A shaman is a person who, in tribal cultures, communicates with the spirit world. As intermediaries, shamans ask spirits to intercede in the lives of humans, healing them of illnesses, or granting favors. Since traditional cultures believe that spirits play important roles in people’s lives, the shaman must learn how to cooperate with the spirits for the benefit of his or her community.

Ron Wheelock is widely known in Peru as “The Gringo Shaman of the Amazon”.

Ron Wheelock, 53, was born in Independence , Kansas . In 1996 he went to Peru looking for a spiritual teacher. Ron first drank ayahuasca in Tamshiyacu with famed shaman Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez. While with Don Agustin, he made arrangements to return to begin the intensive training to become a shamanic healer himself using the South American plant medicine, ayahuasca.

Ron stayed with Don Agustin for 5 months doing many plant diets. Ron then began working with Don Jose Coral Mori, the teacher of Pablo Amaringo and Eduardo Luna, the authors of “Ayahuasca Visions”. After studying with both ayahuasqueros (a shaman who works exclusively with ayahuasca), he began working on his own.

NOTE: Read the blog comments mentioned above on Dawn on the Amazon, or read Another Iquitos Evening on the Amazon, on medicinehunter.com, or read more about Ayahuasca.