Ayahuasca is a sacred vine in the amazon jungle, used as a key ingredient to create a healing hallucinogenic brew of the same name. The plants are cooked and boiled over three days to refine them into a powerful concoction used to heal ailments of the body, mind, and spirit. Shamans, called Curanderos, use this jungle medicine to take themselves and their patients into the realm of the spirits; both good and evil. The healing takes place in a ceremonial Maloca, where those who seek may find what they are looking for, or they may encounter beings and experiences they could never have imagined or expected.
Deep in the Amazon jungle, there is a sacred vine which has been used by the people of the forest for thousands of years for learning, and for healing. The vine is called Ayahuasca, and it is one of two ingredients used to create a powerful hallucinogenic brew of the same name. The plants are gathered with reverence, prepared, and boiled down over three days to refine the tea that will be drank in their traditional ceremonies.
Shamans called Curanderos, or Ayahuasqueros, use this jungle medicine to take themselves and their patients into the realm of the spirits. They sing songs, or Icaros, which are given to them by the plants they worship. These songs help them to navigate the extra-dimensional realms, and facilitate healing of the mind, body, and spirit.
Patients with ailments of all types come to the Amazon from around the world to seek out Shamans who will share with them this sacrament, and facilitate their healing in ceremonial malocas, surrounded by the sounds of the jungle. Patients often report profound life altering experiences, and spiritual revelations about nature of the universe and the purpose of human life on earth.
The images in this series, called Jungle Medicine, depict the vine as it undergoes it’s transformation into a medicine, and is administered to patients under the Shipibo tradition of curanderismo, one of the oldest lineages of Ayahuasqueros.
This medicine, so sacred to the Shipibos, is still very much shrouded in mystery in they eyes of modern science, although it shows significant potential in it’s power to treat ailments such as depression, addiction, PTSD, and diabetes, among countless others. As western eyes and ears catch wind of the vine’s healing potential, the amazonian tradition is placed on a delicate precipice, balancing between the need to share it’s transformational power, and the risk of it being exploited by those who wish to cash in on the latest tourism trend.