Pablo Amaringo
Visionary Artist & Retired Peruvian Ayahuasquero

Pablo Amaringo is one of the world’s greatest visionary artists, and is renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings of his visions from drinking the Ayahuasca brew.

Pablo Amaringo trained as a curandero in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but gave this up in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at his Usko-Ayar school.
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Guillermo Arévalo “Kestembetsa"
Master Shaman, Ayahuasquero, Vegetalista

“Know yourself and you will know the universe and the gods …”

This is the underlying philosophy with which Kestembetsa guides his pupils upon the path of shamanic instruction. Along the way, a variety of techniques and plant rituals are performed, most notably the dieta, or diet.

In 2004, Kestembetsa established Espíritu de Anaconda with a view to providing a special setting for the dispersal and acquisition of traditional Shipibo knowledge.
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Eric Avondo
Artist & Teacher

French Visionary Artist.  27 years old.  Teacher of Artistic Anatomy.  Plant Diet:  Marosa, Piňon Blanco, Chai
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AyasminA
Professional Translator and Interpreter

AyasminA is a professional translator and interpreter fluent in six languages, whose lifelong passion for people and travel is dovetailed with her longstanding interest in spirit medicine from around the world. Over the past six years, AyasminA's focus has been on South American naturopathy, in particular the traditions and techniques of Amazonian plant medicine, known as vegetalismo.
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Jessica Bertram de Sasari
Healer

Born and raised in Germany, Jessica came to Peru for the first time in 1991. She has been married to the son of an Andean highland farmer community for the last 14 years, and now lives in Cusco with her two daughters.
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Sonia Chuquimbalqui “Soiyaca"
Curandera, Vegetalista

Sonia Valéra possesses extensive knowledge of the pharmacopeias of Amazonian Medicinal Plants.  She has studied, trained and practiced as a Vegetalista for the past fifteen years.
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Frank Echenhofer, Ph.D.
Developmental Psychologist, Tibetan Buddhist

Frank's specializations, which bridge east-west psychology, are eastern and western comparative psychology, philosophy, and psychophysiology.  Frank has conducted research with Tibetan Buddhist meditators in India, under the guidance of the Dalai Lama at his monastery.
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Harry Farrar
DJ Semuta

Every performance is a leap into the unknown. As I take my place I never know what to expect, but I always know that I am on the threshold of another discovery.
Music is the pulse of my life.
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Richard Grossman, Ph.D.
Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Shamanic Acupuncturist

He also practices Nutritional Medicine, Clinical Nutrition, Functional Medicine, Detoxification, Chinese and Western Herbal Medicine, Indigenous Sound Healing™  and Natural Health Care.
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Martina Hoffmann
Visionary Artist

German-born artist Martina Hoffmann’s paintings are directly inspired by the realms of the dream, the unconscious and the superconscious.  Hoffmann feels that her work is best described by the term 'Transformational Art'. Her paintings are manifested by allowing the creative channels to act as an oracle for herself as well as the human family.
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Gabriel Ika
DJ iikah

“...iikah displays an incredible sense of independence in his hypnotic ode filled with tribal elves and disaster. 2 out of 3 kung-fu masters swear he has changed their lives by exorcising the conservative in them. he is now guaranteed to be heard wherever a soundtrack is needed for late-night cosmic traveling pleasure. Prepare yourself for a glimpse overboard…”
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Chris Kilham
Ethnobotonist, Medicine Hunter

Chris is Explorer in Residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he teaches ethnobotany through the department of Plant & Soil Sciences. Chris also conducts botanical educational programs for the natural products trade.
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Jan Kounen
Filmmaker

Jan has produced and directed intriguing films about shamanism, spirituality and consciousness. "The questioning on the nature of reality appears as the founding of each human being. Man can not grasp the absolute nature of things, the reality of men therefore appears as a creation, the fruit of their culture and perceptions."
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Dennis McKenna, Ph.D.
Ethnopharmacologist, Visionary Thinker

For the last twenty-five years, Dennis McKenna has pursued the interdisciplinary study of ethnopharmacology and plant hallucinogens.  Dr. McKenna has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brasilian Amazon.  Dr. McKenna is author or co-author of over 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
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Tom McKinnon
Artist, Film Maker

Tom McKinnon is an established visual artist with over 25 years of experience as a sculptor, painter, and media and performance artist. His work explores the role of narrative structure in cognition, identity, and belief. He has exhibited multi-media performance works at venues nationally and internationally, notably at The Kitchen in New York in 1990 and at PS 1 in New York in 1992.
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Jeremy Narby, Ph.D.
Anthropologist, Author

While doing work cataloging indigenous uses of rainforest resources to help combat ecological destruction, he asked one of his guides how they knew so much about the plants around them.  Narby was informed that the plants themselves tell people how to use them, particularly through the drinking of ayahuasca, an indigenous hallucinogen.  Since then, Narby has written three books, as well as sponsored an expedition to the rainforest for biologists and other scientists to examine indigenous knowledge systems and the utility of Ayahuasca in gaining knowledge.
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Roberto Venosa
Visionary Artist

The Fantastic Realism art of Robert Venosa has been exhibited worldwide and is represented in major collections, including those of noted museums, rock stars and European aristocracy.  Venosa was transported into the world of fine art in the late 60's after having experimented with psychedelics and having seen the work of the Fantastic Realists.
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Rolando
Shaman, Ayahuasquero, Vegetalista

Rolando is a Shaman from Pucallpa, Peru.  He has been studying and working in the Shipibo tradition for twenty years.  He has extensive knowledge of Amazonian medicinal and Master Plants.  He currently resides and works at the center of Kestembetsa.
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Sharon Stetter
Yogini

Sharon Shankari Stetter received her teaching certificate from Integral Yoga Institute at the Satchidananda Ashram in Coimbatore, India in 2006. Integral Yoga is a synthesis of the various branches of yoga in order to bring about a complete and harmonious development of the individual, physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
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Kenneth W. Tupper
Kenneth W. Tupper is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia under Dr. Dennis McKenna.
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Sitaramaya
Producer – Convergence, Apprentice

Sita has now been formally studying and practicing Indigenous Plant Wisdom for eight years. She has undertaken an apprenticeship in the Shipibo tradition. She works and learns from the Master Plants and dietas
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Maria Valera “Panshin Biri"
Curandera

Maria Valera is a powerful, beloved and renowned Shipiba and the mother of Master Shaman, Guillermo Arévalo.  She keeps the practice and art of the Shipibo tradition alive in her beadwork and embroidery and medicinal and energetic plant preparations.
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