Animal Remedies in the Amazon Rainforest
While the sacred medicine ayahuasca is at the heart of the healing traditions of the Amazon Rainforest, it is the natural remedies that often contribute the most to the curing of most physical illnesses like cancer, AIDS, hepatitis, diabetes, and some mental illnesses as well, like schizophrenia and epilepsy. It is through the use of ayahuasca that the majority of remedies are discovered, and it is ayahuasca that allows the healer direct contact to the spirits of the plants, animals, and ancestors, and provides the opportunity to see inside patients to determine the true nature of their illnesses. The spirits then communicate to the shaman, or curandero, what remedy will work best to heal the illness. Curanderos trust their communications with the spirits, even if the remedies proposed by them appear to be bizarre.
Some remedies involve parts of animals. Organs, bones, blood, lard, and the skin of particular animals is used to heal a wide array of illnesses. Often times, there is also a plant remedy involved in the process, but the animal remedy is the more powerful treatment. To imagine that a shaman could discover this remedy through trial and error is a bit comical, as the remedies are so strange that it just doesn't seem likely. It can be a real test of the patients confidence in the curandero to hear what the natural animal remedy is to be and to accept it and continue with treatment. What if a doctor in the western tradition were to propose a similar remedy? It is unlikely that the patient would go along with it. But because it is known that curanderos receive much of their knowledge of medicine directly from the spirits of the forest, patients in the Amazon trust that their healer knows what he or she is talking about.
A young man from South Africa traveled to Peru in 2011 to receive treatment for epilepsy. He stayed with a shipibo curandero who prepared a plant remedy for him and also prescribed that he take an animal remedy as well. The animal remedy was fresh turtle hearts. Turtles were caught and killed, the heart was removed, and while still beating, the young man ate them. He ate five turtle hearts in all, and the meat from the turtles as well, after it had been cooked. He followed a strict diet the entire time, refraining from salt, sugar, oil, spices, alcohol, and sex. Three months later, he had been healed of epilepsy.
An American man in his sixties who had been diagnosed with diabetes was treated with the gall bladders of four jungle rodents called Mahass. Each morning for four consecutive days, he consumed one of the gall bladders after dissolving it into water. When he visited his doctor again and tests were done, his blood sugar levels were back to normal. He then noticed that he was no longer bothered by his ulcer either.
Some other animal remedies include using the bones of alligators to prepare a smoke bath to treat schizophrenia, frog skin topically applied to treat tumors, and the fat of a black boa constrictor to regrow cartiledge and repair joints. Curanderos believe that the plants and animals were put on earth to help humans, and one the greatest ways they help is by providing medicine. The Amazon Rainforest has over 60,000 species of plants, each with its own medicinal properties, and each with its own spirit that can communicate those properties to a curandero in an ayahuasca ceremony.
It is a fascinating medical tradition, to say the least, but also a very powerful and effective science of healing. The curanderos have passed down this tradition for thousands of years, constantly developing it further with each generation. Now that the Amazon Rainforest can be visited quite easily, many foreigners are also receiving the benefit of this ancient practice. Some of these visitors decide to stay in order to study the tradition and bring back the indigenous wisdom to their home countries so that it can be reincorporated into their cultures. Perhaps in the future, western doctors will be prescribing turtle hearts and rodent gall bladders instead of pharmaceutical medication. Wouldn't that be interesting?
Some remedies involve parts of animals. Organs, bones, blood, lard, and the skin of particular animals is used to heal a wide array of illnesses. Often times, there is also a plant remedy involved in the process, but the animal remedy is the more powerful treatment. To imagine that a shaman could discover this remedy through trial and error is a bit comical, as the remedies are so strange that it just doesn't seem likely. It can be a real test of the patients confidence in the curandero to hear what the natural animal remedy is to be and to accept it and continue with treatment. What if a doctor in the western tradition were to propose a similar remedy? It is unlikely that the patient would go along with it. But because it is known that curanderos receive much of their knowledge of medicine directly from the spirits of the forest, patients in the Amazon trust that their healer knows what he or she is talking about.
A young man from South Africa traveled to Peru in 2011 to receive treatment for epilepsy. He stayed with a shipibo curandero who prepared a plant remedy for him and also prescribed that he take an animal remedy as well. The animal remedy was fresh turtle hearts. Turtles were caught and killed, the heart was removed, and while still beating, the young man ate them. He ate five turtle hearts in all, and the meat from the turtles as well, after it had been cooked. He followed a strict diet the entire time, refraining from salt, sugar, oil, spices, alcohol, and sex. Three months later, he had been healed of epilepsy.
An American man in his sixties who had been diagnosed with diabetes was treated with the gall bladders of four jungle rodents called Mahass. Each morning for four consecutive days, he consumed one of the gall bladders after dissolving it into water. When he visited his doctor again and tests were done, his blood sugar levels were back to normal. He then noticed that he was no longer bothered by his ulcer either.
Some other animal remedies include using the bones of alligators to prepare a smoke bath to treat schizophrenia, frog skin topically applied to treat tumors, and the fat of a black boa constrictor to regrow cartiledge and repair joints. Curanderos believe that the plants and animals were put on earth to help humans, and one the greatest ways they help is by providing medicine. The Amazon Rainforest has over 60,000 species of plants, each with its own medicinal properties, and each with its own spirit that can communicate those properties to a curandero in an ayahuasca ceremony.
It is a fascinating medical tradition, to say the least, but also a very powerful and effective science of healing. The curanderos have passed down this tradition for thousands of years, constantly developing it further with each generation. Now that the Amazon Rainforest can be visited quite easily, many foreigners are also receiving the benefit of this ancient practice. Some of these visitors decide to stay in order to study the tradition and bring back the indigenous wisdom to their home countries so that it can be reincorporated into their cultures. Perhaps in the future, western doctors will be prescribing turtle hearts and rodent gall bladders instead of pharmaceutical medication. Wouldn't that be interesting?
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