The Retreats

Ayahuasca & Master Plant Dieta Healing Retreats

7-Day Ayahuasca Retreat (Discovery Retreat)

This retreat is a 7-day stay at the center, which includes 4 Ayahuasca ceremonies led by Maestro Ricardo Amaringo and his family, and an Ayahuasca-only dieta. During this journey, you will receive a natural plant purgative to clean and prepare the body, 2 flower baths for energetic cleansing and protection, and a personal healing ícaro in each ceremony. This package is recommended for a first-time experience with the medicine as it offers the chance to journey with Ayahuasca for general energetic cleansing and to gain greater awareness of the spiritual world. The Discovery Retreat option is advised for those who don’t have the time to partake in the Starter Retreat package.

Ayahuasca Retreat + Master Plant Dieta (Starter Retreat)

This retreat is an 11-day stay at the center, which includes 6 Ayahuasca ceremonies led by Maestro Ricardo Amaringo and his family, and a Master Plant Dieta. During this journey, you will receive a natural plant purgative to clean and prepare the body, 3 flower baths for energetic cleansing and protection, and a personal healing ícaro in each ceremony. This package is recommended for a first-time experience with the medicine or a master plant dieta as it offers the chance to receive healing from another plant spirit in addition to journeying with Ayahuasca for general energetic cleansing and to gain greater awareness of the spiritual world.

Ayahuasca Retreat + Master Plant Dieta (Extended Retreat)

This retreat is a 4-week stay at the center, which includes 16 Ayahuasca ceremonies led by Maestro Ricardo Amaringo and his family, and a Master Plant Dieta. During this journey, you will receive a natural plant purgative to clean and prepare the body, 8 flower baths for energetic cleansing and protection, and a personal healing ícaro in each ceremony. Guests will stay in their own room with electricity or a traditional tambo. This package is recommended for guests who aim to work deeply with Ayahuasca to remove strong addictions, experience deep shamanic healing, and seek spiritual transformation. This retreat is also suggested as a first retreat to experience a deep connection to the medicine.

Ayahuasca & Master Plant Dieta Learning Retreat

Ayahuasca & Master Plant Learning Diet Retreat (3 months - 1 year)

This package is for more experienced dieters who want to undertake a strict master plant diet for a minimum of 3 months to 1 year. It includes a natural plant purgative to clean and prepare the body, 2 flower baths per week for energetic cleansing and protection, full access to all Ayahuasca ceremonies (unless directed otherwise by Maestro Ricardo Amaringo), and a personal healing ícaro in each ceremony.

Learning dieters will stay isolated in their traditional tambo tucked away in the jungle on Nihue Rao’s property. Strict, traditional dieta food of fish, plantain, rice, oatmeal, etc. will be delivered to your tambo. This package is ideal for motivated and experienced dieters who want to learn from the plants, go deeper in their work with Ayahuasca, and refine their healing practices.

Ayahuasca Retreat Preparation

Upon confirmation of booking your retreat you will receive a Welcome document that will guide you how to properly prepare to work with Ayahuasca and enter into a Master Plant Dieta.

Preparing Your Stay

We ask all new pasajeros to arrive to the center on Saturday, as this is our intake day. Our center is situated about 60-90 minutes from the Iquitos airport by motorcar or motorcar + boat (depending on the wet/dry seasons.) Please book a flight which will allow you to be ready for pickup in Iquitos on Saturday, or that arrives at the Iquitos airport, no later than 2:30 pm. Arrivals on Sunday or Wednesday can be made as an exception.

On Site

Upon your arrival at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, a Facilitator will welcome you, help you settle into your room and give you a tour of our facilities. You will be asked to fill a detailed questionnaire about intentions (physical, psychological and spiritual) and to sign a waiver which states that you have disclosed the truth about your health and that you are aware that you are going to drink Ayahuasca with the knowledge that Ayahuasca is legal in Peru.

The Meeting

After filling out your intentions, you will have a brief individual and introductory meeting with Ricardo Amaringo, the Maestro and owner of Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. Assisted by a Spanish-English translator you will be able to share your intentions with him where he will tailor a spiritual treatment for you and assign you a Master Plant, if you require a diet.

Ayahuasca Ceremony

Within the information meeting, we will explain how to spiritually prepare yourself for your first Ayahuasca ceremony as well as going over safety recommendations to ensure you have the best possible experience. For a first ceremony, as a safety measure, each new passenger will receive a lower dose than normal to check your resistance. We then aim to find what we call your ‘working dose’, where it is possible to have more once you get used to the process and more confident about the ceremony itself.

The plant purgative prior to the first ceremony will help remove the lingering energies from previous undesired food from the stomach that could interfere with the connection with Ayahuasca and help reduce excessive purging during the ceremony. Although our experienced facilitators will guide you and help you throughout the ceremonies, it is important to remember that it is your responsibility to maintain safe behavior, awareness of your dose, and respect for the tranquility of the other passengers’ processes and the ceremony as a whole.

At Nihue Rao, receiving the individual personal song from the shaman is of utmost importance for your wellbeing. Refusing the healing song or causing trouble to the tranquility of other guests can lead us to refuse to serve you the Ayahuasca brew.

Spiritual Diet

As somewhat of an energetic surgery, the diet is a spiritual technique taught to the shamans from the spirit world to deeply open the inner energies of our soul, mind and body as a way to connect passengers to the medicinal energies of the plants. This requires a special ícaro song in ceremony (first and last ceremony) to both open and close the diet with the master plant. It is of the utmost importance to attend a ceremony to close the diet before leaving the center. Because you have been spiritually opened, missing this “closing” will put yourself at risk of getting deeply affected by negative energies once you leave the center even if you feel well at the time.

Diet Food

Unlike most common western medicines which remove the living spirit from a medicinal plant by cloning them as pills, the Shipibo traditional medicine use the whole plant in order to connect to its spiritual healing powers. We must take care of both the energy of the plant and the energy of our spirit, which will be linked during the diet process. Because of this, 10 days before, during, and also 10 days after a spiritual diet process, it is recommended to abstain from the following: red meat, pork, dairy, drugs, alcohol, strong spices, and sex, because those energies are very strong spiritually, and can interfere with the healing process.Even though all of our food buffet at Nihue Rao is Ayahuasca diet friendly, we do offer food for different types of plant diets as some plants require more severe restrictions than others. The staff will inform you about the specifics of your plants and its special restrictions if this is the case. This is your responsibility to take care of your food intake. Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual cannot be responsible for people who don’t respect their dietary restrictions and damage their energies. We inform you that it is not allowed to use drugs such as narcotics at the center, this risk can deeply affect your health. Not respecting this rule will lead us to exclude a person from our center.

Post-Dieta Process

Understand that a spiritual diet is a difficult process where you will have to face your negative energies (traumas) in order to be able to understand how to get rid of them. This is a challenging and exhausting process, not only physically because we are reducing the food intake you are used to, but also emotionally because we experience intense emotional healing in our body. At Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, our staff is experienced in assisting people with this kind of healing, and we know that this spiritual process requires a minimum amount of time. That’s why, to expect a good result, we propose a retreat for a week minimum or at best, encourage you to select a master plant retreat (10 days minimum) which helps to improve the connection with the spiritual world, enhance the Ayahuasca vision, and optimize the healing process.Because of this, 10 days before, during, and also 10 days after a spiritual diet process, it is recommended to abstain from the following: red meat, pork, dairy, drugs, alcohol, strong spices, and sex, because those energies are very strong spiritually, and can interfere with the healing process.

CAUTION: PLEASE READ CAUTIOUSLY BEFORE BOOKING!

About Drinking Ayahuasca Brew

Everybody is eligible as a participant in our retreat program with a master plant; however you must consider that drinking the Ayahuasca brew is not advisable for people with a risk of heart attack or heart disease, nor for people with epilepsy or strong psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder.

Ayahuasca can reveal any type of spiritual disease rooted in the core energy of a person. A person already affected by a strong psychiatric disorder who drinks Ayahuasca could be taken by those energies under the Ayahuasca effect. For those people, they must first get cleansed by the shaman with healing ícaros or master plant treatments. Only then can the opportunity of drinking Ayahuasca be considered. In case of doubt about your cardiac or mental state, please consult a physician prior to drinking Ayahuasca. Our medical consultant will advise you regarding the results. Nihue Rao reserves the right to refuse to serve Ayahuasca for the benefit of the passenger.

Please also consider the downside of the information explosion online surrounding Ayahuasca. There are tons of non-reliable sources that can end up creating confusion and thus lead you astray on your spiritual medicine path. Also consider the danger of self-prescribing/self-care Ayahuasca to help you through some health problems. Be sure to find real professional support to guide you in the use of this spiritual plant medicine appropriately, carefully and most of all, safely. It is essential to have the right information and preparation before putting your physical, emotional and spiritual health care in the hands of people who have no references.

Glossary

Maloca

Ceremonial house. A 360-degree circular hut where passengers gather on their mats to receive the Ayahuasca brew and ícaros from the shamans.

Ayahuasca

A blend of two master plants, the Ayahuasca brew is made of the Ayahuasca vine and the leaves of a shrub called Chacruna. According to the Shipibo ancient tradition, master plants have their own spirit.

Passenger (Pasajero)

The way we address people from all over the world coming to our spiritual center on their spiritual journey.

Master Plants

Master Plants, or Teacher Plants, are the plants utilized to heal and teach through dieting and other means. These plants are regarded highly in shamanic tradition, and it is believed that Master Plants speak to those with the gift of expanded senses and perception.

Spiritual Healing

Bad energies can deposit somewhat of an “energetic crust” over time, blocking the mind, the memory, and clouding the transparency of the soul. The first step in Ayahuasca spiritual healing is to peel off the crust layer-by-layer, to thus allow us to get in closer contact with ourselves and reveal the sacred energy of the eternal spirit.

Art Maloca

A place for learning and creativity. Here diverse expressions of art and culture can be performed and practiced. Maestro Ricardo Amaringo also uses this space for teaching Shipibo culture classes.

Diet

The “diet” refers to both the Master Plant being dieted, as well as the food eaten while connecting with the Master Plants. Trees and plants hold special powerful significance and spiritual guidance, and have been used for a long time by healers to treat various ailments.

Mapacho

A cigar used throughout the diet and within ceremony to blow away bad energies. This smoke cleanses both the dieter and their space, or the Ceremonial Maloca.

Baño de Florecimiento (Flower Bath)

Made of a rare mixture of healing herbs and recommended throughout the duration of the diet to clear the body of all toxins and bad energies being released, as well as to provide protection for the dieter.

Isolation Diet

For those looking to connect more deeply with their Master Plant, or for those pursuing a longer learning diet, isolation may be recommended. Dieters will stay isolated in their own tambo in the jungle, with meals delivered to them. A stricter meal diet consists of fish, rice and plantains with no salt or oil added to any meal.