“Yaas”: Awajún’s talent for overcoming difficulties
Young indigenous students are the future leaders of the Amazon. However, they face many obstacles, from having to adapt to a different culture,
It is important to understand what is meant by the term“restraint“.”. In its definition, it refers to “the act of enclosing or containing within oneself or repressing something; of holding something back within oneself or inside oneself”, e.g. “the riverbed overflowed following heavy rains, but it was contained with everyone’s help”. It also designates the repression of human passions or feelings; a familiar example: “I wanted to tell him his truths, but I contained myself”. In psychotherapy, it is used to designate “a process in which there are situations of reassurance and stimulation of confidence in a person who is affected by a strong emotional crisis”. Restraint is a condition and a situation that enables us to elaborate and develop the ability to identify our own impulses, emotions and feelings, and allows us to contrast them with our immediate environment and experiences, being a reflexive and conscious process. The situation of restraint enables emotions, feelings and thoughts to be ordered and organized, so that they can be expressed in an assertive, coherent and focused way; it enables a new, shocking, stressful or painful situation to be assimilated, accommodated and integrated.
In this process of restraint, the presence of an Other (not necessarily a psychotherapist who provides the restraint, but also someone with a listening attitude, for example: the friend who listens when you feel bad, and who after talking – and without a word from you – feels better), is important in the development of these limits, and the learning that enables the inner world to be ordered and organized.
As part of the addiction treatment process at the Takiwasi Centerplant resources are used, in particular for the harvesting of “Master plants“These are used to accompany, help and teach users in their psychological processes and therapeutic thinking.
Mabit (2001) and Torres (1998), mention that in traditional Amazonian medicine :
“[…]
Plants “teach
In general terms, a greater connection is generated between the mind and emotions, enabling the subject to concentrate better”, and that “thanks to their entheogenic properties, they also serve to give us a vision of the future”. In general terms, a greater connection is generated between the mind and the emotions, enabling the subject to concentrate better”, and that “thanks to their entheogenic properties, they also serve to give us an introspective vision of ourselves, and of life in general“.
Based on these premises, the use and intake of master botanicals in contention at the Takiwasi Center enables the user to have a collateral process to his psychotherapeutic process, taking the master plants closest to what he needs to know or learn to develop psychosomatically, affectively, emotionally, spiritually and axiologically, generating positive effects in these dimensions and in their totality.
Throughout his clinical experience, the The Takiwasi Centre and its healers have learned about the psychological, emotional and spiritual manifestations produced by taking the master plants in a therapeutic context. retreat-diet, as part of the protocol within the residential boarding school and with outpatients who have a psychotherapy process accompanied by plants.
At Takiwasi, the following plants are mainly used for contention:
Taking these master herbs helps with psychological treatment, depending on the moment and the need the user is experiencing. In addition, the energetic work of integrating the process takes place at a delicate and profound level, and requires time to metabolize. It induces permanent structural change. The energetic and spiritual dimension is not separated from the contribution of plants, so it is important to take into account the provisions necessary for their use, such as the “diet”, explained below.
Its preparation consists of using the stem, bark, leaves and/or roots, depending on its intended use.raditionally given and discovered by plant masters; it may be prepared in water by boiling over a fire until a concentrate is obtained, or it may be a “fresh” preparation of the above-mentioned plant parts, either crushed, scraped, ground or crushed, also incorporated in water. There are plants that can be mixed to combine and reinforce the effects of the same plant, or there are plants that require the exclusive use of the plant in containment to be taken.
Briefly, the“diet” or“herbal intake” can be defined as “the time during which one is subjected to a certain diet and to more or less strict rules of bodily, mental and energetic management” while taking herbs, whether purgatives and/or restraint masters.
Restraint plants are admitted for 5 to 10 days. In general, but depending on the plant, they are taken in 250 ml doses – in a practical or rudimentary way, a small glass is used which is filled to the brim; in the case of strong plants such as Chiric Sanango and Uchu Sanango, empirically, the measure of the index and middle fingers, placed together and horizontally in relation to the small glass, is used, aligning them with the base and pouring the restraining plant up to the edge of the index finger.
In general, a dose of the restraining plant is taken in the evening to take advantage of its influence on dream activity. However, there are some plants which, because of their strength, energy and effects, it is best to take a dose of the contetion plant in the evening to take advantage of its influence on dream activity.
However, there are some plants which, because of their strength, energy and effects, are best taken in the morning, so as not to disrupt sleep and thus the user’s normal rhythm of life.
While taking these restraining herbs, it is necessary to observe basic care restrictions:
It’s important to take these restrictions into account because, according to the empirical knowledge of traditional Amazonian medicine, plant spirits are “jealous” and require a restriction of diet and habitual behavior while they are being taken. During this period, there is a teaching and learning relationship at a subtle, active level, and when this process is interfered with, it causes “errors” and “twists” in the regime, colloquially known as“cruzaderas“.
A “cruzadera” is the consequence of a diet dysfunction – voluntary or involuntary – and has effects on the physical body manifesting as headaches, diarrhea, disorientation, dizziness, vertigo, ringing in the ears, general body aches, difficulty sleeping or feeling too heavy to wake up and get going during the day… On a psycho-affective level, it can generate confusion, anxiety and/or depression, obsessive thoughts, irritability, overwhelming anger, among many other possibilities. On an energetic and spiritual level, nightmares, disturbances in sensory perception, the siege of bad energies and obsessive negative thoughts can manifest themselves.
It’s important to note that the “cruzadera” must be corrected immediately, because if it’s maintained consciously or unconsciously, the teachings of the master plants will reinforce the negative aspects of the user (the “shadow” aspects), even increasing the aspects one wanted to change, worsening their condition, even going back further than the starting point.
The correction of a “cruzadera” – “straightening out the diet” – will be done by a healerThis can be done by the healer, who is qualified to do so, using maple tobacco and chewed cinnamon bark to blow on certain energy points in the user’s body, herbal baths and/or perfumes, fasting, repairing with the restraining plant the user was taking, or indications of the means the healer has at his disposal to straighten out the diet. In this way, we ensure that the teachings of the master plants are appropriate and healthy for the user, manifesting themselves in obvious positive effects over the medium and long term, both for the person taking the containment plants and for their close and less close relational networks.
One element that has characterized the Takiwasi Center as unique in its work with people with addictions and drug addicts is the incorporation and integration of traditional Amazonian medicine in conjunction with conventional medicine and Western psychotherapy. Equally important, and no less significant, are the retreat/diet processes that are also on offer, which are, if not unique, at least pioneering in that they offer professional medical and psychological support to users who are retiring by consuming master plants, contrary to what has traditionally been done for hundreds of years. This integrated format has also enabled the Takiwasi Center, over the years, to build up a clinical and experimental collection of resident patients and diet practitioners, reaching a recognition of the effect and impact of master plants on psychological, emotional, spiritual and transgenerational levelsThey are prescribed for very specific situations and cases, depending on the motivation and process of each individual. It’s worth noting that the discovery of this fine knowledge can be seen as an aspect not explicitly or categorically recorded in written or oral tradition, as the ancients were more focused on physical well-being and practical situations, according to their cultural matrix.
Taking master botanicals in restraint is a highly effective process if it’s done right and leaves a lasting structural change. It is useless, even dangerous, if it is not carried out correctly or if the rules are not respected (dosage, diet, care…). It provides a “pool” of specific psychotherapeutic assistants for rehabilitation work on the physical, psycho-emotional and spiritual levels simultaneously… the content manifested (experiences of isolation in the botanical reserve, dreams, memories, grief and wounds) manifests itself with great lucidity and is highly significant in the process of treating addictions and the “spiritual”. human development.
“The aim is to provide support, so that the person themselves gradually comes to understand and take responsibility for themselves. The aim is not to heal the patient on the basis of our own training and mental patterns – projections – as we see in conventional psychotherapy, but to help the patient discover his or her own inner Master with the help of Master Plants. Perhaps from a regional-indigenous vision of the master plant, we can highlight the plant’s psychotherapeutic function as an amplifier and stimulant of the self-medicating power of the Inner Master, of the deep consciousness that goes beyond neo-cortical awareness.“.
Giove, R. (2010). “La liana de los Muertos al Rescate de la Vida”. Traditional Amazonian medicine in the treatment of drug addiction. DEVIDA. Tarapoto, Peru.
Mabit, J. (2001). “Uso ritualizado de plantas psicoactivas de la Amazonía en el tratamiento de toxicómanos: 7 años de experiencias en el Centro Takiwasi” (Ritualized use of psychoactive plants from the Amazon in the treatment of drug addicts: 7 years of experience at the Takiwasi Center). Lecture given at the ISAM International Scientific Conference “Addictions 2000+1, Challenges and Opportunities for a new Millenium”, International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM), Israel, September 2001. 8p. Link: https://www.takiwasi.com/docs/arti_esp/Usoritualizadodeplantaspsicoactivas.pdf
Torres, J. (1998). About the master plant: a vehicle for introspection, p. 58-62. In: Memorias del Segundo Foro Internacional Sobre Espiritualidad Indígena, Tarapoto, Perú. Link: https://takiwasi.com/es/plantas-maestras.php
Young indigenous students are the future leaders of the Amazon. However, they face many obstacles, from having to adapt to a different culture,
Les jeunes étudiants indigènes sont les futurs leaders de l’Amazonie. Cependant, ils sont confrontés à de nombreux obstacles, qu’il s’agisse de devoir s’adapter à une culture différente,
Il est important de comprendre ce que signifie le terme “contention”.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Takiwasi Center, we are releasing this documentary which looks back over three decades of intense clinical and research work on traditional Amazonian medicines.
A l’occasion du 30ème anniversaire du Centre Takiwasi, nous vous relayons ce documentaire qui offre une rétrospective des trois décennies d’intense travail clinique et de recherche sur les médecines traditionnelles amazoniennes
In the Peruvian jungle, ikaro is the name given to the song or melody used by healers during ritual work.