The first patient, a worried looking woman, 65, brown leathery skin, consults with the healer for a long while before he takes her pulse and tells her to lie on the mattress. He makes his diagnosis – gastritis with complications. She lies down and he brushes his hands lightly across her face, her limbs, her torso and legs. He presses one hand deep into her abdomen, the other on her head and goes into a sort of trance as he begins to vibrate and sing an icaro (a song that activates spirits and their cures). It looks like simple stuff.
I’d been to the jungle in Brazil and sat in a year’s worth of Ayahuasca ceremonies so I knew shamanic healing was real. A lot had already opened up for me emotionally, spiritually and physically before coming here now, to Peru. The relentless joint pain I’d been having for years, was long gone and some repressed emotion expressed. I’d begun to have an expanded understanding of things that had seemed far beyond my grasp.
But I still had lots of stuff to work on – the (non-symptomatic) Hep C and herpes (gifts of a teenaged I.V. drug addiction), an underfed bank account and a less than lovely love life. Any reservations I had about the call of this Peruvian jungle cure were eclipsed by my ‘healing hit list.’
I’d read some of the books about ancient indigenous medicine and shamanic healing and I was feeling good about the trip as I flipped through the last few pages of Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel by Alberto Villoldo and waited for my flight to Lima at LAX. The prospect of having my cells and soul sandblasted seemed like the right choice.
We had a contact with a shaman named Jorge. He was expecting us, so forging through the jungle of bogus medicine men, shady sorcerers and counterfeit healers wasn’t going to be an issue as I embraced my first dieta.
Simply put, a dieta (Spanish for diet) is a healing protocol that involves a regime of drinking a ‘brew’ of one or more plantas maestras (teacher-plants) twice daily while eating a modified diet that helps assimilate the plants. The main plant in my dieta would be chiric sanango, one of many variations this particular healer uses.
Kip Roseman (L.Ac., Dipl.C.H., A.H.G.), a clinical herbalist in Bend, Oregon (rosemanclinic.com) and a student of the shaman I was going to meet, put it like this; “chiric sanango is an Amazonian medicinal herb known for benefits that include blood detoxification, pain relief, fever and inflammation reduction. It also opens the heart chakra to connect with others in a loving way.” I would understand exactly what that meant very soon.
The dieta ‘medicine’ is prepared by an Amazonian herbalist (shaman) according to his tradition. There are many different possible combinations. The whole regime is designed and carried out by a shaman. It can last any length of time from days to months to however long the medicine man prescribes.
There are some specific pre-dieta requirements. Certain foods like spicy peppers and alcohol are usually out of the picture. Some behavioral restrictions are imposed as well… but the Shaman is the shot caller and the rules can vary.
The flight from Panama City to Tarapoto is only about an hour and a half. But things move deceptively fast in this geography where archeological evidence of hunters and gatherers dates back 20,000 years, and before I knew it I was standing before two large green metal gates with the words ‘Soncco Wasi Internacional’ in big yellow letters, ‘The House of the Heart’ written just under. The logo was a grass hut roof over a big red heart.
“The shaman is the shot caller and the rules can vary.”
Translated from Quechua, ‘Soncco Wasi’ means “The House of the Heart.” The house is actually a compound on the edge of town. Inside the 10 - foot cinder block wall that surrounds the meticulously maintained property filled with tropical flora and jungle birds in fruit trees wrapped in thick woody vines are a couple groupings of private shiny brown brick bungalows.
In the center of the acreage is a large green temple with a high grass roof and carved wooden doors…a red heart on top. Inside on a pounded earth floor, rests the shaman’s altar and a small rug with some drums and shakers.
At the far end of the property a lovely woman, Florita, waits near the outdoor kitchen and dining area with some fresh papaya. Welcome to S.W.I.
The house and the heart belong to the Peruvian shaman named Jorge. Jorge is actually Dr. Jorge González Ramírez Ph.D., a shaman with a couple of Ph.D.’s and a whole lot more than some Tarapoto street cred. He has spent 40 years studying with shamen from various tribes throughout the Amazonian basin. He has been under the tutelage of 60 teachers, one of whom is the renowned mestizo shaman Manuel Cordova-Rios.
“He’s a shaman, an ayahuasquero, curandero, vegetalisito and healer who does everything from energy work, body work, uses herbal formulas internally and topically, communicates with other dimensions and a lot more,” Roseman told me.
Jorge is a man of small stature and large authentic mastery, his ancient eyes deep as the Amazon, his smile sweet and inviting as a 6 year old at a birthday party. He hugs me and calls me Samilito. His broken English and my fractured Spanish are not communication barriers. The language is healing and it transcends words.
We got started on the dieta the day after I arrived, so on the first day I got to tag along with Jorge and his secretary, Ilsen, to the Soncco Wasi clinic in town where for free he treats a line of indigenous locals waiting outside. The Soncco Wasi clinic is a non-profit funded by the money foreigners pay for their healings, dietas and remedies at the Soncco Wasi compound.
Inside the understated office is a counter full of large glass vessels filled with thick earthy looking liquid potions, unidentifiable mixtures, some with leaves and twigs and organic looking matter. In the corner of the office is a raised platform with a thin mattress covered by a sheet. The degrees and documents on the shelves behind the desk start to tell the story of the academic shaman.
Jorge is decidedly anomalistic in the shamanic realm because in addition to his healing mastery, the two Ph.D.’s, one in Educational Sciences from the Universidad Nacional de Educación in Lima and another in Natural Health Sciences from the University of Natural Medicine in New Mexico, he’s a bit of an overachiever. A university professor for 35 years, the first President of the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Tarapoto, he’s also a member of the governing council of the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP). He’s lectured extensively at universities in the U.S., Europe, Africa and Latin America. He’s authored two books and has co-written a feature film…the resumé is too long to list here, but you can read it on his website: http://espanol.geocities.com/sonccowasi/index. html.
A few minutes later he calls to Ilsen who appears from the next room with a concoction in a plastic bottle. Jorge adds to the mixture from the brews in the glass containers and gives them to the old woman with the brown leathery skin who is up and looks to be feeling much better. She takes a diet he’s written up for her, the plastic bottle with the plant medicine, her healing, and leaves.
My dieta started the next day and lasted for three weeks. Each morning I had breakfast, drank the brew and went into the trance.
Mostly I was alone in my room. Sometimes while sleeping, visions of snakes and lizards crawled from my cells. I woke up one morning and vomited a toxic mouthful of something that tasted so acidic that it would have eaten through my flesh. Yet only a short time later I enjoyed a delicious lunch of papaya and some veggies, wandered around the property for a while and went back to sleep. I’d wake up for dinner and drink another glassful and go back to bed.
With Jorge checking in periodically and Florita bringing meals I lost track of time… sleeping or listening to Deva Premal and Krishna Das on my iPod, aware that the medicine was working its magic in my cells. I was processing. Feelings beyond articulation coming through my senses, hyper-awareness of a healing I couldn’t understand consciously but somehow understood completely, was in motion.
By the third day and the first Ayahuasca ceremony, the purge was on.
My heart had opened and feelings I had held since forever released. The medicine was in me and there was no stopping the process.
I followed the dieta regime daily for three weeks. In addition to the usual brew, I drank a small dose of a remedy the doctor/shaman prepared specifically for me tailored to my intentions… my healing hit list. I was told to concentrate on those healing intentions throughout the cure.
Part of the dieta included participating in two weekly shamanic ceremonies in the temple with everyone who was there doing dietas.
Jorge’s purga (special plant medicine blend) is ingested as part of a shamanic ceremony. This brew is distinctive from the usual blend, which is normally just two plants. The ceremony brew includes 30 additional medicinal plants in small amounts.
In the six-hour communal shamanic ceremony Jorge sings icaros and plays the harmonica and drums. Sometimes people are invited to sing or drum and dance, Jorge reminding us to concentrate on our healing intentions throughout.
Lots of awakenings, openings and activations and visions come fast. At one point during a ceremony my concentration wavers and I entertain some decidedly less than healing fantasies. “Sam!” Jorge simultaneously interjects my name into the icaro he’s singing, snapping me back on point. A little while later the same thing happens and at the exact moment I lose my focus, “Sam!” Jorge sings. The timing so specific that it’s impossible to deny his telepathic and trans-dimensional mastery. He’s ‘in there’ with you… working on you. Healing you.
“Obviously, I can’t speak for Jorge, nor do I really know what he does in full,” Roseman says. “I am clueless about his entire repertoire of capabilities. Having said this, I think he does at least some of the following: negotiates with your spirit guides, heals your spirit, sings to certain spirits to come aid the process and the visions, calls in protector spirits, pays respects to the tribes and ancestors, does various forms of clairvoyance, and searches for, identifies and removes illness on all levels. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
At all ceremonies I was invited to drum solo. “Sam drum,” Jorge said. Splayed out on a pad in the temple, deep under the spell, the prospect of lifting a finger seemed absolutely impossible. Yet somehow, magically I sit up, pick up a drum and lock into a jungle groove just like the shaman.
“It’s not just about visions,” Roseman says, “The additional plants (medicines) in the blend support the brew’s ability to heal you on every level. It’s about the deepest level of healing.”
It’s no coincidence that of the many different plant dietas Jorge does, chiric sanango with its heart opening abilities is the chief plant in the dieta I was prescribed at the place called “The House of the Heart.”
Besides the physical cleansing and purifying detoxification, I came back to L.A. with a glaring light of awareness of the emotional baggage I purged in Peru. I’ve never been so clear about the darkness I’d drawn into my life, how I’d chosen to do it and the consequences suffered. A new ability to draw clear lines between others’ issues and my own was the main activation.
There’s a willingness now to close some doors that I’ve needed to nail shut for years, as well as inspiration to open some new ones. With the medicine now in my DNA, it’s still unfolding. I’ll be processing the healing for a while and awaiting the results of a Hep C test.
This is not an easy healing and definitely not for everyone. You have to go deep into the dark to see the light. The landing is also a little rough. It is however, for me, and I’m already planning my next trip to Soncco Wasi.
Jorge’s signature parting words before heading to the airport with the healing of a lifetime came with a hug and promise: “I will love you for ever and ever.”
