Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, Wachiperi healer Victoria Corisepa calls for greater respect and recognition for nature, ayahuasca, and indigenous knowledge.
“The scientists have been trying to copy everything from nature. It’s not because the scientists were wise men but because they studied nature. They’ve studied the birds to create the plane, they’ve studied the trees to create solar panels. They’ve studied many things. It has not been simply because they are scientists, but because nature has given them this space, so they can create things in this world. It’s quite embarrassing that nature is not recognized and respected. They don’t respect the medicinal plants. The big scientists don’t go around saying “Thanks to the plants I have created this.” They should promote respect for the world of nature, but they don’t. They say instead: “I’m the maker.” And, oh boy, they depredate and clean away everything that helped them.“
We are concerned because people have been extorting our medicine. They’re stealing our medicine. That’s why in our Madre de Dios region, nowadays the communities don’t want to give much information anymore. Because we’ve given a lot of information to anthropologists. And the foreigners come and what do they leave? Nothing. As if they were famous, famous scientists, they have these big centers over there, like a millionaire, but the ones who taught them all these things, how are we doing? The one that transferred the knowledge, the one that helped them write their thesis … they are nowhere to be seen. That saddens us. We are forgotten. Not even the government mentions that the native people are the experts when it comes to medicine. That’s sad.
Ayahuasca has been helping many people from Western countries too. Because, even from the time Westerners are in the womb, they’re disconnected from nature and from the earth. That’s why they have a lot of problems when they’re born. They see the Amazon as a monster, that everything here is dangerous, that everything is bad here, that you need to be careful. When they’re born, they’re like “squared” in a cube, squared in a house, and not very involved with other people.
They start in the womb isolated. Many persons from the power countries don’t get involved with many people and they grow up under intense work and under the economy. They work and go home. It’s an economy. But they struggle to perceive what’s a friend, what’s a friendship; they’re practically under their parents, who might say that everything around them is bad, and that everything they do as parents is good. That’s the big reason why people are coming to the Amazon to drink ayahuasca. They lack love.
>>Please read this whole article, these are just excerpts. !!
