Changes

Jump to navigation Jump to search
2,375 bytes added ,  17:18, 25 September 2015
Line 53: Line 53:     
Canto Luz is a retreat operated by a white European with a Peruvian person functioning as a "shaman". Canto Luz is owned by one Mariya Garnet, a Russian who migrated to Canada in 2000 and claims to have taken up "healing shamanism" already in Siberia. The retreat's shaman Reyna Luz Edery Flores is described as ''"the main mestizo ayahuascquera"''[sic}. Since the term "mestizo" is applied to characterise Edery Flores, she does not seem to have any tribal affiliation.<ref>http://www.cantoluz.com/#!team/c13md</ref> Canto Luz offers retreats for seven and 14 days at prices of USD 950 resp. USD 1,850.<ref>http://www.cantoluz.com/#!retreats-overview/c1i7j</ref> They publish several videos on YouTube to attract customers and seem a rather recently addition on the market, as a fundraising appeal set up in order to provide Garnet with finances to buy the premises was published in early 2013, with the additional information the retreat was going to open April 1, 2013. The fundraising campaign had a goal of USD 20,000 and managed to raise USD 31,665 from 133 persons in about one month.<ref>https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/call-to-action-join-us-in-preserving-traditional-wisdom-pristine-amazon#/story</ref>
 
Canto Luz is a retreat operated by a white European with a Peruvian person functioning as a "shaman". Canto Luz is owned by one Mariya Garnet, a Russian who migrated to Canada in 2000 and claims to have taken up "healing shamanism" already in Siberia. The retreat's shaman Reyna Luz Edery Flores is described as ''"the main mestizo ayahuascquera"''[sic}. Since the term "mestizo" is applied to characterise Edery Flores, she does not seem to have any tribal affiliation.<ref>http://www.cantoluz.com/#!team/c13md</ref> Canto Luz offers retreats for seven and 14 days at prices of USD 950 resp. USD 1,850.<ref>http://www.cantoluz.com/#!retreats-overview/c1i7j</ref> They publish several videos on YouTube to attract customers and seem a rather recently addition on the market, as a fundraising appeal set up in order to provide Garnet with finances to buy the premises was published in early 2013, with the additional information the retreat was going to open April 1, 2013. The fundraising campaign had a goal of USD 20,000 and managed to raise USD 31,665 from 133 persons in about one month.<ref>https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/call-to-action-join-us-in-preserving-traditional-wisdom-pristine-amazon#/story</ref>
 +
 +
Kapitari Center, where the other fatality occured, claims to be run by a Peruvian shaman by the name of Luis Culquiton aka Don Lucho, and there is no information whether these premises are owned by Culquiton or whether he, too, serves as a front man. Culquiton, quite in line with usual advertisement, gets portrayed as coming "from a long line of natural healers", still the website claims "he discovered the healing qualities of plants himself, at a very early age", "an established, self-educated shaman"<ref>http://www.kapitari.org/ </ref>, and "he never underwent a formal apprenticeship under another shaman".<ref>http://www.kapitari.org/about-don-lucho/</ref> Instead of being seen as positive, these phrases should be taken as a severe warning by clients that booking may mean their participation in a large experiment of "trial and error".
 +
 +
Kapitari, too, offers seven and 14 day retreats, with a seven-day retreat amounting to USD 650 and including four Ayahuasca trips and a "purge with tobacco juice". The site further advises: ''"The journey takes about 1 hour 30 minutes and involves a 45 minute walk so you must be able bodied."''<ref>http://www.kapitari.org/ayahuasca-ceremonies/authentic-ayahuasca-retreat-in-iquitos-peru/</ref> The death of one Kapitari client reveals plainly that this distance is a further danger to clients in case medical help is needed.
 +
 +
Another interesting aspect is the information the Kapitari website provides regarding where cash receipts will end up:
 +
:''"Of the $650 that you pay us:
 +
''$300 goes to Kapitari and Don Lucho. A portion of which pays for the running of Kapitari and anything left over is spent on Don Lucho’s permaculture and community projects.
 +
''$300 is split between the retreat facilitators & Outer Travels Inner Journeys.
 +
''$50 is given as an additional bonus to the Peruvian staff at Kapitari who work hard all week to look after the guests."<ref>http://www.kapitari.org/ayahuasca-ceremonies/authentic-ayahuasca-retreat-in-iquitos-peru/ </ref>
 +
The largest part of receipts are split between the "shaman", the "retreat facilitators" and the travel agency, and the description of "retreat facilitators" is ambiguous and does not necessarily mean the retreat staff. If this was the case, a far more plain way for website maintainers were to say: USD 200 go to the Peruvian staff and USD 150 to Outer Travels.
    
==Consequences for the Indigenous Population==
 
==Consequences for the Indigenous Population==
editor, reviewer
547

edits

Navigation menu