Roaming the Mind

A Quest to Heal HIV with Ayahuasca Shamanism

Posted by Robert on Jul 02 2009 | Comment now »

Seated in meditation and swathed in veils of steam arising from the boiling water below him, the figure of Rolf could often be seen by the geothermally heated river at the Amazonian healing center where he had come to seek treatment. Catching sight of him at such moments, I was struck by the bravery of the man.

With the support of his partner, with whom he runs a school of Ayurvedic studies, Rolf has done the unthinkable. He had set aside the chemical cocktail Western medicine now prescribes to suppress symptoms of HIV and is seeking healing in the shamanic tradition of vegetalismo, under the guidance of a curandero – or traditional healer – an Ashaninca Indian living in the jungle of Peru. Despite the iron wall of opposition from the medical establishment, Rolf is committed to the proposition that HIV can be entirely healed in the body using traditional medicine, and is pioneering what might just turn out to be a way.

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