Price info

• Price: $400 per week ($600 for 10 days).

• From week 3 and onwards, price decreases to $300 per week.

• New guests pay a one-time $50 fee for application processing and a video-call consultation done with an external party.

• Price includes at least three, but often four ceremonies a week with individual singing work, food, accommodation, and any plants that might be used in the healing plant dieta or other treatment methods.

• Price excludes laundry services, transportation to/from center (car from Pucallpa to center is app. $18 each way).

Is this center for you?

This center is not for everyone and even though guests will be safe, all guests must have a certain amount of responsibility for their own process and assess whether they are ready to step into another culture this way or not.

When deciding on this center or not, its important to be aware of the context of the center and have some knowledge of what the Shipibo culture can be like.

Many ayahuasca centers talk about being a “traditional center” but the fact is that the way ayahuasca has been used traditionally and historically among the Shipibo culture is often very different from how most centers operate and what most foreigners are exposed to and experience.
There are many different tribes in South America that use ayahuasca, while some have a whole-community ritual where everyone drinks ayahuasca play instruments, and some might dance and everyone sing along, the Shipibo way can be thought of something much more like a clinical hospital. In the hospital the initiated maestro takes ayahuasca to enter into a trance to diagnose and be able to use the only instrument, the voice, to sing icaros that have an energetic impact on the patients. Historically and traditionally among the Shipibos the very big majority of patients actually never drink ayahuasca, only the maestros do. This traditional way is still practiced today, it is just not exposed or accessible to many foreigners to whom “traditional” and “authentic” are often just marketing words.

The fact that patients themselves don’t drink ayahuasca during their treatment tells us that at least for the indigenous and from their perspective, the healing does not really depend on the physical consumption of ayahuasca itself. The main treatment method of a traditional Shipibo maestro is their icaros (songs/chants). These are known amongst the indigenous to have strength, magic, and the capacity to make energetical changes in a person. In addition to this, there are several other methods that are used as well, which can be the use of plant baths or vapor, intake of non-psychoactive plants as purgatives, or as remedies or healing plant dietas that can be done for several months.
Cognitive therapies, integration or explanatory talking sessions have never been a common tradition among Shipibos.
This is important to be aware of since the Shipibos will help you in a ceremony primarily with their songs, not by holding your hand or telling you everything will be OK.

Upon booking you will go through a consultation with someone that will help us see if our center can deliver what you need in a safe manner. Guests are in the very majority of the cases allowed and also welcome to drink ayahuasca if they wish to do so, but drinking ayahuasca is certainly not a requirement, nor is it a right since in some cases it might be better for a person to not drink. The ultimate decision is always with the maestro, and it can also change from ceremony to ceremony depending on where they feel that the person is.

In addition to this, it is good to be aware of the following Shipibo plant perspectives;

• The mystical/religious
  The Shipibos see the plants as intelligent beings and spirits, that have both a constructive, but also a destructive side. Intention itself does not the determine if the outcome of the use of the plant is beneficial or not, but the way it is used, the protocols applied, meaning competence is needed in addition to intention. To gain the competence and knowledge on how to approach and use a plant takes several years, includes sacrifice, and is also something that is considered risky and dangerous in the indigenous culture. Usually, indigenous don’t prefer to drink or use plants unless they absolutely must and working as a maestro has traditionally not been a very attractive or romantic profession that people seek.

• The medicinal/therapeutic/healing
  The plants, and ayahuasca might offer healing at both physical, mental, and spiritual levels. However, there are no promises of any specific healing, and long-term diseases are usually not something that is cured over a few nights but can rather have at treatment process of several months. Miracles can certainly happen, but if it happens, then it is a miracle – literally.

• The educational
  Both plants and the maestros can offer insights. However, these insights usually do not come in the way that one might expect. Answers seldom come directly, and verbal explanations might be few. The indigenous way of learning is mostly through initiations and experience and by observing changes in the energy body. One could say the learning is more like a bottom-up approach, as opposed to the typical western way (top-down) with the mind first, and then hopefully embodiment as well.
  A Shipibo looking at a foreigner learning about ayahuasca and plants from a book will probably be the same as a western person looking at an indigenous from the jungle trying to learn how to manage and ride a motorcycle only by reading a book.

Below is some more cultural information that can be good to be aware of;

• The family is loving, but since they are indigenous and originally from the jungle, some of them can be very sensitive to people, and can often keep a certain distance because of this.

• Many Shipibos are not used to having much physical contact with strangers meaning it can be, especially for the elders, an unusual thing to hug.

• Things usually run quite well at the center, but in general in Peru, when someone says 2 pm in the afternoon, don’t expect anything to happen at 2 pm. It might be 1 pm, it might be 3 pm, or even in a few days… The culture has a lifestyle that is very much about the moment and having a strict and tight schedule is not so common.

• Food can be boring and plain and repetitive due to what is accessible because of infrastructure, having an indigenous cook and dietary restrictions due to ceremony or healing plant dietas. Long-term guests should expect to lose weight and must consider having “eating” breaks if doing long term stays.

• Money can be a sensitive and complicated matter - for many humans. Sometimes, depending on how a deal is done, borrowing money can be considered a gift and not a loan. Never be afraid to say no to both family members or anyone else that you run into that might ask for money or any favors related to money. What you commit to when going to the center is paying the regular price and respecting the rules - nothing more is expected.

• Many Peruvians can have a magical super ability to just block out all external noise and disturbances, and can sleep through anything, at anytime, anywhere. So don’t be surprised if you find a local passenger on the airplane watching YouTube with the phone’s speakerphones on full volume. At the center the family prefer peace but both nature and the local surroundings might not always guarantee or provide that. For example, at certain times of year the grass at the center must be cut which can be noisy if someone in the nearby village (2-3 km away) decides to have a big disco party, some music can be heard.

• Sometimes a Shipibo might avoid to say no to avoid anything resembling a conflict. Should a guest ask for more ayahuasca in a ceremony, and receive feedback that its best not to, that means it’s not recommended and it is best not to. If the guest continues to ask, most likely the guest will at one point probably receive more ayahuasca, but in the eyes of the maestro, then the guest is also responsible for that decision and any consequences.

• The way a question is phrased can be important. “Can I do a healing plant dieta?” might give you a different answer than asking “What treatment do you recommend for me?” or “Do you recommend I do a healing plant dieta or is it better that I do something else?”

• The center is in nature which means there are mosquitoes, there can be some animals, rats, some spiders, cockroaches and there can be snakes even though those are seen very rarely. We recommend to not bring food and store it in your own room as it will certainly attract bugs.

• For especially students going to the center to learn it can be important to reflect on what the Shipibos have historically experienced from foreigners that often came to conquer and take their resources, missionaries that came for their spirituality. Is history repeating itself again now in these days, only this time we are unknowingly taking their culture?

  
  

Be aware of all of these things, manage your expectations, keep an open mind, be patient, be flexible, have common sense, some respect, and hopefully also a good mood if possible.

Know that you might find yourself to be in an environment that is a bit on the edge of your comfort zone, but because of this can bring constructive changes if managed in calm and embracing way.