27 July 2019

Ayahuasca and Planetary Health

Article pubished by Matteo Politi on Kahpi - The Ayahuasca Hub, July 27, 2019. As a pharmaceutical chemist who has spent more than 20 years around medicinal plants research and more recently also within ayahuasca drinking communities in the San Martin region in the Peruvian Amazonia, I suggest we can benefit greatly from thinking about ayahuasca beyond the medical paradigm. It’s time to take seriously the claims of indigenous elders and others who acknowledge the sentience of plant life and the deep human connection with the natural world. A key solution to our planetary crisis must involve protecting and incorporating indigenous knowledge. It can help us realize how our personal ayahuasca healing is also a kind of planetary healing. Below I outline several reasons why ayahuasca should be treated as much more than simply a personal “medicine.”

18 July 2019

Epistemological practices of reciprocity

Rebecca-Rosea Blome (Freie Universität Berlin) investigated Takiwasi’s use of Amazonian medicinal knowledge to treat mental health patients and the association’s work with indigenous groups. Last May, she presented some of the results during a workshop organized by the Working Group Medical Anthropology within the German Anthropological Association (DGSKA). “Exploring Ecologies of Mind in (Mental) Health: Eco-Pathologies and Onto-Politics of Healing Economies”.

01 July 2019

Testimony about the benefits of the dieta

Mateo participated in a retreat/diet in Takiwasi in 2012 and now he shares this testimony about the benefits for his life from this experience, something that fills us with joy and pride.

20 June 2019

French Plant Spirits: Exploring the Use of the Amazonian Plant-diet Practice in France

In her article Giorgia Tresca, environmental anthropologist that previously conducted ethnobotanical research at the Takiwasi Center, investigates how Amazonian understandings of plant spirits are coming to life in Europe, specifically by the hands of French herbalist Celine Cholewka, who apprenticed in the Peruvian Amazon.

10 June 2019

Delegation of the Norwegian government visited San Martin to learn about progress fight against deforestation

As part of the tour in Alto Mayo, they met the Awajún indigenous community of Shampuyacu where they visited the Bosque de las Nuwas, an initiative for economic development in harmony with indigenous culture and conservation, promoted by the women of the Shampuyacu community together with the Takiwasi Laboratory and Conservation International Peru. As a result of this initiative, a line of infusions will soon be launched on the market that highlights the identity of the indigenous woman and her knowledge of the Amazonian medicinal plants.