Exploring Indigenous Traditions and Wisdom with Dr Joe Tafur

My unofficial Vital Student Zine #2 with observations from Vital Psychedelic Training and recent happenings in the space.

Celia Vasquez Yui, ‘The Council of the Mother Spirits’ via Salon 94 and Shipibo Conibo Centre

In Vital’s second lecture Dr Joe Tafur blew minds with a clinical overview of shamanic plant medicine healing. It included his staggering current research into conditions possibly related to epigenetics that range from PTSD to cancer.

The family doctor from Phoenix, Arizona is also a shaman in the Shipibo curanderismo tradition trained by Maestro Ayahuasca Shaman Ricardo Amaringo. He’s the author of ayahuasca blockbusterThe Fellowship of the River (‘with introduction by Gabor Mat´é') plus the co-founder alongside Amaringo of Nihue Rao healing centre near Iquitos, Peru.

In the Zine this week, arranged in the Vital curriculum colour scheme:

Approach: Saving souls for three million years. And now with MDMA

Therapy: Psychedelic therapy is an art first and a science second

Space Holding: Songs in the key of life: energy and entropy

Medical: Public opinion counted a lot back then in things like pharmaceutical intervention. It still does

Integral: The Eagle and the Condor

These five items I pulled from the week’s research are themed along Vital’s natural element-themed structure. Air provides an overview of psychedelic use, Fire concerns therapeutic applications, Water covers ‘space holding’ – the art of keeping it together, Earth is where you’ll find medical matters, and Ether discusses integration, the process of bringing psychedelic power into regular life. Click straight through to your pet subject below.

Next issue: consciousness expansion from cave painting to the 2022 Psych Symposium

Saving lost souls for three million years. And now with MDMA

Approach

Could the love drug offer salvation to the lost?

Graciela Arias Salazar, ‘La Virgen del Capinurí out of @centro_selva_arte_y_ciencia via Antricion gallery in Zurich

Dr Tafur saw ayahuasca’s positive effect on beleaguered veterans.

He took this as a validation of his own conversion to plant medicine after ayahuasca was instrumental in his recovery from a depressive episode.

He told Vital students that transcendent unconditional love, of the kind received in a sacred ceremony, has a positive effect on psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) just like family love (the good enough kind).

It can be transmitted via ‘limbic resonance’ – a theoretical term for hormonal interaction between one or more people. With its support our subconscious processes difficult emotions more efficiently. The healing effect moves from the psyche (P) through the nervous system (N) into the immune system (I), bolstering the body’s own intuitive ‘inner healer’.

The importance of empathy has recently been recognised within western medical treatment. But we are all understanding that professional clinicians can only give so much of themselves.

However. Try instead exotic ceremonies, remarkable locations, skilled practitioner, devout participants, and zealous dedication in the form of the ‘only was out is through’ strategy of taking high-strength ancient jungle acid five nights in a row – and you have the missing element required to treat a range of psychoneuroimmunologically-related conditions currently frustrating doctors and destroying families.

The spiritual sector, to its eternal credit, provides the social role of offering salvation to those mired in confusion, or paralysed by ethical quagmire. It can provide rare complex moral reconciliation, of the kind that PTSD treatment benefits from enormously. Where though does MDMA come in? It’s an ‘empathogen’ as opposed to a psychedelic.

Nonetheless the ‘love drug’ too can augment some characteristics of psychotherapy just like psychedelics and traditional healing ceremonies. Not only does MDMA increase the level of limbic resonance between doctor and patient, it’s also been shown to activate areas of the brain used during childhood to ingrain healthy social behaviour patterns.

Besides, “The MAPS PTSD programme going up for FDA-approval has a mystical element,” says Dr Tafur, responding to my disbelief that western psychotherapy can rapidly replicate the awe of ayahuasca, “in my experience the clinical sector is increasingly interested in ceremony. There are some really open-hearted therapists at MAPS,” he expands, referencing the completely accepting nature of spiritual fulfilment… historically known as ecstasy.

Psychedelic therapy is an art first and a science second

Therapy

You can train as a shaman with Dr Joe! But there’s a catch. You actually have to go and do it

Anderson Debernardi, ‘Ayahuasqueros Healing’ available here

“It’s living in the jungle for four months, eating right,” says Tafur, “You can’t read it and write it.”

You can train to be a shaman with Dr Joe! But there’s what would be considered, in this modern world, a catch: you actually have to go and do it.

Even for psychotherapists practicing MDMA therapy at MAPS, Dr Tafur points out, “There’s no running away when you’re in there with people who have these issues for eight hours.”

Whether delivering the icaros in that delightful yet dread-laden way, or deftly reaching out with your neuroceptive aura, Dr Tafur is keen to stress, “this is an art.”

A powerful combination of the sacred, the empathic, and experience in healing epigentic-related conditions is central to his hypothesis (see Medical below). It’s why the clinical sector is fascinated; even in this 1950s archive footage a researcher asks his test subject “how does your soul feel right now?” Plus it’s also why ravers aren’t cured of mental health issues after a big weekend - context and other important characteristics are key to the drug experience having a self-healing element. The spiritual factor prompts an ever deeper form of self-healing when combined with the therapeutic. “Current medical science cannot match the transpersonal, or the moving,” says Dr Tafur.

‘Psyche’ in classical greek means ‘soul’. Dr Tafur explained that indigenous perspectives consider spirituality and healing to be one and the same. Music, prayer, ceremony, connection and affirmation: all augment the ‘spiritual experience’ that research shows is key to healing with psychedelics.

Songs in the key of life: energy and entropy

Space

Mystic healing is far from an established profession in the West. And cultural appropriation casts a deep shadow

Irene Lopez, ‘Fantastic Guest’ works available via her site

The western neoshamanism AKA core shamanism movement has gone through its highs and lows since explorers came across ayahuasca in the 1800s.

But there’s a gulf between Instagram ‘shamans’ and the type of grassroots work conducted for example in communities affected by the opioid crisis, where very well-intentioned and ultimately effective healers face risks of incarceration and rupturing their own community relations.

“We’re trying to help somebody, and using our faculties as human beings in order to do that”

How then can mystical healing’s beneficial elements be adopted by western health and wellbeing practitioners?

Apprenticing under an authentic expert would likely involve the path taken by, for example, Reiki healers who are also encouraged to search and wait for the correct master, and may need to prove their dedication upon finding them.

“It’s about real people and some real connection that you might have,” says Dr Tafur, “What opportunities do you have around you? Where are you? Is there somebody in your area where you can explore that?”

There are nonetheless fundamentals to the approach that can be considered. MAPS training assets for example refer to the importance of the therapist exuding ‘loving presence’. And somatic experiencing (which Dr Tafur recommends) coaches are trained to cultivate a ‘neuroceptive aura’ radiating a sense of safety to encourage ‘interoception’ a constructive dialogue between the body, emotions, and conscious thought.

“We’re trying to help somebody, and using our faculties as human beings in order to do that,” is what Dr Tafur distills the healing process down to. During his lecture he was hardly dismissive of authentic western efforts to replicate the process – but it’s essential that these are conducted with an ‘open heart’.

Singing icaros-type songs with substituted words in a shared language is not misguided… as long as it creates the required atmosphere for a mystical healing window to open. Sincerity of feeling is essential, but localised interpretations may be actually more effective than exotic traditional ones.

“Learning something well, then applying it elsewhere is more powerful than just coming up with whatever”

The most graceful nuances of ayahuasca are said to be ontologically lost on outsiders. Occultist Jason Louv points out that eastern spiritual systems like buddhism are guides to living well in different cultures. In response to social media claims that ‘Putin should take ayahuasca’ to end the Ukraine conflict, Shaur-trained shaman and former financier John Perkins recently pointed out that the experience is traditionally believed to make fiercer warriors to highlight how we can’t overlap a different approach entirely onto our own worldview. Tactics specific to western society may have more impact on local patients, if conducted with the same levels of intention, craft and sensitivity.

The “energy” to quote Dr Tafur directly is what is key – its purity of purpose and its intensity. Icaros have an improvised element and he himself will substitute Spanish or English words if required. Nonetheless the language has a vocabulary that is ideal to express the ayahuasca experience, as does the rhythm – but this itself features aspects that might well go over the heads of anyone who can’t claim lineage in the local society and culture.

Equally any expert will tell you that it is best to learn an established system before beginning to develop your own. Dr Tafur feels that his traditional Shipibo education gives his practice, “A strong base. But I’m interested in singing for patients undergoing ketamine therapy for example. So there’s room to mix it up. But there must be a reason why. Is it because it’s better for your patients or just because you don’t like tradition? Learning something well, then applying it elsewhere is more powerful than just coming up with whatever.”

Europeans have been feverishly dreaming up a shamanic culture using both fact and myth for the past few centuries, resulting in for example Wicca. They have also looked to the future in the form of ‘chaos magic’, a method of creating personal spiritual systems based on esoteric techniques passed down the millennia. Even a traditional ‘christian mysticism’ featuring, for example alchemy is in vogue now thanks to writer Damien Echols.

“If this makes you feel special, like you’re right and others are wrong, it’s not working. It’s supposed to make you feel part of something, working together”

All this will still be a massive culture shock for the average agnostic westerner seeking alternative healthcare, especially hipsters raised on Richard Dawkins (who also has his place). But often the psychedelically-active patient will have become curious about these areas allowing for fundamentals to be touched upon at least. In 2015’s Transcendent Mind (see bottom of page) published by the famously orthodox American Psychological Association, Drs Imants Baruss and Julia Mossbridge present serious, rubber-stamped research that pairs ancestor worship with the collective unconscious and (I paraphrase) ‘that way you know your parents are about to call just before the phone rings.’ Refer to that last bit and riff from there…

To end. Experts like Dr Ido Cohen point out that the shamanic path is a calling as opposed to a blessing. Like other (supposedly) rewarding life paths, it comes with its own trials and sacrifices. Dr Tafur says, “if this makes you feel special, like you’re right and others are wrong, it’s not working. It’s supposed to make you feel part of something, working together.”

Spiritual healing could help cure epigenetic disease and transform treatment

Medical

“Ultimately we’re reopening metaphysics. The research is in review now and we’re looking forward to sharing it with the world,” says Dr Tafur

Plant medicine fan favourite Pablo Amringo

Dr Tafur believes that mystical experiences can help cure epigenetic diseases from PTSD to psoriasis… and maybe even the Big C.

Modern Spirit, Dr Tafur’s non-profit org has collected genetic samples from some of the 107 patients in MAPS’ 12-month MDMA therapy trial (see above) where a stunning 68% of patients had statistically recovered from chronic, treatment resistant PTSD after three treatments. They’d been suffering for an average of 17.8 years.

“To a doctor, the sacred isn’t important. But to close your mind is a hiding place. People need to see something. Mental health? It’s competitive. But cancer is largely epigenetic and that’s one of the fields they’re saying they want to put more energy and understanding into.”

The research could also validate other holistic practices ranging from somatic experiencing to reiki.

“Ultimately we’re reopening metaphysics. The research is in review now and we’re looking forward to sharing it with the world,” he says.

He recounts a pivotal moment in his shamanic career, when ayahuasca visions insisted that a penitent’s disease was “on” as opposed to “in” her genes as medical consensus assumes.

This tall with the compelling field of epigenetics, which examines changes in our DNA (nature) brought about by environment (nurture). These can be passed down the generations, and include traumatic experiences. This was proven by landmark surveys using data assembled from descendants of Holocaust survivors. Of course it also works for colonialism, industrialised warfare, poverty, patriarchy and lovelessness. It’s a new and complex but far from fringe area: my mother is an identical twin who has been taking part in NHS epigenetic research funded by good old Wellcome Trust for decades.

This blog is not affiliated to Vital beyond my study on the course. The content shouldn’t be taken as representative as it’s a personal reflection and includes my own lived experience of the sector too.

Psychedelic substances are prohibited in the UK, other countries and most US states. I do not condone their use, neither am I evangelising for, or recommending them to you. There are more qualified people you can turn to in the Resources section but if you are considering psychedelic treatments the best person to speak to is probably your own therapist, counsellor, or doctor.

The Eagle and the Condor

Integration

The Eagle and the Condor is a two thousand year old prophecy predicting unification of the American people

By Fellowship of the River cover artist Rai Weni

The propehcy that could be said to predict the colonisation of the Americas, the resulting cultural holocaust, and a re-emergence of mystical healing techniques.

The peoples of the Condor – indigeneous Americans – and the Eagle, western colonisers – will finally come together ushering a new paradigm of enlightenment.

Columbus’ First Voyage landed in the Carribbean in 1492. Syncronicity fans note that in 1994 Terrence McKenna published Food of the Gods and Dr Allan Schore released Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self.

“Be careful with anything, no matter what, because things can be tricky in those spaces. The medicine itself is not trying to trick us. If there is light, and positive healing spirit, it’s clear”

The aforementioned Shuar shaman John Perkins has alluded to the propehcy as prompting a shift from the West’s ‘Death Economy’ based on competiting over limited resources to a ‘Life Economy’ where wellbeing is paramount (in our abundant era, the Death Economy is arguably so past its due that its basis in scarcity has even had to be simulated by, for example, western governments implementing policies to artificially raise house prices).

This prophecy is not uncomparable to Western astrology’s Age of Aquarius (which both Carl Jung in Aion and Aleister Crowley with his ‘Age of Horus’ suggested will have a non-dual flipside, but that is for another day).

“Hearing ‘is it real?’ from the other end gets kind of boring after a while”

The prophecy offers the very seductive idea of ‘Pachakuti’ a time of reconciliation and healing. But is it real?

“Who knows what’s real?” says Dr Tafur, when talking about ‘entity' encounters’ and other sublime ingredients of the mystic experience, “we’re dealing with a mystery and we have to discern. Be careful with anything, no matter what, because things can be tricky in those spaces. The medicine itself is not trying to trick us. If there is light, and positive healing spirit, it’s clear. But if there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt – just wait. And don’t worry that you’re missing out, because you’re learning what could be good for you and what isn’t.”

It is your journey, and there are no clear answers. “Respecting your space is important, and these things should respect you too,” he says, “but this isn’t the sort of thing that can be learned on the internet. It’s messy and there’s room for projection and confusion.” Enforce boundaries as you should outside of DMT hyperspace.

“Hearing ‘is it real?’ from the other end gets kind of boring after a while,” says Dr Tafur.

Whether ‘entities’, or prophecies, or indeed ‘limbic resonance’ are facts is to miss the point.

Instead, ask – what are the feelings? And are they benefitting us?