experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil’s Amazon forest in 1991. “I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations,” Shanon said.
He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.
Howard G Charing is a healer, a workshop facilitator, and a director of the Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. He has co-published numerous articles about shamanism in Peru as practiced in the Andean, coastal and Amazonian regions, With Peter Cloudsley he has published a documented collection of chants and Ayahuasca Icaros on a CD “The Shamans of Peru”.
He has also authored the book Plant Spirit Shamanism published by Destiny Books (USA). For many years, he has been organising plant medicine retreats to work with the indigenous peoples in Peru’s Amazon basin, as well as Andean retreats with shamans of northern Peru who work with the visionary cactus San Pedro. Howard has been baptised by the Shipibo Indians, and ritually initiated into the lineage of the maestros of the Rio Napo region.
Howard and his colleague Peter Cloudsley also hold Amazonian Medicine Retreats at their dedicated centre in the Mishana National Reserve. As a protected nature reserve encompassing several thousands of hectares of primary rainforest, Mishana is home to many plants and animals that endemic to that region. At Mishana, participants are able to work with indigenous shamans and experience the direct healing of nature through Ayahuasca, the visionary vine of the soul. For details about these plant medicine retreats, as well as information about upcoming workshops with Howard see his website: http://www.shamanism.co.uk