A Peruvian Shaman

This morning we ate breakfast and played music with a Peruvian shaman.

Now that is something you don't do every day!

When I was in the US, I was aware of medicinal plants and indigenous shamanism. But it wasn't readily accessible.

The longer I am out of the US, the more I realize that my life in Colorado was isolated from much in the world.

I guess life in the most prosperous country in the world doesn't demand much attention--or even interest--in things outside of the US. Too bad! It is our loss.

This particular shaman lives on one of the smaller tributaries of the head waters of the Amazon river in Peru.

You too can visit him if you are willing to fly to Peru, take an incredibly small single engine airplane to a village in the jungle, then endure a 4 hour boat ride to his village. Once there, you will stay in mud floor huts, no plumbing of course, but there is much magic medicine if you open your mind to it.

Or, of course, you can come to Boquete once a year when he visits and do ceremonies with him.

A group of people spent the night going through an ordeal induced by drinking an ayahuasca tea. This is a hallucinogenic medicine used by shamans to cure what ails you. Including almost anything plus addictions.

There is much purging (Translate: puking and shitting) as well as visions.

Ayahuasca is known as a "teaching plant", a notion somewhat foreign to us in the US.

Some of our friends claim to have cured alcoholism, cancer and the more mundane stuff like parasites and arthritis using it. If you are intrigued, Google it for more information.

When I pulled out my guitar to play for Yella and her friends, Teo, the shamana, indicated that he played too. So off we went on a musical adventure that transcended two continents and many worlds of reality.

He played a hand drum for our songs, then he played guitar and sang a song. His music had the strangest, simple rhythms, stuff I haven't heard before but so interesting and powerful. When he opened his mouth to sing, in a loud, clear voice, the air seemed to shimmer and penetrate into the soul.

The shaman sings through out the ceremony to facilitate the process. He also "sucks" the problems out of people. He puts his mouth on various areas of the body and sucks, then it is his turn to puke and purge himself of your demons.

These folks looked remarkably good for having been up all night...puking and shitting to boot!

After reading this, I suppose you are convinced I have slipped a few cogs and gone native. And that may be true, for sure. I am known to go off the deep end from time to time.

Or, maybe it is our US context in life that is the strange way of living.

Think about it...