Seminar: Ayahuasca Healing Beyond the Amazon
Time: Saturday, September 27th – 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Location: BC Children’s Hospital, 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Cost: $50 before August 24th (early bird rate); $75 after August 24th
Info: http://www.crish.org/international.html
This workshop will focus on ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew (prepared from two plants indigenous to the Amazon) that is used in both traditional indigenous healing practices and modern syncretistic religious rituals. A panel of researchers and practitioners will discuss ayahuasca’s rapid globalization in the past decade and its various contemporary therapeutic and spiritual uses. Specific themes include an overview of the psychological and physiological effects of ayahuasca, the role of culture in mediating the ayahuasca experience (and issues of cross-cultural transferability), ethical issues pertaining to ayahuasca’s uptake in modern Western contexts, and policy challenges arising from the tea’s legal ambiguity in some countries. Ample time will be given for audience participation and discussion.
The “Ayahuasca Healing Beyond the Amazon” seminar is a pre-symposium workshop, part of the Global Integrative Traditional Medicine Symposium, which is being hosted by the Canadian Research Institute of Spirituality and Healing (CRISH), a not-for-profit professional organization devoted to promoting multidisciplinary research and education in spirituality, culture, healing, and health care. CRISH is dedicated to creating a new vision of integrative compassionate health care.
Panelists:
Kenneth Tupper is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Education Studies at the University of British Columbia. His current academic work is focused on the globalization of ayahuasca and public policy challenges arising from it. Kenneth has published several academic papers on ayahuasca, drug policy, and drug education and presented at numerous international conferences in recent years. He currently lives and works in Victoria, BC. More info available on www.kentupper.com
Ronin Niwe (meaning “Breath of the Anaconda” in Shipibo) has been studying various healing modalities for the last ten years. After first studying Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ronin Niwe made a pilgrimage to the Amazon Basin where he began a formal apprenticeship with well known Master Curandero Kestenbetsa. For the last six years, he has been learning the indigenous healing traditions and techniques of the Shipibo people from the Amazon. Through the medium of traditional chanting from the Amazon and different forms of energy work, including TCM and Reiki, Ronin Niwe now shares his practice with people throughout the world.
Ayasmina Flores is a professional interpreter, translator, legal advocate, and documentarian fluent in six languages, whose lifelong passion for people and travel is dovetailed with her longstanding interest in spirit medicine from around the world. AyasminA has a degree in Law and is presently articling; in addition to the practice of family law and mediation, AyasminA is engaged in the areas of social justice, human rights, drug policy reform, and civil liberties. For the past six years, AyasminA has studied South American naturopathy, in particular the traditions and techniques of Amazonian plant medicine known as vegetalismo. In 2007, Ayasmina assisted with the research and production of a two-part radio documentary entitled "In Search of the Divine Vegetal", which explores the nexus of Western and Indigenous cosmologies in relation to plant intelligence. The program can be found on mp3 at the following site: www.amazonconvergence.com/ayasmina.php
Cary Wright first experienced ayahuasca in a traditional context five years ago, which subsequently changed the course of his life. Not long after, Cary began apprenticing with a Shipibo healer from the Peruvian Amazon Basin. His practice of Qigong began in 1988 and continues to deepen as a Medical Qigong Practitioner. In addition, as a Hakomi Mindfulness Counselor, Cary integrates Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Medical Qigong and Shamanic methods. He has a private practice on Vancouver Island and is currently an MA student at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. Cary’s academic research involves the exploration and integration of the various healing modalities he practices.
September 27 - 29th, 2008 - Global Integrative Traditional Medicine Symposium
Registration Open! http://www.crish.org/international.html
This symposium focuses on fundamentals of traditional medicines with the objective to better integrate their practice with Western medicine. By returning to the source, the conference will provide a deeper insight on the spiritual values and basic principles that support the therapeutic practice of traditional medicines. The rediscovery of the essence of traditional medicines will also help in the conceiving of new research approaches that fully respect their fundaments, while generating useful results with harmonious integration.
General Information
This symposium focuses on fundamentals of traditional medicines with the objective to better integrate their practice with Western medicine. By returning to the source, the conference will provide a deeper insight on the spiritual values and basic principles that support the therapeutic practice of traditional medicines. The rediscovery of the essence of traditional medicines will also help in the conceiving of new research approaches that fully respect their fundaments, while generating useful results with harmonious integration.
Conference Objectives
· Provide updates of the science and research in Traditional medicine
· Promote the awareness of basic principles of traditional medicine
· Outline models of integrative medicine
Who Should Attend
This symposium will be of interest to health care professionals from all disciplines within conventional and traditional medicine (i.e., Chinese medicine, Native medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Tibetan medicine, etc.), and researchers, educators, practitioners , and students who work and are interested in integrative traditional medicine.