happened to me, and I may tell you that some man behaved badly, that is why I died, showing you who killed me. There are many incredible things like that that can happen. In the same way, you can talk with the onion. The personality of the onion is made up by its properties or healing qualities. The onion has the properties to remove bad vibrations, expel curses, clean the body, for healing throat and lungs, there are different uses of the onion, it is a medicinal plant not only to be used in our food.

Is there a risk that the Curandero become alcoholic by drinking too much Camalonga?

No, the Curandero has a rule. He can drink but cannot stay sleeping in the warehouse like so many drinkers, which is a waste. There are moments of fun and other of work, like Church priests. During the diet, the Curandero only drinks while performing a ceremony, the amount required for healing procedures. Camalonga is used like Enchantment stones to remove pain. You drink it and keep some in your mouth and suck out the pain from the body and throw it away. The more serious the disease, more Camalonga should be used. There are many differences between Camalongueros and Ayahuasqueros. Ayahuasca is a tool, like a screen the doctor uses to detect a disease, like a key to open a door, to see what is inside, Ayahuasca is the master key.

Tobacco is also used to expel bad vibrations; that is why we blow smoke on the patient. The Chakapa is an instrument used like a broom for cleaning, like sweeping a house, to remove the garbage. The Chakapa must be prepared; I boiled it in Ayahuasca to charge it, giving it more force and vibration. We are removing bad vibrations from the body with the Chakapa, mostly from the crown of the head, while singing Icaros.

Icaros are melodies from the plants. They are learned through dreams, when dieting in the jungle for at least 30 days, while you are alone with the sounds of the jungle and its animals, it is a real concert, a choir, that is the silence of the jungle. The Icaros used must be specific for the disease in treatment, for cleaning the spirit and cleaning the body. Like planting a little seed in the earth, it is the same in the spiritual way, the person sometimes doesn’t see immediate results but there are processes that are taking place slowly with the cleansing.

Ayahuasca, as I said before, is used to screen the disease and to search the treatment. It also cleans the body through vomiting and depositions, removing toxins and negative energy, from the top of the head to the tip of the toes, cleaning up the chakras. Some people may found it very disgusting but it is very effective.

Can the Curandero drink alone?

When the patient drinks, he or she is giving the Curandero more space to enter spiritually with his Icaros, when not drinking, the Curandero gives anyway some vibrations with the Icaros and Chakapa, but the best is to drink.

How can you defend yourself from science that the practice you do is not based on superstition?

IIAP is a governmental institution with many investigation studies on the uses and effects of Ayahuasca, Camalonga and other plants. Research is being done to provide scientists the proofs they demand.

Can shamanistic ritual be modernized?

Shamanism is something traditional that can not be modernized, where each element has its purpose. It is not the same taking Ayahuasca in pills than drinking the traditional boiled preparation, it may be okay for fun but not for serious purposes; somehow the contact with spirits that live in their worlds, is less effective when modernism comes along. I can't change my rituals, like playing a tape instead of singing my Icaros or using cigarettes with its chemicals instead of pure tobacco, because the work is done with the spirits of each element.

Now in Iquitos we have a lot of people calling themselves Shamans as a commercial fashion for tourists, offering their services on the streets, they don't do the rituals as the tradition requires, they are commercializing it and not doing it as it should be, that is how you differentiate real Shamans from quacks, the Shaman loves and respects his tradition. The best way to conduct a ceremony is in the jungle, away from the city. If you are drinking Ayahuasca just for fun or experiencing, you don't need to be in physical contact with a Shaman but it is best to connect with him spiritually for protection and guidance.

Do you see any danger to make accessible Ayahuasca to occidental people, in using it as fun?

No. There is no danger. It is even good for treating all drug addicts, in cleaning them. Some people may say it is a drug but it doesn’t damage people's neurons, it is a medicinal plant that purifies people. IIAP is trying to canalise it as a way to treat drug addicts and not in using as a commercial way.

What are the visions we see with Ayahuasca, are they hallucinations?

The visions come from the unconsciousness realms like dreams. You can see colours and symbols and make an interpretation of them. You can see future events too. The vision show you were you have to search, it also comes from the spiritual world, a way to be in contact with God. If you want to know something about the future, you have to concentrate really hard on one topic, if you think of many things at the same time, you may not see anything. In the beginning, I wanted to know about future events but not anymore because it affects me. I use ayahuasca for the purpose of curing.

What have been your achievements as a Curandero?

I have saved many lives during these 36 years of practice, that is what has characterised me most. I have treated people of all ages with all kind of diseases, we (the patients and me) have always come to a cure, sometimes in few days up to one month, the prognostic of the disease depends of how long the patient has suffer from it. In general, my maximum time of treatment is 30 days.

What diseases have you cured? Can you cure cancer and AIDS?

I cured all types of diseases, from allergies, respiratory conditions, immune diseases, you can name it. Cancer is easy to cure compared to other diseases, most are internal or external wounds that can be cured with application of resin of specific trees that are especially used for that. AIDS is cured by cleaning, reinforcing the immune system and eliminating the virus.

Why the impact of Ayahuasca is not worldwide recognised?

Authorities should have interest in this topic, hospital and doctors. With their chemical science, they are forgetting the real medicine, the one that God put on Earth, the medicinal plant that cure more easily, for real and definitely, not like this scientific medicine that only calms down symptoms and does not eradicate the cause, so the disease manifests again after a while. Our traditional medicine may take time to see effects but it cures definitely. In my case, when I had a severe rheumatoid arthritis, I suffered 3 years in hospitals of Iquitos, Pucallpa and Lima. Everywhere they told me there was no cure because they said it was hereditary. I came back ready to die but I remembered the Yagua tribe and in one month, I was completely cured with their rituals and mixture of plants and acid of the beehive. That was 24 years ago and I am still very healthy. The difference between reality and hallucination is when the patient cures himself from the disease: that is the reality of the treatment. Not long time ago, there was persecutions made to people who knew the Earth was round and the not the centre of the universe... makes you think.

Have we found the fountain of youth? Will we someday be eternal if not for accidents, wars, killings, abortions, and suicides? Makes you think. Thank you very much Don Juan for your kindness in this hour and half interview.

On behalf of Sacharuna Clinic, we thank you for reading this article.

(This interview was made in Padre Cocha, Iquitos, Peru on September 3rd, 2006 by Carola Lavin Slawek of Sacharuna Clinic - Project)

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