The Oración Diet

The Oración diet connects the dieter to all of God’s Medicine. It is not a plant diet, as no plant medicine is taken to connect, but it is said that this diet is like dieting all of the plants at once (and more) because God created all of the medicinal plants — and this will help heal everything for the dieter. To connect, the dieter will receive connection songs from Maestro Ricardo that connect them to all of the aspects of God and God’s Medicine including God’s Angels, God’s Light, God’s Divine Celestial Science and much more. Maestro Ricardo is one of the few shamans who can connect dieters to the Oración diet. He received this power after many years of dieting and dedication to the medicine. With this diet, one diets all of the energies of God — the Light of God, the Power and Strength of God, the Love of God and the Peace of God. These God energies will give the dieter strength and power, which differs from a plant diet. Oración, or prayer in Spanish, is just the name of the diet and doesn’t mean that the dieter will be praying all of the time. It is a social diet, which means the dieter is able to go about their lives as normal, including working while dieting if desired. This diet is not as strict as a plant diet and is strong, meaning it makes you strong and it is not easily affected by outside energies. The Oración diet is often taken home but can also be dieted at the center if the dieter would like more guidance and/or to continue working with Ayahuasca while dieting. Because the dieter can live as they choose to while dieting Oración, this diet is good for examining one’s life, changing one’s habits, and aligning with and expanding the dieter’s life path. The food requirements are also less restrictive than a plant diet. All fruits, vegetables, legumes, salt and sugar may be eaten while dieting. The Oración dieter may not consume: red meat (beef, pork…), milk, spicy food, raw fish or alcohol. All sexual activity is still prohibited while dieting. The Oración diet is both a healing and a learning diet, and is only recommended for those who are committed to a long-term diet (greater than 6 months). The diet also teaches shamanism if one wishes to learn, and gives the dieter great power and knowledge of the spiritual medicine. Type Healing and learning diet Duration 6 months minimum; 1 year is recommended Best for Connecting to God and one’s life path, and learning the medicine The Oración diet is one of the many diets we offer at Nihue Rao. You can find more about the master plant diets we offer here: Nihue Rao Master Plant Diets. If you are interested in dieting a particular master plant that you do not see listed, please contact us for more information. Learn more about what a master plant diet is and how one can help your healing process in our Guide to Master Plant Diets.

Master Plant Diet: Piñón Blanco

Piñón Blanco has a very beautiful medicine world of pure light, with beautiful patterns and a lot of visions. Piñón Blanco is usually given to those who do not have any history of drug use, and for those looking to open their spiritual connection. Piñón Blanco is one of the only Master Plants that does not have any shitana (dark energies) — it is pure light. The world of Piñón Blanco has many good medicine spirits, male and female, that will teach the dieter the medicine of Piñón Blanco. The resin of Piñón Blanco is given to the dieter instead of the leaf, as Maestro Ricardo saw in a vision that the resin of Piñón Blanco is good for the human body. This resin is not only used to diet — it can also be used to topically treat wounds on the skin or flesh, as well as within the body for cysts. In the past, it has also been used to treat diseases such as Yellow Fever. The Piñón Blanco tree also bears a fruit that is rich in vitamins. The seeds of this fruit can be roasted and eaten to induce purging. A month after this treatment, the body will have strengthened and weight will have been gained. This treatment can be recommended for those who have completed a long-term diet and are looking to rebuild their body afterward. Type Healing or learning diet Duration 11 days minimum Best for Opening spiritual connection and connecting to the light Piñón Blanco is one of many master plant diets we work with at Nihue Rao. You can find more about the master plant diets we offer here: Nihue Rao Master Plant Diets. If you are interested in dieting a particular master plant that you do not see listed, please contact us for more information. Learn more about what a master plant diet is and how one can help your healing process in our Guide to Master Plant Diets.

Master Plant Diet: Nihue Rao

Nihue Rao is the center’s namesake, and a sacred master plant to Maestro Ricardo. It connects a dieter deeply to the powerful spirits of the Shipibo medicine and teaches knowledge of the cosmos, divine light, peace, and love. Dieting Nihue Rao is not for healing, it is solely for learning all types of medicine. However, dieting Nihue Rao will change the dieter’s life by arranging the dieter’s thoughts and opening the dieter’s mind and heart. The world of Nihue Rao has many lights, colors, patterns, and spirits of the medicine. The world also has many towns with beautiful flags within them, including Shipibo villages. In the Shipibo language, Nihue refers to “air” or “wind” and Rao means “medicine” — as such, the air of Nihue Rao is strong and can make the dieter tremble at times. Through dieting Nihue Rao, one can also be connected to Noya Rao, an enchanted tree that can no longer be found on this Earth, but can be dieted through a shaman who is spiritually connected to Noya Rao. Noya Rao means “flying medicine” in Shipibo. Noya Rao is well connected to God, and those who diet Noya Rao will be as well. Nihue Rao (and Noya Rao) are only available to advanced dieters and shamanic apprentices who wish to study shamanism, become spiritual Maestros, and help others to heal. Type Learning diet Duration 6 months to 1 year Best for Learning the medicine and studying shamanism Nihue Rao and Noya Rao are one of many master plant diets we work with at Nihue Rao. You can find more about the master plant diets we offer here: Nihue Rao Master Plant Diets. If you are interested in dieting a particular master plant that you do not see listed, please contact us for more information. Learn more about what a master plant diet is and how one can help your healing process in our Guide to Master Plant Diets.

Nihue Rao Ayahuasca Retreat Preparation

And, so your journey begins Dear Pasajero [passenger en español]! We use this name to identify those who have chosen to venture into the jungle, to sit with Ayahuasca, and other Master Plants.  As you begin to prepare for your time with us at Nihue Rao, we’ve created a detailed overview of what to expect for your arrivals, packing suggestions, daily activities, etc. Once you’ve booked your retreat, please read through the entire document thoroughly and without distraction. The information below is important and will answer many questions you may already have around how you can begin to prepare physically, spiritually and emotionally for your time here at Nihue Rao Centro Espirtual.  We thank you for trusting us with your healing process and look forward to meeting you in person. Your arrival We arrange a complimentary pick up from either the IQT airport, or your hotel in Iquitos. At the airport, our driver will have a sign but sometimes they will call out your name, and/or say Nihue Rao (sounds like Knee-Way). From there, you will be driven by motor car to the center. Upon arriving at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, you will be welcomed, given a brief tour of the center, and shown to your room. Depending upon your arrival time there may be meal time for you to eat after settling, our last meal time is around 4 pm. If you plan to eat at the center please inquire with the manager regarding your timing so we prepare you in advance as to whether your arrival will coincide with meals. Meetings with Maestro Ricardo, the owner and head shaman of Nihue Rao, happen either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. During this meeting you will meet 1:1 with the Maestro [and our translator] to handle find payments, discuss your intentions, and be assigned a Master Plant Dieta. This is also a great opportunity for you to ask any questions to the Maestro directly 1:1 and bring any offerings from your hometown [if you have]. When booking your flights, we suggest you find an arrival day that lands on either Saturday or Sunday. These days our center does not have ceremonies and there is more space to settle and rest. By exception, we also allow for Wednesday arrivals if necessary. The Preparation Dieta 10 days prior to your first ceremony, it is vital to clear the mind and body of as many impurities, toxins, and intrusions as possible. However, the sooner you can begin your preparations the better. Preparations help you in your  approach to plant medicines providing your introduction to the medicine with a more “intact” energy. This will offer you more emotional centeredness and physical endurance for the long nights in the maloca for ceremony. We highly suggest you begin landing in a deeper meditation practice, as you will be spending a great deal of time in ceremony in meditation with the medicine. If you are new to meditation, try sitting for 10 minutes a day and working up to a half hour over the next 10 days.   In terms of food preparations, 10 days prior [if not even longer] we recommend adhering to a soft food diet. This means you stop eating:  And also refrain from all sexual activity. ALSO reduce –do not completely remove– the following: After your retreat, post care needs and conditions are important to take into consideration. Please see our Post Dieta guidance and plan your departure accordingly. Reminder: Please share with our facilitation team any existing or preexisting physical and/or mental medical conditions you have, along with the medications you are currently taking. It is strongly recommended that at least 3 days prior to your first ceremony you stop using any over the counter medications and/or supplements. Reminder: Please consult your physician regarding medical conditions which require pharmaceutical support. Make sure you provide yourself with the proper information and guidance before making any adjustments.  Logistics in life Take care of as much business as you can, ideally leaving a solid two-week window for preparation without business chaos interfering. Take care of as many lingering details as possible, such as finances, emails, bills, making arrangements for your animals, etc. Lastly, before you depart, think about cleaning your home or your room, clearing clutter, doing laundry, etc. so when you return your home feels clean and peaceful. You are preparing now for your return, so creating a soft, safe, and clear space to land will be helpful in your transition back home and begin your integration process.  Packing Checklist Be aware that you are traveling to the Amazon jungle. Dry season runs roughly from August to November and rainy/wet season from mid-December to mid-May. The jungle is more or less tropical which means high humidity coupled with high temperatures; for the most part.  Packing Suggestions:  For wet season: * We suggest bringing protective bags like Dry sacks for your electronics and varied sized Ziploc bags for your clothing and toiletries. Occasionally pasajeros [passengers] are visited by insects in their rooms so please be mindful of your belongings by keeping everything zipped in bags, and scented products in Ziploc bags. Jungle life!  Lastly: *ATTENTION: Please try to bring as little plastic or other items that can end up as garbage. There is no garbage collection here in the jungle, in the end everything is burned or sadly can also simply end up on the side of the road. In order to preserve and conserve this Amazonian region, please be as environmentally conscious as you can when preparing and packing for your trip.   Weekly Overview On Monday morning you will skip breakfast and participate in a  vomitivo. This is a drink consisting of master plant Oje, Azucena, and sometimes a tiny amount of mapacho (local tobacco). This purging ceremony helps to clear the physical body of toxins, prepares you for receiving your master plant, as well as preparing the body to receive Ayahuasca. The vomitivo may also help to reduce the purging during the Ayahuasca ceremony nights to come.  After your vomitivo lunch is

Making the most of an Ayahuasca Ceremony

What is Ayahuasca? Ayahuasca is the centerpiece of the Amazon’s ecosystem of ancestral plant medicines. Made by brewing together two plants —ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaf— for approximately eight hours, Ayahuasca is a powerful medicine for the body, but also for the mind, the heart and the soul. Physically, once ingested, the Ayahuasca liquid enters and purifies every bit of your body from the tip of the head to the tip of the toes: the brain, the heart and all organs, the nerves, and even the blood. Ayahuasca also energetically enters the compartments of your mind, namely the mental psychology, emotional function, memory, five senses and sleep and dream space. There, the medicine removes traumas, blocks and other negative energies and brings strength and opening as needed. With help from experienced shamans, Ayahuasca can heal all kinds of diseases: thyroid issues, drug addictions, diabetes, schizophrenia, depression and even cancer, just to mention a few. Spiritually, Ayahuasca is a doorway into the spirit world. The psychedelic trance or mareación that she provides takes you into the spirit world, where the roots of your ailments lie as energies. There, Mother Ayahuasca, the main spirit of the Ayahuasca medicine, guides you, heals you and even empowers you to heal yourself. Through visions and messages, the Mother brings up things from your spiritual weight and gives you opportunities to work through and let go of what you no longer want: emotions, traumas, pains, negative thoughts, blockages, behaviors and so on. In this way, she works with you to help you heal yourself. What is an Ayahuasca ceremony? To treat the medicine with the respect it deserves, we drink Ayahuasca in a ceremonial setting, and to see the visions properly, we drink it at night and in the dark. If we’re new to the medicine, we also drink it in the presence of an experienced shaman. An Ayahuasca ceremony generally has three parts: the set up, the work, and the wind-down. Note that the following description is how ceremony is run at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. To begin, every pasajero, one by one, goes up to receive and drink their Ayahuasca brew. The shamans then drink too, the lights are turned off and everyone waits in silence for the effect to arrive. Once the shamans’ effect has opened (30 to 45 minutes in), they take turns to sing their opening songs, to connect to their medicines and prepare for the work ahead. After this, the pasajeros that have no effect are given a chance to drink an optional second dose, helped by a facilitator. Here begins the work of the shamans, and facilitators take pasajeros to sit in front of their respective shamans for their healing song. The facilitator reads the pasajero’s intentions quietly to the shaman, and the shaman begins to sing. Once their 8 to 12 minute ícaro is done, the pasajero is guided back to their mat. This repeats until every pasajero has received their song (or songs, if anyone is also opening or closing a diet). Once everyone has received their ícaro, the ceremony continues in silence until the Maestro announces its closing. This is the wind-down time, and the remaining strength of the medicine should allow for rest. Once the Maestro closes the ceremony, a candle is lit, and everyone is welcome to stay in the maloca for as long as they like, and to converse quietly, sing or play instruments—always respectfully, as Mother Ayahuasca is still in the room and fellow pasajeros might still have a strong effect. Shortly after, the shamans will leave the maloca. Your working dose More Ayahuasca, more healing. Less Ayahuasca, less healing.More Ayahuasca, more visions. Less Ayahuasca, less visions. Maestro Ricardo Amaringo On one side, it’s true that the more medicine you drink, the more healing you will receive from Ayahuasca. On the other, since you will be doing a lot of your own healing, it’s important for you to be able to work comfortably during the effect, and this means staying centered and able to think with clarity while you are in the second stage of the medicine. So, generally, you’ll want to drink the most medicine you comfortably can—that is your working dose; you have a good effect, but you can still make decisions. Your working dose also makes it easier for you to understand the visions. It is your responsibility to find your working dose, the dose that is good for your mind and your body. Maestro Ricardo Amaringo You find your working dose through experience. As you sit for your first ceremony, the shaman will give you a cautious intro dose based on your body build. At the end of the night you should have a feel for how that dose was. If you were underwhelmed or bored, or had too short of an effect or none at all, up your dose a bit the next time. If the effect was overwhelming, too fast or it was generally hard to keep up with Ayahuasca, lower your dose. If it felt just right and you could think clearly, stay calm and converse with Ayahuasca, you found your working dose. Finding your working dose might take a couple of ceremonies and possibly additional guidance from the shaman at integration. Once you have your working dose, you have something safe to default to. If you ever want to drink more it’ll be a conscious choice, and you’ll go in prepared accordingly. Likewise if you want to drink less to rest. If the dose you drank is not enough to produce any effects for you, you have the option of drinking a second, smaller dose approximately one hour after the ceremony starts. Always be careful, though, as this can be unpredictable and prolong your effect until very late. In general, finding your reliable working dose and sticking with it is preferred to drinking a second dose. Mindset To drink the medicine we must bring two thoughts, no more: I’m going to drink Ayahuasca,

Guide to Master Plant Diets

What is a Master Plant Dieta? A master plant dieta, or master plant diet, is the process of receiving healing, learnings and spiritual medicine from a particular master plant. It is akin to continuously administering a medicine, day and night. As you diet a master plant for a period of time, you slowly connect with the spirits of that plant’s medicine. These spirits heal your body and help you work on your healing goals, and they, alongside Ayahuasca, guide your ceremonies. In a short retreat, a diet can significantly boost your healing. “There is only one solution to live well in this difficult world: the diet.” Maestro Ricardo Amaringo Besides your body, the diet also gets connected to your mind and dreams, so it is able to guide your thinking and even communicate with you in dreams. Dieting connects you to the root of the spiritual world, effectively making you more spiritual—that is, more aware of your spiritual self. As you become more and more spiritual by dieting, you experience improvements all across your life: in your physical and mental health, in your work, in your relationships, in your luck, in your projects, and so on. Dieting opens your mind and your heart, and with them, your life’s path. It is the all-in-one solution to living a better life in this world. Which master plant (or plants) you diet during your retreat will depend on your needs and goals. Some plants are fit for purifying the body and mind of substance abuse. Others are good for removing pains from the body and strengthening it. Others for opening one’s heart and connecting to love. A plant diet is started by drinking a small dose of a preparation made with that plant, and receiving an ícaro to open the diet, in ceremony. Depending on the plant you’re dieting, subsequent doses of the preparation might be necessary to keep strengthening the connection. To care for this growing connection as it gets established, a few restrictions are observed while dieting: no physical contact, no sex, no alcohol, no salt and sweets, no condiments, no oil, no red meats, and no milk. In stricter diets, no veggies and no fruits. A diet is closed with an ícaro as well. This mandatory ícaro protects the diet from food, sex, alcohol and other energies, so that you may now resume your normal life without harming the diet and its medicine. This ícaro also protects you personally, by covering you in light. Dieting is also the means by which shamans learn their trade, as there are healing diets and learning diets. Though both healing and learning is present in some degree in both kinds of diet, learning diets are geared towards learning shamanism, and they teach the ícaros and how to work with the medicine. They are also stricter and longer, starting at 3 months and going up to a year and more. Nihue Rao is one such master plant diet. The master plants are also divided in plants and trees, with the latter being stronger and more powerful, but requiring a bit more time than an 11 or 14 day retreat to connect. Trees also generally teach shamanism and have stricter restrictions. “A person who has a diet has light in their heart. This light guides them and protects them wherever they go.” Maestro Ricardo Amaringo To have a diet Dieting helps you heal and work on your goals while you’re going through your retreat, but that’s not the end of it. In fact, a diet is for life. Once you have that connection with the medicine spirits, they are with you for the rest of your days, guiding you and taking care of you. The diet now becomes part of your spiritual history; a good energy you now carry in your body. The diet also brings light in your body, and this light protects you from bad spirits and energies wherever you go, as they don’t like light and will refrain from coming near you. By making good choices and living better, you will even make this light continue to grow after your retreat. “To diet, there are three important points: patience, love, and faith.” Maestro Ricardo Amaringo Dieting well The better you diet, the more you will connect to the medicine and the more you will get out of your diet. The medicine spirits like to see three qualities in us while dieting: patience, love and faith. To care for your diet, put to the side all anger and doubt, and take care to always act and think with kindness and good words. If you get angry, or prideful, or mistrusting, you can block your diet. Think of it this way: the medicine spirits are of pure light, so they don’t enjoy being around negative attitudes. If negative emotions or thoughts come when in diet, reject them. As you refuse to react with anger, or mistrust, the diet itself will little by little clear these things from you, making you kinder, humbler, and more centered, and opening your mind—but you have to reject them. Have faith that your diet will get you where you need to be by the end, and be patient throughout your diet, however long. Treat others with love and kindness, but also your medicine, expressing your gratitude and appreciation to the diet and to Ayahuasca for what they do for you, both in ceremony and during the day. If you make an effort to observe these good behaviors, you will be rewarded with a powerful diet, and your experiences in the medicine will open up more and more. Aside from this, you can make a diet even stronger by taking further measures on your level of isolation. The minimum is to not touch others (including animals) so as to not get connected to their energies, but you can choose to cut down on conversations altogether. Or you can stay away from social media, or the internet in general, or even

Introduction to Ancestral Plant Medicine

The spiritual weight Everything you experience in your life stays with you—spiritually. Traumas, mishaps and addictions alike all remain recorded in your mind and body, manifesting as pains, cluttering your mind and emotions, and blocking your path to the life you desire. This sum of experiences that is the story of your life forms what we call your spiritual weight. If you have consumed drugs or alcohol, the contamination of those substances is still with you. If you were bullied, or abandoned as a child, or abused, those traumas and blocks are still with you. If you have had many sexual partners, their own traumas and blocks are still with you. If you tend to act angrily, that is within you. These are all energies within your spiritual weight, affecting you in ways you might not be aware of. Drinking Ayahuasca, dieting master plants and receiving ícaros or medicinal songs all help you clean portions of this spiritual weight that you carry. They take from you what you no longer want. As your weight lightens, your body, mind and soul can begin to open and heal, and you start to feel lighter, more centered and overall healthier. And if you go deep enough, you can even feel a spiritual rebirth—a new start. The medicinal plants God sowed the medicinal plants on the Earth to help humanity. The Amazonian master plants, of which Ayahuasca is the center of, are a particularly powerful group of them. What these plants do for most people is heal them physically, mentally and emotionally, helping them live a happier life. Put in other words, what they do for most people is help them clean their spiritual weight and emerge out of it. Each plant medicine has its own “specialization”, or its own medicine: there is strength medicine (Shihuahuaco), there is love medicine (Marosa), there is detoxing medicine (Ojé), and so on. Each can bring a particular improvement, or healing, to your life. And then there are medicines that can do a vast amount of things—such as Ayahuasca. What sets plant medicine apart, is that it is spiritual medicine—it works on a spiritual level, acknowledging the fact that, on some level, you are a spirit yourself, and not just your physical body. This allows plant medicine to heal you on every level of your being: physically, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually. What’s more, these medicinal plants make you more spiritual; more aware of your spirit self and of the spiritual reality you live in. In other words, they connect you to the root of the spiritual world. In that awareness, you can come to interact with the spirits of the medicinal plants themselves, receiving healing and teachings from them. The shaman and the ícaros The Shipibos and other Amazonian tribes have long-known about this ecosystem of medicinal plants, and have had ample time to learn how to work with it. This accumulated learning spanning generations is the healing tradition that we call shamanism. Shamans diet for many years to receive knowledge, power and tools (including but not limited to the ícaros) from the spirits of the master plants themselves, and use these to work within the spirit world. This rigorous life-long training makes the shaman exceptionally strong, wise and agile, as it turns them into a spiritual warrior capable of battling the bad energies face to face—and winning. If they walk their path with integrity, it also makes them caring and kind, moving them to use the powers they receive to do good and work the light—that is, to heal others. To heal you, the shaman sings ícaros, powerful healing songs that clean your spiritual weight quickly and bring order and healing to your body, mind and soul. These songs are medicine themselves; spiritual medicine that enters your body through the sounds of the shaman’s voice. It is the very spirits of their dieted medicines, male and female alike, that come to sing these songs through them. Because the ícaros carry medicine on their own, it’s not even necessary to drink Ayahuasca to receive their benefits. They are, however, significantly more powerful you’re in the Ayahuasca effect. It is worth noting that the word shaman is actually of western origin. The shamans themselves (at least the Shipibos) call themselves onanya, meaning wise or sage. This is an excerpt from “The True Medicine: The Nihue Rao Guidebook to Ayahuasca and Master Plant Diets.” You can read the full guidebook here.

Testimony of the initiation of Maestro Amaringo

We share a brief testimony of the ayahuasquero master Ricardo Amaringo collected by the Shipibo communicator Policarpo Sanchez. The career of Maestro Ricardo Amaringo In my visit to the Nihue Rao Spiritual Center, located on the outskirts of the city of Iquitos in the Nanay River basin, I met with brother Ricardo Amaringo Benetillo, “Sani” in Shipibo name, a recognized Shipibo ayahuasquero master, 58 years old, from the Native Community Vista Alegre de Masisea, upper Ucayali. I share below his fascinating testimony of initiation into the world of ancestral knowledge of traditional medicine and the practice of Shipibo shamanism. Maestro Ricardo Amaringo begins this testimony pointing out that he had a childhood and youth with many difficulties, shortages and even of direct affection from his biological parents: his father Raúl Amaringo Benetillo and his mother Ercilia Ahuanari (who died at the age of 30). Due to their lack of knowledge and the impossibility of assuming the responsibilities of his upbringing, they gave him up for adoption to some uncles and aunts so that they could raise him in their family. He continues, saying that: “I was initiated in the first steps of shamanism when I was 14 years old. Before, back in 1980, in the upper Ucayali, as it is part of our culture, I was offered to marry a Shipiba girl of 12 years old or so, which I had to refuse, because my inner self told me that I had to fulfill a mission, so taking on a family responsibility at that time was not yet part of life.” “At the age of 17 I was already taking ayahuasca regularly. But I want to say that before this big step in my life, I was incredulous of shamanism. Like all young people abandoned by my biological parents, being in the city of Pucallpa, I went through the consumption of marijuana and cocaine, I suffered great sufferings, I cried a lot in my loneliness, in those days, in my solitude. I cried a lot in my loneliness, in those moments I resorted to drugs.” With a voice between his throat, half sobbing, Amaringo says: ‘My God, why did you make me like this, I was crying’. I had a lot of hatred for people, for children and young people my age, a lot of resentment.” “In those times I also passed by the house of the teacher Guillermo Arevalo, in Yarinacocha. I saw that his family lived happily, they ate well, his children were in better conditions than me. So, I asked Guillermo Arevalo to teach me shamanism. I am going to think well, he nodded to me. He told me this because he knew that I was at that time a boy with bad thoughts (rami shinanya, in Shipibo).” “Guillermo Arevalo denied me to be my spiritual maestro, my initiator, because he knew that I had bad thoughts. At that time, I thought that the shamans, onanyabo, merayabo, necessarily had to have a maestro initiator, that only through the maestros or through their guidance came the shamanic knowledge. Then, asking other elders, they told me that in the old days, the beginners of shamanism used to diet (samati in Shipibo) without a teacher, but from the power of the master plants themselves, from the properties of the plants (raobo in Shipibo). Of course, obviously the spiritual accompaniment of someone experienced and spiritually ordained for this purpose is needed.” “An adult woman named Maria, told me, start the diet with the plant ‘marosa‘ (name in Shipibo). I began to diet. Great was my surprise, that with the diet of the ‘marosa‘ I forgot the I forgot about drugs, alcohol, it cleared my mind of my mental disturbances. Before I was totally traumatized, I felt tired, bored, lazy (chikishires, in Shipibo).” Master Ricardo Amaringo points out with forcefulness and certainty that thanks to the diet of plants he got rid of his addictions to drugs and mental disorders or mental imbalances. “Samatax ea benxoa iki”, says Don Ricardo Amaringo with a smile on his lips. “My chakra, my mind had blocked, I had so much doubt, distrust, resentment, confusion of my life (shinan tsokax, in Shipibo), I had even reached the thought of suicide. The addiction to drugs has a solution, with the ícaros and the ingestion of ayahuasca can be healed,” says with experience and as a personal testimony, the maestro Ricardo Amaringo. “Ayahuasca and the master plants have transformed me, they have centered my life, ayahuasca itself has cured me, the spirit of ayahuasca itself,” says Master Ricardo Amaringo emphatically. “So, the body, the soul and the spirit are even in conditions to meet the gods. The master and sacred plants take us to the power of God. Then I did Toé diet with white flowers.” “Then I went on a diet with Nihue Rao (name in Shipibo), medicine of the air in Spanish. I had obtained this plant in a creek that passes through the land or mountain where the Tushmo population center is currently located, in Yarinacocha.” “Nihue Rao samati riki nete kepenti“, that is, with this plant the possibilities and powers to find the different worlds of healing and goodness are opened, according to Ricardo Amaringo. “After a year of dieting with these master plants, Guillermo Arevalo found out about it and sent for me. I had told him that I was just initiating myself, but the maestro, Guillermo Arevalo, had already seen me through ayahuasca and considered that I was already in a position to cure or conduct ayahuasca sessions or rituals. So I began to work in Yarinacocha with the master Guillermo Arevalo.” Currently, Mr. Ricardo Amaringo Benetillo is a prestigious ayahuasca master, a renowned spiritual leader, who has been managing for more than 15 years the growth and positioning of the Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, without having studied any major Western academic training. His entrepreneurial success is worthy of astonishment and admiration. He married at 35 years old with Mrs. Dany