Conversation with Benjamin Ochavano (Peru 2002

Howard G Charing, & Peter Cloudsley interview Benjamin Ochavano (Shipibo Ayahuasca shaman) in the Amazon Rainforest. He is in his mid-seventies and shares how Ayahuasca can benefit Westerners on their journey of self discovery. Visit our website and learn more about Your Highest Truth Healings.

Native peoples and early civilizations developed powerful hallucinogenic plants like Ayahuasca over thousands of year. The effects of these plants are highly dependent on the context, chants, and the essence of the shaman. These can all have surprising results.

Many urban uses have been developed recently, and some of these are expanding. Traditional shamans also travel the globe, so Ayahuasca is becoming more widely known in Western civilization. But what is the real potential of these ancient plants and how can we get it all?
At the age of 10 I began taking ayahuasca with my father, a shaman. He took me to the Selva with him when I was 15. We had no contact or contact with other people for a full year. We lived in a tambo, sleeping on leaves under a sheet. We died plants: ayauma and puchatekicaspi.

Each plant would last me for 2 months before I moved on to the next. That’s a whole year without any women! Boquichico, a fish that is vegetarian and mushed plantains into a thick beverage called pururuco (or chapo) in Shipibo are the only allowed.

Then, I got about a full year of rest before I went again to Jose Sanchez, my uncle, for another year, and 7 months of diet on the little Rio Pisqui. He was a great teacher and taught me chonta. He was a “chontero”, a type of shaman who uses darts in the spiritual realm. This is because the real darts and the arrows used for hunting are made out of the splintery chonta bamboo. A chontero can send darts to bring about positive effects such as knowledge or power, and he also knows how poisoned darts can be sucked and removed from people who have been affected by illness or curses.

To finish off he gave me chullachaqui caspi. My wife and I started living together, as well as working in Juancito to help the Ucayali. Later, I moved to Pucallpa, where I live sometimes even though I’m not at my Paoyhan community. There is also my Ani Sheati project.

Ayauma chullachaqui, the most important planta maestra, is it. Next, Pucalo puno or Quechua is the bark of a tree with a height of 40 to 50 meters. It’s one of several plants that you can combine with tobacco. The strength of this plant is so strong that you only need to take it twice. It is best to consume it for at least 6 months. The morning you drink it, and the evening you lie down. You are then in a altered state for the entire day.