Join, the “Medicine Hunter” Steve Beyer , andof the Amazon Convergence, for this groundbreaking series where we will explore techniques to communicate with the plant world, accessing their elder species wisdom for personal and collective healing.

Learn practical exercises to explore plant consciousness and work directly with plant allies to connect with a profound wisdom and intelligence

Expand our understanding of healing to include shamanic approach to disease and depression as spiritual imbalance, revealing paths towards personal transformation, increased vitality, and achieving greater health

Explore the physical and psycho-spiritual properties of the plants themselves, from the familiar tobacco to the exotic and controversial pusanga, the famed ‘love potion’ of the Amazon

Probe deeply into the mystery of the potent and transformative Ayahuasca, revealing the ‘spirit vine’s’ recent history, the experience of ceremony, the shamans who perform them, and the myth and origins of the brew itself

Discuss the significance of the visionary experience itself through the teachings and art of Pablo Amaringo

Address the problem of institutional reactions against this type of exploration, and discuss safe ways to access the inner depths of our being

Discover the concept of the ‘diet,’ a body of practices through which the shaman incorporates the plant spirit into their own and learns from the plant itself how to invoke the healing power

In this groundbreaking series, we will explore techniques to communicate with the plant world, accessing their elder species wisdom for personal and collective healing. The modern West has dismissed the idea that plants have awareness, but indigenous cultures believe that plants possess consciousness and have a spirit, as well. Some recent scientific research supports the shamanic worldview, such as the research on plant sentience explored in the book The Secret Life of Plants.The visionary plants – ayahuasca, mushrooms, peyote, iboga, and so on – can help the modern mind access the indigenous way of knowledge and thought. For many people, shamanic experience provides an opening into the hidden dimensions of plant knowledge and wisdom. By exploring shamanic traditions, you can learn time-honored techniques for making this connection.While we as human beings make use of plants constantly – our clothing, our food, our medicine – we rarely make a conscious connection with the plant world, which some indigenous groups call the “green nation.” One basic insight that many people bring back from visionary plant work is that we as humans urgently need to redefine our relationship to nature, from believing we have dominion over it to realizing we are part of it. As we discover this, we realize that the nonhuman beings surrounding us, including plants, have crucial knowledge to transmitto us. It is not only the visionary plants such as ayahuasca that have much to teach us: many plants have teachings we can access when we learn how to listen and receive from them.In this course, you will explore the wisdom of plants and ways to access their intelligence to deepen your connection with nature and become more resilient, self-sufficient, and healthy.In this series you will:

Sessions 1 and 2: Medicine for the Soul

Saturday, September 22nd and 29th (with Chris Kilham) at 12pm San Francisco • 3pm New York • 8pm London

‘Whether the plant is to heal the body or the spirit or whether it is part of an apprenticeship, what makes it work is your good intention towards the plant. They are beings, which have their own forms or they can be like human beings with faces and bodies. When the spirit accepts the person, and the person has the will, the spirit grants them energy. The path to knowledge opens, and the healing takes place’ Guillermo Arevalo – Shipibo Maestro

In the Amazonian tradition working with planta maestras (teacher plants) is known as the ‘Diet’. The working can be seen as a conscious body of actions to incorporate the plant spirit into one’s own spirit. From this incorporation or union, the plant spirit informs and teaches the maestro or apprentice. They learn the magical chants (icaros) which invoke the power of the plant, how to use the plant for healing purposes, and how to strengthen the dieter both psychologically and physically.

Indigenous cultures perceive life very differently from our modern world, and there is a treasure house of plant knowledge that has remained obscured from Western mainstream thinking, yet is available through transforming our perception and challenging established thinking by exploring the ideas and practices of the cultures that are closer to the natural world than us.

In these sessions, we’ll explore:

How Nature itself is a living organism which must be considered as an expression of the One Life, and that man and the Universe are one in their essential nature, and that there is a ‘magnetic’ attraction between every part of nature and its corresponding part in man.

We explore the ways that shamans engage with the other consciousness of the plants, and work with the spirit of the plants in a variety of ways, for example; the attributes such as colours and aromas of the flowers, the shape and outer form of the plant.

We also explore the concept of the famed ‘love’ potion of the Amazon, the pusanga, and the ethical issues surrounding this.

We look at the qualities and powers of some of the healing, and sensory expanding plants, such as; Ajo Sacha , Guayusa, Chric Sanango, Mocura, Jergon Sacha, Tobacco, and how people interact with the plants in other ways such as the floral bath.

Session 3: Ayahuasca Visions

Saturday, October 6th (with Steve Beyer) at 12pm San Francisco • 3pm New York • 8pm London

“We are not talking about passive agents of transformation, we are talking about an intelligence, a consciousness, an alive and other mind, a spirit, which of course we have no place in our society. Nature is alive and is talking to us. This is not a metaphor.” Terence McKenna

At its most fundamental level, the modern Western reality or dream is a materialistic one. It is a reality of separation and disconnection from the natural world with all the consequences that this has reaped, that being a massive ecological crisis. ·We know that things do not have to be this way, and we know that we have the potential to create a very different world by transforming our collective dream so to speak.

Plant hallucinogens offer a means of breaking through this trance of the collective dream into a more expansive, freeing, and information-rich universe which holds infinite possibilities for other realities and futures. These plants do not lead us away from ourselves, into an unbalanced frame of mind, as our doctors and politicians warn, but deeper into ourselves and our potential, to a place where we can find greater balance through genuine self-awareness. To quote the Dalai Lama ‘World peace begins with inner peace’.

In this session, we’ll explore:

The surge of interest in ayahuasca in the recent years. Is it a ‘medicine for our times?’ And how it can give hope to people with incurable diseases, offer a way to powerful personal transformation, and allow us to access inspiring answers to the major problems of modern civilization.

We will discuss and explore the experience of the Ayahuasca ceremony, Shamans, and the nature of the brew itself.

We will examine the healing properties of Ayahuasca, and consider the mythology and mystery of the brew itself. For example how the indigenous peoples of the Amazon learned to combine the plants which make up the Ayahuasca brew.

We will also explore the spiritual and visionary aspect of the relationship with the brew and ourselves, and the significance of visionary and ayahuasca inspired art in the human experience. The great visionary artist Pablo Amaringo had much wisdom to reveal about this sublime relationship between plant and human. Howard will be sharing some of Pablo’s insights and teachings imparted to him over the years.

Session 4: Integration, Incorporation, and the Future

Saturday, October 13th (with Sitaramaya) at 12pm San Francisco • 3pm New York • 8pm London

In this session, we will:

Look at ways of establishing the connection to plants, with practical exercises so participants can explore the world of the plant consciousness and enable you to work deeply with your plant allies and experience this connection for yourself.

Examine how the psycho-spiritual, or shamanic perspective, of disease that usually arises from a spiritual imbalance within the individual causing him or her to become de-spirited or to lose heart (in the West we would call this depression) and we will look at ways that we can work with plants for personal transformation, increase our vitality, and bring ourselves into equilibrium for our well-being and health.