Retreats

Plant Spirit Shamanic Amazon Retreats

In 2024 we will be facilitating two retreats at Amaru Spirit Centre. During each of the two-week retreats we will be offering six Ayahuasca ceremonies. San Pedro (Huachuma) and Sapo (Kambo) ceremonies are also included along with a personalized plant dieta.

Although there is an emphasis on ‘retreat’ space with the plants, there are a number of additional activities all focused on personal healing, wellbeing and communion with the plants, such as plant and mud baths, tobacco juice purges; these as well as the personalised plant medicines are all included in the programme. The medicine programme we offer will leave you rejuvenated and filled with vitality.

Amaru Spirit is based in the Amazon rainforest, located by the Itaia River near Iquitos, Peru. Amaru Spirit is run by David ‘Slocum’ Hewson, and his partner, Yolita. Both are dedicated to healing the body and spirit through cleansing, nutrition and the sacred use of Ayahuasca.

Slocum believes that a modern understanding of nutrition and physical cleansing can be added to the ancient shamanic art of healing the body and spirit through ayahuasca, and the two are necessary and synergistic. Over the past years Slocum has deservedly gained a reputation as a nutritional expert.

About the Plant Diet

In addition to Ayahuasca we will be offering traditional shamanic diet plants that expand our awareness and enhance visionary perception. The magical world to which we are transported by plants is not accessible through the verbal rational mind but through dream language. Thus dreams act like doorways during a plant diet and connect us with the plant spirit. The plants are:

• Guayusa (Piper callosum) has the effect of giving lucid dreams (being aware that you are dreaming). With this plant you may experience that the boundary between sleeping and being awake is far more fluid than you had anticipated.
• Ajo Sacha (Mansoa alliacea) has the quality of unfolding and enhancing our senses. People report that their senses of sight, hearing and smell become much sharper and gain the ability of an expanded affinity with the rainforest.
• Bobinsana (Calliandra angustifolia) has the quality of reinforcing a person’s spiritual connection to the natural world, and invoking beautiful and colourful dreams.
• Huingo (Crescentia cujete L) enhances lucid dreaming. It generates a mellow dreaming state.

About Ayahuasca

After being virtually ignored by Western civilization for centuries, there has been a huge surge of interest in Ayahuasca in the last twenty years or so. There is a growing belief that it is a kind of ‘medicine for our times’, giving hope to people with ‘incurable’ diseases like cancer and HIV, drug addictions and inspiring answers to the big ecological problems of modern civilization.

Without a doubt entheogens offer a potential to explore and transform human consciousness thereby acting as an enabler to bring an inclusive spirituality to our society and help to alleviate the alienation from nature that has brought humanity to a grave ecological crisis.

Spirituality is at the centre of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in a shamanic ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery and transformation. This process can continue indefinitely even if one never drinks Ayahuasca again.

Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis). The two make a potent medicine, which takes one into the visionary world. The vine is an inhibitor, which contains harmala and harmaline among other alkaloids, and the leaf contains vision-inducing alkaloids. As with all natural medicines, it is a mixture of many alkaloids that makes their unique properties. For example, Peyote, the cactus used by the North Native Americans, is said to contain 32 active alkaloids, so when one of those alkaloids, mescaline is synthesised in a laboratory, contrary to popular opinion, the result is not at all the same.

MEDICAL PRECAUTIONS

It is important to know that, in some cases, the consumption of Ayahuasca in combination with some groups of prescription & non-prescription medicines can bear health risks.

1. Prescription Medicines

If you are taking prescription medication (including antibiotics), are subject to high blood pressure, have a heart condition, or are under treatment for any health condition), you need to consult your Doctor or Physician. Those with a condition of chronic high blood pressure should not drink Ayahuasca.

1.1 Anti-depressants

Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis Caapi) contains MAOI’s (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) generally in the form of harmine and harmalinethereforeMedical consultation is essential if you are taking Prozac or other antidepressants affecting serotonin levels, i.e. serotonin selective re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI).

SSRI’s block the reuptake of serotonin in the brain and because MAOI’s inhibit breakdown of serotonin, the combination of MAOI’s and SSRI’s can lead to too high levels of serotonin in the brain. SSRI’s are much more common than MAOI’s which are found in some anti-depressants. It is advised that you consult your Doctor or Physician about the use of temporary monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI).

These medications generally require a period of six to eight weeks to completely clear the system and must be reduced gradually.

2. Non-Prescription Medicines

Non-prescription medications such as antihistamines, dietary aids, amphetamines and derivatives, and some natural herbal medicines, i.e. those containing ephedrine, high levels of caffeine, or other stimulants, may also cause adverse reactions. We recommend that you discontinue all such medications, drugs, and herbs for at least two weeks prior to and following work with Ayahuasca.

3. Recreational Drugs

Avoid all recreational drugs, in particular Amphetamines and cocaine. Also do not drink alcohol 48 hours prior to the ceremony.

4. Mental Health

Those with a history of psychiatric disorder, instability, or have a diagnosed mental disorder should contact us prior to making the booking.

Please note on booking you will receive a detailed document regarding preparation for Ayahuasca and the plant diet.

Itinerary

Day 1 (Sunday, September 1)	Arrive in Lima & transfer to Hotel
Day 2	Leave Lima, fly to Iquitos and transfer to Amaru Spirit Center by boat.
Day 15	The group returns to Lima on September 15. Transfer to Hotel and spend the night in Lima
Day 16	International flights

Please Note: Most costs in Peru are US$ based, and because of the extreme fluctuations in the currency exchange rates over the past months, it is no longer practical to cost this Retreat programme in any other currency. So the programme is priced in US$. Please note that payment can be made in CAD albeit at the US$ FX rate at time of payment.

COSTS

September 2024 retreat: US$2800

Please Note: The costs are calculated at the Group rate of 200 USD per day.

Payment via PayPal, please note that Credit and Debit cards can be used via PayPal.
What the Price Includes:

• Breakfast throughout plus all meals at the lodge
• The Plant Spirit Shamanism programme
• All ceremonies and services from shamans at the Retreat Centre

What is not included in the price:

• International Flight from your country to Peru.
• Lima – Iquitos return flights.
• One night Hotel in Lima
• Hotel to airport transfers in Peru
• Additional nights before or after the Retreat (I can book them for you)

Payment Schedule

1. We require a 25% deposit in order to secure and confirm your place on the retreat.
2. The balance can be paid via PayPal two weeks prior to arrival.
3. If you prefer to do your own bookings for the internal flight and the hotel in Lima you only need to pay for the stay at the retreat, directly to Amaru Spirit via paypal.

Journey facilitator: Dan Motoc
Phone Enquiries: Tel: 1-514-779-7633
e-mail: dan_motoc@hotmail.com

Personal Travel & Health insurance is mandatory for this journey. It is your responsibility to obtain this insurance.

Contact us here https://www.facebook.com/IntegralShamanism for further details