Foreword

Those doing the shamanic plant diet in Onanyan Shobo will be given upon arrival a personalized calendar of their diet. This calendar will specify the days when the plant teachers concoctions may be taken, the days of break (when present), and also the days when the actual ayahuasca brew may be drunk, as part of a shamanic ritual, in the context of the plant diet shamanic initiation.

Below we have provided a detailed and updated calendar of a typical three months shamanic plant diet with Shipibo shaman Don Alfredo, which is a very important & practical help for those who intend to commit to the plant-based shamanic training.

This may give you a more accurate idea of how the shamanic plant diet works, and it might be subject to change, according to individual circumstances and length of the diet. It may also change, depending on the particular style of the shaman one may be dieting with, should that be not Don Alfredo himself.

The shamanic diet is a sophisticated and complex process, if you think at all the possible plants combinations that can actually be involved, and when one dwells on the fact that many maestros are altogether illiterate. All this makes one wonder at the meaning of the word “sabidura” or ''conocimiento'' (knowledge), and on how this may be achieved without going to a Western university!

This is the “School of Advanced Studies in Amazonian Shamanism”….a parallel university to our own Western institutions, that has its own laws, dynamics, and ways to knowledge. Here, plants are the teachers, and the "maestros" the traditional guides and the keepers of "la ciencia" (the science).

. Basic Vocabulary To Get Familiar With

. Q & A:  Ayahuasca and the Plant Diet

. Length of the Traditional Shamanic Plant Diet

. Temporary Breaks of the Diet

. A Typical Three Months Shamanic Plant Diet

Q & A: Ayahuasca and the Plant Diet 

1) ''Is it possible to take ayahuasca during the diet?''

YES, that is essential part of the training for the shamanic initiation. When one engages in the healing diet - however - the answer is 'may be yes, may be not', as it very much depends from the condition one is affected from. We DO NOT offer the healing diet in Onanyan Shobo, ONLY the SHAMANIC DIET.

2) ''How many times do you have ayahuasca sessions whilst doing the SHAMANIC diet?''

This depend on the type of diet one is doing. If it's the standard, traditional plant diet the dietero/a will begin his/her first ayahuasca session with the shaman only beginning from the seventh day of the first week of his/her own diet apprenticeship. The shaman will prepare with icaros and other protections your body - and only the maestro will start to drink from the second night of the first week of diet. ALL the other weeks of the diet both the shaman and the apprentice (dietero/a) will take part to four ayahuasca sessions together, and this until the end of the diet.

In the case of the 'prueba de dieta' - that is the tester of the diet, which usually can be from two weeks onwards - there are no such restrictions, and one can normally take part to four ayahuasca sessions each week, beginning from the very first week, exactly as for the ayahuasca retreat.

Length of the traditional shamanic plant diet

 3) ''What is the average length of the traditional shamanic plant diet?''

Guidelines may vary from shaman to shaman, even from the same ethnic group. Some shamans (the more strictly traditional) do not call a proper shamanic diet anything that is less than three months in length, to begin with. This is - mind you - the minimum period one should engage with, not the maximum, that can otherwise last several years. To become a fully developed shaman, one would normally require a full five years of dieta (including periods of break). The absolute basic is learnt in the first three months, and one can consider himself (or herself) advanced in the apprenticeship after having completed a one year training.

 4) ''What is the average length of the shamanic plant diet tester ('prueba de dieta')?''

From an absolute minimum of two weeks onwards, and usually anything between two weeks up to eleven weeks.

 Temporary breaks of the diet & communication with the outside world

In a three months diet (more specifically, from two months up until three months and three weeks), one may only go to town after having completed the first phase of the training. This period - more or less - coincide with the end of the first month and half of drinking the plant concoctions prepared by the shaman. Times may vary from person to person, depending on individual energy, and response times to the shamanic diet. In a six months diet, a dietero/a may go to town only after - or from - the end of the third month of diet. That is, only after having completed the first period of the diet, taking the plant concoctions.

In case of real emergency only, you may be able to communicate with the outside world using a cell phone from the jungle. The cost of the call will be debited to you at cost price.