Shamanic Vision
Mystical Gift from the Master Plants
Shamanic Vision
Mystical Gift from the Master Plants
Seeing into the mystical world of energies...
In Shipibo traditional medicine, shamanic vision is considered a sacred gift from the Master Plant spirits. This is a rich, complex and intriguing field of inquiry into the mystical aspects of our existence.
The potential for every one of us to develop “vision” through Shipibo shamanic practices is perhaps the most compelling and attractive aspect of this tradition.
At Caya Shobo we are deeply engaged in the study of shamanic vision in the traditional way of the Shipibo shamans (Onánya) through Master Plant Dieta practice.
Careful reflection on the true meaning of shamanic visions can bring deeper self-understanding and opportunities to grow
Careful reflection on the true meaning of shamanic visions can bring deeper self-understanding and opportunities to grow.
Seeing into the mystical world of energies...
In Shipibo traditional medicine, shamanic vision is considered a sacred gift from the Master Plant spirits. This is a rich, complex and intriguing field of inquiry into the mystical aspects of our existence.
The potential for every one of us to develop “vision” through Shipibo shamanic practices is perhaps the most compelling and attractive aspect of this tradition.
At Caya Shobo we are deeply engaged in the study of shamanic vision in the traditional way of the Shipibo shamans (Onánya) through Master Plant Dieta practice.
Ayahuasca Retreat with Master Plant Dieta to meet nature's mystical side
What is Shipibo Shamanic Vision?
Sensing and seeing spiritual energies
Ayahuasca and the Master Plants are believed to open access to the mysterious energetic realms
Shamanic vision in the context of Shipibo shamanism is not at all an easy thing to describe! How to explain that invisible energies exist beyond this physical reality, and they may be perceived in great detail with a kind of clear “inner perception”?
Or, for those who have experienced the visionary states of entheogenic plant medicines – how to encourage a more refined type of vision that develops with long-term shamanic practice with non-psychoactive Master Plants?
Certainly we can say that the search for mystical connection with the energetic worlds is a highly personal, unpredictable quest that typically unfolds over long periods of focused study. When approached with patience, humility and gentle curiosity, it is a journey that may nurture your heart and soul and provide meaningful guidance and support to your life.
During our Ayahuasca Retreats we are excited to share our understandings of how the Master Plants can gradually open shamanic vision. We welcome you to experience for yourself the ancestral Shipibo tradition of Master Plant Dieta practice with our highly experienced team.
What is Shipibo Shamanic Vision?
Sensing and seeing spiritual energies
Shamanic vision in the context of Shipibo shamanism is not at all an easy thing to describe! How to explain that invisible energies exist beyond this physical reality, and they may be perceived in great detail with a kind of clear “inner perception”?
Or, for those who have experienced the visionary states of entheogenic plant medicines – how to encourage a more refined type of vision that develops with long-term shamanic practice with non-psychoactive Master Plants?
Certainly we can say that the search for mystical connection with the energetic worlds is a highly personal, unpredictable quest that typically unfolds over long periods of focused study. When approached with patience, humility and gentle curiosity, it is a journey that may nurture your heart and soul and provide meaningful guidance and support to your life.
During our Ayahuasca Retreats we are excited to share our understandings of how the Master Plants can gradually open shamanic vision. We welcome you to experience for yourself the ancestral Shipibo tradition of Master Plant Dieta practice with our highly experienced team.
Master Plant Dieta practice can enhance shamanic vision
Master Plant Dieta is a Shipibo shamanic practice involving restrictions in food and lifestyle to facilitate direct connection with certain Master Plant known as Teacher spirits.
A commonly experienced gift of disciplined Master Plant Dieta over the long-term is enhanced shamanic vision.
The Spirit of Life
Ayahuasca is believed to open access to the mysterious energetic realms
Shipibo weavings depict the spiritual energies and colors of plants as perceived by shamans in Ayahuasca visions and Dieta
For the Shipibo people, as with many indigenous cultures, everything we encounter in life has a spirit. For example, human beings and animals each have a spirit, as does the land, the sun, the moon, the water, the air, the plants, perfumes, rain, flowers, and so on.
A wondrous aspect of the Shipibo tradition is that the spiritual energy of beings are seen as carrying specific visual expressions in the “energetic world”. Ayahuasca and the Master Plants are honored by Shipibo shamans as sacred Teacher spirits.
It is possible to gain direct access to that energetic world and open our “shamanic vision.” This in itself can be a profoundly healing experience, especially for westerners who may have become deeply disconnected from a sense of the mystical essence of nature and life.
There are many classes of shamanic visions, the interpretation of which is a hugely rich and complex topic. This is a long-term study topic in Shipibo shamanism, fundamental to the pursuit of healing, spiritual understanding and personal transformation with the Amazonian plants.
The Spirit of Life
Ayahuasca is believed to open access to the mysterious energetic realms
Shipibo weavings depict the spiritual energies and colors of plants as perceived by shamans in Ayahuasca visions and Dieta
For the Shipibo people, as with many indigenous cultures, everything we encounter in life has a spirit. For example, human beings and animals each have a spirit, as does the land, the sun, the moon, the water, the air, the plants, perfumes, rain, flowers, and so on.
A wondrous aspect of the Shipibo tradition is that the spiritual energy of beings are seen as carrying specific visual expressions in the “energetic world”. Ayahuasca and the Master Plants are honored by Shipibo shamans as sacred Teacher spirits.
It is possible to gain direct access to that energetic world and open our “shamanic vision.” This in itself can be a profoundly healing experience, especially for westerners who may have become deeply disconnected from a sense of the mystical essence of nature and life.
There are many classes of shamanic visions, the interpretation of which is a hugely rich and complex topic. This is a long-term study topic in Shipibo shamanism, fundamental to the pursuit of healing, spiritual understanding and personal transformation with the Amazonian plants.
Learn more about Shipibo Shamanism at a Free Info Session
Our experienced facilitators are available to answer your questions.
The Vision of Shamans
Recognizing the energies of health and illness
The Shipibo shamans’ vision informs the flow of their healing song Icaros
Shipibo shamans advance their level of shamanic vision through years of Master Plant Dieta (Dieta, or Sama) practice. Many commence their first Dieta as young children, gradually learning from elders how to interpret visions received in dreams and meditative states.
Many visions are commonly experienced. Specific colors and patterns may be associated with specific Master Plants or their “owner” spirits (Ibo). When conducting Ayahuasca Ceremonies together, Shipibo shamans will often confer about their visions, especially to assist one another with cleaning energies of sickness or disharmony in guests’ bodies and minds.
Every Shipibo apprentice (Samatay) also receives their own unique shamanic visions over years of Dieta practice. The apprentice must seek to foster successful relationships with the Master Plants. This is done by finding wisdom in deciphering shamanic visions. Such learning ultimately becomes the “knowledge treasure” of the shaman (Onánya), later gifted back to others through their healing songs (Icaros).
In Ayahuasca Ceremony, the shaman’s Icaros are crafted in the moment according to the flow of their shamanic vision. Depending on the shaman’s level of skill and experience, many details about your physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual health may be revealed.
Your life experiences, your character and even some of your thoughts might be “seen” by the shaman. This information allows the shaman to decide the best plant medicines to help you with your healing. It also guides their personalized Icaros for you, and informs the progression of your treatment over time.
The Vision of Shamans
Recognizing the energies of health and illness
The Shipibo shamans’ vision informs the flow of their healing song Icaros
Shipibo shamans advance their level of shamanic vision through years of Master Plant Dieta (Dieta, or Sama) practice. Many commence their first Dieta as young children, gradually learning from elders how to interpret visions received in dreams and meditative states.
Many visions are commonly experienced. Specific colors and patterns may be associated with specific Master Plants or their “owner” spirits (Ibo). When conducting Ayahuasca Ceremonies together, Shipibo shamans will often confer about their visions, especially to assist one another with cleaning energies of sickness or disharmony in guests’ bodies and minds.
Every Shipibo apprentice (Samatay) also receives their own unique shamanic visions over years of Dieta practice. The apprentice must seek to foster successful relationships with the Master Plants. This is done by finding wisdom in deciphering shamanic visions. Such learning ultimately becomes the “knowledge treasure” of the shaman (Onánya), later gifted back to others through their healing songs (Icaros).
In Ayahuasca Ceremony, the shaman’s Icaros are crafted in the moment according to the flow of their shamanic vision. Depending on the shaman’s level of skill and experience, many details about your physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual health may be revealed.
Your life experiences, your character and even some of your thoughts might be “seen” by the shaman. This information allows the shaman to decide the best plant medicines to help you with your healing. It also guides their personalized Icaros for you, and informs the progression of your treatment over time.
Growing with the Master Plants
Master Plant Dieta
Honoring Vision
Master Plants are thought to respond generously when we appropriately honor the visions they gift us. This process involves a long path of learning and honest self-reflection.
Lasting Transformation
With each Master Plant Dieta our sacred relationships with the plants grows within us. This process can gradually facilitate profound personal transformation.
Developing shamanic vision over the long-term
From self-discovery to service of others
Sunset at Caya Shobo healing center, Iquitos, Peru
Shamanic vision grows and shifts over the years of Dieta practice. In the beginning visions tend to be more related to your own healing process and can be loaded with negative energies from childhood trauma, physical sickness, injury, stress, anxiety, depression, toxic substances, and so on.
As the healing power of the plants and the shamans’ Icaros gradually work to disentangle and clear the roots of your problems, your shamanic visions tend to become more distinct. You may notice that you start to perceive more visions related to external forms that you are in contact with, including the Master Plant spiritual energies.
Eventually in the Shipibo shamanic healing path, shamanic vision tends to shift towards the healing needs of others. We can observe an essential wisdom in nature here: as we heal and grow we are naturally called into the service of others.
Developing shamanic vision over the long-term
From self-discovery to service of others
Sunset at Caya Shobo healing center, Iquitos, Peru
Shamanic vision grows and shifts over the years of Dieta practice. In the beginning visions tend to be more related to your own healing process and can be loaded with negative energies from childhood trauma, physical sickness, injury, stress, anxiety, depression, toxic substances, and so on.
As the healing power of the plants and the shamans’ Icaros gradually work to disentangle and clear the roots of your problems, your shamanic visions tend to become more distinct. You may notice that you start to perceive more visions related to external forms that you are in contact with, including the Master Plant spiritual energies.
Eventually in the Shipibo shamanic healing path, shamanic vision tends to shift towards the healing needs of others. We can observe an essential wisdom in nature here: as we heal and grow we are naturally called into the service of others.
Historically in Shipibo shamanism Ayahuasca is mainly used to allow the shaman to "see" energies and conduct Icaro healing song treatments.
Understanding the gifts of shamanic vision
Transformation begins with honest self-inquiry
Shamanic visions often reflect our own patterns of being and perception
Opportunity for growth is the gift of brave self-awareness
One of the most challenging learning phases for the Shipibo shamanic apprentice is interpreting the meaning of shamanic visions. This is a critically important area of self-inquiry that we place a lot of emphasis on during our Ayahuasca Retreats and Dieta support services.
The structure of the mind and ego have a particular propensity towards projection of our fears, judgements and insecurities. Such fears and projections can be hugely amplified during the Ayahuasca experience. This is one reason that we say Ayahuasca acts like a mirror. Dieta practice with Master Plants has a similar tendency to more slowly reveal our deeply held patterns or perception and being.
The challenge is that this happens in a visceral and often rather uncomfortable way. When we’re in the thick of an intensive healing treatment it can be difficult to recognize that we are entering a process of transformation. The frightened ego tends to grab onto rigid certainties to help us navigate change.
In Shipibo shamanism, the exquisite possibilities for self-knowledge and spiritual attainment through a long path of disciplined learning, are equally matched by the stupendous risks of our ego to simply reinforce itself and keep us stuck in stunted states of being. And not even the master shamans are immune to such possibilities!
But therein lies our potential for true growth and transformation. Guidance from experienced facilitators can help you achieve a well-focused, grounded shamanic learning track. We are here to help you develop the skill of mature discernment and confidence in your own shamanic visions.
Understanding the gifts of vision
Transformation begins with honest self-inquiry
Shamanic visions often reflect our own patterns of being and perception
One of the most challenging learning phases for the Shipibo shamanic apprentice is interpreting the meaning of shamanic visions. This is a critically important area of self-inquiry that we place a lot of emphasis on during our Ayahuasca Retreats and Dieta support services.
The structure of the mind and ego have a particular propensity towards projection of our fears, judgements and insecurities. Such fears and projections can be hugely amplified during the Ayahuasca experience. This is one reason that we say Ayahuasca acts like a mirror. Dieta practice with Master Plants has a similar tendency to more slowly reveal our deeply held patterns or perception and being.
The challenge is that this happens in a visceral and often rather uncomfortable way. When we’re in the thick of an intensive healing treatment it can be difficult to recognize that we are entering a process of transformation. The frightened ego tends to grab onto rigid certainties to help us navigate change.
In Shipibo shamanism, the exquisite possibilities for self-knowledge and spiritual attainment through a long path of disciplined learning, are equally matched by the stupendous risks of our ego to simply reinforce itself and keep us stuck in stunted states of being. And not even the master shamans are immune to such possibilities!
But therein lies our potential for true growth and transformation. Guidance from experienced facilitators can help you achieve a well-focused, grounded shamanic learning track. We are here to help you develop the skill of mature discernment and confidence in your own shamanic visions.
- RESPONSIBILITY DISCLAIMER -
Caya Shobo makes no claim or promises about the curing of illness of any kind, or achievement of specific outcomes from our services. When using information from these web pages or linked resources, you do so at your own risk and acknowledge that Caya Shobo is not responsible for any consequences arising from your use of the information.