Brewing Ayahuasca at Refugio Altiplano in the Peruvian Amazon

CC: English. This is an introduction to Ayahuasca and DMT, and overview of the tea-brewing process. An American shaman near Iquitos, Peru by the name of Scott Petersen, shares his philosophies of Ayahuasca, healing, and the jungle. Pardon the imperfect camera work-this was my first video shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M5. Recorded in August 2012.
Updated December 2013: Tragically Scott Petersen died after a fall suffered in November 2013 (see proycontra.com..... I have mixed feelings about Scott's legacy. His reputation was a flawed at best.
During my stay at Refugio Altiplano in August 2012, Scott was drunk on 21 Roots liquor nearly every day. He repeatedly made crude sexual comments about female guests, including telling me once that he would 'cuckhold' other mens' wives "if it helped with their healing." Scott pulled a gun on a 23 year-old young man who became a friend of mine. Suspicious intruders entered Refugio Altiplano at night to intimidate me, and later, Scott (he had to fire a gun at the ground to scare them away from his hut one night). Later, another friend went to work for Scott and left after several months, alleging he used cocaine to sober-up for ceremonies and that he took sexual advantage of women under his care.
Simple Google searches reveal allegations of rape and other inappropriate behaviour (links posted below). Negative reviews posted to TripAdvisor were quickly removed under threat of Scott's U.S. attorneys. Friends of mine who went to Refugio later reported the same bizarre and unsafe behaviours I'd seen but tried to ignore or pretend were't there.
Everything I know about Scott tells me he was a healer once-upon-a-time but he fell onto a shadow path. Some Refugio guests sycophantically ignored this side of in Scott and put him high on a pedestal as if he was a guru. No true shaman will ever act in capricious or narcissistic ways as Scott did. I share this information not to tarnish his reputation posthumously but to make other travellers aware of the reality that many (if not most) Ayahuasca shamans are greedy, narcissistic, or corrupt. Therefore exercise caution in where you choose to sit in ceremony. Stay vigilant and skeptical and do not allow your better judgment to be deceived by a smooth-talking egomaniac (as so many shamans are).
Your healing comes through the medicine, the jungle, your fellow travellers, and YOURSELF. Do not surrender your personal power to any guru or shaman. Study a bit of Zen or Dzogchen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Tao (Alan Watts) philosophy, because this jungle medicine enables you to see that we are all God pretending we're not, in a sincere game of Hide and Seek. In other words, Ayahuasca is a tool to 'awaken' the soul to its true self and temporarily lift the veil of the illusion of duality. However for this to happen, you'll need to have properly prepared your mind with a basic framework of Buddhism in order to recognise this information conveyed through the medicine. When you understand this, you see the shaman is a facilitator and not a healer - YOU are your your own best healer.
Anyone who's concerned about defending Scott's reputation posthumously can do a Google search to find a few of the allegations in question. A shaman should always conduct himself in a manner that is beyond reproach. From my own experience and those of many friends, and the evidence that exists on the network, Scott's legacy was mixed.
/ myayahuascanightmare
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[@davidschaller7582]

Ahh it sounded like Daniel singing

[@LivingAnExaminedLife]

You must be a friend of Daniel's. Please tell him Grant said Namaste next time you see him. :)

[@davidschaller3411]

LivingAnExaminedLife when I make it back there:))