Good morning, dear friend.

We do not know who you are or when you were at our retreat center. We have tried to recall a situation like the one you mention and we have not been able to find anything in our memory like what you describe. Surely when you were at our center you decided not to talk about your ayahuasca experience with us in the integration therapy. Normally, when there are difficult experiences (which are sometimes necessary in a healing process) it is necessary to have a deep integration talk, which happens one day after the experience in the ceremony. Perhaps during that talk, you did not want to share your experience with Erik. We always respect the decision of each participant. However, it is important to mention that the process of integrating the experience is one of the most important aspects of Ayahuasca therapy.

We suppose what you describe is your perception of something that happened to you at our retreat center and that made you feel bad. We understand that it is your perspective of your own experience and we accept and respect it, although we are honest in saying that we do not remember anything like what you describe at all because it is not the way how we work. Our perspective is humanistic and the participant is the most important thing during the retreats. That is why we work with very few people and sometimes we do not allow some people to participate in the retreats even if they have made a payment for reservation. We prefer to make a refund 100% if we see and feel that the person is not properly prepared. The most important thing is the health of the people.

In any case, if you have felt bad about participating in a retreat with us, we truly apologize, because our priority is always to seek the well-being of all participants in our retreats. Perhaps we were not rigorous enough in the filter and evaluation of your emotional and psychological health, we let you participate without being really prepared to participate in an ayahuasca psychedelic therapy. Perhaps the best thing would have been making a 100% refund and suggest that you prepare more to participate in an Ayahuasca ceremony. Maybe our mistake was not realizing that you needed more preparation. For that we apologize.

However, we must comment that there are certain facts that you describe that do not fit with reality. For example, Nilda never uses rude language, she never refers to me or anyone in the way you describe. Like everyone, we sometimes have arguments, but she never treats me the way you mention and I never treat clients the way you allude to. Respect for all our clients is our top priority. It is a matter of professional ethics.

We do not use Christian hymns in our ceremonies because we work from the perspective of traditional Amazonian medicine, not from the perspective of the syncretic churches of Brazil. Ayahuasca songs or icaros are elaborated by each healer according to the healing purposes. Not all healers have the same songs. Although there are many people who call themselves healers, who memorize the songs of a Shipibo healer, copy them and sing them, and that is why they call themselves healers. In icaros, not only the song itself is important, but also the energetic force and spiritual intention placed in the song or icaro. It is true that in our songs there is an allusion to the archetypal image of Christ as a symbol of the Higher Self. In addition, we use the image of Jesus Christ in a symbolic way, because we think it is a symbolic content alluding to the process of life, death and rebirth which is something we can experience during an ayahuasca process. We have been trained for years by Shipibo healers and have received permission to lead healing ceremonies. Our training process, which lasted many years, was at the will of the Amazon healers, it was not something that we sought or for which we paid. The Shipibo healers who gave us permission consider us their brothers. On the other hand, Erik has a master’s degree in transpersonal psychotherapy, a doctorate in human development and many years of training in C.G. Jung’s analytical psychology. The preparation at the shamanic and psychotherapeutic level is deep.

On the other hand, we never overdose anyone, the doses are studied according to an evaluation before participating in the retreat and a deep conversation with each of the participants. That is also an ethical issue. We never abandon the participants who are under the effects of the medicine, the attention and care in our house is permanent 24 hours a day. It is true that we suggest to the participants to do everything possible to overcome their experience for themselves, even if the experience is very difficult, because we think when one can overcome a difficulty during amplified states of consciousness, what follows is learning. That is why the process with ayahuasca is divided into two parts, a first part in the ceremony, which effectively lasts between two and three hours, and during that time the support we give is intense. And a second part in which the participants go to their room and continues their process alone. We consider that is very important. Obviously, all the rooms in our house are very close one to each other, and during the night we can provide assistance to all the participants. Care is 24 hours a day. On the other hand, an ayahuasca experience is not for everyone. Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state must be considered before taking part in ayahuasca ceremonies. The preparation stage, the evaluation process, the support during ayahuasca experiences and a correct integration process of the experience are very important. It is necessary to acknowledge that our house is a retreat house for deep psychological work and spiritual work, therefore, there are no luxuries or comforts beyond those necessary for an adequate process with teacher plants.

Anyway, thank you very much for your honesty. We will take your comment into account to improve our work; take care in the evaluation, during the retreat and in the follow-up process.

Cordially,
The Sapan Inka team